Foxes of the city

[Summerbreeze]

Areyouseriouswhatkindofpostwasthat?MakeTiitalk...orsomthing!

[Mindy]

((???))

Rat slunk into the shadow of a row of bushes against tall brick buildings. He lowered his ears at a Tall who walked past, narrowing his eyes. He felt scared? But wasn't he supposed to be stronger now?

Better than them, right?

He growled as the man appeared to grow smaller as the distance grew. No Tall would boss him around in the future. Still... he never had, did he? The Tall were giants. There wasn't much he could do. Get close, and they would squish his brains with a stomp, and most would if he showed any signs of aggression. Even when his goal was just to escape they tormented him. No... the Tall were out of his league forever. But rats were not. They wouldn't take his food. Cats wouldn't come close. Dogs would run away bitten, and hopefully nastily diseased with some strange illness that Rat himself was immune to. Dogs... and foxes.

Foxes.

So far he was scrawny and runty and wimpy and tiny. He knew that. But he wouldn't be so forever... yeah? Yes? He shook his head at his indecision.

Stick with it, you Rat. Ambition.

[Foxesrule]

Velvet woke up, yawning. She still couldn't see. Well, she could see black-Just black-With her eyes open. Not red. Velvet whined. She knew she blinded permanantly. She knew there was a flood outisde, so she went to the edge of the abandoned factory. (She could smell.) Putting her paw cautiously into the water, she could tell it was deep. So, jumping into the rushing deep water, she barked as loud as she could: "Goodbye, cruel world!" and felt the harsh, merciless forces of water rush upon her, water filling her lungs- And she lost sense of everything.

[Grep42]

"Raea!" Xena barked. Oh no, what did she just let happen? Xena looked after the kit, knowing there was nothing she could do.

[Mindy]

Rain!

Rat had been able to ignore it before, but now it came down in sheets, and he kept under a bush, watching it fall and collect over the ground. Then he realized... it wasn't going to stop. It was going to flood the streets. And he wouldn't keep huddled here watching! The fur-plastered fox streaked, looking for someplace to shelter. A tin trash can! No! Not that. Too unsteady. He kept on running, looking. A huge... garbage bin. Well, it was more than four feet off the ground. It would do. He hopped on, huddling around himself. He would get sick like this. He pressed against the building behind him. There had to be a better way.

The water in the streets was one giant puddle. Mangy Rat looked around rapidly, trying to see through the rain! But then, he only had to get to where he'd been before, he realized. His turf couldn't be far, now. He decided to take the chance, and ran for it.

A half hour later, the water was an inch high. Another half hour two inches, and he was nearly swimming, tripping, slipping. He cursed as he fell for the umpteenth time. He was nearly there! So close! He got up, and found what he was looking for. A huge warehouse, with that broken window right there... he jumped onto piled boxes, and leapt through the hole, ignoring the scraping against his skin the squeeze made. He landed heavily on the concrete floor, but he was safe from the flood here.

He tried to turn his head to look at the wounds, and winced with dismay. Small shards of glass were lodged in his skin, some of them touching his shoulder and neck muscles. He couldn't move his head.

How was he supposed to recover from that kind of injury?! He collapsed on the floor, bruises and broken bones and old scratches and new cuts and glass-splinters all reminding him of their presence in collected places, reminding him exactly how he got them, where, when, and why. Why.

And why! Rat closed his eyes, with effort moving a foreleg to cover his eyes with a paw.

It was the why that bothered him most. ...no, not really. He hated physical pain more than any psychological discomfort.

[Swifty]

"What now?" he whispered to the old fox and the young kit.

[Grep42]

(Raea's dead.)
"Is the flood over?"

[Swifty]

...
oh)

Tii looked at the dying down rush of water and shrugged. "No.. I guess not"

[Mindy]

He watched the sheets of rain lash against the windows from his towering stack of crates, falling to the ground in huge airborne waves. The rain was amazingly thick, astoundingly fast. He curled his nose in disgust, then sneezed. He then painfully contorted himself to try to start washing out the blood and dirt, ignoring the trickles of blood from the glass wounds that his action caused. Rat had to get clean, or he'd get sick and die. And he had plenty of time to die... Rat had no death wish.

[Foxesrule]

...
oh)

Tii looked at the dying down rush of water and shrugged. "No.. I guess not"

The flood hasn't died down yet, it's increasing depth and speed with every post we make.

[Grep42]

"This is getting bad. At least we have plenty of rats," Xena replied.

[Swifty]

(ah, K fox.)

Tii's ears twitched at the noises of scurrying rats and other things.
"Is it gonna stop, Xena?"

[Grep42]

"Of course it will, little Tii. It may take awhile, but it won't go on forever," replied Xena.

[Mindy]

Rat tried his best to lick his fur clean and comb it lightly. He couldn't make the jerking motions to clean it more thoroughly, so he couldn't get rid of the tougher stains and tangles. His fur would stick up in the oddest of places, even after this.... Finally, he pinned his tail down with a sigh. The second easiest for last. He tiredly worked on grooming his tail, ears pricking at the storm of water battering the warehouse windows. At least the walls and roof were holding up... this wasn't a monsoon.

[Summerbreeze]

(Raea is not dead. Were did you get that from?)