[center][h2][color=F0E68C]Asteria[/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
Asteria watched as Mei attempted to communicate with their Mother. The larger female Dire rat actually understood, grabbed a lizard and proceeded to drag it on her own back to their nest. Asteria frowned as she realized they’d be going to a different location than she had assumed, but trusted their Mother enough that she was willing to follow. She sunk her teeth into the arm of the other lizard, waited for Mei to grab onto it as well, and then proceeded to drag it to their birth-place in this world, straining slightly with the cargo even though she had the help of her sibling. 

Mother really was strong. And because that was the case, Asteria wasn’t as worried about having to cover their tracks any longer; something she had realized would have been hard to do anyway, what with the distinctive smell of Dire rats. If a night-time predator wanted to find a meal, they could happen upon them easily enough, and all Asteria could do was trust both her Mother’s sense and her own sharp perceptions in case of an ambush during their sleep.

Once they all finally arrived back to their nest, Asteria exhaustedly curled into a ball and fell asleep. She vaguely felt the familiar warmth of her Dire rat family before a deep and restful sleep overtook her completely.
[center][b]~[/b][/center]
Asteria woke up the next day when the few sun rays managed to make their way into the cave, brightly announcing the continuation of this new life of hers. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her front paws, and a short yawn brought her to full wakefulness – and to a hunger which was strange in its intensity considering she had eaten shortly before sleeping the previous night. Thankfully, the two lizard corpses were still in the nest. They had a stench more awful than ever before, but nonetheless, the sight of what her rat brain interpreted as food caused her to salivate. She really hoped she was much more disease-resistant now than she had been as a human. As far as she knew, rats were sturdy, and being a “monster-type” probably had some additional benefits too.

After that short deliberation, she approached one of the dead lizards and began eating. But she did not randomly bite into it. No, this time, she carefully tore the meat from its forearms, intent on exposing the two long thin bones underneath without damaging them. As morbid as the idea might be, she had remembered something about cavemen or such making weapons and tools from bones the previous night. She didn’t yet know how she would make or use any such thing as a rat, but she was determined to try. With a vague plan in mind, she removed the two long thin bones first from one forearm and then another set from the other. She inspected the four bones; they seemed brittle to her, but thankfully not too damaged. Asteria suspected they would hold together for the duration of her experimentation at the very least. She took a bone between her paws, holding it slightly awkwardly, and proceeded to sharpen one end against her teeth.

She continued with the task until she had four sharpened pieces of bone, which all resembled a needle or with some imagination, a weapon such as a spear-head or a dagger. She picked them all up, wandered to the farthest corner of the nest, and set the bones on the ground. Then, feeling quite embarrassed at what she was about to do, she picked one bone between her paws, grabbing its blunt side with the sharp end pointed forward. She stood up on her hind legs, giving a shaky attempt at bipedality, and kept a precarious balance with the help of her tail. 

She gave a cautious sweep to her surroundings; she didn’t want to get caught by an enemy when trying out something so…untested. Satisfied that she was relatively safe, she swung her make-shift weapon in what might one day be called an attack, if she refined it. She mostly used stabbing motions, since that’s what the bone seemed most suited to. Not too long after, Asteria felt tired from the practice and dropped back to her fours. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally stab herself to death while endeavouring to develop a skill or two on her own. She hoped she’d see some sign that what she had done had worked or at least had some sort of an effect. For now, she looked back to her nest to see if her sister and Mother had awakened as well, observing what they intended to do this day. Maybe she could convince Mei to spend some time “training” as it were.

[@Jobst]