Please Let This Be The Right Direction

"I knew I should have stayed on the road," muttered Lacrima Ashel to herself. She had just arrived on the island and already she was lost.

She had been following the dirt path the boatman had pointed out to her. But then a small furry animal had appeared in front of her, and then vanished into the forest. And she just had to chase after it, didn't she?

"Stupid stupid stupid..." she continued muttering to herself as she tried to figure out the direction back to the road, or to the castle.

After a few minutes, Ashel sat on a root to rest. "It would be nice if I could get my wings now," the flightless angel said aloud. Sighing, she got up and started walking, praying she had picked the right direction. Although knowing her luck, she was more likely making herself more and more lost by the second.

Audi was certain she had found the most comfortable branch in the whole forest - and she was making full use of it. The tree the branch belonged to was old, thick and gnarled, and its wood tasted great as the ratgirl idly chewed on the bark. She was laying along the branch, one arm crossed under her jaw and the other lazily swinging below.

The forest was a nice place to be. Rarely anybody came out here, so she could be all alone. It's not that she disliked company, no... but after a long day of school work, she liked to nap and laze about on her own.

Her ear twitched as she heard the sound of someone coming. She opened her right eye slightly to glance around and saw a human girl approaching some distance away. Hmm. Audi hesitated for a moment, then let out a quiet sigh and let her eye slide shut again. Maybe if she ignored the girl, she wouldn't be noticed...

But the branch she was on arched exactly over the other girl's chosen path - and Audi forgot that her long, pink, almost bald tail was hanging down like some sort of a leaf-less mutant vine, or a huge snake. Its tip would end up hovering at about Ashel's eye level.

Ash'l gasped and pressed a hand against her mouth to choke off her scream. It was a snake! And it was just a few centimeters away from her eyes. But she wasn't certain it had seen her yet. She looked up, but couldn't see past the leaves. Well it hadn't reacted to her, she reasoned, so maybe it hadn't seen her yet.

She didn't like the thought of changing her direction, after all, she was already lost. It had crossed her mind that since this WAS an enchanted island, maybe animals here like this snake could talk and maybe give her directions. But she liked the thought of crossing a snake's path even less.

Slowly and carefully, she made her way around the newly christened "Snake Tree". Somehow, he foot got caught up in the undergrowth, making her stumble. Fortunately, she didn't exactly fall flat on her face. Unfortunately, her hand had shot out and grabbed for the nearest object to steady herself.

With her eyes still closed, Audi listened to the noises below her. The person stopped for a moment, then resumed their walking - thankfully. She smiled contentedly and relaxed, looking forward to the silence that would soon return, disturbed only by the chirping and singing of birds and the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind.

It was not to be.

A sudden, sharp tug on her tail made her shriek inhumanely and scramble to grab hold of the branch before she was pulled off. She slipped off a little then clung to the wood in panic, claws of all four appendages digging into the bark. What the heck was the human doing?! It would take more than that to pry Audi off the tree, though, and she swiveled her head to look down and squint angrily at the foliage which obscured what was below.

"Let go!" she hissed, attempting to flick her tail out of the human's grasp.

This time, Ash'l did scream as the "snake" screamed and tugged her around, making her stumble around the tree's roots. She immediately let go and feel to her knees as a sharp pain assailed her ankle.

Putting a hand on her ankle, uncertain if she could put weight on it, Ashel felt annoyed. Conveniently forgetting that she was the one who caused her own mishap by tugging on the creature, she determined to pay that creature back for her ankle.

She didn't care if this was an enchanted island, or if she was dealing with a magical creature, perhaps a Demon. She had been warned about the presence of demons on this island. And that sound she heard... it didn't sound like anything she knew. So what? She was an Angel, and no demon should dare mess with Angels, she told herself firmly.

Ashel raised her hand towards the offending branch and reached for her telepathic power inside her mind. She would make that branch shake so hard, that demon wouldn't know what hit it.


(Ash'l overestimates her own power. She's actually barely trained in telepathy. So I have no idea what's about to happen. All yours.)

The moment her tail was free, she swished it like a whip to coil it around the branch and prevent the girl from reaching it again. Audi huffed, then readjusted her grip, wondering what the mysterious person would do next. What was her problem, anyway?!

The branch the ratgirl was on was thick - of course, she chose one with enough room to be comfortable. So, when Ash'l aimed her power at it, at first nothing happened. And then, slowly, as if with hesitation, the wood began to tremble and finally shook hard enough for a bunch of leaves to fall down. The tremor was strong, but not strong enough to break the hold Audi had; but it was more than enough to really annoy her.

Okay, she was done playing around.

She wrapped her legs around the branch and pushed herself off with her hands, suddenly swinging her whole body down with a mighty, high pitched screech. She'd show the human who was boss! With her clawed fingers curled, huge teeth bared, heckles raised and a furious glare in one eye black, one blank, she wasn't a sight one would like to see abruptly appearing above them.


((Hope that was okay xP))

Ashel wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she attacked the creature, but it certainly was not a snarling, screeching, sharp-clawed, giant rodent descending upon her! When Audi swung to attack her, Ashel instinctively leaped back.

Or she tried to. But her injured ankle didn’t cooperate so she ended up sprawled on her back. Panicking at her suddenly defenseless position, she did what no one in their right mind would have done. Had she been thinking calmly, she would have focused her telepathic energy on the enemy. As it was, she wasn’t. She wrapped her arms around the sharp-clawed, sharp-toothed, angry rodent and kicked and thrashed and just held on, no longer sure what she was doing.

(It's good =D)

When she started her 'charge', Audi had no intentions other than scaring the human away. The girl didn't seem like much, so she expected her to scram and leave her alone to her nap. Getting involved in some tussle with somebody who was most likely another student wasn't what she planned. Not only could it get her in trouble, she also wasn't all that great at physical confrontations. Or any sort of confrontations that involved more than hissing and teeth-baring, really.

Those were the thoughts rushing through the ratgirl's head as the weight of the girl clinging to her pulled her off the branch. Her tail uncurled and whipped around to help her have some control over the fall, and luckily she did manage to turn around so that she fell onto her shoulder rather than on top of Ash'l. She uttered a squeak of both pain and surprise that was soon followed by a huffy snarl. It didn't really matter anymore that the human could be a fellow student - Audi was in survival mode now and all more civilized notions were pushed to the back of her mind. For now, the number one goal was getting the flailing person off her, and she attempted to achieve it by putting her hands on her adversary's shoulders and simply pushing away with all of her (very) meager strength. All the while she tried to keep an intimidating expression on her furry face.

She was confused and scared when the furry creature she was clinging onto began falling. As they landed Ashel thought that Audi would land on her, but somehow she seemeed to twist in midair and land just beside her. But what jolted Ashel to realization was a sudden sharp squeak that seemed to come from the rodent beside her.

She suddenly realized that she was still holding on to the creature and that she had probably pulled her out of the tree. As Audi pushed her away Ashel didn't resist and quickly backed off.

Somehow, Ashel didn't find this creature very threatening despite the snarling glare. For one thing she didn't get scared easily, as long as the creature in question didn't crawl or wasn't slimy. For another, this was... a mouse?

She held up one hand, decided to stop the creatire with an energy barrier that would throw her back if she tried to attack. Even if she wasn't scared, the mouse could still injure her. But even as she thought of this, she covered her mouth with the other hand as she tried not to laugh. And what she said next was perhaps not the best thing she could have said considering the circumstances.

"You're a mouse?!"

The moment she was let go of, Audi scrambled backwards, still on all fours as that position was more convenient, whether she decided to fight or flee. For now, the latter seemed like the wiser choice, though she wasn't sure of the human's intentions anymore - was the ease with which she let go a good sign?

And now she was... laughing?

For a moment, Audi eased up a little, thinking this could all be a big misunderstanding. But when the words were spoken, her muscles tensed up again and she squinted at the girl in offended disbelief. Mouse?! Mice were to rats like monkeys were to the great apes! She had never been so insulted in her whole nine years of life. Audi snorted and scrunched up her nose, then got up and stood up straight, glaring down at the human as she put her hands on her hips, tail swishing back and forth behind her.

"I'm a rat."

Never have those words been uttered with more pride.

Ashel stared at the "rat" blankly for a few seconds wondering to herself, what's the difference? She hoped her facial expression didn't betray this, but it probably did.

"Fine. So you're a... rat," she finally conceded. Ignoring whatever response the ratgirl made, Ashel realized that she was still sitting where their little tousle had landed her, and tried to stand up. But in light of the recent events she had forgotten that her ankle was was injured. Not surprisingly, it gave way beneath her, sending a jolt of pain up her leg.

Ashel gasped as she collapsed again. She looked ruefully at the ratgirl and wondered if she would help her. Oh well, asking never hurt anyone. "Do you know the way to the castle?"

Her stern gaze remained trained on the girl on the ground, but her expression softened slightly. Maybe the insult wasn't intentional, but it was an insult still. Not sure what to make of the situation, she twitched her whiskers as she watched the human try, and fail, to get up. Oh... she was hurt. Audi blinked and sat down onto her heels to be on the same level. She stared with her round eyes open wide as she tried to decide what to do now.

Of course she knew the way to the castle - her sense of direction was flawless. But... did she actually want to tell the girl?

She reached to toy with one of the strings of beads hanging around her neck as she thought. Some more beads were sewn onto her clothes apparently at random; actually, her whole outfit - a shirt and loose pants - seemed chaotically patched together from fabrics of different kinds and colors. Audi scratched her chin and tilted her head, regarding Ash'l with a curious, if a bit judging, look.

"Why should I help you?"

The rat got down to eye level and studied Ashel with wide eyes. Somehow Ashel found that disconcerting. But the rat seemed deep in thought with no intention of harming her.

She blinked at the question. Well of course the answer was obvious. "Because it's your fault I'm hurt in the first place. And besides it's only polite to assist somehow who asks for help." Ashel didn't see the need to further point out which one of them was the victim here.

She studied the rat. This creature obviously knew the way, and she seemed arrogant enough to not refuse a challenge. If she wouldn't help her, perhaps Ashel could pry it out of her with a challenge.

"Unless you're lost yourself."

As the human went on, Audi began to take on an air of impatience. She did not see how it was her fault, or the point of being polite - and unfortunately for Ashel, she wasn't really competitive; at least not towards humans. She knew she wasn't lost and didn't feel the need to prove it to anybody.

Eyes narrowing, she stood up with a huff and curled her tail around her to grasp it in a demonstratively protective gesture. From her point of view, of course it was the girl who started it by pulling on the rat's tail and disturbing her sweet lazing about. Maybe she would still help her... if the 'mouse' comment hadn't pushed it too far.

She locked her eyes on the human on the ground and took one step back - threatening to leave, but giving her one last shot at redemption.

Ashel could tell that her challenge didn't work when the rat stood up. She watched the the gesture she did of her tail, and thought depressedly, oh yes, I did pull her tail. But she obviously didn't understand how much the "mouse" comment had irked her.

When Audi stepped back, Ashel's eyes widened, surely she couldn't leave her like this. "Okay, I'm sorry I pulled your tail," she began, "Well what do you want me to do?" she said in response to Audi's earlier question.

Finally she gave up and wailed, "Well you can't just leave me here..."

For the ratgirl, words meant much, much less than actions, and a 'sorry' was hardly enough for something physical like pulling on a tail like that. And the m-word insult wasn't apologized for at all. But Audi wasn't one to hold a grudge, her moods shifted too frequently to be angry for long. Besides, if she didn't help out the human would most likely lie there under her favorite tree and cry, not allowing her to go back to sleep anyway. Hmph.

Still. The faster she showed the way to the castle, the faster she would be alone again. She would just escort the girl for a bit in the right direction, then come back to her spot.

Audi crossed her arms, huffed, glanced aside and back to the human. Then she took another step back, but this time, she beckoned with her head for the girl to follow her. Of course, she wasn't aware what sort of an injury Ash'l had sustained.

Ash'l was relieved when the rat person decided to help her, or at least not to leave her. But she seemed... very angry? Ash'l considered getting up, but decided not to put weight on her throbbing ankle again.

So she crawled and pulled herself up again, careful not to put weight on her right foot, using the tree whose roots had tripped her. And sat back down. She wasn't particularly eager to hop about on her one good foot...

She looked timidly at the rat and said in a small voice, "Can I sit down for a while first?"

Audi watched the girl as she grabbed the roots of the tree, got up... then down? What was the problem? Did she not want to leave Audi's company as much as she wanted to leave hers? She doubted that it was the case. But okay, it didn't matter, she could stand a few more wasted minutes. It's not like she particularly cared about the passage of time, waiting was one game she was good at; the birds singing were enough of a distraction for her to not be bored for a while, her mind cleared of any concrete thoughts.

The ratgirl gave a light shrug, indicating that she didn't mind, then bent her legs and sat down herself in the grass and dead leaves. Her tail curled neatly around her ankles. Grabbing a nearby stick to chew idly on, she kept observing the girl, wanting to see the reason for the request for a delay. The idea of simply asking did not even cross her mind... she has had enough conversation to last a few days.

The resulting silence was beginning to make Ashel fidgety. Silence was both a welcome and unwelcome companion. It meant that she could shut her big mouth and avoid more trouble which opening it could bring her. But it also meant that she would start reflecting on her actions which brought her to these circumstances.

Unsure of what should be done from a medical perspective, she tentatively poked her ankle. She hoped it wasn't broken.

Of course she was glad that the creature did not seem to be in a hurry to dump her, which she herself would be if it had pulled on her wings (granted she did not have wings YET, but she would someday, wouldn't she?). Mustering up an apologetic tone, she started speaking. "I'm really sorry I pulled your tail. It really was an accident."

Oblivious to Ashel's uneasiness, Audi sat still, saying nothing. She let her consciousness drift away as she stared at the other absently, listening to the sounds of the forest. A fly buzzed next to her ear and she swatted at it lazily.

Just as the ratgirl's mind slowly floated over to the subject of why this was taking so long, Ashel reached to touch her ankle and Audi blinked, snapping out of her sleepiness to watch with interest. She twitched her whiskers. Was that the problem? Oh... right. She fell and must have hurt herself. Audi gave Ash'l an intent look and leaned forward, dropping into a kneeling position, reaching to touch the girl's leg as well and check. She did not ignore her words as much as not register them at all.

Ashel was staring into space as she she spoke, and so did not see the rodent approaching. She started with surprise to see it right in front of her and reflexively drew up her leg. Then somehow realizing that the creature was probably trying to help her, slowly put it back.

She had to wonder though, did it even hear a word she had said? Just as well, she had no intention of repeating it.


(It's so short DX lol I have no idea where this is going anymore)

Audi did not really have clue about medicine or anything, she just did what her instincts told her to. And they told her to touch the hurting spot to see just how much it hurt and judge the seriousness of the injury by that. That's how the ratfolk dealt with wounds, cleaning open ones by licking them and leaving all other kinds unattended, giving the injured slightly less work than normal. Living amongst humans Audi was slowly beginning to realize that it wasn't the usual code of conduct with them. Oh well. Maybe they felt pain differently...

Pondering over that, Audi reached to grasp Ashel's ankle, and if the girl didn't wriggle away, squeeze it lightly to test it.


((No problem, I don't blame you for either x'D shhhh we'll make it work))

Ashel sat still and let the rat do whatever it was going to do. She didn't even move when her ankle was held. But her composure snapped when the pain suddenly flared up. She pushed the ratgirl away with both hands and began blinking back tears.

Somehow she realized that the pain was getting worse. This couldn't be good. She gingerly and painfully pulled off her boot and could only stare at her ankle swollen twice its normal size. She must look pathetic, she thought, but decided she couldn't care less. She raised her eyes to the rat's with an almost pleading expression in them.

She bounced back smoothly upon being pushed away, landing on all fours and craning her neck over to watch the girl pull off her shoe. That... didn't look good. Audi's eyes flickered around nervously, as if looking for something to aid her, or rather somebody superior to her to pin the responsibility on. No such luck. She had to deal with it herself.

Looking into Ashel's teary eyes, Audi felt her ears fall back a bit and she pouted. Well maybe they weren't off to a very good start, but she couldn't just leave the girl like that... maybe she could dart back to the castle and get some help? Her whiskers twitched in thought. No, leaving her alone even for a bit would be no good.

Audi stood up and took a step towards the other girl, offering her a hand to help her up. She wasn't strong enough to carry her by any means, but maybe in a sort of a combined effort they could limp over to somebody who would know what to do...

Ashel wiped the back of her hand over her eyes and blinked the rest of her tears away as the rat offered to help her up. She grasped it and slowly tried to stand. She almost immediately flinched as she applied full weight to her foot, but she then had an idea.

Still holding on to the rat's paw with her left hand, she reached out with her other hand to rest in on the tree. Putting as little weight as she could on her right ankle, she was able to stand. Well, she mused, that wasn't so bad.