Elemental Cats

After eating their fill and taking a nap, the group continued moving in the darkness. All of them had excellent night vision and perception in the dark. The main reason they didn't walk during the night before this was because of eventual predators and Toz's human habits.

Nil and Lucy had spent a lot of time with Toz and gotten used to being awake during the day and relaxing during the night. Mindle had just been born and only ever lived with the other three, so to her, it was obvious to walk when the sun was up and sleep when it wasn't.

But Toz was getting really annoyed at being covered in dried blood. He had changed his clothes with some backup ones, but his coat and boots were still bloody. Nil had gotten a simple bath with some of their drinking water, but since they didn't know how far away the eventual river was, they had to be frugal when using their water.

Toz's annoyance wasn't easily noticed since he did his best to control his irritation and never let it out on his surroundings. Even if he wasn't always too chatty, he liked joking around with the other three and telling stories, but the further they walked without a sign of water, the less he said, and the more he sighed.

Lucy and the others tried to keep him in a good mood, but the lack of sleep, the crusty dried blood in his hair and all over his body that chafed like a wet shoe two sizes too big made it difficult.

Toz had tried scraping off the dried blood, but without peeling off his skin, it was impossible to get rid of it all. He had even started worrying about possible diseases, that the blood might give him if it stayed on him for too long and entered his body somehow.

The atmosphere in the group inevitably grew tense, although it never quite reached a bursting point as, after a few days of walking, they reached the end of the canyon they had followed. Although they had followed the canyon, they had made sure to keep in the right direction with the help of a compass.

The end of the ravine indicated a change in scenery and sparked the hope that they will reach the edge of the wasteland, or at least a river.

Unlike the other ravines they had encountered on their journey, which were more like cracks in the earth, the canyon they had been following got more and more shallow until it eventually almost reached ground level. The thought hadn't struck the group before, but the canyon looked slightly like a dried-up riverbed.

The canyon had been so large that, despite its size, they didn't consider it. But despite how grand the possible river might have been, now it was nothing more than an empty scar, running through the ground.

After studying the possible riverbed for a bit, the group realized that the number of rats and their tunnel entrances had decreased.

In his annoyance, Toz had tried to keep himself from thinking about his bloodstained self. One thought he had pondered on was the rats' existence in the wasteland. So far, he had only managed to figure out a theory.

The rats started popping out when the grass began withering, and the deeper into the wastelands the group walked, the more rats there were. There seemed to be a suspicious connection between the two. Although it might be that the rats preferred the wasteland, it could also be that the rats were responsible for killing the ground and all life that relied on it.

If the rats got their nourishment from the ground itself, it could explain their thriving population.

And if that was the case, the rats might just be one heck of a pest and one that is currently plaguing this plane.

Then when Toz considered that they were approaching somewhere with a smaller rat population, he got slightly worried. Either the rats hadn't gotten here yet, or they had moved on from here, meaning they were entering a complete wasteland with no possibility of finding water.

Toz was almost hoping he was wrong otherwise he would feel obligated to find someone and report this. Having an entire plane suffer because he didn't want to go out of his way and warn people about some kind of rat consuming all the nourishment of the elemental plane they were on didn't sit well with him.

Even if he didn't need to warn people about the rats, he was deathly curious about what kind of spirit beast they were. So far, all members of the population he had encountered had been dumb-as-rock weak, barely first level rats. But there is no way those are capable of planning an ambush or procreating to that degree. There had to be stronger and smarter ones in control somewhere. Would the rats be unable to manage themselves if the stronger ones die, or will someone new rise up and take charge? Where do the rats come from? Are the stronger ones hiding so deep in the ground that neither Toz's nor Mindle's fire reach them? How do they create so many tunnels when they are so weak?

Toz was thankful for all these questions since they kept his mind occupied, but at the same time, the curiosity and eagerness to find out were almost as annoying as the dried blood.

While Toz was lost in his thoughts as they walked, the three cats looked at him with concern more often than not. Toz had grown more and more reticent after the rat massacre, and they were worried about his mental state. They had picked up on his irritation, but what if it was more than just dried blood sticking on his skin?

However, their worries were unnecessary.

After a lot of tense walking, the group spotted a few birds flying above the horizon. It was a stark contrast to the completely deserted wastelands they had spent more than a week in.

Toz was so excited that he began running thanks to the hope of finding a proper source of water. The dark clouds surrounding him had instantly been replaced by rays of sunshine, and his previous annoyance was gone like the wind.