Julie stared at the ocean, her nose twitched at the salty smell. Getting down on her stomach, she leaned her paw over the dock just enough for her to poke at the water. Cold. Cold enough for it to send shivers through her, fur standing on end as she backed away. She quickly shook her paw to get the water off it, even if she didn't need to.

"Not a big fan of water, are ya?" Mr. E asked, still flapping beside her.

She shook her head.

"Neither am I. But I'm afraid you're gonna have to swim. It won't take long, I promise." She looked over at him, eyes flitting to her stuff in his talons. He noticed and smiled, reassuring, "don't worry about your stuff, I'll make sure nothing happens to it."

She looked back to the water, taking a deep breath. Slowly, she went back a few steps. Then she took a running leap and was engulfed by the icy, salty water. Frantically moving her paws, she managed to get her head above the water, gasping for breath. The salt stung her eyes, the water made her fur heavy, and it clogged her ears. It crashed around her from all sides, icy and biting and hurting. If it wasn't for her pride, she would've let a small whine escape her muzzle, but she bit her tongue.

"C'mon, you got it!" The pigeon shouted this and more encouragement, flying down and slowly moving away. "Follow me, it won't take long!"

Shaking her head in an attempt to shake the water from her eyes and ears, she managed to swim after him - if you could even call it that. The red fox felt frozen down to the bone, her teeth clicked against themselves. She really hoped wherever this lair was - it was warm. Or that it had blankets. She didn't want to be soaking wet with seawater the entire time she was talking to this mad scientist.

It felt like forever before she finally bumped into something, even blinder than she usually was - her eyesight had never been very keen, she usually relied on smell and hearing. But all she could hear was waves and all she could smell was salt. She yelped a little when she bumped into it, a bit of pain in her nose, making her scrunch it up and sneeze. She then had to spit out a bit of salt water, almost gagging at the taste of it.

"Okay now, this is the tricky part. See, the way you need to get in is- well, below. And the way I get in is on top."

"Y-y-you're l-leaving?!" She shrieked through chattering teeth, having to spit out even more seawater afterward. As much as she hated to say it, she was absolutely terrified. Her biggest fear was drowning and she didn't trust swimming underwater, it blocked out all her senses. And it wasn't like her fur helped. With all the heaviness the soaked scarlet fur gave her, she was scared she'd sink straight to the bottom. The sting in her eyes had already caused tears to form, slipping down her face and muzzle, but now she felt as if she might cry from fear.

"Don't panic, it'll all be okay, I promise! Just- go down until you see or feel an opening big enough for you to get in, crawl through it. It isn't all that long, will only take ya a few seconds. Think you can do it?"

More than anything, Julie wanted to say no, she wanted to shout at him and tell him to help her. But, yet again, her vanity fought it down. She nodded with a loud yes to make sure he knew and then she heard his wings flapping as he flew higher up, out of hearing range of her and soon out of sight.

Okay... Okay. This wouldn't be too hard. Just- just find an opening… Find the way inside.

Taking a deep breath, she dived and blindly swam down. Trying to calm her nerves, she felt along the wall, looking for any entrance. Every so often she managed to get back up to the surface and take another breath before diving again. She went deeper into the water and found smaller ones, too small for her to get into. She found none that could fit her. Now she panicked. Her chest was beginning to hurt and she was too far down to get up in time. She frantically swam around, trying to find something- anything! When she found a hole big enough for herself, her heart was pounding hard in her chest. She swam in, paws brushing against the ground.

The few seconds that passed felt like centuries, her chest starting to feel like it might burst. When she saw a light, she thought for a moment she was dying- but she was relieved to see it was a room. She scrambled up out of the water and collapsed on the floor, gasping and coughing so hard her ribs would surely be bruised. She wasn't sure if the water on her face were tears or just plain seawater.

"Yo- Oh my god, are you okay?!" The voice of Mr. E shouted, then the sound of wings followed. Talons rapidly clicked on the tiles. "Julie, are you okay?!"

She didn't even open her eyes, she didn't want to. They stung and she was afraid she might cry if she opened them. But it didn't look like she had a choice since when she had squeezed her eyes shut, hot tears had prickled out from the corners of her eyes and down her face, dripping onto the floor with the seawater. "No, I'm not okay, because I almost fucking drowned-" She cut herself off, coughing violently, "-and it's your fault!"

"Hey, hey- Look, I'm sorry- I didn't know it'd be so hard to find the entrance to the lair." A wing gently patted her front leg, but she didn't feel any better, growling and yanking it away from him. "Now, my client's kinda really busy, so I'm going to take you to your room and you can dry off and sleep. Get yourself some rest, feel better…"

Hesitantly, the red fox opened her eyes and looked around. Though tears blurred her eyes, which didn't help her slight nearsightedness, she could see the basic outlay of the room. Computer screens and levers and buttons on panels covered the far end of the room. Looking behind her, she saw a large pool of water, from which she had just come, a trail of water leading to where she was now. She nodded tiredly and followed the pigeon, too exhausted to be angry with him anymore. It wasn't like he had designed this place, it wasn't his fault.

He led her through a door, out into a long hallway. She almost slipped quite a few times, the water in her fur made her feel heavier and unbalanced. At the end of the hallway, she flinched and backed away when the door opened up. But Mr. E only told her that it was her room. The room had a little make-shift nest/bed of blankets and pillows and towels. Her teddy bear lay in it. The heart-shaped twig was next to it. Other than that, it was empty.

Slowly, she went in and practically collapsed on to the blankets, almost ready to pass out due to exhaustion. Her ear twitched hearing the door shut, hardly hearing the 'good night, Miss Julie' from Mr. E. She felt as a towel was draped over her, before talons tapping on tile moved away.

She shifted her body, carefully grabbing on to her bear with her sharp teeth and hugging the old thing close to her soaked chest. She curled up around it, shaking off her tail best she could before wrapping it around her. They were stupid, these little things, really they were, but it made her feel better.

She only now noticed she was shivering, tears from the salty pain in her eyes still there. She dried her face by rubbing it against the towels, but her eyes remained wet because of the crying. Her chest felt heavy and painful as she breathed, letting out a mix between a gasp and a sob as she inhaled and exhaled largely. With a whimper, she buried her face against the back of her stuffed bear and closed her eyes.

She didn't know how long it took her to fall asleep. She dreamed of nothing but darkness.