For a night that could very well lead to another near death experience, it was exceptionally calm tonight. Crickets playing their evening song, owls lurking in the canopy, the moon shining bright. Regardless, he didn't take any chances in running; the entire pack of dogs have erect ears as opposed to floppy ears. Which meant that the possibilities of them hearing him coming are high.

With that said, he walked slowly and quietly. To his advantage, he made little to no noise with each step he took. The river was still a while away, so he had time to think about what he was doing.

For starters, he's probably gonna get in trouble for leaving Casita after midnight, let alone not telling anyone where he was going. In addition, he said he'd go back to the river with reinforcements. And here he is, breaking three rules in one just to save his beloved home.

Because, sometimes, you need to break a few rules to do what's right. And Oscar was more than willing to do so.

Since Casita's rebuild, he grew a bit of a rebellious side, though it rarely shows. This wouldn't be the first time he broke rules to do the right thing. After all, he was a part of the reason why Casita fell in the first place, ignoring all of his Abuela's slight scoldings about getting in the way. Which was, at the time, the equivalent of her saying 'I don't need your help, I don't want your help.'

Oscar didn't hate his grandmother. He never has. He relates to her as far as [generational] trauma goes; she pressured her family to ensure that her loves ones wouldn't be lost again. Much like how Oscar used to use humor and/or denial to hide his fear. After all, cats are one of nature's most deadly hunters. It's a very fortunate opportunity to have an animal help in protecting the family.

At least, that's what he'd tell himself.

Reader, there are many things that you don't know about Oscar that we can't possibly fit in right now. But our bottom line is that the rules he's breaking now will be worth it in the end.

Hopefully.

After what felt like a decade, Oscar finally made it to the dam site. It was currently unoccupied. What a perfect time to pull a deed like this. Of course, he wasn't sure if the dogs were heavy sleepers (at least two are, that's for sure). Heck, he wouldn't even be surprised if there were more than the five he saw earlier today.

The sound of low growling and a stick being pulled out made Oscar jump and whip his head around. Right before he could hop off the bank, he saw a rather unique looking animal.

It was a long, sleek lizard with shiny red scales. Some dark red stripes go along his back, and cover his forelegs and feet, inverting the red colors. Towards the top of his body, the stripes are outlined with a yellow line. He has a pink underbelly and five sharp black claws on his feet. His irises are purple, and he has a mouth full of fangs, and his upper fangs show when his mouth is closed. He has a forked blue tongue.

"¿Qué pasa (What's up), Akanu?"

Despite the call being relatively quiet, the lizard still heard him loud and clear. He jumped with a barely concealed yell, slipping into the water. Breathing heavily, he whipped his head and saw Oscar waving at him with a sheepish grin. As he predicted, the large reptile didn't greet him back, instead growling as he got back on top of the dam, then climbed down it to get a better look at him.

Technically, this beast DID greet Oscar back, but it wasn't a very nice one.

"Who do you think you are?" The lizard whisper-growled, as if he really didn't know who Oscar was. "Scaring the daylights out of me like that?"

But Oscar meant business, and he isn't about to let this giant stand in his way. "Who do I think I am? I think I'm Oscar Silvio Madrigal. First arrived pet of the family, born out in the wild. And I'm here to bring the water back to everyone who needs it." He said. "What animal did you say yuo were?"

"I am a Nile monitor, and I was doing what you evidently came here to do until yuo decided to try and give me a heart attack."

A Nile monitor? Like the Nile River in Africa? Oscar thought to himself. Well, he's definitely not from around here. Where... where are all of these non-native-to-Colombia animals even coming from? Know what, it doesn't matter right now. If he's here for the same reason that I'm here, then maybe we can set our conflicts aside and work together. I should apologize for scaring him, though.

"I didn't intend on scaring you. I am sorry."

"You're forgiven." Akanu grumbled, barely intelligible. "Anyway, why don't we work together to take this dam down? With your size and strong mouth, we can get this done in half the time!"

Let it be known, reader, that Akanu is, in fact, willing to work with others to achieve a goal, but... he doesn't exactly befriend his teammates. Especially after Oscar scared him, he's not about to do something like that anytime soon. "We could, but I don't see a reason why we should."

"I reckon you know exactly why we should." Oscar snarled. He was genuinely trying to keep his voice down, but it's occurring to him that Akanu might be more stubborn than Valiente. "What I mean is, you should go home now while you can. I'll take care of this."

This guy can't be serious, right? RIGHT?

"Uh, I don't think so."

"I do. If the dogs wake up and attack us, I have a better chance at driving them away than you do."

"That's not because I'm smaller than you, is it?"

"You're smart! I like that in an ally." Akanu said. "And you can prove to me how smart you are by leaving!"

"I'm not leaving, and that's FINAL!"

Oscar realized the error of his ways immediately, covering his mouth and flattening his ears in fear. Certainly this will disprove Akanu of how smart he is. Not that it matters, considering that Oscar alreayd knows he's smart. That doesn't mean he doesn't make mistakes. And boy, did he make a mistake.

Akanu shot the feline a death glare. "Now look what you did!" He stomped a foot to show how angry he was. "Hey, I know what I did! You don't need to make it worse by rubbing it in."

"Hey, little guy."

A shiver ran down Oscar's spine upon hearing Divali's eerie voice. Akanu looked up and flinched. "Uh, chamaco..."

The last time Oscar remembered someone trailing off when they were trying to tell him something, he had his tail lit on fire like a fuse on a stick of dynamite. However, there aren't any candles around for a half-mile radius, so... Akanu pointed up at the bank of the river. Oscar slowly turned around and saw exactly why Akanu flinched. In turn, Oscar seemed to have shrinked in size.

Last time, there were five dogs occupying the river. Now there were seven, not counting the puppy, who was also growling at him. The puppy can't have been any older than one year, but smaller than his brothers nonetheless. Oscar immediately noticed the two dogs he hasn't seen before.

One of them had pointed ears instead of rounded ones, and he had a crest of black fur running from his head to the base of his neck, jutting out in spikes; debatedly, the most handsome one. The other, much to Oscar's shock and confusion, looked almost exactly like his little brother, Cinco. Except this was a dog. And this dog lacked the mask of a darker color in between his eyes, his 'swollen' top canines, and the mane of his hump. He was the only dog with black ears.

"Oh, that's right, you haven't met the rest of my brothers, have you?" Locura tried to sound nice, but one can automatically infer that he was being passive-aggressive. "The one with the black crest is Jamaal. The camel-dog over there is Eddie. The smallest one is our youngest brother, Heffer."

"Nice to meet you. All of you." Oscar said, slowly taking steps backwards. "Now, there's no problem over here. I'm just passing by here, don't need any trouble."

Locura giggled, "Ain't no point in trying to lie. We saw you and the little lizard trying to destroy the dam before you even got there." At the last part, Oscar gave the pack leader a look. "You've seen Akanu here before I got here, and you waited until now to do something about it?"

"I AM NOT A LITTLE LIZARD!" Akanu shouted, making it seem almost effortless to stand upright. Amarga and Rico whined, stepping backwards. "Cowards." Fabio muttered. Jamaal and Locura ignored them. "So, you're the cat that was here earlier today, right?" Jamaal asked, crouched down and ready to jump. "You and an older cat?"

"That's right, Jamaal. And we just knew the smart little kitty would come back to finish the job at night." Locura said. "You KNEW I was coming back?!" Oscar hissed. "What, do you take us for idiots?" Fabio asked. "Uh, I take you for someone who won't create a scene at midnight." The cat answered.

Rico scoffed. "Why don't you tell that to your friend over there? He was here an hour before you and made twice as much noise." He said bluntly. "He's not my friend!" Akanu hissed. "But we're not here for a fight."

"Ah, but we are."

And without another word, the dogs leapt down and attacked.

Of course, Locura and four other dogs went after Oscar while three of them were almost immediately defeated by Akanu's large body and crocodile strength. The puppy, frightened for his safety, stayed where he was on the riverbank. Akanu noticed Heffer whining and groand. "You're too young to talk and too cute to eat." He said. "Be lucky I plan on sparing you."

"AKANU!"

Hearing his name, he saw a battered Oscar surrounded by the entire dog pack, growling and closing in on him. "Hey, you got yourself into this problem, you can get yourself out!" He said, pretending not to care about his safety. "I can't!" Oscar said, swatting Eddie in the face and scratching Amarga. "I just wanna see you try, okay?" Akanu snapped. "Think about what you need to do, and do it without hesitation before you get killed."

At this point, Oscar is certain that Akanu doesn't want to help him get back home alive. AGAIN. When Jamaal decided to bite down on the flesh where his leg met his ribcage, Oscar howled out in pain and bit Jamaal in the nose hard enough for it to bleed. It hurt even worse when Amarga assaulted him by the tail, which almost resulted in him losing an eye.

The only dog who barely made an effort to attack Oscar was Rico, who was paranoid of Akanu behind him. The others made sure Oscar would come home covered in even more bite marks than last time. The feline genuinely thought that he was going to die. He collapsed on his stomach, his limbs in more pain than anything else.

That was the final straw. If Oscar can't defend himself, then it's time for Akanu to take charge.

All seven dogs retreated after only one minute of fighting, wounded and bruised by either his tail or his claws. They all whined, not even thinking about turning around to see if he was following them. Heffer follower his older brothers. As predicted, Locura was the last to leave, darkly stating that "This isn't over. We'll be back! And we'll make sure you don't go back home alive! You'll see!"

"Oh, the boss isn't gonna be happy when he finds out what happened." Amarga said, anxiety clear in his voice.

Fortunately, Oscar nor Akanu heard what he said. The latter just watched the pack retreat until they were out of sight. He then turned to the injured cat behind him. Oscar did expect Akanu to ask him if he was okay, but this was what happened instead:

"Thanks for saving me Aka—"

In a fit of rage, Akanu loudly snarled in Oscar's face, greatly offending him. "Hey! What was that for?"

"I told you to go back home!" He yelled. "A simple thing to do! But you let your delusions of grandeur get the better of you, and now look what happened!" As he took deep breaths to calm himself down, Oscar let his ears wilt in shame. He wasn't wrong. Not entirely.

Oscar should've listened to Akanu, but obviously, Akanu should've accepted his help. "Oh, I have delusions of grandeur?! You thought you were doing your thing so quietly, didn't you?"

"Now you listen here, you little turd—"

"Didn't you?!"

It's clear that Oscar got his stubbornness from not only from his father, but from Valiente as well. Akanu just sighed. He had to use every ounce of willpower to not shout at the top of his lungs and wake up most of the animals out here. "Yes, I did. Let's not argue about it. I'll carry you back home since you can't walk."

"You will?"

"Hey, I'm a grouch, but I'm not made of stone. It's kind of my fault you're in the state you're in." Akanu said, slipping his head underneath Oscar's belly so he was hanging off his neck. "Thanks, that's nice of you."

"Don't get used to it. This doesn't mean we're friends."

"That's fine with me."


It took about a half an hour to get back to Casita. And nobody seemed to have noticed he was gone. "So, you said that your aunt has these foods called arepas that'll get rid of your injuries?" Akanu asked as though he didn't believe him, but he was well aware of Julieta's gift. "Yeah, we just need to get to the pantry... wherever it is."

There wasn't a need to look, because by some random chance, there was an arepa left out on the counter, his for the taking. "Want one?" Oscar asked, holding the arepa out for his lizard ally to take.

"No thank you. I'll stick to my own brand."

Oscar shrugged and put the leftover arepa aside. "I'm surprised."

"Why's that?"

"I got to know more about you, I now know that Locura's pack has eight dogs... And best of all, I managed to sneak out without anyone seeing me leave."

"Think again!" The hiss scared both Oscar and Akanu. More so Oscar, because he knew exactly who that voice came from. Nervous, he slowly turned around... and saw a dark green cobra. At that exact moment, Oscar KNEW he was in trouble.

Valiente saw him leave. And she wasn't happy about it.