[@Zeroth][@Jobst]

As Asteria caught up to her sister, she slowed down so she was able to run alongside her sibling in the search of their mother. Most of the cave’s terrain seemed to be hard stone, but in some places, the exposed soft earth underneath had made it possible for someone – probably the Dire rats – to make tunnels and burrows. One such path eventually led them to a spacious chamber, where their Mother feasted on a clutch of eggs. The sight made Asteria salivate and her own teeth ache to bite into something more substantial and she would have obeyed the instinct to [i]devour[/i] if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of a lizard.

This new and unexpected opponent attacked their Mother, and although she managed to bite back and shake off the lizard, the large black Dire rat limped backwards, her body convulsing from the lizard’s paralyzing poison, a skill Asteria now remembered them having from the time when she got to choose her own species before her rebirth.

During the short moment her body had frozen in surprise, her sister had already attacked the aggressor, and her sibling seemed furious if a tad uncoordinated in her attacks. Confident that the two of them could take down the lizard as long as they avoided its fangs, Asteria forced herself to move and dashed swiftly to the side, careful to avoid running into her sister-ally and doing her best to stay away from the lizard’s front side. With her running dash, she was lucky enough to position herself by their opponent’s hind leg. From there, Asteria jumped, intending to pin down the lizard by landing on its back and aiming to bite into its soft and vulnerable throat!