One breathes a prayer that the Road holds for the few remaining hours.
In this way the Oyster breathes the air which is in the water; but not only that.
True, he lives in a real world, breathes real air, eats real food, and sleeps under real blankets, in order to keep real cold away.
He has let go of Grim, and now makes his escape from the hole with so sudden a jerk that the old crayfish accompanies him; but the dread of water, which no living being that breathes with lungs can quite overcome, has taken possession of the otter.