Oasis

The pearl at least had the good sense to send apologetic feelings to Ratty for it's little freak out, could Ratty really blame it though? Pearl was a very small rock and the golem was a VERY large rock, it made sense for it to be scared, same as Ratty being scared of very large creatures that might have an interest in a rat shaped snack, though the golem seemed more likely to grind Ratty and pearl into dust than eat them, which was honestly a waste, sure a rock predator should eat it's rock prey?

Fortunately the golem was fairly slow and awkward, one of it's legs seemed barely functional, and the other had a few chunks fall out as it moved, it's magical field somewhat weakened, the thing was clearly showing it's no doubt advanced age, still though it's arms were in good shape, and no doubt unfathomably strong when compared to something as small as a slightly magical rat of unusual size, as proved when it casually shoved a chunk of fallen rock out of it's path without even slowing as it lumbered after, each step shaking the ground and sending up clouds of dust into the air.

For a moment, nothing happened when Ratty escaped through the rubble, the golem apparently considering it's options, then, several seconds later there was a loud crash as several large rocks went flying over Ratty's head as the golem began smashing the blockage into pieces, sending rock and debris flying seemingly at random, Ratty would need to be careful to avoid getting hit!
Finally after less than two minutes the golem would would be through, and stopped, not going over the ledge, and instead picking up a chunk of rock... And taking aim at Ratty.
 
And just like that, the blockade was cleared! The rodent would celebrate under better circumstances, but this little adventure still had an adversary to take down, this one much deadlier than the last. As debris went flying past the rodent and into the chasm, another realization was made: the stone creature could think, too! With the element of surprise no longer available, the rat focused on dodging debris and keeping its footing: it couldn't risk this passage being destroyed, and with the corridor's wreckage all but cleared in a matter of minutes, the rodent needed a plan, fast.

No panic. Bad idea. Going under its feet.

An attempt was made to give the pearl a warning, as the rodent awaited the golem's first thrown stone. It lowered is hind-legs down, and the moment the rock flew, the rat leapt up to dodge over it, before skittering right up in the magical monstrosity's stomping range.... and also right on the ledge. If it couldn't fight the golem directly, the rodent would have to trick it into using its momentum poorly.

Whether a stomp or a fist was next, the rat stood ready to dodge again, this time to scurry between the golem's legs and behind it.
 
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On the plus side the golem was seemingly being careful not to bring the place down around them, which made perfect sense, clearly it was there to protect the ruins, so of course it would want to avoid destroying them without good cause, as such it was somewhat easy to dodge, as the golem was specifically avoiding hitting anything that might collapse the ceiling or floor or walls, it seemed this thing could think well enough to make decisions on the fly, and it was getting more accurate, and seemingly, smarter, it's ancient dormant magics reawakening and just barely functioning properly as it's core struggled to operate the ruined hunk of stone it called a body.
This battle needed to end soon or Ratty was going to be a very fluffy pancake.

Pearl let it's horror at Ratty's dangerous, near suicidal action be known through an assortment of seemingly random emotional responses and images of a cartoonish ratty being squished by the golem right up until the great stone beast threw a punch at Ratty, not trusting it's defective legs to do the job, and of course missed, the momentum carried the golem over the edge as it started to fall forwards, stone scraping on stone as it's legs fought for purchase and then it... Stopped, in mid air the golem stopped falling, it's legs just barely on the platform, and it's torso turned directly around, sliding back over the stone of it's knees to stand atop the bridge, having completely avoided it's fall, even if it had come oh so tantalisingly close to defeat!

To make things worse, or perhaps better? Ratty wasn't alone now, as the sound of the weird human paw coverings rang out through the stone corridor.
"R...ratty! What's happening?! I heard a crash... Are you... Oh.. Kay..."
Lizzy came to a skidding halt as she spotted the golem.
"Umm... That's... That's not okay! Where did you find THAT?!"
 
The rodent's ears twitched as it resumed sizing this creature up, staring it down from a safer distance this time around: a few more meters to keep it out of slapping range. If the golem was learning, and taking such efforts to avoid breaking walls, this it was smarter than the rodent could prepare for. Knocking the monstrosity into the chasm was out: the rat wouldn't survive the fall if it messed up its charge on a push, and it lacked the mass to budge the giant creature regardless.

It was the rat's turn to apologize to the pearl: it had underestimated the golem's tenacity, and with said golem standing on the bridge between the rodent and its escape, it didn't want to risk making a break for the stairs: turning one's back to the golem would be certain death, on the stairs at least. The rodent was at a loss, just short of giving up.

But, the sound of something strange echoed from beyond the halls, and a familiar voice rang behind them! What the reptilian was doing here was anyone's guess, apart from being in danger, but the rat couldn't let her become the golem's next target. It squeaked, looking around for anything it could use.... and in a stroke of brilliance, reached over and picked up a rock.

And took aim.

Right at the damaged kneecap.
 
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As Lizzy ran towards Ratty, the golem's attention was divided, it didn't see Ratty as much of a threat to itself, it WAS a giant walking pile of rock and magic after all, but this new creature was an unknown, could even be a golemancer or spell breaker!
As such Lizzy gained it's almost full attention as it's ancient, decrepit systems continued whirring to life as it attempted to analyse this stranger's combat abilities, what once would have taken seconds now consuming entire minutes and further moving it's crystal core out of alignment with a loud scraping tinkling noise, somehow both delicate and booming in volume.



Pearl seemed to catch on to Ratty's plan just as they lifted the rock, and pushed extra strength behind the throw, it would most certainly cause some pretty bad cramps and sore muscles, but when the alternative was accomplishing almost nothing and then getting squished by a golem? It felt that Ratty would probably understand, hopefully anyway, not like Ratty could do anything to punish the pearl anyway.

With this extra boost the rock flew true, striking the crumbling leg with a thunderous boom as cracks spread all along the golem's leg, pieces falling away.

Lizzy seemed to take this chance to make her own attack, a little something she'd been working on that most mages seemed to not even bother with, she summoned up a large, mostly useless glob of her own magical energy, and using a technique she had spent months figuring out, lit it on fire, creating a purply blue flame that didn't produce any heat, and threw it at the golem.
The flame, rather than dying out from an inability to burn stone, ignited parts of the magical field holding the construct together, spreading like a wildfire as the golem flailed around, stumbling backwards and... Right over the edge, where it would vanish into the void, and a short while later a splash could be heard, seems there was water down there after all.
 
This was just the moment for surprises: the clash of stone against stone, both in the golem's core and the impact of the thrown rock, caused the rodent to wince, before staring in disbelief that it was able to throw something that hard. Truly, it had only meant to distract the golem from the lizard, but if the pearl had other ideas, it wasn't going to be upset about it. Not with those results, anyway! And again, the reptilian conjured some sort of dangerous flame from her hands, though it looked different from the earlier fire?

Magic was weird.

In any other circumstance, the rodent might have celebrated its victory, but instead it walked up to the edge of the bridge and looked down, lamenting the loss of the ruins' most important inhabitant: potentially the sole survivor, and by extension, the only clue that could lead the rat to an explanation for what happened to empty these halls of their life. Whatever the stuttering stone sentinel was, the rat just sabotaged murdered it. Maybe. Perhaps if it didn't land on its leg, it might remain intact? Then again, between gravity, the golem's mass, and the height of that fall being enough to build up velocity...

Well, the rodent wasn't about to go down there to check on it. After a disappointed sigh, it turned about to face the lizard-woman again, waving to her, before motioning toward the newly-opened corridor. It could at least show her where the hot water was, since she was here, and apparently keen on saving the life of a rat she just met.
 
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Lizzy looked a little worn out despite her nap, and having appeared fine just moments ago, it turned out that summoning up massive amounts of your energy to throw at someone else was pretty exhausting, probably why most mages didn't bother researching Mana Burning, Lizzy was just seemingly uniquely interested in burning things that don't usually burn, she liked to think it was just to guarantee warmth in any environment but honestly, fire was pretty and watching things burn was oddly relaxing, and a little cathartic, especially when it was an enemy that was burning, though she wasn't entirely okay with having seen her previous owner burning alive... Seeing something like that up close was definitely going to be some effective nightmare fuel.

She didn't seem bothered by having just most likely destroyed the stone sentinel that had only been guarding it's home from intruders after what was no doubt centuries of loneliness and decay, though Ratty was oddly aware of that, perhaps it was due to the influence of the pearl? Which was itself a stone object seemingly given life by magic that had been stuck by itself for an unknown amount of time, and it seemed it's personal feelings on some matters could spread to Ratty, possibly due to how relatively primitive the rat's brain was even with Pearl's improvements.

"Are you okay umm... Little Ratty?..."
Lizzy asked, before running after it as she saw ratty run away, assuming it had some sort of destination in mind, after all, she at this point had not a single doubt that this was some sort of extraordinary magical rat with at least near human reasoning and intelligence, not to mention simply shocking strength, she may not have been an expert on golems, rocks, or even rats but even she could tell there was no way a thrown stone should have been able to do that even with weakened magical fields and her own contribution.

"Oh, the egg smell again... What's this?"
She asked, not expecting any answer as she investigated the water, dipping the tip of her tail into it and then pulling it out with a startled gasp.
"Hot water? Underground? But how... Oh! Maybe those are responsible..."
She seemed to have gone into investigation mode, looking at the fallen faintly glowing stones in the bottom of the pools.
 
The rodent winced, looking at its forelegs/arms and touching a bicep. It must have pulled a muscle, and to avoid straining it further it started walking on its hind-legs to compensate: awkward, slower, but less painful. If anything, it would just add to the reasons for the lizard-woman to be suspicious of the rat, if they weren't already far beyond the stage of suspicions and guesswork. On that note, an old thought returned to the rodent's focus, now that the danger was gone: names, and how to identify a specific rat or person. The reptilian had been calling it Ratty, which could work for now.... but not with other rats. But what should it call her, it wondered.

More of the pearl's influence, no doubt.

With a little splash, the rodent dove into the hot water to soak and relax. As long as its guest didn't try to pry any of the stones out, it wouldn't make any plans to ambush her, but so far she seemed trustworthy. When asked if the stones were responsible, the rat let out a squeak and beamed, pleased to hear that the lizard-woman understood. That she was able to navigate past the traps to get here unscathed was worth noting, too: at least three other people were having trouble with that, but it did leave one to wonder how the reptilian came to know of this place, as she seemed wholly unfamiliar.

The creature stared at her from its spot in the water, possibly looking like it was assessing her again, for at least a few minutes, before it started spacing out in the warmth of the pool. Without danger or anything in the area left to explore, it could just bask in the calm, and try fitting words together as it came up with a name for its accomplice. Or, it could soak. After everything that's happened, going back to the nest while covered in dust, soot and grime wouldn't convince the others that this place was better. It needed the.... bath tub? What a strange combination of words to be implanted into memory.

She's a fire lizard, so... Blaize? Ember? Cinders? Torch? Sconce? Pyromander? Scorchnewt?
 
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Lizzy was certainly surprised by that little change, walking on two legs was almost exclusively the domain of intelligent creatures, unless you happened to count birds, which personally she did not, since they tended to use their wings at the very least for balance, and certainly no bird had ever consciously decided to switch from walking on four legs to two, it was something so against natural instinct that no dumb beast would ever do it for reasons other than maybe reaching food.

The pearl seemed at least vaguely apologetic at the pain it cause it's host, but it WAS an emergency situation, it had no way of knowing if Lizzy's magic was even capable of being effective at that range, never mind if it would have an effect against stone, obviously it had been quite pleased to see that it was, as the only alternative for defeating the golem would have been to place more and more magically induced strain on Ratty's body.
It also seemed at least somewhat pleased with Ratty returning to the subject of names unprompted.

Lizzy had been lucky enough to be born with an immunity to flames, likely linked to her natural magical affinity to it, so the flame traps had been of no concern to her, the rest was a matter of throwing things to test and generally being aware of her surroundings, she was glad Ratty had been near the source of loud noise that woke her though, she had no idea what the second floor was like or where things were.
After several minutes of studying the water and watching Ratty swim about with no ill effects, Lizzy decided to undress and slip into one of the warm pools, it had been so long since she had a hot bath.
If Ratty cared to look she would find the woman to be about 70% covered in scales, with some of them looking slightly scratched up, she was at least seemingly most uninjured on the fleshy bits other than a few bruises, likely from wandering around a forest and ruin.

Pearl seemed to have no particular input on the names Ratty thought up, it couldn't even name itself after all so was clearly not an expert, in fact half the reason it had been encouraging Ratty was out of a hope to acquire a name for itself in the process, even if it couldn't quite figure out WHY it felt that was such an important thing to have.
 
Catching on to the pearl's sympathy, the rodent tried to send a calming emotion back at it: it all worked out, and a few strained muscles were insignificant in the face of uncertain doom. Perhaps the bath had influence over the rat's emotions? It didn't appear interested in fretting over anything, as long as nothing disturbed this nice moment or threatened to ruin the pools for future guests. This feeling of warmth was new, yet also pleasant. Eventually the rat stopped paddling about in the pool, opting instead to use its hind-legs to keep afloat.

But yes, the rat was still staring when the lizard disrobed and moved into a separate pool: modesty was not something it had learned, but neither were the motives that would necessitate the need for such a trait. There was only curiosity for why a reptilian would have human skin, but without the means to communicate such a complex question, the rodent's thoughts drifted off. The bath tub was a nice idea. That this object had two words to describe it was odd, but something about it suddenly made sense.

The pearl had brought it up.

The pearl knew what this object was, as well as the location of both these ruins and a nearby village. The memory of these ruins marked them as being in better condition than their current state, but for the most part everything lined up.... above ground, anyway. It knew of magic, and how to consume it. Whether knowing that something terrible happened here was part of those memories or mere deduction could be relevant as well, but if the truth behind that led any credence to the hypothesis that was forming up, then Pearl or anything derivative of that would be an inappropriate name for the stone, too. After all:

You lived here before this happened.

Were you a person? A magic person?

The pearl might have stunted communication, but it retrieved words and responded to them. It made sense of the barks people made. So, perhaps it would need a name meant for people? But then, if that was true of the pearl, then it could be true of the rodent as well, and there were no rat-people to learn about names from.

Names are hard, it told the pearl, resigned. This subject may need to be revisited again.
 
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The pearl seemed somewhat relieved at Ratty's lack of anger at it's unprompted strengthening and the resultant pain, seemingly able to understand something as relatively simple as emotion based communication, which suggested that it might understand other types if it were to somehow gain the ability to use them, though that might also require Ratty to be able to use and understand them, judging by how Pearl seemed to get more advanced along with it's host, strengthening Ratty to improve itself, it was a logical purpose, though to what end was anyone's guess, Pearl certainly didn't seem to have any idea.

At the very least, the pool was relaxing and did wonders for Ratty's sore limb, not eliminating the pain but making it far easier to deal with, hot water was the ultimate cure for aches and pains, and the heat seemed to be pretty good at washing away Ratty's coat of filth too, the current taking away the dirty water and replacing it with clean in a steady trickle.
Lizzy also seemed not to mind being watched, because after all, why WOULD she care about a rat seeing her body in a bathing situation? Wouldn't be the first time, and likely wouldn't be the last either to be honest, she was hardly rolling in coin, especially now.

The pearl seemed... Oddly anxious as it was questioned, leaving Ratty to float in silence for several minutes while it attempted to construct an answer, finally producing several images before apparently giving up and resorting to blasting words directly into Ratty's brain, it was kinda painful, like short, temporary bursts of migraine as it's primitive brain was forced to process complex words, that would be something Pearl would hopefully get to improving...
Such a wait was kind of anticlimactic considering the answer.
"Unknown, Memory. Broken. Not. Usable."
After the words it went back to images, showing a generic silhouette of a vaguely humanoid creature swallowing the pearl, followed by a feeling of questioning, it seemed it was suggesting the memories could be from an unknown prior host.
 
Silence.

Was it thinking?

The rodent drifted along with the current, but paddled back upstream occasionally with its feet, enjoying the silence for what it was. The sudden intrusion of specific words into its little brain coaxed a shocked squeak out of it, but by the time it had a full grasp of its head the pain was gone, and the blur and the nausea soon followed. Once free from it, the rodent's thoughts went quiet. If the pearl was unsure, then there was nothing it could do at the moment but continue exploring and seeing more of the world: a fun adventure, for certain, but for the time being it'd had its fill of catacombs and ancient ruins. Yet, its existence persisted in a conflicting state: too much energy to sleep, but still too sore to keep its efficiency out in the wild.

After roughly twenty minutes of soaking, the creature pulled itself from the stream and shook itself dry damp in the same manner a dog would, a chaotic shimmy and to-and-fro thrashing from side to side, right down to the rodent's fleshy tail shivering itself free of fluid. From there it moved over to the lizard-woman's discarded robe to get another look at her. No doubt she was probably tired, what with the fire and the burning of her magical energy, but if any place was good for her to snooze when night was almost upon them, it would be this chamber. The rodent doubted its new reptilian friend would still be here in the time it would take to move the nesting grounds over, but felt it had little reason to drag her along for the journey. Sure, the extra protection could be useful, but she probably had a life, and her own nest out there somewhere.

Probably.

.....

No, she didn't.

After a moment, the rodent squeaked up again to get the reptilian's attention. It mimicked a walking motion, then a digging motion with its hands, then pointed to the stone flooring. It then took a minute to think about how to express its next thought, then stretched its body forth and finished with a circular motion with its fingertip. Maybe it would be enough for the lizard to understand, and make her own decision on whether to join? Or, perhaps she would share her own plans so they could meet again. The rat wasn't sure why it was going through this much effort to communicate with her, other than the feeling that she might not like being left alone.

Going get nest, bring back here. Long journey, whole day.
 
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At least there was some benefit to Pearl forcing words into Ratty's brain, really it had essentially burned them into it's memory, but now those words were known to the rodent, it knew their meaning, could understand and visualise them, if it had the mouth parts needed to create human sounds, it could probably even have said them, this showed that Ratty's brain was able to understand languages, and that with work... It might potentially be able to understand the human barking without Pearl there to translate for it, which would certainly be something for a previously simple rat to be exceptionally proud of!
Unless every word took that much trouble to learn in which case it probably wasn't going to be worth it in the slightest.

Lizzy WAS a bit tired, but in a different way from the physical, despite her lack of physical strength the woman was quite experienced in walking long distances, so that mixed with her earlier rest meant that she was physically good to go!
No, her exhaustion was of the magical kind, expending so much magical energy, especially without a focusing tool had caused a shortage of magical energy, it was a strange exhaustion, one of emotion and spirit, her positive emotions were dulled and negative emotions just barely held at bay, it was only temporary but was an uncomfortable feeling to be sure, it also meant that right then, she did not want to be alone, and was glad for the presence of the overly intelligent large rat she had met, and had to remind herself that clearly this rat was at least at human intelligence so it was NOT pathetic to consider them more valuable than any humans she happened to know.

Lizzy fortunately was able to pick up on Ratty's intentions, more or less.
"Oh! You're going somewhere? Umm, even for someone like you it could be dangerous... Do you mind if I umm, come too?"
She questioned, climbing out of the water to dry off and dress, fortunately she had been carrying some warm fluffy towels, as she had only been able to have cold baths recently, being able to warm up and dry off fast was a medical necessity for her!
Once the woman was dressed she awaited Ratty's lead with surprising eagerness, actually doing something was much better for the symptoms of mana drain than sitting on her own for hours.
 
The act of burning words into the rodent's memory might appear to be a simple enough concept, but between the complex tongue motions necessary to create their sounds and the vocal element that the rodent simply didn't have, there was much more to take in that a word's sound and its meaning. "Not" had no meaning of any significance to the rat, apart from the establishment of a negative when combined with another concept. "Unknown" was two ideas in one: a prefix and the concept it modified. Another part of the sudden lesson in words had a suffix. If anything, burning words into memory might have been painful, but supposedly once it knew enough of them and enough about sentence structure, this would no longer be a problem.

Though, some annoyance might have been expressed that the only person it communicated with wasn't using any of those words, even if it was good that she wasn't calling attention to something 'broken.' Surprise followed, when the reptilian asked to tag along for what was sure to be a long, dull journey apart from the odd night-owl. Then it remembered: she didn't know which plants were safe to eat, as her place among her people was not that of a gatherer, but a fire-bearer. Of course the rodent would have this friend along for the journey! It squeaked up onto its hind legs and bounced a little, waiting for her to get dressed before making its way toward the stairs, and then.... the big door? Whichever direction it seemed like that was in, then the old nesting grounds of yesterday.

It wasn't sure how it was going to convince the other rats that it was safe to be around this reptilian, though.
 
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Lizzy didn't need long to get ready, she was so used to dressing fast to escape cold that it was second nature at this point, even if the heated pools did seem to make the room warm enough even for her to be comfortable within it, though actually, the ruins in general were oddly warm, not overly so either, perhaps more of that 'magic' stuff was at work? More magical rocks like the ones that made light? It also stuck out that air circulated so well, even blowing in the lower levels despite the relative lack of holes to the outside world down there, whoever had created and lived within the construction that became these ruins were certainly skilled in magic, seemingly doing things with it that were just for showing off!
At least that was the opinion Ratty got from Pearl, who likely knew a lot more about magic despite it's relative lack of memories and holes in knowledge.

The journey would go faster now that Ratty had already explored the path between the two areas, going on just Pearl's apparently out of date information had been difficult to say the least, and Lizzy seemed to be able to keep up without difficulty, most of her human skin was concealed within her travel robes so the many stick and thorny plants glanced off her scales without causing any trouble for the woman, certainly a useful ability to have in a forest, Lizzy also did well at keeping predators away, her mere presence would keep the vast majority of things that might consider eating a rodent of unusual size well away from them.

As for getting the rats to trust Lizzy... It would probably be fairly easy to be honest, in general Ratty's kind were easy to trust and form bonds, it would likely have been a severe weakness if more predators were capable of communicating with them and planning things as complex as infiltration and lying.
Though neither Ratty nor Pearl would know, the trusting nature of the rats was of course, entirely intentional.
 
Tracing the path back to the nest made for an interesting way to end the day, though the barriers of the jungle felt a bit more prominent with the reptilian accompanying the rodent, but at least her presence gave the rat an excuse to pace itself without trying to over-exert itself. What the little creature failed to consider was moving everyone back along this path: herding everyone at once in a massive blob could work well for intimidating potential predators, but the jungle thicket might prove difficult for anything more chaotic than advancing in a column. Lizzy's presence and protection were likely more necessary than the rodent realized.

Some time later, at the nesting grounds, the rodent turned to face Lizzy again, before holding up its hand and showing three fingers. Three moments? It lacked a proper concept of time relevant to this world, possibly even a concept of numbers beyond 'this many,' but it didn't have much to work with. Just enough to let the lizard-woman know they were stopping here while the rat took a little peek inside the burrows to see what had occurred in its absence. For what hadn't even amounted to an entire day, the creature felt like it had been gone for much longer.
 
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Apparently quite energetic after a nap and some things to eat, especially one of the leaves that had made her feel extra energetic and awake for some reason, Lizzy managed to keep going the whole way back to the nest, though by the end she was clearly worn out, as Ratty would be as well, Pearl's magical energy boost seeming to lose ground against natural exhaustion, it seemed likely they would have to spend the night resting, was probably safer to travel at day anyway, unlike most rodents they were definitely day time creatures and it would make it harder to get lost that way, which, considering some of the older and younger rats had rather... Fragile attention spans, would be critical, wouldn't do to reach the ruins and find out half the kids had wandered off.

Lizzy fortunately seemed to understand and took the chance to rest, back up against a tree near the moderately clear area that the nest was centred below, apparently content to let Ratty do whatever it was the creature wanted, maybe it was treasure? Or more of it's oddly intelligent kin? Or maybe the rat would just leave her there, she wouldn't mind, it wouldn't be the first time so she would only cry a little, honest!

The nest was just as bustling and yet somehow relaxed as ever, rats went around eating, snuggling, feeding young and preparing to sleep in some cases, they had seemingly not been concerned about Ratty's absence right up until one saw them, proceeding to squeak out their return to the others, and soon Ratty was surrounded by a small group of anxious, worried rats, they had thought Ratty wasn't coming back! Or got stuck somewhere or eaten!
 
Funny, the rodent hadn't expected to arrive until dawn, but it had overestimated its energy reserves nonetheless. Either the muscle strain was taking its toll, or... no, that was probably it. Into the nest the rat descended, weary and just a little bit wobbly from exhaustion. Perhaps it was just a little bit naive to think it could have a quick peek inside just to make sure everything was okay, but by now the rat wasn't thinking clearly. It jumped a little at being surrounded by others of its kind, but once the surprise was gone, the creature did the only thing it knew how to do: nudge up and brush alongside the others to let them know everything was okay, passing along a few squeaks to the effect of 'found something great.'

There couldn't be any explanation beyond that. Anything more would be forgotten by sunrise, and the creature itself lacked the energy. Between trying to calm its anxious friends (?), it found its gaze drifting toward the part of the nest it usually bundled up with a few other rats in, and the corner it used the night before, when everyone thought it was sick. Sleep beckoned, but for just a little longer it would face rejection. So far, it looked like everyone was still here.

The rat looked around, apparently in search of someone specific.
 
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Pearl seemed content to go into hibernation as Ratty entered the nest, it's sudden absence bringing another wave of exhaustion, it seemed that now that Ratty was somewhere safe and surrounded by family and friends that Pearl no longer saw the need to forcibly keep it awake and energised, something that would probably have begun having serious drawbacks if it kept going, instead it would spend more time analysing the quarantined stone that had nearly put Ratty into an eternal sleep, keeping it's contact with Ratty's mind to the bare minimum just in case.

The other rats seemed to calm fairly quickly with some reassurances, they were simple creatures after all, lacking Ratty's magically enhanced brain and thought patterns, and were quickly back to their usual affectionate selves, fortunately it seemed that despite their sudden sentience, Ratty still had the same kinship and familial feelings towards the rest of their race, and was still as comforted as ever by their closeness, it seemed something either couldn't be changed by more brain power, or were simply preserved by Pearl out of kindness or more likely strategic benefit, after all, having lots of loyal kin who could easily calm you was generally quite good.

Ratty's immediate family were quick to join the huddle of fluffy creatures, they had been the most concerned about their strange adopted child, making sure it had eaten properly and, having picked up on it's exhaustion, dragged Ratty towards a sleeping spot, it seemed that Lizzy would just have to hang out until Ratty had had a good long rest before their fellow rats would let Ratty out again.
 
Confusion dotted the rodent's addled thoughts: another pulse of exhaustion made it wobble in its step, but before it could deduce why it suddenly felt the urge to slumber without any heed to the lizardling's lonely emotions or why the pearl had gone quiet, it was surrounded by more and more fluffy friends whose first thoughts wouldn't involve the horror of staring eye-to-eye with a demon vermin. For all the distance the rodent felt toward its kin that morning, it was nice to be back among these dim creatures, even the overbearing ones that were perceptive enough to notice the rat hadn't been eating its proper fill.

Everyone was still alive, it looked like. Too exhausted to argue or further upset or worry them, the newly-returned rat-like creature joined them for food and offered minimal resistance when dragged off to the sleeping pile, collapsing as soon as it had the chance. Another longer slumber awaited.
 
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