He was almost too stubborn to call for help—almost. But even in an anguished and angered state, he could see when he required backup.

To avoid chrysalis, he would have to call for some kind of assistance. He really hoped it wasn't Vargas who showed up to witness his frailty, but perhaps he would have to welcome that if he wanted to maintain his health. He could at least ignore one impulse to be stupid, right?

He called for anyone, hoping that his initial fears about Order having laid waste to them all had been as ridiculous as they had sounded.

[l'mao calling for help bc i don't want khavur to chrysalize]

Eleven's ears swiveled at the call for help, but did she really want to answer? There were others in Draco who would be bigger, better suited for whatever task required. It was basically guaranteed.

However, she wanted to be in the loop, even if she ended up being a bystander.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR HER. She was the first to arrive on the scene, and thus inherited the responsibility of helping Khavur with his current predicament. The nature of which took her a little bit to divine, because oh my god that is a lot of rats.

"Holy shit." Eleven wasn't sure what she was looking at at first, but the second she recognised that there was somebody underneath the mass of hungry rodents, she rushed to try and reduce the pile.

She didn't check what she was biting before she bit it, but it worked out. With a crunch, suddenly there was one less rat to deal with - and with the swipe of her claws, another one went down. But, and I must stress this, there were a LOT of rats.

@Khavur

Khavur had no idea who had come to his aid. He had no way of knowing—too many rats to catch the familiarity of a scent or a voice. All he knew was that whoever had responded was, in some way, assisting him, creating a path out by chewing at the rats from the outside. The fortunate thing about experiencing very little pain was that he did not suffer from many of the psychological consequences of extreme pain, such as confusion or disorientation.

He did, however, suffer the effects of blood loss.

Blinking the spots from his eyes, he thrust his claws and head out of the rat cloud, then began to drag his body out. His voice ruptured through the crowd of rats: "RUN!"

Khavur attempted to burst forth barrel out away from the rats on foot, as fast as he was able. He arced his wings to usher along and potentially shield whoever had come to his rescue.

@V-Chaos-Eleven

Her efforts had been enough to thin the herd, at least. But her sins against rat-kind were swiftly noticed, as the small black shapes turned to face their new opponent. Considering they'd bested someone much larger and competent (she assumed so), she wasn't going to test her luck any further. Not voluntarily.

She turned and ran, lumbering across the stone and away from the swarm - but not fast enough. The rats were small and swift, out-maneuvering Eleven easily. She felt teeth sinking into the soft part of her tail.

"Fuck." the others were gaining on her. If she didn't pick up the pace soon, she'd end up in the exact same position Khavur had - and Eleven was not big nor strong enough to keep them all at bay as long as he had.

@Khavur

From the glimpse Khavur saw of his rescuer, it seemed like they were too big to carry in flight. Unfortunate, but to be expected. Unfortunately, turning back now would likely only create a loop of becoming the rescuer and then needing to be rescued. Khavur needed an advantage of some kind.

Fortunately, his running had kicked off well enough that he believed he could manage an ascent. He looked up to the cliffs for a potential landing spot.

For a moment, this was going to look really bad.

From Eleven's perspective, she would likely see his massive wings fan out like an airplane about to take flight—some particularly stubborn rats dangling for their dear lives off of his armored tail and wings. Then, with a powerful upward thrust, he would take off, dislodging some of the less stubborn stubborn rats. Another powerful flap would get him reasonably in the air, and yet another would safely carry him to his destination: the high part of the cave wall. Leaving her behind, it would seem.

But that was only one half of the task. The other was a little dumber, a little scarier. He wasn't just going to leave her there, if he could help it. Was this not a Dark Above?

The Reaver was going to attempt to Reave.

A failure could cause him to miss. A terrible failure could send him crashing directly down on top of the mess. But he had to try. If he could dismiss these black spots swimming in his eyes and maintain his balance in the air, he could take out a swath of rats from the air and maintain his own safety simultaneously.

@V-Chaos-Eleven

Even with the new weight, Eleven fought to keep up her pace. However, so did the rats - she felt a few cling to her haunches now, continuing their advance. Her quills, used to protect her from much larger threats, were useless in this situation.

And then the person she just saved up and left her. C’MON.

She was preparing for an ugly fight, or a much-more-likely early death, when she spotted Khavur soaring back towards her. Alright. she saw where this was going, and braced for impact.

Deadly claws swooped just above her, enough to slice at some of the rats. A little too high to be truly effective - but Eleven preferred that to too low, definitely.

It was enough for her to speed up again, and this time she accelerated before the swarm could catch her again. She’d earned a couple bites sure, but nothing severe. She raced along the ridge, unsure if the stranger would follow. She was happy enough that no one had become rat food today. (A "Thank you" would be nice, still.)

@Khavur

Once Khavur was positioned on another landing zone well enough to check the slowly growing aphotic pile of rats, he could see that they had both managed to make their escape. That was good! Khavur attempted to pinpoint the location of his rescuer as soon as he realized they had gone somewhere. He spotted her against a ridge, making her exit. Not wanting to attract more rodent attention, he motioned to her with his tail: a sign that suggested, "We'll meet over that way."

He would make his way to some meeting point a good distance from the rats, not stopping in his escape until they were fully out of sight. If she was there to meet him, he would offer his thanks with a gracious double head-bow. He would not have it in him to smile, but he could at least try to be polite. After all, if she was a member of the Forge, with the dubious amount of time that had passed? She might outrank him. They all might outrank him by now.

Although somehow he doubted that.

In his deep, voluminous voice, Khavur would say (with just one head, so as to not confuse her), "I appreciate your assistance. My apologies for the... trouble," in reference to the likely dozens of rat bites they had both certainly sustained. "We should find someone to patch us up. Does the Doctor still live here? Or perhaps..." (there was a note of hesitation) "Master Vargas?"

It really did not want to see Master Vargas in its current state. Normally, Khavur would have had to manually check, but given the sheer mass of rats it had just witnessed with its eyes alone, it was sure that its body was utterly soaked with its own blood. Disappointing.

@V-Chaos-Eleven

[they could exit in their next posts from here, if you'd like. i don't think either of these guys really want to stick around for a conversation when they are covered in Lots and Lots of Rat-induced Blood]

Eleven caught the motion, (hard not to, considering Khavur's flamboyant colours amidst the Draco black) and approximated the meaning accordingly. She slowed some, saving her strength when she was content with the distance between her and the rats.

She found him again, landed at the improvised evacuation point. She padded forward, head low and quills flat. "No problem. Man, they GOT you." The scent of his blood smothered the artificial cherry scent, a faint sweetness under the metallic odor.

Her tail and haunches had been the target of the swarms fury, but her time underneath them had been brief. Small patches of fur had become sodden with her own blood (which, as it turns out, glowed orange).

She shook herself, some of it spitting against rock. "Master Vargas definitely does. I don't know who the Doctor is, but if they can make my ass sting less I sure hope they're still around."

"Designation V-Chaos-Eleven, by the way."

@Khavur [I'll have her exit next post now the Polite Introduction Post Rat Hell is complete]

It seemed that the stranger had followed along. That was good. Khavur only had half a mind of be wary of strangers right now. At least her words seemed friendly; although, as she came into better view, Khavur noticed a few things about her that were... strikingly familiar. One head remained unwaveringly dedicated to unabashedly staring at her, distracted by an analysis of her form, while the other showed more attentiveness to the banter.

"Man, they GOT you." Khavur would respond with a toothsome grin and a cordial attitude—a little too cordial; there was a noticeable gleam of danger in its eye when it said, "And you will speak of it to no one." The quick rundown of her physicality brought up quite a few matches to, very interestingly, V-Labradorite-One.

For a moment—perhaps out of twisted habit—Khavur almost pondered the weaknesses, failures, of this design; how it had fared against the rats. 'Not much better than you, it would seem.' That train of thought halted abruptly in its tracks.

Hearing that the Forge was still intact provided a strange sense of relief, intermingled with a fair bit of dread and anxiety. The Doctor wasn't around, but it was unlikely that Vargas had simply allowed the Forge to continue without access to medicine. Khavur could unpack all that later. More importantly, a name had been given. If Khavur had eyebrows, he would have raised one at that name. 'So there are eleven now.'

To himself, he gestured. "Technically, V-Chaos-One. But my name has always been Khavur." He wondered how she would react to that.

"While I would love to make your acquaintance, I... fear that I lack the time." He could only tell how much blood was on him from the way he could see it dripping in his peripheries. Bad sign. "We will likely meet again another time, V-Chaos-Eleven. I will have more—" the black dots were starting to really swarm now, "—more to say after we visit... some kind of doctor. But for now, we should save... our breath."

While he truly would have loved to ask far more questions and converse, he really was running low on air and oxygen, and he could imagine she felt about the same. Maybe not as severe.

With this, he turned towards where he... hoped Master Vargas or some kind of medical assistant would be. Away from the cliffs. He fully expected her to follow, or direct him from here.

- exit -
@V-Chaos-Eleven

Eleven wasn't sure which head to look at. She suppressed the urge to enter a staring contest with one, and instead made an effort to focus on both in equal measure, one at a time.

For someone who just got half-eaten by rats, this guy was cool. Maybe she could bring up her rescue to Vargas later - he seemed important enough.

One. The first oilstone. this guy WAS cool.

And he has a name. His OWN name. He knows it.

"Nice to meet you, Khavur." She returned politely, pushing down the juvenile excitement rearing its head. "And yeah. You uh, really need to see someone who can fix that." And somehow replenish how many gallons of blood he'd just lost.

She followed him wherever he was heading, assuming it was in the direction of somewhere helpful. Her injuries were not dire - more of a nuisance than anything. Eleven just didn't think it'd be wise to leave Khavur unsupervised right now.

[exit]