Oasis

[Mahou-Shoujo]

While Migration would certainly be a lot of work and quite dangerous, if they all moved as a group, shielding the older and younger rats from predators, most creatures should be smart enough to stay away, after all, the few creatures strong enough to fight so many rats at once would also likely spend their energy hunting things with a fair bit more meat on them, and since whatever was keeping most animals away from the ruins didn't seem to affect their kind, they would never have to worry again that a predator might pick off a scavenging rat, or that an owl might carry away a youngling while it played, that last one wasn't too common but had happened once that the rat creature had personally seen, which was one too many for such a reduced race.

The group seemed quite distracted as the rat approached, the lizard was looking at a wall with a different colour to the others and no visible cracks or plantlife on it, the man with the burned arm was leaning against a wall, clearly pained by the injury enough for it to be obvious even to the ratling, after all, an injured creature was visible to anything with the ability to eat meat, and many that did not eat meat as well.
The least descript of the humans was taking the chance to pee against a wall, whistling an unpleasant tune that was most certainly not nice to listen to for the ratling, likely just due to how out of tune and loud it was.
Finally the apparent leader was simply standing there muttering, obviously angry at everyone but himself, too self absorbed to notice until the rat had bitten him through a small hole in the leg of his pants.

"Argh?! What the hell! Little filthy rat bit me! There aren't supposed to be anything like this here you stupid lizard!"
The man shouted as he chased after the rat, taking several steps before bringing his foot down hard, he of course would miss, an injured, angry, tired human was no match speedwise for a rat that knew what was coming, and instead he easily pushed the pressure plate down with a click... Followed by the sound of metal flying through the air at high speed as a sharp shiny stick as long as three rats laying head to tail flew from a crack in the wall, striking the man in the side and going deep as he fell over in shock, letting out a sort of strangled bubbling sound as his companions ran over to help, the Lizard already reaching into a bag, the injured man hobbling over with a sympathetic look, and the pissing man forgetting to pull his pants up and falling over, still peeing.

 

[Fyrra]

There was that bark again. Stupid Lizard. The vocal one's fondness for the phrase could suggest it meant something important, if it wasn't becoming more and more apparent that these humans had little of value to contribute. Or at least, this one in particular. The rodent leapt to avoid a boot to the body, just missing the lance that shot in from the walls and jabbed its way into the test subject's side. The skewer even appeared to cut its barking short! When the rodent landed, it could only stare in awe of what manner of terrible fate had befallen this creature.

But, it wasn't dead. Hunters were supposed to finish their prey.

The rat searched for a vulnerable spot, recalling its lesson it anatomy, and set its eyes upon the skewered one's jugular vein.... only to hesitate upon noticing its proximity to teeth. That was too scary a target. Its attention dropped lower, toward the stomach, thinking it could tear that open with its hind-claws, but the sound of feet upon the stone floor meant that it was too late. With three allies rushing to back the human up, this battle was lost. The rodent moved back into the shadows to lurk, and observe for another opportunity to present itself.

It blinked, spotting one of the humans lying on the floor: another confusing thing. What happened? Did it neutralize itself?

Only after another moment of intense staring did it realize who the true threat present was: Lizard. The creature that the loud one called for every few moments. The one who noticed the peculiar wall that eluded the effects of corrosion. The one with supplies that could help the group through this situation. The contents of that bag couldn't be good news. It might need to be destroyed.

The rat waited, keeping the group in its sight. With three of the four incapacitated, perhaps it could settle for scaring them off? It touched a tooth with its finger, considering the drawn blood.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The humans didn't seem interested in chasing the overly intelligent rat as they focused on the rather horrific injury their leader had been dealt, ratty had never seen anywhere near that much blood, and could smell something else in it, something that sort of smelled like those berries that weren't good to eat and would make animals sick if they ate them, but mostly they smelled blood, normally a sign of either food or danger, depending on the source though in this case it seemed as if it was neither, as some part of ratty was very much against eating a human, for some reason it was on the same level of bad as eating a fellow rat, which it's particular species would never even consider doing, preferring to starve instead of taking part in cannibalism.

Unfortunately it seemed the wounded leader had regained his ability to speak after the shock wore off somewhat, and if anything, he was now somehow louder! And weirdly bubbly, like he was full of water or something.
"Fucking lizard, take it out!"
He demanded, clutching his side.
"But if I..."
The leader glared at the lizard woman.
"Pull it out before I gouge your beady little eyes out!"
The woman hesitated only a moment later before doing as requested, blood of course flowed out faster after that, and the lizard woman withdrew several things from her bag, one was a berry that she gave to the angry man, as well as more of the strange stretchy white hide... And then she did something that ratty had never seen, whispering several words and causing fire to appear in her hand! It wasn't burning her, but she seemed to be trying to burn the injured man for some reason?

"Damn it!... Fine, burn the wound... But if you fuck up I'm gonna make you feel it! And you... Edric! Get your drunk ass off the floor or I'll use you to clear traps!"
He shouted at the unsteady man who was trying to climb to his feet, it was hard to tell exactly, but it seemed like the leader was panicking slightly, starting to shake and shouting to keep in control.

 

[Fyrra]

One sniff. Another sniff. The rat had never seen so much blood in its life, but it never made a habit of watching larger creatures hunt or fight. It waved its hand back and forth in front of its nose to dissipate some of the smell, spitting the human blood from its teeth, and returned its attention to the wounded leader of these foolhardy explorers. How the human managed to pull himself together made no sense: with such a wound, he should be dying, not continuing to bark out commands. Something was off.

As though to punctuate this assessment, the lizard had produced a flame without any kindling or even an igniting spark. Whatever was happening here couldn't have been good, but the rodent didn't understand how, why, or what. Just that if it waited much longer, it would miss its opportunity.

Its eyes wandered.

Drippy was too far away to be of any use. That one could be startled into doing something foolish, but the probability of him doing so in a useful manner could not be counted on. Likewise, the other accomplice looked more focused on maintaining his composure than getting close. That only left direct sabotage: the riskiest maneuver. There could be no turning back.... for the next minute or so, anyway.

The rat charged forth, leaping up onto the lizard's tail, and using it to climb up her back. If that disrupted her fiery activities, good? maybe? But that wasn't the purpose of this stunt: the rodent wanted a good vantage point from which to leap down, and the lizard's shoulder would make for an excellent perch, assuming nobody swatted the rat away on its climb up. From there, a direct jump down, nails and teeth bared out: the loud human's face and/or chest was about to get scratched or bitten in a quick frenzy. If necessary, the rodent might even try to rip the makeshift bandage away and scurry off with it, or reopen the wound!

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Once again no one was in any state to notice or even care about a rat, the burned man seemed to notice it but was apparently unable to speak, his weird almost sleep like state seemed to be wearing off fast as his pain visibly increased, but he wasn't quite able to shout out a warning to his comrades, only managing a strangled, pained croaking noise that only drew attention from the drunkard, who himself was now too focused on his injured friend's noises to see Ratty run up behind Lizzy.

It appeared that whatever Lizzy was doing to create fire, a technique that seemed familiar but apparently hadn't been important enough for the stone to properly explain or describe to it, required a large amount of concentration, as the moment that Ratty started climbing up, the lizard woman let out a yelp, falling backwards as her hand shot out, flames striking the oddly untouched wall... And burning the whole thing up in seconds, leaving the entrance to a room full of pedestals open behind it, only one pedestal was of interest though, it contained a pristine shiny blue rock that you could sort of see through, and somehow ratty knew that was why it was there, the thingy that it had a strange drive to find, it wasn't too large either, maybe the size of a paw?

Unfortunately it seemed the flames had more of an effect than just revealing a room, as the surprisingly dense plant life and massive amounts of accumulated dry leaves and such on the floor took a few sparks and ignited, started to spread rapidly, it didn't seem like it would spread too far out of the room, as most of the other halls had limited growth, but it seemed this room at least was about to turn into a very dangerous place to be.
The two legged predators were all quite scared of it too, as the burned man forced himself up, running over to his drunken companion and, with a single look back at the others, they helped each other sort of stumble run away from the situation.
"Agh! Get me out of here you dumb lizard! This is your fault! You're trying to kill me you freak!"
The injured man was enraged, foaming at the mouth.
"I... I can't... I'm not strong enough..."
Lizzy seemed horrified and started to move away slowly, only for her tail to be grabbed by the boss.
"You aren't leaving... I OWN you! Die for me!"

During all this if Ratty had managed to stay on the lizard woman's shoulder, they would be able to intervene, though were still also strongly drawn towards the pedestal by an unknown, almost desperate force, it was like when the rat hadn't eaten in too long or really needed to pee.

 

[Fyrra]

Still somehow oblivious to the meaning behind the humans' barks and groans, and the delicate reptilian's stuttering, the rat continued its climb, clinging for dear life as the mage's arms flailed about. To think that such a simple act could bring about a wildfire: it was a terrifying prospect, made worse only by the revelation that the mysteriously intact wall was not only flammable, but that it alone concealed what this group of plunderers must have been seeking! The treasure was right there, and it had yet to slay a single one of these creatures before they could reach it!

It almost leapt for it.

But then the rodent glanced down, at the spreading fire that threatened to engulf the corridor. If it jumped now, it would be trapped, with the volatile human and the lizard that probably had surprises in store. But it was so close!

Yet, as the reptilian didn't try to shake its passenger away, or throw it to the ground, said rodent clung to its ride's shoulderblade for dear life, up until she attempted a retreat. The sudden jolt from her being grabbed nearly made the rat lose its grip, but one peek down told it all it needed to know: that man was still not dead, even with the flames looming near. Only one thing could be done about it.

The rodent dropped back down, landing upon the lizard-woman's tail, and resumed its desperate cling. It was a little too close to the fire, but just close enough to drive its fore-nails into the rabid human's fingers and give the rest of his hand a chomp to end all chomps, and then another, and then a shred! How it overcame the urge to dive into the treasure chamber at the first opportunity may become a mystery for the ages, but screw this one specific guy in particular, with the burning hatred of a swarm of angry rodents.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

It seemed Lizzy was quite physically weak, unable to free herself from the grip of the wounded man, even as his lifeblood poured out, with their new close up look of her, ratty could start to see why, what had looked at a distance like bony ridges and particularly thick armour like scales, turned out to just be bone showing through scaled skin that lacked any healthy shine, the lizard looked like the really old rats when they stopped being able to eat much, they usually got quite weak as well, though this lizard didn't SEEM old, didn't have the grey bits of the weirdly stiff movement or lack of energy, maybe it was sick? Ratty of course couldn't understand the concept of someone being underfed, that wasn't even something rats would do, and ratty hadn't lived through a time of little food yet so that wasn't a thought.
At least the lizard didn't shake ratty off, apparently either not bothered or not wanting to fling a rat with a habit of charging people into a fire, yeah it was probably that one, angry burning rat was definitely scarier than normal rat.

The man's eyes were somewhat clouded and unfocused until he saw the rat approach, and immediately recognised it as the cause of all this pain and chaos.
"MONSTER! VERMIN!"
He shouted, moving to swing his free arm at it, only to recoil as Ratty attacked, severing at least one finger and causing the man to lose his grip, with Lizzy running away, it would be difficult but possible to hang onto the tail, which was fortunately somewhat large and quite sturdy, the treasure could wait, since as far as ratty knew, rocks didn't burn, even the shiny ones, so it could come back later when the fire was dead.

Lizzy ran at an admittedly not impressive rate until she had turned enough corners and gone far enough that the smoke and heat didn't follow, and the screams of a burning man stopped ringing through the stone and dirt, before finally collapsing in a panting heap, tears running down her face and breath laboured.
She did however finally take note of Ratty, grabbing for the rodent to hold in front of her face.
"You... You let me get away with that bite... And you tricked Mallard into the trap... You're not a normal rat".
She declared between gasps.

 

[Fyrra]

The significance of having just killed a man in cold blood took its time setting in, however long it took for the flames to stop flickering mere centimeters from the rat's face, but when it did, the rodent wasn't sure what to think. More blood dripped from its face and hands, and onto the tail it clung to in desperation, ever so slightly sliding closer toward the tip. The rat didn't understand why that one in particular needed to perish, just that it did. And, it wasn't like the rodent was merely driving a predator from its home: this was unknown territory, and if anything the rat's presence alone brought more destruction than the humans' did.

But, they were going to plunder this ruin. The rat couldn't just bring its friends into a home that'd been robbed of what made it beautiful, no? But now it was robbed of its beauty, and food, by flame.

When the lizard collapsed into the flooring, the rodent did the same, unsure of itself just as much as it questioned the change in motive: why help the lizard? She was more dangerous than the other three put together, even if she was sick. But then, the rat was sick too, wasn't it? It glanced over toward the exhausted creature, giving it a more appreciative look... and squeaked as it was scooped up, gazing into her eyes.

You're not a normal rat, she said.

The rat touched its face with a fingertip, then moved its hand down to rest upon the lizard's own. It couldn't talk, and it didn't know how to communicate, but one thing was clear from looking at the girl: life has not been kind to her. It would be cruel, to do to her what the rat did to her companion.

After a moment, the rat stretched its hand out toward the lizard, unsure what it was doing.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

It wasn't simple for the rat to even begin to think about what it did, for one thing it only recently became intelligent enough to even have second thoughts about killing a creature of another species, ESPECIALLY a predator, and some part of it most definitely wanted the dumb human dead, but another part felt weird about it, almost like it had killed kin, but muted somehow, and not nearly as saddening, perhaps due to it subconsciously realising just how terrible the man was, and while it was vaguely possible he didn't have to die, it was no big loss for the world or humanity as a whole, probably even good for Lizzy in the long run.

The flames didn't seem to spread far from the room they started in, the halls having too little vegetation and wind for the flames to spread through them like they had with the densely overgrown room, so at least only one room was being scoured of it's beauty and food, it also meant that ratty and Lizzy were not in danger of burning alive, as there would have been little chance of outrunning a fire if everything was flammable around them, especially if they reached a more breezy area.

The lizard woman hadn't honestly expected the rat to communicate, she'd never seen a talking rat or even read or heard about one, and honestly was mostly talking to it out a mixture of stress and desire to explain what just happened, how she had gone from indentured servitude to free and guilty of manslaughter or even murder in a matter of minutes, so she was quite surprised when the rat proceeded to show at least some comprehension, for a moment she thought it might be a familiar... But no, that magic had been lost over a hundred years ago, declared heretical at the same time as necromancy and resurrection by any but the hand of a god.

Lizzy reached her own had forwards, placing her palm against the rat's paw, dwarfing it with her obviously much larger hand, she was the size of a human after all! Obviously she was a lot larger.
"I don't know what you are... Or how you're understanding me... But thank you..."
She suddenly pulled the rat close and hugged it, clearly a hygiene risk! But after just a few seconds the highly stressed and high strung lizard woman put the rat down.
"Sorry... I just... Sorry".

 

[Fyrra]

Monster. Vermin.

The words echoed from memory, sinking in as the blaze slowed its advance. For a moment, even staring the lizard-woman in the face, the rodent had its doubts. Its facial fur and hands stained with the blood of their kill could not have been a comforting sight for the malnourished one, even without the dust of the ruins and the smoke from their recent barbecue, or so it thought. When hugged, the creature let out a squeak and started writhing around, struggling to get away out of reflex, until it realized it wasn't in any danger.

Something in the rat understood, this was a human-like ritual of expressing affection, and once it did, it relaxed into the stranger's grasp, rubbing its head into her scaled chest. Strange, that a cold-blooded creature could carry such warmth, but the rat did not even realize it had been depriving itself of this feeling for as long as it remembered.

Once back on the floor, the rodent looked back in the direction of that room, or at one of the walls between there and its current location. Its tail brushed across the dusty stone floor while it stood up on its hind legs, tracing over the turns their escape took from memory. As much as it didn't want to wait for the other humanfolk to gather their courage and return better prepared, something pulled its attention back to the reptilian: she, of thin stature but surprising fortitude. She wouldn't be making another journey for a while, it gathered.

So, the rodent wandered off, gathering leaves from anything it could find and deem edible, before returning to the lizard's side and offering its findings. Better that she not wither, after just escaping her doom.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The hug seemed to have calmed the woman down significantly, her breathing was no longer as erratic, eyes seemed less wide and in general she appeared less high strung, it seemed she just really needed a cooldown hug, and despite the grime it was practically caked in, especially the paws where the sweat glands had turned the mix of blood, dust, dirt and ash into a mix that was non doubt going to be a pain to clean, even it's simpler kin wouldn't wanna clean that with anything but a long soak, and ratty couldn't help but recall some of the random tidbits of knowledge it had, specifically the existence of something called 'soap' that would somehow be helpful there, what exactly a soap was or how it could possibly help with bathing was anyone's guess, and with the pearl still dormant it would seem no answer was forthcoming, and it wasn't like it could ask the lizard woman, it may have understood her but ratty's mouth simply couldn't make the right noises to be understood... Probably anyway, not like it had tried talking to the humans when it first encountered them.

Lizzy couldn't do anything but sit against a wall, completely exhausted and watching sadly as the oddly intelligent rat wandered off, the party had barely fed her, despite her sometimes finding small extra bits in her pack that no one minded her eating, and all their food had been in the boss's pack, which... Yeah, she didn't even wanna think about that.
She figured she'd just nap, maybe drink some of the water she fortunately had on her, even the boss begrudgingly acknowledged that water was important, and letting her die of thirst was just bad business.

The girl brightened up visibly as ratty returned with edible looking plants, eyes dilating slightly as she looked them over and glanced at the rat, when it became clear it was offering them to her, ratty had found a wealth of edible things, in fact nothing it found was dangerous to eat, maybe not all pleasant but could work in a pinch if there was nothing else available, plus it recognised a few of the nastier tasting ones as being surprisingly filling, often the always hungry little ones or older ones who couldn't eat much would try and swallow them whole to avoid the taste.

"For me?... Thank you... You're kinder than anyone else I know".
She informed the rat, she would have laughed at that comment if it wasn't so utterly pathetic... The kindest person she knew, was a rat, a smart rat to be sure but a rat nonetheless.
She made sure to slowly eat the leaves, savouring them, they weren't meat, but she rarely got meat anyway.

 

[Fyrra]

The rodent watched as its reptilian acquaintance consumed the offering: pitiful as it was, it only needed to keep her from starving for now, lest it need to figure out how to remove two bodies from the ruins in the future. Why a person would be so malnourished among a group might be beyond the creature's comprehension, but that was of little importance now: if the lizard-woman could not hunt, then more plants could be shared between them.

In the meantime, the rodent moved toward the exhausted one's side. A hand was placed upon her thigh (or any garments covering it) to get her attention, before the rat made another attempt at communication. It touched its chest with a hand, then pointed that hand toward the corridor from whence they came, before bringing the same hand pack to its chest, and then placing a fingertip upon the stone flooring. Cue a squeak before it shook its head: a more complex message might require more help from the dormant stone, as it didn't have the ideas, much less the words.

Am going back there. Will return. - It would have to suffice.

Thus, the rodent resumed its little quest, turning down the hallway and tracing the resting lizard-person's path back to The Chamber of Flame. Assuming no barriers or further intrusions, upon reaching the pedestal the rat would squat down, shimmying its hindquarters to calibrate a good jump in the same manner a feline would, and leap up upon the pedestal containing the clear stone to get a closer look at it.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The gathered plants were more than she usually ate in a day anyway, at least recently, the berries and leaves she had in her pouch were all medicinal, and definitely not a good idea for someone on an empty stomach to ingest, eating too many would also be dangerous, she couldn't even grab things to eat as they travelled, as she had no idea what may or may not be edible, and the first plant she had grabbed ended up leaving her hand covered in little sharp thorns that got under the scales and took hours to clean out when they finally made camp near a river.
They would be enough for her to travel with, though who knew where she would go next, as far as she knew her previous Debt Holder had no family... And no will, so she wouldn't automatically have someone new to serve, technically the other two members of the party could claim it, but they seemed uncomfortable with the idea of such things... Which meant she was free, homeless and alone, unless you counted the rat, which she was starting to do.

Lizzy nodded slowly to let the rat knew she understood, the rat clearly wanted to go somewhere and would probably be back, maybe it wanted... Whatever was in the ruins, honestly Lizzy didn't particularly care what it was, she couldn't sell it, the guild hadn't come looking for her and probably wouldn't give her a fair deal on anything anyway, not as a lone, starving mage with a low level license, if the rat wanted it for some reason, then so be it, she would just find something else to do, maybe clear fields with fire magic in the periphery towns, or work as a herbalist.

The flames had quickly and hungrily burned through all the fuel available in the room before dying out of starvation, leaving nothing but a charred corpse, unrecognisable as what had once been a human being, it looked like none of the things he was carrying had survived either.
The smooth stone of the floor was hot on ratty's paws, but not painfully so, was almost kind of comfortable in a way, and the pedestal room was completely untouched by the flames, as if they had simply refused to cross the threshold separating the two rooms.
The pedestal wasn't too high off the ground fortunately so ratty was able to make it up, coming face to face with the sparkling blue stone, the rat could see all the way through it to the wall behind, and found the stone almost mesmerising, in fact it was literally mesmerising! Ratty was getting an urge to... Eat it, an overwhelming urge to swallow the stone, accompanied by the heat of the pearl seemingly waking up to exert influence.

 

[Fyrra]

This was a bad idea.

Stones had no nutritional value, and from what the rat remembered, the last time it consumed a pretty rock it slept for most of the day, and the night afterward. With two dangerous humans about, was it wise to go through that ordeal again? What if nobody from the nest came to investigate? How would the others even know to come here, the rodent wondered, its toe-claws tapping along the warm, stone flooring with each step. Then again, better not to traumatize the lizard-woman if she decided to follow instead of resting?

Only a glance was given to the charred remains of that one barking human to confirms its grisly fate before the rodent moved on: there were more important things to do, than worry about a carcass rotting and stinking up the halls. Important things like looking through the treasure chamber, picking up a beautiful crystalline stone, and looking through it to see the world in a new light, potentially to better understand the nature of these ruins placing it in its mouth and swallowing it whole.

Consume.

Consume.

Consume!

Maybe jump down first?

Consume!

The creature didn't make it down to the floor before eating its second stone. It may be developing an addiction.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

In reality the rat didn't really have much of a choice in eating the stone, the pearl was using all of it's influence, seemingly desperate to have ratty choke on that blue stone for some reason, at least it was smooth, with no jagged edges or sharp points to catch on Ratty's throat, so getting it into the stomach shouldn't be too difficult, at least no more difficult than the pearl... And since it was a different type of rock maybe it wouldn't put it to sleep this time? Maybe? Ratty could only hope, as neither it's instincts, nor the 'forbidden knowledge' seemed to have taught it anything about correct ways to eat rocks, really a glaring oversight.

Looking through the stone was oddly calming, but all the rat saw out the other side was a slightly distorted and magnified wall with a blue tint, nothing particularly interesting beyond the novelty of everything looking blue.
The stone just barely made it down Ratty's throat, apparently being a little smaller than the pearl had been, and this time there was no burning or loss of consciousness, Ratty certainly felt SOMETHING going, the warmth of the pearl returned, and something imperceptible began slowly changing in Ratty's brain as the pearl broke down the stone and used it to further enhance it's host.
The stone didn't even make it into Ratty's stomach, seeming to dissolve rapidly once it was swallowed.

The Pearl was now awake once again, and created feelings of accomplishment and pride for Ratty to feel, seemingly as either a reward or way to show it's approval of the situation, as well as flooding Ratty's body with energy, making the rat feel better than ever before, like it had just had a perfect nap, eaten exactly enough to be satisfied and was the perfect temperature.

 

[Fyrra]

The rodent stood still for a moment, confused. It felt like it had accomplished some great thing, but all it did was eat a rock, that had somehow melted or dissolved in its throat before it could even feel the change in its appetite. That the pearl should return from its dormant state felt good, but the rodent's feelings about what came with the pearl's return remain uncertain.

But suddenly, the rat had energy! It had plans to find a safe place to sleep before returning to the nest, potentially using the lizard-woman's lap or the chamber with the solar-stones, but those were dashed away in an instant. Without direction, the rodent questioned whether to venture deeper into the ruins, investigate the nearby village, or return with more friends, but in the end, settled on gathering more plantlife for the lizardling resting in the other room. Enough to last her several days, at least. Where-ever she was going, she looked like she could use the food, and if she wasn't going anywhere, it would be better for her to have food nearby, food that wasn't...

The rodent paused.

Why was it being nice to a potential predator?

And what was soap? It sounded important.

In the span of hours, the rat had begun learning words, even words that had yet to be spoken in its presence, whether from the influence of The Pearl, or the more Forbidden well of unspeakable horrors. It had ventured into a dangerous ruin and slain a bipedal warm-blooded creature in cold blood, and befriended a cold-blooded bipedal creature in an expression of warmth. Of course it should feel proud and accomplished!

Returning to the reptilian's presence, the rodent let out a bright squeak, announcing its return and carrying more greenery to the strange person's bag. This would likely be their farewell, if the rodent decided against using her as a way into the nearby village.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The sudden rejuvenating burst of energy had likely earned Ratty a free day and night without a need for rest, and therefore saved it time it would usually need for sleeping, and time was always a good thing to have more of for any species, of course it probably wasn't something that was healthy to do all the time, so Ratty would still need to sleep sometimes, also despite it feeling so good, the ratling was still caked in dirt and ash and blood, definitely not a good look, at least Lizzy didn't seem to mind it, or was really good at pretending otherwise.

With how abundant the plants were in some rooms, and with every hall having at least a few hardy plants growing through cracks in the stone, there was no shortage of edible things, for some reason none of the plants Ratty instinctively knew to be bad seemed to grow in those ruins, and it hadn't seen any on the way in either, perhaps as a result of whatever seemed to keep most animals out of the area, the word 'Magic' came to mind, as seemingly a suggestion from the Pearl, thought it seemed to have difficulty describing it, other than using an image of Lizzy when she summoned fire... Well it looked like Pearl could even access memories from when it was 'sleeping' so even if Ratty forgot something maybe Pearl would remember it, like some sort of potentially sentient diary.

The pearl seemed all too happy to answer then rat's queries, starting with the easier question of soap, simply creating images in Ratty's mind of a rat using soap and water in a river to quickly and easily remove grime from it's fur, the second was more difficult, but eventually it created an image of Ratty and Lizzy and several other creatures that generally never threatened Ratty's kind on one side, and the humans and several predators on the other side, as if trying to suggest some sort of similarity among the two groups.

Lizzy was looking much healthier as Ratty returned, obviously it would take a long time, likely at least a few months, to be back to a good weight and completely recovered from what must have been starvation levels of food, but for now at least she seemed to be stable and able to move around, having carefully and slowly eaten her leaves to avoid stomach ache, she had experience with that.
"Ratty! You're back! Did you find what you wanted?"
Lizzy asked it as her bag was filled up.
"Thank you again... I don't really know what plants are edible around here..."
She admitted, gently stroking Ratty's head as a gesture of thanks.

 

[Fyrra]

Pearl knows what soap is; this land has soap. These ruins have soap?

Thoughts were being processed as words, and being a little more concerned with not looking like it'd leapt into a roaring inferno to attack something in a fit of hatred when it made its return to the nest, the rodent didn't even notice the change. Even the concept of magic fell right into place as something to investigate and learn about, in the same way the rodent viewed its current fixation on archaeology, and its surprise lesson in biology and anatomy, though it appeared not idea had a word to go with it. That... thing? The thing the lizard-woman was carrying, with the berries and the other stuff. That it was used for holding things was another concept that fell right into place without thinking, or even notice.

As the pearl put more ideas into the rodent's head, it stopped shoving greenery into the reptilian's satchel, staring up at it when it felt pressure on its head. Again, it didn't understand, much like it couldn't understand the concept of something that's supposed to link rodents and reptiles, but separate them from other mammals. But, the words made sense at least.

Did you find what you wanted, she asked, just after a seemingly excited exclamation upon the rodent's return. Had it found what it wanted, though?

These ruins were perfect. Food was in abundance, and the sheer size of the chambers made them safe from flooding, with cracks in the stonework even providing their drainage into the ground further below. The rodent could fit the entirety of its burrow inside, and perhaps several more burrows full of other rats, and they could live comfortably through the wet season and bring in fruits and bugs. Magical solar-stones could warm the halls if they ever turned cold, and being underground meant the burrows were cool during the hot season. Only a few humans even knew this place existed, and the means to fight or frighten them on nearly equal footing were right at the rodent's feet. At the surface, it merely looked like an abandoned building in the middle of a jungle: dangerous, to those learned enough to make distinctions between what sorts of buildings stood in a jungle, far from civilization, years after being abandoned.

All it was missing was a source of potable water. Or a place to soak. To bathe.

The creature turned its head to the left, then the right, then repeated the motion once more: it hadn't found everything, but there was so much more to see. And, the ruins potentially went deeper? The rat stood upright, spreading its front-legs outward and turning in a circle. Then it mimicked a walking motion, lashing its dusty, ashy tail across the floor, before tapping at its throat with a finger.

No. This place large. Want sweep floor, maybe find drink.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The pearl once again tried to answer Ratty's questions as best it could, skimming it's thoughts to find out it even had questions, and produced an image of the ruins, then a bag like Lizzy's with the word 'Soap' on it, then bag itself was empty though, was pearl perhaps trying to tell Ratty that there was no soap in the ruins? If so it looked like it was limited to one or two words and images at a time, though that it was able to use words at all now was a big change, especially since Ratty could now apparently understand said words, perhaps Pearl would get better at communicating as time passed and it made more changes to Ratty's brain and body, and likely as a result gained a more reliable source of magical energy for itself.

Seeing as Ratty apparently hadn't understood it's first try, the pearl attempted again, showing a somewhat cartoony and simple image of Ratty being chased by a large wolf, and then showed the same image with Lizzy instead of Ratty being chased, then finally switched out the wolf for the burned man, it was trying it's best to show they were both more likely to be prey than predator, and as such were similar.

The ruins would certainly make an ideal home if all the others could get there safely, perhaps that was something Lizzy could help with? She had her fire magic and was big, maybe that would be enough to scare off any animals that might see a procession of rats as an easy snack, of course communicating that to Lizzy was beyond Ratty's current abilities.

Speaking of Lizzy, she didn't seem to understand that Ratty wanted to sweep the floor, why would a rat want to sweep the floor of a random ruin after all? But the water she definitely understood, she didn't have much herself so would need to find some before being able to travel.
"Oh! Water... I guess everyone needs that... Umm, I know I heard running water at one point in the ruins... And I smelled an eggy scent before that, maybe I can take you to the running water?"
She offered, and assuming Ratty didn't protest, she would pick them up and start walking, quickly reaching a portion of the ruins where a large amount of the roof and walls had collapsed, at some point something had seemingly diverted a river through that area, creating more or less clean, running water flowing through a section of ruin.

 

[Fyrra]

It seemed Pearl, just like its host, was catching on to developments rather quickly, and persistent in answering little musings that didn't necessarily require input from it, but the effort was noted, appreciated, and a bit misunderstood: the ratling had slain a human, admittedly a lackawit, but a human with tenacity and fortitude. Its accomplices had fled, but now they knew what to expect upon their return. Like a wolf, they might deign to bring friends, but the rodent was ready for that possibility. The only problem with that was knowing it could potentially befriend them instead, as it had the reptilian.

Think like Wolf?

Another thought, and with it a hypothesis: friends can accomplish greater things together, things more impressive than a malnourished reptilian scooping up a healthy rodent of unusual size and carrying it to a subterranean river, but for now that was more than enough for the rat to be pleased with this brokered truce between them. It leapt from the lizard's arms and onto the floor, gazing in wonder at the running water, before making its way down to the riverbank and splashing some water onto its face and hands. If it wasn't enough, the creature would dunk its head under next, only to pull back up a few moments later and shake itself to a more damp state.

That settled it: this place was perfect and lacked none of the necessities for living in its immediate vicinity. All that remain was to comb the halls and chambers, to make certain there were no dangers lurking in the darkness. The rodent could wait for its lizard companion to clean up a bit, or it could let her rest or nap and go ahead on its own. For the time being, it watched to see what her thoughts were.