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Suns shook their head. “No, no, Messenger. You’re alright.” They gently nudged the slugcat’s hand away, politely declining their offer of a spear. Spears glanced at the needle in their hand, then nodded, pulling their hand away.
Pebbles leaned his head over his shoulder. “Why not take it?”
“It’s their only spear, and we’re out in the open. They can keep it and make more when we’re somewhere safer. I’ll find one on the floor sooner or later.”
Spears nodded in agreement, then quickly crouched down and slid forwards, leaping over the gap in front of them in one smooth movement. Suns followed close behind them, leaving Pebbles as the only one on the other side. They turned back towards him, flicking their ear.
“Are you coming?”
He nodded. “Yeah, of course. Give me a second, good guardians…”
He placed his hands against the floor and looked across the gap hesitantly. Suns leaned over the edge and held their hand out
"I’ll catch you if you miss.”
“I don’t need to be caught. Give me a second.”
He flicked his tail and pulled his head backwards a little, then suddenly kicked off of the ground and grabbed onto the ledge on the other end of the gap, struggling to pull himself up
and
keep a hold on his electric spear.
Suns quickly grabbed onto his hand and dragged him away from the ledge, then stood up.
Pebbles shook himself off, standing up. “They should put poles there.”
“Who should? The lizards?” Suns chuckled. Pebbles simply glared at them in response. They shook their head slightly. “Anyways, come on. We should get out of here.”
Pebbles huffed, briefly crossing his arms. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”
Suns turned back to Spears, who had since pulled several needles out of their tail. They let out a small “wawa!” and then turned around to continue onwards. Pebbles followed them first, as Suns watched him walk past to let him go first, then followed after the two of them.
“We’re going down, right? To the old manufacturing site?” Suns paused briefly to think.
Pebbles turned around to look at them. “Yes. It should be below here. I don’t have my maps anymore, but I still have some memories of the route…” He closed his eyes and frowned while shaking his head slowly, as if trying to recall the data somehow.
Spears’ eyes widened in surprise at something.
“Messenger? What is it?” Suns glanced at them, their attention caught by the slugcat’s whiskers spiking.
The sound of jets suddenly echoed through the air, and a cloud of dark purple gas obscured Suns’ vision.
They hurriedly swung around, but not fast enough.
The vulture dug its beak into their back and pulled them upwards, briefly letting go and tossing them upwards only to grab them again, with a firmer hold this time.
“SUNS!” Pebbles yelled up at them, taking a step forwards and clutching the electric spear in his hands.
Spears bent their legs and readied their spears, eyes wide yet focused.
Suns reeled around and flailed their arms at the bird, but it wasn’t of much use without a weapon.
A white needle suddenly jabbed the bird in the chest, causing it to let out a squawk. Unfortunately, it was a very muffled squawk, as its beak remained firmly secured around Suns.
Spears glanced around as the vulture periodically hissed gas from its jets and slowly flew higher, mildly struggling to carry Suns’ weight - especially with them batting at its face.
They laid their eyes upon the electric spear that Pebbles was holding, and quickly grabbed it away from the frozen slugcat.
He flinched as they snatched it out of his hands and slid underneath where the vulture was flying. “I- hey! Be careful with that!”
They stared upwards for a moment, squinting, and then suddenly jumped backwards, flinging the spear upwards at the bird mid-jump.
The spear landed square in the vulture’s neck, resulting in a screech and severe convulsing as it fell to the ground.
It dropped Suns as it was falling, and they both hit the ground with a loud thud. Suns hurriedly pushed themself up from the floor, trying to catch their breath.
Spears yanked the electric spear out of the vulture’s neck, and then slammed their side into it, sending it hurtling off the edge of the platform, to fall downwards for what looked like forever. They watched it as it fell for a moment, making sure it wouldn’t catch itself and fly back up anytime soon.
“Hff… that definitely wasn’t on my to-do list this cycle…” Suns closed their eyes and let themself flop down onto the ground, now that the vulture was definitely dealt with.
Pebbles leaned over them. “Suns, are you okay?” His tone was that of concern, but his expression remained as annoyed as always. “It looks like it grabbed you pretty hard.”
Suns continued to lay flat on the floor. “Yeah, yeah… I’m alright.”
They couldn’t see it, but they could feel blood slowly trickling down their back from the spots where the vulture had grabbed them.
They huffed. Pushing themself up with their arms, they leaned over their shoulder to look at their back.
The bites had left two long gashes across their lower back, with the higher wound being significantly deeper than the other.
Spears pattered over to the two of them and handed Pebbles his spear back, then turned to Suns. They chittered quietly to catch their attention.
“Thank you, Messenger. What is it?”
They tilted their head. “Shelter?” The slugcat’s voice was muffled from its lack of a mouth, but still audible.
Suns nodded in response. “Shelter.” They stood up, wincing at the sudden sharp jolt of pain from their wounds.
Pebbles watched them with concern. Despite this, both his face and his voice said “annoyed.”
“Don’t tell me that
I’m
going to have to carry
you
around now, because I won't. You can bleed out on this ledge before I’d even consider picking you up.” He flicked his tail.
Suns chuckled. “No, no. I’m fine. Do you know where the nearest shelter is?”
Pebbles glanced upwards and to the side for a moment, thinking. His ears perked up a tad as he remembered. “Yes. There should be one in the next room, in fact.”
Suns nodded. “Wonderful!! We should go, before another vulture shows up.”
Spears jumped up next to them, holding a needle in each hand. “Wawa!”
They quickly dashed towards the entrance pipe to the next room, leaving the other two in the dust.
“Hey!” Pebbles called after them, “wait up, you weird freak of nature!” He leaped after them, with Suns close behind him.
- - -
Spears’ tail dipped through the pipe, just before Pebbles slid through it. Suns followed behind the two of them, lagging behind slightly.
The next room was a long, vertical tunnel that went quite far down. Spears slid down the pole that stuck out below them, letting go of it when they reached the bottom, rolling onto the ground. Pebbles, however, jumped from the pole onto a small platform and crawled into a shortcut pipe. He was not dropping off of a pole like that.
Suns chose to copy Pebbles’ course of action here, for once. It wasn’t worth the risk with their injury.
Spears pointed a needle at the shelter pipe, humming a small “
wawa
” and flicking an ear.
“Glad to know I recalled that correctly.” Pebbles nodded to himself proudly. Suns slowly pushed past him out of the pipe and walked across the room, crawling through the shelter pipe. Spears quickly followed them, and then Pebbles too.
They turned around repeatedly in the corner of the shelter for a moment, then settled down against the walls. Quickly, Spears curled themself up between Suns’ arms, a quiet purr rumbling in their chest.
Pebbles slumped over in the opposite corner of the shelter, laying his spear across his lap. He stared at Suns.
“Do you not need something to cover that?”
They glanced up. “Hm? Oh, it would be nice, yes. We don't really have anything, though, do we?”
“I could head outside to see.”
“No, no, you don’t have to. I’ll be fine, Pebbles.”
He stared at them for a moment longer.
“... Alright. Your choice.” He picked his spear up and leaned it against the shelter wall, shuffling around for a moment before settling down in a position laying on his side.
Suns looked at him for a second longer, blinking in surprise when they made eye contact, and then curling themself around Spears, turning away and closing their eyes.
He tilted his head slightly and flicked an ear in response. Suns had been acting strange lately, but it wasn’t his problem.
He rested his chin on the ground in front of him, staring at the wall for a moment, before closing his eyes to sleep.