Way of the Slugcat

A Companion

Thorns twitched his nose. The reflection also twitched its nose. He grabbed his oblong ears on the top of his head. The reflection did the same. He poked and prodded his squishy cheeks and pulled at his whiskers. The reflection mimicked him perfectly. He spun around in a circle, looking himself over. The rodent in the puddle copied him. His legs had shrunk, gotten short and stubby. His arms hardly had anything on them, as if the rest of his body had taken its fat and added it to his tail, which thumped clumsily behind him.
"Oh, this is perfect." he groaned. "Just perfect. What did that liquid do to me?"
A small beetle clambered onto his two-toed foot, it's antenna twitching. Thorns stared down at it with slight annoyance.
"I am supposed to be dead! Dead, you hear! Do you have any idea how this feels!?"
Apparently, the bug did not. It rubbed its front legs together nonchalantly.
"What was that? Are you mocking me!?"
The bug twitched it's feelers again and opened its shell. Four wings sprung out, and it lifted into the air with ease.
"Oh yes, that's right. Fly away, little coward! Fly away before I decide to smash you like the little pest you are!"
The bug lifted itself higher, towards the blue of the sky, until it was whisked away by the wind.
Thorns grumbled to himself and looked to his surroundings. Piles of scraps and old machinery were congregated around him, withered plants and weeds just barely breaching the surface. It seemed as if he had gotten himself into a sort of valley. More wire towers protruded from the tops of the mounds. Thorns let his eyes drift to the top of one, it's wires blowing with the breeze. One of the longer wires dangled about half way down the slope. Thorns turned to look in the direction he had come from. Every now and then, he heard a defiant gurgle from one of the lizards. They were apparently still in a squabble.
"Here it goes..."
Thorns took a running leap at the wire. Unfortunately, his new legs didn't agree with that action. He hardly made it off the ground before gravity pulled him back. Thorns grunted in frustration and jumped again.
A loud thump sounded from behind him. His ears twitched in its direction, and Thorns followed them to find the green head of a lizard at the base of the slope he had tumbled down a few minutes ago. The beast lay on its back, it's legs flailing wildly as it attempted to right itself.
Thorns whipped around to the wire. He leapt again, and managed to get a foothold in the junk. His little paw stretched upwards, its fingers barely brushing the black tendril. Suddenly, it fell towards him. Thorns let out a startled yelp as he collided with the ground.
"Stupid wire. Stupid lizard. All of this is stupid!"
The wire now hung inches away from Thorns nose. Its slight static charge caused his whiskers to tingle. Behind him, he could see the green lizard in a flipped perspective. He watched as it managed to dig its claw into the earth and flip over. It sniffed the air once or twice, and let out a hiss as it turned towards him. Taking his chance, Thorns reached up and took hold of the dangling wire, shimmying up one hand in front of the other. He was surprised to find out that his arms were actually quite strong. They carried his body to the top of the wire with ease. Finally, Thorns reached the top. Panting, he scrambled a few feet from the edge and looked around.
Rusted machines, crumbling structures, and mountains of rubbish loomed all around him. He recognized a few of them. Void pumps, nectar houses, a sound dish, quite a few pipes and tram wheels... Scraggly weeds and vines clawed their way into the sunlight, winding their way up poles and covering the mounds with their withered leaves. Rusted metal poles held up shaky, crumbling structures that looked as if the wind could knock them over. A few symbols had been adorned onto some of them, but had since faded into illegible signs. A few of them still hummed and flickered with neon lights.
The scenery choked Thorns. It suffocated him, squeezing tighter and tighter the more he observed his surroundings. He could hardly see over the tops of the mounds, but the small bits of the distance that he did observe only contained more hills of junk and rusting metal. Thorns also noted a considerable number of puddles scattered throughout the area. All of them had a greenish tinge to them, and tiny insects swam in their midsts. These things, however, were not the first to catch his eye. These things all came second to the creature standing before him.
The black rodent tilted its head to the side. It looked just like Thorns... well, what he had turned into, at least. Tiny nose, huge ears, a fat tail, three fingered paws, one of which held part of the wire he had used as means of escape, and big round eyes. However, this creature's sclera sported a pure white coloring rather than black. It opened its mouth.
"Are you okay?"
"What?" Thorns answered, startled. He hadn't expected the rodent's voice to sound so masculin, let alone exist at all.
"I said, are you okay?" Its face was very animated as it spoke. It's mouth moved to pronounce each word very pointedly.
"U-um, yes! No, I mean, I am not, but, uh..."
"Good. Carry on." With that, the black rodent dropped into all fours and began to crawl off.
"Wait! Hold on, please! Please stop, please help me!"
"... but I already did? That lizard would have gotten you if I hadn't come along."
"Just answer a question for me! Where am I? And why am I..." He took his tiny hands and gestured to his body. "... like this?"
The black creature looked bewildered. It blinked a couple of times, then made a sound that Thorns assumed to be the clearing of its throat.
"Because you were born like that?"
"No I was not! I was very much not born like this. Throwing myself into the void was not supposed to turn me into whatever this is, it was supposed to kill me! I am supposed to be DEAD."
"Erm... right. Have you tried getting eaten yet?"
"I mean PERMANENTLY!"
At this, the rodent lifted a paw to his mouth. Its shoulders began to shake.
"I'm not lying, I mean it! We found a way, and I was ready to go."
"Mhm!" The rodent remarked between giggles. "So, why are you still here?" Thorns paused to think.
"I... don't know."
"Well, that's just great! Maybe if you stand out here long enough it will work? Maybe a vulture will come by and speed up the process."
Thorns had no idea what to say. The rodent stood before him, its mouth curved into something akin to a smile. It stared patiently at Thorns, as if expecting a response. Thorns opened his mouth. Nothing came out. He tried again, but still could not think of anything to say. Here he was, having the worst cycle in his existence, and this little rodent didn't seem to understand a thing that he had been through. Either that, or it didn't care. Usually, Thorns' rage evoked some reaction out of the people around him. They either yelled back or left him alone. This rodent, however, did neither.
"Anyway," the rodent continued, "I'm going to go find shelter before the rain comes and pummels me to death. I recommend that you do so as well. Goodbye."
"Wait, rain?" The word sent chills down Thorns' spine. "Hold on!"
This time, the black rodent didn't pay any attention to his outstretched hand -or paw-. It scurried away on its stubby back legs, crawled over a smaller garbage mound, and dropped out of sight.