Okay, so this RP was done to introduce a new player, Cadmus, to the MUCK. What follows is the end to his journey from the city, I'm guessing.
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It's approaching evening time, the sun turning the warm air golden. Cruim's few wounds from his first encounter with the rats weren't really healed, but they were scabbed over. The large black snake is coiled up underneath a stone, hiding in the shade motionless. Every now and then his forked tongue flicks out to taste the air so he would know who and what was around him.

Cadmus limped his way in the evening sun. His form hunched and disheveled. Blood seeped openly from a gash on his leg, trailing a crimson path behind him. Of all that had happened so far, doing something as silly as cutting yourself on a rock... Nonetheless he made his way sternly forward, focusing any energy he had left upon reaching his destination.

Blood. The unmistakable scent of an injured beast filters through Cruim's mind. The rat he had the other day was an alright meal, enough to get him by. But who could really pass up an easy meal. The Kingsnake stirs and slithers out from under his rock, tongue forking and telling him that it was a mouse that was injured. Such an easy catch.

Cadmus wandered further on, every now and then jerking his head left and right, desperately attempting to make out just where he was. Between the trees and the cliffs, he could not tell. It was a quiet evening, and he couldn't see any other signs of life. He'd never been to the Valley before; heard the stories, sure, but never actually BEEN there. In retrospect it would have done him well to have brought some form of map, even a slip with directions on it. Yet his will drive him forward, his mind set on one task, totally oblivious to the world around him...

And that's what Cruim was counting on, though he figured his new prey would be oblivious for different reasons. The snake presses forward with the dry rustling sound of scales, following the scent of the wounded mouse to it's source. He makes his way through the tall grass to what was used as a path and spots his quarry. The snake raises his head up and sways back and forth slightly, tongue flicking out quickly.

Cadmus continued on even as imminent danger approached him. Deciding he'd head south for now, he turned with effort, his stave scraping the ground as he went. So tired he was, he didn't even bother to sniff the air for any scent. Fatigue and a nasty cut had robbed him of vital reason. He moved on...

The silly mouse doesn't even know that his end is so near. Cruim slithers to the side to intercept the mouse, getting closer to him. The dry rustle follows each of Cruim's movements because he's not to keen on keeping himself hidden any more. Just a little wounded mouse doesn't need such precaution.

Cadmus glanced to his side. What he saw reduced everything before to nothing. It couldn't be...it wasn't possible. What now? he thought, fear pervading his body. He faced a snake of colossal size. He couldn't run, even with both legs fully capable, and what could was a shaft of carved wood against fangs? He could simply stand, his head leaning back as he attempted to grasp the full size of this monster. What now...

Cruim slowly leans his head forward, tongue flicking out still. "You don't run. Ssssmart mousssee. Eassssy meal," the snake mutters with a rasp.

Very nearby to where the Cadmus and Cruim are located, a cloaked figure stands silently, leaning against a tree. He's about to take a sip from a crude-looking canteen when the smell of blood and... something else catches his attention. Without a sound, the figure slinks from his post and into the foliage, both curious and cautious of what he might discover. The rustle of the grass seems to cause the figure a great deal of concern, and he holds fast to his halberd as he approaches the first thing he sees: a wounded mouse. "Get down!" he suddenly shouts, launching himself from the grass to put himself, and his halberd, between the snake and his quarry.

Cadmus fell flat on his back, stave still clutched in his hands.

Cruim raises up about a foot and looks at this new problem. One from the rat colony with one of those shiny claws. He opens his mouth and lets out a challenging hiss.

The figure, a fairly large rat wearing a torn old cloak over his silken white fur, stands up tall, making himself look as large and menacing as possible and letting out a rattish hiss of his own, pointing his sharpened halberd at the snake in a defensive stance. "Back off, snake. This one is ours." the rat says coldly.

Cadmus propped himself up, the better to view the scene in front of him. He peered backward; if he could just get on his feet...

"Ffind your own," Cruim hisses at him, clearly not afraid even though he keeps a close eye on the halberd. His tongue flicks out as he thinks. The rat was more dangerous, but the mouse was smaller. The rat would be a better meal. The snake weaves his head back and forth slightly like he was getting ready to either attack or dodge. He knew what these rats could do now.

The rat stands his ground, halberd in paw, and swaying slightly as well, in time with the snake. Strange. "There will be other prey." he growls, "Now back off, before you lose your ability to hunt." Not taking his eyes off the snake, the cloaked rat emits a single muttered word, directed at Cadmus. "Run.."

Cadmus didn't need telling twice. Snatching up his stave, he bolted southward. Leg screaming in protest, he dared not look back.

Cruim continues to sway slightly, gaze never leaving the rat in front of him. "You are foolisssshhhh rat. I will never ssstop the hunt," he rasps, mouse temporarily forgotten. He tenses along his length, getting ready to strike.

The rat continues his mimickry of the snake's movements, using their hypnotic effect to slowly adjust his stance, tensing in preparation to rush on the snake. "Then it is you who issss the fool." he says, mirroring the snake's dialect as well.

Cadmus still ran straight forward, blatantly ignoring the agony in his leg. By now the blood had clotted, leaving a clumped mass of dull red fur. A part of him was struck with guilt at leaving the right alone. The other part knew he would have died if he had stayed. His stave dragged haphazardly behind him. He needed to get out of here. As if to answer this question, Cadmus tripped over an opening in the ground, and fell straight in. An overwhelming smell of earth, and Cadmus fell into blackness.

Cruim continues to watch the rat, "You take my food away. /You/ become my food." He raises up slightly just before he moves out to the side with his strike at the rat, trying to avoid the shiny claw that could get through his scales with ease.

Martin, who had been assigned as a Sentry near the aforementioned opening, leans against its stone rim. In the heat of the day, he's just about ready to abandon his post for a swim in the pond, until Cadmus comes rushing in. He squeaks, trying to catch the mouse before he falls, but instead loses his balance and falls into the tunnels as well. He groans, pushing himself up off the ground, then regards the other mouse curiously. "Not a feral, that's for sure. But where did he come from..?" He then sighs, hefting the mouse onto his shoulder with a grunt, and begins to carry him through the tunnels, heading for the guardhouse. -- The rat doesn't need the snake to tell him what his intentions were. Before Cruim completely finishes his threat, the cloaked rat darts forward, straight towards the snake, but away from his strike, aiming to disappear into the serpent's blind-spot.

This rat was faster than the other one, but he didn't use his shiny claw to hurt Cruim yet. The snake raises his head back up with a hiss of anger, his entire body moving as he tried to look for the insolent rat. His eyes weren't excellent, he also relies on the rats scent in the air as his tongue darts out.

The rat, having pretty much vanished from sight, makes his way quickly through the grass, then woods, dodging his way in and out of undergrowth and occasionally water. His scent would be difficult to follow, but not impossible for a snake.

Cruim hisses again and starts to follow the path, angry that his food got away. His tongue darts out and he pauses more than once to confirm that he was on the right track.

The rat keeps moving, apparently following randomly along the bank of the creek, where he finally breaks from it at a waterfall, his scent disappearing into a large construct near it which seems to be empty for the moment, though it smells strongly of rodents. In the trees above, a squirrel chatters incessantly, yelling something about nuts and a catfish.

Cruim hisses his anger at losing his quarry, but it slowly subsides when he detects that a lot of the rats come to this strange place. He forgets all about the mouse and the rat that just ran from him and coils up in a dark corner of this construct where the scent wasn't as strong. This would be a good place to wait for another bit of prey.