A/N: Oddworld ain't mine. Blah.
Chapter 6: Breathe
"Man!" Shorty complained. "How long we gotta wait here?" He lay backwards on the ground, soaking his feet in the warm water. Beside him, Hal and Bill rested.
Bill rolled his eyes.
"Ah told ya," he said. "We wait until the Gabbit comes out."
"But we've been waitin' here for weeks! Can't we just go back a--"
Hal lunged for Shorty, large fist closing around the bandana around his neck.
"You wanna leave?" he snarled, his breath making the shorter Outlaw wince. "Then get the hell outta here!" He flung Shorty downriver, where he barely managed to keep from being dragged away by the current. The smaller Outlaw held tightly onto a slippery rock and edged his way back onto shore. However, he did not leave.
Hal glared darkly at his comrades and growled, "We were given a mission and we're not leaving until it's been done. That's the rule. Sekto can wait. Besides, we come back empty handed and he'll have the hell beaten' out of us. If we come back with Gabbits, he'll be in a better mood."
The other two remained silent.
"Besides," Hal continued, "It's been a few months and we've had a pretty good time out here. That Gabbit's bound to come out sometime."
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Gabby spent her time training herself. It was boring and terribly lonely, and as her lungs developed Gabby found she could form words and even practiced using them. With no one to teach her how to talk, she had to rely on her memory of Zeke's words. Fortunately for her, Gabbits have large brains. She knew her own name, Zeke's name, and several other words. She could understand things fairly well and often would talk to herself to cope with her loneliness. She didn't think about it. She looked to the fish for company and would often swim amongst them to ease her terrible pain.
Her thoughts never left Zeke. The Grubb had yet to return and she fought hard to forget about him. Instead, she focused on training her body. Gabby would, as her lungs developed, leave the water temporarily to grab a rock or something solid and drop it over the water. She would then leap in and dive after it, catching it as quickly as she could. She made this more difficult by tossing it further. Her arms were lengthening fast and often, she was plagued by terrible growing pains.
She practiced leaping out of the water, flipping, spinning, diving, and trying to dodge fish in the water as she caused them to scatter. She even stalked and caught her first fish without any traps, eating it in one bite. The Gabbit was quickly on her way to becoming a teenager. Still, she built up the muscles in her tail, roughly slapping the rocks along the side of the spring. She must get stronger than the Outlaws.
Once, twice, thrice, each strike sent pain shooting through her toes and up towards her body. But she ignored it, focusing only on what she knew she had to do. After awhile, the pain eventually diminished. Live, the words rang in her mind. Live. In order to live, she had to be strong, and fast.
It was one quiet evening when the steam was blown away by a powerful mountain gust, and she caught a clear view of the moon. Gabby rose above the surface and exercised her lungs, breathing slowly as she watched the moon. The moon shimmered on her gray-blue body, reflecting in her violet eyes and creating a large round circle on the water. It was this that Gabby swam into, and whimpered softly to herself as the steam covered the water again.
Gabby awoke with a start sometime early that morning, long before sunrise. It was time. Her eyes snapped open and she looked about. For the first time she'd slept outside the water and she noted with distaste that she could no longer breathe under the surface. Her lungs were at their full size, and she was forced to hold her breath - which she could do, she noted, for up to an hour without difficulty. She pushed her body underwater and sized up the large fish. It was still larger than she was, and she wanted to catch it before she left.
The large fish did not seem to notice her. It swam about almost mindlessly with the others, but anyone who knew the fish would not be fooled. The fish was several years old, and very wise to the tricks of Gabbits before her. She approached, aiming as though to attack another, smaller fish, while keeping her eye on the largest fish. The large fish watched her just as carefully as she was watching it.
Gabby had learned a trick about herding the fish. It was all about fooling it. The fish watched her as it fled, and she would inch slightly to right and angled to the left, as though to execute a left turn. The fish lurched right and she would snap it up in her jaws. She herded the small fish towards the largest one, which also moved out of her way.
Suddenly Gabby changed direction, startling the large fish and it rocketed out of the way, tail narrowly missing her eye. But Gabby did not stop. She tore after it, sending an explosion of bubbles in her wake. The large fish fled her, zig-zagging to throw her off. But Gabby was determined to catch it, and her training had helped her greatly. She closed the distance between them. Just as she drew within biting range, the fish turned and smacked her, hard, with its tail.
Gabby, for the first time, did not flinch, and sank her jaws into the offending tail. The great fish struggled and writhed like a maniac, its strength literally knocking the Gabbit about like a ragdoll. But she hung on tightly, growling ferociously and refusing to let go. In the end, the fish fled again, diving deeper and attempting to snap her jaw with its furious agile spinning.
Gabby's jaws ached and the fish's tail was cutting the inside of her mouth. Her eyes screwed shut and she knew she had to think of something. The fish did not look like it was about to give up any time soon. Gabby flicked her tail, fighting back against the much stronger fish. It was effective enough to create some resistance and the fish had to struggle to get away. It pulled her to the surface, literally trying to leap from the water. Its intent was to throw her off, but it hadn't counted on the female Gabbit's tenacity.
She had failed to catch it too many times. This time, Gabby promised, she wouldn't fail. As the fish rose from the water, Gabby jerked her head down and, while the fish was halfway in the air, she was in control. Able to release it for a moment, she found a better hold on the fleshier part of its tail and bit down as hard as she could. Beneath her jaws (as Gabbits have a terrifying jaw-crushing power comparable to crocodiles) she felt the bone give, and instinctively her head jerked. Being as young as she was, she didn't have the full potential of biting like the older ones in her family would have, but this time it was enough. The fish's tailbone was completely snapped, and every muscle beyond was paralyzed.
The fish struggled weakly, but Gabby bit away the tail and went right for its head. Normally, Gabbits are peaceloving and gentle. But raised alone, she was forced to do what she needed to do. Having beaten the strongest fish in a battle of strength, she ate her kill. Her jaw, however, was so sore she almost couldn't move it to eat. In the end, hunger won out and she finished off the large fish by mid-day. Then, she made her way into the tunnel and listened.
"This is it, I can't take it anymore! We've been out here for months and still no Gabbit!" Bill whimpered. "I got a family to take care of - I can't be out here at all times of the year. Sekto could've--"
Hal rolled his eyes. "That's your fault then. A good Outlaw knows he can't have a family - they're nothing but bait and a pain in the ass in the end."
Hal's words were largely from experience. He too, had wanted a wife and kids years before. And he'd found them, in an adventurous young female of his kind. While she wasn't the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, she was the only one brave enough to stand toe to toe with him. She was half his weight but seemed to even outwit him in Poker matches. He had taken a liking to her immediately and apparently, though they often argued, she did too. While they never wed, she became pregnant. It was during her last trimester that Sekto had called him out for an assignment, offering a good deal of pay. He'd accepted, but when he returned his wife and child were held hostage and eventually shot. In a fit of biterness he'd abandoned all hope of that part of his life and closed up. Had he and his comrades actually been real friends, he would've attempted to prevent this from happening to them.
Shorty did not completely understand it. He highly admired Hal and tried to emulate him, although he was very short for an Outlaw -almost laughably short. He couldn't even get lucky at the bar, much less start a family. It had never occured to him to do so. He couldn't exactly rape anyone either. Most of the females he'd attempted to rape usually ended up hitting him with a frying pan or even turning their own shotguns on him. He hated that.
Bill sighed to himself. "Yeah. But you gotta admit this waiting is horrible. You never know when they're gonna come."
Underwater, Gabby saw through the thin veil of spray and stared up at the midday sun. Suddenly, she was seized with a feeling, a series of images. There was a great pond somewhere to the east. The land dropped off into it. Out there, somewhere, was home. Her heart felt as though something were squeezing it to death. It sent an almost nonphysical pain shooting through her body, making her nauseus and her body want to just give out entirely.
But it also filled her with a grim determination. Somewhere out there, there had to be more like her. She shivered as she felt her muscles stretch in the water. It was time to go. Gabby swam back into the hidden spring.
"Hey boss," said Shorty, "When we catch our Gabbit, what are we gonna do with it?"
Hal cast a glance over at Bill. It was quick and hardly noticeable.
"We'll head back to Sekto and tell him there's more where that came from. If he doubles the price, we'll go back and get the rest. And he can keep this one as a parting gift," said Hal.
Bill heard the underlying truth behind Hal's words. Once they got back, he'd have some time to check on his family. He hoped they'd catch the Gabbit before sunset.
"Uh... hey boss," Shorty said again.
"What?!" Hal snapped at him. But his intent was cut off as he too, saw the bubbles rise from the water. He frowned. "It's probably just a vent from the spr-"
An onslaught of water suddenly seemed to rise up from the spring, literally drenching the three of them as well as completely dousing their fire. Behind it, the Gabbit leaped from the water and over the rock ridge that led her straight to the river. She splashed into it, moving as fast as he could, the current yanking her right downriver.
Hal jumped to his feet, dripping wet, roaring. "LET'S GO!"
The chase began.
Gabby had never in her life been in such powerful waters before, and she nearly lost the struggle against it. However, underwater her vision was better, and she could spot rocks and so avoid them when necessary. Behind her, she could hear the Outlaws sprinting after her. At this rate, they'd never catch up to her.
Once, she felt her arm brush up against a rock and winced, but didn't slow down. Her muscles were strong enough to keep up with the roaring water, although she was already growing winded. Taking a dive, she relaxed for a moment and let the water do its work. The trip downstream is hardest for young Gabbits, and being alone she had no idea what to expect.
The river eventually widened out like an on-ramp to an expressway, and she saw ahead a larger, smoother river. In a flash she knew it. It was the Mongo River. That river, if she followed it downstream, would take her right to the sea. Filled with renewed vigor, Gabby kicked her fin and hurried to merge onto it.
