<div class="floatright">(https://mfiles.alphacoders.com/402/402340.jpg)</div>It was the bellow that Cerias gave that got Lesniya to finally shut up, stop moving and listen. His half-crazed war cry had her so surprised, picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder was no feat at all. She was as limp as a wet noodle for all of about two seconds before she joined her companion in beating on the man’s back, kicking her legs, determined to be freed of his grip on her thick thighs.<br/><br/>The red-haired Evenember had managed to crawl practically up the warrior’s body and even sling one leg over his shoulder, practically straddling it riding like he was some sort of pack animal, when what the Queen Rat of All that is Unholy moved into position.<br/><br/>With one hand hooked around the bottom of Cerias’ chin, gripping, and the other on Soph’s back, Les watched in utter surprise and disgust as a fog of green emerged from Queenie’s mouth and<em>melted</em>the dead rats…<br/><br/>Shivers immediately started on her body. She had to fight not to lose what was left in her stomach. Her jaw dropped far enough to almost unhinge as Cerias continued to carry them up the hill, out of the mire and muck and then very unceremoniously dumped them onto the relative safety of the tall dry, yellowed grass there. It was behind hurled down to the ground that finally got her attention on their movements and not the circle of stinky rats down below. She screeched softly, tumbled to the ground and then rolled to her back to look up at the blue-tinged sky.<br/><br/>For a moment, the red-haired mage simply stared. Blinking, unable to move the rest of her body as the possible consequences of what they’d just seen – along with the smell that was still stuck to her – permeated her brain.<br/><br/>Then, for a split second, as the raven-haired one was complaining about getting roughed up, a brilliant yellow glow spread through all of them. It burned off the filth and grim, polished their weapons, improved them, and finished the healing Sophie had started on her ankle. A moment later, it was gone and with a wide grin, Les rolled to her knees, eyes finding her friend’s and hands digging into her pouch for the rat tails she had stored there. “Soph!!! Did you see what we did?!?”<br/><br/>“I can’t believe it. It actually worked. It worked well, too!!”<br/><br/>She crawled over towards the other girl quickly before sitting back on her knees next to her. Her smile was then turned to Cerias. “And we<em>SURVIVED</em>!”<br/>