[@Jobst]

Well. That had been a bit easier than Asteria thought it would be. So, their Mother’s attack must really have been effective, because the lizard had been taken by surprise both by Asteria’s sister, who charged it from the front, and Asteria, who managed to bite into its neck from behind it. The lizard tried shaking Asteria off, but she could feel how weak it was, and held tightly on with determination, until the fight and life seeped out from the enemy via blood loss and partial suffocation. The young dark grey dire rat took the opportunity to guzzle down the fresh and freely flowing blood, sating her thirst and hunger in one go. When she finished, Asteria hopped down from the lizard’s corpse. She saw the way its head pointed to the clutch of its eggs and noticed that part of its snout had been gouged out, most likely by Mother’s initial attack. Speaking of Mother…she was still lying in a corner, her panting breaths indicating that she was still alive. 

Asteria redirected her gaze back to the eggs. Maybe it would have been considered cruel in her previous lifetime, but they were too dangerous to leave be. She didn’t know when they would hatch, if they even could without their mother around, but the chance of the multitude of small lizards getting out and attacking them in a swarm wasn’t something she was willing to risk, regardless of whether they could use their paralyzing poison as new-borns or not. With that in mind, Asteria poked through an egg's shell with her teeth and lapped up the predominantly liquid contents. The embryo was a bit more substantial but almost equivalently soft and just as palatable. She didn’t feel regretful or guilty about eating what could essentially be another being, not that she expected to what with just having killed one, but it didn’t even feel strange to consume it. She devoured another, then carefully picked up one between her teeth and tongue and clumsily held another in a paw, then rather awkwardly and slowly walked on her remaining free appendages towards her mother and deposited the food in front of her. She licked at her snout, then stepped back to give her space. Mother would probably be fine soon enough and then she could go feed on the adult lizard’s corpse. Asteria blinked as she considered the act of altruism she had just done. How odd. It was most likely some kind of ingrained need to reciprocate Mother’s efforts to bear her and take care of her.

That done, she returned her gaze back to the lizard’s corpse, considering. Her sister-ally was in her periphery, but now that their act of co-operation was done, they might not do anything further together. If she knew she could and how, Asteria would suggest further collaboration, but she didn’t. Maybe if they simply decided to stick together, they could reap the benefits…? Though, as far as Asteria was concerned, she wanted to explore the cave outside this chamber a bit. Knowing she had a safe room which still had plenty of leftovers as an additional benefit just made the idea of going out and seeing about even more appealing. Once her sibling had finished with her own meal, Asteria approached her, cocked her head enquiringly, lifted a paw and made a vague gesture at the chamber’s exit. She tested her vocal cords in a string of squeaks and chatters, doing her best to convey the idea of [color=F0E68C]“Out? Explore?”[/color]

[hider=Note] Jobst, I think you can decide if what you hear is actual human speech or just a rat's noises, because I don't know what it would be yet at this point without consciously trying to speak as a human but still attempting to communicate.[/hider]