Salvation was perched safely on a gem high on the cave's wall. Caliante had gotten them up there and had attached them to the crystal before letting Salvation back in control. He was getting better at this, hanging on for dear life. Well, actually, he didn't really hang on at all. It seemed like their claws wanted to be latched on and he didn't have to do anything.

You're doing great, Sal, Caliante whispered encouragingly. Salvation gulped as he looked down, still terrified that he was going to fall. But he trusted Caliante and if she said he wasn't going to fall, then he wouldn't.

But then there was movement on the ground and he completely forgot about his fears. He looked up towards the ground and focused in on a small rat stumbling through the cave. It was good that he was the one in control, he had the best eyesight out of the three of them.

It seemed to be in a lot of pain. Salvation cocked his head and wondered what was wrong. "Should we go check it out?"

Rusty scoffed. "Of course! What, are we just going to hang up here forever? I'm starting to get bored! Let's go do something! Even going down there and staring at a rat is more exciting."

Salvation was about to released himself from the crystal when he felt a wave of doubt from Caliante. He hesitated. "What's wrong?"

I don't know, there's just something...wrong. I don't think we should go near that thing. Salvation was about to agree with her when Rusty broke in again.

No! Go on down! I'm bored! What could happen, its just a rat?

Salvation was conflicted. Should he stay safe and trust Caliante, like he always did, or take a leap of faith and go down? He frowned and shook out his head, trying to make a decision but he was so indecisive!

We're going down. All of a sudden, Salvation felt his feet release from the gem against his will. He screamed and opened his wings, flapping randomly, trying to slow their sudden fall towards the ground. He didn't manage to get himself airborn, but it was at least enough to stop him from slamming down as hard as other times. It still knocked the wind out of him, though.

He found himself not far from where the rat had collapsed and his nose began to go to work. Slowly, he pushed himself up so that he was on all fours and began to creep forwards, catching a weird, unnatural, and very disgusting scent from the mutated creature. Oh no...what is wrong with it?

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack."

Salvation was getting closer to the rat, inch by inch when, suddenly, a creature flung themselves in the way. With a cry, Salvation stumbled back, quickly losing his footing and smacking down on the ground. Stunned for a moment, he felt Rusty budging for control. However, he smashed back at him angrily. "Stop it, Rusty, today is my day."

Then stop being an idiot, Rusty growled, Fight that thing, it pushed us!

"No it didn't, I just got surprised is all," Salvation retorted. He turned towards Caliante to ask her to settle the debate but she just pushed him away. Stop asking me to settle your shit.

With a huff, he ignored any future outbursts from Rusty and stood up, not realizing that he had been having, what would seem to Valeria, a one sided conversation for a few moments after being pushed down. "Why'd you have to do that," he whined. "You scared me! I was just trying to get a look at it!"

But he would have gotten sick? He leaned over so that he was looking over the bat's shoulder. The rat did look pretty sick, but he had no idea that sickness could get passed along. He had never bee around sickness and had never been sick itself. His ears twitched nervously. "Uh, what's wrong with it?"

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack."

Salvation didn't really take notice of the ushering movements of the other bat and he stepped back without really thinking about it, receiving a defiant hiss from Rusty at the back of his head. "Sick? What's that? Is that what the rat is? All bleeding and smelling funny?" It certainly did smell pretty gross. He wondered if he would smell like that if he caught the disease.

He tilted his head curiously. "Hmmmm, could we fix it? If there's a kind of plant that it needs, I can grow it. So if anyone gets sick its no problem, right?" He didn't quite understand the concept of getting sick and what it would take to cure a disease like that. He had no idea, but he was on edge as he felt Crack's dominant presence staring at the rat with interest.

He ignored it for now and instead moved his gaze to the smaller bat in front of him, realizing that he was, in fact, still talking to it. "Oh, um, hi, anyways. I'm Salvation. What's your name?"

"Caliante." "Salvation." "Rusty." "Crack."