Way of the Slugcat

The Reckoning

The shelter door opened. The two slugcats crawled out without saying a word. Cracks in the ceiling of the room they emerged into allowed golden rays of light to filter down to the floor. Red vines crawled along the walls, drawing attention to one particular passageway that seemed to lead out into the light. Night went forwards with no hesitation. Thorns followed.
The concrete floor dropped off in front of them, revealing swaths of squirming red grass in the distance. Large, brown shapes lurched about in the far fields. Their antlers swayed gently with their less than graceful movements. When alone, the creature's four spider-like legs carried them smoothly over the grass, their bodies hardly even bobbing as they sailed forwards. In a group, however, they bumped clumsily into one another, occasionally tripping over their neighbor's legs. Thorns squinted at the lumbering shapes, attempting to identify these massive, clumsy beasts.
"Those are raindeer, correct?" He had never seen any in person, but had heard many tales of their behavior and appearance. Besides, the antlers sort of gave it away.
"Mhm." Night mumbled.
Beyond the herds of raindeer, the fields of grass came to a sudden stop. Nothing grew past a certain point on the horizon. The reason for this Thorns could not determine. It was as if an invisible barrier had been placed, preventing anything from sprouting or being built behind it. The landscape closer to the slugcats brimmed with life and decay. Small patches of black grass sprouted between rotting buildings, which were most likely used as nectar storage at one point. The buzz of squidcadas filled the air, both white and blue variants of the species flying over the landscape at top speed. Scaffolds held a line of harvesters above an overgrown field, somehow still standing after hundreds of cycles of inactivity.
The slugcats stood on the roof of a concrete building being choked by various species of plants. Well, plants may have been a bit too inspecific. A couple of beehives dotted the edges of the roof. The bees making up the hive flashed their red abdomens at Thorns, bending the hive's stem closer to the ground every time he took a step too close. The white slugcat made a mental note to not wander over to that side of the building. There was a reason his people nicknamed the hives "paincones".
The other side of the roof supported an entire garden's worth of foliage. Giant nectar bulbs, climbing vines, popcorn plants...
"Oh!" Thorns exclaimed as he caught sight of the popcorn plant's sturdy shell. "Night, do you have a spear?"
"No."
"Alright then, I'll find one." He sighed. He gazed longfully up at the plant once more before scampering off to find a tool to open it. The popcorn plant's stubborn shell only popped open if enough force was applied. The reflexive fibers that formed it would recoil upon contact with it, exposing its seeds to oxygen. After a couple of seconds, one had themselves their very own popcorn on a stick.
It has been too long! Thorns thought to himself as he rummaged through the weeds. I can only have so much of it, but it will still be worth it!
It did not take him long to find what he was looking for. A broken piece of rebar had itself embedded in a patch of batnip. A couple of batflies flitted around the orange weeds as Thorns took the weapon. The slugcat then angled the spear just right, and sent it flying towards the red shell of his next meal.
Ah, that popping sound never got old to Thorns! As the shell peeled away from the fruit, little yellow seeds exploded into tasty, bite sized snacks up and down the plant. Thorns took a handful and crunched away until he almost felt satisfied.
"Might, mould you wike some?" He muttered through a mouthful of seeds.
"No, thank you." The black slugcat continued to stare out into the distant fields. "We should get moving. I will eat along the way."

The humidity rolled in faster than usual. The slugcats marched through thick, heavy air as they descended into the farm arrays. Water drops materialized on the surface of plants, shivering slightly as the slugcats walked past. Night led Thorns away from the sky, down into the crevices between buildings. Their first obstacle, other than the incoming rain, sat plainly within sight. A patch of black grass had wriggled its way through the concrete, blocking a rather conveniently placed tunnel.
"Do you see that, Thorns?" Night asked, gesturing to the squirming flora.
"Oh yes, yes I do." Thorns replied. His nose instinctively wrinkled up in disgust. "I am very familiar with those pesky weeds. They kept eating my pet lantern mouse when I was young! Poor Lucie... My mother had a hell of a time getting rid of them. And also rescuing my favorite pair of shoes from their grasp..."
"So you are already familiar with them? Good. You should know that they get much larger than this."
"I know, it is absolutely ridiculous! Why is it that weeds always grow better than purposefully grown plants!?" At this, Thorns forcefully gestured at the patch of grass, glaring daggers at it. Night chuckled quietly and smiled.
"They do seem to spring up everywhere that you don't want them, right?"
"Yes! Exactly!"
"Uh... ahem... A-anyways." Night continued. "These ones are short enough to run through, so long as you don't stop. Like this."
As Night approached the patch of grass, the tips of their black stems came to life in a hue of blue. The plants lurched towards the black slugcat as he ran forwards, dashing through the weeds so quickly that they could hardly even touch him. Now on the other side of the grass, Night gestured for Thorns to follow. The grass seemed excited at the movement of his paw, practically jumping towards it as he motioned at the white slugcat. Alas, their roots would not comply, so they stayed in the ground and resorted to stretching their stems as far as they could. Thorns shuddered at their squirming movements, but readied himself to cross anyway. Their suckered tips could only hold him for a brief second as he ran over the patch to the tunnel and continued.
The tunnel went dark very quickly. With Thorns' body blocking the sunlight, he had to rely on his somewhat poor night vision to see. At least it was better than what he had in his previous form. Still, there seemed to be dim white spots appearing in his vision from time to time. The darker it got, the fuzzier their outlines became, like litle round ghosts hovering in the dim light. They got more frequent as the slugcats crawled along, appearing on the sides of the tunnel and in small alcoves. Soon, Thorns realized that they were no mere hallucinations: these were smoke spores. He almost gagged at the thought of them. What a horrific smell they produced when they exploded! Sure, you could smell them a bit through the smoke released from their stems, but when their spotted round bodys exploded it was an entirely different situation. One had to be careful not to drop or step on one while handling them.
"Thorns, do you see them?" Night called from ahead.
"The smoke spores? Yes, yes I do."
"Great! Hold this..." The black slugcat turned around. In one paw, he grasped an overly ripe looking smoke spore, its stem hardly even visible above its swollen fruit. Night shoved the fungus into Thorns' reluctant grasp.
"W-what? Why me!? Why can you not hold this?"
Oh great, he thought, I can already smell it...
"Because we both need one. Now please stop protesting. I am only trying to keep you alive." Night stated in a slightly frustrated tone. He turned and plucked another smoke spore from a hole in the wall.
"I know..." Thorns sighed.
"Shh!"
"My goodness, I was only admitting that you were correct! Is that such a crime?"
"No, not that!" Night's voice had turned to a harsh whisper. "Something else. Listen."
Thorns closed his eyes. He focused his ears on the sounds around him. His own breathing, the soft dripping of water from somewhere ahead, and...
What was that?
The scuttling of tiny legs echoed from behind them. Thorns felt his heart skip a beat. His mind flashed back to his first encounter with a scuttling beast like that. Death may be impermanent, but he would rather not be turned into deep-fried slugcat again. He could accept a deadly chomp from a lizard or a long fall ending with his body becoming paste on the floor, but the intensity of the electric shock lingered far longer than the other pain.
"S-so we just hold still, right?" Thorns asked, trying not to begin shaking as he lowered himself to the ground. Night did the same, then nodded.
The first couple came through. Luckily, they were the tiny kind. A slightly larger, more yellow centipede crawled past after them, not bothering to stop to inspect the slugcats at all. A few more smaller ones scurried behind it, pushing past one another as best they could. One resorted to taking the ceiling instead of the floor. It almost seemed as if they were running from something... Something big. Something with many, many more legs than they could ever dream of. Something that was scuttling on the ceiling towards the slugcats as the other bugs retreated out the end of the tunnel.
This centipede was not as large as the previous one Thorns had died to, but that did not make it any less frightening. Its plates were a pale yellow color, almost white, and its antenna were pointed down to the tunnel's floor. The slugcats flattened themselves as low to the ground as they could. Despite their efforts, the bug's twitching feelers brushed against Night's back.
At first, the centipede did not react. It just kept going down the tunnel without a care in the world. Then, its tiny brain seemed to process the information it had just received. It froze on the spot, then dropped from the ceiling onto Night. Its hundreds of wriggling legs grasped onto the slugcat's body, restricting his movement. Night however, did not squirm. Before Thorns could react to the situation, before he could even scold himself for being foolish enough to leave his spear back at the popcorn plant, Night had set a plan into action. He put all of his weight onto the smoke spore he carried, popping it within a few seconds of pressure. A nasty smelling grey powder flew in every direction, engulfing Night, the centipede, and Thorns in one fell swoop. Thorns, having no visual on his friend, decided to do the one thing that usually ended up working out; copying Night. He threw his spore full force on the ground, filling the tunnel with even more powdery fungi. As the smoke cleared, the centipede lay drooped over Night's back, motionless.
"Are... are you.. Alright? Ack!" Night asked between coughs. He shoved the bug's corpse off of his body and continued hacking all of the fungi spores out of his lungs. Thorns cleared his throat.
"Ah... yes! Yes, I believe so. Who knew that stuff could be used as pest control?" He exclaimed, glancing down at two smaller centipedes that didn't quite make it out of blast radius. "I also had no idea that larger centipedes scared the smaller ones. You would think they would get along, considering they are of the same species."
"What? They do get along, Thorns." Night explained as he crawled over. He grasped a smaller centipede corpse in his paws. "In fact, the largest one usually protects the smaller ones. That makes them a little annoying to hunt."
"Then what were they fleeing from?"
Not a moment after those words exited his mouth, Thorns felt a slight vibration in the ground. That vibration got progressively stronger.
"W-wait, Night? It cannot be raining yet, can it? We only just started!"
Night's gaze was focused down the way that they had come from. His white eyes narrowed as he gazed into the darkness. Then, a sound. The sound of sloshing, writhing water. This was no rain storm, for those did not create the kind of flood that ran down hills and mountains. The rains flooded every part of the land equally. This water was coming from somewhere different.
"Maybe we should not be down here anymore?" Thorns suggested.
"Agreed."
The slugcats turned tail, sprinting down the tunnel as fast as possible. They emerged onto the surface, and Night led them up a rusting ladder. The top of a building would definitely be safer than the inside of a tunnel. Suddenly, a wave of water smashed into the building's side. The concrete walls shook violently upon impact. Thorns froze, clinging the ladder's rungs with all of his strength.
"Climb faster!" Night shouted. "Lots of water, hurry up!"
"Where is it coming from!?" Thorns yelled back, his confusion now overpowering his panic.
"Just climb!"
The spray from the crashing waves below coated Thorns' tail as he clambered further up the ladder. The slugcats hopped from rung to rung, then abandoned the ladder entirely when it failed to continue up the building. Bricks, stones, and vines were now their only mode of transportation. In his curiosity, Thorns decided to look down. Below him, filthy green water swirled and roared in a fit of madness. He could no longer see the tunnel. At this point, the rain had started. The clouds spat sprinkles at the land below, only adding to the chaos of the water below.
"IN THERE!" Night bellowed over the cacophony of waves and chaos. The building shuddered as the miniature ocean smacked it once again. A couple of bricks fell out of place, the ladder below was ripped from its foundations, and countless species of plants were being pulled out of the ground by their roots. Thorns could not take his eyes off of the chaos below him.
"THORNS!" Night called again. "IN HERE!" The white slugcat looked up to see Night extending a paw. He happily took it, and was pulled into a small cavity within the building's wall. It looked like it might have been the entrance to a ventilation system at one point, but had been turned into more of a cave thanks to the abuse of time. In here, the drops of water could not reach them. The flood back down on the surface would be left to its own errands.
"Oh! Oh good karma, I thought we were going to die!" Thorns exclaimed, flopping himself down onto the uneven concrete floor. "Where did all of that water even... Night?"
Night's gaze was focused on the outdoors. He stared intently at something off in the distance. Thorns reluctantly sat back up and followed his gaze.
Beyond the veil of rain and water, off into the far distance, two shapes could be made out in the haze. Two cans, positioned dangerously close to one another. How Thorns had missed spotting the second one back in the garbage wastes, he did not know. The can on the left seemed to be the cause of the sudden rain, as it was spewing an abnormal amount of water vapor from its rectangular top. The can on the right may have been the cause of the flood... Its leg had snapped in the center, sending its top plummeting down into the earth. From what Thorns could see from up in the cave, a large body of water seemed to be positioned below the can, its waves fleeing from the billions of tonnes of metal crashing down upon them. That, combined with the massive amount of rain coming from the other can, would certainly be cause for a disaster such as this one. Everywhere Thorns looked there was water. Waves running up against the mounds of rubble in garbage wastes, rivers pouring from the lower levels of the industrial complex, and swathes of water running through the outskirts. If Night and Thorns had been any closer, they may not have had any chance of survival.
Seeing the failing can, Thorns almost panicked. The first thought that came to mind was concern for those who lived atop. Where would they go now? However, Thorns soon corrected himself. There was, more than likely, no one living there any more. His own can had less than six residents left. If there was any time for a can to fail, now was certainly more convenient than ever. Although it seemed as though Night had other thoughts. The black slugcat stared at the can with wide eyes, his mouth open and his paws clenched together tightly. He watched as the can carreaned into the water. He watched as the can beside it continued to spew even more vapor into the air, as green lightning populated the skies around it. He watched as the rain got harder and harder, covering up the scene in the distance once and for all.
"...Night? Was that...?"
"Yes."
"...I.... I see."
The two sat in silence. The centipede corpse Night had dragged up with them sat forgotten on the ground. The rain came down harder. Everything beyond their little cave was nothing but a blur. A painting that had been washed out by a bucket of water.
    "Night?" Thorns started. Wether or not now was the best time to start a conversation, he did not know. He only knew that he needed to take his friend's attention away from what lay beyond the veil of rain. "Do you really think the world will hold us back if we insisted upon having friends?" Thorns prepared himself for the black slugcat's outrage. However, instead of spitting something back at him, Night only sighed.
"I... don't know anymore. I just don't know, Thorns."
"Ascension cannot require perfection, right?" Thorns asked, although it was more of a comment than a question. "After all, none of us are perfect. The ones that think they are are those who end up as ghosts."
"Thorns, I do not know. Please stop asking."
Thorns frowned. His friend was lost. Lost in a sea of grief and regret. Thorns could tell that he tried not to feel it. His denial, however, was not getting him anywhere.
Well, Thorns thought, someone has to give him something to think about. And I am the only one here...
He had never been any good at motivational speaking. Talking in front of more than one person at a time gave him batflies in his stomach.
"So, Night. I was thinking... earthly tethers are 'tethers' because we hold on to them. Kinship is considered a tether because... because we do not want to lose each other, correct? We want our kin to enjoy our company and respect us, and we do not want them wandering off. But maybe..."
Hmm. How was he going to phrase this?
"...maybe if we accept that holding on to something like that will only hold us back and instead focus on enjoying each other while it lasts, like..."
Like what? Thorns pondered. Night looked over to him as he paused, a quizzical look having taken over his melancholy. Just then, a flash of color caught Thorns' eye.
Through the storm and sheets of rain, a blurry mass of orange and yellow dipped below the clouds. Its colors bled down to the horizon, spilling over the landscape as it melted into the earth below.
"Like that sunset!" Thorns exclaimed. It had been a long time since he had witnessed one. Up on his can, the sun vanished below the clouds before its colors turned the sky into a mural. Down here however, the clouds could not contain its beauty. Even the rain could not wash it away.
"Night, you like sunsets, right?" He continued. "They are always very nice to see. I quite enjoy watching the sun set below the horizon, but I know that it will not last. I know that it will go beyond my sight and I have no idea when I will be able to see it again. But you know what? I think that is okay. I have accepted the fact that sunsets leave me after a while, but I choose to enjoy them anyway. I do not dwell on them after they depart, simply accepting that they had to go. Maybe we could apply that to our situation as well...?"
"...I never thought you could be so philosophical, Thorns." Night commented. He turned to face the rain. The sun's colors were being rapidly swallowed by the horizon.
"S-so do you think it could work?"
All was silent, save for the rain. A hue of golden light was all that remained of the sun. The little mark above Night's head quivered slightly as he turned back to his friend.
"Maybe. I think that... maybe Moon would agree."

Acceptance
The first step.