Oasis

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Wheelchairs might not have been a concept in this society, while they certainly had wheels, any world where societies got large enough were bound to have those figured out after all, and even if they didn't, one of the summoned would certainly have brought it.
Wheelchairs however... Such conveniences were rarely thought of in a society that was still stuck in a feudal age, so it was entirely possible that them and many other aids did not yet exist, next time Lumina was awake it may be worth prodding around their broken memories to see what existed and what could be... discovered, by an intelligent rodent.
There was also the possibility that the wounded goblin would not be allowed to leave his room for a while, he had betrayed his kin and sided with a malevolent power after all, but as it seemed to be somehow engrained into the goblinoid psychology to do that, maybe they would be lenient to a point?

"That is... A very rare ability, there are mages who can heal but they are few and far between... It might also be best not to be very open about it... Without a guild membership at your back... A lot of religious healers may declare you heretical... A lot of religions... Get very possessive of things they believe to be within their sphere of influence".
She seemed a tad reluctant to say those things, religion was majorly important in this world and it only made sense that there would be tensions with mages, especially any mage that could be considered 'holy' in theme.
"That... Is a good question, he seemed able to think so I am certain it counted as a kill, as for who was responsible... I think it was a team effort? I certainly wouldn't have won on my own".
She didn't say it but Lizzy believed at least a little that Ratty might have been able to survive alone, if not outright win.

"It was very calm actually... I spent the day mostly showing small bits of magic to the younglings, they seem fascinated, some of them seemed to have some natural ability, I hope they can find a teacher when they are older and more developed... I did manage to show the cook something new! Did you know the umm, I guess head cook would be a fitting title? They heat the food with some fire magic that I hadn't seen before, I think I can recreate it but I don't exactly have a use for mass food heating spells, the variable heat control was interesting though..."
The lizard mage was clearly excited about meeting a fellow practitioner and learning something new, even if it wasn't immediately applicable.

There was no immediate restoration effect from the leaf, just a slight tingling, like a grain of rice on an empty stomach, unfortunately Lumina was not awake to analyse and comment on it, to say exactly what it was doing, hopefully the narcoleptic rock wouldn't regret missing out on a new magic adjacent experience.

 

[Fyrra]

If nothing else, the matters of what technologies existed and what had yet to be replicated could just as easily be mined off of pretty much anyone willing to spend an hour or three answering very dumb questions, but Lumina at least had one of the first questions answered already, if that earlier explanation of dwarves not liking crossbows was anywhere near current. What made the lack of a wheelchair notable to the tired rodent might not have even been just how much one would be appreciated after nearly collapsing in an infirmary, but just how simple the combination would be... if this were not a society of nomadic peoples who didn't even build beds or cots for their one permanent settlement.

Right, nomads. The uhar were still in a very... delicate living situation, given the two recent situations that have come up.

The ratling yawned once more, its eyes closed as it sank back against the wall, listening to Lizzy and her suggestions. Its voice, apart from an apparent exhaustion communicated in its slowness, seemed to take on a forlorn tone, as though it were half beleaguered with contempt for something, and half resigned to some sort of defeat. While it chewed on the strange leaf, the creature seemed to either not notice its own mental shift, or not care.

"New planet, same foe. Some things never change," except, perhaps, that this wasn't just one single religion running a monopoly on the ideology? While the rodent forced itself to stay awake for as long as it could, it wasn't moving much beyond the chitter of chewing, but the assumptions being made about this new information were certainly stirring up a fury inside. If only the creature weren't so exhausted, and Lumina weren't so asleep. Perhaps that was the reason? There was only one brain in there: not nearly enough room to house three personae comfortably, even with the barriers that kept a ratling from venturing too far into its forbidden memories. "Thank you for the warning, Dovahkiin. It will not stop us, but we can be smarter about how to approach this."

Cue a very light, high pitched growl. Tired rat was moody.

Yes... this. A series of clergy, aristocracies, and wealthy people in direct control of knowledge, magic, information, and even the mere availability of healing magic? There was no way this wasn't linked to technological anachronisms and inequalities when the planet had a known and documented influx of migrants from comparatively futuristic worlds. And sure, that was an opinion based on internal bias from external data, but something stirred the rat just a little bit more awake than it should have been, and it wasn't even supposed to be here... Today? Ever? She was supposed to be dead, dead and hopefully cremated, not newly processing the knowledge that every civilized nation in the world would have her murdered for heresy; that was old news! And another thi-

"Wait, Dovahkiin?"

The ratling's eyes opened, and its growl subsided, along with awareness of what it was just thinking about.

"Did I say tha- I did say that.."

Its original voice and tone returned, enmity replaced with bewilderment.

"Oh, right. No question about Bonebag, that was all of us, I meant... well, he is unimportant. The elder called the bonebag Saur? They also called him weak. According to the man himself, he was once a very big deal around here, and it took a concentrated effort to put him to sleep. He awakened a week ago... around the same time we met. Talk about bad luck. Could you imagine waking up, ready to have your vengeance upon the world, and some vagrants and their little woodland critter-friend who just happened to be in the area invited themselves in and one of them just started hammering you into dust?" The ratling blinked, then chuckled. "Oh, there are archaeology guilds, yes? Some version of that tale must exist elsewhere."

The creature stretched its arms upward, slowly letting them back down.

"That magic sounds... very useful. If we cannot find a purpose for it while gathering craft-workers, the nest will desire it. Did you have plans to become an instructor, before you were brought here?"

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

There being multiple gods had been mentioned a few times in passing, most likely this world had never really had a small handful of religions end up conquering and consolidating, after all with magic and spirits clearly existing, gods most likely did in some form or another, and it was difficult to argue that your god was the one true god when all of them had proof of existence, in some ways lacking a truly unified front would make religion easier to deal with, in other ways, like the existence of actual divine might, it made everything messier.
At least the gods weren't the type to immediately smite someone as clearly in opposition to religion as the rat, if they even could.

Considering the amount of people that came from other worlds, the lack of technology was indeed glaring... Though that couldn't be known for sure unless the rat discovered how recently a lot of things as seemingly basic as had already been seen were actually discovered, and of course many people likely didn't actually know HOW the technology from their past worlds was made, even if they did, it was hardly unusual for humans to conceal things for their own benefit... Whether that happened to be the ones with the knowledge or even a totally different powerful group...

"Um... I can't really imagine it, I have never really wanted revenge on anyone... But I imagine it must have been very frustrating, and he DID seem to be quite annoyed, enough that I feel it may have given us an advantage... It's really hard to focus on spells when you're frustrated".
She explained her reasoning for how it had helped, which meant that it could be possible to gain advantages over mages by being very annoying...
"Oh! Yes, they're very associated with the various mage guilds but aren't always mages, they generally get aid in the form of mages and funding in exchange for a chance at the first look of anything they find... But when they do find something like a lich... It often isn't a happy story unless they are accompanied by some very strong guards".
More than one crisis could have been avoided if archaeologists had just brought some more experienced mages with them!

"Oh... Well, to be honest I never really had any plans?... I joined the guild because my umm, father said I should, not that I really had a choice when my magic showed itself... But I just wanted to learn more and master my magic, I guess teaching would have been a fun career choice too if I was given the option..."

 

[Fyrra]

The whole religion thing was just upsetting for... some reason? A number of them? Given that this rat-person had, up until now, nothing it could decisively say about divinity, the longer this contradiction lingered in its thoughts, the more it desired nothing more than to bash its head against a wall or just lie down and sleep for an eternity. But, that would change nothing. It has changed nothing... and doing so would mean giving up without trying to eat or destroy such a thing. Forget slaying a lord: how does the world view one who slays a very literal god? Or eats one? Evidently, the sky wasn't the limit when it came to aspirations, but perhaps this could wait until after a nap. Or several.

The creature yawned part-way into Lizzy's summary of the fight, appreciating the recap from someone a bit more knowledgeable on the subject matter, even if it was just confirmation that its own instincts when faced with a powerful-yet-somehow-weak foe had pinpointed the precise way to win a fight. Whatever it lacked in survival-drive, the rodent seemed to have a surplus of in spite as some sort of trade-off. Tunnel vision? In any case, this explained the victory: relentless prodding and cheap trickery ran a hard-counter against anything with a fragile ego, and tended to put holes in hypothetical defenses. Maybe the victory wasn't due to luck after all? That was another tough thing to swallow.

"So we survived because I fight dirty," the ratling mused aloud, "and because we worked well together, and he insisted upon splitting his focus to use his minions until I whipped out the rocks and revealed our status as a viable threat," to say nothing of how fortunate the group was that, whatever the lich needed bodies and bones for, he needed those bodies and bones alive. Cue a frustrated sigh afterward, not just at the thought of only a narrow victory by circumstances lining up, but the following suggestions that guilds were going to be as unavoidable as religion in this world.

"Vexing. We must observe a populated area to get a feel for just what we are up against, but it sounds like there is no avoiding delays from a guild. Worse, it sounds like we have much to gain by getting involved." As much as a rat would prefer to stay out of foreign affairs, there weren't many places one could ask about the various types of animated-dead without drawing too much attention and alarm, but knowing how to exploit their weaknesses and what scared them could make future restoration projects a much less harrowing experience. And as far as everything else there was to gain, well, time was a finite resource, but the potential return on a hefty investment was nothing to turn one's nose up at. It was just worse because there really wasn't a choice in the matter.

"Truly, though? No urge for vengeance? After you were stranded in the jungle, half-starved, and being screa- no, nevermind, apologies." The child smacked at its forehead, lightly, but abruptly enough to stop it from continuing to bring that up. Of course, the person involved had met his end already, so perhaps that's why Lizzy felt no need to pursue retribution. "You are either kind, patient, or both. Just like... huh?" There was that odd feeling again, where the ratling drifted and said something it hadn't intended to. This was weird. It needed sleep.

"Well, even if you decide against it, we are certain to find new things to learn with each pass of the moon, and a master flamedramonster will always be welcome in the nest." The creature grinned, apparently finding some amusement in the title it made up, even as it struggled to keep upright. "Alas, we might be at our limit."

When it lied down in the bedding, the rodent hadn't expected sleep to take such an immediate hold.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

At least the fact that the gods had not yet seen fit to strike down the rat for even thinking about defying and even EATING them, proved that they were not omnipotent, whether that meant they were similar to the other world's 'gods' or just not acting for some other reason was up in the air though, at least asking about what should be common knowledge concerning gods might go down easier if it was included with a revelation of reincarnation... Which in itself should probably be kept hidden from most, people from other worlds likely had a mixed reputation if all or even many of them were humans... A race ever capable of being polarising to put it lightly.

"Well... I suppose that is a fair statement... But very... Blunt? I do not think there is anything wrong with fighting dirty though! Especially not against a foe like that... He would hardly care about fairness after all".
Lizzy personally didn't get the problem with using anything at her disposal to fight, her teacher/father figure had ensured she knew that she would need any trick available to her to succeed in the world.
"Actually... One of the first forms of magic I learned... Was lighting a fire at the bottom of an opponent's cloak during a duel, so they would become distracted".
It was amazing how few mages were prepared to defend against something as small as a little spark in an area that wasn't considered dangerous or painful to be hit, of course her local guild had banned such tricks after a while.

Oh! A populated area, she could help finding those, she had lived in a fairly decent city of course, albeit one that had traded hands a few times and had quite a mixed culture.
"Umm if you wish to see a highly populated area, if you could acquire a boat we could sail northwest into the League of Free Kingdoms, it would even take us through the largest of the Periphery Settlements, which is almost a city in it's own right... We don't want to go south though, that would take us through Obdaren and umm... We don't want to go that way... They would not be a friendly place, to either of us".
Lizzy being a learned type of girl, meant she was one of the few people who had both the ability and opportunity to learn a lot about maps and cultures.

"Well... An even temper helps a lot in combat magic so I guess it comes with the territory And even then, of the people who wronged me most... One is dead, one is physically and mentally wounded... And one aided us against a powerful foe... Some may call me a fool or soft or other such things but... The boys don't deserve more pain and the other man... I don't think he is worth thinking of anymore".
In a way it was her own bit of spite, her former 'owner' had no family, no friends, no assets, even his hirelings didn't really use his name, so the best she could do was forget about him, let him be lost to time.

Lizzy seemed to enjoy the latest title, but didn't comment and instead worked on getting some sleep of her own, a fortunately dreamless sleep, as she had always struggled to have dreams, honestly a true boon after some of the things she saw in training and adventuring.
The morning would come far too soon, with the Uhar audibly up and doing their usual morning tasks, cleaning repairing, tending to the sick and wounded, and judging by the smells, cooking up a storm.
A communal society like the Uhar seemed to mostly cook for everyone as a whole, which meant every meal was truly an impressive task.

 

[Fyrra]

The night's dream was a strange one: very static. Perhaps it was the state of mind the rat was in after exhausting its focus inside of the wounded goblin's operation, or perhaps it was a side-effect of whatever barriers existed between its own thoughts and those thoughts becoming a little more hazy, but the creature didn't dream of any significant event. Or rather, this wasn't some sort of event that included a violent confrontation. Was it significant?

The dream consisted mostly of the focal entity lying down upon a soft piece of furniture, looking at the area ahead with a sideward perspective. There was a screen mounted upon a wooden piece of furniture, displaying... something. The not-yet-a-rat's arms were bare, fully human, and... one was draped over the shoulder of somebody sitting on the floor, while her head rested upon another bare thigh. No faces were visible: even looking in the direction just made things a little blurry, but nuzzling against the thigh and holding hands with the guy down there felt nice. This was possibly the most comfortable place the rat had ever imagined, the creature thought as it closed her eyes. These two people were probably the two from that festival..

When the creature opened its eyes again, it was staring at another screen, this one more visible, just... scrolling through images. Drawings, some sketched, some digital, of various creatures on two or four legs. Imagined monsters, fluffy things with sharp teeth and horns that weren't supposed to be there, but they attributed to the aesthetic. Clothing was apparently 'optional' if the pattern was anything to go by, but upon seeing a rat, the dreamer stopped, taking in the details.

One of those pulses was felt, like there was additional context available. The dreaming rat pinged back, curious if nothing else. Apparently, this was a popular rat-lady in the tales of its former world at one point. A knight, searching the world for her missing partner, and getting caught up in international politics and war along the way, as one tends to do. Going by further drawings of her, she apparently had a great time making friends with a blue-haired starfighter pilot and a mystical cyber-brawling lady? In any case, she looked strange for a rat: a hat of some sort was tucked down to cover her face, and while she had claws on her feet that looked like they could rip through any sort of unarmored flesh, her talent was being able to leap to an unreasonable height and drive her lance down into a target upon landing.

***** Crescent. A moon-themed name, and apparently a tragic story that went along with it. It was... interesting, but ultimately not a productive thing to go digging for memories of in the otherworld. Lots of pretty dress designs, and maybe a bit much that wasn't visible, but none of this included anything related to wilderness survival or settlement development, thus it wasn't relevant. When the rat opened its eyes the following morning, it looked over its body and frowned.

The creature was a pudgy little gremlin-looking thing, not a tall-ish, elegant, and charismatic lady with the build of a dancer, and for the first time in this life, the ratling looked painfully aware of this fact. It wasn't any of those things before, but even when it tried to threaten people, they mostly just seemed to laugh the attempt off. That was a new feeling: the feeling of being small and fluffy, and not big, imposing, and scary. Then came the memories of those two, and a sudden wave of depression as the creature flopped back and buried its face into the bedding, groaning and trying to go back to sleep, only to be met with its own body's refusal to do any such thing.

Minutes passed.

Minutes passed, they were still gone, and there was no going back to that place.

That's right, there was no returning, and no self-termination, because death was a temporary-but-significant setback, and dying now would mean losing Lumina, and Lizzy, and everyone at the nest, and... the chance for revenge? Revenge against... whoever put it here? Where it had friends now? Maybe the creature wasn't thinking clearly: its knee-jerk hostile reaction toward the revelation of gods had to have come from somewhere, but there was also the chance that it was unwell in some way, or agitated about the concept of reincarnation.

The creature shook its head and wiped its face with a hand, still frowning. Whatever that dream was, it was a bad trip. It looked around the room, first for its reptilian friend, and then at the spot where Edric had been lying, before finally setting its hand upon a wall and pulling itself to its feet. The smell of cooking reached its nose, and while getting fed sounded very nice after everything that had happened, the ratling held no more desire to play guest-of-honor in the halls of the uhar tribe. It had a nest to... rescue, populate, fortify, and given the nature of the disaster here, making an urgent matter out of that would be in poor taste, but it could at least visit the elders one more time before making preparations to depart, or maybe check in with Gora, and see how he was faring in the aftermath of everything.

Actually, that sounded like a good idea. Assuming nothing else interrupted the ratling's brief foray into and out of the kitchen for a meat-skewer or two, it would seek out the large fellow, or perhaps Hin.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The dream passed just as the others did, with Lumina merely watching, having been roused from a recuperative sleep by the invasion of the strange sights and sounds, sharing a body with such a... Fragmented host could be worrisome sometimes but they didn't show it, after all, strange and fragmented or not, they were still the host that plucked Lumina from the bottom of a riverbed and fed it the energy needed to awaken after what it was becoming clear was an incredibly long sleep, if it hadn't been found, would Lumina had rested barely alive there for all eternity? Existential questions like that caused the thinking stone some level of anxiety... A very new feeling learned from it's host.
But those thoughts could wait as Ratty was waking up now.


Edric was notably not present in the bed he had been in, having had enough time to rest he was now likely seeking food, or visiting his companion Gora, or perhaps eating with him, notably Lizzy was also not present, perhaps showing more magic to the young Uhar who seemed to enamoured with the carefully controlled flames wielded by the lizard mage.
Both had been polite enough to let the ratty lie in for a while after they had left.

It was just Ratty, and seemingly, Lumina, who had deigned not to comment on the dreams or the thoughts of self termination... Partly because it's mostly logical, survival focused mind couldn't even conceive of attempting, or indeed allowing, such a thing, and also partly due to the increasingly common existential thoughts, could Lumina die? Could it destroy itself? What would happen without a host?



While Lizzy was not immediately visible, both Edric and Gora would be at the kitchen eating some sort of meat, with Edric assisting Gora in cutting his food, as Gora's injured arm was very tightly bound in thick bandages with a strong herbal scent only someone covered by a flowery scent on top, perhaps intended to reduce the unpleasant smell of the steeped herbs and medicines, he also didn't seem able to move it at all, hopefully that was just due to the binding and wasn't a sign of permanent loss of usage...
They had not yet noticed the rat, too focused on eating a good meal after days of forest foraging with a lack of forest knowledge, so any conversation would be up to the rat.

 

[Fyrra]

Anxiety was one of the more intense stresses that came with the knowledge that everything out there was potentially trying to have a hand in one's demise. How the ratling shrugged it off was anyone's guess, but perhaps having the ridiculous capacity to slay hostile entities had a hand in that. Was that what one would call a small comfort, for a symbiote and their host to be united in purpose against a predator?

As the rat circled through the corridor and into the kitchen for its brunch, its facial expressions looked for firm, possibly even fixed, while its casual smile seemed just a little diminished. Many of its past-life's memories were gone, up to and including the faces of its closest friends, but their absence was felt, and the knowledge that had passed from that dream, that self-termination wouldn't work, suggested a number of unpleasant things. Among the possibilities that weren't too depressing to approach before food, one was the idea that the unwelcome entity that helped it fight the lich, that incredibly rude voice, was a personification of its past life, or an identity-split. There was a term for that: alters? But again, that didn't seem right: no memories of the past life ever suggested dissociating hard enough to create an alternate persona. So, either reincarnation was weird by design, or becoming a rat introduced some difficulties in translation, or maybe something else went wrong?

Or perhaps the rat was just an unpleasant person in its past life, and reverting to an adolescent state of maturity provided an opportunity to grow in a different way. This was still a lot to swallow, but with Lumina around, it was easier to accept, and there might not be a day that passes, that the ratling isn't grateful that it found and ate a strange rock in the riverbed before some fish could get to it first. Sure, the undersea adventures that might have awaited Lumina could have been more entertaining, but fish weren't known for being as warm as mammals. Or stones, for that matter. That said, fish some fish either lived lives long enough to be considered prehistoric... or met their abrupt end either at the end of a hook, or a cannibalistic chain of engulfings. The way things were going with the rat, death could probably be avoided by not confronting every single dangerous thing directly in a defiant stand against anything that looked like a greater power, but so far that hadn't destroyed the ratling either. If anything, age was most likely going to do the ratling in at some point, unless Lumina did something about that. But again: adolescent. The duo had time to figure that one out.

The ratling tore a chunk out of its meaty rations, neglecting to even bother with cutting it up before chewing, before its gaze settled upon Edric and Gora, and it found itself approaching to sit with them without so much as a wave or enough of a wait to ask for an invitation. As far as the creature was concerned, it shared Lizzy's sentiments: these two had enough problems, and weren't even supposed to be out in the ruins in the first place. Plus, they helped! It would be rude not to acknowledge that! It worked up the nerve to say something, and almost immediately got distracted by Gora's arm.

"You two all right?"

The ratling blinked, then shook its head. What a dumb question.

"Ah, guess not. Well, thanks to you both we carried the day. Saved the jungle from a second disaster in the span of a week, and we even got us some decent food out it. I doubt the locals will see it the same way, but we could not have done things so smoothly without you."

Much better. The rat exhaled a soft breath, relaxing in the presence of these two taller people.

"I made a point of not discussing payment with the elders here until you were awake. Figured you deserved a say in anything we ask for, but," the creature trailed off, glancing toward Gora's arm. "How's the arm? Do you want me to take a look at it? I mean, maybe you don't want a crazy little rat pokin' around in your arm. We haven't even checked in on the other guy yet."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lumina had been watching it's host's inner thoughts for a while before deciding to speak up, there were certainly some valid questions that it could at least attempt to answer there, even if they weren't formed as questions specifically or directed at Lumina in any way.
"Reincarnations... Usually become aware at a certain point... Your form however was not fitting, still is not fitting... It caused, difficulties, normally the two personas would become one... But the difference was too great, still is too great".
This was mostly just guess work of course, Lumina's memories were just as shattered, thought it was pretty sure it had always been a pearl and was not any form of reincarnation, so something else was clearly at play there, maybe even something as simple as the passing of time.

"It is possible... With time, and magic... That more will return to you".
Magically enhancing the mind was no easy task, indeed if it's host's body hadn't almost seemed to WANT to change in these ways and seemingly had a natural tendency towards it... Well it was highly likely Lumina would have messed things up significantly more.

"A fish would... Not have worked... I could not have brought intelligence from nothing... You were already there, just not aware of it yet".
Lumina declared, explaining why it had been relatively easy to advance it's host's intelligence so much, after all it was already there, and was just a matter of making the body and mind capable of running it.
"Like... Upgrading a computer?... What is a computer?"
It asked, confused at the statement that it had pulled from Ratty's mind at some point, mixed in with all the useful bits of knowledge.

Ahh something to be proud of that Lumina could take clear credit for!
"Your lifetime... Has been greatly improved... Already your family's life is much longer than common rodents, but now, you may live as long as a quarter century, as will your kin... I will strive to make further improvements".
25 years might not seem like much at first, even with promises of future improvements, but considering the average lifespan of rats could be as low as 2 years... It was a borderline miracle.

Gora visibly flinched at Ratty's approach, but was calmed by a reassuring hand on his shoulder from Edric, who still looked a little sleepy but seemed to have no obvious long term effects from his abuse of the endurance ring, who knew what Gora had managed to dream up from his drunken encounter with the scary rat while fleeing through the forest, hungry and increasingly delirious from pain and infection? Though it did at least seem that Edric had been talking with him.
"I'm all good... Still feel like I could sleep for a week... Thanks for letting me rest as much as I did, I uhh, explained to Gora when I woke up".
He confirmed he had indeed smoothed things over.

Gora managed to not flinch this time, good on him, but did seem just a little defensive.
"Uhh... I guess?... Uhh, it really hurts to move it right now, the gob- Uhh, the Uhar?... Yeah they had to cut a lot of bits out and told me it's probably not gonna work for weeks at least... It still kinda feels hot though".
It was possible the infection wasn't completely gone yet, which might explain the vaguely familiar strong smell emanating from his bandages, was it possible that something as relatively advanced as disinfectant existed in this world?

 

[Fyrra]

Lumina was better at piecing things together than the rat was! And then, there were the additional improvements to its life-span! Even for a week of being aware, a lot had been accomplished, so twenty-five of this planet's cycles was still nothing to sneeze at, but if there could be more...

Reasoning with observations in potential-host intelligence, and that other ratlings were being given enhancements and upgrades as well, would that have meant that any rat of its own phenotype would have sufficed for Lumina's purposes? Or, would a person have been preferable? That far out in the jungle, amidst the ruins of a forgotten civilization, it would be difficult to make a guess on that, but if any of the other rats had the same sort of intelligence on their own, and it wasn't just a case of this rat being special in some way, that could be a clue toward figuring out what happened in the jungle to make it like this. Or, it could be a clue pointing toward god being a psychopath. Weren't gods supposed to be made in their worshipers' image, though? Or was that bad information too?

In any case, the computer analogy seemed to spark something akin to curiosity: whatever a computer was, the creature had a feeling it knew somebody who knew all about them. With a quick mental prod at the abyss, the rat-child pinged out a request for some words about computers, maybe something a little less intense than the time it reached out for information on the human body. It took several moments for any sort of answer to return, but even then it was just two words: run, and diagnostics.

Surely this wouldn't be too awkward to play with mid-conversation. The ratling closed its eyes, gathering up a little bit of energy, and spoke the words aloud: "run diagnostics." It then opened back up to take a look around, specifically toward anything that might stand out, be it Gora, or the table, or the rat itself. There was no telling what adding magic to the words would do, but one of them sounded like some sort of wizardry, and if it was in any way related to the similar medical term the rat did know, chances are its knowledge of the human body, or Lumina's knowledge of the rodent body, could reveal some interesting things.

As for Edric and Gora, the ratling fidgeted in place, not quite as uncomfortable as the duo in front of it, but still visibly forcing itself to not wander off. It was... weird, knowing that for the past week or so it had been trying to hunt these two people down, to end their lives. Because their deaths would have made it easier to hide its presence in the jungle. Of course, that ship had long since sailed: if there were to be no witnesses, then there would be a few extra tribes to put down on top of these two.

"Well, you needed your rest, after everything the two of you have been through." Cue a glance from Edric to Gora. "and I suppose, on that note, I should apologize for hunting you, and putting you in this mess to begin with. And... not saying hello the last time we crossed paths." Not that avoiding them at the previous uhar camp was a bad idea: these two didn't need to hear any self-serving excuses about how there was a lot going on, or that everything sort-of worked out in the end. The two were still stranded in the middle of the jungle (but not so helpless that they couldn't find their way back out), with their employer dead and their bodies injured, after running away from home (Edric said that the other night, right?). They needed these excuses like they needed to hear that they've earned their rest.

"So, I know it went unspoken the other night, but, truce?" This was a more formal offer: the rat had no intention of continuing to hunt these two down regardless of whether the truce was accepted, but it might be better to say it directly when dealing with the two people who knew it was one of the scarier creatures of the jungle. "I will be leaving soon after we finish up with the tribes here. There are some things I want to look at, but soon we should be returning to the nest. That is, where we first met. If you want, you could visit, meet my family. We have a place where you can get a hot bath, but no beds or anything yet. My only request is that you tell none of the place that are not already aware."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lumina had considered that, the chance that another rat might have managed to dive so deep and swallow a clearly inedible and too large shiny object against all instincts... And while such a host would have been... Workable, the lack of a prior existing human life and intelligence, not to mention Ratty's larger than average (for a rodent) pool of magical energy, would have made it MUCH slower going, assuming a random bird of prey didn't end things straight away.
"No... It had to be you".
Lumina declared after some time in thought, really it did, there was no other creature in the forest in the right position with the right variables to become Lumina's host, and... Waiting was not an option, with how much Lumina had lost memory and knowledge wise, and how it had forgotten it existed for quite a while, thinking about more time at the bottom of that water was not a good path to go down.

The world seemed to speed up around Ratty, or were they slowing down? Their head felt hot and their eyes and neck hurt from some strange sudden strain, even Lumina seemed caught off guard and had it's train of thought obliterated by needing to process the sudden influx of information, filtering out as much as possible for what felt like hours but was really more like seconds.
Finally Lumina figured out how to cut off the spell and with a jolt the world sped back up and returned to focus, though the headache and neck soreness remained.
"D...Diagnostic cancelled.... Of thirteen hundred lifeforms in range.... Four hundred were scanned... Uhh... Providing local report?..."
Lumina seemed to still be lagging, and somehow seemed kinda... Drunk, or otherwise inebriated, either way definitely not functioning normally.
Still they managed to serve up what seemed like medical reports to the rat, Edric was still showing signs of exhaustion and strain everywhere, especially his heart, though nothing permanent, and also more small cuts and bruises than the rat could count easily, his magical energy was also basically empty, but slowly refilling itself, concerningly slowly compared to ratty's own regenerative ability.

Gora meanwhile was in a worse state, he had less cuts and bruises and less exhaustion, though a distinct shortage of sleep, his arm was obviously the main focus and it was quite a mess, old burns, severe scarring, large missing chunks, remnants of infection still lingering, combated by many herbal mixes, it might never reach full strength again but was still alive, there were also traces of infection in the blood, but the body seemed capable of fighting those itself.
In addition to all that were many bits of random information, some personal, some irrelevant or useless, their ages were there too, Edric at 21 and Gora at 22, they were still young men.

The two men in question had been staring at the rat child in increasing concern and almost fell back at the sudden words.
"Uhh... isnoproblem..."
Gora fumbled after a moment, really it wasn't, his wounds weren't the rat's problem for the most part, and from what he had heard, he might not still have his arm if not for the rodent's action.
"If anything... Thanks?... The uhh, Uhar, they said they couldn't fix my arm with the other guys around... And you beat their boss right?... Eddie said he helped but you did the most".
They both nodded at the offered truce.
"I mean, yeah that's fair, a home's a hard place to find, we're not gonna tell some more weirdos like Mallard where to find it so they can break in".
Edric assured them.
"Hey uhh, you mean it?... Like We can visit? And bathe?... I haven't had a hot bath.... Well ever..."
Gora asked, it seemed the big farm boy wanted to indulge in the pleasures of a bath.
"You're okay with that too right eddie?..."
He asked his smaller friend who simply signed and nodded.
"Not like we've got anything else to do, honestly with Mallard not reporting in and getting paid, i'd bet there are wanted posters for debt collectors right about now, so if you don't mind, we might need to lay low in the forest for a while... We're fine camping out if you can point us somewhere relatively safe, if not we'll see if any of the groups around here need some laborers... The elves are doing alright at farming but the Uhar folk don't have so much as a single field".

 

[Fyrra]

The biological equivalent of short-circuiting and losing a few minutes to the sudden influx of processes and the termination thereof left the ratling with a very blunt introduction to both what not to do haphazardly and the sheer scale of what one was able to accomplish with mere words if they had the magic touch. Even with the sheer number of reports to sift through, the ratling even mentally gaped at the amount of people that weren't scanned: over a thousand people in-range? Over a thousand by several hundred? The fort must have had a number of visitors coming in if all those life-forms scanned were people, and if they weren't, that just meant the range was even broader. But to calculate that out, the rat needed something... and of course, the splitting headache and neck-pains weren't helping things. The most it could get out of its knowledge-pool was that it wanted pie, for some reason. Whatever pie was. It sounded delicious, but it might be a touch above anything the goblins had cooking.

Well, maybe it was a good thing that the human part of its brain wasn't the brightest humanity had to offer. Something a little more apt to back down from a challenge might not have been able to be persuaded by Lumina into diving deep and chomping down, and it certainly wouldn't have chased a big scary human out of some good secluded nesting grounds, much less establish diplomatic ties with a city and a tribal council on top of that. Perhaps it was time for the rat to accept that it wasn't the only one gaining anything from its symbiotic relationship. As the creature's eyes suddenly refocused, it looked Edric over again.

"Tension... exhaustion... minor lacerations and abrasions all over, heart under some stress, nothing you do not already know. Stars above, we should set a radial limit next time. Too many people scanned. Magic is ridiculous." The rat blinked, then turned toward Gora. "lacerations, abrasions... burns, scarring, infection... ugh, we did a number on you and the passing week has not been kind. Looks like the medicine is helping... but rest isn't easy to come by, is it?"

The ratling suddenly shook its head, mentally setting aside hundreds of mental reports and notes it had little wish to further peruse. "Ah, no. Edric did all of the hard work. I just broke the floor, and the one guard, and the... he called himself a lord." Another blink, and then a grin. Something about that memory, bringing the hammer down upon the flickering remnants of the lich, felt right. It was still missing something, but this creature would do it all again just for that moment, if it didn't mean more lives would be at risk. "Yyyyyyeah, maybe 'beat' is too small a word for what we did to him. I would call surviving the encounter a victory in itself, but that guy was a problem, and not the edible kind of problem."

Further explanations from the pair of farmers helped draw the rat-child's attention away from the prospect of murder. For a moment, anyway. It did still need to find the one who sent Mallard out here to begin with, and rather than interrogate the farmers with useful knowledge and risk scaring the daylights out of them again, it could instead find debt collectors to rough up. Yes, debt collectors! People who preyed upon the destitute! That would solve the ratling's lack of coin, intel, and magical test subjects all in one go! Or it could... not murder people and draw attention to itself? Tough call. Perhaps the wisdom of the elders might be needed once more, at least on that subject. They had already expressed a satisfactory answer for people like Edric and Gora.

"Well, if you intend to abandon that job and not rat me out to that guy's employer, then we can do a little better than just camping out. I can get us some supplies, a little bit of extra food, maybe talk some builders into stopping by, and healing magic is on the mouse, because, I guess I can do that. Just learned a day ago. Did I mention magic is ridiculous?" Sure, Lizzy might have just said that it might be a good idea to keep quiet about that, but it might be a little relevant considering the state of these two, and the uhar might have some questions if the rat just let the wounds of its potential traveling companions fester. "I mean, it sounds better than it is. The walk down there is a little treacherous, and the bath is far from private. You, uh. You good with talking rats for company?"

While a good chunk of the negotiations were just making sure the duo was safe to bring home, another part was just trying to get any read at all on Edric: the guy was sharp, but this had been a disastrous week, and from what the rat knew of human nature, whether he'd accept someone looking out for him and not asking for much in return, or meet the offer with the kind of suspicion any human might have for a talking rat offering to use magic on his closest friend, was anyone's guess. There was also the possibility of him noticing just how familiar the rat-child was with human concepts, or the idea that its own kin talking might unsettle him.

"Ugh, of course there are debt collectors," the rodent commented aloud, disgust apparent in its tone, "I take it back, the shambling corpses are not nearly as bad as an infestation of them. By all means, my nest is open for as long as you need, as long as you do not hurt my people."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Lots of Uhar have arrived... All outside mostly".
Lumina declared, still in the almost drunk tone, it's internal processes slowed notably from needing to process all the information, Lumina had noted with some annoyance that it could not simply throw away the results of the diagnostic without looking at each one at least briefly, or forwarding them to the host, which would likely be much more damaging to an organic brain than a mineral based... Whatever Lumina had, though Lumina supposed they were entirely brain, having no idea what was inside the confines of their pearlescent exterior.
But yes, many more uhar had arrived and set up camp outside the fort, while mostly the older and younger ones were staying inside, as well as the obvious specialists such as cooks and medical professionals who needed the rooms and equipment within to do their work, it did beg the question of exactly how many Uhar were in the great forest.
"Setting 'pie' as priority objective".
Was Lumina's last comment before returning to processing all the reports with it's full attention, it also did not know what Pie was, but assumed it to be some sort of invaluable otherworldly tool that would aid in future adventures.

At least that WAS going to be the last thing it said, before Ratty thought something that Lumina felt the need to correct.
"I did not draw you in... I was not conscious, or perhaps alive?..."
It still wasn't sure really, turns out when you're starving without senses or any interaction with anything for... Probably at least a hundred years, time tended to blur a lot, as did memories.
"It may have been your own instincts..."
If it wasn't that brought up questions Lumina could not answer, and really didn't want to, something else having influence over it's host was threatening.

"Nah don't try that bashful stuff... It doesn't fit you, or at least I don't think it does".
Edric commented after a moment, refusing to take the role of hero here, sure he HAD helped and would accept thanks for his small part, but he was hardly the most important contributor.
"End of the day you and the lizar... Uhh, Lizzy right?"
He asked to correct himself, having heard the same said but not yet applied it to the woman who he had barely even spoken to before, and certainly not referred to by name with Mallard about.
"End of the day, you two did most of the damage there".
Honestly he would feel awkward and kinda gross taking too much of the credit, he didn't like those types of folks.

"Well even if we wanted to take up the job again for some dumb reason... We never met Mallard's employer, he hired us after the fact, didn't tell us anything, guess he thought we'd try and take the reward for himself or something... I will say it was in the city of Goliats, in the League, right on the border with the forest... Well, a day or so travel from it but basically right there, that's where we were picked up to join in and I'm pretty sure where he found the job".
Edric gave whatever information he had, which wasn't much, a large city was not exactly a small place to search for clues.

"Well, I doubt anyone would pass up food and better lodging... But I don't wanna just take for free, I like working for my keep when I can, if you need someone to hack down a tree or tend a field I can handle it, Gora's pretty handy at that stuff too".
He figured there had to be SOMETHING a bunch of unusually smart rats could use a couple of decently strong human shaped folks for, especially with the mention of building suggesting that they didn't intend to stay as just uncivilised or even tribal rats for long...
"And uhh, you seem decent enough to talk to so I'm sure the others will be alright conversation partners..."

Gora who had been mostly quiet apart from a few grunts until now seemed to take note at the mention of healing and perked up.
"Healing magic?... Like the magic kind not some holy blessing?... That's a rare power but... You really need to not let most folks know in the cities and stuff... I'm gonna guess you're not a mage guilder, so the church wouldn't hesitate to label you a criminal for it... Even some herbalists get in trouble if they're too good at what they do".
His sudden interest suggested that he might have some personal experience, or at least knew someone who did.

"Of course, Neither of us would hurt our hosts, besides if they're a fifth as tough as you... I doubt we even could".
Edric assured the rat, he added the second part at least partially as a joke to lighten the mood if he could, he had no reason to hurt anyone, even less so for the kin of someone he had fought beside.

 

[Fyrra]

If the pearl hadn't drawn the rat in, then... perhaps it was dumb for wanting to eat a rock? Or, perhaps some part of it could sense magic or power, and instinct took over? Lumina wasn't the last magical rock eaten, but by the most recent instance of this, it was at least established that certain things unfit for normal conception posed little threat to the ratling's esophagus. Also, if the majority of those gathered were not just on the surface, but outside the gates as well, that placed an impressive range on the diagnostic scanner. Not even several meters of dirt and stone could halt it. But, apart from that, it highlighted an important problem: there were people gathered outside, and some of them could probably use the rooms that were being occupied by guests.

It was time. Small talk with the boys notwithstanding, today was probably a good day to depart.

"Hm, not a good fit, huh? I guess not, but you still learned the layout of the top floor, located something we could use to our advantage in the fight, covered us both in the showdown itself, and kept me from experimenting too much on our adversaries. Doing some damage is doing some damage, but your contributions deserve credit. But, if you insist..." The rat trailed off, closing it eyes a moment before adopting a grin and trying out a low, chilling voice. "Eheheheh. Serves him right for calling himself lord and making a mess of things. He forgot the rules: if'n y'ain't down ta rumble, get yer bony arse out th'jungle. Aaaahahahahahaheheh." The creature punctuated its silly little soliloquy with what was supposed to be an intimidating laugh, but ended up just being awkward and shifty. "Maybe my evil laugh needs work."


The ratling's ears perked up at the mention of Mallard's employer's last known location. Of course, there was plenty of time for said employer to leave that place in a hurry now that they've indirectly agitated the people of an entire city, but any place to search for clues was as good as the next, once a semi-self-sufficient home had been established. "So, that place is most likely to have posted notices up... But if the employer never met you, and Mallard never told you anything, that should scarcely make targets of you... right?" Then again, witnesses and magic were factors at play. "We might be missing something." It might be a stretch, but maybe the problems affecting these two could be smoothed over by dragging Mallard's body back to his employer's office and telling them to stay out?

Well, assuming the local guards didn't mobilize a militia at the sight of an overgrown rat carrying a dead human. And that the body itself wasn't a charred, splattered, and possibly half-eaten-by-fish or anything else that might lurke down in the deep crevice. Yeah, that wasn't happening.

"Work, huh? I suppose I am the same way. We usually ask so little in return for getting involved in these... things." The rodent blinked, then suddenly faced the smaller of the vagrant farmers. "Edric, you are a genius. We can grab a few people from the two settlements here, bring them with us, and you can teach them how to tend a field. By the end of the cold season, they could bring this knowledge back to their homes, and everyone would be better off. Or, if you prefer a different line of work, I could ask you a hundred questions you might find irritatingly dumb."

The ratling took another chomp out of its meat-skewer, tearing it from the stick and chewing it down while listening to Gora. "Yeah, Lizzy said the same thing, but we are out here, and, well, for you it might be relevant." Again, talking with its mouth full, the rat took a moment to swallow, its gaze suddenly a little more intense. "The church, my nemesis... What is their problem? Do they have a doctrine against helping people, or do they simply demand to be the only healers around? Or, is it to bring grief to those they deem.... sssssssssinners?" This subject was definitely a sore point, and the headache wasn't helping matters. It took the ratling a few seconds to register that the intense bias and pains had to have come from somewhere. "We must have been here before.. Well, it might be good to know an herbalist. The nesting grounds are rich in herbs, and medicines could be better stocked, but there is only one of me."

That was the problem, wasn't it? The elders knew their trades, but they were busy being leaders for their people to rally behind.

The creature slowly stood up, still a bit dizzy from the diagnostic reports, but starting to grow a little more curious about the commotion upstairs. It had some matters to tie up before it could leave, but it was also possible that wasn't going to be such a simple matter either. The green-folk had only just nearly been taken over by a wielder of old magic when the tribes were at their most vulnerable after a disaster... and a hero arrived to save them, wielding a power that helps with wounds? And, it was possible that the troublemakers had made outside contact and caused trouble with the other settlements too. Uhar problem or no, this might at least deserve some attention.

"We should leave soon."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Please do not eat strange things... Without warning, It is required that I fortify your body beforehand..."
Lumina warned, having mostly recovered from it's odd state after shifting the reports off to look at later, preferably during the host's next sleep cycle where it wouldn't need to worry about distractions.
"This areas is filled with ambient magic leftover from the previous occupant... Taking control of and shaping it is relatively easy for the purposes of extending such a relatively simple spell..."
Indeed it had been so easy as to have happened instinctively when the spell was cast! Truly an embarrassing failure on Lumina's part.

"Ehh... Scouting isn't that hard, the guards weren't really well... Competent... And half of them seemed kinda drunk..."
He pointed out, doing the same bashfulness he had just told Ratty not to do, seemingly without realising it as in his mind it was the truth.
The boys waited patiently for Ratty to finish the laugh, as did several Uhar who had looked over to see the source of the strange noise as Ratty made a spectacle of themself.
"Yeah... It was... Definitely a laugh I guess..."
Edric awkwardly confirmed that part at least, it sounded more like a kid playing a game than something villainous... DID villains tend to laugh?

"Ahh... I doubt anyone is looking for Mallard honestly... Mercs die all the time and he wasn't even paid in advance... So they'd just hire someone else probably".
Edric explained, assuring Ratty that at the very least anyone else sent out here wouldn't care about Mallard apart from perhaps some curiosity about his eventual fate.
"Our debts are... Unrelated to him".
He had thought that much would be obvious, in fact the debts were the reason WHY they signed on with the bastard, not somehow a result of doing so, after all they would never have worked with such an obvious creep unless they needed a lot more money than they could earn with general labouring.

"Huh... That... IS work I guess, honest work at that".
He stroked a non-existent beard as he thought it over.
"I'm not sure how good a teacher I will be to be totally honest, but anything is better than what the Uhar currently have, which is nothing by the way... At least from what I can tell... Gora is good at teaching though".

He glanced over and earned a nod from the quiet man.
"Yeah, had to teach the new hires and smaller kids how to handle a field more than once... Never more than one or two at a time but with Eddie's help, I can probably handle larger groups".
Well it seemed decided, the boys were more than willing to teach the locals some farming techniques, they'd not be enough on their own to get real major agriculture started, their knowledge of the local soil was non-existent, and they probably only knew a few plants, but it was certainly a start.

The boys seemed a little unnerved at the church being openly declared a nemesis, they were raised rural and faithful, at least to the relevant gods for farmers... But decided not to comment on it, they had no idea what kinda beef a sentient, shape shifting rat mage could have with the church or how major it was, but it must have been pretty big to earn such words.
"It's... Difficult... Healing grievous wounds and diseases... It's viewed as a miracle, a divine act... A direct intervention from the gods who provide the power for it... Obviously mages can heal too, but that's explained as magic, learned and powered by known forces, the church has to tolerate it... Even herbalists are tolerated to a point but...
When they get TOO good... When they can compete with a spell, unless they can show what magic they used, the church declares them witches, unregulated, banned mages..."
Gora was speaking a lot on this subject, he seemed to not be too fond of certain things himself...

"Huh?... You wanna leave?... Well I guess you've probably got uhh... Rat person business to attend to?"
Edric questioned, having assumed Ratty would be just as, if not even more exhausted and in need of rest than he had been, and he was sure Ratty had not been out of it for anywhere near the length of time he had.

 

[Fyrra]

The warning about eating strange things carried a little more weight when the ratling remembered that it had almost died trying to choke down something a little too big before. Maybe it could show a little more caution around magical items or the remains of adversaries in the future, and not give in to spite-eating something that had clearly found a way to cheat death and probably had a workaround specifically for the possibility that it had been defeated and eaten by something. Saur might not have kept a cool head in a fight, but who knew how corpses perceived time? He'd been awake for a week. Maybe he was grumpy, but he probably wasn't stupid. Probably. He had his phylactery on him, after all, but perhaps that was a requirement for lichdom here?

The note on ambient magic was a little more interesting: not knowing how to look for that might be a hindrance later, but for now, Lizzy and Lumina were around. That might also be what led Lizzy to the other ruins in the first place, so it might be safe to assume that any future intruders would have one among their number versed in magic: a chore to deal with, but not one without reward.

The ratling visibly groaned and frowned upon being told most of the sentries must have been drunk or asleep. "Aw, hells, Y'mean I almost murdered a guy who wasn't just mind-controlled, but drunk too? That's even worse. Never mind that you're doing it too: had you not been here, I would have taken the most direct route through as many guards as I could. Probably." For all the talk about evil aspirations, taking somebody's life was still a pretty significant boundary when it was avoidable, or the victims in question not being fully in control of what made them the ratling's quarry. It glanced toward the ceiling, then back toward the farmers.

"So he was a mercenary? That..." The ratling trailed off, recalling that Mallard brought an emaciated spellcaster and two farmers into a trap-filled ruin and threatened to use them as meat-shields, if he hadn't been already doing that. In no capacity was this man a professional. He withheld information on the grounds that his hired help might betray him, because if the roles were reversed, he absolutely would. "Yeah, I guess I would expect failure from him too. He didn't give you guys food or equipment, and an axe would have scarcely registered as a threat to the guardian on the floor below. Might pin that on the employer... If they are sending people out here with only the promise of a reward, then it makes sense that the only takers are the ones in dire straits. Doesn't change that I haven't found their objective, beyond 'bring me shinies and I will pay you.' Tough call... Paying a visit directly might be the only way to put a stop to them sending unwanted guests." The creature blinked. "Or... desired guests? We could get lucky and be sent another batch of people in need of a safe place to live, in the middle of nowhere. But that means building such a thing. Either way, thanks again for the information."

Musing over the agricultural plans, the ratling glanced back toward the ceiling. "The uhar have a more urgent need for fields than my people. The nest is big, but most of us know how to forage. Thing is, if you're here, it's possible to be seen. But, that's..." How does one gauge the threat-level of debt-collectors without knowing how they operate? Were they like professional bounty hunters, or more like office-workers with connections to merchants and trackers? "How persistent are debt collectors? There were witnesses in that one village." and yet another situation that could turn into a 'bodies to dispose of' problem. "Not that I'm gonna back out on ya or anything. It's just, coin is scarce." Plus, the nature of the debts just wasn't any of the ratling's business: prying the reason out of them did nobody any favors, and the amount would probably be posted on any relevant... parchment?

Huh. Perhaps learning to read was unavoidable after all. And the way Gora explained it, one could understand taking the church's side on the issue of healing magic. The ratling paused, its frown diminishing from one of disdain toward one of discomfort: the word 'witch' definitely resonated with something, but so did 'regulate.' "Ah, right. I suppose I understand: you cannot have just anyone mucking around inside someone's body. Too easy to break something by accident, or on purpose." It flicked its tail, considering the perspective... and almost immediately jumping to the conclusion of that was just what the church told the public, because they despise the notion of not being in control of everything. Laws, land, peoples' daily lives, Everything. For another few seconds the creature just stood there, staring at nothing, before it sighed: that intrusive opinion..

"And there is no way to explain how a rat knows the inner workings of the human body like I do, even if it's incomplete knowledge, much less one out here, away from civilization, without raising far too many questions they will not like the answers to... I mean, you two are worth trusting, You've got'cher heads on better than I did at your age, and you're talking to... a mage that either screws up something basic or outperforms a trained caster in some way or another: once a sensible person, by and by a fool, presently a beast. It's possible my judgment is too hasty: too easy to just assume churches like to burn their witches and heretics in public, you know? Almost everything I've learned about human culture is old enough it might not even be relevant anymore, and-" Wait, when did the creature learn about the burnings?

The ratling wasn't sure how far to go with its questions, but this space was too public to just come out and say the creature was from another planet, formerly a human, or even what a planet was. Even this much might clue somebody in. It shook its head, let out a long breath, and calmed its nerves. "And, it's fine. Just gotta remind myself, the world isn't just angry corpse-tyrants and stalker-giants; there's people just try'na make it through the cold season, just like us." Cue another agitated tail-flick. The calming-focus wasn't working: the rat-child just wanted to go home and hug something, or someone, but one doesn't just go and do that to most of the people it knew. It pointed up toward the ceiling after a moment. "Not leaving immediately. Just, soon. Up there, there are... lots of people. I don't mind getting involved in uhar problems, they're good neighbors, but I've got rat problems, and they probably want the room we're using for someone else."

The creature smiled.

"If the elders agree to our plans, we won't be traveling alone. I can try to fix your arm up before we head out too. Just need to find a quiet room, and I guess, some rest afterward. It's been... nice?" The rat blinked again. "Yeah! It's been nice meeting you. This was much better than the first time we crossed paths. Did you want to come with me to talk with the elders? We can probably negotiate some payment for your help."

The creature could cross 'getting information out of the farmers' from its mental checklist. That left... bringing a syol scout to the old nest, discussing the agriculture proposal with the elders, and investigating the ruins' magic with one of the elf-mages, and investigating what was going on upstairs: a busy enough day, but so much less hectic than another pitched battle with the corpse brigade.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"His... Phylactery?..."
Lumina seemed unfamiliar with the word but presumed it referred to the core and source of his magical power and existence from the way Ratty thought of it.
"It was chained... Attached to him, tightly, not by his power".
Someone else had been at work at some point it seemed, perhaps chaining a lich directly to their phylactery was some sort of method of punishment or sealing?
He HAD been trapped under those ruins after all, in such a secure and deep sleep that potentially generations of Uhar had been there and never taken notice or woken him by accident before, whoever had sealed him must have been strong indeed, so it was odd that they had not finished the job.

"I can think of plenty of occasions a drunken guard could be just as or more deserving of a beating as a sober guard..."
Edric assured Ratty with... Surprising venom in his tone actually, he seemed to be no fan of guards though perhaps projecting it on unrelated peoples and guards was not the healthiest coping mechanism for... Whatever had happened to him to earn guards such unexpected venom from the usually level headed man, strangely it wasn't that difficult to think of possible things that could have happened.

"Yeah... I guess you could call him a mercenary... He wasn't official though, no links to any of the established guilds or organisations, I think he was technically operating illegally, didn't wanna pay his dues... I think he was in more debt than we are".
Edric explained, casually revealing that there was indeed some sort of mercenary guild or guilds, which expected payment for membership.
"Then again, so were we..."
He continued before letting out what almost seemed like a laugh.
"Yeah, he didn't even arm us, I don't know what he was expecting if we ran into anything, maybe he just liked to boss people around and figured our tiny cut was worth it for the chance to give orders, no idea how he got Lizzy though, she was there already".
Oh he seemed to have learned her name at some point.

"Ahh... Right the debts... Well it's not the world's biggest debt, but still sizable, I doubt they'd do anything illegal or even come into a place like this to find us, they can generally hold their own in a fight, but without support from local government, guards and mercs to find and catch us, they don't generally bother, so we should be fine to hang around here and help out, I really don't think the Uhar or the umm, Syol? I only just learned the right word today... But yeah they don't seem the type to trek out to the cities and turn us in".
Ahh good, the debt collectors couldn't function without contacts, so staying put was safe for the farm boys, did this count as political asylum?

Gora confirmed Ratty's assumptions about burnings with a nod.
"Yeah, you... You're an unknown race with really powerful magic that came out of nowhere, you'd probably be burned... With their 'holy flame' as they call it... It's umm, a divine flame that burns a lot slower somehow, I dunno I don't know much about magic, but I've heard it's a lot worse than a normal wood fire".
He may have respected the gods a bit more than Ratty but Gora seemed a little sick as he explained this so called holy flame.

 

[Fyrra]

If nothing else, the circumstances surrounding the lich and the elders' story about him held up under scrutiny: if the power source was attached by a chain, then there's a chance the old adventurers who put a massive dent in Saur's campaign did do a lot of work to hobble him into the state he was fought in. Phylactery was a strange word, though. Prodding at the mental abyss for context about where it came from produced more Nothing than the creature liked, but that in itself was a good enough answer: more of those 'this is not real, do not worry about it' notes that turned out to be wrong a good indication to never say the word out loud, lest a passerby deem the creature just a little too knowledgeable on the subject.

"Oh, absolutely," the rodent acknowledged Edric's disdain for guards, "to care more about a theft than the starving or injured person that the theft is for is on the low end of those reasons, but still, that whole night was a mess. For the uhar, it probably still is: every one of those shambling corpses was once a person, most likely from around here. If someone's come looking for them, they will either learn that our green hosts were responsible for the deaths, or that the guy calling himself Lord was. It's a hairy situation either way. Explaining it to anyone not involved sounds unpleasant." Never mind that just burning all the corpses and telling everyone involved to keep quiet about the ordeal was the smartest option: the truth, that a pair of vagrants led by a rat charged in to slay the lich responsible, just sounded like it was made up from a folk tale.

folk-tail? No, that title didn't fit either. The ratling considered more of the details surrounding Mallard, flicking its tail about in the meantime.

"Well, other than the precarious situation here, you couldn't have chosen a better place to disappear to. The uhar and syol people have a nice philosophy. They appear to take in anyone in genuine need of shelter, just as the one called The Arraness did for them when they first arrived." It would be pretty bad if it turned out Pellinta had made the whole thing up just to paint the syol settlement in a sympathetic light, or used the story to manipulate personal gain, but she didn't seem the type to do that. Besides, if that needed to be investigated, the rat could just ask anyone about The Arraness, or the elder herself, revered figures that they were. "I suppose, if nothing else, it's a practice we'll adopt as well. It's a big jungle out here."

The creature's ears flattened back at the mention of a 'holy flame.' One likely didn't need to explain that the most likely method was that it was something designed to attach itself to somebody's soul and consume that. Never mind how that would work: if anyone knew how, it would be the organization that.... steals mens' souls and forces them into servitude? Maybe that was a little overdramatic, but as far as the church being a threat, if Gora's answers were reliable then the rat's instincts identifying the church as a massive threat were right on target. Strange that its survival-instincts were spent on things invented by people, but this was all beginning to make sense now, and Gora was looking worse for wear. Was it the injury?

No, maybe not. Even down an arm, the guy still had it in him to help out around the fort. The rat stopped itself from leaving upon noticing just how sickened Gora looked, and stared for a moment, until something clicked. "Oh, your sister the herbalist... My apologies, this must be an uncomfortable subject." The way Edric had mentioned Gora's sister off-hand, that he remembered what she smelled like, it didn't sound like she'd met an untimely end. Not like this, anyway. But, if she was competent at all, it did sound like this would have been the fate that awaited her. How many nights must Gora have wondered about this? "Well, if you need time, I can do something else, and give you more of a chance to rest. Getting over to Enial and back with new tools will take a night or three anyway."

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

"Well, I'm not exactly an expert on undeath and corpses and that, but a lot of the bodies were straight up skeletonised, no flesh at all, so they were pretty old I'm guessing, and also human looking... Aren't a lot of humans around here, maybe just the periphery and if their people and dead started vanishing... They're not the types to just stay at home and let it happen, all retired adventurers and their kin, well mostly, there's one town full of a bunch of the rudest merchant types I've ever met".
It sounded like the boys too had encountered that one town that looked down on Ratty and Liz, seemingly willing to drive off customers with rudeness, no wonder the town had seemed relatively poor and rundown even with such high prices.

"Yeah they... Honestly are quite shocking, They've been nothing but good to us since we arrived honestly... Even before retaking this fort they really just wanted us to stay put and rest, I didn't see a lot of the goblin or elf folk back home, all I ever heard was the kind of stories parents use to scare their kids, but as far as I can tell they're all just stories, these guys definitely aren't sitting on piles of stolen teeth or killing babies to make blood bread..."
He didn't mention which group was supposedly responsible for which fake crime, but with things like that being told as children's stories it wasn't hard to see why pogroms were so relatively common in the neighbouring countries, especially the big empire.

"Church... Is a predatory pack".
Lumina suggested out of nowhere, having been trying to discover why instincts might paint it as such a threat.
"It is simply a dominant pack that has adapted to human society... Consuming resources for their own gain and destroying those who might threaten them".
Lumina didn't sound emotional about it, this wasn't coming from some shared hatred of an institution they knew nothing about apart from scattered fragments of memory, but rather a cold, calculated observation on the function of a church.
Needless to say Lumina had already decided religion was a threat, having quickly determined that conflict between the church and it's host was inevitable.
"If possible... This Holy flame should be observed".
Lumina wanted a chance to witness this so called holy magic and see if it could be understood and defended against, or even emulated, of course that was unlikely as it required witnessing an execution of a 'heretic' and not intervening.

"It's... It's alright, far as I know she's still alive... Left before the church noticed her, and they would have eventually, she is really good, saved a bunch of the village when they got really sick with the burning plague, after that she figured it was just a matter of time till they came for her, no idea where she is now though".
There was pride in his voice, and a rare genuine smile, he must have been close with his sister before she left.
"Yeah, we might take that chance, farm work is hard work, best not to tackle it until we're at full strength, besides, if we're gonna do this I wanna ask those elders for some young, strong folks eager to learn, no point trying to teach the oldies or the ones who already have a job".
Edric commented, seemingly to quietly imply to Gora that he should be resting more.

 

[Fyrra]

Suddenly, Edric's decision to hit that village all those days ago made a lot of sense. Without coin to pay for medicine, the wrath of a bunch of misers sounded far less immediately lethal than that of retired survivors-of-the-catacombs, or whatever an adventurer around these parts specifically was. Sure, the misers had money and possibly connections, but everyone else had knives and knew how to use them, which made them more of a threat to Tomorrow's Edric, or Next Week's Edric. "So it wasn't just us that they had problems with," the creature mused, considering the potential troubles that might present themselves when visiting the periphery villages. If nothing else, it was starting to sound like a stroke of luck that the rat had only antagonized the one village without a viable and persistent threat ready to pursue it, and maybe the others weren't the sorts of places to go brandishing a hammer without good reason.

"Blood bread?" the ratling inquired, perplexed by the idea that one would find nutrition in such a thing. Maybe somebody had been likened to a vampire? The thing about stolen teeth was a bit more obvious: teeth were bones, and magic could be extracted from bones, therefor the ones who hoarded teeth were wizards. Or... faeries? Never mind that children had less blood in their bodies than adults: sticking to this subject would just make everyone uncomfortable. "no, that makes sense in its own way. The old wizards sound like they were keen to use anything they could for spell-kindling, and not so keen on taking 'no' for an answer. Give it enough time and the stories could be changed to portray somebody else as something to be feared." Or, y'know, just closed-off communities needing to perpetuate the lies their parents told them?

The rat-child almost recoiled at the thought of the church being a pack: wolves were packs, and those were just big fluffy dogs that liked to sing. But, yeah, that sounded sort-of right. The church was like that brotherhood of funny-hat people, assimilating all it could and destroying what it could not. Maybe they were the same thing? As far as observing the holy flame in use... it could be done. Getting close enough might alert the ones capable of wielding such a power, but if the rat could lay off the public blasphemy and maybe get involved with a guild, that could be enough of a shield to provide a safe vantage point. Or, was the whole 'observe without intervening' thing the actual factor that would make the scenario unlikely? Foiling a priest was one thing, but to foil a high priest... That was big. Even murdering might prove more dangerous than leaving such an adversary alive after making a fool of them, which meant that Lumina's idea was probably the smartest course of action.

"So, somewhere around Goliats, maybe a few days out, maybe elsewhere," it repeated as though to make a mental note, "any other contacts I should be aware of? I would prefer not to mistake a trusted friend for a debt collector's bloodhound," as unlikely as it would be that somebody would just ask the ratling about a pair of missing farmhands. Still, they were seen with Lizzy, no? "That is impressive, to fight a plague without power at one's fingertips. To lose such a healer would bother anyone."

The creature clasped its hands together. "Very well then: we'll postpone the payment negotiations until our return, and in the meantime I'll go get us some tools. We just need... a hoe, a sickle, some seeds, a shovel, and... a bucket? Perhaps a few other things? It wouldn't hurt to have an extra axe and hammer about as well." Everything was coming together. This was a good feeling. "But I suppose that just leaves your arm. I... imagine re-growing the parts that got cut out is either going to itch or hurt if you've got your wits intact while I work."