"Get! Get! Get out of here!" I hiss at the cat, opening the top of the garbage bin as much as I dare. The cat growls at me, and I return the favor, making it fluff up and back away from me. "I'm not someone you want to battle," I warn it, my own quills hardening into sharp weapons and making me appear larger. "Now, get!" Reaching forward, I bat the cat on its flank and it leaps out of the dumpster despite the rain. It sprints out of the alley, heading to somewhere else that's dry.
That went better than I expected, I think, closing the lid to the dumpster and folding my ears down to protect them against the roar of water striking the metal above me. I huddle in a ball, hands clapped over my sensitive ears and nose buried in my chest. I'll probably be safe if I fall asleep here...
I let myself doze, passing the hours in minutes. I wander semi-consciously through a dreamscape, memories and fantasies mixing until I can't tell them apart. Eventually, I'm awakened by silence, no rain pounding against my roof, and I blink my bleary eyes into the total blackness. The only disturbances to the noises are various honks and sirens from far away, and I gently ease open the top of the dumpster.
No one around... I think, gingerly hopping out and uttering a sigh of disappointment as I see my cardboard and blanket were utterly soaked by the rain. Grumbling under my breath, I salvage another piece of cardboard and toss my older one back into the garbage.
At least I don't have to lie on the wet concrete... I throw away my soaking blanket and huddle without it, letting my nose breathe clean air for the first time in hours. I hope it doesn't rain again... I think sleepily, cuddling with my own fur.
I ease myself into sleep again, forgetting in my exhaustion the danger of sleeping in the open, leaving myself vulnerable to discovery.
Author's Note: Super short chapter, but it's set up for the next one, which is pretty long. I couldn't quite work them together, so I broke them into two. ^-^
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The Difficult Task of Raising a Weapon
FanfictionShadow the Hedgehog is a young creation who has lived with his friend Maria aboard the Space Colony ARK for as long as he's been alive. No one on the ARK expects everything to go wrong in an instant, but a G.U.N. attack on the ARK causes just that t...
