[h2][center][color=Brown]The Rattus People[/color][/center][/h2] It began two nights after they had set up their outpost home within sight of the endless water that the river ran to. It began with a messenger. Annandale had been on above ground guard duty that night. While the Rattus seemed more inclined towards favoring operating under moon, the desert tended to be rather cold after the sun went down. As such, they tended to favor remaining in their recently constructed barrow structure, working underground where a few key fires could help keep them comfortable... as well as cook on. In fact, Annandale's partners on guard duty had ducked back down into the barrow in order to see if they could get something hot to eat while they guarded the entry way; Singapore had been trying to woo a rather beautiful looking cook since their party had set out and she seemed to return the affections for they had to go in order to get her to offer the food, while Tunney had gone to make sure Singapore actually came back instead of taking some surprise time off to spend with the cook. While some argued that setting up inside of the entrance would have been a better idea as far as safety and security went, the main reason they were up there was to tend to the fire they had lit on the surface. The idea had originally come from the first outpost to have set themselves up: While they were setting up their barrow, more than one Rattus had misplaced themselves in regards to knowing where the barrow entrance was. As a simple solution to their problem, they took to lighting a fire at the entrance of the barrow at night so that those operating under moon on the surface could more easily find their way back home. It also served as a beacon for future bands of migrants wishing to join them... or a band passing by to create a new outpost further along to stop by and have friends and shelter for a time before moving on. Of course, if you were going to have a fire going all night you needed someone to tend to it... and because whomever was tending to the surface fire was also going to be the first one to see trouble coming on the surface, they were also on guard duty. Since a single guard on duty was an excuse for something to go horribly wrong and a duo was likely to become a mono if someone felt the need to go relieve themselves or duck instead to send a message or get something, they were meant to tend the fire in trios. As Annandale glanced around by herself, she couldn't help but feel a bit sarcastic in just how [i]wonderfully[/i] the system was working. It was then, with her back to the fire so she could benefit from its warmth but also gaze out into the night easily, that she saw the singular Rattus approach. The fact that they were alone was something of note to Annandale. While the great Aethel's teachings had been watered down somewhat by the fact that in order to teach more Rattus at once, students that had taken to the teachings had quickly become teachers in their own rights, a simple lesson was that traveling alone was a bad idea. If something bad happened while you were traveling between outposts and you were on your own, you were in a great deal of trouble. They also seemed to be... moving wrong somehow? As if they weren't used to walking comfortably yet. For a few minutes Annandale considered the possibility that the Rattus coming towards them had been apart of a group that had underwent some kind of trouble and this one had managed to seek help despite being injured... but that faded the closer to the stranger got. They had no signs of injury on them... at least none that bled through the fur. But the wrongness that she had felt earlier only got worse and it had nothing to do with the manner in which they moved. Their mana was... wrong. Every creature, knowingly or not, able to channel or not, interacted with the winds of mana in their own way and this Rattus coming towards her... was not interacting with them in a manner that a Rattus could or should. The winds were interacting with them as if they were a completely different creature, despite what they appeared to be. Annandale tried not to physically respond to the fact that she was nervous by this development. This was an unknown situation and... her ear twitched as she heard movement coming from the left. Turning her head ever so slightly as to allow herself to continue watching the approaching figure while trying to see what had made that noise in the corner of her vision. She...didn't make out [i]exactly[/i] what it was because it seemed to have partly buried itself in the sand while pushing a bit in front of itself to hide... This was a [i]bad[/i] sign. But despite the shivers that were starting to run along her body and cause her tail to start flicking, she tried to make it seem like everything was fine. Just because she was in a bad situation, the fact that she knew it was a lot better then not. Hopefully, they didn't know she knew something was up... Whomever or [i]whatever they[/i] happened to be. The final sign of trouble came when the fake Rattus finally entered speaking distance, calling out as they continued to draw closer "[color=f7976a]Have message for the one in charge. Can you direct me to them?[/color]" Any true messenger would have known that their outpost was led by Tunneyi, Tunney's older brother had been entrusted with leadership of their group. Names were important and this outside threat wearing the skin of a Rattus didn't understand that. Afraid for her life as she doubted that this false Rattus and its hidden companion had her or her kins best interests at heart, Annandale calmly reached a paw back as she turned fear into a weapon and pulled on the flames of the fire she was tending before lashing her paw forward and sending a lance of fire directly into the body of the false Rattus. Her final vindication came from the fact that the figure hadn't squeaked out in shock, alarm or pain, it instead unleashed a horrifying, unrattus like noise that she honestly couldn't begin to describe. The Rattus fur seemed to melt off in the flames as some horrifying insect like creature stumbled backwards, trying to put itself out. The sound of buzzing and sand exploding outwards to her left caused Annandale to act on complete instinct, her left paw thrusting out towards the movement in the corner of her eye even before she was able to completely turn her head towards it. A sharp, blindingly bright twig of hot light surged from her paw and in the span of one of her hearts panicked thumps it covered the distance and slammed into one of the terrifyingly large, insect like eyes (at least she thought it might be an eye. It was on the head after all) of the creature that was flying at her on a pair of buzzing wings and a spear coming out of its face. Her ears folded against her head as a deafening [i]crack[/i] roared from the point of impact as the eye exploded into a spray of super hot gore as its owner was flung backwards, their body twitching so violently as it fell backwards onto the desert sand that Annandale had to look away because she didn't want to see it rip itself apart! The first of the two insect monsters, the one who had been pretending to be a Rattus, quickly regained her attention as it managed to put out the flames and take to the air with a buzzing of wings, the burns easy to see on its body. However, it didn't seem as brave as to rush directly into combat: This was clearly not how it had expected this situation to go. It's deception and ambush had failed, it was injured and its companion was either dead or dying. If she were in its position, Annandale would be considering cutting her losses and running for it too. She was putting on a show of strength to make it look like she was prepared to throw more fire or another... burning twig of light at it if it decided to charge again, but it truth it was a bluff; That burning light twig had taken a [i]lot[/i] out of her and she didn't think she could safely do it again. It if decided to push the assault, she was in trouble. The tense stand off lasted a few seconds, but its end was heralded by the sound of scampering feet from the barrow entrance behind her. More Rattus were coming, likely to investigate just what the hell the loud noise she had made was. The numbers had turned in her favor... and the bug like creature knew it. With its deafening, horrible buzzing of wings it turned and sped off into the night at speed. The burns must have hurt badly, but since it would have likely died if it stayed it was likely trying to ignore the pain as best it could for now. As her fellow guards returned from their trip, the food they had brought having been dropped either in surprise by the noise or in the rush to get back to the entrance to find out what was going on and to support her, followed soon by the scampering paws of other Rattus, Annandale turned to look at the bug monster that had failed to escape. It's head and chest weren't moving, but its hands and legs continued to twitch as if parts of the body were still arguing over if it was actually dead or not. The smell... the smell of burnt insect was putrid. Even as her fellow Rattus started to ask her questions like what had happened, what in Aethel's name was that thing and if she was alright, Annandale started to shake badly. Her breathing grew heavy even as her heart pounded in her chest. On instinct she started to gnaw on one of her arms to try and find some relief from the stress that weighed on her... and finally she bent over to dry heave painfully as tears started to roll down her face. [hider=Summary] Annandale the Rattus is currently on flame tending/guard duty for her outpost along the River and within sight of the ocean that it runs to. While there are meant to be others with her, they're on an important supply trip back in the barrow in order to get them something hot to eat while outside during the night. As a single strange Rattus approaches, several warning bells go off in Annandale's mind as a number of facts don't line up, the key one being that the Rattus coming towards her isn't interacting with the winds of mana like a Rattus and instead comes across as a completely different kind of creature. She also hears something moving into a flanking position to complete the ambush. As the fake Rattus starts speaking to her, Annandale springs her counter trap and attacks by throwing the fire of the fire she was meant to be tending into the body of the fake, causing it to drop the disguise and revel itself to be some kind of giant insect with a spear for a mouth. The second monster bug launched its attack, only for her to turn and magic up a lightning bolt (even if she doesn't know what lightning is at this time) that struck it in the head and fried its brain while completely destroying one of its eyes, killing it instantly even if its body was going to be twitching a lot for a while. The original fake Rattus bug monster and Annandale enter a stand off as the former is debating cutting its losses because the situation has gone competely fubar in that the ambush and deceptions failed, its injured and its mate is dead, while Annandale's lightning trick completely tapped her for mana and she doesn't exactly have anything left in the tank to follow up with this last creature, but thankfully it doesn't know that. The stand off ends as more Rattus rush out of the barrow to support Annandale, tipping the balance to far in her favor and causing the bug monster to flee... at which point Annandale has a complete nervous breakdown because SHE ALMOST DIED AND SHE KILLED SOMETHING! [/hider]