Things That Go 'Bump' In The Night

Chade made his way to the area of the cave where the fish pool was at, glancing in hopefully and spotting several of them, once more his stomach gurgling.  With a long drawn-out sigh he searches the corners of the cave for any signs of trouble then looks up and shakes his head at Ricin, “I don’t see anything, maybe it's safe”  Was anywhere really safe?  Quick search done he turns his attention to the pool.  It’s hard to focus when food is right there!  Even in here, mushrooms grow next to the rocky pool.  How could mushrooms grow with the rocks?  For some reason, the boy feels a need to snarl at the mushroom as if it has awareness and would intentionally poison them.

Then his attention turns back to the water, tapping it with his paw and watching the fish swirl inside.  Chade had a feeling this should be easy with them trapped in there but it was still a skill he’d never mastered.  Stepping cautiously in the water as if it might pull him right under but no, at least here no more than the very bottom of the boy's belly was in the water.  The pool did go at least a little deeper though in the center but how much?  Chade had no concept of how swimming worked if it got too deep.  A vision of his sister trapped in the water under the ice came to his mind and how she had eventually stopped moving.

A slow exhale and he swiped out at a fish, and he succeeded in splashing water.  There wasn’t a lot of water but this was still hard! Lowering his head Chade tried to grab them in his muzzle if he couldn’t swat them out with a paw.  Scowling he spit out the taste of salty water, “yuck,” but as much as the salt would make him thirsty faster they still needed food, real food, and not bugs or poisonous plants.  The boy kept his eyes on the water, head swaying as he followed the fish's movements.

Word Count:  2103 of 2500