Awakening

Patience went over to Tural and winced at that crystals. Hopefully he wouldn't get an infection because there was nothing she could do about it. Fortunately, she did at least have something for his wounds. She silently thanked whoever left the healing potions as an offering.

"Here, drink this, and please be more careful next time," Patience told Tural as she handed him a potion.

Once she was sure he was going to drink it, she turned her attention to the pet rat.

"Thank you, uhm..." she only had three biscuits left, but she thought, it couldn't hurt since she wasn't sure if she could save the poor thing's life.

Which was not something she ever thought to think about for giant rat. So she dug into the pouch and pulled out another biscuit.

"Here, you might as well, no one else is going to eat them," she told it giving it the biscuit.

With the rats taken care of and Patience taking care of Tural, Faena turned her attention to the crystallized corpse. The person was about her size, but the bones somehow looked more human than elvish to her. Then again, with all the crystals growing out of it, it was hard to tell.

What excited her, however, was the discovery of a bow on the corpse, and a longbow at that! Ever so carefully, she prised it from the corpse. She was glad of her gloves, and hoped once again that they would protect her from the infection that seemed so rampant here. She was very pleased to see that the bow was even in decent condition - surprised, considering the crystals, but pleased.

She searched a bit more and found a quiver of 20 arrows. She didn't need the quiver, as she had one of her own, but she added the arrows to her quiver. More was always better when it came to arrows.

It wasn't until she stood again that she realized something else. This body, unlike most of the others the group had come across, had not been given any burial rites. This person was simply propped up against the wall ...

The rat horked, an absolutely bizarre sound for a rat and gobbled up the biscuit in the same way it had before. It attempted to clean itself again, but again, was unable to due to the crystals. It sighed and swayed it's long, worm-like tail. Some blood dribbled from it's mouth where it had bitten the other rat.


The monk smiled and took the potion, "Thank you, sister, you are a sweetness to this Dream," he said and then slowly downed the potion. It was for the best, they never tasted good and it had been fermenting for who knows how long. After a few moments, there were tiny pings and pops as the tiny shards of crystal were pushed from his skin. The potion was a strong one, he was completely cured in just a few minutes.

"That is an unpleasant sensation," Tural said absently.

Patience checked over the body that Faena found. She couldn't determine how it died, if it was killed by crystals or something else. The body wasn't as fresh as the child's, but not as dry as the elven, which didn't mean much in the long run. She wondered if the rats had been eating it.

"Well... if you don't mind being here with a corpse," Patience started, "We can rest here for an hour."

Though she did step away from it so she wasn't near it before sitting down.

"It'll give me a chance to see if I can sense the magical nature of the crystals. I'm sure they're magical, but I want to see if I can see anything else. It'll take at least ten minutes, but we can stay longer."

She hadn't taken any hits and she wasn't going to recover enough energy for another spell beyond what she could still do. So there wasn't any point to her using the full rest time and this ritual wouldn't take up too much energy.

"Dead bodies don't bother me," Faena told Patience emotionlessly.

It wasn't as if dead bodies - really dead bodies - could do anything, after all.

"I think we could all use a bit of rest," she agreed. She found a place near the wall where there were no crystals growing and sat down, leaning against the wall. Since she had the time, she pulled her journal out of her bag and began to write.

Tural took the hour and meditated, quietly, on the nature of the Dream and the Dreamer.

The rat paced a bit and snorted, horked, and coughed the entire time. It attempted to groom what it could of itself, but the crystals were just everywhere. It sniffed and batted at Patience a few times, but once it became clear that she was not going to procure a Biscuit, it spent the rest of the time trying to chew off the crystals that were just below the surface of the skin of it's forepaw.

The rat's gnawing distracted Faena from her writing, and she found herself curious about it, and even (this surprised her) a little empathetic towards it. She decided to speak to it using a spell she had learned long ago, during her youth in the forests. Setting her journal aside, she took a meditative pose, legs crossed, back straight, her chin slightly lowered, eyes closed, hands cupped loosely in her lap. It took some time, but when she was ready, she opened her eyes and looked around for the rat.

Rat, she said; but what came out of her mouth was little squeaks. Are you hungry?

As she asked the question, she reached into her bag and pulled out a bit of bread. It was a little stale and crusty, but not in bad shape otherwise. She held it out to the rat, offering it to it.

The rat perked up at her, the one ear that wasn't so overburdened with crystals swiveled in her direction. Biscuit. the rat hissed back and waddled towards her and sniffed the air. Have Biscuit? it asked and sniffed at the stale crust of bread. It's whisker twitched.

Biscuit? it asked and grabbed the crust before it turned and nibbled at the crust. Not Biscuit, it said, sadly and then proceeded to eat the crust. It tried to groom itself again. I am good boy, Biscuit? Biscuit, yes?

Faena's heart melted at the rat's simplicity and purity.

Very good boy, she agreed with it. She reached up and rubbed the top of its head gently, careful not to touch any of the crystals that were growing out of it. I don't have any biscuits, but I will ask the other to give you one when she is finished what she's doing.

She scritched it behind its ear, wondering how much information she could get out of it.

Do you have a name? she asked it. Where we found you, we found a little girl; did you know her?

I am Biscuits, the rat squeaked and then horked up some more of the crystal-tinged blood. It licked it's chops and rubbed at it's whiskers. Astrareth is Biscuit's friend. Good friend, has the biscuits! it said and snuffled into the side and pawed, tried to reach her packets to see if she had some. After all, treats appeared in the Bag so why not these bags?

Biscuits is good boy, the rat said, pointedly.

Take it easy, Faena squeaked at it, though she was laughing on the inside. She pulled out another piece of bread, this one slightly crustier than the last. Here.

Poor Biscuit, she thought to herself. He seemed to be suffering pretty badly.

What happened to you? she asked him, holding the bread to him. How did all these crystals start growing on you?

Patience opened her eyes, she could see the glow of the magic in the crystals, but she couldn't determine the school of magic. So it probably wasn't any she knew, which wasn't surprising. Sighing a bit, she slowly stretched to realize the crystal rat was talking to Faena.

At least she thought it was talking, they were squeaking back and forth, with Faena giving it bread. Curious, she got up from her spot and went over to them.

Hurts, the rat squeaked as it jerked the bread out of Faena's hand. Were inside, now outside. Hurt for long time. it tore into the bread, though more of the bread got on it's fur than in it's mouth. Ate bad thing, got sick. No eat blue-lights, he told her seriously, as if she were a baby rat.

Bad

Faena winced visibly at the thought of the rat eating the crystals.

Poor Biscuits, she chattered to him. I promise not to eat the blue-lights, and to tell the others the same.

Long time ... she wondered what was a long time to a rat. With no daylight down here to tell the passage of time, how did one tell time? And for that matter, how would a rat tell the time?

Is there anything we can do to help you, as you helped us? she asked the rat. I don't know if we can make the blue-lights go away, but is there something we can do to make you feel better?

Biscuits? Pets, loves, good boy,, the rat said. Go back home. You lost? I take to Nest, water, food there, warm, dry, Safe,

He reached out and tried to groom Faena with his creepy like rat fingers, but was over-burdened by the crystals. It mostly just scrabbled at her clothes, but the intent was there.

No eat, the rat said and might have gestured towards the dead rats and the corpse. Stupids, will have Hurt, soon.

The rat gesturing towards the rat was the most person-like thing that Patience had seen the rat do. Carefully taking a seat by the two, she watched as she two talk.

"You can understand him?" Patience asked softly, not wanting to startle them.

Distrustful of the Tiefling though she was, and despite having no patience for Tural or his beliefs, Faena had a soft spot for animals, and her heart was melting for this rat.

Yes, please, Biscuits, she squeaked and chattered, scratching behind his ear. We would love to see your home, to be safe and warm.

She glanced at Patience and nodded quickly before turning back to the rat. Can you tell us more about this place? What else lives in here?

More Rats, Biscuits said simply, Swallowers, Red Swallowers, Eaters, Crawlers, he skittered and stopped to bite at his own hindquarters as well as he could reach. Astereth

He stopped and turned towards the southern tunnel and sniffed the air for a moment. Lots of Bigs Ones, at the Nest, like you, he squeaked, Lots of food, must not eat blue-lights, Stupids sometimes do. Am Stupid, the rat huffed and bit into a particularly nasty crystal that occasionally oozed blood, Ate Big One with blue lights, got sick. Was told, but didn't listen. Now Hurts

Faena's head whirled as she tried to think of what aspect of what Biscuit had said to pursue. Should she ask about Astereth? Big Ones? The creatures he had mentioned?

But time was passing, and she only had a few minutes left. She didn't have much time to choose.

In a rushed series of squeaks and chitters, she asked him, Who is Astereth? Are the Big Ones like me or like her? She gestured towards Patience. Or are they like him? She gestured towards Tural.