Ch1 Water
"Hmmm," sighed Koyu, as he sat there, on the slightly comfortable couch overlooking the sand, seaweed, and ocean waves below him. He was slightly immobilized between carelessly watching whatever show was currently playing, and gazing thoughtfully out of the clear floor to ceiling window. He had finally saved himself up enough money to take a break from hard labor, and had rented out a nice beach home. It was a nice and small blue home, standing on the large wooden stilts, to protect it from disaster. It had been build right on the edge of the coast. One could walk down the well-built wooden steps, and, with a bit of a walk through the sand and grass, reach the constant waves, pulsing along the waters. That, or take a long walk down the beach, collecting shells, and other kiddie treasures. He spent most of his time out in the water here, He loved the smell of the salty wind, ocean foam, sand, and earth. Now, however, he decided to take a bit of a rest. It was tough riding through those tall waves, with nothing but his paws, and his fur was already matted with sea salt. He didn't care. He loved this. All of this.Just over 6 feet tall, standing casually, Koyu was a well-built husky. His fur was semi-short, with seemingly random blotches of black on white. He was wearing pitch black swim-shorts, which had been dry from sitting outside earlier, but that was all. He has natural blue spikes of hair, almost covering the top and back of his head, tallest between his ears. He could never figure out quite how blue was a natural color, but considering his eyes were almost as royal blue as his hair, he assumed that color liked him. But that was fine. He loved blue. Mostly shades of royal to cyan, but any shade of blue, black, and white were his favorite. Still, being covered in salt residue, made him appear slightly more Gray, than anything. But he didn't mind. Salt never bothered him, unlike most furs. He found he could swim through the ocean all day, and not be bothered by dehydration, or anything of the sort. His most vivid feature, however, would have to be his huge fluffy tail though. It could, on occasion, even help him swim. But it was definitely noticeable.It had been getting dark outside. This was good. Right when the sun isn't quite down, or the moon fully risen, was his favorite part of the day. A time when most furs had left the beach, and he could enjoy it all to himself. Plus, he found himself more comfortable at night. Anytime of night really, but now especially. He figured he might as well go out and have a walk down the sand, while he could enjoy it. He grabbed his house key, flipped off the TV, and continued down the steps, locking the door behind him. Not that he didn't trust anyone around here, but better safe then sorry. He had just reached the last of the wooden
steps, and stopped to take in a deep breath of that salty-sweet smell of ocean air, enjoying every moment. He continued over the small sand path, through the grassy sand dunes, and reached the very edge of the beach, where the waves reached the sand. It was high tide, but the water was surprisingly farther out than it had been the past few days.After taking another brief pause to enjoy the slightly warming ocean wind, he started trailing off down the sand, on his paw pads. He only stopped every once in a while, to collect an interesting shell, or to watch the rest of the beach-goers leave in the cover of darkness. He had walked for quite awhile, before noticing a slightly visible sign reading, "WARNING: SOFT SAND; NO VEHICLES ALLOWED!" It hadn't said anything about furs crossing, but he figured he would rather not risk it, seeing as how if he got in a jam, no one would be there to help him. He finally just turned around, and almost loosing himself again, continued walking back to the strip of beach closest to his temporary home. He had only almost reached his place, just a few more minutes, and he would be within sprinting distance of his house. Something had just barely broken him from whatever trance the beach had put him in, but not for long. He went back to casually, mindlessly walking back to his house, this time slower.His trance was completely broken this time. It was a strange sound, but he could almost always make it out, no matter what he was doing. The waves had been washing something up on the beach. It could of just been driftwood, but it sounded larger, to Koyu's sense of hearing. He glared over the water, looking for anything bobbing, or anything out of the ordinary. His eyes focused on a dark shape in the water. It wasn't just floating, it kept going under, and resurfacing. It couldn't be driftwood, because then it would just float along until it came to a stop, but this, whatever it was has a distinct shape. He kept staring trying to figure out what it was. Just then his eyes grew wide. It was a furry! Normally that wouldn't bother him, he was sure many other furs enjoyed a late night swim. However, this one was hunched over something, and looked as if he had been out in the water for way too long.Koyu dashed across the sand, forgetting everything. This fur looked in bad shape, and he had to do everything he could to help him out. He hit the water, and kept running slower into the waves until he was able to swim freely to the floating piece of wood, carrying the dark shape. He started swimming as fast as he could, finally overcoming the now tall and forceful waves plowing into him. He had reached the board, and grabbed onto the waist of the unconscious Anthro-lupine, as he could see now. Pulling him off the
board he had been slouched over, Koyu began paddling and kicking as hard as he could, back to shore. It was now almost pitch black out, and he could barely see the beach, but the light from the beach houses guided him finally onto the shallow art of the water, where he pulled the lupine over his shoulder and marched quickly to dry land, where he dropped the fur on his back, and quickly checked for some sort of pulse. He didn't know much about medical care, except what he had seen on TV and what few values he learned in personal experience. He found a very feint, almost non-existent pulse, and tried his best to force any water out of the furs lungs, by pushing his paws against his chest. The unconscious quickly sat up, throwing up a bunch of salt water, and other fluids, and collapsed back onto the soaken sand of the beach.Hoping he had done everything correctly, and re-assured by the amounts of liquid expelled from the lupine, Koyu tossed him carefully back over his shoulder, and carried him back up to his house. He slowly carried the fur up the steps, careful not to fall himself, And unlocked the door, thankful he hadn't lost his key. Not minding the water dripping from himself, and the lupine he hoped he just rescued, he laid the soaked Anthro wolf on the couch, hoping to get some info from him in the morning. The wolf was still completely in the nude, Which Koyu figured was because of his "adventure" out on sea. He didn't mind. Mostly because it was obvious why he would be, but also because he didn't mind being clothless himself. Not that he would be now. He was still soken wet, tired from carrying the lupine, and needed sleep himself. He figured he would just wake up early, and take care of whatever the wolf needed when he awoke. He quickly dried himself off with a beach towel he brought with him, set an alarm on his phone, and quickly dozed off.It had been awhile since Koyu had any type of dream, much less a nightmare. His dream was normal at first, just meaningless walking along a sidewalk, enjoying the heat from the sun. Then everything went cold. It was still sunny out, so it struck him as odd when everything started freezing. The sidewalk was like walking on ice now. The sky had grayed out around him. Figures, shaped, and people around him blurred into the icy mellowness of whatever this was. He was cold. The gray turned to black, around him, everything was going dark. He had never experienced this type of darkness. His subconscious knew this was only a dream, but it felt like so much more. This felt real. This felt like death. Cold and dark, Koyu stood there in complete silence. Even he began to fade, his very essence melding with the darkness of his dream. He tried to take a step back, but that only server to cause him to loose whatever footing he had. He began to fall. He was falling into
a seemingly endless pit of darkness. He couldn't escape. He tried to turn himself, and saw the bottom of the pit. He saw a sort of rocky flooring. He was going to collide with it. He couldn't avoid this. He was falling too fast, and he would hit the blackness too hard to survive. He was scared, but he couldn't help himself. The moment he was going to smash muzzle first into the hard, cold ground, he had awoke, still damp, just in time to fall face-first off his bed, onto the imitated wooden flooring.