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>>151575Iron's ear flickers at the sounds of the presumed small creature, causing him to look over there in awe while continuing to walk to their destination. "I wonder what sort of animals are in here," he soon utters with great intrigue while he now ensures to be right next to Cauldron rather than the back of the line. "Do you know, Black?"
>>152563"It's a uh..." She looks away "I'm more familiar with the plants... and this isn't exactly the jungle. But uh.." She stops to look over at the bush, and moves multiple steps closer. White Sands, almost uneasy, keeps her distance from the bush, and focuses her eyes forward, and then up at the sky, onto the mountainside, and behind them as she steps ahead of the two.
The bush shakes, once, and then suddenly in a big movement. Then slowly, a very large and fat looking rodent with black fur. Black Cauldron smiles. "That's a guinea pig." She says
>>152564Iron's eyes sparkle in amazement, having never seen one of those creatures before before gently leaning down her neck to meet the guinea pig at eye level. "Hello, little guinea pig," he enthusiastically yet calmly greeted the robust newcomer.
>>152565The creature is fearless, not running away at the encroaching ponies, though it does seem to change course somewhat from its previous path as it waddles through an open section of dirt and mud, and moves to a fern plant.
>>152566Iron nods in approval, quite proud of the rodent's bravery at essentially ignoring the big hooved quadrupeds near him. "Quite the inspiring animal," he mused with an appreciative smile before looking at Cauldron with a small degree of playfulness. "Reminds me of myself."
>>152567Black Cauldron turns her head up, smiling with pressed down lips. She lets out something like a suppressed laugh.
“How does he remind you of you, exactly?”
The rodent begins to chew on the fern.
>>152568At Cauldron's inquiry, Iron simply puffs up his cheeks with as much air as possible to resemble the rodent with a more defined playful smile.
>>152569This catches her off guard, and she laughs aloud, turning her head away
“Oh, Iron!”
>>152570Seeing Cauldron laugh makes him drop the rodent act to laugh along with her before looking towards the guinea pig eating the fern a little fondly. "Seriously, though," he soon added with a hint of sincerity. "His confidence is certainly admirable."
>>152571The guinea pig Has by now half of a larger leaf in its mouth.
“Confidence?” She asks, raising an eye brow. “Looks a bit more like ‘lazy’ and care free.”
>>152572"Confident folk usually know how to adapt to what life throws at them," Iron mused philosophically, approaching the rodent once again to perplexingly try to give it a little nuzzle. "This little rodent definitely knows how to do that. Otherwise, it would have been dead a while ago."
>>152573For the first time, the creature turns around far enough to look at the pony and zebra. It’s cheeks are as puffed up as Iron’s
“Well, I can
sort of see it.” She says, restraining a smile. “But it’s yet to come into my apartment mauled by a tiger.”
>>152574Iron couldn't help but chuckle a little from Cauldron's retort, glad to see she somewhat understood where he was coming from. "You never know," he playfully suggested instead, thoroughly amused. "You might just find it scratching at the door for your loving help." With that final retort, he finally committed the nuzzling act against the guinea pig in an overly gentle fashion and making sure not to scare it.
>>152575The creature, still chewing on the fern, is nuzzled. It doesn’t smell great, but at least the black fur is relatively soft. The creature does not run away, but it does flinch and moves a little to the side, further away.
>>152576Having accomplished his
incredibly important mission, Iron gladly leaves the guinea pig alone to come back to Cauldron with a satisfied look. "Me and the rodent are now bonded," he dramatically declared, humorously playing up his rather simple act that probably won't lead to anything. "I gracefully told it to go to your humble apartment if it ever needs the help of the great and powerful potion master named Black Cauldron."
>>152577“Oh Iron.” She shakes her head
>>152578Iron giggles a little more before giving the zebra mare a small, gentle nuzzle for her as well before slowly continuing to walk to their actual objective and waiting for her to catch up. "Alright, alright," he reassured Cauldron "that is enough tomfoolery out of me."
>>152579White Sands is ahead of them on the shoreline. With an anxious look, she stares back at them. Black Cauldron walks forward with Iron
With the sound of disturbed bushes, the Guinea pig runs away from the fern, and into a large bush nearby.
>>152580Iron's ears flicker a bit, starting to grow a little wary at the little rodent having been disturbed enough to go into hiding. "We should pick up the pace a little," he somewhat whispered to the zebra mare, going from a slow walk to a brisk trot towards Sands, hoping it wasn't serious enough to warrant a fight or flight response.
>>152581Sands stands in an angle diagonal between the direction facing Iron and Cauldron, and the mountainside. She looks at the mountain, and starts undoing and throwing off a wrapped blanket with the remainder of her attention. Black Cauldron, by this point, is concerned, and she looks to Iron.
>>152582Iron simply gave Cauldron a small smile before actively scanning his surroundings with his senses of sight as he eagerly approached Sands' position in order to be at the ready if something were to come out of hiding.
>>152583Roll spot (wisdom modifier)
>>152584Let's see if I recall correctly how to dice
[1d20+2 = (7+2) = 9]<Spot
>>152585Iron doesn’t see anypony there, or anything flying in the sky. By this point, White Sands has pulled out the lever-action rifle, and is attempting to level it with her green magical aura.
>>152586In the face of uncertainty, Iron decides that regrouping is the best move they can make, so with a small exhale, he soon went from a brisk trot to a gallop just in case he needed to charge at something.
>>152588Towards Sands, of course. Regrouping is his main priority rn
>>152589Sands has the rifle out, and tries to aim down its sights at some unseen target behind Iron and to his right, in the direction of the brush and the mountainside. Black Cauldron is spooked, and she gallops ahead a moment, looks around, gasps, and starts forward. There is the definite sound of disturbed brush behind them. White Sands does something with the rifle that makes it flinch, and then she frantically lowers the rifle to inspect it.
>>152590Ensuring Cauldron gets to Sands first, Iron slows down just a bit in the offchance the two were going to be pounced on so that he would be the target rather than the zebra mare.
>>152593>>152592>>152594Iron hears the beat of claws against the sand, and a sees the shape of a large, tan coated big cat, close enough to see the golden eyes, yellowed-white teeth, white muzzle, pink nose, pointy ears and showing ribs in that moment as it jumps to attack Iron, before coming invisible in a flash, disappearing into a blind spot behind him. He feels the creature come down on his rear, hit him with the side of its mouth, and make a side swipe at his hindlegs, hitting the left leg.
[1d6+1 = (6+1) = 7] Roll strength.He hears a click
>>152596The claw slashes into his hind leg and his flank, causing serious pain, and drawing significant blood. Though Iron is injured and rocked to the side, he is not knocked to the ground, and he stands up on the strength of his other three legs.
Iron's turn >>152597Inhaling sharply at the pain for a second, Iron soon turns towards the attacker with great anger, opting to non-lethally strike the attacking feline with everything he's got through his two hind legs, despite his recently acquired injury.
[1d20+5 = (18+5) = 23]< Fully Powered, non-lethal Unarmed Attack
>>152600The creature is hit firmly, and knocked back with a "mrow!" sound
And then there is a sound of thunder
[1d20+1 = (10+1) = 11] >>152601>>152602>>152600A large red hole appears along the creature's back. The creature makes a quick turn, and prepares to run. But its leg goes limp, and the creature falls to the ground, unable to get up.
>>152603Iron breathed out a small sigh of relief at the sight, somewhat grateful it didn't get any worse, but part of him wanted to see if he could plausibly heal the feline and leave him, so he intentionally went closer to it to see if there was a chance for that to happen.
>>152604The bullet appears to have gone through the top of the creature's back just above the lower part of its rib cage. Whether the the bullet broke any bones can't be determined, though the presence of an exit wound implies the bullet went through flesh, perhaps barely ricocheting against a rib or the spine. Whether it hit a major artery, a nerve, or part of the lungs is hard to say.
The creature is still alive, bleeding, still breathing, and unable to move.
click-clack >>152605Feeling a shred of empathy at the feline's struggles, he soon turned towards either of the two mares with a somewhat concerned look. "Do we have anything for it to eat?" he inquired, showing his eagerness to rescue the cat from the jaws of death. "Maybe it can help us later."
>>152606The cat lies on its side, breathing heavily. Iron can see that it has more problems than just being shot in the back and kicked in the chest and neck. It has thin fur in many areas, naked splotches, and overly red and irritated skin in the areas that are hairless. Some of the redness appears to be the result of the creat biting or stratching itself. But some of it appears completely unrelated. The skin in areas is about to fall off.
White Sands, who only just finally starts to lower the rifle
"It's a big cat. It would rather eat
us"
Black Cauldron
"Uh.. I suppose we have some food. I... don't know if we have anything one of...
those would want."
>>152607"...seems this feline has been having some health problems," Iron mused with a small degree of disgust, feeling rather sorry for the potentially flea-riddled creature.
Just to make sure, he'd inspect the hairless areas to ensure there were no signs of the little insects that like to hide underneath the fur.
>>152608Looking under the hair, Iron can see that much of the skin is overly red, or starting to peel, and hairs come out even as Iron moves them. Iron finds one tick along its back, but there are no signs of mites or of flea infestation.
More seriously, the creature is still bleeding from a major gunshot. If the bullet nipped its postcava artery, it is all over already, and as it is, it is bleeding heavily.
The creature is also emaciated with its ribs showing. It was definitely not eating well.
>>152610Thus, with an understanding yet solemn nod, Iron steps away from the feline in question, knowing that their death would most likely end its suffering from whatever caused such malnourishment and disease to overtake it. "Poor thing was borderline dead before it attacked us," he muttered, quite saddened at the revelation.
He sniffled softly before reluctantly readying himself to stomp it on the head to end it quickly but waiting to see if the mares had any objections or ways to help it pull through before doing the heartbreaking feat.
>>152611The two mares are simply silent. White Sands blinks, and her mouth opens slightly, while Cauldron's simple staring is a bit harder to gauge.