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Patrol Mog Tsumi, Reporting for Duty! ? Tsumi Moogle '11 Characters ? Themselves. Damnit Damien. >:C

The bus-trip had been long. Though mercifully, he hadn't had to walk, much as any of his ancestors would have had to, years and years ago. Looking over the thick trees, Tsumi adjusted his backpack, turned his head to watch the bus pull away and leave him there on the bare stretch of road. Stepping into the forest hadn't been hard. It was no different to home. Though the enchantments woven through the trees were different, woven of a different sound, he could still make his way through.

He hadn't managed to get far before stopping. He could make his way through, yes.. but to where, he wasn't sure. Other villages, he knew, had different means of concealing themselves from outsiders. Even as a moogle, entry wasn't guaranteed. Not at least, until footsteps had caught his ears, and he'd turned his head to the emerging form of several unfamiliar moogles. They were rather taller than him. Older, yes, but also just bigger in general.

'An unfamiliar face around these parts.' considered one in native tongue.

'He's a young one, but he's not lost.' murmured another.

'Not entirely, at least.' Said the third, before approaching. Tsumi splayed his ears sheepishly, eying over the barely clad female. Bowing his head politely, he gulped.

'Pardon my intrusion, kupo.. I'm Tsumi from the Village Krin. Elder Raine sent word ahead of me?'

The trio shared a look amongst themselves of understanding, before one smirked.

'Ahh, yes. We've been expecting you. Well, we should show you to the village, then!' He spoke, adjusting his spear and stepping forward to guide the young mog the rest of the way to the village. In their wake, the other patrol-mogs shared another gaze.

'Didn't their elder advise him on patrol-watch?'

'I believe so. He was making an awful lot of noise.'

'Well, he is here to learn, he'll certainly learn quickly at this rate.'

~~~

Tsumi adjusted his spear faintly, looking about. He'd been introduced amidst the village, greeted their elder and weavers as was tradition before heading amongst the villagers. Ever moogles, they were fond and polite of their own kind, and had spared no expense to his comfort. The guards however..

'Keep an eye out, cousin. You are getting distracted.' said Freji, clapping his shoulder with a grin. 'Even with your sense, the creatures of the forest out here will merge in almost seamlessly.' the brown mog gently tapped the smaller mog's pom, before continuing ahead. 'Remember the path? I have to check amongst the south cliff. You head east.'

Blinking, Tsumi looked up to the older mog and nodded, despite his hesitancy. The brown moogle nodded back, shouldering his spear and smirking as he turned down the lightly walked path, tail fluttering in his wake.

Adjusting his loin-cloth of leather, Tsumi gave a soft sigh and made for his own designated look-out. The eastern path wormed it's way near the swampy wetlands, from what he recalled of the advice given to him before he had headed out.

'It's lucky you're not here in summer, cousin.' Tsumi recalled one moogle saying.

'Why?'

'We get alligators around the swamp, in those months.'

'And what should I be aware of in these months, kupo?'

'Frogs, of course!' laughed the older moogle, as though such an answer was the most obvious one out there.

Shuddering for such a mental image of taking on an alligator, the pink mog could understand why so many of the moogles in the village were larger than those back home. They were hardier, stronger.. They had many dangers, apparently, that the Krin village did not. But frogs? Were they just mocking him?

The leafy ground steadily moistened and softened the further east he walked. Wrinkling his nose for the feel of the ground squishing faintly between his padded toes, he cast his gaze about. Not for wildlife, but for pockets of water. Puddles and pools and ponds... There were very few trees out this way. The odd large, fallen and mossy stump or log, but the path wove it's way mostly amidst tall reeds.

Taking a breath, Tsumi continued along the path, gently poking the ground ahead of him with the tip of his spear, checking that it would not suddenly give-way as he crossed. His ears twitched gently, as he became vaguely aware of the stillness in the air. It was silent out among the moor. No bird calls or reassuring swish of leaves overhead. The water lay still as the air, and the unmoving reeds held rigidly, as if waiting.

Gulping, the pink mog winced, aware only of how loud it sounded in his head. His slowing footsteps each making faint squishing noises, whilst the butt of his weapon gently rustled among the long swamp-grass about him, making him on more than one occasion turn sharply, only to watch them sway back into stillness.

After the third instance of such, he held his chest, panting. Looking to his pompom, he shivered for its yellow glow. Was it because of his own nerves, or something nearby..? ~Rustle~ He turned sharply with a yelp, finding his accursed spear brushing the reeds, only to cry out as his foot slipped on the wet ground. Taking a heavy fall, the mog tumbled back, his weapon clattering atop the wet path, as he squelched among thick mud, and scrambled to get to his feet.

Shaking his arms and slopping off thick drizzles of mud, the mog spluttered and spat, before looking around, heart-pounding. Having fallen from the path, he'd found himself a sizeable pond. It's depths murky, and edges hidden by the odd lily-pad the size of trash-can lids. Silently cursing himself for his own jumpyness, Tsumi turned to crawl back up the embankment before the sound of something swishing in the water drew his attention back.

Shivering for the cool muck trailing his back, he stared over the water, finding the ripples in it and tracing them back among the lily-pads, before pausing. One of them was no lily-pad at all. The boy found himself staring at a pair of large bronze orbs perched atop a raised, lumpy pad... no, that was it's head...

'Oh kupo..!' Tsumi squeaked, scrambling back and pulling his feet free with great slucking noises, as he fell back on the embankment.

Aware that it had been spotted, the creature forwent subtlety and moved, raising it's head from the water, baring the smooth and slick vissage of a broad-mouthed frog. Bright-green as any lily-pad, with its golden eyes focused on the young mog scrambling in horror.

Tsumi turned, digging his hands into the soft earth, as he made to clamber away, into the supposed safety of the reeds, before a loud splash behind him, followed by a powerful splattering force on the midst of his back brought a shriek to his lips. It faltered, though, as with a callous yank, he was dragged from the embankment, and over the mud, against the warm and slimey form of the massive amphibian, large as a small car!

The frog's tongue stuck fast, dragging Tsumi headlong into it's greedily gaping jaws. The boy was afforded a momentary glimpse of the toothless, fleshy maw, before it squished down over his head and upper torso. Struggling in a frenzy, he found the frog's awkward front legs pushing, pressing him up into the depths of its hungry jaws, whilst the almost harmless jaws gobbled greedily over him.

His spluttering shrieks and cries were all but lost for the slick flesh squishing over him rapidly. The broad maw unfolded into a tight, but short gullet, aided wholly by the frog's eager pushes. The tongue drew away, slithering under him as his hips were packed easily into the frog's jaws. The amphibian's hands drew away as it's powerful, heavy jaws closed about his legs. It sat, basking in apparent delight in the feel of the unfinished meal struggling, thrashing.

And thrash Tsumi did, legs squirming, whilst the lukewarm walls mashed around him, trying to drag him down. His own motions, keen on getting him to safety, however, sank him only deeper, inching him further into the unrelenting embrace of the frog's gullet and gut.

Beneath the warm sun, the frog occasionally lent aid to the young mog's perilous trip; lunging its jaws forward or focusedly swallowing until the lively meal finally drew wholly off the back of its maw, and sank into the depths of its belly.

Tsumi screamed as avidly as he could manage amidst the walls churning about him. Slickly mooshing him over and about amidst an abundance of slime, it carelessly, ceaselessly jostled him over to the frog's delight as it began sinking back into the depths of the pond. It paused however, vaguely aware, whether by experience or another keen sense, that more were nearby..

Freji smirked as he looked over the fallen spear, looking back to the older form of Keia. 'His first trip out, and he's running afoul of the frogs?' Keia murmured with a soft sigh, shaking her head. 'Well, it would be poor form for us to let him get eaten by something so simple.'

'Yeah, The snakes, maybe. But there's always next time for that.' Freji murmured with a grin, only to grit his teeth and wince for a smarting smack of the older huntress' spear across his rump.

'You will be the one to pull him out of it's belly then, Freji.' Keia murmured, inclining her head to the claw-marks on the edge of the embankment.

'Tch.. Man..!' Murmured the brown moogle moodily, tugging out his knife.