At daybreak it was gray. There had been a light drizzle. As the day carried on, however, it grew blacker and blacker. Frito sat by the riverside, beneath the cracking, flashing sky. With eyes squeezed shut and a scrunched, begging expression, he implored, "Pleeeeeeeeeeease stop?" A few moments of silence passed, and he dared to arch a single brow and to open the honey golden eye beneath it. His sneak peek was answered with deep, growling thunder; an earth quaking crack; and bolts of fire so furious they might have belonged to the devil. Frito's soft whimpering only brought him more trouble. The drizzle morphed almost instantaneously to an outrageous downpour. The multihued wolf shrunk a few inches in utter resignation. He sat, destitute, under the torrents of rain with the blankest, most dejected eyes.

"Ahhhhh, rats!" he barked as he worked up the motivation to move. The heavy rain pulled his chin fur down to the point where he looked like a homeless, grumpy cat. Finally having enough of the humiliation and the damp cold that was reaching his skin, he rose with an exasperated grunt and trotted for cover. Every step was painful, so he resorted to an awkward side shuffle that somehow minimized the bouncing of his natural gait. Thankfully, he didn't have far to travel, but it was far enough that by the time he practically fell through the cave's opening, he was panting like he was going to die.

He rolled in discomfort, finally exposing the source of his pain. He laid on his back, taking the pressure off of his extended belly, which was so bloated he looked pregnant. His groans echoed in the cave, and he rocked himself back and forth until a thunderous belch erupted from his stomach. At that point, he laid still as relief washed over him. When he waddled to his feet he hiccuped, "Hallelujah," and then he finally noticed he was not alone. His face grew hot with embarrassment as he cracked a crooked half-smile and chuckled uncomfortably. His caramel eyes glanced from wolf to wolf to wolf and he shrunk further and further and further as he processed each one. Not knowing what else to do, he croaked, "Uh... I'm Fritoooooo..."

His voice sort of trailed off as he introduced himself, and he laughed awkwardly as he awaited whatever would come next. You see, earlier that morning he had been hunting by the riverside... Or rather, *in* the riverside. Right before a storm the fish were usually quite active, and he had eaten his fill... Well actually... He had full on gorged himself. Though his belly was fat with fish, the rest of him was lean. He was average-sized, if not slightly small for a wolf of his breed. Thus, he certainly wouldn't be able to intimidate these strangers into letting him stay. As he stood there near the opening of the cave, the thunder rumbled tumultuously and the lightning flashed like a laser show gone haywire. He hoped he would not be cast back out into the bowels of the storm.