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Post by 0 on Jul 28, 2017 14:45:27 GMT
A soft squeak left the mouse when it was bumped in the backside. Being used to fighting things much slower than him, he wasn't prepared for the bat's sudden burst of speed.
Tucking his body into a ball, the mouse fell into a roll, popping himself up onto his two feet and whirling around to find the-- oh, there it was. A silly grin lifted up the other side of his lip, watching the odd creature flap upside-down.
"Mighty acroBATic, ain't ya," he said with a laugh.
The bat turned itself around, and the mouse twitched an ear as a whisper slipped into it.
"Oh, uh, heh," he said, rubbing the back of his head with a paw, "it's no biggie." Really, he hadn't thought too much about it. You see the big guy pick on the little guy, then you beat the big guy up! ...And then you forget all about the little guy 'cause fightin's just way too much fun.
The mouse stood tall on his toes, tail held straight for balance as he glanced around. Boy, this other end of the cave looked a LOT different from the end he'd come in through. Actually, it looked very different from a lot of places he'd been to...it was like he was inside a volcano or something!
His whiskers tingled with anticipation.
With a smile, the mouse dropped down to all fours, offering a wave to the bat. "Well, nice meetin' ya, fella. Work on yer muscles a little and that speed'll get ya far!" His arms raised to his chest, and he started to bound off, until, all at once, he crashed and fell on his side, the mouse curling up and twitching for a moment as though in intense pain.
The mouse rolled over onto his back, sticking his nose up into the air. Something within him gurgled.
He could still hear the bat, so he called out into the open air, "You wouldn't happen to know where some food is around here, wood'ja?"
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Jul 29, 2017 19:38:39 GMT
Here there were all sorts of food to be had. The bell ate an energy it called breath. Some demons ate souls, some demons ate flesh. Some demons ate demons for underworld's sake, while others fed on emotion, desire or vice.
"HwWhat iissss foodsss?" The bell quietly asked, its hissing voice echoing off the shape of the land, as if this hollow place were a nest of snakes.
If he knew what this mouse might eat maybe the bell could find something.
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Post by 0 on Jul 29, 2017 20:30:08 GMT
The mouse sat himself up, staring at the bat from over his bent knees. Come to think of it, he wondered what that strange...maybe-mammal ate -- did it even have a mouth? Its voice almost seemed to come from the land itself.
...Was it asking him what food was?
Scratching his head, the mouse replied, "Lotsa stuff. Fruits, grains, nuts, vegetables. Had bread and cheese once."
The bread was amazing, but the cheese had made him feel just awful, and all after those house mice had assured him that cheese was the absolute best thing for a mouse to eat! Why, the second he could see past his nausea (and inability to vomit), he woulda beat up those fiends, had they not already shipped him down that canal during his sickening state. Lesson learned: never trust a house mouse. Although...now he wondered: would preparing cheese in a certain way make it any less inductive of illness?
The mouse blinked as the memory faded, rubbing his grumbling tummy.
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Jul 30, 2017 0:52:54 GMT
Alright alright. That kind of food was it.
The bell lazily flipped over. Perhaps it had seen that sort of food somewhere, though it certainly was not easy to find in this place.
Remembering, the bell suddenly changed direction and zipped off. It would check and see if it could find what it remembered.
Minutes later Arturo returned, encumbered by a single large red berry which was nearly as large as he. He held it with his ribbon-tail, which was green and ended with a charm which made it resemble a spearhead shaped tip.
No clue of this fruit was edible or not but he'd found it at least.
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Post by 0 on Jul 30, 2017 4:48:58 GMT
He held out a paw when the bat up and vanished, ears turning to follow the creature's fading rattle. Falling backwards, the mouse rolled around on the ground for a moment.
This was it. He was going to die of hunger. He was a dead mouse.
After that brief bout of melodrama, he bounced back up to his paws with something of a smirk, and turned his nose upwards into the air, starting to pace around the now-closed-off entrance to the cave. Hm...smelled like fire and brimstone. That was odd, although perhaps not too much -- there were those weird columns of fire going on in the distance.
He took another few whiffs, trying to part ways with the overwhelming scent of smoke (and the disappointing lack of odiferous cooked foods). Unfortunately, there wasn't much for him to smell over here, and all that he was left with was a growing idea that he was actually inside some sort of volcano.
Well, he might as well venture forth. But first...he lowered his nose to the tiny stream of black water. It probably wasn't a good idea, but he was just curious enough to stick his tongue in and grab a couple droplets for his throat.
As he fell back on his bum, tail twitching in thought while he tried to taste those swallowed drops of water, the bat returned, noisily flapping away as it slowly approached him. He hopped up at the sight of something wrapped up in its...tail.
"That looks great!" he said, bounding forward to take the berry from the bat, not even doubting a centimeter that the berry was for him.
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Jul 30, 2017 21:35:31 GMT
Of course it was for the mouse. The bell couldn't have eaten it. He didn't even have a proper mouth to shape his words. The sounds instead reverberated inside his hollow body, slipping through the holes which resembled eyes, and gave him semblance of a proper face. A green glow which came from those slanted holes added to such appearance.
The fruit was easily taken. The bell was not holding it tightly in his ribbon grip, only snug enough that he had not dropped it along the way. The mouse could enjoy, and if the fruit was good, well there were more where the one had come from.
The bell chimed hopefully, certainly willing to lead the way or go fetch more if need be.
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Post by 0 on Jul 31, 2017 0:36:36 GMT
Berry in arms, the mouse whuffed when its weight toppled him backwards. Goodness, this was one big berry.
Letting go of it, he rolled over, hopping up beside it, and began to dig in, almost missing the melodic chime that the bat emitted. Ears and tail twitched happily as he downed the berry like a drunk would chug a mug of beer, the feat made all the more impressive (or disgusting) by his size in comparison to the berry's. One might wonder how he managed to eat the whole berry, but he did it.
With a relieved sigh, the mouse sat back, closing his eyes momentarily as he let the taste linger in his mouth. It reminded him a little of raspberries and strawberries, but there was something about the berry that made it different from the both of them. It was almost...savory? Like a slab of raw salmon, that little hint of meaty texture right on the tip of his tongue.
Turning back to the bat, the mouse finally said, "Where'd you find it?" He stood up on his two long feet, ready to follow the bat at a hoppin' pace.
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Jul 31, 2017 16:40:38 GMT
The small bell chimed and jingled, preformed a quick flip in order to turn around and change directions. The bell adopted a nearly bouncy flight pattern flitting quickly short rising zig zags with the lowest point being every time it changed directions.
It passed the flaming vents, sometimes barely skirting a geyser of flame. It crossed the dark stream of liquid, and circled around an even darker black monolith. There growing from a crack in the unforgiving rocks was a bush with thorns up to three inches long. It lacked leaves altogether and the thorns were very dense. Here and there hidden behind the thorns were more of the large berries.
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Post by 0 on Jul 31, 2017 18:48:05 GMT
He grinned at the bat's continued acrobatics, its smooth transition from a flip into a running flight, and within moments he was zipping off after the stranger, bounding away like a little mouse-sized kangaroo.
The bat was quick on the turn, the mouse only slightly slower when he went skidding across the dark soil to follow after. Although his eyes still had some troubles keeping up with it, his feet were faster, and the longer they trailed across a straight stretch of ground, the sooner he was able to catch up with the creature.
Calculating the timing of the fiery geysers from afar, he leapt between as well as over them so as to keep pace with the jingling bat. The trickle was nothing of an obstacle, but he did find his eyes being drawn to the curious black monolith when the bat began to circle around it.
Slowing down, he hopped around the sharp rocks surrounding it, noticing bunches of crawling branches with some impressive thorns. Reminded him of acacias. Dead acacias.
It wasn't hard to notice the bright red amongst all the black and brown, his nose even quicker on the draw. The mouse fell in among the branches pulling apart what was, to li'l ol' him, a canyon of a crack, taking a bite from one of the ripened berries. Tasted the same!
"Awesome!" his voice rang out from the tangle of leafless weeds. Grabbing another bite, licking the curious-tasting juices from his lip, he poked his head out to wherever the bat was now, waving a paw as he called out, "Thanks bunches, pal!"
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Post by Loner。 on Aug 1, 2017 2:43:53 GMT
If the bell was as large as a quarter in circumference, and the berries were about the same size how many berries could the mouse consume? Possibly a lot. The bell chimed in response, then let him at it, flitting around a few feet in front of the thorny bush like a minuscule guard while the mouse enjoyed himself.
Fortunately the fruit was not poisonous, but they did have some inhibiting properties. The mouse might find his reaction time slowed in the near future if he ate too many. Also the thorny branches on which he perched were beginning to emit a sticky sap, which would start to act a lot like a strong adhesive.
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Post by 0 on Aug 3, 2017 4:02:33 GMT
Ears twitched at the bat's chiming and flapping, but otherwise the mouse was consumed with satiating his hunger. Berry after berry went down his gullet, his tail sweeping away behind him in satisfied glee.
It was only when his tail began to feel strange did he pause to take notice of his surroundings. Face covered in red juice, he whipped his tail around in front of him, watching the golden sap oozing from its surface. He poked it lightly with a finger, finding it sticky, and licked it off with his tongue, finding it hard to swallow --took him a few moments just to get it down his throat...luckily it wasn't a big enough drop that it could end up choking him. The sap was surprisingly sweet-- sweeter even than the berries.
Then he realized his toes felt weird, too. He looked down to find the viscous yellow fluid puddled around his body.
Slowly, he began to extricate himself-- only...it wasn't working very well. The mouse's eyes narrowed, and he began to pull and tug at himself, all to no avail -- in fact, it only seemed to make things worse. After only a short series of efforts he found his feet dug even deeper into the sap, and very soon after that he couldn't even pull his butt off the branch.
With a frown, he lashed his tail back, lighting it on fire, and swung it around him at the branch that was trying to trap him, hoping to set it aflame; he tried not to touch it to the branch itself, or get anywhere near the sap, but that was hard to do when his tail was already halfway covered in the sticky stuff, not to mention it being directly attached to his caught ass.
He was NOT going to be bested by a PLANT, of all things!
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Post by Loner。 on Aug 3, 2017 20:07:15 GMT
The first few tries to burn the berry bush, nothing lit at all. When it finally did begin to catch, it did not burn cleanly, but slowly smoldered, putting out a good deal of foul black smoke that polluted the air around the mouse and sluggishly billowed up into the sky. Meanwhile the sap gained a thicker tar-like consistency as it reluctantly lost moisture, becoming a stronger trap before there was any chance of it becoming a weaker one. Moving the limbs encased with the stuff would become increasingly more difficult as the stuff became akin to a blackened amber cast, firmly affixed to the smoldering branches.
As the thick smoke threatened to suffocate the mouse, the sap prison gradually went from hard, to increasingly brittle until finally it began to crack rather than resist movement put against it. By this time the branch the mouse was stuck on was not holding up very well either. It snapped, falling down towards the deadly thorns below.
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Post by 0 on Aug 3, 2017 20:44:11 GMT
The mouse realized his mistake a few moments later, although it was for a different reason than what he would soon find out. Why would he set his surroundings on fire when he himself was not fireproof? He had nowhere to run to!
He almost dropped his tail as he let the flames on it go out, but quickly lifted it back up so that it wouldn't get stuck too. Well, the plant was already on fire, so it was a bit late for all that anyhow--or, rather, it WAS on fire, for a few seconds at least, until he'd let his control of it go...now, the wood seemed content on fizzling into a smolder, putting forth thick smoke into the air.
He sneezed, then began to wriggle around more furiously as the branches hissed on around him, only to find himself able to do it less and less, the mere action becoming painful whenever he tried to pull harder than before. The smoke began to gather faster, rising up in dense columns, stinging his eyes shut; he wiped away the pained tears as they ran down his face, and coughed as the smoke replaced the oxygen that his lungs needed. Worse yet, he felt his whiskers becoming singed, and his feet beginning to burn.
He began to utter a small series of ultrasonic squeaks, teeth grinding in growing dismay. It looked as though he was going to become fried mouse-on-a-stick. He hoped that he would taste good to whomever ended up eating him.
In the next second, he couldn't feel the charred sap and wood between his toes. A hot breeze blew against his body, and the mouse tried to force his eyes open, but it didn't seem to matter, as he couldn't see through all the thick smoke.
Was this his body flying towards wherever it is that mice go when they died? He realized suddenly that his parents never got the chance to tell him what happened to dead mice who weren't eaten. Did this mean he was doomed to wander the land forever, unable to speak, unable to interact, unable to EAT? He moaned, and then he screeched.
"AAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!"
His scream of pain shot out through the depths of the leafless shrub, quickly cut short when he clamped his trap shut, mumbling as his blurred vision cast over his leg. Oh, ow--ow-ow-ow!
Getting stabbed was not something he was used to. Seeing your own knee pierced by a thorn wasn't something one could exactly just ignore.
Tears fell in streams from his eyes, the smoke cloaking everything around him. He felt woozy, but he knew he had to get out.
He was laying on his side, but he drew himself up, leaning against the thorn; luckily, this was a shorter thorn than the others, and he could stand well enough -- y'know, isntead of hanging from it like a torn banner. Carefully, he placed his paws around the wounded leg, gritted his teeth, and tugged hard, yowling once more as he ripped his leg off of the thorn, falling onto his side upon losing his balance and nerve.
He rolled, pushed himself up, one hand over his brow in an attempt to shield his eyes from the smoke. The edges of his vision were growing dark, the shock and pain mixing with the oxygen depletion and rising temperatures.
Summoning up what little strength he had left, the mouse threw himself over the branches, hurrying to crawl his way out of the burning bush. Using his sense of gravity, he continued aiming for what he knew to be up, and eventually was able to find one edge of the thorny plant. Bunching up his muscles, he gave himself one last toss, collapsing into the dirt beside the dark monolith.
The mouse coughed and shivered, grateful for the oxygen as it flowed fast back into his lungs, and the cooler air that now brushed through where his fur had turned ashen. He curled up, tail slipping around him, and hugged himself as he turned his nose to glance over the wounded leg, which at the moment was being kept high off the ground. There was a great gash in there, the blood flowing down his leg and pooling around the wound, and he couldn't tell at all where exactly it had grown through and come out. He was sure his kneecap had been pierced, but he might not know for sure until the wound had been cleaned.
Small pink tongue licked the wound for a few moments, but there was just too much. His head still spun, the loss of blood likely getting to him. He would have to put pressure on it, much as it was going to hurt.
Groaning, he turned himself over and laid himself on his stomach, somewhat at an angle as he shoved the wounded leg into the ground. He winced in pain, but it soon enough subsided, and the mouse let his eyes slide shut when his mind finally left his body.
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Aug 4, 2017 14:36:44 GMT
Arturo had been able to do nothing to help. Sensing the mouse in distress, he had flown close, but had quite a bit of trouble navigating the thorny thicket through the smoke.
Fortunately the mouse got out on its own. Unfortunately it was not without damage. The bell could not truly empathize since it could never feel pain. Yet Arturo understood the concept of being hurt.
Just... What was he supposed to do to help?
He flitted around near the unconscious mouse, chiming frantically in the hope of drawing some attention that would bring help for the poor mouse.
Yet in this place, how likely was it to find help.
If only the mouse was aware enough to tell the bell how to help.
The plant continued to smolder quietly in the background. It could not rely on the coming of rain to douse the fire in this hot dry place. Yet that was alright. Its seeds would live on, and grow to make prey of other unwary individuals.
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Post by 0 on Aug 4, 2017 16:42:30 GMT
The mouse wouldn't be passed out for long. Naturally, he wouldn't let himself. A mouse shouldn't be sleeping out in the open, and the sun on his face woke his instincts enough to let his body know that this was not a good place to nap.
Although the brief rest was a welcome one, it left him feeling a little sick afterwards, and more than a little dizzy. The mouse pulled himself a little higher with his two front paws, and began scooping some of the surrounding soil and pebbles into his mouth, hoping that these inedibles would help to settle his stomach.
Dimly, he could hear the bat chiming around him. The mouse lifted his head, chin dusted with dirt, and squinted upwards at where it was flitting around. He didn't expect it to still be hanging around.
Slowly, he drug himself closer to the tall monolith, leaving a thin streak of blood behind him as he drug his leg along with. There'd be plenty of dirt in his wound now; hopefully that would help clot it.
He began to sniff around the edges of the rocks that surrounded the strange formation, until he found a crack that held hardly any scents at all to it. He poked his head in for another check; the hole wasn't all that big, but he didn't need much room, just a place to rest until he was healed up enough to do things again, where hungry beasties wouldn't easily be able to find him in his weakened state.
Pulling his head out, he glanced back over his shoulder to where the bat was, and waved weakly at it. "Time for a nap," he drawled to it in a slow voice, forcing a smile to lift his cheeks. He wasn't sure whether it was hanging around for his sake or not, or if its home was around here, or whatever other reason he couldn't manage to think of at the moment. Either way, if it did have something to do with him, he felt that he should probably let it know what he was up to.
Pulling himself into the crack, he shoved his body into a small area behind some of the rocks, that way he wouldn't be so easily spotted should something else poke its head in. He squinted, holding back a squeak of pain as a sharp rock jabbed him in the knee, and turned around until he was able to suitably sleep, curled up with his tail wound up and his injured leg pressed against a smoother wall.
At least he had plenty of food to digest and assist his body in the healing process. So long as nothing disturbed him, he was quite certain that he would be fine in the end.
He'd never had such a big wound that bled so much, but he'd had something equal to it with a broken leg. In fact, he gritted his teeth at the brief memory; the very leg that was bleeding now was the one with the healed bones. Weren't bones supposed to be stronger each time they fixed themselves up? He might just have a titanium leg after this!
As his mind drifted off again, the mouse emitted a soft sigh.
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