Chapter Text
The cream-colored slugcat walked across the shoreline, looking out into the lake. It was a gorgeous lake, with a levee around the circumference of its form, and a good amount of beach. The water shone brilliantly across its smooth surface to perfectly reflect the superstructure that dominated the sky and horizon off in the distance. This slugcat wasn’t looking at that though. Instead, he was looking out for danger, to protect the two slugpups behind him. The two pups were not the best at combat. The sister, who shone a brilliant white, was somewhat decent, and could protect herself. Hence her name, “Survivor”, but her younger brother, a soft yellow, was not able to properly keep himself safe. However, it seemed he could reason with any creature he pleased, at least better than the other two. This had given him the name “Monk” The two pups had named their disinclined caretaker Gourmand. He was significantly bigger than any other slugcat they had seen, and was incredibly good with food. He was able to turn a centipede into wonderful sushi rolls, and made the best soup they had ever had!
The three of them walked across the lakeside, where there was signage pointing to a shelter. “It should be coming up soon, it said it would be on the other side of the lake.” Gourmand said, glancing up to the sky. The clouds were coming in quick, signaling the coming of the rain. He looked at the siblings trailing behind him. Survivor was breathing heavily, and Monk was panting hard. He looked between the sky and the pups, and turned to the body of water. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get a drink of water while we still can!”
He went to the edge, his toes dipping into the water, and bent down and ran his paw through it. It seemed clear enough for them to drink, so he cupped it in his paws and held it out for Monk to drink from, letting him sip between breaths. “Sorry about that, I forget that you two can’t keep up with me sometimes.” Survivor, who was drinking on all fours, looked up and said “It’s alright, we’ve just been walking for a while now. I don't think any of us expected the lake to be that big. I almost wonder if it would have been easier to swim across?” Gourmand tensed up and said “No, we are not doing that, we'll take the long way if we have to!’ Monk looked up at him, and asked “What if it was the safest or only way across?”
Dropping the water and shaking his hands dry to pet Monk gently, Gourmand responded “Then we may just have to find another way. You know I can't stand the water like that.” Monk frowned at this, wondering what caused Gourmand to have such a strong distaste for the water, but kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to get on the bad side of their caretaker at the moment.
Gourmand turned to Survivor and asked her “Are you feeling alright? We should head out soon, but I don't want to push you two.” Survivor nodded and said “I feel fine, but Monk looks tired, he was panting before. He may need to rest.” Monk's ears shot up at this, and he stood up, trying not to appear as tired as he really was. “I am fine, I can walk to the shelter! Maybe one more minute though.” He sniffled. Gourmand shook their head and said “Nope, we don't have time for that! Here, come on!” And ignoring Monk's complaints, picked him up with one arm and plopped him on the back of their head. Quickly moving, he moved along the beach, with Survivor trailing closely behind him. The three of them moved further away from the beach, going to a low wall that had a pipe leading somewhere further beyond.
Gourmand went first, making sure there was no danger, followed by Monk, then Survivor. As Monk went through, he felt a faint rumbling of the earth, and Survivor looked up to see the clouds closing in. She quickly followed, and the three of them ran down the path going forward. It only took a bit longer for them to come across an opening with the familiar and welcome symbol of a shelter, and Gourmand hastily helped Monk and Survivor in, before climbing in himself. As the three of them crawled into the cozy hole, the mechanics got to work behind them, and they listened as gears and mechanisms groaned to life, and closed the way back, all accented by the sounds of the rain really picking up, flooding everything outside their little room which provided them protection. The understood sound signifying that they needed to sleep. Gourmand wiggled into the corner, laying on his side and letting the pups lay down with him. Survivor laid her head on his tail, using the fat as a pillow, and Monk curled up around his arm, wrapping around it tightly. The two pups quickly drifted off to sleep, exhausted from walking all day.
Gourmand stayed awake for a while longer though, listening to the rain sounds and worrying about what the future held. He had two pups he wasn’t ready to take care of, stuck in one of the more dangerous regions he had ever been in, and he had to find their family.
It took a while for the guardian to fall asleep.
* * *
Monk woke up feeling cold. There was a breeze coming from the entrance, which was open. He sat up, realizing he slept through the sound of it opening. For some reason, he really found the noise to be satisfying to listen to. Turning, he saw Survivor sitting down, fiddling with a rock in her paw. It was quiet, the sound of water dripping consistently somewhere nearby. “Oh, I’m glad to see you’re awake! Gourmand is just out getting food for us and looking for the best place to go, he should be back soon.” Survivor said, filling Monk in on what he had missed. He nodded, and looked at the entrance, which stuck out from the wall. It let some light in, illuminating his older sister. She was lean but with a bit of plumpness starting to form from Gourmand’s feedings, with brilliant white fur that reflected the light wonderfully. Not too many cycles ago, he looked at her the same way, and saw faded rough fur, with the ribs almost visible. She barely reflected any light, which made him sad. She claimed it was good because it helped her hide from predators, but he enjoyed her full color more.
Looking down at his own fur, his paws were a crisp golden. Gourmand had compared it to the setting sun, something which he claimed was almost always visible from a nearby region. Monk had no memory of seeing one, but appreciated the compliment. He wasn’t aware of what his own fur looked like before, but he felt better more recently, and generally felt happier since meeting Gourmand. He wanted to stay with the massive slugcat as long as possible, it seemed that they would keep him and his sister safe.
After a bit of time, they heard something moving outside, and a moment later, Gourmand stuck his head inside, lugging two hazers in with him. “Don’t worry, these things don’t have any more ink to spray, they’re good to eat!” He handed one to the two pups and let them dig in. Not wanting to miss out on a meal, Survivor and Monk dug into the hazer with reckless abandon, eating their fill. Monk filled himself up fairly quickly, and stepped back to let Survivor get what she wanted from it. Gourmand gave him a slightly concerned look, asking “Are you sure you don’t want more? We have a lot of walking to do this cycle.” Monk shook his head, patting his belly. “No, I’m full. Thank you though!” Gourmand’s concerned look turned into a frown, but he didn’t say anything and turned his attention to Survivor, who was eating, and finishing up as well. He sighed and shrugged. “Okay, if you insist.” He pulled a large reif of pages, which held his maps. Pages and pages of scribbles of the paths and routes he took, laid out in a way that he understood, and Survivor said she understood (although Monk believed she was just lying to impress Gourmand). They had paths that lead this way and that. He pointed at a specific point and said “So we’re here right now, we made it from this shelter last cycle. I think that if we move back a bit along the lake, there’s another path we can use that will lead us along to what I believe to be the next gate. Theoretically, this should take us higher up, which will help us find your parents! Does that make sense?” He looked to the pups, who seemed to have enough of an understanding, and grabbed his map back again and stuffed it in his bag. Quickly scarfing down the second hazer and stuffing the rest of the pups’ one into his bag, he gestured out of the shelter and said “Come on, let’s go! We’re wasting precious cycle time, we gotta go!”
He led the way as they moved back, taking the path back out. Monk looked further down the path, wondering what went that way. Gourmand herded him away, saying “We don’t have time. It’s kind of dangerous that way.” The procession of slugcats moved back on themselves, and headed back to the lakeside. As they looked out upon the water, Gourmand pointed to somewhere a bit further back along the shoreline, where a tower stuck out of the ground. “If we go there, it has an underground tunnel that leads towards that mountain over there.” He then pointed at a massive mountain further off in the distance. “I visited a colony of slugcats there once, perhaps that's where you're from, or they know where you could be from.”
Survivor nodded along, but noticed Monk wasn't paying too much attention. He was looking out at the lake, and in his head wondering what was under the water and why it was so terrifying to Gourmand. Survivor gently bopped him on the shoulder, saying “Hey, pay attention! We need to listen to Gourmand if we want to get home.” Monk jumped, startled from his thoughts, and Gourmand sighed. “Alright, just follow me. If either of you need a rest, say something. I'll also recommend we get a drink from the lake, we don’t know if there will be any safe water up ahead.” The three slugcats went to the lakeside to get a drink, just as they had done the night before, then moved out towards the mountain. Thankfully, the sky was fairly clear, meaning they had plenty of time to move to the gate and next shelter.
Overhead, the sun bore down on them, causing the two pups to shine brightly. Monk felt the sun, and tried to look up at it, though that was a stupid idea. It seemed nothing like his fur, seeming closer to his sister's than anything else. He had no clue how the act of setting would turn the sun from a white to a yellow. He wished he could get a chance to look at the setting sun eventually. It would be the most beautiful thing ever, if it was as Gourmand said.
As the three made it to the tower, Gourmand stopped and pulled out his map, double-checking that they were headed the right way, and letting them rest. The pups took advantage of this time and flopped down, catching their breaths and letting their legs rest a bit. They laid there listening to all the sounds. There was wind in the air, water moving about, and Gourmand muttering to himself and flipping pages. “Aha! Okay, so we're going to go down the pipe here, and then take the second left we see. That will give us the path that will lead us below most of the wasteland beyond, and will get us closer to the mountain beyond. And it should all be safe to do, as long as we all pay attention!” Monk got a bit embarrassed at this, though it didn’t seem to be a targeted sentence.
After getting one last drink from the lake, they moved into the pipe, which led them down into a series of tunnels. There was enough light for them to be able to see, and the air was damp with water dripping down the walls and from the ceiling. Gourmand thought about all the mechanical garbage and waste above, and the crude, dark liquid that would seep from damaged mechanisms and mix with the water. It tasted very bad and would stick to his fur for cycles. He was glad they had gotten a drink before they came in here.
“Make sure not to get too wet, the water here is not clean.” He said to the pups, making sure they understood before starting to move forward, looking for any paths on the right. As he walked, he also paid attention to paths all around him. There were a few on the ceiling, which provided most of the light. He went forward, noticing one of them had weird lighting, as if something inside were blocking it off. He cautiously stepped under it, trying to see anything that could be inside. As he did, he heard a faint, familiar noise, and watched an eye appear out of the ceiling as the white lizard hiding on the pipe entrance un-camouflaged itself and dropped down on him, hissing and shooting out its tongue.
He reached up and grabbed at it as it descended on him, throwing it into the wall hard, but not before its tongue hit his side, latching onto his bag and pulling it off as he threw it. This caused him to lose balance and fall over, and his pages to go everywhere, along with some pearls, a few rocks to throw, and the half eaten hazer corpse. Reacting quickly, Survivor ran to the contents of the bag, grabbing a rock and pelting it at the recovering lizard as hard as she could. She hit it in the head, and stunned it further, fully knocking it down. “This is bad!” She called out. “We don’t have any spears or anything to take it down! We need to run!” She grabbed Gourmand, who was struggling to get up, and tried to help him up. “C'mon Monk, no time to waste!” Monk was caught off guard, but saw the lizard trying to get up alongside his guardian, and realized they wouldn't be able to get away quick enough. They'd have to leave the map, and with how many twists and turns there were, he didn't think it was possible they could make it through without the map and not get lost. In a panic, he did the only thing he could think of, and he ran towards the pile of stuff dropped from Gourmand’s bag. Quickly grabbing what he needed, he ran away from his sister and towards the lizard, quickly dropping the half eaten hazer he had grabbed at the lizard's feet and backing up, crouching down to appear smaller and less appetizing than the corpse.
The lizard shook its head and got properly onto its feet, looking down at the food the slugcat had just provided it. The lizard sniffed the hazer, grabbed it in its jaw, and quickly devoured the whole thing. As this happened, Gourmand got to his feet, slowly reaching for a rock to hit it again, not wanting to grab its attention and scare it into attacking. It finished eating, then walked up to Monk, sniffing him intensely. It smelled the same scent that had been stuck to the hazer, and came to the conclusion that Monk had given the hazer to it, sharing his food. This made the lizard happy, and it got closer, nuzzling its snout into his chest and growling gently. It was relaxed, not thinking of fighting. Monk turned to the other two slugcats, a bit of fear in his voice, but mostly confident that the lizard was not going to fight them. The lizard gently licked him, and turned to the other two. It seemed docile enough that it wouldn't attack them. “Can we keep it?” Monk asked Gourmand.
Gourmand sputtered. This pup had just tamed a white lizard.