ORIGIN

Callahan dug into the rat as soon as it was placed in front of him. The meat felt good in his mouth as he chomped away. That being said, he wondered if it would taste better without the smell of the ooze in his nose...nothing to be done about that though, Sniffles was his best friend, ooze and all! It only took a few mouthfuls before his tiny stomach felt full up, and even then he kept eating a couple more to the point where he felt full to overflowing. The rat itself hardly looked touched. "Yum!" He said, contentedly patting his now slightly bulging stomach.

"I can't wait for you to teach me, oh, if it didn't take you long hopefully it doesn't take me long, and it'll be great!" The words spilled out of the little ferret's mouth in a ramble with his squeaky excited voice. Too many words in his head that needed to get out. That put him apart from Sniffles as well, the snake didn't seem to have as many words as he did, but maybe he could learn to use less too if that helped. Maybe. He'd have to learn to make his head not be so noisy first for sure, because more and more words wanted to come out.

With a full stomach, and mind full of exciting things to come, the little ferrets' eyes started to droop. He rubbed an ear with his paw and looked around. "Is this where we live?" He couldn't help looking at the shattered chrysalis shell and wonder if he'd ever need to go back in there. He was sleeping inside it before he was pretty sure, but would he need to be there to sleep each time? That could be quite bad if he had to go through what he'd gone through just getting out every single time. Maybe Sniffles had a bigger one that had enough room to share with him and then Sniffles could work on breaking out of it, not him. If he shared with Sniffles, would he be drowned by the ooze? Without much warning, he dove his face into the black puddle at his feet, and came up half a second later coughing, gagging, wiping it away. "It's not breathable," he said through gasps. "It probably wouldn't work," he continued, as an explanation to all the thoughts going on in his head, not realizing that he'd need to say them out loud so others could have the foggiest idea what he was talking about.

Home in the swamp? "Swamp is a funny word," the little ferret giggled. He repeated it a few times to himself, rolling it over in his mouth. "Can I go to swamp? Or do I need to stay here?" He waved at his broken chrysalis. It would be sad if Sniffles had to leave him. He wasn't too sure what he'd do on his own anyway. What was the point to all this life? What was the point to being? Difficult questions, too difficult for little heads.

"Not hurt," he replied, still trying to get the ooze off his face and sneeze it out of his nose. "Just...blech." He stuck out his tongue, then regretted it as it brushed past a glob of the ooze dripping off his snout. He choked and spat. Sniffles' tongue helped clean it off though which he was thankful for. He had a strange feeling like that taste would be in his mouth forever. He wished his stomach was bigger so he could eat more meat and get the better taste in there instead. "Does it taste yuck to you too?" What did Sniffles' do if they got the ooze in their mouth? Surely it would be easy to do with so much of the black stuff around. It nearly brought tears to Callahan's eyes with how terrible it tasted and smelled, but Sniffles didn't seem to be crying about it, so he wouldn't either.

"Yes, yes!" Callahan squeaked, bouncing around with all four paws at the same time, and tail straight up in the air. "I'll go with you! Is it a long way away? Is it just around those rocks over there? Will my paws fall off from going far? Will we need to get more to eat? Should I take some rat with me?" With the last question, he dove face first in the the rat, chomped a morsel, then spat it out on the ground as his stomach told him no more (and it didn't taste so good anyway with the remnant of ooze in his mouth) and continued bouncing around.

"I can't imagine what it'd be like to have ooze all the time," he replied to Sniffles' words. Not good at all! "I suppose you get used to it though? I think I'd get used to it if it was me. Actually, I'm already used to it, I think, though maybe I won't try breathing in it again, and will try to not get it in my mouth." He eagerly looked in different directions of the cave, wondering what magical place they could be going to! Which direction would they head? The world was so much bigger than his shell, and oh how glad he was for it! No more crushing! Just wonderful things!