Peacefully content with the bustling protrusions of undergrowth and ferns, two scrawny slave rats laid their exhausted bodies next to each other. Their poorly kept brown fur denoted the many struggles their bodies had to endure whilst running their skinny legs away to near collapse. Why these blue scaled creatures wanted to mercilessly kill them, alluded their earnest attempts of understanding. From every angle of the hanging canopy, and from every discreet shadow, death stared them down, eerily stalking their every move along the way. It daunted on their ratty minds as to why this uncommunicative and unresponsive place would want innocent rat folk such as they, to die as if they were insects destined to be feasted upon by some massive frog.
Nonetheless, the crackling flicker of civilization flared inside their souls, showing them the dying light at the end of this dark, unforgiving tunnel that was their struggle. Their hope fueled that insignificant light.
Such hope enlightened one of the rat's nerves and muscles to fully awaken. It groggily observed its whirly surroundings before noticing its brown furred companion with shaken claws.
"…Conquil, C-Conquil."
Conquil's cold body twitched to the gentle yet surreal feel of his fur being caressed by something unnervingly sharp. His name calmly being spoken gave him all the respite that he needed to know he wasn't in danger. A welcoming thought for the body that needed its rest after that terrible near-death experience.
"It's time-now to move out."
"…Not now," Conquil whimpered with a lazy yawn.
"Come on!" Sniplit yelled as he angrily tugged at Conquil's body, "We won't reach-get to Skavenblight, fast-quicker if we slack around!"
Conquil's prone body forcefully inclined itself away from Sniplit's incessant tugging, "How rude! Cannot give my-my body its rest!?"
"…You-You will rest there indefinitely if you stay still-unmoving in this dammed place," Sniplit retorted, glaring at Conquil to deliver the frankly logical point across.
Sniplit's resolute, beady eyes gave Conquil the impression of someone being frustrated, and yet, relaxed at the same time. He felt that strange mixture after such a cold remark as well, sternly making him raise his entire body with a firm stance.
"Fine, whatever," Conquil said before turning his snout around in curiosity, "which direction-way we head-going to?"
"I say-say up ahead!"
With that excited proclamation, the poorly clothed rats carried themselves along the many pressuring ferns and bushes. The seething humidity annoyingly probed at their furred bodies in unison with the merciless sunlight. Chattering bugs sounded off their incoherent calls, seemingly giving themselves a physical presence much larger in size than the towering trees. It was all so peaceful, and yet, any second from now, those blue scaled creatures with those bright orange fins could emerge themselves with their sticks, and try to kill them. Nature, in their beady eyes, was so unfairly contrastive.
Blue colored spikes of some unnatural origin protruded and contrasted themselves amongst a myriad of thick bushes. In one of the rat's erratic visions, it immediately caught its interest.
"Sniplit, what-what's that? A bit to the right…" Conquil pointed with one of his sharp claws.
Sniplit's eyes followed suit in curiosity, and immediately found what Conquil was mysteriously bugging on about.
"…I don't know."
The two rats prowled across the bushes and made a gruesome discovery.
A humongous body laid prone on the many branches and leafs. Blue scales adorned the entire body, with the massive spikes protruding out from its large backside. Its limbs were small, yet bulky in width, and its head had massive dimensions as well.
However, the deep, red slashes that stretched all across the body caught their attention the most, for it would seem the body's life was valiantly hanging on to only a decaying rope. Irregularly breathing, the body's back arched back and forth, signaling to the rats the body was still alive.
Sniplit stepped back in horror, and wondered what savage beast could've done this, and what would happen if it showed itself here once more, "…I-I think be wise if we back-retreat o-off."
"No way! We should help-assist it," defying Sniplit's logical fear, Conquil stepped forward towards the body.
"Fool-idiot! What are we going to do once the perpetrator comes back!?" Sniplit shouted with a grab on Conquil's shoulder, "We'll be kill-slayed!"
Conquil abrasively smacked Sniplit's claws away, staring him down with unwavering eyes.
"Go ahead and run. I'm staying."
Sniplit stared right back into those resolute eyes, and honestly couldn't understand what got into Conquil. Just a day ago, Conquil was pathetically lying down on the jungle floor, waiting for his malnourished body to mercifully die. Now Conquil was throwing away his life around as if it was only a trivial leaf drifting down onto the ground from the ethereal branches of the towering tress above.
"…Why?" Sniplit questioned before his heart sank once more, "There's no-nothing to do for this thing!"
"Have you face-confronted death before?"
"…" Sniplit's entire head flinched backward in surprise at such an awkward question.
"When I was near-closing on death, everything around-surrounding me turned quiet," Conquil bitterly reminisced as his glare started wavering, "Voices start-began ringing in my mind incessantly."
"...That's," Sniplit uttered, struggling to complete his reply at what he just heard, "…Scary."
Conquil heavily sighed. From that day onward, those strange, disembodied voices daunted on him. They left an immortal mark on his soul, a mark he fearfully believed was truly inerasable.
"The scariest part, was that they were familiar…"
Before Sniplit could chime in, Conquil conveniently swerved his eyes onto the large body, "Who knows if this… thing is experience-enduring the same thing I was?"
Sniplit rapidly glanced at the body, and Conquil with great difficulty. He didn't know if Conquil's talk of disembodied voices chattering inside his mind made any more sense than helping a complete stranger that's nearing its death. A familiar feeling washed over his entire body. It vividly reminded him of the time he saved Conquil from near death, and how it strangely, but pleasantly gave him another purpose to run his scrawny legs for.
"Fine," Sniplit said with a heavy sigh before continuing on, "What can we do?"
Conquil smiled as he erratically hogged a clump of leaves. He strode towards the scaly body, plastering on the leaves against the many wounds that were opened upon the rough, scaly skin. Sniplit stood dumbfounded at this for only a second, before realizing that Conquil wanted to cover up the many wounds with the surrounding foliage.
Erratically running from bush to fern alike, they plastered varying amounts of plant matter onto the strange skin that was unlike of their own. The easy, but tedious work of covering all of the bitter wounds ended before they stepped back, and observed their work.
Conquil noticed a large slash was still present at the base of the thing's thick neck. A slithering line of plant matter still resided in his claws. They unanimously decided not to tend to that wound which was incredibly close to that bulky, ominous head adorned with massive teeth. Even his guts dropped in sight of such fearsome teeth, driving his mind to slightly wonder what would happen if this scaly thing awoke.
Eyeing the thing's spikey back, Conquil quickly decided he should walk upon the body, and approach the wound from behind, so as to make it physically impossible for the thing's head to snap at him.
Excited, Conquil easily strode onto the relatively unscathed tail of the massive beast. However, a second later, the body suddenly started to rock side-to-side violently, threating to throw Conquil's balance off!
"CONQUIL!" Sniplit shouted, trying to make sense with his racing heart as to why Conquil was on top of the shaking body, risking his life needlessly. He stepped forward, staring at the struggling Conquil, but for some reason, despite his racing heart, his muscles couldn't commit with the raging blood flowing through them.
Nearing the baseline of the wide neck, Conquil finally got to the large, deep cut despite the incessant shaking that almost threw him off onto the branches below. The energy was seeping out from his muscles, draining his will to hang on tight and finish this. He spread the piece of foliage across the large cut and pressed on hard. Soon, the violent turbulence that reverberated throughout his own lightweight body abruptly stopped.
Conquil looked down onto the strain of foliage, and then onto his brown furred self. His heart raced, and his senses prickled at what just happened. Much to his relief, the body wasn't dead, for it was still breathing, albeit with much slower intervals. He stared onto the concealed wound with tiredness creeping into his nerves, lovingly content that this thing... whatever it is, will live.
Conquil fell onto the large, scaly snout, and tumbled onto a pile of leaves. Methodically for a second, he felt the warm puffs of air assault his brown fur. Twice, and thrice, the air consulted him further as his half-awake eyes swerved and met a pair of small, golden eyes staring at him. He stared back into those methodical eyes that were devoid of emotion, and yet, projected strength into his own soul. He dared not move even an inch in front of such massive teeth that could brutally bare on to his flesh any second from now.
They laid there, staring into each other's eyes. Hearts raced; thoughts faded amidst the time stopping stare that could conform to a brutal scene of blood and gore.
Logically, he would've already been torn apart, but that wasn't happening in front of his horrified eyes. Peace unsettlingly besieged the atmosphere of around him as time went on, making him able to decipher the feelings of those small, golden eyes. An otherworldly feeling twinged at his guts, and a second later, it was as if his own soul self-constructed empathetic attachments to this ugly, massive thing.
Suddenly, Conquil's body hooked upon the hardy grip of claws that were akin to his own. Sniplit furiously charged until the foolish Conquil was far away from the teeth's deadly aura, the aura that shuddered his soul to the core. His claws clenched intensely at the foolish rat before them.
"IS LIVING THAT MEAN-WORTHLESS FOR YOU TO RISK IT FOR THIS!?"
"Hmph. How contradictory," Conquil coarsely remarked.
Sniplit's glare sharpened at this but his brain didn't, for he couldn't come up with words for this madness.
"Remember how you save-rescued me from certain death?" Conquil smiled as he struggled to incline, "You did so, even though you could've save-preserved the food for yourself."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Sniplit shouted, thinking how Conquil could even compare that to what had happened before his very eyes, "You're not the same as this… beast-thing!"
"Maybe so… but, can't you see-observe the thing's soul crying out for civility? It's the same thing we weep-cry out for in this dreaded place."
"I can only see-observe madness," Sniplit coldly remarked, crossing his arms in clear disgust.
"You can't, because you only observe-focus with what your eyes see!"
Sniplit's patience dissipated at Conquil's inability to see he's withering away his life by helping this thing that would have no problem killing them at all. He imagined the carnage this thing could inflict, uninjured and freed.
"Hey, for a second, I think-feared it would actually kill me," Conquil admitted before explaining once more, "But it had its timeless opportunity in its grasp, but never took-exploited it."
Sniplit instantly remembered the time he was shocked when it all unfolded. Why he just stood there, and why he forgot about it, became a mystery that pinged at his mind, annoyingly making him extensively ponder on that very moment.
"Also, I truly did mean it when I said-spoke its soul was crying out," Conquil recalled his vivid images, tearing his heart as he raised a claw above it, "When I stare-leered into those eyes, I never saw the hatred that was infested in the many eyes of the many small, blue figures we ran from," Conquil raised his entire body and stared in respect at the scrawny rat before him, "I instantly knew from then on, it wasn't much different from us at all."
Sniplit stood there, staring at the resolute Conquil in awe. There were no more logical arguments left, no more logical reconsiderations to backfire Conquil's crazy reasoning. It was still undeniably crazy what Conquil did, but the more he thought about it, the more his empathy extended to something he would've thought impossible.
"FINE," Sniplit loudly uttered before turning around to face the body, "What are we going to do with this thing?"
"Let's help it."
"…Help-helping you is something I would desire the most… oh well."
Conquil smiled earnestly, gripping Sniplit's shy claws with his own joyously.
"Me too!"
