Just Saving a Spot

NOT FINISHED1

Kirth was happy. Perhaps not your definition of happy, but then you have a much larger brain and a conscience and rational thought. Kirth didn't have any of those. He has instincts and centuries of genetic instructions. Then again, so do you... so, I'm sure you'll agree that Kirth definitely got the short end of the stick in this life. Back to what I was saying...2

Kirth felt good.3

He was no longer thirsty, for one thing. The water felt good, sliding down his throat, icy cold. He moved his tounge as fast as he could, lapping the liquid into his mouth.4

The pool was so deep inside the trees, and so totally blocked from the sun that it had a semblance of coolness in the air. Shadows played strange tricks here, thickening and lightening and shaping each other.5

There weren't many others around the pool. A monkey or an ape of some sort was scooping water with its paws and letting it fall on its head. Kirth didn't wonder at this behavior. Kirth never wondered at anything.6

***7

Prir was not happy.8

It was not much past noon and hot as hell still. He was trying to nap, but the humid shade of the trees only made him hotter. He stretched languidly, letting his claws slip out and flashing his sharp teeth, and got up.9

Prir was hot and he was hungry. And the cicadas wouldn't shut up.10

There was one place he could think of, (as far as he could think), that could possibly solve two of his problems. The cicadas were probably unchangeable. 11

The Watering Hole.12

Prir left the shade. The play of sunlight and shadows on his coat made a pleasing pattern to anyone watching.13

But no one was. Well, except the cicadas.14

***15

Kirth was finished.