Tch, so much for that plan. In this situation, that was the most concrete thought Asteria had the time to consider. As the two globs of poison flew towards her slowly, she avoided most of the attack by jumping aside. Unfortunately, a bit of her fur did get hit. Asteria rolled in a patch of dirt, removing as much of the acid as she could. She did not want to experience what its effect would be like if it reached her skin and ate into her meat. She saw the way her Mother engaged the two lizards head on. And since trying to go around an enemy while it was distracted from the front had worked so well last time, she attempted the same thing now.
Asteria dashed to the side in zigzagging motions, trying to add unpredictability to her innate speed in the event that either of the lizards tried taking her out before she was able to reach them. When she was perpendicular and relatively close to the more injured of the opponents, she charged the lizard in an attempt to head-butt it from the side. If she were lucky, she might be able to unbalance it enough so that it would flip over on its back or alternatively, make it crash into the other (healthier) lizard and disturb both of their attacks momentarily. Depending on what happened as a consequence of her attack, Asteria thought she could either bite into the nearest lizard to damage it or use her speed to dodge if either of them tried biting her. And perhaps her sister would actually consider how she attacked this time, though as long as she actually helped in some manner to kill the lizards and didn't get in her way, Asteria didn't much care what exactly Mei did.
Keeping her focus on observing and trying to discern the events, Asteria noticed the appearance of two lizards, who had been hidden from her line of sight previously by one of the cave’s columns. Perhaps that had been what Lorek had been targeting initially? It honestly mattered no longer, for he was obviously furious due to having been attacked by Mei. Her attack left him severely wounded and he ran away or rather, floated away swiftly. The two opportunistic lizards still seemed focused on attacking the weakest Wisp. The other one, Danny, followed his injured fellow. Just in case the lizards tried changing their minds about who they should attack, Asteria hissed at them menacingly, puffing up as best she could.
And while she was warning the pair of lizards away just in case, Mei rushed back to her and their Mother, shivering and snuggling in between them. “What did you think you were doing?” Asteria questioned her lowly, trying to keep the aggression and accusation out of her tone, but succeeded only partially. She took several deep breaths to dispel her frustration and continued on in a much calmer manner. “Whatever. It’s done now. This just cost us two or three potential allies though,” she muttered grumpily. Despite that, she brushed against her sister reassuringly. And that must have been based on her new instincts, because she couldn’t remember ever being so affectionate to someone who was basically a stranger – though technically a sibling. “I don’t know about you, but I want to track Edward down and see if at least some of this mess can be fixed.”
So, her sister's name was Mei. Judging by her introduction, she was either shy or still struggling with proper pronunciation due to her being a rat. The male Dire rat introduced himself as Edward and he seemed the type to try and lighten the situation just to fail utterly. It was a bit embarrassing even just witnessing his awkwardness, but thankfully the moment passed quickly. Their Mother squeaked at her children and included Ed, though he wasn’t her blood kin. Asteria recognized she wanted them to go back inside to safety, which wasn’t too terrible of an idea, though the Wisps would likely not be welcomed by Mother. She turned around to try and conclude their meeting, when one of the Wisps, Lorek, swiftly descended and seemed to target something for an attack. Asteria wasn’t sure what, but was rather startled when Mei charged at him, yelling at him to stop. Did she honestly think he was about to attack them? In Asteria’s mind that was an odd conclusion to jump to, seeing as they were all former humans…Though that didn’t mean that some wouldn’t be hostile. Still, she wished her sister wasn’t quite so reckless.
Asteria went closer to their Mother, deciding that she would provide backup from behind Mei if she had to, but more importantly, wanted to hold a position which would enable the trio of Dire rats to escape back to their previous location, the burrow leading to the dug-out chamber. Asteria wouldn’t mind if Ed were to go with them, but seeing the conflict, he escaped. She was of half a mind to track him down and reason with him, but she could do so after this conflict was resolved. Hopefully, none of them would get killed, but the other Wisp, Danny, floated on the sides somewhat menacingly. He was apparently content to simply observe for now, just as Asteria was, but him assisting the other Wisp wasn’t out of the question. Asteria put her left paw into Mother’s fur, squeaking softly at her, hoping to convey that they should just wait for now and help Mei escape if it was needed. Then, knowing Dire rats had exceptional senses, she concentrated on her sight, hearing and even tactile senses so she could properly react to any further developments in this unfortunate situation.
Ineraz enjoyed the last of his meal as he listened to Zeldria’s story. He imagined that what she described was something that happened in Gemmenia often. After all, rolling over and begging for mercy seemed to be the collective gemmenite strategy when faced with an adversary. Ineraz could not honestly understand or empathize with such a position. As a Drakkan, he was proud to claim that he would rather fight to the bitter end than even think of giving up as the Gems, and Zeldria specifically, seemed to have. Were Gems truly destined to be weak, then? To be nothing more than prey? He certainly hoped that it was possible to strengthen them. He had designs on having his first brides live as long as they could, and frailty wouldn’t be conducive to that goal.
“You saved them from slaughter,” he observed calmly and continued in a similarly light tone “One would think that having made such a commitment, you would be willing, perhaps even eager to fit into the role of a bride fully…” he trailed off, looking up and down her body pointedly. “Not that I intend to force you,” he reiterated, holding her gaze with earnest intentness. “But is your reluctance simply because you see us as monsters?” he wondered honestly. If he could gain some insight into her reasoning, he might be able to convince her more easily…eventually.
After that, they both finished off their breakfast before continuing another conversation line. “If you have supervision, which should ensure you don’t attempt to poison us all, you may cook. I’ll arrange it,” he confirmed. And the allusion he made to her trying to kill them wasn’t even a humorous one. He believed fully that such a thing was a distinct possibility. Trying to murder what was basically one’s jailer was certainly a valid tactic, though it was unlikely to save any Gem who attempted it. Ineraz was considering how the Gem’s seemingly docile nature could lead her to consider killing anyone over a cup of wine when a guard approached him.
“Your smallest bride has decided to cause some trouble. Would you like me to bring her to you?” the Drakkan whispered. Ineraz smelled burned flesh on him and a quick glance confirmed him to be injured. With lightning speed, he whirled on the other male, stood up directly next to him and grabbed him by the throat with his right hand. His left descended purposefully to the hilt of his dagger, which was currently one of the only two weapons on him, his other ones still in the outside training area.
Ineraz was barely holding back his sudden rage, an explosive response to the conclusion he had jumped to. “And what precisely did you do to make her burn you?” He flexed his right hand and practically hissed out his next accusation. “Did you touch my bride inappropriately?”
“No!” The other Drakkan seemed torn between defending himself physically and apologizing and explaining verbally. “I wouldn’t, you must know that,” he gritted out. “If I were that untrustworthy, I wouldn’t have ended up as a guard here,” now he seemed insulted.
Ineraz was not willing to release him just yet, though he lightened his grip and demeanour. “Then explain what happened,” he demanded.
The Drakkan guard straightened. “She was heading outside and would have left the estate if I hadn’t stopped her,” he kept his gaze on Ineraz’s earnestly, and had done so all the while. Ineraz believed that the guard was truthful and finally released him, though he was not entirely placated.
“And where is she now? Hopefully, not alone and unsupervised?” he stressed icily. This seemed to perturb the guard almost more than Ineraz grabbing him by the neck had.
The guard shifted uncomfortably and admitted “I left her in the hall leading to the front entrance. She should be supervised enough,” he sounded a bit too doubtful for Ineraz’s taste, but he simply narrowed his eyes at the guard for now.
“Don’t think I won’t confirm what happened with her,” Ineraz warned, the hint of threat still present in his tone and posture. “Come along then,” he looked from the guard to Zeldria, wanting for them both to follow.
The trio headed towards the manor’s entrance, and found Sera wandering a corridor, seemingly distressed. Ineraz faced her sternly, but threw a quick glare at the guard once he saw the red slap mark on her cheek. Nonetheless, he kept up his austere front as he refocused on Sera.
“You burned one of my guards?” he drawled the question, not giving away the fact that it was the guard he found fault with rather than her just yet. He desired for her to be honest when retelling her side of the event and if he appeared too sympathetic from the get go, she would surely use that in her favour.
Ineraz chats with Zeldria some more; asks a challenging question, offhandedly insinuates her potential murder plots, and promises her she'll get to cook. Then a guard comes by and pisses him off. Ineraz goes to find Sera and confronts her.
Just before the encounter with the male Dire rat, Asteria received a system notification about Mother joining their party. The fact that this world actually had game elements was something she would have to consider later. Right now, she had to deal with the situation on hand, which involved a Wisp floating to them and revealing he was from Earth. The male Dire rat answered first, and told them of his status as an ex-human as well. Asteria frowned and glanced at her sister. Were all of them from Earth? Even their Mother? She wished she could talk to her sister in private, since she was an established ally, but unfortunately, that was currently not possible. Asteria had some vague memories of playing MMOs and the like as a young adult, and that experience led her to believe that if a party system existed, other people could be invited as well. However, she was hesitant to try it out with strangers.
The male Wisp who had asked of their origins declared his intention to be an ally. Well, whether that was truly the case would yet to be seen. As far as Asteria was concerned, actions spoke louder than words, especially about trustworthiness. For now, the only ones who had proven to be dependable were her sibling and her Mother. Just as she was considering joining in the conversation, yet another Wisp approached them and introduced himself as Lorek. For some strange reason, he also wanted to know their former occupation, of all things. Why would such a thing matter? Nonetheless, the other Wisp answered, though without providing his name. So much for getting priorities straight.
Asteria huffed and made a careful effort to articulate her answer properly. “I’m Asteria.” There, practice and some concentrated effort and she recognized that she spoke in a way they would understand. Though how exactly that worked was a bit beyond her; it could have been via magic or their inherently human perception or something else entirely. “Not that I see much point in knowing what we used to be, but I was a lawyer,” she wasn’t certain if her grasp on conveying tone was as it should be just yet, but the brusqueness of her statement was probably apparent enough. She did want to discuss several things with these strangers, but her past certainly wasn’t one of them. After all, the present they found themselves in was much more important. Speaking of… “After our introductions, why don’t we share information on this world with each other?” She recommended.
Her sister nodded. Her ratty squeaking seemed to convey agreement. Odd. As Asteria led them the way they had come into the chamber, back through the burrow and out into the wider cave proper, she considered this issue. Her Mother had never “spoken” or at the very least, Asteria didn’t remember recognizing any of her sounds as holding meaning the same way language would. But her sister had understood her. Was that simply because they were both Dire rats? Even if the other rats had lower intelligence than her previous human identity provided her, they were still the same species. But perhaps there was such a thing as a monster tongue with which she could not only convey ideas to other Dire rats, regardless of whether they would comprehend the complexity of what she might say to them, but also communicate with the other monsters. It was a shame she hadn’t tried to do so with the lizard, but it hadn’t exactly given any opportunity to do so. Perhaps she would simply make more of an effort to try speaking properly with her sister…
As for the cave itself, it offered several opportunities. There was a very distant light, which Asteria assumed led to the cave’s exit, but the light from there was small and steadily disappearing as the night time progressed. Somewhat closer was a fire, but the numerous goblins she could see around it were an obvious sign of danger. Goblins were surely the most dangerous predators of the cave, for they could use tools and therefore advance in a way the rest of them couldn’t, not yet. That fire was to be avoided for now. There were a scant few bluish crystals here and there and Asteria had the impression that there had been more before, but she couldn’t be entirely sure as she hadn’t paid much attention to them when her survival had been her focus. Well, her survival still was her focus. But now, she also wanted to know more about this world.
Asteria intended to head towards the lake, but as it so happened, she passed a certain crystal cluster, in front of which was a male Dire rat. He stared at the crystals intently and Asteria found his behaviour peculiar indeed. He also smelled familiar, but she wasn’t certain whether he was also a sibling of hers or not. She looked from her sister towards the male rat and back again. Asteria observed him with as much intent as he used to stare at the crystals. Was he…a mentally unsound example of their species? Or did his purposeful inspection of a foreign object indicate a higher than average intelligence as far as Dire rats were concerned? Asteria was a bit regretful right now that she had not tried ascertaining what the regular Dire rats were capable of, which she supposed she could have done by observing her siblings while they were all in the nest. However, she could still rely on her sister and this strange male Dire rat to provide her with some basic information. Once she ascertained the male was done with whatever he had been doing, Asteria approached, hoping her sister would recognize her desire to socialize with him and would follow her cue. Carefully and with purpose, she tried sounding out “Sib…Sibling?” She looked from her sister towards the unknown male. Her question was obviously intended for the male Dire rat, but Asteria wondered if either of the rats would understand the verbal communication she had attempted.
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 “Out? Explore?”
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.
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 devour 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!
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