[center][h2][color=F0E68C]Asteria[/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
[color=F0E68C][i]Who'd have thought these light wraps were so cumbersome?[/i][/color] Asteria thought as she followed Ed back to the burrow, mother rat tagging alongside. She also wasn’t entirely certain what to think of the humans, but at least they’d let Ed go, despite thinking he may be a ‘Deviant’, whatever that was. They’d also mentioned them being ‘a sign of the Spirits’ and she wondered if that was just a religious or common saying, with the spirits being the equivalent of what people would either term fate or gods back on earth. Of course, they could also have been referring to a mythologically indicated event or an actual existing spiritual being that odd things were correlated with…One couldn’t dismiss even the most outrageously fantastical explanations, in this world.

Once at the burrow, Asteria removed the arm wraps, and coaxed them onto Mother rat. Peripherally, she observed Ed taking his part of the loot. [color=F0E68C]“That might be too heavy for you,”[/color] she warned. [color=F0E68C]“These were for me, so I’m passing them off to mother for now. I wouldn’t mind building more strength, but I’m not willing to risk my speed for it.”[/color] She waited for the Ratman to take his pick, then turned to gaze at the remaining items. [color=F0E68C]“Ooh, you left the metal knife for me? That’s great, though it may be more useful as a utility item rather than a weapon…”[/color] she trailed off, and took the knife into her paws, swinging it around a few times, taking care not to spook or worse, injure her companions. It definitely seemed more of a slashing weapon, so she doubted if she could pierce enemies with it the way she had with that stinger. If it didn’t turn out to be too unwieldy, she’d try it out at the very least.

Asteria also took a vine belt, the bone necklace and the rabbit skull staff. She’d store the staff among their other items until she regained her mana and was able to examine it. The bone necklace was stored as well, as it did not seem to have any immediate practical uses. Asteria was fairly sure the necklace was simply a decorative piece, though perhaps it did channel magical energies, which she could find out later. As for the belt, she used it to tie the knife to her tail, its handle secured to the end of her appendage while its blade protruded as an artificial extension from it. She gazed with extreme doubt at her newly wrapped and armed tail, slowly moving it around. If the knife and/or vine belt were too unwieldy, she’d store them too.

[color=F0E68C]“Hey, before we leave, there’s this gnome here that I talked to before we dealt with the bandits, though I think you missed it. It’s willing to make, though I can only guess what it wants as payment. I’d say we could try bribing it with food, because…Well, some gold coin appeared this morning next to where I burned food last night,”[/color] she shrugged, slightly embarrassed at not having more evidence to back her claim. But really, while the gnome had said that it definitely did not want blood or dead humans, it had made no mention of what could entice it. [color=F0E68C]“Though it did say the ‘offering’ was the only reason it didn’t eject a non-human from that second room…”[/color] she confessed. [color=F0E68C]“In any case, if you feel like trying to offer it something more, we could try that. But I’m also fine with just leaving and carting all these things towards that lakeside city,”[/color] she concluded. [hr]

[color=F0E68C]"Definitely not a garden gnome,"[/color] she shook her head, amused. [color=F0E68C]"It doesn't want blood or raw corpses,"[/color] Asteria shrugged in response to Ed. [color=F0E68C]"I'll see what I can do,"[/color] she replied, somewhat cheerful now that she was once again relatively safe and unbothered. Then, she found the remaining two vine belts and began experimenting with knotting them together in the most effective manner, setting out to create something that could work as a sling.