The arrow remained stressed against the string of the bow, leaving the time it would be fired anyone's guess.
Except for the Archerat, of course.
The two humans it was pointed at were losing time. Any second could be their last. So the taller one stepped up.
"Listen," the human spoke. "Something tells me you're not here to simply kill us. Are you maybe...looking for food? Supplies?"
The rat's ears perked up and the bow was drawn even further. It looked as if it was ready to snap under the stress.
"You're going to give me everything." the Archerat demanded. His eyes were darting erratically from left to right, seemingly afraid there was someone waiting in the shadows ready to jump him while he conversed.
The katana-wielding human sighed and lowered his head. Looking up, he spoke words that teetered dangerously on the edge of death.
"I'm sorry pal, but we can't do tha-"
*Clunk*
The withheld arrow was let go to whiz past the human's cheek and into the tree just barely behind him. He instinctively placed a hand on the side of his face and felt the minor sting of a small cut. By the time the human looked back up, the mute already possessed another arrow at the ready.
"I'm not going to ask you again. Put your bags down and leave." the bow-wielding rat warned them in a low hissing order, bringing back the second arrow against the bowstring.
The human gritted his teeth, grinding them in desperate thought. With a play that he wasn't sure would work, he took a step forward.
"Back. Up." the rat mute demanded once again. His eyes glinted lethal intentions as the human took yet another step towards him.
"I'm well aware that you're more than willing to kill me. But I also know you don't want to do this. And you don't have to." the human said, raising his hands up and away from the katana strapped on his back. He got even closer.
The instrument-equipped human spoke up behind them, his nervous smile ever-present.
"Y-yeah! We can help you, even! Don't you think you're being a bit....e-rat-tic?"
Even though his partner wouldn't dare take his eyes off of the mute, he couldn't help but cringe at the ill attempt to make wisecracking apart of the situation.
"He's right. We can help you. My name's Knox, and that's Lute." the human greeted. "We have much more supplies back at our hideout. We can give you more than enough to keep you alive and well. But if you kill or steal from us now, what you take will only last you a few days-"
"I don't care! Give me your stuff and go or you're both dead!" the Archerat screeched, stepping up in haste and resting the arrow's sharp tip millimetres from Knox's forehead.
The human and mute both store each other down for what seemed to be in competition to who would blink first. The tension was real and Lute could only watch on in dread of what might happen next as Knox's eyes began to dry and strain, threatening to shut close. But Knox had caught something in the rat's eyes. Something that made him refuse to blink. It wasn't clear at first, but now that he was uncomfortably close, what was held in the rat's magenta-hued peepers became so much more translucent. What he saw wasn't malice. It wasn't even agitation.
It was fear.
If Knox hadn't been working on instinct, he might have been a dead man. Because just as he reflexively moved his hands to restrain the rat mute's wrists, the arrow slipped past and went soaring behind the two human's heads into the tree branches just above them.
Lute flinched in response to the arrow as the Archerat and Knox wrestled to the ground. The bow was now unusable; too close to be shot. So the Archerat opted for a more hands on approach. Literally.
The rat mute landed a solid punch to the side of Knox's face, leaving him briefly stunned.
"Ow! What the heck, dude?" Knox angrily responded as he grabbed one of the mute's wrists. But before he could restrain the other, a flash of silver was caught in the human's peripheral vision as he struggled with the Archerat.
"He's going for his knife!"
Lute's words were appreciated but not needed as the rat mute slipped the knife out of it's pouch and was easily stopped by Knox's free hand.
"Dude, just relax! We're not gonna hurt you! Just calm down!" Knox replayed to the restless mute as it continued to hiss and attempt to throw the human off of him. The knife waved dangerously gripped in the paw of the rat's restrained arm.
"Everything I ever had or ever was is GONE! How can I just relax!? Better you put this knife through my skull right now! Because if you don't, I'll do the same gesture to you!" The rat mute seethed the words through his teeth, his eyes giving the opposite emotion. Inside of his eyes relayed the sight of hopelessness. A hopelessness that the mute was trying to hide from him, but was failing miserably.
"Please...listen." Knox asked as calmly as he could. "Was...were those explosions from a couple days back...was that you? Did they bomb your-"
The rat seemed to conjure a massive amount of strength and nearly got the upper hand on the human's control.
"Please, answer me!" Knox demanded, his own patience running thin.
"YES!" the rat mute replied, baring his teeth.
A silence overcame them all.
"It was the Humming Bombers." answered Knox. "They attacked us, too. They're the reason why we're looking for our friend. We got separated in the explosion. Listen..." Knox leaned in closer, careful to keep his grip on the mute's hands tight. "We've all been wronged by the same people. I'm sure you know who Scarlemange is, right?"
The Archerat's eyes widened in a form of surprise before narrowing into slits once more. Through angry, gritted teeth, he replied in a lower tone than before.
"Yesss."
"Well, those people who attacked you? The Humming Bombers? They work for Scarlemange."
The words slipped through the Archerat's ears and everything clicked. He knew that Scarlemange was behind the attack on his tribe, but never in his life had he ever heard of these Humming Bombers. One of the negatives of being in a solitary group is the lack of knowledge of places and things from further out of your territory. The Archerat clan had scarcely ever had to leave far enough to run into any Mega Bunnies or terrorizing groups, although they had the task of killing a couple Death Scorpions before.
The Archerat's unfocused gaze drew attention back to the human above him as he spoke once more.
"If you come with us, we can not only help you with supplies, but we can help you get that much closer to avenging your clan...just under one condition."
"And what condition would that be?" the rat asked, his gripped knife tightening.
Knox looked down at the mute with an unfaltering gaze before answering. "You help us steal one of the Umlaut Snäkes' guitars. We're on our way to their territory right now. It's the only bargaining chip I have to get my friend back from some rival snakes of theirs."
Knox watched as the mute seemed to ponder the conditions.
"Deal."
Knox was honestly surprised. His brows arched upwards to solidify this.
"Seriously? Deal? Just like that? No tricks?" Knox eyed the dagger still held in the rat's gloved hand.
And the mute took notice. He flicked the knife away with his wrist, leaving himself completely unarmed.
"I solemnly swear."
It took a moment for Knox to decide, but he released the mute's wrist and went for his knife and bow. The rat slowly followed the human back on two feet of his own, swiping the excess dust from his cape and fur. He shot his eyes up at the two humans as the sixteen words left Knox's mouth and crossed his ears.
"How do I know I can really trust you enough to give you back your weapons?"
Easy answer.
"You don't." the rat mute said simply, as if replying to an effortless math equation. "Besides, when I swear on something, best believe I'll die by it."
Knox wasn't sure if he should've been flattered by his proclamation or unnerved. Still, he walked up to the rat and handed his weaponry out for him to grab, which he unquestionably did.
"But know this..."
Knox felt a sudden need to reach for his katana, but he resisted the urge, choosing to take his chances with the now-armed rat.
"I also solemnly swear that if you attempt in any form to stab me in the back, I'll kill you. I'll end you both. You won't even see it coming." the rat relayed this as he slid the dagger back in it's sheath. His pupils fixated straight into Knox's, but seemed to stare into Lute's at the same time.
Knox stood his ground, relaying a concentrated glare of his own, but he found it hard to match him while his mind separated his attention onto something else. The fact that he may have unknowingly sealed their own fate. That maybe he made a deal with a devil. Nonetheless, the human stepped forward and held out a hand for the mute to shake.
"Deal."
The only thread strong enough to give Knox the assurance of trust was their shared pain. They'd both lost something for the same reasons. Regardless of how small it maybe have been in comparison to his newly bought companion.
And it was a part of the reason why it was just a bit easier having the rat archer cover them both from behind.
"Hey..."
The rat glanced sideways at the human he knew as Knox and returned his sight back ahead towards the sun.
"What?"
"I never asked for your name?" Knox replied, a grin worked up to portray greater trust.
The rat continued to look forward as if hypnotized by the slowly falling sun.
Finally, he answered.
"Piercer."
The trek went on for awhile before they reached the end of the trail and found that it, to the chagrin of the two humans (and seemingly Piercer, as the rat mute's expression failed to be anything but neutral), was cut off by a very long and steep drop into the rivers. The familiar and aged figure-eight highway was in full display from below.
Cactus Town was not far off and they were all on land elevated up enough to make spotting it a breeze.
"Have you ever been around Cactus Town before?" Lute asked Piercer as he shied away from the edge.
Piercer lowered the water container he greedily drunk from. He seemed distant to answer, but eventually did.
"Me and my tribe aren't...we weren't nomadic. We usually kept to a certain area and we learn to thrive there. Rarely ever had to traverse outside of it's radius...so no, I've never been around this...Cactus Town."
Knox overheard from behind as he pondered another way around. He was actually hoping that knowledge of the unknown paths they were bound to follow would be one of the pluses of bringing the rat archer along, but...
'Beggars can't be choose I guess...' Knox reminded himself, turning to his partners. "Well...no choice but to cut through the forest again. We have to find another way down there."
The plant life through the section of the forest they traversed through was much more robust and vibrant. Multicolored and energetic flowers towered themselves through the trees and hovered over their leafy tops.
The grass had become much more taller as well. The overgrown greenery shrouded any visual of what lay underneath their feet. This seemed to only bring worry to Piercer.
"On guard, humans."
Lute turned around with stumped expression. "For what? I mean, yeah, we gotta watch out for any crazies, but there's no one else out there right now."
Piercer's narrowed eyes failed to change.
"The plants. Tread carefully." the rat responded. His bow was aimed low and at the ready.
"The plants?" Lute let out a small laugh, face taken over by assurance. "In all our time out here we've ne-"
It only took two seconds.
Lute felt something ensnare itself around his ankle. Instinctively, he jerked his leg back but the action was met with an even mightier pull. With a quick yelp, he was pulled off of his feet and disappeared in the sea of grass below them, his shouting rapidly growing further.
"Lute!?" Knox withdrew his katana and frantically darted his eyes around in front of him, trying to search through the sea of green. He charged forward, slicing as much grass as he could in a desperate bid to find his missing friend before Piercer hissed at him.
"Don't move!"
"But-"
"I said stay still."
It wasn't long before Piercer felt the same sensation. Something passed by his foot. He eyed the tree beside him and didn't hesitate to jump towards it. His feet were against the trunk and using the strength of his momentum, pushed himself off, giving him air time.
It all happened so fast to Knox. A purple and green head with dangerously sharp teeth sprung out of it's hiding dangerously close to Knox and zipped towards the rat. Piercer's bow was already steady and with a twitch of his eye, he let the arrow fly.
A chilling shriek made waves through the forest.
The offending plant was left writhing and thrashing unseen in the grass below them. Then all grew still.
"Knox. Go. I'll cover you. If you feel anything brush past you, just leap up as high as you can. Trust me." Piercer claimed to the human.
Unsure if his aid would promise him full safety, he nodded regardless and pushed through the tall sea of grass after the shouts of his friend. Knox tried to rush his way through but his mind kept rolling over the thought that it would get him killed faster. Still, he kept Piercer's aid in mind and pressed forward.
"Somebody please get this thing off me!"
The cry from his friend nearly caused Knox to forget the dire advice the rat gave him.
He had eyed something snake past him, moving the grass around him.
"Only when it touches you!" Piercer reminded him from far behind.
Knox was hard-pressed to wait for it to happen. His friend's shouts for assistance were only steps away and they had turned into chokes and gasps for air. And he had to be patient?
"Wait for it, Knox. If you're dead, your friend is dead too." Piercer called out in a unusually calm voice.
'Has he done this before?' Knox couldn't help but think.
Knox blinked as he caught the sensation of something snaking itself across his shoe. Without another moment's notice, he bent his knees and sprung himself up as far as he could off the ground. He didn't get anywhere close to being out of the tall grass itself, but it mattered not.
The second monstrous plant followed suit, shooting itself out of the grass and high above Knox's body. It's jaw shot open and came down with teeth full-center and ready for a quick meal.
Not on Piercer's account, unfortunately for it.
One arrow slid through it's mouth and a second arrow pierced through the snaky, green vines connected to it's head, cutting into the appendage and leaving it screaming in pain and agitation. The final strike came in the form of a precisely-placed third arrow, which complimented the last and shot through the already-struck appendage, effectively severing the head from the body.
The grisly plant creature's head fell and shuffled in the tall grass before everything went still again. Knox wasted no time. He dashed towards Lute and found him weakly struggling with the other plant. It's vines were slowly wrapping around his neck, trying to take his breath away. The human gritted his teeth and brung his katana towards the sky, slashing it down at the head that was ready to chomp down on Lute.
The vines immediately released and Lute coughed as the air rushed back freely through his lungs. Grunting angrily, Knox continued to bring down the sharp blade again and again and again until the plant's cranium was nothing but unrecognizable mush.
Breathing heavy, Knox looked back and realized he was finally out of the treacherous tall grass that had plagued them for the past few minutes. Finally.
He felt a pang of alarm as he checked on Lute when he didn't find Piercer anywhere to be seen, but his worries were quelled when a familiar form lowered itself from a tree beside them.
Piercer approached and store at Lute almost as if he was hesitating to ask the question. "He alright?"
"Yeah, I'm-I'm fine. Let's just get out of this stupid, crazy jungle." Lute replied, pushing himself up. He checked and found that his lute instrument was unharmed in the debacle. Another victory for Lute. In his mind at least. And it showed in his quickly-changed attitude, no longer shaken and panicked.
"Let's see how far we can get before sundown." Lute told them. "That jerkweed Nevarr said we only had two weeks. It's been five days since we left. We need to make some haste."
Piercer kept behind the two humans as they continued forward, staring cautiously into the deadly grass they were getting further and further away from. No chances with Piercer. He failed to catch Knox falling back to walk beside him, though.
"Thanks for the assist back there, Piercer. Don't think we would've made it through here if you hadn't tagged along." Knox admitted gratefully.
Piercer scoffed the words off with a head tilted away. "Just doing what I said I would. Hopefully you will too."
With that, Piercer fell back further, leaving himself to continue exaggerating his position in watching the rear.
"Yeah. I will." Knox said back lowly.
Knox wasn't sure if Piercer heard him right, but the rat's slight ear twitch didn't go unnoticed. With a knowing smile, Knox looked forward and hoped that everything would continue on a calmer path.
At least for today.