Animation by: Last Storm 1/2 on YouTube aka: DogInATuxedo you will like it and you subscribe to them or else Seven will raid your food pantry

Reminder: rat chit chat human chit chat

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Seven gave a groan as he looked down at the murky water. Damn you, ship and your water and all your stupid monsters that lived here. Reluctantly, he dropped down, not even bothering to try and clean the water off his face.

"When I get out of this GOD FORSAKEN SHIP, I am murdering that jackass who got me the here. Squeaks, where the hell did you go?" He looked over his shoulder, seeing the girl look down at the water.

"Oh, so now you're getting scared of water. Whatever, good riddence, mangy fleabag," he snapped. Squeaks leaned down to look at the water, nervously tapping the surface with her hand. She reared back, snorting and shaking her head, before looking up with alarm.

"Squeak! Squeak, squeak!" She suddenly started to go off, making Seven growl. He looked behind to chastise her, before barely making out the speedy black sludge worm swimming on the surface of the water.

Seven went to let out a cry, before being tackled by the leech. He could make out the sounds of Squeaks letting out sounds of alarm before he was dragged under the water. The leech wrapped around his thrashing body, air bubbles coming off of them from the fast sudden movements.

The leech was the size of him, one bite and few sucks of blood an he was definitely dead. They were normally slow; but he suppose they were quick swimmer, hell he didn't even know they could swim!

Seven stopped kicking when he felt rings of serrated teeth bite and dig into his shoulder, nothing but a muffled scream of pain leaving him.

He closed his eyes, already feeling the prescious lifeblood being drained from him. He didn't know if he was going to pass out from the lack of air or the leech, but his vision grew darker with what remaining heartbeats he had.

The leech suddenly let go, unwrapping from him as it suddenly began to buck wildly behind him.

Six didn't know when she jumped, but one moment she knew she on the damp metal ledge and the next she wrestling with the leech under the water.

It shrieked angrily as she dug her teeth right behind its head, her claws holding the tube of sharp teeth so it couldn't get her. Black slime filled her mouth, a horrible gut wrecking taste coming from it. She didn't pay it any mind, biting and shaking its neck area as she wrestled with it.

The leech's tail tried to wrap around her, daring to hold her still long enough to suck the blood from her too. She remembered when she was first allowed out of the colony, watching a hunting team gathering one of these dangerous worms.

Her and Velvet had seen how a leech had attached on of the members, and how the other would bite right behind the head and cut it off. She was still too small to bite it off, but she continued to try her best to make it bleed out.

It was relentless however, continuing with its sharp cried under the water, making her ears ring slightly from its screaming right into her ear. It thrashed and thrashed, outraged by her actions.

Six hadn't paid much attention before, but the sudden need for air nearly made her want to scream. Her lungs felt like they were going to burst, the roaring of blood pumping in her ears.

She had to breathe. She needed to breathe.

Desperation started to overcome her actions. Instead of just trying to hold the leech's head away, she started to claw at it, raking her nails all over the head to try and kill it faster. Her teeth sank farther and farther, until...

Six nearly choked on water as the piece of the leech suddenly was bit off. Black slime like blood explode from the wound as the leech let out another cry, wiggling out of her grasp and swimming away to go and supposedly die somewhere else.

She quickly broke the surface of the water, spitting the chuck of leech meat out of her mouth. She gasp for air, looking around. Blueberry couldn't be seen, which made her begin to worry.

"Blueberry!" She swam in a circle, trying to spot the other. Fearing the worst, she took a deep breath, and dove back under the water. She forced her eyes to open, flinching from the pain of whatever was in it burning her eyes.

She dove down, trying to make out anything in the darkness. She reached out, hoping to feel anything. Six tried to paddle deeper under, eyes becoming painfully bloodshot from the trash in the flood area.

Finally, her paw brushed something that was relatively more softer; and not wasting anymore time then she already had, reached out and grabbed the other by his fur with her teeth.

She swam up, the two breaking the water surface, Six gasping and panting as she began to try and bring them to safety. She brought them to a large brown couch, which was definitely big enough to fit them both.

She climbed up onto the seating, reaching down and dragging him out of the water. The wound of his shoulder wasn't bleeding as bad, and there was no scent of death on him which made put a part of her to ease.

She rested her ear on his wet blue furred chest, hearing the steady, although admittedly faint, heartbeat. Six gave a small sigh of relief, looking to his small muzzle.

He started to stir awake, coughing up water as he began to gasp for air, groaning as he settled back down. He was pale, and seemed to shake from the cold, slipping in and out of consciousness.

Six gave a small whine. She didn't have any fur like Marigold to help keep him warm, and she was soaked to the bone as well. She gently nudged him again, hoping to get him to at least wake up again to turn the small flame on.

The small flame.

She looked at the small mystery holes in his fur, pressing her nose to them to feel for the silver box. 'There it is.' She nudged it out, the small silver rectangle falling with a small thump.

She sat up, holding it between her paws. Opening the lid with her teeth, she stared with interest at the small things inside.

A small wheel and a little hole next to it. How did he get it to work though? She shook it, nothing happened. Turned it upside down, nothing happened. Bit the end, nothing happened.

The wheel was stiff and hard to move, and nothing was coming out of the hole. She rubbed a paw pad on the wheel, which didn't want to budge. She growled, trying to rock it back and forth.

Her pad slipped, pushing down on it as it fell. A spark suddenly coming to life.

It caught her attention, eyes staring at the wheel. She did it again, this time pressing down. The spark came again before disappearing just as quickly. She did it again and again until...

The small flame came to life at the hole, warmth coming off of it as soon as it came into the world. She couldn't help but smile.

She finally did something Blueberry did! She did something her kind did! Six smiled as she watched the flame dance and flicker, proud of her creation. She stayed by Blueberry, holding the fire box in her paws to warm them.

Wouldn't he be so surprised when he woke up.

***

"Patch, is this the right way?" Patch couldn't count how many times they had asked him that. Secretly, he didn't actually know, but he felt sure they were going the right way, it had to be it. The pipes were right there beside them, it had to be right!

"Yeah, just through here," he said, climbing through the air vent. They had been walking for maybe an hour or so, padding along in a swift manner to hopefully get to the end of the pipes soon.

He was a very young pup when Milkweed carried him away from the Upper Levels, he wasn't very sure if he really was going the right way. He couldn't let Trinket or Frost know, however, he had to keep their hopes up (well, that's even if Frost even had hope his sister was alive).

The entire journey there, Frost didn't look the slightest bit concern for some reason. Patch knew Frost and Six didn't have a good relationship, but... he didn't seem hopeful at all.

"Do you think we'll have to go into Nome territory?" Trinket muttered. Patch felt her breath on the tip of his tail; at least they were right behind him.

"Hopefully not," Patch replied, his ears pinning back.

Nomes were small things, normally shades of gray or silver with large floppy head hat things. He had only seen one from far away, but he quickly ran away. Nomes were dangerous, with their thumbs and good intelligence to make traps for rats who got lost in the Lower Levels.

Weirdly, it was kinda funny, rats were larger then them but were terrified by them.

Patch came to the end of the vent, dropping down into a work shop like area. Paper was all over the floor as the monster from the giant nesting room stood at a table. He would take large piece of paper and then grab something to the left of him.

Trinket followed behind, before quietly crept to the monster, her rounded ears going up as she looked at him. Patch watched from afar, sniffing the air. He had come to the conclusion he was sick, the scent of infection on him, and judging by his lack of realization in seeing the two rats, Patch concluded the infection had already effected his eyes. A cloth was wrapped loosely around his head as well, perhaps to help hide it.

The floor thumped loudly as Frost jumped and landed behind Patch. Patch felt the white rat's huff of hot air along his back, making his fur stand on end. Patch turned, the large rat towering over his, his red eyes narrowed. Did he just quickly put one of his paws down?

Frost motioned with his head for Patch to move on, the smaller rat nervously nodding. He flagged Trinket over with his tail, before they moved on and stayed close to the wall farthest from the monster, walking on the paper that was on the floor.

The monster gnashed his jaws slightly, turning around suddenly. The rats froze, and watched as the monster moved its long paws to feel around. One paw ran on top of a paper on the floor, which he took, before turning and getting back to work. Slowly, the three rats came to the other side, fitting in a small hole in the wall.

The other side was an empty room, a pole in the middle with a port at the bottom. A crank handle laid just a little bit aways from a large metal bunker door. Trinket looked over at it to investigate, resting her paws on the metal of the door on the floor.

"This definitely isn't gonna budge..." she muttered. She looked to the port in the pole, pointing to the crank. Patch didn't even have to say a word, bring it to the other, already at her side as they pushed the crank into the hole. Frost stood away from them and watch.

An ungodly loud creaking of the metal made Patch's stomach drop, yet the two rats continued.

The monster perked up at the noise, hurrying to see what or who was doing the noise. Trinket scrambled on the ground under her once they opened the door enough to squeeze in.

"Run, run!"

The Patch hurried along her, the two of them leaping down into the hatch on the ground. Trinket leaped in first, Patch jumped to follow through, but was knocked to the side by a flash of white. Frost pushed him out of the way, his large frame dissappearing in the chute. The long arms of the monster flashed behind him, but failed to catch the. The door closed, and Patch felt his heart drop into his stomach.

The monster turned, snarling and gnashing its teeth. It reached to the crank and turned it vigorously. The doors opened, and Patch took the opportunity. He fell for a few heartbeats, before landing on something hard and no so squishy to land on. He opened his eyes, seeing a pile of shoes that had uncomfortably broke his fall.

Trinket and Frost were not that far away. Trinket smiled, running up to him. "Patch! You made it!"

Patch went to speak, before quickly looking up. One of the monster's arms reached down, hand outstretched to grab whatever fell. Patch hurried to his paws, grabbing Trinket and pulling her out of the way as the monster's paw grabbed where they had previously been. It grabbed a shoe, dragging it back up, thinking it had caught what it was looking for.

Patch panted, looking over to Frost. The white rat stared at him with his usual glare, but something in his red eyes flinted with malice. A 'tell anyone, you're dead' look. A shiver ran down the rat's back.

Frost tackled him out of the way. It felt like a deliberate tackle rather than an accident, and the glare he was giving him...

"Hey, could we... could try and recover for a bit? I hurt my leg from the fall..." Trinket muttered.

"Yeah, that's fine with me," Frost muttered. Patch looked at him, his ears pinned back. Trinket looked to her other cousin, a small smirk on her muzzle.

"Look who finally learned how to talk," Trinket teased. Frost didn't answer her, but instead walked to the side of the room they were in, curling up next to a shoe, which was half the size of him.

Patch watched him from the corner of his eye as he turned to Trinket, who was now trying her best to make a small nest with some of the softer shoe materials. Trinket motioned him over, which he did, sitting down and laying next to her.

Trinket curled up happily next to him, letting out a small sigh, finally able to try and relax before heading off into the hellhole that was their home.

Patch wished he could have been as unaware as her. His mind was still going back to earlier when Frost tackled him. It was on purpose, wasn't it? Why thought, what did he ever do to him?

Patch tried to shut the thought before he mentally ran himself up to the ceiling. Whatever it was, he could just confront him later.

But even with that thought, Patch didn't taking his eyes off Frost as he slept. His nerves and paranoia not letting him.

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Finished - Oct. 9th

This took a bit more time then I originally thought. I know the rooms are wrong, but I had to base a lot of this on memory, which by itself isn't good.

But anyways, I hope you all enjoyed! Thank you for reading and I hope you have a good day/night!

Take care!

* Updated Dec. 28th, 2020 *

This one didn't have a lot to change, but I might have overlooked small errors, and uh... sorry if there was-

Anyways, there isn't a lot to say really, so. I hope you all enjoyed, if you did please revote and comment.

Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go pass out now.

Take care!

* Updated Sept. 28th, 2022 *