The Drowning of Grape
A Commission Piece
If it wasn't one thing, it was another for Grape Jelly Sandwich.
Holding a flashlight steady, she tramped through the woods behind Babylon Gardens by herself. King had been missing for a week now and everybody agreed to take turns looking for the little twerp. Grape didn't know him very well but he seemed like a nervous wreck at every event he showed up to with the dogs. And, of course, asking Peanut what he knew about King was as useful as beating one's head against the wall.
So here she was, in the evening light, stomping over branch and shrub through the woods hoping to find some sign of King. Nobody was even quite sure he was still in town; last most of the dogs heard of him was he was doing favors and chores for cash to buy a phone. Some figured he went back to see Bailey but that was proven wrong with a phone call out to her place. She sounded worried over the phone but Grape was sure King was just fine.
The woods weren't a dangerous place as far as Grape knew(the Milton Wolves insisted it was, but wolves were less dependable dogs in her book) but as the sun began its lazy dip towards the horizon and the shadows grew longer, she felt just a little more alone.
Squelch!
"Ew!" Grape muttered, pulling her foot out of a pile of wet moss. "Why did I get stuck with searching the woods? I don't even know this King guy anyways." She sighed down in her chest and continued her search.
Everybody was up in arms about King being missing back in the Gardens. It wasn't like he was an established member of the community or anything, but the dogs were serious about him being one of them and demanded everybody pitched into helping find him. As Grape swung her flashlight around and scanned for any pawprints or fur, she regretted letting Peanut talk her into volunteering.
She swung the flashlight back to the right and a glimmer caught her eye. "What's this?" she muttered, squinting through the trees. She stepped slowly up to the reflection and realized she was staring at the entrance of a cave, water dropping off long stalactites and glinting in the light. "Maybe..." she mused, shining the light around the entrance.
She stood up on her toe beans, leaning a little forward into the mouth of the cave. Cupping her mouth with her free hand, she shouted, "King!! Are you in there?!"
A long and dreary echo came resounding back to her and she grimaced. "Maybe he got hurt. Isn't this the Wolves old cave? They mentioned that at some point." She took a few steps into the cave, flashlight swinging back and forth to catch any sign of the missing Corgi.
The cave yawned before her, with outcroppings like rows of teeth extending deep into the cave. A curiously worn path weaved into the dark as she stepped forward, the damp and smooth floor glinting back to her. "Erosion," she muttered, watching her step. "Slippery-"
As the words left her mouth, she regretted even pointing out the obvious. Her foot shot forward from under her and she flipped backwards, flashlight, tail, and limbs all flying into the air.
Blamp!
As she hit down on her small ass, she shot forward on the slippery surface deeper into the cave. "AHHHH!"
The sudden feeling of falling freely through the air made her scream stop for the briefest of seconds but was cut short from continuing by hitting a pool of ice-cold water. The water sent shocks through her system, crawling up her spine through her fur as she plunged below the surface. She clawed for the surface in her scrambling and found part of the ragged wall to grab onto. "Hua-gah!" she breathed, spitting out cave water. "Ptt! Ptttoo!"
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw she fell several dozen feet into some kind of sinkhole in the cave. A faint blue glow was coming from beneath her, deeper in the water, and provided enough ambient light to let her see well. "Damn...this must be where King went."
She splashed around, circling along the edge of the pool and realized it was much smaller than she first thought. "So where is he?" she asked to the sinkhole, looking around for any such way up the short Corgi could climb.
Finding none, her eyes were drawn to the blue light coming from the water. "Maybe..." she tapped her chin with her index finger, "...he found a way out?" She figured it was worth the shot. She was rapidly losing her interest in being in the cold water and if King could find a way out, so could she.
Taking a deep breath and pinching her nose shut, closing her nostrils with force, she dove under the water and swam towards the blue light. Her eyes stung against the water at first but she blinked the pain away and felt them focus in the clear cave water. Her cheeks puffed full of the air she had in her maw and she imagined she looked something like a pufferfish as she swam.
There! A small tunnel to the side where the light poured from. Daylight?
Grape shook her head. Not possible, the sun was setting when she walked in here. Something artificial? Maybe something the Milton Wolves left behind? Regardless, she kicked hard and pivoted her slender frame into the tunnel and pursued the lead.
The tunnel was small but Grape found it easy to fit her slender frame through it and swim down it. The blue light was near blinding and forced Grape to close her eyes as she swam. She kept a hand in front of her, to stop her if she would swim into some wall or some other object...hopefully not King's body, she thought to herself.
It didn't take long before Grape felt the hard, rough surface of a wall stopping her approach. She gingerly opened her eyes and saw that the blue light was gone, replaced by an eerie green that came from above her. She realized she was half in, half out of the tunnel with her tight ass stuck in the tunnel. She grunted and pushed, feeling the pressure wrap around her stomach and ass. "Flrbflfblbl!" she grunted, kicking her feet to propel her out of the tunnel. "Brlghg!"
With a burst of force, she pulled free from the tunnel with an avalanche of rocks closing it off behind her. Her chest heaved with the effort and her cheeks burned with the effort of what precious air she had left. She glanced up, through burning eyes, and sped off to what she hoped was a surface.
She surfaced into a small pocket of air with a grunt, "Blurp!" She sucked in the air with a greedy manner, "Hua-hooh, guah, hooh!" Once her strained lungs were filled, she paddled hard at the water to stay afloat. The cylinder was smaller than the last one and this one had a roof, just mere inches from the top of her head. "Fuck!"
"Where did King go? How the fuck am I going to get out of here?"
The eerie green glow illuminated the tight quarters poorly, making Grape squint and dive down into the water, again and again, looking for any sign of King or a way out. Her nostrils grew sore from her pinching them each time, sealing her air into her lungs. Further down, she found another tunnel but returned to her small air pocket.
It seemed to be the only way out and the air in here was getting stale. Pinching her nose hard again and breathing in deeply, she dove down to the bottom of the cylinder and squeezed her tight ass through the tunnel.
Even smaller than the last one, Grape struggled to push through the tunnel. Bubbles gurgled out of her mouth as she fought her way forward. "Grlugbrbubglr!" she grunted, "grlburbr!"
With determination, she popped out into a tight, dense pool of water. She rose to the surface and found only a shallow bubble of air where she could stick her nose up to to breathe in deeply. "sssssSSSSSSSSSSFFFFFFFFFF!"
As she paddled there, her stomach kicked her internally as it gurgled with gas. She wrapped an arm around her curvy waist as her bowels began joining in with the dance. "Fuck," she thought, "I'm not gonna fart like this!'
She felt her face grow hot with the idea of farting in the water like some kind of dog. Crimson flushed across her snout and she shook her head, trying to get it to disperse. Then she remembered: nobody would see, so what was the big deal?
She let it loose, the fart spurting out of her ass with a loud "blrblrubbrlb!" As the bubbles ascended up along her back, dancing from her tailhole and around her tail before sliding to the surface and popping softly in the tight quarters.
The stench settled into the small space strongly and she gagged, water pouring into her throat. "Fiblublb!" She scrambled to stay aloft but the little bit of precious air she had left now smelled strongly of last night's tacos. "Brlrgh!" She grunted, trying to keep her nose up in the dwindling air pocket.
Between the fart filled air and the struggle to stay aloft, Grape felt her limbs start growing heavy in the water. Her lungs heaved and contracted in response to her laborious breathing. A small gasp and she slipped beneath the water with a loud scream. "Grblruglglgb!"
With a swing of her arm, she grabbed a small rock outcropping on the otherwise smooth wall but it crumbled under her fanatic grip. Grape sank to the bottom of the cylinder where the distant green light grew dark and muddied around her.
"Blrbrlbbrbi!" She gurgled, pinching her nose tight as air bubbles seeped out from her closed nostrils. The pressure on her lungs started to hurt her ribs, forcing out a small cough.
"Blrgh!"
How could this have happened? She was just trying to do a good thing...to be a member of the community. Peanut was very encouraging of her to do this and believed in her.
Oh, Peanut, she thought, I hope I get to see you again...to tell you all the things I never did, that I should have...and the things I should have done to you...
Her growing despair ignited a flame down within her soul, a flicker of a light of hope that escalated into a scream of fury in the water. "Huaraargl-gurgll!" she yelled, pushing through the pain and exhaustion and launching herself towards the top of the cylinder.
She barely surfaced, stole a shallow breath of air, and then swatted out blindly for anything to grab as she sank again. The little energy she had stifled to nothing in the tank. Like lead weights, her limbs took her back down to the bottom. "Brlghgh!" she cried, bubbles streaming out from between her lips.
She hit the floor hard, her back bouncing against the rocks and uneven terrain. "Bbrpl!" she cried, another round of bubbles escaping to the eerie green light above her.
She flung a fist out, sluggish, towards the surface. "Grgll," she muttered. Shadows crept into the corners of her eyes and her lungs heaved with the lack of oxygen. "Gu-huglb!" All she could think about was Peanut as her life faded from her body, lurching forwards with the last bit of air in her lungs.
"Brblp...." she gasped, the trail of bubbles whirling from her maw to the surface to pop quietly, the last sign of life in the purple cat