Elemental Cats

Toz walked as far as he could move his legs. Unfortunately, that wasn't very far, and before long, Lucy and Mindle moved out and pulled Toz along after he collapsed. They crawled under his chest and put his weight on them as they struggled to move him. Nil was still tired and in no position to help them pull.

After trying and failing to move Toz, they settled for finding shelter and putting him under the rock sticking out of the ground they had found. The dried blood covering him and his coat made it difficult for them to get it off him, but as the sun began to rise, they managed to do it. They shook off as much of the crusty, dry blood as they could before pulling out snacks from the pockets on the coat. Thankfully since things needed to be brought in or out by someone, no blood had gotten inside and filled the coat.

Lucy and Mindle couldn't decide if they should try and wake Toz up to get him to eat something or if they should let him rest. They didn't have the same hesitation when waking Nil up and pulling him out of his part of the familiar space.

After grumbling, a bit Nil just told them to let both him and Toz rest, especially Toz. Although it was important to replenish energy, he had eaten a lot of grilled rats before they entered the canyon. He wasn't injured or starving, only physically and mentally tired.

While Nil went back to sleep, Lucy and Mindle shared the view of the rising sun as they watched over Toz and his gentle bloodstained sleeping face. But it was a very uninteresting thing to do, and after the sunrise, they made sure Toz was protected by Lucy's magic before heading out to play.

They explored the surroundings a bit, trying to find something to do. It was still the same wasteland they had been traveling through for several days, however. Thus, without straying too far from Toz, they began playing hide and seek.

Lucy, the previously undefeated champion, had almost met his match. While Mindle wasn't as good at hiding as he was, she could see heat signatures, a fatal flaw in Lucy's stealth methods. They were stuck in a cycle of never being able to remain hidden from each other.

Mindle tried her best when searching for good hiding spots, but when up against Lucy's expertise in hiding and sneaking, she stood no chance.

When playing around, they soon discovered a few entrances to the rats' tunnel system, mainly due to the scent of cooked rats wafting out of the holes.

Even if Toz had collapsed relatively quickly, they were still a fair distance away from where they had attacked the rats' nest. Either the heat had traveled really far, or it was only the scent. In any case, they should have some leeway over the next couple of days. Logically speaking, the rats should be too scared to come close, and if the smell of their dead companions continues spreading through the tunnels, maybe the rats will stay even further away.

Although it was good that Toz would be able to rest properly, it also meant no more snacks on the road.

The smell of grilled rats got the two cats hungry, so they ran back to Toz's shelter to pull out some jerky from his pockets.

When they got back, they found Toz and Nil already eating snacks without them. Despite Toz being tired enough to sleep for days, the discomfort of sleeping on hard ground while covered by a layer of dry blood kept him from sleeping longer than absolutely needed.

Although they were happy upon seeing Toz awake and well, eating delicious food without them required compensation. Toz was left with no choice but to appease Lucy and Mindle with abundant head pats.

Lucy and Mindle were considerate enough to squeeze together and let Toz pet them with one hand so he could eat with the other.

While they were gone, Toz and Nil tried to brush off as much dried blood as possible, but they still looked like brutally murdered murder victims.

After eating enough to keep themselves alive, they got moving again. Toz, despite his fatigue, was the most eager, with Nil a close second. They wanted to quickly find someplace to properly wash themselves.

Even if the direction they had started walking in was a long shot, it was still the best guess they had at reaching a source of water in the fastest way possible. There were no signs of how far the wasteland stretched out, and walking through it while covered in blood would only lead to them being hounded by rats day and night.

That was one thing that Toz and the cats were still confused by, how could the rats survive and prosper in this deserted wasteland. The ambush and their own counterattack had shown them how flourishing their population was. Any ordinary beast would not be able to reproduce to that degree without proper sustenance.

Unless there was some hidden ecosystem deep underground that the rats were a part of, their continued prosperity almost seemed like a miracle.

In any case, the rats were annoying and had formed an especially deep grudge with Toz and Nil. While walking, they continued attacking the holes and rats that popped up. Nil threw down tons of traps and caltrops that rolled down the holes and made it difficult for the rats to move around. Toz used the same move that Mindle had used and fired laser beams down the holes at regular intervals.

After Toz's repeated attacks, the oppressive smell of blood that was still surrounding them began to be overwhelmed by the scent of grilled rats. It was a nice change for anyone who hadn't almost drowned in the blood of the same kind of rat. Lucy happily received all the rats-turned-snacks and gave the ones that left the holes to Mindle to roast.

Toz and Nil weren't as enthusiastic about the rats coming up to the surface as the other two were, but they didn't say or do anything to dissuade them either. They just concentrated their ire on the rats.

Although the continued bursts of fire sent down the tunnels brought up a lot of rats, they were either killed by Lucy and Mindle or ran away. Toz didn't care too much about the small number of rats that escaped he mostly wanted some kind of revenge for both the ambush and showering him in blood. And torching the rats' home was a perfect way to do that.

But Toz didn't have an infinite amount of mana, and he was still tired from before, so they took regular breaks and focused on restoring stamina by eating some leftover mammoth meat.

While Toz's pockets didn't have any kind of preservation ability, things that would usually spoil, like meat, when packed full of mana, took longer to go bad. Although the meat had started aging, it was still perfectly fine, especially the morsels Toz had put in marinade. The marinade had started breaking down the meat and softened it enough to eat comfortably.

After preparing a fire for the night with some of Toz's firewood, they skewered and grilled the meat. The saucy marinade complemented the mammoth's natural flavors and further enhanced the savory taste.