Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
A cloaked mouse snoozed with her arms clasped about her masked companion's waist, battling a dream.
"What can I do, Ruth?" an exasperated Raven queried.
A chipmunk draped in a pale blue dress gazed back at her, mirroring her puzzlement. "I don't know," the striped rodent admitted, hugging her friend. "I'm just really confused right now."
Raven nodded. "I feel really distraught, too."
"Why is that, Raven?" Ruth unhooked her arm from Raven's shoulders.
Sighing, Raven told her, "I lost your book." Witnessing her companion's dazed expression, she explained, "I put it in my leotard. Then, after I turned into a mouse, my leotard…vanished, bringing the book with it. I-I'm sorry."
Ruth cleared her throat and said, "You know what, Raven? That's okay because the only thing that really matters right now is that you're safe." She squeezed her comrade.
"Thanks for understanding, Ruth, but it's been getting awfully creepy around here…"
Ruth listened intently, nibbling on her lower lip.
"While I was picking berries, I saw two red eyes staring at me and it looked like the creature was going to eat me. Then, Robin and I saw some skin lying around near the bushes…"
Acknowledging Raven's experiences, Ruth countered, "Come to think of it, strange things have been happening to me, too! When I went to get a drink of water, I could've sworn that I heard something behind me. Then, I screamed when I felt something breathe down my neck, so Roy came." Ruth flustered at the mention of his name. "While we were searching for the monster, we found pieces of egg shells and half-eaten birds' eggs…"
Raven's stomach churned. "There's definitely something going on…" As she drifted into consciousness, she detected Ruth wishing, "Stay safe, Raven."
"Friends, we must protect ourselves from this intruder," advised Starfire.
The titans began the morning by developing weapons and barriers around their camp.
Cyborg vowed, "That animal's gonna pay for bitin' my leg." Vengeance smeared over his face as he limped in his foot.
"Dude, do you have any idea what that thing was?" Beast Boy strained to level the gigantic fence.
"No, friend Beast Boy." Starfire shook her head. "But we should be thankful that we have remained safe, yes?"
Cyborg scoffed, cradling his foot. He lazily lounged beside a tree, sharpening some pebbles to assemble arrows.
"Hey, Cy!" Beast Boy hollered, struggling with the wall. "I could use a little help here!"
Trudging over to his green buddy, Cyborg nonchalantly supported the massive barrier with one hand as Beast Boy panted.
"Dude, are you sure this is gonna work?" he inquired.
"Don't worry about it, B.B.," reassured Cyborg, slamming the fence into the ground in a single punch. "With this protection combined with a watchman, that beast's not gonna pass us again."
Starfire waved her hand in the air. "Oo, shall I perform the role of the 'man who watches' this evening?"
Cyborg accepted the bid and presented her with a bow and a basket of intimidating arrows. Spikes protruded from its staff and a black point proudly glimmered at its end, flashing glares at the feathers sweeping on the opposite end.
"I shall not disappoint you, friend Cyborg." Starfire embraced the barrel of weapons and slung the pack over her shoulder, barely able to tame her glee.
Cyborg stood back to behold the barrier with content. Preoccupied with reexamining the creation for straddling crevices, he did not notice Beast Boy eyeing a wounded animal shuffling under a leaf.
"Hey, Cyborg!"
Cyborg settled his eyes on his friend.
"I see something…" Beast Boy motioned him over.
Cyborg joked, "Is it another monster?" He busied himself with filling a stranded fissure in the wall.
Frowning, Beast Boy grunted. "Jeez! Why doesn't anyone ever take me seriously? I'll just check it out myself!" He tossed a scornful expression at Cyborg.
"No, wait!" the robotic teenager reconsidered. "I don't want you to go out here all alone. Let me come with you!"
Beast Boy continued to approach his desired object as if Cyborg were invisible. Crouching, Beast Boy laid his palm on the ground to maintain his balance. His eyes darted from leaf to leaf, straining to detect any movement.
"Ah HA!" Beast Boy charged toward a fallen green leaf with Cyborg scampering behind him. A tiny, white, four-toed foot revealed itself. Eww…this thing lost a toe…He peeked under the leaflet. Cyborg gasped and Beast Boy jumped, slapping Cyborg's metal cheek.
"OW!" they cried in unison.
Enraged, Cyborg insisted, "What did you do that for, man?"
"You scared me," Beast Boy answered lamely. Glancing back at his discovery, he erupted, leaping back.
"Yo, B.B., what are you screaming at?"
Shielding his eyes, Beast Boy pointed an unsteady finger at the creature slumped on the greenery. Eyes cracked open, the brown mouse stared up at Cyborg in shock with shrunken pupils. Blood oozed from two small punctures in its stubby neck. Only one limb, its right leg, remained attached to its torso. Cyborg shrank at the bone and crimson muscle peeking out of the lifeless rodent.
--------------------Later that night--------------------
Beast Boy rocked alone in his room, frightened beyond belief. What if we never get out of here? What if we never find Robin and Raven? Without success at propelling the discouraging thoughts from his mind, Beast Boy shivered. For a summer's evening, it was oddly chilly. Even with Starfire on guard outside and Cyborg residing in the next room, his comfort failed to increase. What is more, he suffered a sleepless night.
I gotta snap out of this, he ordered himself, tossing on his bed. Peering at his foggy window, Beast Boy observed the veil-like clouds circling the eerie moon like sharks. The thought alarmed him. What if there's more than one of these things attacking us? Burying his head under the pillow, Beast Boy heard a muffled sound combined with a thud. He propped himself up to listen again.
His eyes popped at the blood-curdling uproar.
Starfire was screaming.
Raven stopped to rest her exhausted body with Robin patting her back.
"Come on, Raven. I know we can get back to the others soon," he encouraged, kissing her cheek.
Raven smiled weakly. "I don't know how much more of this I can take."
"Don't worry. As long as I'm here, nothing will happen to you. I promise," Robin swore. "Are you okay now?"
Basking in her new-found energy that Robin's affection supplied, Raven nodded. "Yeah, thanks to you."
"All right, let's go." Robin offered Raven his furry elbow, which she linked with her own.
They swept past earthy pebbles and patches of raw dirt, skipping along the shady spots the trees provided. The pair accelerated their pace so that the grass turned into green blurs cowering on either side of them. For the first time, Raven giggled, relishing her time with her Boy Wonder. Robin focused both eyes on her, fascinated, before joining her laughter.
He idiotically asked, "What are we laughing about?"
Shrugging, Raven smirked.
A cheerful atmosphere hovered above them until they trekked further. Putrid odors soon ambushed Raven's nose, producing a criticizing countenance. She waved her paw in front of her nostrils.
"Ew, what's that smell?" Robin questioned, wandering further ahead of Raven, his voice drowning.
Sickening animal carcasses crowded around the two mice. Horrified, Raven gawked at the corpse of a swallow with its beak hanging open, gripping her tail. She recognized it to be the one that tested a handful of the luscious berries for her. Something had left the top half of the creature's body to decay whilst the bottom half, which mainly composed of chipped bones, hosted a field of ants. They commenced in and out of the marrow, carrying chunks of meat in straight lines. They stripped the remaining bundles of muscle off the swallow's leg bones as Raven stepped over the remains, pitying the flightless bird.
Realizing that Robin had gone, Raven called, "Robin? Where are you?" She meandered around the field, eyes desperate to catch a hint of her Robin. "ROBIN!" she shrieked, close to tears when she tripped over a mouse's bleeding body. She glanced at the animal's face, relieved that the body did not belong to her Boy Wonder. In anxiety, Raven bellowed his name again, receiving a distant answer this time.
Elongating her pink ear, Raven heard someone say, "Over here!"
Tailing the voice, Raven dodged large, fallen branches and almost tripped into a hole gaping in the dirt. "Robin?"
"Raven, I'm in here!" a voice from the burrow roared.
Bending down over the crumbly opening, she queried, "What are you doing in there, Robin?"
"I fell in!" he acknowledged. "And it smells horrible in here." Fear mingled with his voice.
"Are you okay?"
"No," Robin's voice echoed. "You have to see this Raven." He gulped. "There are bones down here."
"Bones?" Raven fell victim to terror.
"Yeah. Mouse bones."
A/N: There's Chapter 7! Sorry if you think I went a little too fast...
Steve, thanks for the encouragement! Scar, it's nice to see that you've been reading and reviewing my story! Thanks for giving me three 8's and a 9! Raven and Robin Girl, if you didn't know, the story's not done yet, but thanks for the review anyway. And I might make a sequel! DemonicGoddess, Ruth is not really Raven. She's very similar though because she's a character in a parallel story. The creature is a secret. I don't want to spoil the story! Dark Shadows, it's great to have a new reviewer. I hope I don't disappoint you (or anyone for that matter)! I'm glad you like the story.