View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Olivia and Guts.jpg, 286KiB, 1454x1664

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 04:05:19 No.67943617 Report

>>67943516
>we need more Guts appreciation in these threads
Not a bad idea.
>>67943439
E1 but from the perspective of Guts struggling to survive outside in the hospital's garden. It ends with Guts eventually seeing Olivia being released from the hospital one day and him immediately rushing over to sit on her snout. Olivia's ecstatic at being reunited with him.

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1721957516555927.jpg, 34KiB, 474x316

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 04:34:40 No.67944275 Report

Quoted By: >>67944397 >>67944493

rat time
yoink

>>67943617
>Companion's been trapped inside of the massive cage for some weeks now.
>Try as I might, getting to her is difficult.
>This cage doesn't have bars like mine. Its walls are tall and solid.
>Too hard to chew through. Not efficiently at least. The progress doesn't outweigh the sickness.
>Thick as the cage might be, there are many ways inside.
>Many ways to slip through.
>I've made it into the cage countless times.
>But all I find are more cages, rows upon rows of them.
>The outside at the least is full of scent and movement.
>But inside the cage, my nose hurts.
>There's a taste on the wind that disorients me, stronger than the colors Companion would mix on her shavings.
>Everything feels too cold, too wrong.
>And it's reached such a point that I can't pick up the hint of her scent anymore.
>I'm inevitably discovered by one of the strangers and tossed back outside.
>To struggle all over again.

>Companion's Mischief have been visiting her less and less frequently.
>More often, I taste the aftershocks of their smell. By the time I can position myself to try and intercept them, they're usually long gone.
>I once caught sight of the frilled ones, though. The tall one that wore leafshade and his small sibling.
>I tried to get their attention. I don't think they recognized me, they just looked disgusted.
>I am not surprised.
>Companion hasn't groomed me since she was taken here.
>And I find it difficult to match her efficiency.

cont

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1721957516555928.jpg, 1MiB, 1242x1800

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 04:43:51 No.67944493 Report

Quoted By: >>67944669

>>67944275
>I only ever saw the warmblooded one once.
>The same day I was cast out into this place; the same day this war began.
>He called to me. Tempted me to join him.
>I refused.
>Of course I did.
>I knew what he was now.
>A parasite that had wormed its way into Companion, and tried to kill her.
>Tried to kill me, too.
>The fall almost crushed me.
>At the very least, he didn't try to take me with him when I scorned him.
>He just turned and walked away, leaving me behind just as he left her behind.

>Maybe that's why I'm not allowed inside the cage.
>Something like me hurt her.
>Something with warm blood.
>Maybe we're cursed.
>I continue to struggle despite it.

>If there is anything this quest has taught me, it is to have appreciated what Companion did for me before all of this.
>Shelter is not a guarantee. I have spent many nights cold, wet and exposed.
>Neither is food or water.
>Companion once showered me with pellets and a bowl as large as I was.
>Now if I wish to eat, I have to hunt or scavenge.
>And if I fail at both, I simply starve.
>The pain in my belly is harsh, but it brings focus.

cont

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1721957516555929.png, 1MiB, 1573x2399

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 04:52:42 No.67944669 Report

Quoted By: >>67944811 >>67944844

>>67944493
>Likewise, I am not alone anymore.
>Once the whole of my world was my cage, Companion and her Mischief.
>Now there are other things.
>I've met several who are the same as me.
>But different.
>Larger, uglier. Their fur is ragged and unkept and misshapen. They chitter at me in tongues that make no sense.
>They always try to kill me. They must think I'm weak.
>None have yet to claim me.
>They fight to satisfy their appetite.
>I fight to see my friend again.
>And that continues to make the difference.

>There are things far stranger than me as well.
>Things with feathers that carry them through the air. Some flee from me, some hunt me. Some just watch.
>Insects are a constant. They were one of the few unwelcome elements to ever get near me during my time in Companion's domain.
>But they are myriad out here, too numerous for me to deal with.
>And things far, far worse.
>Huge, scuttling creatures with armored backs. Too big and too angry to be insects.
>When I was young, one of Companion's Mischief brought such a thing into their household. I never saw it, but its stench permeated throughout the halls.
>Trilobytes.

>One almost claimed me today.

cont

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1721957516555930.jpg, 86KiB, 474x536

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 05:00:34 No.67944844 Report

Quoted By: >>67944878 >>67945005

>>67944669
>I had been set back outside by one of the sterile ones after my most recent attempt to reach Companion when it found me.
>A beast thrice my size with many armored legs, and a scything, horrid jaw.
>It clicked and burbled as it sized me up. I could detect the fragments of language in its mongrel-tongue.
>Like me, it had once belonged to someone.
>And like me, it was now abandoned.
>And like me, it was hungry.
>And it saw me as prey.
>What could I do but run?

>I have become swift since this quest began.
>I was not swift enough today.
>The Trilobyte pinned me to the ground with its monstrous weight.
>One of its front pincers lanced through my right eye.
>I screamed as half of my vision went blind forever. I could feel my own blood matting my fur.
>I screamed out of pain, a pain worse than any I've felt before.
>And screamed louder still when its mandibles clamped shut around my left foreleg and began to chew it apart.
>Yes, I screamed from agony--but also from rage.
>Anger from knowing I may never see Companion again.
>Knowing I would have failed her.

>I couldn't.

>With a cry, I ripped myself free from its grasp; my left foreleg split at the joint.
>So be it.
>I sent my incisors into one of its beady eyes.
>It shrieked and scuttled away as ichor wept from its punctured organ.
>As it writhed, I managed to find the will to hobble clear of the beast and lick my wounds in the shadows of the Great Cage.

cont

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1721957516555931.jpg, 164KiB, 736x671

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 05:09:43 No.67945005 Report

Quoted By: >>67945050

>>67944844
>It's all I can do to stay awake now.
>Sleep come often and keeps me far longer than it should.
>The cold comes harsher than it did before.
>But I linger.
>I need to see her again.

>The struggling only became worse since the trilobyte attack.
>Hunting with three legs and one eye is difficult.
>Doing anything with these impairments is difficult.
>But I persist.
>I adapt.
>I've learned that, through my spirit, I am far stronger than my flesh could ever hope to restrain me.
>Through my will, I can make the impossible possible.
>Despite my wounds, I learn to hunt again.
>To spite my injuries, I fight my foes again.
>I continue down this path to see her again.

>But I can't fight time.
>And I am running out.
>The days have slipped into weeks, into months.
>The chill is gone, replaced with the constant warmth of spring, soon to be summer.
>My people are not a long-lived one.
>Our lives are fierce but fleeting.
>And I can feel it in me now.
>An ache in my bones.
>Weights in my chest that grow heavier by the day.
>It's becoming harder and harder to breathe.

>...And yet, I know that scent on the horizon.
>Could it be?

cont, end soon

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1721957516555932.jpg, 1MiB, 2133x1509

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 05:19:08 No.67945178 Report

Quoted By: >>67945325

>>67945005
>I haven't tasted it in a long, long time.
>And while my faculties are fading.
>My memory is not.
>The trace of smell sends explosions of sensation through my mind.
>The smell of colors against shavings.
>Light and noise humming from the metal box in the corner of our room.
>The warmth of pocket-trips to far-away places.

>Companion?

>Despite how much it hurts, I rouse myself from my hidey-hole and rush in the direction of the scent. It grows stronger and clearer the further I scamper.
>And that makes me run all the faster.
>I can hear it faintly as I get closer.
>The soft squeaking of the moving cushion she sat upon.
>It's her.
>It has to be her.

>And it is.

>She's wearing a long, white garment with little blue speckles. It hangs loosely about her body.
>She's thin now. They must not have fed her well in that cage.
>The tall frilled one is pushing her seat along. They appear to be conversing with one-another.
>I throw caution to the wind and rush towards them, crying out to them.
>The frilled one notices me first. And he winces.
>"Woah! Liv, watch out, I think that rat's got rabies. Geez, he's gnarly--"
>He's pulling her back. They don't recognize me. She's looking at me now, and uncertainty is in her silver-yellow eyes.
>Companion, please. You have to remember me.
>"Shit, he looks rough."
>She squints, "Y'know, with those scars, he kinda looks like..."
>And then those same eyes widen.

>"...Guts?"

cont

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1721957516555933.png, 1MiB, 1500x1587

Anonymous Sat 03 Aug 2024 05:27:57 No.67945325 Report

Quoted By: >>67945388 >>67945411 >>67945472

>>67945178
>My name.
>The first person to say my name since her betrayer left me here.
>I cry out to her in victory.
>She remembers me.

>Companion's breath trembles. She's shaking.
>"Guts?" She murmurs my name again; her voice is watery.
>I come closer to her, slowly now. My strength isn't coming back quickly.
>It may not ever again.
>"Buddy?" She choked. Despite the protests of the frilled one, she leans forward in her seat and extends her claws to me.
>It takes all I have left in me to climb up into her palms.
>And yet, as she raises me to be level with her eyes...
>I find just a little bit more to give.
>So that I can stand on my back legs, and lean my snout into hers.
>The first time we have embraced since that night.

>"Guts--" Companion's weeping. Her claws are tight around my form. She holds me close.
>I'm grateful for it.
>I can finally be weak.
>"Oh, God, your leg--I'm so sorry--"
>She hiccups, her words tumbling out of her into an incoherent wail as she pressed me against her cheek.
>I just nuzzle her.

>She begs me to forgive her.
>What is there to forgive?
>She made my life one worth living.
>To get the chance to say hello to her one last time.
>To truly be able to say goodbye.
>For these things, the quest was always worth it.

>I struggle no longer.

end