Way of the Slugcat

So Below

Time was resumed. The bright orange lizard with the long antennae charged straight for Thorns. The slugcat stood still for the second it took the lizard to reach him, then leapt into the air at the last moment. The beast went nose first into the pole with a loud clang. Thorns boosted off of the lizard's snout and made a break for the first predator-free area he saw. No doubt the other three would be right behind him.
He found himself in a large room with a number of poles sticking up from a brick floor. Said brick floor had been overrun by weeds and, in some places, nearly buried by sediment. Metal ceiling beams held the roof's structure intact, at least for the most part. Some places had fallen through, allowing beams of light to filter inside. If he could only get up there...
"Grrrrraaa!" Came a lizard from behind him. Thorns glanced over his shoulder to see that his pursuers were much faster, and more intelligent, than anticipated. One lizard took up the job of chasing him while two others closed in from both sides. The slugcat looked wildly around the room, searching for something to get him off the ground. There! If he could make it on top of that ledge before the lizards cut him off...
Thorns made a dash for a slightly elevated platform being held up by a few poles. One of them reached just high enough for him to leap from its top to the rafters. The pale yellow lizard was closing in. It readied itself to leap towards him, its neon head bubbling in anticipation. The reptile on his other side did not intend on allowing his escape. Seeing this, and the fact that the ledge was still too far away, Thorns let his instincts take the lead.
The lizard lunged itself at its prey. He responded by leaping towards the lizard's maw, putting his foot down atop its snout and hurling himself over its body. A three lizard pile-up temporarily formed as the pack attempted to reroute themselves. Thorns leapt atop the platform, grasped the pole in both paws, and started climbing.
"Ahaha, YES!" He exclaimed as clambered onto the rafters, pumping a victorious fist into the air. "Take THAT, hunters! Go find something else to eat, because I will not oblige!"
Then, behind him, something snapped. The sound of desperate claws against metal snapped Thorns back into focus. He whirled around to catch a glimpse of an orange blur falling from a newly made hole in the beams. It seemed as if luck were on the slugcat's side. How rare indeed. He glanced below him at the roiling lizard on the ground, then at its three companions. They were taking turns staring at him with their beady little eyes. They seemed to understand that they had lost. With a surprising bit of hesitation, Thorns turned his back to the lizards and pulled himself through a hole alight with the sun.
He emerged onto a crumbling metal roof. It reminded him vaguely of the place he used to work, small factory that synthesized pearls. This was before he had moved up in the ranks, up to information setting within these pearls. He thought to himself about the similarities, then brushed them aside. This place was surrounded by the remnants of a nectar farm, so it was most likely a sorting facility. Either that, or a small information setting building for personal messages up to the cans. Yes, that must be it!
The roof was slanted, it's spine being the topmost part. Rusted fans remained stoically sitting on it's top, rotating in the ghost of a breeze. On either side of the spine, the roof slanted downwards towards the grasses below. A countless amount of holes dotted it's surface, as if something had come and ripped chunks of the roof into non-existence. This was the same on either side, as Thorns discovered by peaking his head over the spine. In the distance, the iterator's storm still raged. It would no doubt be coming for him soon. Around the edge of the storm, the silhouette of a vulture wobbled through the sky. There seemed to be something wrong with it. Thorns watched it with mild disinterest for a few minutes until it vanished below the horizon.
"I suppose I should get going." The slugcat sighed. He could no longer deny it; he was exhausted. The adrenaline his body received to help him escape the lizards seemed to be wearing off. Nonetheless, he slid down to the westward side of the roof to plot his next move.
A pit. That was all it was. Wait, no, a ravine! A massive crack in the earth that stretched for as far as he could see in every direction. It's walls seemed almost like the maw of a massive beast, teeth protruding as jagged rocks from its sides. Thorns could not see the bottom.
"...well then. This was unexpected." Thorns glanced behind him, back towards the hole he crawled out of. Suddenly, being eaten by lizards did not seem so terrible a fate. But his friend had said to go down. Down as far as he could reach, to the depths of the earth.
"Here goes nothing..."
And Thorns slid off the roof.

It was a slow descent. Thorns tried his best to not look down as he planned all of his movements carefully. Left paw goes here, right foot placed here, drop down to that ledge, down down down... it seemed like hours passed when in reality only a few minutes had gone by. Thorns had gotten himself about halfway down the ravine. It was right about then where things started to go south.
"Okay. This is fine. You are fine. This is fine." Thorns repeated for the hundredth time as he sent his foot down to search for a viable ledge. It flailed around for a moment, then retreated back to where it came. "Auhg! Where is a decent ledge when you need one?" The slugcat risked a glance down.
The ravine was being split into two halves. A huge wall of rock sliced it nearly in half. Neither side seemed particularly appealing, but he had to choose one. The choice was relatively easy, as he did not see the benefit in leaping to the other side of the ravine to change his current course down the left side. There was, however, an issue. The wall below him curved inwards, creating a sort of overhang that he was now trapped on. Nothing lay below him to break his fall, save for the inevitable end of the pit. There was only one solution: acrobatics.
"Okay Thorns, you can do this. You can do this! Just grab hold of the underside and swing to the wall. It is not that hard. Well... actually it is. But you have done harder things!"
That may have been a lie. Maybe it wasn't. The slugcat wasn't sure how difficult this trick would be to pull off, as he had never attempted it before. He had never seen anyone try it either. And yet here he was, attempting something that very well could be impossible. Thorns started slowly, inching his way further down the wall. He then attempted to turn himself around and reach his little paw to the underside of his rock. Just a little closer...
Then, his foot slipped. With nothing to hold onto, Thorns' little body went plummeting down into the abyss. He screamed for all creatures to hear as the cavern went deeper and deeper, smothering the sunlight with shadow and stone. The top of the ravine seemed so far away now, only a tiny sliver of light still visible. Every now and then the Slugcat would crash into an overhanging rock and go bouncing back and forth between the canyon walls. Every bone in his body ached, every muscle was tensed. He curled himself into a ball, trying to protect his remaining body parts that had not yet been harmed. He had no sense of direction, no up or down, left or right. He felt his body fall through a narrow crack, it's sides almost slicing him open as he plummeted through it. He felt his back hit something hard, and then he rolled to a stop.
Thorns lay there in darkness for some time, just catching his breath. Could he still walk? Were his arms broken? What about his ribs? He had never broken his ribs before, so he had no idea what it felt like. The slugcat took a long, deep breath and opened his eyes.
No sunlight reached this place he had fallen into. If slugcats didn't have natural night vision, he wouldn't have been able to see at all. Every object in the room was in shades of blurred grey and black; a small patch of leech grass in the corner, three hanging objects assumed to be pupa fruit on the ceiling, and a crack in the floor directly in front of him. If he had rolled any further forwards...
Thorns shook the thought from his head and attempted to stand. To his surprise, it worked rather well. His appendages hurt, sure, but they still supported his weight even after a fall like that.
"Incredible..." He thought out loud, and nearly jumped at the sound of his own echoing voice. It seemed much louder than normal, even as an echo. And then it got louder. So loud that it shook the room itself, all of its contents, and made the earth below his feet rumble. Above ground, Thorns could hear the unmistakable sound of raindrops against stone.
"Oooookay, get yourself together Thorns." The slugcat took a long, deep breath and reanalyzed the room. Only three fruits were available for his consumption, but there was no time to get any more. He plucked them from their vines and rushed over to the crack in the floor, doing his best to avoid the leech grass on his way. With one fruit in his mouth and two in his paws, he wiggled and squeezed himself through the opening. His back legs propelled him forwards at a pace slower than what he wanted, but he was still moving. Just as he thought he felt a couple raindrops hit his tail, gravity pulled him through the crack and onto a cold, dusty floor. To his right was another opening, this one looking more man-made than the rest. Perhaps a shelter? Without hesitation, the slugcat sped towards the hole, leaving the torrents of downcoming water behind him.

Gravity
An inevitable force of nature