Backdated to before aw rats

Balder was a capricious little bugger, and, as such, she had to move around who knows where and do who knows what. She HAD to. I emphasize this, because it is very important to know.

At the moment she was still just recovering from the stupid freaking rat cave.

It wasn't fun, making her way out of the terrible rat room. There was a hideous sort of humidity in the air; it clung to her thick pelt and made her highly uncomfortable. Also, it made fog that obfuscated every detail in her path, including the path itself! She wanted to go faster -- way, way faster -- but Balder was (surprisingly) aware of the fact that she would have a hard time doing that.

Due to the deep desire to have a cathartic scapegoat for his problems, and a harrowing lack of any scientific knowledge (or anything qualifying as 'knowledge' at all--), Balder had decided to blame this aggravating circumstance on the rats. They just wouldn't leave him ALONE!!!

Nevertheless, she would brave their domain (AGAIN) and walk... walk...... walk.........

.......walk walk walk until she managed to hear a noise.

What?

Lo and behold, a national crisis! Interspecies incident!! Something swooping through the air -- gosh darn it if only Balder could fly in here -- to catch...? something...?

A squeak, a squeal, a scamper.

Oh yeah, something was getting munched.

Balder would narrow her eyes and try to see through the haze, slowing her pace JUST for the lick of entertainment this might bring her. And juuuust barely her eyes would manage to catch it; a grotesque series of motions, something winged tearing into something rat-like (but smaller), getting it down piece by piece. Had the victim been the squealer? Who had been the scamperer? Balder couldn't tell...

Well, Balder could only really watch this scene for so long. Eating was far more boring than watching the kill in action. The battle! That's what it was all about! Plus, she grew more and more uncomfortable with each second in this haze. So she would move on.

Traipsing slowly through a tunnel and watching the ecosystem within... was not very Balder-esque. Maybe it was the malaise that trapped her, maybe the previous rat-induced exhaustion only added. He wasn't too torn up about it; Balder was king! He did whatever he wanted! And if he wanted to watch some rat get murdered and eaten by a little bat-lookin' thing, then he would, no questions asked!

Still. The boredom weighed on him. A weight that made it harder to move. Gosh he needed to get out of here--

Eyes.

-- What?

Peeking up at him through the fog. Look! Down there! --Huh? Oh, manlet lizard thingy. Kinda big... and kinda...

:::)

...cute?

Was it like... a person or something? Balder peered closely, leaning ever so slightly towards the squat lizard. It didn't seem to have one... but as Balder looked, she found that it was a little hard... to look away.... wow, what a pretty pattern on those frills... wow...

And it wasn't even a rat.... and woah it was so pretty.... woah.... hoooooooooogh......... Balder could just... Balder could just take a nap right here.........

"You're alright... you're a little buddy. You're my little buddy now. I'm King Balder. I'm... you're a crown jewel, you're gonna help me out... with all the rats... did they hurt you little buddy?"

Balder's eyes were sliding closed. The lizard seemed to enjoy this, its smile grew wider and wider.

"Wish you could talk... You're my little paige... pa.... poh.......gchamp..... You know......"

Drowsily, Balder took a few steps forward. The languor was insane. He just wanted to curl up... curl up and...

"C'mere, come, your kind demands it..."

Snuggle around the little pogchamp and maybe... and maybe, you know... and close his eyes and snzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz--

--WH--

Ah come on only a minute, only a minute! Look at all this fog, so thick and dreeaaaaamyyyyy...

--AH! STOP THAT!

AH--

Balder's eyes flew open. He found that it was excruciatingly hard to move. Couldn't scream, couldn't command, couldn't anything but watch as--

As--

--Did something hurt? Balder's foot was... wet? No, naturally it was wet, but it was also, unnaturally, in PAIN!!! What was going on???

He desperately tried to see through the fog. What? What? What?

It seemed the rats wanted her to see this...

An impressive showdown. Some kind of snake had slithered up to Balder's little lizard buddy who was... who looked... was that blood in the air??? What?????

His lizard was doing that funny little thing with its beautiful frills, shaking them lightly and smiling wide... the snake seemed charmed. Charmed? It was slowing, grooving with the lizard, had something in its mouth... WAS THAT A BLOODY RAT??!?!

The lizard moved closer, then backed away when the snake gave a fervent hiss. It did this several times, this sort of dance. In and out, in and out... Balder almost felt like falling asleep again, until--

STRIKE! The snake dropped the mouse and lunged at the smaller lizard. NO--

The lizard... dodged!!! Sidestepped. Yes! You go little buddy!

Until it tried to-- oh wow those were some wicked fangs it had-- it went for the snake's flesh!

The tension was so high. Balder would've stepped in if only he could MOVE--

The snake slithered away! Holy smokes that was fast. Well, now the rat was unguarded, maybe Balder's little buddy would stop risking its life like this, feel sated, move on...

And at first it seemed like that, the lizard didn't chase, yielded, backed towards the rat corpse on the floor...

But the snake turned back, hissing, wild, determined...

The lizard fell back on its silly little dance, and Balder might be projecting here, but it seemed a little desperate, until...

--BOOM! The snake SHOT, the lizard was too busy dancing to move, the rat corpse hindered its options, and in one fell swoop the snake had made two meals from one! Balder wanted desperately to move, to race up to that stupid, ugly snake and bite its head clean off, show it EXACTLY what for, as punishment for KILLING HIS LITTLE POGCHAMP!!!

But he couldn't. He still couldn't. And he wouldn't be able to for a while. The snake would turn to look at back at him... there was something strikingly profound in those little snakey eyes that almost evaporated Balder's grief and rage entirely.

Balder could only look in those eyes... look at the body of the snake. What was up with the creatures here seeming so??? So...???? Real? Well, the... screw it, the beautiful gemstone rising from the snake's jaws like a purple and yellow flame suggested that it really was a person, that there was something that mattered in there. And its stare... why was it looking for so long? What was it trying to say, why not just SAY it?!

But Balder couldn't bring himself to call it a coward, even in his mind.

...What was HAPPENING here? GEEZ.

Slowly, the snake began slithering away, probably to look for another meal...

And about thirty minutes of being frozen in unbearable heat later, Balder grit his teeth and went looking for it. It would be hard to miss, right? How could Balder forget that gemstone, those eyes? Balder would find it again. Even if it meant being here for an extra DAY.

He was a determined creature, and this was the first non-rat (it actually KILLED rats) almost-person he had seen in... in... who cares how long!!! He had to know. He had to see it again. He had to-- to-- maybe fight it, Balder liked fighting people, the snake was a good fighter. He had to see it again. There was no other way, no other reason his mind would accept.

What even was his goal? Balder settled on... revenge. That lizard was his BUDDY, and that snake had KILLED IT while it was trying to make friends!!! That snake might've been a person, and if it was, it was a BAD PERSON, utterly deserving of Balder's hatred!!!

...(Could you blame him for feeling so alone?)...

Balder would search and search, quietly cursing the fog, the rest of the creatures around, everyone in sight who dared not be the creature it WANTED to see. Balder would curse and swear and enrage himself until he hit a wall, literally. Then he would hiss and spin and hit... ANOTHER wall. Wow! He was this close (I am nearly pinching my index finger to my thumb) to shrieking in rage.

ALL OF THIS TIME SEARCHING FOR FOOD OR A PERSON AND ALL HE FOUND WAS A FRIEND WHO GOT MURDERED, A HECK TON OF RATS, AND SWELTERING HEAT! THEN THE FIRST ALMOST PERSON HE MEETS JUST DISAPPEARS!!! INTO THE STUPID ACCURSED FOG!!!!!!! AND BALDER HATES IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

Balder might've yelled these things into the world, and may yet still. But at least, despite TWO wall-bonks, he held enough sense to realize that would endanger the mission.

Balder kept close to the wall. Listened for rats. Now he was actually paying attention to details. Look at what some stupid random SNAKE FRIEND-KILLER had made him do!!! He couldn't scent a darn THING in this horrible humidity and fog, and it appeared as though his search was drawing him back closer to that infernal rat room because it was only getting HOTTER--

But then! THERE! Out of the corner of his eye(s)! Purple and yellow, glistening. Was it a mirage? Balder spun wildly, wings at the ready. There, the vague outline... that same snake, with something in its mouth! YES!!! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES, that HAD to be it, right-- of course!!!