[quote=@Mokley] The woman in the cloak stared curiously at Talan, her eyebrows raised while he struggled and slammed his head against her thigh, as if he were a strange animal worthy of her study. "I don't think he's a Kith," she mentioned to no one in particular. She leaned over and lifted Talan's eyelid with a finger to get a better look at the color of his eyes. "He hasn't used the mask very long, his eyes are pretty normal." The man guarding Randold spoke up: "He has no Horus eye either. Maybe he's a madman, he's wearing [i]monkeybats[/i] for Rular's sake." "The Kith don't wear skins." The woman hummed, gave Talan a coy smile, and reached over to untie his gag. "Keep quiet," she warned him. "Tell us yourself: where are your allegiances, pretty boy? Why were you wearing a Kith mask?" She showed him a little silvery knife. "If I like your answer I'll cut you loose." [/quote] Talan was still frantically trying to get free of his binding. At this point he began to speak in his clans tongue. "Nilto! Tul Chanak desto em? Em nar'herit Na'Ceal-"(Idiot, you dare insult me? I am the son of Na'Ceal-), his words were hateful and angry but he was quickly silenced when the woman brandished a knife. Talan calmed himself upon realizing he was not in a position to throw insults at these people. "...My name is Talan. I do not know anything about these "Kith", I did not even know that was one of their masks! As for allegiances I ally myself with no one" [quote=@Mokley] Meanwhile the fibers of the ropes holding his wrists broke under his efforts, one by one -- but it would be a long while before he could cut himself free. Their leader motioned quickly from the edge of the hill for their attention. "The owl," she hissed. "The Sparrow King's messenger!" She scrambled to ready her bow and notch an arrow. "What!" The man who guarded Randold had been peeling an apple with a knife when he looked up. He gave the prisoner a last look, but he got up and went to see, abandoning Randold -- and abandoning the knife and the apple on the ground a few feet away from him. The woman next to Talan raised her head, distracted by this new development -- so she didn't see the bloodrat that scurried out from behind the rocks. The rodent climbed onto Talan's chest and began to nibble at the pieces of bloody monkeybat skin. Another bloodrat appeared . . . and another. They were attracted to the scent of blood, and some of them scurried over Randold in order to converge upon Talan with their sharp little teeth. [/quote] Talan could feel the rope loosening slightly but he still had some way to go before he was free. He struggled once more to cut away at the rope but his efforts were halted by the appearance of a rat upon his chest. It nibbled at the bloody monkeybat skins he was wearing and at some points it'd miss and but his flesh. The sheer pain caused Talan to grunt while holding back a scream. This thing had to go but before he could try to deal with it more and more swarmed him and the collective bits of the rats caused his torso to feel like it was on fire. He squirmed and wiggled trying desperately to get these things off of him but they were latched onto him like fish hooks. He rolled on his side and ignored the pain for a second in order to build enough strength and with one hard push he flipped himself over onto his chest. The impact of his chest should have been enough to crush or scare off the rats but incase they were not affected Talan did this repeatedly, pounding his chest into the ground he could feel the bit marks from the rats as the impact irritated them. This place was a living hell.