Chapter Text
Rivulet's life in the lab is not great --weird animal friends, more tests, got starved-- until the lab floods and she escapes, and now she's out in the open, vulnerable.
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The wind murmured as rain poured onto Rivulet, she ran through the rain, water droplets covered her rough fur.
Is it far enough?
she had been running for a while, running mindlessly, wherever the lab couldn't reach.
Rivulet pants, stopping after she thinks it's far enough, rivulet drops to the wet ground, sighing as she passes out.
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Rivulet suddenly sat up when she felt eyes staring at her, rivulet's fur stood up at the creature in front of her "Woah, hey, relax, i wont hurt you." the creature stood up from its crouching positions. rivulet hiss --roughly, kinda like bark-- and backing away slowly, her ears fold down, arching her spine up.
The rain has stopped, Rivulet realize that, but she was too cautious to acknowledge that
The creature has thick fur covering it, with big paws --too big for its body-- chopped tail, long fur on the tip of its ears, it looks like her--but, wrong.
The creature looks at her with curiosity, tilting their head slightly.
"Hi, my name is Gale!" he says cheerfully, taking a step forward. Rivulet steps back, still cautious.
Gale walks around her, and observing her, gale mutters as he walks "your skin is sparkly, thats so cool" then he stops in front of her "whats your name, uh, cool cat?" He asked nervously.
Rivu sits down, still cautious, then she asks "What are you?.."
"A lynx!" He chirped, still cheerful
"Ly..nx, lynx?" She stutters
"Yeah! What are you?" He asked again, curious about her
"I... don't know..." she murmur, averting her eyes to the surrounding
"That's okay, then, what's your name?" He asks her again
"Ex-415" she said slowly, gaze still on the weird pillars
"Ex...four–" he said, then cut off by Rivulet
"But call me Rivulet." She quickly added
"Oh, okay, rivulet, can I call you riv?" He asks
"Yea, whatever." Rivu said shortly.
Gale then continued walking around her, checking her traits, fins, gills and "big weird tail".
Gale's stomach let out a rumbling sound "I'm hungry, you wanna help me catch a rabbit?" He asked, smiling, his ear twitched slightly.
"Rabbit, catch?" Rivulet says, tilting her head, confused.
"Yeah, you need to catch to get food!" He explains
"I don't know how to 'catch'." She said, averting her gaze to the grasses below
"That's okay, I can teach you" he said proudly, his ears perked up, pointing at the sky.
Rivu stays silent, but nods, then follows Gale when he walks to the tall grass.
Gale crouch down, then walking slowly through a nearby tall grasses "you need to be stealthy, or the rabbit will run away" Gale whispers
Rivulet knew food–food was cold, scaly, but the brown thing running in the tall grass was furry, it definitely wasn't a fish.
"Is that the rabbit?" Rivulet asks, her eyes widening, her shark instinct locking onto the vibration of the rabbit's thumping heart, as gale yaps about how to pounce and be stealthy, Rivulet's tail begins to swish left and right, she crouches down slightly then launches like a harpoon.
Gale quickly stands up, She was already gone inside the tall grass, probably already catching the rabbit. After a while, rivulet finally came back with the rabbit "That was so cool! Can you teach me that?" Gale said, his eyes sparkling with curiosity and amazement. Rivulet grins, and drops the -now dead- rabbit down in front of gale, gale quickly munch it with excitement, then looking up at Rivu “do you want some?” he asks, mouth still full "I don't usually eat rabbits” Rivulet shrugs -even if she was hungry at the time- she doesnt like rabbit, Gale guesses, still eating the rabbit.
After gale finishes the rabbit, he stands up, he sees rivulet lying on the damp grass, Gale's ear perked up, he grins as he crouch down and pounces her
Rivulet rolls over as Gale jumps, gale fall -and failed to pounce on her- face plant into the grass, Gale groans as he stands up, looking at rivulet like she had killed his family.
Rivulet just chuckles at gale, upset that Rivulet had ruined his plan. They stand there for a bit.
“Okay, yeah, sorry.” Rivulet spoke, a grin plastered on her face.
Gale didnt buy it and just walk away
“Hey, sorry, it was on instinct!” Rivulet spoke again, her grin swapped to a soft smile
Gale stops, his tail swinging harshly against the slightly damp ground
“still!”
“Still what?”
“Still!” Gale continue walking, still upset –but dont actually know what to be upset about–
“Where are you going?” She asked, but still followed.
“home, since, you know, it's getting dark.” Gale answers, already forgetting what he had done earlier.
Rivulet hums in response, her tail swinging lazily behind her.
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his ear twitches as a butterfly lands on his ear, gale notices the butterfly, his eyes widen and he started chasing it, Rivulet chuckles as she started to chase the butterfly with Gale, running around, just enough to make them tired, and forgetting they were just going to gale's den.
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Gale gasps for air “that butterfly is really, really fast” gale says between breaths, lying down beside Rivulet, who was holding down the butterfly with her paw. “Yeah, it was fast, but I'm faster!” Rivu said, proudly motioning toward the butterfly under her paw. Gale averts his gaze to rivulet, her face painted with pride. “Yeah, whatever” Gale mutters, averting his gaze to the sky again. Rivu rolls her eyes “like you can even catch it.” she lifts her paw up, letting the butterfly fly away, Gale's eyes automatically locked onto the butterfly, he watches as the butterfly flies away.
“We should get going, it's getting dark.” Rivu mumble as she looks at the sky
Gale nods, agreeing with Rivu, it is getting dark, and if it's already dark, they wouldn't be able to get to Gale's den safely, they should be fast.
Gale sits up, yawning as he does “yeah, lets go, my territory should be around here.” Gale says, blinking a few time
“You have a territory?” Rivu chuckle slightly
“Yea? I mean… it is shared, but, its technically mine too” Gale shrugs, chuckling back as he gets up and started walking
Rivu hums as she gets up and follows Gale.
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The ground is slightly damp from the rain, tiny creatures ran through grasses and bushes, making noise, birds chirps around, the wind murmured softly, its calm, just, a few noises, but Rivulet probably didn't think the same, because her face was painted with weirded out, or maybe even disgust, but Gale didn't think the same, he loves noises, he'd rather have this than silence.
“We're here!”