Oasis

[Mahou-Shoujo]

While it seemed reasonable to assume that wandering long enough would lead to finding a village, this WAS a forest, and from what little Ratty could piece together it was a massive one, not to mention, one of the humans had a horrific injury on his arm from one of the fire traps, which meant it was entirely possible they were already down to just one human to worry about, especially as Lizzy had been carrying all the herbs and medicines of the group, and it didn't seem the others had much knowledge in their use, still, no use worrying about the humans right then, tracking them so long after they fled would be next to impossible at this point anyway.

"I see... Your kind seem much kinder than many people I have met... It is a good thing".
Lizzy declared, having decoded Ratty's motions and signing, which Pearl had been trying to assist with through various suggestions fuelled by it's own knowledge of humanoids.
Ratty's kind were indeed somewhat intelligent, sure they lagged behind the vast majority of humans, or even many larger magical species, but they still functioned, had a very basic society, with roles such as gathering or scouting or even the elders that seemed to try and give advice to the younger rats, even if it was just as simple as whether a leaf would taste good or not.

"A stone?... Maybe it was some sort of magical storage or a lost student's cheat sheet... Though I have no idea how one would get all the way out here... And the big stone? You mean the golem? You think it was... Sick? I Guess... It was definitely not functioning normally, which would count as sick in a loose sense..."
She rambled a little before stopping to blink at the last bit as she managed to figure it out.
"Me?... I... Yeah, I'm pretty lonely..."
She admitted with a deep sigh.
"I don't have any umm... Nest? Burrow? Of my own".

They wouldn't be able to reach the village until well into the night, but fortunately the area around the village had far thinner foliage and much of it was lit up by the moon, which was good as it stopped them walking into the river that flowed close to the town, likely the reason it was established there in the first place.

 

[Fyrra]

Together with the pearl, signing a conversation was proving difficult, but not impossible. Most of the words themselves had been learned, but without any sort of guide, expressing abstract concepts was limited to exaggerated motions. The rat's poor little brain was tiring itself out, but at least the duo hadn't run into trouble this far out in the woods, beyond a river blocking their path. Strange that it was the moonlight that brought such a thing to their attention and not the sound of running water, but the rodent was grateful for the coincidence.

The creature had a lot to think about: people being unkind was not a new idea, but unkind even to their own? That would make the charred corpse the pair had dropped off into the abyss one of the normal ones, and not any sort of cruel outlier. Ratkind could not be ready to meet people, but this one still needed to learn about their society: that of the humans, and possibly that of whoever lived in the ruins they just explored as well.

Lizzy's voiced confusion over how a magical rock could appear this far away from civilization sparked an idea in the rat, who suddenly darted into the reptile's path and signed up at her in the moonlight, standing up on its hind legs.

People lived here long ago. <Nest> not alone in <Forest>. Also <Castle> and <Tower>. Someone <Build>. Create <Big Stone>.

As for what could have built such a structure, or create the sentinel that nearly ended its journey, the rodent couldn't fathom. Nature had reclaimed much of the land, leaving few ruins intact to tell of the existence of whoever lived there, and almost everything inside the temple had decomposed to the point that only a few wooden boxes remain, most of them empty. Something terrible must have happened, to make the inhabitants disappear, but there was no evidence, no clues. Even the magical crystals were of no help on that front... except perhaps for providing their devourer with the means to be curious about that sort of thing.

The signings continued.

<Village> scary. Need help. <Scales> is friend, <Rat> nest is <Scales> nest. <Scales> lead?

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The quite water was certainly strange, it was running very slow, almost to the point of stagnancy, and there seemed to have been a lot of crude digging around it's edges, perhaps as a failed attempt to widen it? Clearly a sign of the dumb things humanoids liked to do to their environment for no good reasons that Ratty could tell, and judging by Pearl's lack of insight, wasn't something that rocks understood either.
Still though, with how shallow and show it was, even if Ratty had fallen in it wouldn't have been more than an inconvenience, and maybe some cold seeing as how hard it would be to dry off and warm up at night.

Lizzy seemed intrigued by that possibility, her tail swishing slightly as she stopped to consider it.
"I... Suppose that makes sense, I neve really stopped to consider WHO made the ruins, but logically someone had to have lived there... And they were smart enough to make golems and large buildings, so they likely could have created a stone with uplifting abilities... And that golem was old and damaged but far better than anything my old guild had, at least, the enchantments were".
Most of that was likely over Ratty's head, or rather it should have been, but Pearl happened to know a lot about magic, and fed the concepts directly into Ratty's brain, assuming it hadn't done so earlier in case it proved useful.
It also seemed Lizzy was already considering her previous home a former home already, attachments having apparently been severed by whatever led to her being in the company of her previous companions.

Lizzy seemed touched to be considered Ratty's friend, and even more so to be thought of as part of their nest! That was basically like family if she understood correctly, and leaned down to reassure her friend.
"It's alright... I won't let any of the humans in that village hurt you, and if they do I'll... I don't know, maybe I can scare them off with fire? As far as I know this village doesn't have any mages within it, or races with resistance to magic... Though it might be best to make camp outside of the village, their watchmen seemed quite jumpy when last I was here".

 

[Fyrra]

The reptilian was just a fountain of insight and new information. Whatever a guild was, it created golems, but the best it would have access to would be sturdier than the one encountered in the ruins, but not nearly as smart. A rodent could make use of this information.... someday, but not this eve. Confusion colored the creature's face at the concept of an uplift, but when the pearl started adding pictures into their shared thoughts, the creature only grew more bewildered: rats, as people. It wasn't sure if the reptilian was looking at it like it was a person, or as a creature with the means to learn some sort of method to do that to others.

But, the thought lingered, and the rodent remembered the last time it reached for knowledge beyond the pearl's understanding, for knowledge of the humans. The thoughts could only be described as utter chaos with lots of screaming when it came to their society, but knowledge of their anatomy, joints, organs, and senses remain fresh in the creature's mind, mostly untested, but incredibly in-depth, almost as though the idea of the rodent being a person was correct. It wasn't, but it felt like it was?

It looked up to the reptilian again, suddenly a little more worried that camping outside the village sounded safer to her than venturing in, but touched at the declaration of protection, or mutual aid, or whatever this was. Without another word, the creature hugged a leg, then started looking for a comfy place to lie down and sleep. With the lizard close by, it should be fine.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

While she didn't think to assure Ratty that she saw them as just as much of a person as anyone else she knew, perhaps more of a person in some cases... Lizzy certainly had no trouble seeing them as such, partially due to the general mindset and experiences of a mage making it easier to see creatures such as familiars as sentient, but mostly just from having spent time with them over the last few days, after all, it was quite difficult to have conversations, no matter how difficult, with someone numerous times, and even fight together, and not consider them as equals.

Pearl seemed to almost inwardly wince as Ratty thought of the previous experience remembering the 'other' source of information in it's head, despite being completely able to relate to having foreign, not entirely coherent memories within it's own... Mind? It sort of WAS a mind if you thought about it... Pearl had gotten quite a backlash from the stress those memories caused Ratty, and as it so happened, small, sentient magical pearls were NOT well equipped to deal with stress and strong negative emotions.

While much of the area around the village had seemingly been cleared, it was by no means thorough or total, leaving many comfortable and sheltered spots for an intelligent rat creature to make use of, there was also the benefit of few if any predator type creatures being brave enough to roam so close to a human village, so that was one less thing to worry about.
Apparently not wanting to start a fire, and finding the weather to be more or less warm enough even for her cold blood, Lizzy found a spot and curled up to sleep near Ratty, just in case something wandered near them.

Morning came without major incident, other than a few shivers from Lizzy, and the two were awoken by sounds of work from the village, no one had seen fit to come and investigate the two, who were clearly visible from the village, likely the inhabitants hadn't seen what looked to them like a single person sleeping on the outskirts as a threat, which was correct, there was no way the two of them could harm so many people on their own and survive.

 

[Fyrra]

"Today we are going to learn about The Trail of Tears," a voice announced, and as the rat looked around it saw just under two dozen humans, most of them sitting at tiny wooden devices with weird surfaced. It looked down, noticing it was seated at one of these devices as well, with... another strange object. It bore pictures, and upon opening it up, there were more pictures, and many strange runes. "Open up to page <???>. Who would like to read first?" The voice came from the tall person, the rat noticed.

One of the pups in the room started talking, while staring at the book. Every so often, the large human would call upon another youth to read, and they would continue. It sounded like a memory of how a large group of settlements that decided to unify needed more room to expand their covered nesting grounds.... so they forced other humans who looked different to migrate, using their very lives as a tool of negotiation. Wars were fought, homes were destroyed. Defenseless people, murdered. Families, torn apart from violence. Children, succumbing to illness on the road.

"Stop." The tall human interrupted a dark-skinned girl. "Tanya. Read from the book." The rodent was confused. Was the pup not reading?

"The book lies!" The girl shouted back. "It says everyone migrated peacefully, and that's not what happened!"

"That's the truth, and it's what's on the test. Tanya, it is your turn to read. You need to understand-" The tall one had a frustrated tone, but kept her composure otherwise.

"No, you need to understa-" The pup barked back.

"That's enough! Office, now!" Everyone else had fallen silent, and the girl left the room in a huff, tears in her eyes. The rodent didn't know what to think, it just watched... until the large human turned her attention toward it, and suddenly shouted "And where are your clothes?!"

The rat looked at its hands, one covered in soft fur, the other in peach flesh without any proper nails. Looking further, it noticed its chest was a similar blend of phenotypical traits that shouldn't blend together, and it was the only creature in the room not covered in cloth, which it knew it needed for... some reason? The shock jolted the rodent up onto its hind legs as it squeaked out in confusion, but just as the words were meant to leave its mouth-



The rat suddenly sat upright with a loud squeak, panicking and looking around the vicinity for something to hide in. It didn't get very far: the reptilian friend's bag had already been stuffed with plants from their stay at the nesting grounds, but ducking between it and a shrub for a few minutes helped with the creature's anxiety as it tried to make sense of what it was looking for. It needed cloth... for something? But the dream's memory quickly faded, and with it, the rodent's desire for cloth. It just sat there once it lost the meaning it failed to grasp, a bewildered beast once more.

Then it remembered: today they were outfitting the reptile with supplies she needs. So, it tapped at the sleeping lizard, trying to get her attention now that the sun had risen.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lizzy's shivers from the night before had thankfully stopped once the sun began to rise, the warm light filtering through the sparse trees so close to the town and warming the cold blooded girl, in fact she looked to be quite comfortable, the sunbathing seeming to put her in a happy place and chase away any potential nightmares, unfortunately Ratty still had to wake her up, as they couldn't just sleep all day when there were things to do, even as a simple ratling Ratty had learned that much, sleeping all day was only for sick rats, or sometimes when the weather was really bad and leaving the burrow was dangerous.

Fortunately Lizzy wasn't too scared by being woken, and instead sleeping wrapped her arms around Ratty in a hug, perhaps thinking they were a pillow or some equivalent, a concept that Ratty just sort of knew, not that the concept of a pillow was even difficult to understand as just a soft thing for comfort, which unlike living creatures, wouldn't complain if you used it as a bed or squeezed it.
This hug only lasted a few seconds as Lizzy's scattered wits returned and she awakened completely, hastily releasing the hug and moving backwards.
"Oh! M..My apologies... I just... I forgot where we were for a moment, I didn't hurt you did I?"
She questioned, brushing leaves and dirt from her robes as she slowly climbed to her feet, stretching out some aches from sleeping outside on a forest floor, while she certainly had done it before, it didn't make it comfortable in the slightest.

"Umm... So... The town might be a tad hostile if they think you are a wild rat, so keep near me okay? I don't want anyone thinking you are going to steal food and then hurting you..."
She warned, sounding genuinely concerned, humanity had a long history of considering rodents as inherently bad and dirty, but at least it could be balanced by the concept of 'pets' and if they saw Lizzy's robes and thought Ratty might be a familiar, well they were even more likely to accept Ratty's presence.

 

[Fyrra]

The visual lingered as the rodent looked over its body: hands, big, like those of a human. It was a strange thought that conflicted with its own knowledge, but the idea of standing tall like the other creatures of the village.... could potentially be useful? But it would make hiding more difficult, as well as sneaking, or any other sort of mischief the creature might want to get up to in this village. Then again, this wasn't the village the pearl was trying to lead it to days ago: chances are there wouldn't be anything important to swipe?

Better to play that by whiskers, the creature decided, jumping slightly as it was swiped up into a hug, but it didn't try to scramble away. For a mere few seconds, it relaxed, leaning into the scaled one's embrace. When released, it simply turned to face the reptile, signing a dismissal of her worries... up until there was a warning to heed. That, the creature nodded in response to, before climbing up its friend's tail and up onto her shoulder. If she believed staying in plain sight was the correct choice, then it so it shall be.

In the meantime, rather than search the grounds for some sort of rock or another object that could be thrown in an emergency, the rodent studied what it could of the village's people: a diplomatic mission meant learning of these peoples' habits and such, no? At the very least, it could try to decipher what had both them and the lizard so wary of one another, were it anything beyond the mental pictures the pearl had shown it the other night.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lizzy seemed relieved that Ratty had taken no obvious offense to her hugging, she could sometimes do that in her sleep or when waking up, especially she was cold... Or warm, or comfortable, in general it was just in her nature to hug things, though she had not often had the chance to do so, especially with a living, warm creature, as she had never really had the coin to maintain a pet and her roommate back at the guild had intensely dislike being touched, by anyone, not just her, she did briefly wonder what had happened to them, but dismissed the thought, there wasn't really a good way to check, besides! She wanted to stay around and support her Ratty friend!

The people of the village seemed mostly to ignore them bar a few stares here and there, mostly from curious younglings or uniformed guards, a concept Pearl explained by comparing them to the golem that had fought even in it's madness to protect the ruins, this was effectively a border town, the last stop before the much more dangerous wilderness and mostly less built up towns, so seeing odd travellers was a common sight for them, of course there were a few glares... A few people remembered Lizzy, and more specifically that she had been part of a group of humans that now were not present... Needless to say, plenty of older folks would rather assume she had done something to them than accept that it might have been a tragedy or amicable split.

They passed a group of children playing some odd game with sticks, and one in a poorly made and drawn on scaled mask, that the others seemed to be play fighting, an activity that Lizzy was apparently entirely unbothered by, in fact she even seemed to smile as she glanced at their activities.
However that smile was quickly interrupted as she trod on a torn strip of cloth that was hanging low and nearly tripped, just barely managing to regain her balance and reaching up to ensure Ratty did not fall.
"Ahh! Are you alright?"
She asked, before even bothering to mention that she herself was.
"I think... A tailor should be the first stop... These clothes... Umm, hides?"
She attempted to explain more clearly to Ratty.
"Are definitely not good anymore, they were not designed for travel in places like this".

 

[Fyrra]

It didn't take much to understand the reptile's need for warmth and affection: even if the ratling didn't share her disposition toward such, it had spent its entire life surrounded by other rats who acted similarly, and was at least beginning to understand that scaled creatures couldn't retain body heat. A hug was nothing to get worked up over, but the glares of the local townsfolk who'd been watching might be another matter. There were far too many of them to engage, even with the reptile rested.

It took a little bit of study and some cues from its scaled companion for the rodent to stop thinking of all these people as adversaries, possibly even the way she relaxed her shoulders as she passed by the little pups and their masked friend. The rodent perched, perplexed by the display of play-fighting, until it dawned on the creature that these upright bipeds honed their taste for hunting from a young age in much the same way ratkind taught their young about plants and hiding. It made sense in its own way, but the rodent never considered-

When the lizard stumbled, its shoulder-rodent leapt down to the ground: the robes were shaky footing that could be grasped in an emergency, but with neither fire nor urgency present, the creature decided on solid ground once more: enough people had seen it riding atop the reptile's shoulder, after all, so there could be no mistaking it for wild vermin. What the rat hadn't counted on was being spoken to in front of other people. It looked around, certain to find people staring, before looking back at Lizzy. She couldn't have been aware that talking now would draw attention, could she? Or, was this part of the plan?

Deciding that the reptile had made the correct choice in revealing that she wasn't traveling with an ordinary rat, the creature started signing up at her. - <Squeak> fine. Don't need <explain>. Worry about <Scales>, <Squeak> here to <watch>.

It seemed odd, asking the lizard not to dumb her speech down in order to communicate. Cloth was cloth, not a hide. Stranger yet, the rodent waited until now to bring this up, when mere days ago it struggled with the concept of barks meaning different things to the bipeds. Still, something about this was off to the rodent, but it couldn't place a finger on the pearl's involvement... yet. Lots of mental back-and-forth had gotten the trio this far. Now they just needed to reach a tailor.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Admittedly while the near fall WAS entirely accidental, what came after was not, Lizzy knew the general perception of familiar was that they had a child like intelligence, though that really only applied to familiars of fairly weak mages, which she supposed she technically WAS when you thought about it...
But it was known that mages did generally value familiars, so by showing concern and taking care to explain simple concepts as if Ratty would need it, she would immediately let Ratty's supposed status known, making them both more likely to be respected, as while a ragged vagabond with a rat was a strange and unwelcome sight, a MAGE in weird clothes with a rat was just a mage being their usual weird self, it also helped that she announced their goal of the tailor, several people seemed to relax now that they knew this stranger's business in their small town.

The short walk to what was apparently the tailor was uneventful, no one in the town thought it might be a good idea to chase away potential customers, no matter what their opinions on lizard folk or mages happened to be, they could do that AFTER she had spent all their money if need be.
The tailor was fairly small and cozy, with many items of clothing on shelves and hangers, some of them clearly having been there quite a while, the older looking woman at the counter glanced up at their arrival.
"Ahh, customers? What are you looking for... Oh".
Her admittedly forced smile dropped.
"We don't have any clothes made for your kind... Something might fit but I ain't making tail holes, that's on you, I'll be keeping an eye out, if you or your rat there steal anything I'll call the guard".
She warned, before sitting back down with a groan, seemingly wounded or perhaps ill?

Lizzy didn't obviously respond, simply forcing a smile and nodding, this was hardly the first time this had happened by far, in fact, she was glad not to be thrown out, this may have been the most 'normal' of the Periphery settlements, settled mostly by average people or failed merchants rather than adventurers and soldiers, but it seems some tiny aspect of the culture had still spread to them, enough not to have separate entrances for nonhuman races at least.

Lizzy began browsing the robes, searching for ones that might fit her frame, quickly settling on a few that she began to look over more carefully.
Pearl meanwhile was apparently awake, as it kept flashing images of Ratty in various outfits, it didn't SEEM like it was intentional though... More like Pearl was just casually imagining things and Ratty just happened to know of it, which was reasonable, Pearl WAS it's own creature, despite being a weird rock it could think and communicate, and seemed to eat that weird magic stuff.

 

[Fyrra]

A wary rodent soon dropped its vigilance toward the townsfolk surrounding it once they lost interest, and accompanied its companion into what appeared to be a hub for displaying cloth: a curious stockpile of what could be prime nesting materials, were they clearly not designed with some other purpose in mind. The rat needn't work hard to imagine a few adjustments to the products on display... but the storekeeper's disdain drew the creature's attention. There was just so much wrong with what she said.

But when the spark lit up a memory of that strange dream, it suddenly made sense: this merchant was like the sturdy human encountered in the ruins, and apparently like many people of this phenotype. What a person this was, to treat someone like a mere pest: the rat narrowed its eyes, glaring at the shopkeeper and wishing it knew some sort of vulgar thing to sign at it, since a more violent approach was out of the question. It took a few moments to shrug off its dislike of the woman and return its attention to the strange bits of cloth on display.

The pearl seemed to have the right idea, its host decided while prodding at the mental imagery: apparently they both were stuck on the thought of being like people? A few different outfits were imagined alongside the pearl's contributions, even if the rat didn't put much weight into the thoughts. A tunic would get in the way when traversing the forests, and weigh it down in the water. Still...

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lizzy quickly gathered some sets of clothing she seemed happy with, as well as some other cloth things that didn't seem like clothing and took them up to the shopkeeper to exchange some of the weird, shiny discs she had in a small sack, it wasn't super obvious but SEEMED like the yellow ones were more valuable than the white or brown ones... And for whatever reason humans seemed to accept them in exchange for things.
Lizzy expertly answered each of the shopkeeper's glares and insinuations about where she got so much coin with smiles and silence, she knew trying to argue would just be an excuse to not get her purchases, she had long ago learned that certain people would destroy their own lives a hundred times over for the chance to slightly inconvenience someone of a different race.

With her purchases stowed in her bag Lizzy waved to Ratty to follow her out of the store with a half hearted demand from the shopkeeper to 'not come back without more respectable company' Whatever that meant, her last company was certainly NOT respectable, even among normal human society they were seen as untrustworthy, probably criminal... But yet they were seen as better customers than Lizzy by some people.

Once outside Lizzy turned to Ratty, extracting something from her bag, it looked like a piece of cloth, though wasn't shaped like the things Lizzy wore.
"Umm... I thought I should get you something? You don't need to wear it but at least while in town it might help? I mean with people, they'll probably like you more if you have it".
She presented a small cape, it was seemingly made for a child and looked to fit Ratty and was small enough that it looked unlikely to majorly get in the way during walking and running.
"Umm, it would also be warm... And I don't know how it is for you but warmth is usually good".

 

[Fyrra]

Between looking over the strange outfits and keeping an eye on the shopkeeper in case she tried anything funny, the rodent quickly lost what remain of its patience for the chatty hag. A lesson in the basics of bartering was all but ignored when the last insult flew, at which point the little furball leapt up onto a rack and did the only thing that hit that mix of appropriate response and lacking in lasting consequences. It started lifting hangers up from the rack, and one by one, it threw them on the ground.

Pettiness achieved, the creature fled out the door when its friend had concluded their business, paying almost no attention to the comment about respectability and how it could compare to the reptile's previous company: no doubt such a vile person would flock to the likes of that one charred corpse, but the other two... well, the only threat those two posed was the threat of revealing the location of the new nesting grounds, but if they'd yet to find this village, perhaps they were less of a threat than that.

One frantic scurrying-away-from-the-consequences-of-its-own-actions later, the rodent stopped near its reptilian friend to take in her wisdom. It stood up on its hind legs, dusting off bits of dirt here and there, before looking this piece of cloth over: a cape, she'd called it. It couldn't have hurt to try it on, but with that out of the way, the rodent felt itself wondering if there was anything else here worth looking into.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

The shopkeeper didn't immediately realise what Ratty was doing, but when she did strange barks began to fly, interestingly it seemed that Pearl had no intention of translating them, and Ratty lacked knowledge of what exactly they were, even the 'other' knowledge seemed to not know the context of those strange sounds, one thing was clear though, they were vulgar and filled with anger, it was most fortunate indeed for both Ratty and Lizzy that the woman chose to hobble around picking up her fallen good rather than give chase, it certainly wouldn't take much to convince the town guard that the ragged looking nonhuman and her rat friend were bad people who should be removed from the area, or worse.

Lizzy clapped slightly, a smile on her face as she took in Ratty with the new cape, it was cute and in her opinion, quite dashing, plus there was no question that people would see them as a pet or familiar now, wild rats just didn't wear capes, even rodents of unusual size such as Ratty, Pearl also seemed contented with the new garb, and the cloth WAS warm, would likely make a decent nest material.
"It looks good! I got the most comfortable and warm looking one I could find".
She explained.

Unfortunately their shopping was interrupted, as apparently Ratty wasn't the only one who had decided to make a scene that day.
"Thief! Criminal!"
The shout rang through the town, drawing gazes and causing Lizzy to involuntarily freeze for a moment before relaxing as her eyes followed the source of the sound.
It was a man running from a rather angry looking old man and a couple of armed men.
"L...Look! I'll pay you later! Your prices were insane!"
The man shouted... He seemed familiar even at a distance.
"Edric?! What is he doing... And where is Gora?"
Lizzy asked quietly, she didn't particularly care what had happened to them... Well okay she HAD been worried, but mostly she was concerned they might do something to hurt her or Ratty.

 

[Fyrra]

The rat posed in its strange garment, looking it over and even taking a moment to watch it billow in the morning breeze, or a quick spin. Apparently this object was the key to survival within the village, but it was also a gift from the strange reptile. Ideas began circling about in the creature's little mind, but feeling the warmth the garment brought on as it kept the rat's body heat cast aside any notion of discarding it the moment they went into the woods: unless it got tangled in a branch, or the rat decided to go for a swim, it couldn't find any fault in the cape. So, why not keep it?

For this, Lizzy got a hug, but it was cut short by a sudden shout, and the familiarity of a certain voice even got the little rodent excited! Either the creature had chosen wisely its destination, or dumb luck had prevailed! One of the two primary targets had revealed themselves, and surely this one knew where its wounded companion lie hidden. That the reptile uttered under her breath a question about the other one only made this happenstance easier to approach: she'd know what to ask. They could secure the kill! Except... perhaps not in the middle of this village.

The rodent looked toward its friend, signing a few things: it lives, but its friend was hurt. It must know where. Ready to run?

If Lizzy answered that she was ready to leave, the rat would dart off after Edric in an attempt to harry his pursuers.... and possibly frighten him away from the village. Whatever was to be done with him, it could be decided away from prying eyes. And in order to do that, the armed guards should be convinced to.... Sleep!

...but if the reptile was not ready for this sort of nonsense, the rodent could just spy on the traveling thief instead. Part of partnering up meant seeing to the non-rat's needs, after all.

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Lizzy was more than pleased at receiving a hug, she was naturally a lover of physical affection, to be honest a lot of her race was, perhaps due to the cold blooded nature of the vast majority of the Reptile Blooded Races, though that wasn't implying they ALL like hugs, some were certainly quite opposed to physical affection, hell Lizzy even knew humans who disliked such things.
"I'm glad you seem to approve of it... I got myself a much larger one as well but I can change later when we have more privacy, my current clothes will hold out for now".
Lizzy declared.

With Edric running at surprising speed from the guards who were slowed by their weapons and light, but still constricting armour, there was only a short time to react before he would reach the treeline and become difficult if not impossible to track, Ratty might manage it but certainly wouldn't be able to guide Lizzy at a decent enough speed to catch the larger and fitter human.
Fortunately Lizzy was somewhat used to reacting fast and answered Ratty with a nod, she was technically an escaped slave, no matter what fancy wording they used for her, she may have been somewhat naïve but as a young hatchling she too has seen the purification burnings of escaped slaves, and had heard stories of the fell magics used on those that dared kill their masters to do so, so while she had no personal hatred of Edric and Gora, they couldn't be allowed to get away.

Pearl seemed to be almost excited as Ratty seemed to decide that the guards should sleep, it had been wanting to test out the things it learned from the magical sleep stone, and guided the magics within Ratty's body to form the correct patterns to recreate the spell, shooting it out in an invisible web of energy towards the guards chasing Edric, entangling them in sleep inducing magic that caught the men unawares, quickly reducing them to sleeping bodies... Unfortunately, it would seem Pearl hadn't quite thought about the potential repercussions, as Ratty was overcome with a massive sense of exhaustion, Pearl falling into it's dormant state as the relatively small amounts of magic in the rodent's body were squeezed out, and along with it, much of Ratty's normal energy as well.

 

[Fyrra]

This was the perfect opportunity! The pair of alert guards charging after the fleeing human were easy to catch unaware while their attention remain upon their target, after after a little movement with finger and claws, waving them around and lighting up the energy within, the rat hurled... something! And whatever it was, it made the two men lose interest in the case and take a nap! The rat could squeak in joy at the prospect of a successful test, but it had failed to calculate just how potent that other rock was: to understand sleep, and to push that upon another, it was a contagion all its own.

The rodent slowed in its pace, wobbling a little bit, like it felt the pulse from that old, malfunctioning stone again. Yet as it slowed, it noticed another person staring. Lots of people, even! They just watched it put two guards to sleep, and in a few moments there might be a reckoning if the rat itself stuck around long enough for them to realize something was up. To either doze off or repeat the motions and try the magic again to stop the fleeing human was out of the question: all of them needed to be away from this village, away from prying eyes.

The creature lunged forth, past the fallen guards and toward the treeline, hoping to at least gain some ground on its target before it would inevitably start pushing the limits of its adrenaline. Worst case scenario, getting scooped up by the reptile would at least get them both clear of the village... but depending on how much flight Edric had in him, a rest and a snack might be in order soon.

Though, the speed at which this human fled was a surprise: the rat had already assumed that the charred corpse was the biggest threat of the group, before it learned that the lizard wielded magic and had her wits about her. Was the creature wrong about this one, too?

 

[Mahou-Shoujo]

Though Ratty of course couldn't be expected to know, the people of the town in fact did not know they were responsible for the suddenly naps the guards decided to take, in fact the only one who even suspected it was someone other than Edric was Lizzy, who had clearly seen the magic somehow leave Ratty's body, far too much magic to be sustainable for such a relatively small frame, in fact she was incredibly concerned that her furry friend would pass out after the backlash fully hit, which would not be great if they had ran off into the woods and ended up passing out in a stream or a hole somewhere and gotten lost, or even worse, eaten by some random predator that didn't understand it was chomping on the smartest rodent in the world!

Edric was apparently quite the agile athlete when not drunk out of his mind, and clearly acted with a purpose, the bulging bag he carried had an incredibly strong smell that practically blasted Ratty, similar to some of the things Lizzy had had in her bag, the plants for healing and stopping pain, Ratty had eaten one before in the wild and had their whole face go numb, it wasn't even tasty either.
Even with this bag he was able to outpace Ratty by leaping over plants and fallen trees where Ratty had to go around or over or even under, and of course... Exhaustion set in, Ratty couldn't even manage a full minute and a half before their body gave in, a second wave of exhaustion knocking their legs out from under them, for his part Edric did give a look backwards for a moment, seeming to slow before continuing his run into the wilderness.

It was a short while later that the far less agile and athletic Lizzy caught up, huffing and puffing and in no way able to pursue the fleeing man, she instead sat down on a convenient mossy log.
"Oh dear... That magic really surprised me... You're really incredible, but it looks like you used a bit much..."
She explained, carefully picking up her friend from the ground and digging through her robes to produce a dried, slightly burnt leaf.
"Here... Umm, I'm not sure what it's called but some elves grow it and sell to mages, it's good for this kinda thing, don't worry about Edric, I don't think either of us can catch him while he's sober".

 

[Fyrra]

The rodent didn't get far, but it did pass the treeline and escape the village, potentially frightening the fleeing human into putting more effort into its escape. That no pursuing party followed the rodent into the woods meant it could slow down, but after a mere minute the creature's legs just refused to carry it further, and it flopped into a patch of grass, exhausted. Another lesson learned: adrenaline could not be summoned on a whim, or perhaps that had more to do with a lack of imminent danger.

Whatever the case, the rodent let itself be lifted when its friend caught up, but when it started signing, it couldn't find the energy to enunciate with its motions, and quickly gave up and just started chewing on the strange leaf. Perhaps the human saw them, perhaps he did not. Either way, he was long gone, with only the trail of a potent scent in his wake. But, if their cover had been blown, the duo would be expecting company. What didn't make sense was why a companion of that large, beefy human would run all the way back to this village, only to flee again.

For an entire minute the rodent puzzled over this, gnawing on a leaf and considering a quick snooze in the meantime. In a better state it could follow this trail, but something about it seemed off. Familiar, but wrong. Those herbs were neither tasty nor filling, and they stank! The creature wrinkled its nose, until the detail it was forgetting sprang to life: the human needed those for his companion! They escaped the inferno together, but those herbs helped him manage the pain from his wounds.

It was a sobering thought, humans caring for one another. The rat hadn't a chance to mingle with the villagers and determine whether anyone else was worth establishing communications with, and chances are these two could have just been looking out for themselves, but their circumstances couldn't have been much different from the reptile's. Right? Maybe? Questioning this train of thought made the pearl's silence all the more deafening, but the stone seemed to agree that securing the travelers' silence was the correct choice earlier. Maybe. The rat didn't ask.

After a few moments, the creature curled up near Lizzy, watching and listening for anything that might set in.