Hard Rain: Chapter Two
General Disclaimer: This story may contain scenes of a graphic and/or sexual nature. As such it is not suitable for view by persons under the age of eighteen. Please respect the law in your area, it's in place for your own good.
Mission Statement: This story was written and collaborated on by one or more members of TheMishMash. We are a team of like minded friends who strive to bring humor, drama, adventure, and sordid affairs to the masses. Comments and questions are always welcome and we can be contacted through our user page here on SoFurry. Please denote who you're asking for when leaving a message. Sincerely... Ghoti, Bones, and Scratch.
Hard Rain: Chapter Two
Written by: Ghoti
Content: This story contains flirtatious encounters, blood soaked memories, an important, albeit, brief encounter, and TACOS!!! No adult material however. No-Yiff.
Personal Notes: Ghoti says, "Okay, okay... I admit it. I had no idea what was going to happen when I started this particular story series. All I knew was that it was going to have 3 parts. Furthermore, I had not clue one as to what was going to happen in part 2 here. I. Had. No. Idea. It was going to turn into a thinly veil commentary on addiction on the last page. It just happened. I'm sorry if it's hard to read or lacking in any sense or continual structure. Sometimes these things just happen."
A pitch black paw raises a cleaver, light gleaming off the polished steel briefly, before bringing the blade down in a forceful arc. The sound of severed tendons and bones combine with the solid 'thunk' of the blade embedding itself in wood. A light giggle is heard.
"Do you HAVE to laugh every time you do that?" Folsom asked his assistant.
Bones, a skinny skunk who worked in the butcher shop most days with the sturdy raccoon, smiled and picked up the chicken he had just decapitated. "I can make 'em dance too Foley. Check it out." He maneuvered his fingers beneath the headless body and it jigged across the chopping block and then took a bow. "Ta-daa!" Bones grinned.
Folsom chuckled despite himself and covered his masked face. "There's something loose in your head my striped friend." He mused, then looked at his watch. "You better go clean up, boy. Lunch in a few."
Bones placed the cleaned chicken in the proper container, two-pointed the head into the waste bucket, and exited the prep room. He made his way down a short hallway, past the freezer and the cooler, to the washroom which also housed lockers for himself, Folsom, and Folsom's younger sister Joliet who sometimes helped them out. After rigorously scrubbing his paws and running his fingers through his white head fur a few times, he hung up his apron in his locker, grabbed his coat, and made his way back to the front of the shop.
A familiar voice greeted him as he stepped through the swinging doors into the storefront. "There he is."
Bones turned and saw his two roommates, Scratch, a large spotted bobcat with a scar and eye patch, and Ghoti, a white bat with oversized ears and a perpetual grin on his face. The bat spoke again. "Hey, B. You hungry?"
Bones patted his nearly nonexistent stomach. "Always. You buying?"
The bat's smile broadened and he laughed. "Always. Let's go."
Bones waved goodbye to Folsom and they left. Once outside and beyond the awning , a drop of rain ticked off the skunks head. He cast a look over his shoulder and saw that Scratch had yet to leave the protection of the awning. To his left, Ghoti was enduring the light rain and giving the lynx an exasperated look. "C'mon ya big pansy." The bat said. "It's just a little drizzle, and we don't have far to go."
The big cat backed his ears in an angry expression and stepped out into the open. Bones raised a paw to his mouth, concealing a smirk at the bobcat's irritation, and the three of them went at a near jog four buildings up to the Pico Taquito, Scratch mumbling bitterly the whole way. Once inside the taco shop, Bones and Ghoti shook themselves free of the few lingering drops of rain in their fur. They then turned to watch the singularly hilarious sight of the broad shouldered cat licking his paws and washing his face. Ghoti smiled, exposing his fangs, and shook his head, before turning his attention toward the restaurant.
Bones caught an elbow to the ribs and turned to look in Ghoti's direction. "Hey Bones, lookit." The bat pointed toward the counter where a young mouse girl was standing behind the register. "It's your girlfriend." The bat concluded.
"Hmm." Bones shook his head then approached the counter. He knew the girl well enough. The three of them ate here more often than not. Her name was Becky. And although she seemed terrified of Scratch, for obvious reasons, and apprehensive toward Ghoti at times, again, for obvious reasons, she always had a timid smile for the skunk. He stopped in front of the counter and spoke. "Hey, Becky."
The girl looked up from the register and gave him a shy smile. "H-hi, Bones." Although she was a bit younger than him, the skunk had to admit, she was forevermore cute. She seemed about to say something else to him in particular, but Ghoti chose that moment to step up beside him and any bravery she had stored up flitted away. "Can I take your order?"
Ghoti, ever willing to unintentionally make a tense situation into a living nightmare, took over. "C'mon Beck. It's 'bout to rain outside, there's nobody else in line, and you know what we want. Pass a few words, yeah?" Bones noted that the girl's eyes were glued to the bat's fangs as he talked. "I promise you won't get in trouble. You're the hardest worker they have here, they'd be crazy to fire you."
The mouse fidgeted with one of her ears nervously. Bones lived with the bat and knew for a fact that, although the fangs were much more than just showpieces, Ghoti took great pains to curb the two natural desires that came with them. Unless she somehow got brave enough to want to pursue a relationship with the pale one, Becky would never be in any danger from him. But she seemed unaware or unwilling to accept the fact. "I dunno..." She managed.
Bones saw the bat reach into his coat. "I got something that ought to cheer you up, Beck." He said. Before Ghoti withdrew whatever he had hidden however, Bones caught movement outside the glass front of the restaurant. A very tall and broad shouldered animal, even wider and more solidly built than his lynx friend, was standing in the rain at the edge of the park across the street. Although the misting rain made it hard to tell what his species might be, Bones thought the animal's features looked very canine. He faintly heard Becky softly say, "He's cute." but remained watching the figure which appeared to be watching him. Scratch was approaching the counter now, presumable satisfied with his grooming session and Bones was about to direct the bobcat's attention toward the animal outside.
Scratch was intent on joining the bat and mouse however. "I thought so." He added to whatever conversation was taking place in his deep voice. Bones looked back at the girl and saw an unguarded look of fear pass over her face. He forgot the mystery animal in favor of feeling sad for the mouse. She had no way of knowing that, for the better part, Scratch was just a big pussycat.
"I did too." Ghoti said. "So I'ma take him home and put him with my other plushies."
Honestly curious now, Bones reached for whatever had caught everybody's attention. "What's this?" He said, and picked up a blue terrycloth plush rabbit from off the counter. It was soft, but otherwise unimpressive. It was true that Ghoti had a small collection of sock monkeys at home, but Bones had seen the hypodermic puncture wounds on them and felt sorry for the blue rabbit if his fate was destined to mirror the bat's other toys'. "Nifty." He remarked on the plush, then handed it back to Ghoti.
The bat comically placed the toy on his shoulders where it's face peeked out from his blond head fur. He held onto the toy's feet to keep it secure. "We'll have the usual, Beck." He said to the mouse.
Bones noted that the girl did look markedly less timid as she rang them up and recited what they typically got to eat. "One dozen soft shell tacos..." She pointed to Ghoti. "Water..." She pointed to Bones and Scratch. "Two Dr. Crash's." They all nodded simultaneously and Ghoti stepped forward to pay the bill.
They stepped to the side and waited for their food. "So, where'd you find the toy?" Bones asked, pointing to the plushie nestled in the bat's hair.
"I found him in The Empire." Scratch said The big guy still seemed a little put out from being in the rain and kept looking out the glass front of the store at the worsening shower.
Ghoti bounced on the balls of his hind paws a few times causing the blue bunny to appear to ride him like a cowboy. "And I thought he'd make a good addition to the high shelf." He said. "But that's not all we found."
Scratch groaned and shook his head. "Whaddaya mean?" Bones asked the bat.
Ghoti smiled and the artificial lighting in the restaurant gleamed off his fangs. "Billy's getting a new assistant. A brown furred rabbit girl named Sable." Ghoti fisted a paw and placed it over his chest, then sighed deeply. "You shoulda seen her, B."
"Was she pretty?" The skunk asked.
"Pretty scary." Scratch said. "Looked like she wanted to rip his ears off when he tried to talk to her."
Ghoti waved his paw dismissively. "So she has a little attitude... Big deal."
Scratch laughed. "If she has a 'little' attitude, then I have 'little' paws." He held out one stubby fingered hand for example.
Their food arrived at the counter. As he reached to grab a tray, Bones heard the bat gasp softly and saw him reach up to remove the plushie from his head. He gave the curious bobcat and skunk a sheepish look. "He snagged my fur." He said then went to find them a table.
The three friends sat down, the blue toy bunny sitting on the table close to the food, and divided the tacos. Bones smiled. Anybody who saw three animals buying a dozen tacos might assume that they would each get four. But, after a little arranging, all the little delights had their home. Four in front of Scratch. Two in front of Ghoti. And six in front of Bones. Although he was by far the skinniest of them, the skunk's appetite extended far beyond the capacity of his stomach. As they ate, they talked.
"I take it Joliet isn't working today?" The big cat asked as he sipped his drink.
Bones shook his head and swallowed before answering. "She took a trip to Willow Point for the week. Folsom thinks she's seeing somebody up there, but she isn't talking."
"Speaking of Willow Point..." Ghoti spoke up. "We really need to hit up the mall sometime soon. I got a stack of bills just itching to be blown in the bookstore."
"Don't you have a cousin who works in the mall?" Scratch asked.
Ghoti nodded. "Krissy works in one of the 'edgy' clothing stores."
"I think I remember her." Bones said as he finished off his second taco. "She's white furred like you, isn't she?"
"Yep." Ghoti said. "I'm the only pale Finnegan, but I have two cousins who got the white fur. One of them's Krissy, and the other we don't talk about outside of family." He continued to eat as though he hadn't broached an interesting subject.
Scratch gave the skunk a 'here we go again' look. "Okay, I'll bite. Who's this other white cousin?"
Ghoti shook his head. "Sorry Big Guy. No can do."
Bones tried next. "C'mon Radar. Give."
Ghoti consented and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. "He's a hybrid. A SECOND generation hybrid."
Bones whistled appreciably and Scratch blinked his good eye in surprise.
Ghoti nodded. "It shows too. The last time I saw him and his brother, who's also second gen. hybrid, they both looked like something out of a horror movie. And they were just kits then. Nice as can be. But frightful nonetheless."
Bones knew that, if animals were compatible enough on several different levels, hybrid offspring were possible. And nine times out of ten, genetics was kind to the child. But there were stories about cubs getting all the wrong genes and never being accepted by society. Rolling the dice through two generations couldn't possibly help. "What do they look like?"
Ghoti declined this question out of hand. "Not while we're eating, Buddy."
"How many of you flying rats are there anyway?" Scratch queried.
Ghoti counted on his fingers, an amusing task considering he couldn't go higher than six without starting over, and came up with an answer. "Eight counting myself. That's just on the Finnegan side tho. And only Charlotte, Keese, and me have the family name still."
"So, it's up to you and Keese to keep the line going?" Bones finished off his third taco and drank a little Crash.
Scratch huffed laughter. "Up to little Keese alone you mean. HE'S got half a chance of finding another bat to settle down with in a few years. But FangFace here..." The big cat shook his head ruefully and gave a smirk. "Never happen."
Bones saw the bat getting ready to lay into the bobcat and steered the subject into safer waters. "What's with the white fur anyway? Why does your family make a big deal about it?"
Ghoti cast one last semi-baleful look at the cat then focused on the question. "My 4x great grandfather was the first Finheghanne..." He paused to spell the difference to his friends before continuing. "to come to this country. He had white fur, so every Finnegan or Rogers or DuVall or Veck who's born with it kinda gets special treatment."
Scratch finished the last of his food. "Like what, sissy lessons?"
"Big talk for somebody who's afraid to get wet." Ghoti admonished. The big cat bristled but stayed quiet. Ghoti glanced behind Bones back to the counter and grinned. "Scratch, watch this." He nodded his head toward the counter and the lynx trained his good eye in that direction. Bones was about to turn to see what was up but the bat stopped him. "Don't look, B. Becky's lookin' at ya."
The skunk sighed. He knew the mouse had a little crush on him, and he also knew what the bat was about to ask him to do. "It's not nice to tease the girl like this, Ghoti." He said somberly.
"C'mon, B. You gotta do it. It gets me every time." The bat pleaded.
Scratch joined in the peer pressure. "Do it Stripes. I need a good laugh if I'ma hafta go back out in that rain later."
Bones hung his head, twitched his left ear, and swished his bushy tail a few times causing it to sway a bit before falling limp behind his chair once more. The effect on his friends was instantaneous. Ghoti put both paws over his mouth and successfully stifled a giggle. Scratch clamped a big paw over his muzzle and pounded the other fist on the bat's shoulder playfully.
"That girl's ears are on FIRE." Ghoti gasped under his breath. "And I heard her too. She said, 'oh my!' in this little breathless voice." He fell back into his chair and wheezed laughter.
Scratch was leaning against the bat holding his stomach. "You- You shoulda seen her, B." He managed. "She's gonna need to change her panties or something now." He groaned and tried to sit back up. "I dare you to wink at her when we leave."
"I'll give ya a dollar." Ghoti chimed in.
"That's enough." Bones said levelly. "It's no wonder we're three guys and no chick sitting with us. You two are terrible and I go along with it." He quickly ate his second to last taco.
The other two continued to giggle over his teasing the mouse. While they were recovering, another patron of The Pico Taquito, a rather burly beaver, left his table and went to exit the store. On his way past, the aquatic rodent bumped the leg of their table with his broad tail. The resulting shift in the table sent the nearly forgotten blue rabbit doll headfirst into the skunk's last taco.
Bones acted as quickly as he could and whisked the plushie away from the food. "Whoa there, little guy."
He rubbed his thumb over the toy's somehow irritated looking face and then held him high for inspection. "That was close." He said to the other two animals. "But check him out, I don't even think it'll stain." He presented the bunny to the others.
Ghoti squinted and Scratch gave a disinterested glance. They both nodded and Bones set the bunny back nearer to the bat.
"So what are y'all gonna do now?" Bones asked his roommates as he finished the last of his food.
Ghoti shrugged. "We were just bored sitting at home. Figured we'd hit up The Empire and then treat you to lunch." He looked over to the bobcat. "You got any ideas?"
Scratch looked out the glass storefront into the steadily worsening rainstorm. "I got a lot of ideas. But none of them involve going back outside."
Bones checked his watch. "Well, you're gonna have too. I gotta get back to work." The skunk stood up and took their trash to a nearby garbage can and then waited by the door while Ghoti replaced the plush doll in his coat and Scratch worked up his nerve for his next foray into the rain. While he waited, he approached the counter where, Becky still stood. The mouse adverted her gaze and a blush rose in her ears when Bones spoke to her. "How's your day been, Beck?"
"O- Okay." The girl stammered, and gave him a shy smile.
Bones leaned toward her and tipped his head indicating he wanted her to come closer. The timid girl hesitated, then leaned forward a small bit. "You know you don't have to be so afraid of Ghoti and Scratch. They'd never hurt you." He spoke softly, hoping that Ghoti didn't have his superior ears trained their direction.
The mouse glanced nervously toward the pair of animals in question, who were currently looking out the glass storefront at the rain, and noticeably shook. "You don't know that." She said, surprisingly without a hint of her usual shy stutter.
"Yeah I do." Bones replied, then leaned farther toward her. "Because I'd never let them." He whispered softly.
The mouse looked into his eyes and gasped softly. Bones winked at her and straightened up. "Let's head out fellas, y'all are gonna make me be late." Ghoti and Scratch moved up to join him and he turned back to the mouse one last time. "Bye, Becky." He said, and smiled at her.
The bat and bobcat followed suit and the three of them went out into the rain. Scratch immediately backed his pointed ears in distaste and Ghoti huddled deeper in his coat. Bones zipped up his jacket against the cold air and the three of them hustled back to the butcher shop, the skunk leading and the bat bringing up the rear.
Once they had gotten back in out of the foul weather, Bones shook himself dry and turned back to his friends. "You owe me a dollar by the way." He said to the bat.
But Ghoti wasn't there.
*****
Ghoti was facing a large, rain drenched animal who had stepped out in front of him when they passed by an alleyway that ran between two of the shops on Main. The man stood a good six inches taller than him and seemed as broad in the chest as his lynx roommate.
"Ah... Pardon me, Guy." Ghoti said and made to go around the bigger beast.
"Are you Ghoti Finnegan?" The other said, and Ghoti notice that underneath the matted fur and rain streaked features, he was talking to a coyote.
The bat gave the stranger a curious look. "Do I know you?"
The canine breathed heavily and twitched an ear. Faintly, Ghoti heard the electronic chime that signaled when somebody come in or out of the butcher shop. The coyote, as enigmatic in his motivation as he had been in his appearance and question, simply walked around the bat and went on his way. Once the bigger animal cleared his field of vision, Ghoti saw Bones walking back toward him, his white head fur pasted to the sides of his face.
"What's the deal, yo?" The skunk asked.
Aware that they were both just soaking up water, the bat still turned to look behind him. The mysterious coyote had disappeared however. "Uh... I don't really know..." He replied.
Bones looked in the direction his chiropteran cohort was looking, saw nothing of importance, and placed a paw on his friend's shoulder. "Let's get back out of this mess, yeah?"
Ghoti cast one last look back into the rain where the coyote had vanished. "Yeah... Right..." He said distractedly and they went back to the shop.
Once inside, they found Scratch leaning against a display case, cleaning his face again. "I ain't leaving here until this shit stops." He said and pointed an extended claw at the bat for emphasis. He shook one of his hind paws irritably and went back to his grooming.
Ghoti grinned, already beginning to forget his brief encounter with the curious canine, and teased the cat. "You'll live Big 'Un." He shook himself mostly dry and glanced around the shop. Folsom was behind the counter, reading a magazine, and there was one patron in the shop, a female otter that Ghoti thought he recognized. "Hey, uh..." He snapped his fingers trying to dredge up the girl's name. "Heather, right?"
The brown furred girl turned away from the selection of seafood she was browsing and looked at the bat. "Oh, hi Fish." She said. "It's nice to see you." She saw the bobcat in the corner and Bones making his way toward the back room and waved to each of them as well. "Were your ears burning earlier?" She asked him.
"Huh?" Ghoti gave her a quizzical look.
She giggled musically. "Some girlfriends of mine were having lunch with me and your name came up. More specifically, how to spell your name."
Ghoti smiled at her. "It's complicated." He said. "G-H-O-T-I."
She smiled back and cocked her head comically. "But how does that spell 'Fish'?"
Ghoti always got a kick out of this. "It's called 'phonetic irregularity'. You pronounce the GH like you do in the word 'enough'. The O like you do in the word 'women'. And the TI like you do in the word 'emotion'."
Heather seemed to work the pieces out in her head for a moment before she nodded her understanding. "I guess that makes sense." She said.
Ghoti shook his head. "No it doesn't. But it was my mother's maiden name." He shrugged. "I didn't have much say in the matter."
"I think it makes you unique." She replied. Ghoti had already took note of the ring on the otter's finger however, and dismissed the comment for what it was. Politeness.
"Thanks." He replied. "Take it easy, Heather. I gotta go get my big baby of a friend over there ready to go back outside."
She waved goodbye to him and Ghoti went to join Scratch. "I heard all that." The big cat rumbled. He had ceased his grooming, apparently having decided it was a lost cause.
Ghoti waved a paw dismissively. "I'm just pickin' at you." He admitted. "I don't particularly want to go back out in that stuff either."
The two friends stood looking out at the rain until Bones came back out front wearing his apron. Ghoti took note of the few reddish stains on his friend's work uniform and sniffed the air hopefully.
Bones almost imperceptivity shook his head once. Ghoti hung his own head and turned back to the window. This small exchange went unnoticed by the other three animals in the shop, but held great significance for the bat and skunk. Ghoti, being a bat, had a naturally occurring desire to drink blood. Although, as an adult he had found ways to successfully suppress his desires, he still needed to drink it to stay level. Bones, being a butcher's assistant, sometimes had access to low quality 'waste' blood. Although Ghoti claimed it was only a step above synthetic plasma in taste, he also said that it could do the trick in a pinch. Bones tried to sneak it to his friend whenever he could. Ghoti's only other options were to buy it under the table from the local blood bank, or to drink it straight from the source. The first being illegal, and the second being more difficult than it should be.
Bones took a moment as he looked outside with his friends to lament the bat's situation in life. Although he had drank from lower animals on many different occasions, he claimed it made him feel guilty. Birds and reptiles and amphibians didn't have the brain capacity to realize what he was doing or why. All they knew was that it hurt and that afterwards, they were scared and tired for a day or so. It was also, understandably, difficult for him to drink from other higher animals. As Bones understood it, when a bat took a life mate, or even just a long time lover, that animal effectively took on the role of a 'blood doll'. Bones didn't quite understand the whole story behind what emotions triggered a bat's 'bite reflex' or subsequent intake of blood, but he had his suspicions that at least part of it was sexually related. But, whether because of well concealed shyness, or simply because he was afraid of hurting them, Ghoti rarely ever dated. When at home, Ghoti secretly bit his plush toys to curb his desire to use his fangs. And he constantly kept a carafe of ,mostly ill gotten, blood wrapped up in the back of the refrigerator. He seemed incapable of referring to it as blood when he drank it and instead called it "sanguine".
The boy didn't date much because, the better he got to know a girl, the more likely he was to try and drink from her. Bones knew the bat didn't WANT to do it. But it was as natural for the bat species to try and drink blood when the opportunity presented itself as it was for the skunks to emit an incredibly unpleasant aroma when they were frightened. Bones also felt bad that his people could be de-scented (which he had been without his consent as a kit ) but that there was noting short of having your fangs pulled that could keep a bat from biting. Even that wouldn't stop the desires, just the ability to carry out the act.
Folsom cleared his throat behind him and Bones went to the counter to ring up the otter girl. As he did so, he thought about another strange anomaly inherent to his friend's species. Once, a year or so ago, he had found Ghoti in the bathroom nursing a rather serious bloody nose.
"Whoa, Radar." He had said with some alarm. "You alright in here?"
Ghoti had sniffed back blood and swallowed it without fanfare. "I will be." He replied foggily. "Do me a favor and get my-" He broke off as a sudden wild trickle of scarlet seeped from his left nostril. He let it flow into the glass he used to hold his toothbrush and when the seepage stopped he continued. "Get my 'sanguine' out of the fridge and bring it to me, please."
Bones quickly did as he was asked when it became apparent that the bat was about to drink the half glass of blood that had just exited his nose. He returned with the quarter full bottle of chilled ruby liquid and gave it to the stricken looking bat.
"Thanks, B." Ghoti had said wearily. The flow from his nose had stopped and the bat uncorked the carafe and drank all the blood in one go. He then set the empty bottle aside and stood looking in the bathroom mirror with his three fingered paws gripping the sides of the sink. He didn't speak, only looked at his reflection with weary eyes.
"What happened, Ghoti?" Bones asked.
"I tried to stop." The bat replied. He chuckled dolefully. "You'd think I'd know better by now."
"This is what happens if you try to do without?" Bones asked and indicated the gore splattered sink.
Ghoti nodded somberly. "Our bodies revolt if we don't drink blood at least occasionally." Ghoti was so worn out and uncharacteristically depressed that he had said the word without even realizing it. "I've tried to stop countless times. It just doesn't work." He pounded his fist on the side of the wash basin in frustration and Bones worried for the boy's thin fingers.
"Why try to stop at all?" Bones had asked and immediately regretted it.
"Because I didn't ASK for THIS!!!" Ghoti had growled in a surprisingly deep and frightening voice. "It hurts people... and it scares them..." Ghoti bared his fangs (died pink from their recent exposure to his needed effluence) at his reflection. "You've seen the way some animals look at me. You've heard them whisper. 'There goes Ghoti, he's cute, but I wouldn't let him drink MY blood.'" He mocked in a decent feminine voice. He then turned on the skunk. "What am I supposed to do, Bones? Do like all the bats you read about in the paper? Lurk in back alleys and snatch unsuspecting animals from the street, drain 'em nearly dry, then leave them to the elements?"
Bones had backed into the doorway and was about to bolt. Although he wasn't abnormally frightened of his friend, who had been there for him countless times through the years, he didn't want to have to fight him if it came to that. Ghoti seemed to come to himself after his short rant and hung his head. "I'm sorry, B. You didn't make me this way. I got no reason to take it out on you." Bones was about to say something, anything that might calm his friend, but the bat continued on. "I gotta make a call." He said as he turned to the sink and began to wash it out and clean the blood streaked glass and bottle. "Little privacy, yeah?"
Bones had reluctantly left his friend to his cleaning and mysterious phone call that day, but hadn't forgotten the things he had learned. Ghoti feared what he was. And if he didn't drink blood on the regular, he himself could bleed out. A poetically justified death Bones had no doubt the bat would find comforting in the afterlife.
His mind returned to the here and now as he said goodbye to the otter and watched her exit the shop into the rain without qualm. He mused that all animals had their species specific traits. The otter would no doubt find her way home in the downpour without complaint. Her fur was specifically layered to negate most of the unpleasantness associated with getting wet. Skunks like himself had thick fur and paw pads which protected them from the stings and bites of insects (a favorite snack of nearly all skunks was honeybees). Bobcats like Scratch had excellent night vision and those singularly groovy retractable claws. Raccoons like Folsom had dexterous fingers which made them invaluable at certain jobs like computer programming and secretarial typing. And despite their darker tendencies, there were no animals in this area that boasted better hearing than the bats.
Bones took another look at his friends, waiting for the rain to slack up before they went on their way to wherever, then picked up a nearby broom and began to sweep up behind the counter. He was at work whether they were here or not, he couldn't shirk his duties.
Ending Time Stamp: Wednesday, January 12, 2011, 1:17 pm