***A little bit of randomness that started off with just Timothy, myself, and Rebecca’s player spoofing an alt that hasn’t been made yet and grew to include Zohar and Daniel. Also provided a bit of impetus for a plan that Timothy’s had knocking around for a while now.***

LV: Pond(#539R)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pond isn't large, but it's certainly pretty. The valley's chuckling stream swirls into a perfectly round water-hole, dammed on the southern side by a messy tangle of wood -- the industrious work of beavers. The cold, clear water is occasionally iced completely over, tempting the adventurous onto its surface. The dead of winter has also left the surrounding trees lifeless silhouettes, limbs reaching high overhead.

Curving [North], from out of the forest, is the creek, bordered on
either side by tall forest.
To the [Northwest], visible through the scattered trees, lies a
clearing, hand-built structures rising from the grass.
Along the pond's southeastern bank, a game [Trail] ventures to the
water's edge.
And along the southern end of the pond is the beaver [Dam].

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Timothy bundled in a cloak and scarf, walks along, headed towards the pond. He seems to be in a pretty carefree mood, enjoying the frozen look of everything, and the snow sparkling on the ground. He seems to be alone, which perhaps is a bit foolish, but with Ranger gone, he feels much safer outside.

Kieran is also out of doors this fine winter's day, though with more on his mind than a simple stroll. Clad only in his fur, the colony rat moves about on all fours, doing his best to mimic a feral out foraging. What he's actually doing is decidedly different and not at all related to food gathering. The ex-scout is surveying the creek and pond, wondering if they might provide him an easy, yet hard to track, path out of Thorn Valley come spring. Kieran lopes over to a bush draped with leaves and snow and begins poking around it, "looking" for any berries it might still have on it.

Timothy sees a few flakes of snow begin to drift down from the canopy and onto the mouse; Timothy blinks, looking up. Snowing? The sky didn't look like it had enough in it to snow... He shrugs a bit, continuing on... Suddenly, he feels a slight draft, looks up and squeaks as suddenly he's enveloped by whiteness... and then darkness. He gasps, then coughs as snow fills his mouth, and he finds that he can barely move at all!

Some ways away from this is a flitty creature who, unusually, is feeling quite chipper and satisfied with her agronomic state. It's that mischievous female feral rat again, her trademark neckerchief around her neck, who casually pads along the forest floor, not at all bothered by the cold. She'd found a clever way to keep herself sustained over the winter: raiding squirrel hoards for free food. To be sure, this was a violation of the sacred trust squirrels placed in their hideaways, but 'sucks to be them', she thought. She smells others farther down, but before she can register them, the weather suddenly takes a turn for the worse, and soon she's engulfed by the blistering snowstorm. Squeeking, she ducks under a bush in the hopes of shielding herself from the blast.

Kieran's ears perk at the sound of startled squeaks and he peers out from the bush as a pile of snow lands atop a small rodent with a soft "whumpf". The breeze kicked up by the impact of the snow wafts a familiar scent his way and his eyes widen in alarm. ~Timothy!~ The large rat breaks from cover and bolts towards the snow pile but stops short as a familiar and unwelcome scent reaches his nose. Growling a little bit and looking around, he looks for the female with narrowed eyes. The ex-scout doesn't see her, however, and takes that to mean she's off skulking somewhere nearby. Not giving her a second thought, Kieran resumes his sprint towards the snow pile. Clods of snow are sent flying as Kieran digs into the drift with all his might.

Timothy starts to get panicky as he tries to wriggle his way out from under the snow... the lack of air starts to affect him as well, and he feels very disoriented and it feels like a huge paw is pressing down on his lungs. He cries out, his cry muffled by more snow.

Sirana peeps out of her bush, her earlier premonitions being falsified. Sniffing around, she recognizes Kieran and Timothy at last, but the latter' scent seems to have been dampened when- uh oh. She scampers out of the bush and down the path, encountering the fallen snowdrift some distance away. Kieran is visible as a speck in the distance. She sneaks behind the trees and creeps towards the drift unseen and unheard...

Kieran feels his heart stop at the muffled cry from deeper down in the snowdrift. "Hang on!" he finds himself shouting as he redoubles his efforts. Kieran can feel eyes on his back but ignores them; whatever it is will have to wait until Timothy's free. A few more pawfuls of snow and the rat unearths something...

Timothy feels himself slipping from consciousness as the air seems to close around him, and he ceases his struggles... He's not aware of Kieran's digging, either. A corner of Timothy's cloak becomes visible as Kieran digs.

Sirana has closed up to Kieran now, and casually peers from behind the nearest tree, neither moving or making any sound, but simply watching...

The eyes are closer; Kieran can tell. The scent is stronger, too--that damned feral. With a shake of his head, Kieran returns his focus to the snowdrift and the corner of cloth he's managed to expose. His heart is thundering in his ears. Scoop. Toss. Scoop. Toss. Scoop. Toss. Scoop. Toss. Kieran works mechanically, ignoring the building ache in his muscles and his thoroughly numbed forepaws. At last, he exposes something more substantial than the corner of Timothy's cloak. Seizing the mouse's leg, Kieran attempts to pull Timothy free. No luck. Cursing a blue streak, the rat resumes his frantic excavations, hoping he'll get enough snow off to pull Timothy free in time...

The limb Kieran tried to pull seems quite limp, and Timothy still seems quite stuck.

"You'll never get him on floundering around like that," Sirana exposits, having materialized right next to the struggling digger. "It goes like this..." At once, she positions herself in front of the snowdrift and digs a bit more 'properly', scooping the snow down and backward. The snow flies out behind her.

Kieran growls at her, but is glad for the assistance anyway. ~I don't need lessons in how to dig,~ he thinks, but that's all the time he allows for such useless thought. It's not long before they've found most of the rest of Timothy--only an arm and most of his tail remain buried. Kieran is content to leave him in the snow for now, noting that the mouse isn't breathing. Fearfully, he checks Timothy's pulse and is relieved when he finds it. The rat opens Timothy's mouth and begins scooping snow out, hoping to clear his windpipe enough that the mouse will be able to start breathing again. Kieran readies himself to resuscitate Timothy if it proves necessary.

Timothy lies limply in the snow, his pulse weak but there. His mouth gives no resistance when it is opened, however, despite the cleared airway, he doesn't begin breathing spontaneously.

Sirana sniffles and wipes her brow as she finishes digging. She twitters a little and watches Kieran work on Timothy, a idle thought gonig through her mind as to how such methods are done...

Movements made awkward by the cold and numbness in his paws (and by the fact that he's only got one good paw to work with), Kieran positions Timothy's head so that he can begin breathing for the mouse. Holding Timothy's nose closed with his good paw and trying to keep his chin up with what's left of his other paw, Kieran begins pushing air into Timothy's lungs. "Come on, breathe!" he growls softly after forcing Timothy's chest to rise and fall a couple times.

Fortunately, it only takes a couple of breaths before Timothy regains control of his respiration; he coughs some residual water up out of his lungs, breathing more or less normally now. His eyes flutter open, looking unfocussed. It doesn't help that his glasses seem to have gotten away from his face again.

Sirana watches Kieran do his work, seemingly concerned about the mouse's welfare. Whether or not is actually is isn't clear, as she quickly reverts to her more glib persona upon Timothy's revival. "Took you long enough. Wasn't too sure if you'd pull through, but you did, after all." She says no more, choosing to take note of Kieran's maimed paw...now /that/ had a story behind it. "What'd you do, stick your paw into a meat grinder?" She asks, rather frankly.

With a sigh of relief, Kieran tugs Timothy completely free of the snowbank and impulsively gives the mouse a quick hug. "Y-y-you g-g-gave m-m-me a g-g-good s-s-scare, T-Timothy..." he stutters as he releases the mouse. Noticing the absence of glasses from Timothy's muzzle, Kieran begins pawing through the drift in search of them. Not facing the feral, he stammers, "N-no...c-c-cat," in response to her question. "And..." he begins after a long pause. "Th-th-thanks f-f-for y-your h-h-help." Kieran catches a particularly large and bright wink in the snow and grabs at it. This proves to be Timothy's glasses. Kieran passes them over to the mouse.

Timothy seems confused at seeing Kieran hovering over him, squeaking a little as he's pulled into the hug. He smiles a bit and hugs back, a bit weakly. "Thanks, Kieran..." He lay back on the snow, for now appreciating the ability to breathe once again, though he blinks as he notices the other rat, a feral one at that. He accepts the glasses from Kieran and tries to clean them off a bit before putting them on. "Uh... who are you?"

Sirana persk as Kieran answers her question forthright. Wow, he certainly has some guts gonig up against a cat. She perks even more when she is thanked. "...Don't worry about it. Just happened to come along." For the first time in a long while, she feels rather nervous about being this socially involved. She shrugs it off in time to hear Timothy's inquiry, bending down to regard the mouse. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she quips, tilting her head and smirking. Straightening up, she brushes aside her headfur, still grinning. "You two are a funny bunch, but I guess it won't hurt to tell you...You can call me Sirana, hunter extraordinaire. I make a living from the land, if you know what I mean." She places one paw on her side and the other thumbing towards herself. She smirks confidently.

Kieran pays little attention to the feral--she's only proven herself a nuisance before and he's just waiting for that to happen again. He does catch her name, however. Stretching his good paw out, he places it on Timothy's shoulder. "Y-y-you ok-k-kay? Or sh-sh-should w-w-we h-h-head f-f-for h-home?"

Timothy's ears fold back as the feral rat leans over him, blinking at her response. "He glances over at Kieran and then back to her. "Uh... well, thanks, Sirana." He doesn't know exactly how she helped Kieran, but it seems appropriate that he thank her as well. After all, if he had been alone, he would be dead right now, simple as that. To Kieran he nods a little, sitting up. "I... think I'm okay."

Zohar had to get away from the workings of the colony for a few moments, and his own studio wasn't far enough. Even though he had come out into the cold, where he was less inclined to go due to his own flaws, he was willing to stray out towards the pond for the silence. Zohar had to bulk his robes double on normal winter days, but today he made triple. Quite an interesting sight it was he came upon, someone being pulled from the snow by another. "All of you out here in this cold. Hearty creatures, the lot of you. I didn't expect to find anyone out on this day."

Sirana hmphs as Kieran ignores her, scowling lightly. Some peopel don't have all their manners do- wait, she when was she to talk about manners? She shakes her head vigorously to rid herself of this silly thought. She peers at Timothy and nods tersely in response. "Just don't get yourself killed, kid." She perks up as Zohar approaches, his deep voice catching her attention. "Didn't expect anyone, eh? Doesn't seem you've been out a lot...there's a lot going on out here that most of you folk don't really see."

Kieran hears that Sirana is apparently miffed at being ignored and smirks. ~Good. Glad to know you're aggravated.~ Continuing to ignore her, Kieran rises to his feet and extends a paw to Timothy. "So, b-b-back t-t-to the c-c-colony and a s-s-seat b-b-by the f-f-f-fire f-f-for you?" he stutters. The arrival of another rat takes Kieran a little by surprise, but he had caught the scent earlier and knew someone else would be joining them shortly. The heavily scarred rat turns to gaze at the newcomer and his jaw drops a little at the sight. He's never seen the like before. "And y-you a-a-are?" Kieran stutters to the heavily bundled stranger. Somehow, the scent is familiar, though...

Timothy nods a bit to Sirana, taking Kieran's paw and pulling himself to his feet. "Yeah, don't feel much like ice skating anymore. Heh." He blinks a little at Zohar, then back at Kieran, noticing, finally, that he has no clothes on, meaning he's given a very clear view of his scars, and even his ungloved and injured paw.

Zohar tilted his head under that hood, eyeing the three of them, though he did give a response to Sirana. "Actually, I grew up away from these colonies, and in most-unfavorable company. Being that the colony is generally warm, I thought its inhabitants would be more prone to stay inside." He took a breath and paused when he looked to Timothy. He appeared to freeze up for a moment, but quickly moved his attention to the unclothing Kieran. "Zohar," he said. "Do you not wish for extra warmth? I can spare one of my robes."

Sirana has also taken note of Kieran's many scars, and is intrigued by the story they could tell, but her current concern is with Zohar. "So, you think in terms of the colonists, eh? How wonderfully inward of you. Maybe the struggling animals I see everyday don't mean much to you, but I'm not sure if they'll agree." She tilts her head to face Kieran. "He'll be fine; I'm certainly doing my best the way /I/ am." Of course, she'd grown in her winter coat in lieu of clothing, but hey...

Kieran feels the eyes of the three of them upon him but makes no sign of being bothered by it...which takes some effort. "And th-th-this, T-T-Timothy, is wh-wh-why y-you d-d-don't b-b-become a G-G-Guard," he stutters in a lame effort to make a joke. Kieran turns to Zohar and shakes his head. "M-m-my w-winter c-c-coat c-c-came in f-f-fine; I d-d-don't need a s-s-spare c-c-cloak," he stammers in reply. ~With a few obvious exceptions...~ Kieran thinks, without actually saying it. Unconsciously, the scarred rat drops into parade rest, paws clasped behind his back, and waits.

Timothy tries to take it as a joke, managing a chuckle out of courtesy while trying to avoid looking at Kieran's scars. He just listens to the others; the conversation doesn't really seem directed towards him after all. He frowns a little when he notices Zohar's gaze pause on and then slide away from him.

Zohar looked back to Sirana after her interesting response. He dipped his head and shook it. "Mind you, Miss, thank you for that assessment of my interior intellect and its connections to something which is an assumptions based merely on a derived thought which was born from my words. A feral you must be, speaking in such terms, but regardless of colonist or feral, all animals struggle. And that," he said, "is something I'm sure both sides of the issue would agree on." He stepped lightly passed them, but kept an eye on Kieran. Sure, he may have had a winter coat. "If that is what you say, but if you need it my offer still stands. At least one of us in this cold grows his coat."

Sirana blinks and looks at Zohar critically. He certainly had a point, but she had a different angle on it. "Yeah...but some animals seem to struggle less than others. Makes you wonder, really..." She crosses her arms and glances aside, not liking where the conversation was going, but yet. "Pssh...whatever. As long as you don't drain the forest or something." She glances at Timothy as she tries to shift her focus. "Doesn't look like you've been a drain on anyone's resources, kid...you certainly could uses a bit more meat on those bones."

Kieran quirks an eyebrow at Zohar's bizarre response to Sirana, quickly becoming lost and tuning it out. His ears fold back a bit at Zohar's reply to him. Jerking his head in Timothy's direction, Kieran stutters, "If anyone n-n-needs a s-s-spare c-c-cloak, it's h-h-him. W-w-we j-j-just h-h-hauled him out of th-th-that s-snow d-d-drift." The ex-guard surveys the scene. Timothy's out of danger; Zohar is a fellow colonist; Sirana seems friendly enough for the moment...Kieran begins to think about slipping away into the woods now that the crisis has passed.

Timothy looks a little embarassed at Sirana's assessment of his form; while true, it's not something so easily fixed for him, it seems. Looking up at Kieran, he shrugs a little, though a slight shivver betrays the fact that he is somewhat colder now than he was before the snow dropped on him.

Zohar decided to let the conversation about suffering dwindle away as Sirana seemed to want to drop it. He didn't waste time when Kieran pointed out Timothy may need it more than him, and pulled the outermost robe he wore from his form. "Well, Timothy Brisby...?"he said, holding up the robe. "Put this one so you catch ill."

Sirana chooses to maintain her silence for now. Truth be told, she had other things to do, but yet she still remained here...She regards the now-cloaked Timothy curiously. "YEp, you definitely need more mass, kid; you're just drowning in those robes."

Kieran takes advantage of the fact that all attention is now on Timothy and begins to subtly back away from the gathered rodents, trying to slip away without anyone noticing. Truth be told, he's mortified by the fact that two fellow colonists have seen him trying to be a feral.

Timothy accepts the bulky cloak, wrapping himself up in it. He gives Sirana a bit of a glare. "Might be because rats typically have more mass than mice?" He looks back up to Zohar and offers a slightly reserved "Thank you," then looks around for Kieran... who is not where he was a moment ago. He blinks.

Sirana smirks. "Well, you happen to have a little less mass than most mice ;)" She blinks as she notices a slowly fading scent. Darting her head around, she quickly sights Kieran making a not-so-discreet escape. "And just where do you think /you're/ going?" She pads over to Kieran and examines him carefully, her calculating glare just like Rebecca's..."Trying to slip out without explaining yourself? Typical..."

Kieran sighs inwardly as the feral catches up with him. ~Two out of three's not bad. Damn it...~ he thinks to himself. "I've g-g-got th-things t-t-to d-d-do. N-now th-that T-Timothy's s-s-safe, I'm g-g-going t-to g-g-get b-b-back to them, if it's all r-r-r-right w-w-with y-you," he stammers in reply, narrowing his eyes at Sirana and wondering why she cares what he's doing or where he's going.

Timothy sighs at Sirana, deciding not to belabor the point. Especially since she's right. He follows her with his gaze, spotting Kieran a ways away; he'd assumed that Kieran would be going back to the colony with him, but since it seems like he's got other ideas, he looks up to Zohar. "Um... you going back up to the colony?"

Zohar watched Kieran for a few moments. If he was like that, then he would probably be fine, but he still wondered about him. Either way, Timothy had spoken up about the colony and it made him realize a little bit on how colder he felt without the third robe. "I was just about to begin heading back there. I live on the fourth level, if you wanted to know."

Sirana doesn't seem particularly satisfied with Kieran's answer, sensing that something else is up. "Other things? What's a colonist like you wandering 'round in the buff? You're...not trying to run away, are you?" She places her paws on her hips and peers at Kieran. "Well?"

"B-b-buzz off," he snarls, glaring, as he shoves his way past her and heads for the handiest bush. Kieran is amazed by her--they've fought every time they've met, and yet here she thinks she's going to get answers from him about business that doesn't concern her in the slightest.

Timothy nods a little to Zohar. "Thanks. After that, I'm a bit hesitant to go alone," he replies a bit sheepishly. He starts off a bit, waiting for Zohar to follow. n.n

Zohar looked back to the other two, Kieran and Sirana, but then back to Timothy. There wasn't much he could do for Those two if they were going to run around and snap at each other. Zohar shook his head and joined Timothy in the walk back to the colony. "Anytime, Timothy," he said. "And you are wise to be hesitant. I've had my own brushes with death in the winter as well."

Sirana glares back at Kieran for his audacity. The nerve of him! "Sure, whatever, kid, do whatever you want..." She crosses her arms sulkingly and fumes, rather miffed by his behaviour. Still, curiousity does catch the better of her, and she finds herself peeking at the departing rat, noting that she can still follow him by scent. At once, she comes down on all fours and follows after him, taking care to be as silent as possible.

"Silent as possible" is not silent enough, especially when your prey is quite skilled in the arts of tracking and evasion himself. The fact that Kieran didn't go much past that bush is also a point in his favor. Knowing that the feral is following him makes something in Kieran snap. "Why in hell won't you leave me alone?!?" he screams as he bursts from cover, good paw seeking Sirana's throat!

Timothy's ears fold back as he hears Kieran's scream. He briefly considers going over to see what's wrong, but considering what was screamed, decides against it.

Zohar looked back towards Kieran and Sirana's direction, his dominant paw, the left one, automatically thumbing his belt. However he made no motion to pull anything and turned back to Timothy. "...Quite the romantic couple, aren't they?"

Daniel apears at the top of a rise in the path ahead of Tim and Zohar as they make their way back to the colony, having heard the comotion from where he was on patroll, he waits till they're close enough to speak to before asking, "is this anything I should be concerned about?"

Apparently, Sirana had underestimated Kieran's skills, reeling back in momentary shock as he lunges at her. She's quick to react, however, and she quickly grabs for Kieran's wrist, turning aside and hoping to use the momentum to perform a deft throw, hurling the big rat across the path.

Kieran isn't terribly surprise when the attack is evaded and Sirana uses his own momentum against him. He was actually hoping for that to happen. As Kieran is sent flying by the toss, he tucks into a ball. When he hits the ground again, he rolls and comes up on his feet. Without a hitch, Kieran breaks into a sprint and heads deeper into the woods.

Timothy gives Zohar a half grin as he continues on. He blinks as he sees them starting to fight, his smile fading... He sighs a little, and continues on.

Zohar returned the gesture to Timothy when he noticed Daniel atop the rise. Once again, he looked back to the skirmish the two were having, but to him it seemed like a nice opportunity to let them be. "Only if you believe those two will murder each other," he said. "I think their fun time won't last too long in this cold.

Sirana huffs as Kieran sprints off, feeling rather indignany. The nerve of him...Steeling herself, she scampers off after him, determined to settle the score.

Daniel watches for a moment before shaking his head, looks like Kieran can handle himself and they're not using weapons. after a moment he looks back to Tim and Zohar, "heading back to the colony?"

Kieran hears the crunch of snow and the shuffle of brush from behind him and knows that damned feral is giving chase. Again. ~We'll see just how good you know these woods!~ he thinks, a growl in his throat and a look that could kill on his muzzle. His time in the guard forced him to find good paths through the underbrush--paths that are difficult to follow and that provide plenty of opportunity to hunker down and hide or to double back without the pursuer realizing it. Kieran makes a bee line for one such trail and follows it as it loops around trees, through underbrush, over and under logs...

Timothy chuckles a bit to Zohar; he's not too worried about Kieran being able to hold his own. "Would've thought he'd be thrilled to have females chasing after him," he jokes. He waves to Daniel and nods a bit. "Yeah."

Zohar chuckled a bit. "Well, in that case we'll call this their snowy honeymoon," he said. "More a reason to stay in doors. I really want my warm bed at the moment."

Sirana is also familiar with all the nooks and crannies of the woods, however, having spent a considerable amount of her time exploring the forest. She gives chase to Kieran rather easily, following him through every bend and tunnel. However, what eventualyl gets to her is not the twisty paths, but boredom and fatigue. She stops several feet from her starting position, watching Kieran scamper off as she pants and sits on her haunches. "Huh...Freak..." Finding no further interest here, she pads off into the woods and prepares to raid another squirrel's hoard.

Daniel takes one more glance back at the fighting rats before shaking his head and falling in with Tim and Zohar, "I think it's about time for me to get back too..."

Satisfied that he's long since lost that annoying rat, Kieran pauses to rest. Taking a seat in the snow, the heavily scarred rat pants and slowly catches his breath. Once he's gotten his wind back, Kieran heads for the colony at an easy lope and wondering if he'll be able to sneak back in as easily as he snuck out.