Mahou-Shoujo

Useless Goddess
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. Multiple posts per week
  3. 1-3 posts per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
  2. Transgender
Genres
Yuri, Magical Girl, High Fantasy, Sci-fi, Ray-gun Gothic, Mecha, Steam punk. Scifi Apocalyptic,
Darkness... That's all you knew, was...was this the afterlife? Or perhaps just a limbo for those who just couldn't go on? You had no sensation, no breath, no name, in a moment of clarity you realized you didn't have a body either, yet were unable to feel any emotion in response to this, at least wherever this place was seemed to have a calming effect... Maybe you could just sleep...
An indeterminable time later you awakened, if indeed you had been sleeping at all, and felt rather than saw a dim light, just as you felt the words that soon filled the void.
"There you are! Humans are usually so easy to find here... Well, it only took a little while longer than expected... A few years at most, now... Let's take you somewhere safer, I'm not actually supposed to be here you see..."
Moments later things seemed to change, it was still dark, but felt warmer? In an abstract way though, there was still no physical sensation.
"So... Introductions introductions... Hi! I'm your guardian angel! Well, not really but I always wanted to say that... I HAVE been watching you though... This world hasn't been kind to you... And really you don't seem to fit it at all! But don't worry, I'm gonna take pity on you and help you out... It won't be much, if I made you a king or something I'd get in trouble... But you'll be free at least, I'll even put you in a safe place! No mean humans or angry predators at all, and plenty of friends and family to keep you company!"
The voice was an odd mix of calming and energizing, and the owner seemed to have some genuine care in their tone, though it was difficult to tell for sure while only perceiving words in this strange way.
"Now now, no need to thank me, you couldn't right now anyway! Anyway... This... This is probably gonna be kinda weird for you, but I'll do my best to make sure you can use your new body... And can learn to fit in faster."
The voice assured, feeling perhaps just a little apologetic.
Well, have a nice life! And if any spirits give ya trouble tell em I sent you!"
With those last few words everything faded...

Moments later, a rat like creature came into existence, the grass was long enough that no other rat had noticed the suddenness of the appearance, but they certainly noticed the cries of a cold, confused baby, the being had delivered on it's promise, placing the soul within a body where they would be safe and surrounded by kin, but sadly, the creature's new brain was simply too simple, and all memories of a past life were sealed, too confusing to parse.
Fortunately the rats were at heart, kind creatures, and with how their numbers had dwindled over the years, they were glad for every child, one father rat in particular had been looking for food for it's new born family... And quickly discovered and retrieved the lonely child, after all, one more child was more warmth in the nest!
The mother rat was more than happy with this new family member, and would raise it as her own.
 
Darkness could have been anything, but to call it a comfort might be a stretch for most people. In a moment of clarity, a lost soul might realize their presence here might trigger a calming effect on them, but this one in particular had no strong feelings whatsoever about their presence in what must have been some sort of purgatory, or even a voice to do so with. Even after a light slumber, curiosity should have prodded this one to at least investigate what was going on: clearly the nothingness wasn't all-consuming, but it wasn't as though any nihilistic beliefs held in life were being proven wrong... until somebody else showed up. The claim that this somebody was a guardian angel put the lost soul on the defensive, if not outright hostile, but being new to even the basics of not-having-a-body would make such a thing laughable.

My very own stalker, huh? Well if you were really going to help me out, you'd know that I've no desire for any of those things.

It wanted neither pity, nor help, nor a crown and the responsibilities that came with it, nor freedom. Even with a burst of energy radiating into its essence, the bleak soul fizzled out as though it were searching of any means of escape, or even just a continuation of its aimless drifting in slumber. What was a few more years, when put up against the emptiness that persisted here? Even with warmth in the new domain, one could slumber for an eternity. Unfortunately, the mysterious host deigned not to have guests overstaying their welcome in this void either.

New body? Fit in?

The realization finally hit a bell: the afterlife was a queue for reincarnation. A wave of dread washed over the soul.

No, none of that. No new bodies, no family, Stop! Detene! Rawestan!

The panicked thoughts went unheard, untranslated, perhaps even unspoken? What does one do, when they have no mouth and they must scream?

Everything became a blur, and suddenly the soul had life again, reincarnated as a some sort of rat-like creature of near-birth in age. The screams had sound, but no longer did reason fuel them. Either luck or deliberate placement put it within hearing range of another of its kind, and not a predator of some sort, and it was quickly picked up and carried away, presumably to some nest. Food and sleep, at the very least, put its cries to rest. Without the capacity to process the old memories, none present would suspect anything was off about this situation.
 
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The new ratling had arrived in the perfect place for such a creature, having appeared in the grasses around a fairly well established burrow, with enough food that they would never go hungry, the plant life in the area seemed almost infinite with how fast it grew, and the flavour was good even for a former human's tastes, of course, this former human had no memories of a past life that they could reach, and so would be lovingly raised by it's adoptive family.
The mischief of rats were significantly smarter than their common kin, perhaps reaching the levels of a human toddler at their smartest, they were smart enough to feel fear from predators, and a sadness at their dwindled numbers, having been attacked by human poachers before moving to the new Burrow.

The Ratling's life would be peaceful and mostly noneventful, just as the strange entity had promised, and most likely they would continue to live as such until they passed away...
Of course, that was disregarding the natural human curiosity that hadn't quite faded, and one day while eating near the river that ran through the bountiful clearing, the ratling found it's attention drawn to a glimmering pearl at the bottom of the water, the shining sphere almost begging to be picked up by it, maybe even stored away in a burrow...
If the ratling were to give into it's instincts, and attempt to retrieve the pearl, they would find themselves shocked on contact, causing the pearl to slide down it's throat as it worked with a burning intensity to expand the simple creature's mind.
 
The needs of a common animal were simple enough, and with as many moons that must have passed, everything seemed to blur together: a cycle of seeking warmth, eating anything that dared go uneaten outside the warren, and cleaning the nest of waste, each day nearly forgotten by the time the next rolled around with its monotony. This rat couldn't tell why, but something always seemed to keep it irritated: it would wander a bit farther than the rest, climb things it probably shouldn't, and search for peculiar stones to collect.

One stone in particular should have been missed, but the creature had found its way to a stream one day having developed a habit of swimming for fun. All it took was a glimpse, but the sparkle of distorted sunlight reflecting off the loose pearl had ensnared this ratling's attention. It surfaced, and dove again, swimming all the way down to the floor and digging past larger, duller rocks to find the misplaced pearl, and when the object was found, it was grasped in a hand... and then subsequently let go, the sudden jolt upon contact enough to make the rat screech.

A few tiny air bubbles drifted toward the surface, and the rodent soon after. It needed a moment on the surface to rest, and for the world to make sense again. Everything was a blur for several minutes, but when the rat regained its senses, it knew that pearl could not be left behind. It dove again, and another shock sent it back to the surface. The shock didn't last as long, but it may have fried the rat's judgment. On the third dive, it lunged with its teeth, and the contact was just numbed enough for the rat to not inhale water into its lungs from the shock.... but it still swallowed more than it could bear.

Climbing to the surface, it heaved in an attempt to expel the stone from its throat. For several minutes it coughed, but whatever drove the pearl inside was stronger, and pulled itself further in. At some point the rat tried drinking from the stream to force some movement... but instead of having the intended effect, it just helped the pearl into its stomach, lost forever for probably a few days while biology ran its course. And then it collapsed in the grass.

RIP dumb rat.
 
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Several other rats had been nearby and stopped to watch the strange one diving into the water, sure plenty of them swam, and sometimes even ate things from the water, but never tried to dive so deeply and certainly not multiple times, if they wanted something and it was too deep to easily access, they stopped wanting it.
Their curiosity changed to concern as they crowded around during the changes, clearly panicking and likely assuming they had eaten something toxic.

Meanwhile the burning, shocking sensation from the pearl quickly spread throughout the rat's entire body, especially around the head, becoming almost unbearable for several seconds before stopping, a cool soothing sensation replacing it... But the rat had much bigger things to focus on, as it was buffeted by strange thoughts, feelings and memories seemingly at random, hurting it's head before everything began to make sense again as the pearl further worked on it's mind.

The rat was no longer a mere mindless animal, having had it's mind strengthened to around that of an average human! It was of course an incredibly draining process though, and with what seemed to be merely a blink the rat would awaken to find itself outside at night, having lost an entire day, the soothing sensation from the pearl was gone too, though at least there was no stomach ache and it appeared one of the parent rats was dragging it back home, having decided that the all day nap had gone on a little too long but failing to rouse it's slumbering kin.
 
Pain. Was this what pain felt like? A bite was one thing, but a headache was quite another for the animal.... for however long it lasted. Either a particularly developed immune system or something equally arcane to the rodent's mind must have been at work. Everything became a blur, and before it could make sense of the myriad of painful and confusing sensations, it had collapsed in the grass. The memories that flooded in were of no help: to recall a previous life as a sapient creature would be a sign of madness, but at the same time, something had clearly gone wrong. The rat could simply disregard the memories as though they were a dream, but forgetting them when they blurred into memories of foraging and sleeping as a rodent might be beyond its power.

But this day it learned that reincarnation was no longer just a philosophical hypothesis, but one that had some merit. Perhaps it could be called a theory?

The rat squeaked when it came to. Everything and nothing made sense. A vague recollection of screaming into the void at something, possibly the entity that turned it into a rat, came to mind, but again, it felt more like a weird dream than anything else. And its head still hurt. And the ground was rough. It looked over to see another rat pulling it through the grass... and tugged its limb away, getting to its feet. Another squeak. How does one ask why it wasn't left for dead? That the rat should ponder this question first didn't strike it as unusual.

Today was too much to take in. Even sleeping all day didn't give enough energy to process everything. It looked at its hands, then at its feet. They were different from the rats it remembered from its previous life: covered in fur, with the feet having large nails on the toes. This must have been a different world?

For now, it followed the larger rat, exhausted. Understanding biology and putting together a visual of the world around it could wait until the sunrise.
 
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The older rat seemed quite visibly relieved as the newly intelligent creature came to, even a creature as simple as it was could still display emotion as simple as that it seemed, then again, these were hardly normal rats, while before the reincarnated rat had been too simple to consider it, these were quite different from other more mundane creatures, they would go out of their way to rescue their own kind rather than leave them to die or even eat the body like some other rat creatures, showing they had a strong sense of kinship with each other.
They even shared food with each other if any of them were unable to find enough to feed itself.

After a good feed of whatever the rats had managed to gather in a big pile that day, the reincarnated rat creature was more or less left to it's own devices, apart from the occasional check up from a curious or concerned rat, did it smell different now? Or were they just worried that it seemed so tired after so much sleep? Hard to tell with such simple minded beings.
Either way exhaustion would soon catch up and drag the ratling back into sleep.

For perhaps the first time in it's new life the rat had dreams worth remembering, filled with glimpses of the past that soon faded into much stronger images and concepts, strongest among them being the concept of a name, an identity and sense of self, it appeared that whatever had caused the sudden change in intelligence was encouraging the rat to think about such things, though gave little if any clues to the Rat's previous identity, not that an old name like that would likely even fit in this new world.
 
In the end, it was the uplifted one that was acting strange. Any ideas that the other ratlings weren't companionable were only brought on by the flood of indistinct memories, but even then those were not about these rats in particular: for rodents to empathize with one another was normal, and so far the differences between what the reincarnated one knew of the others, and what was observed here, were largely phenotypical. Still, something was wrong, and the others dropping to check on them were probably onto something, considering the sudden change in behavior. This one roamed a bit further than most, but before tonight it was at least sociable. After a quick feeding, it was lying on its back, tucked away in a corner of a burrow: breathing, moving, but not looking particularly active.

Perhaps it was sick after all?

The nights dreams brought with them conflict and turmoil: this was home, but it was also foreign. The other rats were friends, but also mere (albeit intelligent) animals. The reincarnated one's body was wrong somehow, for the first time in its new life: the hands made sense, and to a degree the legs did as well, but something still felt off and it couldn't place a finger upon it. The tail that had been attached for its entire life.... actually wasn't a big deal. It provided balance, and an extension of the rat's sense of touch. But, being the only major conflict of presence between the two memories, it led to the answers eluding the rat.

At some point, the dream's machinations tried to turn further inward, in an attempt to pull the rodent's attention from that mystery and toward its future, to decide who or what it is, and how to express that to others: a name, for it and it alone. The idea stuck itself among the rat's thoughts like an invasive intruder, repeatedly dismissed out of apathy: a name holds no purpose, when only one of the collective has purpose for it. To speak a name was beyond the creature's abilities as well, but it didn't stop the intrusive thoughts. Eventually the rodent gave up on trying to reject the ideas it was being pushed to consider, compromising that it would at least think about it again later.

Its eyes scanned over the other inhabitants of the burrow, before feeling another intrusion. They would need names as well, it considered.... before scurrying out to the surface, and seeing the world in an entirely new light. Memories had taught the rodent the basics of predator-and-prey, but what they missed before the uplifting process was that people were here. To have people, meant having civilization. It was to be avoided due to the danger, but within that danger lurked any clues concerning what must have happened.

Having foraged in the general vicinity and surrounding lands before, the rodent tried searching its memories for any place that stood out: other nests, locations with people, abandoned buildings.... architecture? Anything at all to put together some clues about the world surrounding it.
 
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The other rats acted somewhat warily once their newly intelligent kin returned to the land of the waking, sure their instincts still marked it as kin, as one of them, much like the intelligent rat's own instincts still told them the other rats were kin, if rather dumb kin.
But, their instincts also told them it was something more... Something strange and scary and oddly familiar, in the end they decided to merely keep a safe distance, in case it was something they could catch, as they oddly enough had basic knowledge of what a disease was and how one might spread, they were also staying well away from the stream that the smart rat had been in the prior day, not that it was difficult as most didn't bother swimming.

The rat's memories were at first difficult to call up, many of them were discarded as unimportant and barely remembered, but with a slight warmth in it's stomach they sharpened and returned to focus.
The area they were in was uninhabited by sentient peoples for the most part, there were occasionally some hunters and a few isolated settlements, but it seemed for the most part they were in a frontier of monsters and wilderness... One thing that did draw some attention despite not being considered anything worth noticing in the past, were the many ruins that dotted the wilderness, signs of a culture long lost.
As it was contemplating these memories, some more images that were very much NOT from it's memory flashed into it's head, showing what looked like at least one village within a day's travel, and a particular ruin likewise a day away, judging from the warmth in it's stomach, the stone it had swallowed was most likely responsible, strange that it hadn't seemed to move in the rat's stomach, but it didn't feel heavy or full or anything like that.
 
It had been a cold night, apparently: whatever had happened, falling asleep early in a corner of the burrow hadn't led to the others piling on top for warmth. All it took was eye contact to understand: fear. Fear gripped the others, because change is scary? The strange rat paused: somehow the others knew something was up, just from witnessing the prolonged sleep. Or, perhaps they were just wary of that and taking precautions. Another problem, but the only solution was time: time spent easing their fears, and showing that nothing was wrong. All this one had to do was not drop dead over the next few moons.

After several minutes of focusing, the rat discovered something: memories were hard, and they faded quickly. Before today, in any case. Asking the others for help would get nowhere, which meant the vermin was on its own with a full day ahead and much to accomplish, even if much of what could be accomplished for the day was merely walking and getting a snack along the way. To think these lands it had been foraging in for its entire life were full of abandoned ruins, something terrible must have happened, for the surrounding area to have become so underdeveloped that monsters had made it their home.

The rat scurried onward, perplexed by the warmth in its stomach as it divined the location of one specific ruin in particular: one it had never seen before, but somehow knew was there. It wasn't until a few hours into the journey that the rat started to piece together that the weird pearl was responsible for this change in priorities, from mindless feeding to exploration and deduction, but as the great ball of fire in the sky rose, the rodent's thoughts wandered further: why was this peculiar stone being so helpful, and who created it? Another mystery for another time, but perhaps the answer to that lie in the ruins being pointed out? In any case, it seemed less dangerous than investigating the village(s).
 
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The stone almost seemed to confirm that something bad had indeed happened with several pulses of warmth, though it was impossible to tell, for all the rat knew the pulses were a completely random occurrence, after all, the pearl WAS a completely unknown magical artefact from the bottom of a river, for all it knew the pearl could be some sort of parasite or deadly magical weapon just waiting to go off and kill it and everything else near it! Of course the fact that the rat was even smart enough to consider such possibilities was all the work of said pearl, and it would make no sense to uplift a rat to near if not full sentience just to kill it or take over, no, there was definitely some sort of motive to the pearl's actions... But as it didn't seem to speak english (ratlish?) it was impossible to tell.

The journey was a peaceful one, while there was no shortage of monsters in the woods, most were too large or picky to eat a single rat, or even expend the energy required to catch one, and those that would take the time to hunt a rat were easily dodged with the combination of rat instincts and the expanded mind curtesy of the weird pearl, there were also numerous things to eat, plants, bugs, even the remains of a dead bird at one point, assuming the rat could stomach the suddenly less appealing meat, the pearl seemed to almost radiate disgust at the idea of eating a raw, half eaten dead bird, spreading the feelings to it's host... It seemed there were some downsides.

It was near the end of the journey that the sound of jangling metal and strange, unrecognisable voices reached the ratling, the ruins were only at most an hour away according to the memories from the pearl, so it was quite a bit of bad luck to have an encounter so close...
The sounds came from a party of four, the rat's mind fetched and presented the word 'Human' to it, as well as seemingly regarding the weapons carried by the group as dangerous.
With a pulse of heat from the pearl and a slight headache for a moment, the strange human noises suddenly became clearly understandable.
"You better not be lying about the loot lizard..."
A guttural masculine voice barked out.
"I.. I'm not! I told you it's close... Just please be patient..."
A distinctly more feminine voice answered.
"Good... If there's enough loot there maybe we will let you go when we're done..."
 
The warm feeling in the rodent's stomach was a strange sort of communication: foreign, and at times unpleasant, but overall the creature had yet to sink its efforts into finding a way to expel the pearl from its innards. What was a headache or three, in the face of scurrying around larger predators and outmaneuvering once-terrifying birds of prey? An annoyance, to be sure, but only a temporary one. It only took the pearl's distaste at the opportunity to munch on a decaying bird's half-eaten body for the rat to realize that the item might be sentient, and at first the rat wondered why. Then, it put together a list of possible reasons: decaying, avian, raw (???), disease, half-eaten. Surely one of these things was significant to the pearl, and singling it out would make understanding it easier. Another experiment for later. (those were just adding up quickly, weren't they?)

Evading the threats of the wood was not enough to hold the rodent's attention, it would appear, until the sound of metal ringing in the distance met its ears. Against its better judgment, said rodent moved in to investigate, keeping to the shadows and behind a tree. It winced at a sudden pulse from its stomach, confused (and a little wobbly) when the foreign barking between the creatures turned into words with meanings. Still, the observation continued: three fleshy creatures that walked on two legs, and one covered in scales. The sound of the metal garments sparked some of the rodent's other memories, helping it piece together a little bit of the world at large, but only one word was retrieved: human. Hugh Mann. The rat puzzled over the concept of words, but as the strange creatures' barking continued, the other memories seeped in to provide clarification.

Lizard: That scaled creature.
Loot: A device of some sort.
Close: a location, nearby.


The creature inferred that this peculiar group must have been traveling to the same destination: an interesting coincidence, but also an annoyance. Were it not for the pearl signalling that danger was underfoot, its host might have crept closer. For now, however, observations continued. Ratling dared not scurry ahead and leave this group right behind it.
 
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The rather limited method of communication the pearl had with the rat made it difficult to determine exactly why it was so against the idea of eating the dead bird, since the heat took a fair amount of time to fade after each thought, it seemed like it had problems with everything to do with eating that particular meal, though the disease part was seemingly the worst offender, as the disgust was almost a physical sensation in that case.
Was it possible the pearl was somehow a picky eater? Or was it just protecting it's host from what it perceived as a danger? Either way it clearly had an agenda of it's own, which admittedly was quite frightening considering it was clearly magical and INSIDE the rat and seemed capable of drawing on it's energy to make changes.

It almost seemed like the warm feeling that arrived when the rat identified the humans as well, humans was tinged with approval, as if the stone was trying to encourage it in learning and remembering things, for what end was anyone's guess however.
The rat had eaten Lizard before, as an omnivore it hadn't viewed it as anything more than meat with a slightly tough skin, no match for it's sharp teeth and claws, but this one certainly didn't seem edible at all, in fact, one common factor among the humans and lizard was that the rat's mind refused to even consider them as food, it didn't seem like the pearl was directly responsible for this, most likely it was related to all those strange memories.

The group was mostly silent as they travelled, the men seemed worn out and not entirely alert, likely they were not professional warriors, and merely better armed than the average traveller, perhaps on the same level as a petty bandit... Which was yet another new concept.
The Lizard however seemed hyper alert, especially as the few words spoken tended to be some sort of insult or threat from the men towards it.
Eventually they reached the ruin the pearl had pointed the rat to, it seemed more crumbled than the rat's memory, having collapsed somewhat more than before, there wasn't much above ground but what was there was ornate stone, ancient carvings just barely visible in all their undecipherable glory.
"Well well... Looks like it's here after all... Let's just hope it's as valuable as you said it was Lizard, or else we might have to find a different way to get our coin back from you..."
The Lizard, who was almost certainly female (at least judging from it's frame and voice, and to a lesser extent mannerisms) finally responded to the humans after spending most of the trip in silence.
"Y..yes! Even if something looks worthless... The Mage Guilds will spend a lot of coin to acquire relics and such, y..you will get all you want and more".
 
Following behind the group, the rat-faced traveler kept to the tall grasses, brush, and behind trees, rocks, and logs. It felt strange, stalking prey that was much larger than it, but the creatures that walked on two legs were still beginning to seem like the prey of their kind. Or, at the very least, the fleshy ones seemed less alert. Upon arrival at the ruins, the rodent's ears flicked about and it returned to observing, only for the myriad of sounds to frustrate it. Why it could suddenly differentiate the sounds coming from their mouths an remember them eluded the creature, but so did the meaning of most of their words. It was enough to give the rodent a headache.

A headache, with pictures.

The creatures being shadowed appeared to be simultaneously of little consequence, and too much of a threat to ignore, and after several minutes of trying and failing to translate between the humans' barkings and uttered threats, it tried reaching back into its repressed memories again in search of anything useful pertaining to humans. Whether the pearl had fetched the concept of banditry or not, the idea was quick to put together... in pictures, at least. Words were elusive, but the idea of somebody taking what wasn't theirs, and much more than they could possibly require, was fresh in the rodent's mind, interpreted as some form of primitive heresy.

The creature had to lie down for a minute: too many memories that made no sense had flooded in with these new concepts, memories of metal contraptions that created smoke and noise, memories of beeping and sirens and chaos. It was too much to take in, and at the same time, no part of it appeared to pertain to the situation at hand. Piecing through more and more of it only brought a stunted grasp of the human body and how it worked, with bones that make up the skeleton, muscles that pulled the bones about via joint mechanisms, and an entire system of nerves, glands, hormones and chemicals that worked on some sort of negative feedback loop far beyond its comprehension. In fact, the concept of 'negative feedback' itself may have been beyond the rodent's grasp. A frustrated squeak escaped it when the sensory overloaded its fragile little mind.

Minutes later, the trembling and shaking stopped, and the rat-creature no longer felt the need to hide from everything. But it also remembered its introduction to human anatomy (that it didn't ask for!) in rudimentary detail. Thus, the concept of 'forbidden knowledge' was adopted into memory: there were some things not meant to be known, and the rodent may have reached its limit for the day before it could even consider the ruins, carved stones, and everything that lie beneath them that it had traveled all day to see.

But while the group was still up and about, the rat couldn't rest. They would have to be removed, somehow.
 
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When the ratling woke the warmth of the stone had faded away, it seemed that it was done with flooding the poor creature's primitive brain with forbidden, reality altering knowledge, and had become dormant, or at least that was the feeling the rat got, that in itself was likely more unsolicited knowledge from the pearl in it's stomach, of course it could still feel it's presence, so unfortunately it had no passed or digested the pearl without realising.
The human anatomy was clear in it's mind too, with everything from how it worked to potential weaknesses, that at least could come in hand if these humans turned out to be violent and attempted to hurt the rat.

There were several obviously entrances into the ruins, everything from collapsed doorways, to holes in walls, and even some collapsed parts of the ground, revealing tunnels and rooms beneath the ground, it seemed as unimpressive as the ruins were above ground, much more interesting finds might lay beneath the earth, at least that's something that made sense, the rat's burrows were much bigger underground than they appeared from above ground, and hiding a living space where no one can see it was just simple common sense for the rat.

The group of humans and their lizard guide took one of the bigger entrances, swaggering in without a care in the world, seemingly having no fear of traps, which were yet another concept that had been jammed into the rodent's mind during it's sensory overload, this concept was less difficult to grasp though, traps were essentially like those giant flowers that would ensnare and eat small creatures that passed by, except made by humans and usually with no interest in eating their prey.
It seemed the rat had a choice, follow the humans into the ruins, perhaps even relying on them to find... Whatever it was the pearl had intended for the rodent to find, or to wander in through one of the other entrances and attempt to avoid or maybe even get the jump on the group.
 
Empty.

Head empty.

The headache was gone.

The headache was gone, and the rat could no longer feel the peculiar stone's influence over it. Confusion disoriented the creature for a moment, but in the minute or twenty it took to catch up with the entourage of would-be archaeologists, it found the surface level of the stone building's remains intriguing, but logical. Why the stone building even had a surface level may not have made the most sense, advertising its location to any other travelers who might happen by the area, but perhaps there was a need, once upon a time? Certainly not now, given the abandoned state.

For a time, the humans and their companion were shadowed, up until they found a nice big door they could all fit through, at which point the rat-like creature decided that the not-very-alert trio would probably blunder into something dangerous. Thinking that an ambush might not even be necessary, it slipped into one of the smaller tunnels, sticking to the sides of any corridors, and watching for things that might be out of place. Into the subterrain!
 
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The small tunnel was clearly not intended for a normal entrance, it was far too small for a humanoid, and seemed more like a hole some creature had created in the past, digging through the decayed rock and loose dirt, either way it was to the Ratling's benefit now, as it was more than big enough to get inside, bringing it out in an area overgrown with plants, as well as several oddly shaped stones that looked like a big flat rock on top of smaller rocks that lifted it off the ground, depending on how much forbidden knowledge it had, the rat might recognise the area as a 'park' it was anyone's guess how the plants grew down there, or why some of the stones on the roof felt and looked a little like the sun.
At least if the ratling needed to eat there were several edible looking things scattered around the area for it, and apart from the areas where plants had cracked through stone, the tunnels and such seemed quite stable, clearly whoever had built this strange, stone burrow were quite good at their craft, maybe even as good as a rat!

As the ratling had explored it would feel a strange pulsing sensation coming from a certain direction, it felt almost like the stone had before the rat swallowed it, the feeling was trying to draw it in, and made it feel... Oddly hungry, but not for the usual things it might scrounge up to put in it's mouth, rather it wanted something intangible, and probably inedible, even with the legendary digestive abilities it's race had.
Unfortunately the pulsing was coming from the same direction the humans and the lizard had entered from, so it was possible they wanted whatever that was as well, at least they were unlikely to pay any attention to a rat in a big abandoned burrow like that, after all, where else would you expect to find a rat?
 
Tunneling underground, the curious rodent found treasure just lying in the open for anyone to observe: surface plant-life, surviving underground with the help of some strange rocks that replicated the radiance of that great ball of fire in the sky. It took a moment to realize that this subterranean plantlfe must have fed from rainwater dripping from the ground above, but doing so instilled the rat with a sense of wonder. Somebody had figured out how to remove the need for foraging out in the wilds: one could lie down here and bask in the warmth for winter if not for the stonework itself being cool to the touch. That anyone would leave such a place behind, unattended, and still somehow intact, was the greatest mystery of all: this place needed to be seen by the other rats. Shown. Only, a lingering thought stood in the way of that.

Something terrible has happened. Here. And, the other explorers would have to be removed somehow, lest they somehow find a way to take everything away from this place.

Reflecting on this, the rodent took a leaf from something edible to nibble on and made its way further into the ruins, guided by a mysterious force drawing it toward a specific location. That it should point the creature back toward the taller bipeds was an annoyance, but it had already decided that there was no avoiding those creatures on this outing. A more pressing concern was the concept of traps imprinted upon the rodent by the magical pearl before it went dormant: the pearl must have known something, to find urgency in communicating this, but was the new source of energy what it was warning about?

The creature warily scurried forth, driven by the desire to know, but tempered with caution.
 
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If the ratling could convince the rest of it's kind to move to such a place, it would certainly be considerably safer and possibly even more comfortable than their current burrows, it seemed no large animals came within a fair distance of the ruins at all, which meant no predators, unless you counted the humans and lizard person, which, considering their greed and hunting tendencies was definitely a worthy inclusion.
The concept of greed was something the rat had already known, taking more food than you needed even at the cost of others was practically heresy, sure some rats might gorge themselves until their belly bulged and they could do nothing more than lay about on their back and squeak, but that was only during the cool wet months where fruit literally fell from the sky in greater numbers than they could possibly eat and small creatures and insects came out in the open, driven by food or flooding of their holes, which was another benefit of this ruin, it was too big to be at risk of a dangerous flood with the amount of sky water that usually fell.

The creature moved unopposed through the dusty, dirty tunnels overgrown with so many small plants cracking their way through the intricate stonework, there were a few things that looked like they COULD be traps, but they were clearly made for humans and were not of the slightest threat to such a small creature.
Eventually it was almost at the goal, but there was a problem, as it walked over a pressure plate that proceeded to barely move, the rat's weight not enough to trigger it apparently, the humans came around a corner, they were covered in dirt and dust and one of the men had his arm covered in a strange white hide, with the tell tale colour of blood soaking it, and a charred scent wafting from the group's general direction, it seemed the traps had certainly worked on the humans!
"Stupid lizard... You didn't tell us about the traps! Now Gora's arm is all screwed up! We aughta take one of yours at this rate... See if it grows back".
The apparent leader of the men, which was strange as he was neither the largest or oldest looking (though who could really tell age when it came to such strange creatures as humans) shouted at their lizard ally, who shrank back under the verbal barrage.
"It wasn't my fault! I told you there could be traps and didn't think any of the dangerous ones would still be active! L..look... We're almost at the central sanctum for this floor, it should have enough treasure to hire a healer and still make you rich".
 
Migration, the curious rodent thought as it sat upon a pressure-plate, would be a lot of work, and more dangerous than its own journey into these ruins. The creature ran its feet across the metal plate, intrigued by the way it sunk in: another marvel whose purpose it couldn't divine, as the necessary mass to drive the plate further down would equal that of several rats, at least. Casting aside any thoughts regarding the contraption it sat upon as unnecessary, the rodent was soon brought from its pondering by the sound of familiar faces and barking, and the smell of charred flesh.

And then it realized something.

The traps weren't for eating rats, but for hunting people!

Armed with a hypothesis, the rodent gave the group its undivided attention... which was a bit more than could be said of the larger explorers themselves. With one focused on their burned arm, and another trying to intimidate the scaled creature, they were just as likely to walk right past this plate as they were to bumble into it: an unacceptable variable. The rat observed each one, looking over their armaments and demeanor.... before something put another idea in its head. 'This floor,' the scaled creature said. That implied there was an 'other floor.'

The rodent shook its head, not understanding how it was getting this idea from the humans' barking speech, while none of the other barks made sense to it, and likewise not wanting to pay it any mind: there were more important things to focus on while it had the element of surprise. Three humans, one lizard-person: one injured, one loud, one docile, and one.... other. Loud might be the most relentless attacker; that one appeared agitated about something, and possibly not very bright. He would be the first test subject.

In a sudden burst of motion, the rodent darted forth, deigning to bite at the loud human's ankle, or leg, or whatever was exposed enough for an incisor, and once it had the creature's attention, it moved back onto the pressure-plate, watching its target, wary of blowback, baiting it. Would the tall creature strike the rat with an object? Attempt to stomp? Who could say? But the rodent poised itself, ready to dodge.
 
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