As every day of the mouse's life has been, Zen was out fending for himself and searching for precious, shiny blue objects! It was like a quest for him, every item he found being a marker of his progress. Sniffing and bounding around, Zen came to a stop. What was this? This certainly was no shiny object and defiantly wasn't food. Turning to face the direction of the running mouse, Zen blinked as he looked to see what the mouse was running from. Keeping low, he side-shuffled into a patch of grass as he looked to find the nearest tree for shelter. "Hey! Over here! Hurry up and get over here!"

Timothy skids, not quite stopping as he hears the slightly quiet voice over his loudly beating heart and panting breaths, altering his trajectory to head towards the voice. The possibility of it being a trap flits across his mind briefly, but he's running out of options, and nearly anything would be better than being eaten by the monster following. Speaking of... Nearly the same instant Timothy reaches the patch of grass, a large, hulking rat with blood on his claws and a crazed, hungry look in his eyes emerges into the clearing, slowing a bit to look around. He sniffs about, ears perking as he listens for the slightest sound.

Zen reached both his paws out to the mouse darting towards him, one in an attempt to slow him to a stop and the other to silence him. "Shh... What on earth did you do? Uh... hold on... Stay. Put. Do not move..." With that, Zen finally managed to get a good look at the mouse... and his wounds. "Damn.... what -DID- you do?" Answered or not, he crouched back down, low to the ground as he tried to sneak a glace of the large rat following the mouse. A quick shudder of fear quickly jolted through him as he remember such a rat... No, this one was much smaller and seems more feral, but still looks threatening. For the moment, Zen backs up, moving closer to the other mouse, gently pushing himself up against him... "I... think I can distract him, but you've got to run like Hell to that tree behind us if you want to make it... There should be a small hole in the tree... Get in there..." With that, he set his sights on the large rat...

Timothy lets out a very small squeak as the other mouse pulls him to a stop, relieved to see that it isn't another rat at least. He quiets himself (quiet as a mouse, naturally) and stays stock still, aside from a slightly uncontrollable tremble. It looks like he might be bleeding a bit, but his adrenaline has so far pushed the pain into the very back of his mind. "H-he's trying to eat me," he whispers. Nodding quickly, he prepares himself to run again. -- The rat grins as he seems to pick up the scent, not wasting time as he aims for the patch of grass that Tim ran into, licking his chops.

Zen blinks. It wasn't unusual for him to hear a creature running from another that wanted to eat him, but a rat? That was unheard of, especially with the other rat's living in the colony! Before he could say anything though, his ears perk up as he picks up on the large rat's charge towards them. Cursing, Zen places a paw on the other mouse. "Wait for me to lead him away, -THEN- go. If you go now, he'll chase you.." With that, Zen darted out from the grass like a bolt of lightening, almost running into the large rat!!! Maybe he did so intentionally, or maybe it was an accident, either way, he at least hoped he was able to grab the monster's attention!! If that didn't do it, his next actions surely did... The mouse started yelling as he darted off, "NOT GOOD, NOT GOOD, NOT GOOD! OH SH*T! NOT GOOD!!!" Although Zen was a bit small and skinny, if there was one thing he truly was, it was fast!

Timothy nods to Zen and watches him carefully... -- The rat blinks as the other mouse darts out from hiding, a grin forming on his muzzle as he gallops towards the mouse. Two meals instead of one. He licks his chops, preparing to pounce as he gets into range. -- Timothy's ears fold back as he sees what Zen's doing, but he's not about to let the other mouse die in vain (which was what it looked like was going to happen to him). He dashes out from the cover, slightly slower, but still no slouch as he runs towards the tree...

Zen didn't quite realize just how big the rat was until he was right next to him... and he started to realize a problem. If he didn't high-tail it out of there, he -WOULD- end up a rat's dinner! Slowly, the fun of messing with a large, ignorant creature disappeared as a sense of death started to appear. Pulling all the strength he head into a sprint, he darted into the thick grass as he tried to use it to hide himself... Although it was good to hide himself in, he could not see where he was going! Although he heard the small trickle of water, he didn't see that he was quickly going to run right into a small stream of water!

Timothy finally reaches the tree, diving into the hole he finds and tumbling into the burrow, head over tail. He reaches the bottom dazed, and slips into semi-consciousness... -- The rat pounces... and just misses the mouse. Cursing under his breath, he gallops after the small mouse, following him into the grass. He slows, trying to scent out the mouse who'd cheated him out of dinner, determined to find the little bugger...

Zen couldn't hide the growing fear inside him, a squeak slipping out once he was nearly pounced! This only encouraged him to run faster than he was before! It wasn't too long before the thick grasses started to thin out and... splash! Tumbling head first into the small stream, Zen coughed and struggled a bit as he poked his head above water! Once he realized he was in water though, he quickly grew smart and dove back under, swimming down stream! When he went to push off against the ground, a sharp pain went through him... Something sharp had stuck in his foot paw! Either way, he pushed through and continued to swim to safety, hoping to round out and meet up with the other mouse, should he be alive..

The rat's ears perk when he hears the splash, dashing downhill towards where he knew the stream must be. He skids to a halt at the water's edge, looking about for a mouse that he knew couldn't be too far away. Not hearing any other splashing, he assumes that the mouse must've crossed the stream and swims across himself, moving downstream as he tries to pick up the mouse's scent once more.

Zen pants and coughs once out of the water, sluggishly making his way back to the tree he told the other mouse to go to. His hind leg though was dragging, a small shard of glass poking out of one of his paw pads. Once at the tree, he quickly scampered into the whole and down the burrow as he looked around for the mouse. "Hey... hey, you in here? Don't tell me he ran off! Oooh... dar... uh... OOOH!" Finding the mouse not too far away, he went over to him and shook his shoulder a bit. "Hey... wake up you... This is no time to sleep... We gotta move and get you patched up... Uh... w... wait... You're... I know you.... You're Tim, from the colony, right?"

The rat grows frustrated as he continues to not find the mouse, and finally gives up, slipping back into the undergrowth. -- Timothy moans as he feels the shake to his shoulder, a very slow trickle of blood running down his side. His eyes open a little and he blinks as he sees the mouse hovering over him. "Uhh... yeah... I'm--" He winces, the pain finally seeming to reach his brain as he clutches his side, inhaling a breath through his teeth. "...Tim."

Zen blinks, "Oh no... The colony should be alerted then... My mate always told me to help colony rodents... Uh... here...." Looking around, Zen picked up a blue, ragged shirt. It was obviously the one he would wear in the colony, but it appears he hasn't been wearing it for a while. Setting the cloth down over the wound, he proceeded to try and tie the sleeves around Tim, though he found remembering how to tie a knot a bit difficult. "Darn it... stupid... knot... Uh.. anyways Tim... Wh... what are you doing out this far? Er, never mind... I'm going to help you get back to the colony as soon as I can get this tied, ok?" Finally, Zen managed to get the knot. "And... er... get this... thing out of my foot... Something stuck me in the stream and.. OUCH!" He falls back on his rump, holding his foot out as he winced. A nice shard of glass was poking out of his foot, but... something was odd with it. It appeared to have come from some sort of glass container...

Timothy winces a little but relaxes as Zen binds up his wound, feeling a little better for it, at least. He's lucky it wasn't larger than it was; if he'd been a second slower... "Was... trying to... lose it..." His ears fold back as he hears Zen fall back, but when he tries to crane his neck, his body cries out in protest and he feels rather dizzy from the loss of blood. He lays back down with a moan. "Think... need rest..."

Zen slowly manages to tug the shard of glass out of his foot, tossing it aside as he turns back to Timothy and blinks. "Man, he... he got you good, didn't he?" A bit of guilt struck through him as he picture the young mouse passing on in his own care... Oooh, how terrible that would be! Getting on all fours and slowly moving over to the injured mouse yet again, he whispers softly. "Ok... you... you get some rest... When you wake, I'll help get you to the colony... but... you make sure to wake up now..." With that, Zen looked around as a thought occurred to him. "Or... maybe I could get the colony nurses to come here! Yes, that... that would be great!"

Timothy nods tiredly. "I... I think... just tired," he replies... It's obviously a bit more than that, but he doesn't want to worry the mouse... He nods again. "Isa... Isabella..." he murmurs, clinging to consciousness as best he can.

Zen nods his head a bit. "Isabella... Yes, she's a nurse.. I.. I know her... I'll get here as fast as I can... as for you, you just sleep now... Ok?" He rests a paw on Tim's shoulder and gives a gentle squeeze. "After you're all better, you'll have to tell me what happened, crazy mouse you! That thing was huge!" Giggling softly, he looked around and made towards the burrow's exit, stopping to glance back at Timothy..

Timothy nods softly, eyes closing as he feels the squeeze to his shoulder. "K..." he says quietly, drifting off slowly. He is already sound asleep by the time Zen makes it to the door.