Out of the fire, into the frying pan

After resigning his duties to Kanezzers horde, by trying to back stab his superior officer. Leroy the rat drifts through the woods looking to find his place in the world. Will he become a thief, or find himself in the stew pot of a lizard...

The woods of Mossflower are enjoying a certain warmth today. The air is of course fridged but not quite humid enough to be called freezing. Most of the snow that has fell has melted into slush and mud through out this section of the woods filled with pine and evergreen trees. Walking along these trees is a brownish round shape. The young rat is wearing a a sleevless blue vest with dark brown trousers. His otter hide belt holds up an empty scabbard. And a knife filled bandoleer wraps around his chest. Leroy's health dips into obese territory, and his tounge hangs out the side of his mouth as he pants for breath, struggling to walk while carrying so much weight around his thickened paunch. Dispite his well fed looks the rat is terribly hungry. He hasn't eaten since yesterday after trying to backstab Drakki.

Through the seemingly empty forest is a small clearing, which can't so much be described as a clearing so much as it can be as a section that somebeast had cleared the foilge away from and set up camp. There is a small closed tent, though there is nothing stopping anybeast from opening the tent flaps and walking right in. Just outside the tent is an extinguished fire ringed by stones with a spit set up over it, looking as though it had been used recently.

Leroy's thoughts have been filled with his failed attempt to kill his leader. While this is an acceptable method of advancing in rank in the horde he can't go back there for fear the fox will kill him. He can't go to other towns and villages for help either since, well, he's a horde beast. Those thoughts drift into thoughts of food, sleep, and warmth. When his eyes lay hold of the tent he grins maddly. Tents =beasts=beasts = having food on paw. With a joyfull squeak the rat trudges forward towards the tent. Ever cautious the rat of course checks to see if the coast is clear. Satisfied that he is alone, or at least thinks so, the rat presses on and opens the tent flap.

Stepping back out of tent Leroy surpresses a terrified scream. A monitor lizard? here? out in the cold? Nervously biting at his claws the fat rat begins to slowly back away. He stops when his stomach growls. If he leaves now how long will he last out in the woods. The rat stosp and stroes his chin until he gets an idea to get at the trunk. He doesn't dare try to fight a monitor lizard but prehaps he can lure him away. With a devious grin the rat leaps behind a tree in the woods and cups his paws together, yelling, "Help help! An eagle is after me! help help!"

There is sudden rustling inside the tent, and the lizard bursts out of the tent, but instead of running away, he's...waving his sword? What an interesting lizard. Instead of being terrified, he simply looks around ferociously with his sword held tightly in his claw. "Where are you?!" He shouts back. "And what's an eagle?!" Ah, that might be a problem.

Leroy gulps at the sight. That monitor can tear the cowardly rat appart. He takes this moment to decide what exactly to do. Calling the beast out into the woods would give him time to steal all his goodies...but leading him on a merry chase would be longer. So the rat dashes out into the forrest waving his paws in the air. "Help! Help!" The rat comes to a stop at the lizard and leans over, paws on his own knees as he gasps for breath, "Oh please help! An eagle took my wife and kids!"

Xypher looks down at the rat, looking only slightly confused. For a muscular black colored monitor lizard that should frankly be taking a bit more of an advantage over the situation, he really isn't doing his best to play the part. "What in the stars is an eagle?!" He demands, his grip on his short sword tightening.

"Big dang bird!" THe rat shouts, throwing himself on the monitor lizard and trying to shake his shoulders, "Please! It took mai wife up north! It's gonna eat her we don't saver her and..." He lets the monitor go to cough violently, "We...we need to save her!" He looks pleadingly at the lizard, tears forming in his eyes.

Derean raises an eyebrow at Bandit's enthusiasm, and replies, "Well first, I need you t' help me sit up so I can eat. Secondly, do you have a blade that you could sneak up here, or somethin' of the like?"

Xypher looks quite bemused at the description of the eagle. "So you're telling me a bird took your wife up north, and you want me to help her when she's already that far away?" He scoffs, sheathing his sword. "Right, I'm definitely going to waist my time with that."

The rat shakes his head, "No you..." He pauses and tries again but with more snivling, "No! She was just taken! They were going north. I bet he has a nest not to far from here!"

Xypher chuckles quietly to himself, rubbing the bridge of his snout with a claw. "Listen, I'm going to tell you a truth about life. Sometimes beasts die, and there's nothing we can do about it. I suggest you get over your wife rather quickly. Make it easier on yourself."

The rat falls to his knees crying loudly and pleading. "Please! She is all I have. All my dibbun were killed by bandits, we were on our way to start anew in ferreval when the bird swooped down and took her away. I...I can't bare the thought of seeing her torn limb from limb and devoured by some ghastly bird!" The rat begins to sob uncontrollably. And his parrents thought nothing good would come of joining that theature troupe...

Xypher raises an eyebrow...well, if he could raise an eyebrow, he would. Instead it looks like his right eye widens just a little bit. "Well if you forget about it now, you wont see her die, so that's a plus."

The rat rolls his eyes, "I"ll pay you twenty gold to save her."

Xypher smirks at the rat. "You really think I can be bribed? I'm not stupid, rat, and in fact, I'm actually quite hungry at the moment, and I don't quite feel like using my own food." As he says this, he grins quite devilishly, his sharp teeth making for a rather ghastly smile.

The rat leans back and gulps, this plan has so backfired, "W-wha? N-now wait a moment..." he holds up his paws defensively his fake wife completly forgoten about, "You...you wouldn't!"

Xypher chuckles, pulling a throwing knife from his belt and twirling it in his claw as he slowly moves towards the rat, who really isn't that far away. "Do you really want to bet me on that?" He asks with a rather dark smile.

The rat begins to sweat. He believes him. "N-no! Please! Not that!" Leroy begins to whine, his tears are real this time, "Look! I'm just tired and hungry and I was looking for some food! Please, I don't want any trouble..."

Xypher's long tongue flicks over his scaly lips as he stares down at the rat hungrily, as a hunter would his prey. "I'm giving you three seconds to run before I come after you, rat. I expect you to give me a good hunt, otherwise I will make your death slow."

The rat makes a panicked squeak. He saves his breath by forgoing more pleading and dashes off into the woods, a truly terrified glance on his snout

Xypher slowly counts to three under his breath before dashing off after the rat at a rate that bellies his size, his throwing knife held tightly in his claw and an excited smile on his face.

Leroy may be a fat, cowardly, and greedy little rat but is also a fat cowardly and deviously greedy rat. He criss crosses the forest and begins to double back towards the camp. At the very least it is something he himself wouldn't expect. The thought of being devoured by a crazed lizard keeps him moving at a steady fearful pace...at least for the moment.

For the moment, the rat seems to have lost the lizard as the pawsteps seem to have stopped. Every now and then, there is the sound of a twig snapping, but the forest is otherwise silent.

The rat pauses for a moment to catch his breath. He smirks. What a fool lizard so easy to...gah! twig snap! The rat comes into the camp looking for a place to hide. THe tent! It's brilliant! Not to mention he plans to rob the lizard blind while he has a moment too. Deviously Greedy remember. He comes to the trunk in the tent and tries to open it, hoping to grab some food before dashing off again.

Inside the trunk is literally an entire store of food, neatly packed away inside the trunk. Most of it is meat, and only a little bit of the contents are herbs. Outside the tent, there is complete silence, signaling the lizard must have lost Leroy.

Leroy clutches at his hungry belly and his mouth drools. Just a quick snack, just a quick snack. He says as his paws dart out to eat from the trunk. The food even uncooked is tasty to the horde beast. Prehaps just a quick meal instead? Leroy eats and eats and eats stuffing his greedy gullet with food until his paws come up empty. He gives a slight hiccup and giggles. The lizard wished to make himinto a meal and instead he made a meal of the lizards supplies. He leans back on his haunches and rubs his swollen gut. Remembering the situation he is in Leroy decides its time to leave.

The silence of the outside world seems to be almost beckoning the rat to come out into its still safe haven with its soft wind rustling through the tree branches and making a rather peaceful sounding day.

The rat leans back too far and spreads out across the ground. For a long moment he can't quite seem to get up. Finely Leroy manages to roll onto his feet and starts to slowly make his way out of the tent. "Fool lizard deserves what he gets..." he says with a smile.

Suddenly, there is a rustling of leaves to the rat's left, and a knife makes a wet sound as it is thrusted straight into Leroy's side quite forcefully, followed by Xypher stepping into the rat's field of vision, grinning maliciously. "You thought you could get rid of me that quickly?"

The rat makes a terrified squeak and falls clutching his side. For once his unhealthy bulge saved his life and prevented the knife from striking too deeply. Still, it isn't pleasent to have a knife appear in ones self. Leroy falls onto his back and begins to crawl away from the lizard. "N-no! Get away from me!"

Xypher slowly walks along with Leroy, pulling another knife from his belt. "I was going to make your death rather quick, but then you went and ate my food, so now I'm going to have to make it a bit more fun for me." With a chuckle, he launches his knife straight down at the rat's bulging stomach, aiming to cause as much pain as possible before killing Leroy.

The rat gasps again as the knife appears in his belly. Grasping at the wound to his tummy he looks up at the lizard, wide eyed with terror, words this time seem to fail him.

The lizard slowly kneels next to the rat, smiling with his sharp teeth looking all too apparent. A hard CHOMP ends the rat's life, and the lizard's face is the last thing he ever sees. An hour later sees Xypher sitting in his tent, patting his stomach and licking his scaly lips. "Ah...I really must do this more often.." He says to himself

_____________

Xypher

Xypher is an average sized monitor lizard, and his scales are a jet black, with a light grey color painting his front. His eyes are an unusual bright pink, which is highly rare for one of his species. He wears a brown long sleved shirt, but the sleeves have been rolled back up to the lizard's elbows. His pants are a black color, which practically blends in with his scales. He wears a wide strip of leather around his waist, on which is hung a short sword on one side along with a row of five throwing knives on the other side.

Leroy

Leroy is a simple rat. He is in his 11th season and covered in brown furred. He wears a knife filled bandoleer over his sleeveless blue furred vest. The buttons have long fallen off the vest leaving his chest exposed, not that he could button it anyway these days. A rich diet has made this young rat richly fat and well rounded with thick rolls of flesh. Somewhere under his large pot belly the rat wears an otter hide belt holding up his dark brown trousers and the short sword at his side.