In the Dark

[thebestoffense]

Who| Volanz and Some
What| Piranhas for dinner, dark places, and finding the bear muttation.
Where| Critter Country, somewhere on Splash Mountain
When| Week 4, sometime after fireworks
Warnings/Notes| Raw fish, eventual character death, and also bear.

It was a cave, and that was comforting. Actually, it was more of a tunnel with water running through the center and creepy fake animals on either side, but it was good enough. There weren't any places he felt safe here, but it seemed like an alright place to stop and eat what he'd caught. Volanz liked the solidness of the roof over his head, after the firework debacle, and the dark and quiet made him feel a little more secure. Well, aside from the sloshing of the water. He stayed far from that, having already seen the suspicious pale shape of something much larger than a piranha shifting beneath the surface.

His stomach grumbled as he thought about piranhas, and he found a place to sit hunched uncomfortably against one of the walls. He unstrung three of the fanged fish from the cable he'd been hauling around.

They had turned out to be an acceptable food source. The fish were bony and cold and unsatisfying, but they were easy to dupe into biting the bent nail he'd hooked through the end of the wire, and they died when he stomped on them.

Volanz picked one up and tore into it with his teeth, chewing quickly and swallowing so he'd have to taste as little of it as possible. Blech.

Comments

[gruesome]

"I think that is the best I can do. I don't know if the waterslime here is the same as at home." It didn't smell the same, so he doubted it.

"You're hurt too?"

[thebestoffense]

"Not too bad," Volanz lied. "Just some squeakbeast bites? You know, from the party."

Or was it a lie? He wasn't sure, either way it wouldn't remain true for more than a few more days if it still was.

He crouched near the water and dipped the section of casing in. There was a flurry of activity as fish hit it, bumping the ersatz ladle around while trying to get purchase on the plastic, but they quickly figured out it wasn't food and lost interest.

Volanz carefully scooped up the water and brought it over to Some.

"Where first?"

He'd be careful with the water, but he was pretty sure this was going to hurt wherever he started.

[gruesome]

"Oh, the feast." He sighed, shifting his weight off the worst-burnt leg so he could hold it up. "Here... ah, I can. I have enough hands."

[thebestoffense]

Volanz supposes that's true. The alien has lots of hands, and he gives over the cupped water.

"Yeah, the feast thing was... not actually super great. And I did not get any food. I kind of wonder if that even counts as a feast, then."

He shrugs.

[gruesome]

Some dribbled the water carefully along the scorched leg, rinsing away charred fur with a hiss through the teeth of both mouths. Like the gray kid, his teeth too are sharp and triangular, and he has more than his fair share, a double-row in each mouth.

"... Was there food for the humans?"

[thebestoffense]

"I think so? By the time I got there, there was a lot of yelling and biting so I was busy running for the most part," Volanz replies.

A pause.

"You have a lot of teeth," he observes.

[gruesome]

"They come out easy. I have to have a lot," he explained, a little distracted as he picked a bit of gravel out of the burn, wince by wince. He prodded at one tooth with a tongue as he spoke, on the side of his face he'd hit against a wall trying to run half-blind away from the fire. It came free, sure enough, as if to prove his point. He spat it into his hand, small and translucent.

"Yours don't?"