Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bitey rolled back to her haunches, running her paws over her face to clean her whiskers. Her face wasn't really dirty, but grooming it made her feel more at-ease. The air tasted wet. It was still drizzling rain outside, and a few errant raindrops fell through the broken skylights and made their way to ground level, splashing against the linoleum.

Most of the water had receded. There were a few patches here and there, but the area was generally more damp than submerged. From where she stood, on the top shelf of a display of small animal food, Bitey was vaguely aware of the flooded aquariums nearby. A few fish, lost from home, flopped against the linoleum with a desperate thwak thwak noise.

Otherwise, the store was astonishingly quiet. Bitey flicked her ears to the side, setting down her forepaws as she tried to get her thoughts in order. "White One, you alright?"



White One had been injured, slightly, in the escape, and she sat a few inches from Bitey, carefully licking and nibbling at the open wound on her shoulder. It had caught on a stray bit of wire when she had pulled herself from the cage, and torn. Not it tasted swampy and infected from the tepid water.

She wished there were a nosobo around to help her. "Yes," she replied, without looking up, still carefully running her tongue over the jagged flesh. "We've been fortunate. Others...not so fortunate."

Bitey's tailtip lashed in momentary agitation. Yes. The others. She had seen one, at least, swept up in the current that had broken through the door and washed through the store like a tidal wave. Bitey had tried to jump in after her, but White One had bitten her hard on the haunch and pinned her down, telling her it was useless.

Bitey knew she probably would have died if she'd gone after the drowning rat, but she was still mad at White One for doing that. She would have rather tried than huddle here in safety like a coward.

"We'd best start taking stock of the survivors," White One said, in her usual unemotional tone. She paused in her wound-licking for a moment, her nose twitching as she sniffed it for infection. Then she moved to grooming the blood and grime from her usually pristine white pelt. She was covered in blood and slime and porphyrin. "They'll be lost and confused. They need a leader, now that Nezumi is dead."

...A leader. That's what White One thought Bitey was. Bitey wanted to tell her no, that she was anything but that..but there was little point. Someone needed to step up and take charge. It may as well be her.

"Keep your ears out for me," she said, pulling away and starting the slow climb down the shelf she was perched atop. "Don't follow until you know it's clear."

And then, without further instruction, the mink female scurried the rest of the way down the shelf, whiskers sweeping back and forth and ears perked forward as she tried to gauge where the others might have sought shelter.

Had anyone seen? Chajno thought not. The flood had brought so much terror and confusion... So much blind panic. He was certain that he was the only one who was aware of his crime... The worst crime. He had caused his own brother's death.

It had been an accident, of course, but Chajno did not see it that way. There was no denying that it was his fault that poor Ouch had fallen into the merciless waters and been swept away. Ouch's great strength and bite was useless in the waves; the water had taken him outside, but Chajno knew that the waters did not take the rats it claimed to Beyond. Any rat who had fallen today was, without a doubt, dead.

He sat motionlessly on his haunches at the top of the cages for several minutes, staring down as if he could still see the deadly flood raging below him. At last, though, the sharp scent of White One's blood, diluted by the damp, reached his nose. He looked around. Someone was injured and bleeding... As a nosobo, it was his duty to tend to that wound. He dropped to all fours and started following the scent. He moved slowly, though, for the guilt in his heart was weighing him down. He, a nosobo, the saver of lives, had killed his own blood and kin. May the Big Ones forgive him.

Brute looked like a, well, a drowned rat. The massive male clung desperately to a lower shelf, his paws holding tightly to the peg holes for dear life. Had Whiskey survived? He had no idea. He had been swept away, his world made nearly completely of grit, grime, rushing water, and certain doom. It had been a miraculous stroke of luck when he managed to find purchase, but he was still cold, exhausted, and sopping wet.

After a while of listlessly clinging with his forepaws, he summoned up the strength to move on. He was familiar enough with the small animal area, given that it was often ripe for scavenging. For all the world, he was a wild rat, and only his curly coat betrayed him as otherwise. He was a hybrid, the offspring of an escaped father and a stubborn mother. He and his sister had grown big and strong, yet the pair of keshu found themselves spurned in Ukeshu's colony, given their almost obvious lineage. He hated it and, yet, here he found himself wishing for the familiarity of the burrows and the rats he had grown to know after he and his sister had been absorbed into the colony.

Now he was alone and a fear washed over him in a way that he hadn't quite experienced, before.

He hauled himself away from the still flowing current and instinctively made his way towards voices, voices that were obviously others of his kind. His limbs trembled with exhaustion, yet he pressed on.

It was here that he saw Bitey and the others. He'd not seen many of the domesticated rats up close and instinctively withdrew somewhat, though he had no intention of fleeing. The hefty rat shook himself out slightly, but not before giving the others a hard look over.

From the shadows of one of the cases that once displayed small accessories, foods, and cage toys for various small animals, slipped the two-toned rat, to stand out in the open eyeballing the water remaining on the floor with a growl, even as the rain slid accross the tiles towards whichever side of the store sloped. She sat back for a moment, preening her fur, before her ear would p***k at the sound of conversation.

There were too many smells for her to pick any out; wet food, dry food, what was left behind by the big ones, who now were nowhere to be found... She wondered briefly if the scent of bodies would be wafting over from the Snapping Yappers section of the pet store. Surely, the rats, who were not the only animal here, before, were not the only animals that were caught in this mess. Of course, it also crossed her mind that the rats who had been like her up until the flood - living with the invisible walls and the mighty big ones, up until she'd been dropped and vanished from their radar by one of the big ones' pups - they would not know how to deal with the local rat populations... Indeed, may not know they exist.

Without hardly a hint of fear, she fell to all fours and waddled towards the conversing rats, curious, and intent on finding herself some place to be, since she was once again alone, the brute she'd taken to foraging with gone with the water. Sle-ra would do her part... Would have a family again, something to protect besides her own hide and the measely bags of cat chow she'd been living with... Or maybe she'd still be protecting those, if any were still safe to eat... She kept to the edge of the gathering, for the moment, though, trying to remember the appropriate greeting among cagemates. She finally decided that, for now, she'd watch, and wait to be noticed, sitting quite obviously beside one of the other shelves a few feet from the group.

((I really, really fail at this. eheh. Let's just move right along....))

Bitey spent some time moving through the survivors, learning names as she went, touching noses, memorizing scents. It was dizzying. There were so many rats...she didn't know many of them. How many cages had there been? For the first time in her life, it occurred to her the sheer enormity of this Outside world, and for a moment she was completely cowed under by intimidation.

Then she shook it off. There was no time for philosophy and sentimentality, not here. She climbed once more to the top of the nearest shelf, though panting from the effort. As though White One had read her mind, the albino advisor was already there, the faintest hint of a smile on her maw.

"I suspect a speech is in order," she muttered.

"A speech?" Bitey said, sounding alarmed. "I don't...I can't....words aren't...." She snorted in annoyance. White One said nothing.

Bitey shifted her attention to the rats below. "I...Nezumi is dead," she said, stating the obvious. "The Great Ones are gone. This world...and whatever is in it...is ours, now." She couldn't help the excitement that crept into her voice.

"There is a Nosobo here. She will tend to the wounded among you. When that's settled, I intend to nest here for awhile and get a better idea of what the territory has to offer. You may stay with me, if you wish, and I will do my best to watch out for you all."

White One's inscrutable gaze stayed on Bitey long after she'd fallen silent. The slightest flick of her whiskers belied her smile. She'd known Bitey all her life, and that little speech was probably equal to all the other words she'd heard the rat say.

OOC: You are excused. Feel free to mill about here and talk amongst yourselves, build your nests, make friends, etc.
Bitey will be taking a brief snooze and wondering what in the world she's gotten herself into.