Mewl wakes up with a start. Everything is dark around her, and she can’t move. Nyurl, she can barely breathe. She starts struggling against the bonds holding her, her sleep-addled mind momentarily convinced Charles has captured her again, that she is once again a captive. That is, until her coverings start to move, revealing the world again.

And Ss’Vesh’s worried face, peering down at her.

“You ok Melaine?” The pythionade asks. Mewl takes the time to look around herself, noticing the faces of the rest of the ranger squad looking at her. Basing herself on what little she understands of pythoniade body language, they all look… guilty? “Wait.” Mewl says, her eyes going wide as she sits up. “Were all of you on top of me?”

Mewl went to sleep on the previous night wrapped in Ss’Vesh’s coils, as was her usual nowadays, but to wake up to all of the rangers on top of her was new. “S-sorry.” Ss’Vesh says, rattling slightly. “I should have stopped them.”

Mewl sighs, untangling herself from Ss’Vesh and stretching her sore limbs. “Was it because of my body heat?” She asks. Ss’Vesh gives a shaky nod in response. “Well then I can sleep in the middle of you all. Just don’t cover my head please?” As soon as Ss’Vesh finishes translating the news, Sj’Orus immediately dashes forwards and envelopes her in a crushing hug. Soon the rest of the squad joins in, despite Ss’Vesh’s protests Mewl is very soon right back where she started, buried underneath a pile of very enthusiastic pythoniades. Mewl laughs loudly all the while.

After several more minutes of hugging, their stomachs finally convince them to get out of the room and into the canteen to get some breakfast. There were two other squads eating there already by the time they came in, but as soon as they came in all conversation stopped. Mewl feels like every single one of the pythoniades are staring at her as she follows Ss’Vesh’s lead, putting the same food into her plate from the available options.

Mewl sits with her back towards the other ranger groups, not wanting to have to stare at what she assumes are hostile pythoniades while eating. But, not long after Mewl starts digging into her food, she feels the gazes that were following around move, as if all they needed to know from her was if she ate food or not. Snorting to herself, Mewl digs in the surprisingly delicious meal in front of her.

After they finish eating, they head back into their room. “I want you to teach me your language.” Mewl tells Ss’Vesh, shortly after they’re all settled.

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“Why?” Ss’Vesh says, looking towards the pantherus as the others get ready to spar. “I can translate for you whenever you need to.”

“What if you’re not around?” Mewl counters. “What if I want to go out to town by myself?”

“I’ll think about it, okay? I would need to look up how to even teach you. Now the others are waiting for me to start the spar.” Ss’Vesh says, as she moves towards the rest of her team.

“Can I join?” Mewl asks.

After a moment of consideration, Ss’Vesh says, “not yet. We know how hard we can hit one another but not how hard we can hit you.”

“Okay…” Mewl says, sitting far away from the pythoniades. She watches intently as the five go at it with practiced ease, reacting to each other’s moves almost before they make them. It almost looked like they were dancing. That is, until Sj’Orus brakes the pattern. Mewl notices almost immediately when they go off script, when, instead of blocking St’Eris’ charge, Sj’Orus decides instead to bare his teeth. St’Eris aborts their charge, instead choosing to duck to the side.

Leaving Sd’Aira completely exposed.

As the glob of spit impacts her on the face, the spar stops momentarily. They all reset positions, with the exception of Sd’Aira who leaves, and goes to sit next to Mewl.

The small pythoniade seems deflated almost, like it is an usual occurrence for her to be taken out first. Carefully, Mewl approaches her, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention. Once Sd’Aira looks at her, Mewl tries mimicking the gestures she’s seen the two twins do at each other, only for the pythoniade to shake her head, and gesture to Mewls lips, then her ears and nodding her head.

“You can understand me?” Mewl asks, baffled. Sd’Aira nods vehemently. “Why didn’t you tell me that?” Mewl says, her tail swishing in amusement at her own joke. Sd’Aira sticks her tongue out before gesticulating for Mewl to continue. “Well, I just noticed that you don’t really use your size to your advantage. You’re significantly smaller than everyone else you fight with, so you could come from angles or do things they can’t really interact with.” Sd’Aira looks puzzled, before standing straighter and gesticulating towards Mewl. “You want me to show you?” Mewl asks, and Sd’Aira nods emphatically.

“Ok.” Mewl stands up, and grabs one of the dummies spread around the room. “So,” she says, “let’s start with your usual plan. How would you take down an opponent, by yourself?” Sd’Aira hesitantly slithers towards the dummy, before trying to wrap her body around it and bite into its neck. “See, that doesn’t work because you’re not long enough to fully wrap around anyone even remotely your size, plus you’re probably weaker too.” Mewl says, emphasizing the point by yanking on the tip of Sd’Aira’s tail, unraveling the pythionade from the training dummy. “Instead of doing a full body, why not try to wrap around only one limb? You’re really silent already, so maybe employ some ambush tactics like St’Eris?”

Sd’Aira still seems hesitant about the whole thing, so Mewl sighs, “wrap around my arm. Just your tail.” Sd’Aira does so, more intrigued at this. “Now pull me towards you.” As she expected, despite being prepared for it, Mewl loses her balance momentarily, while also being pulled towards Sd’Aira’s fangs, her most deadly weapon. “See? You being small means that people are less likely to notice you, especially with Ss’Vesh charging at them. Then if you can sneak in a grab like this, you help your entire team much more than just trying to be a smaller Ss’Vesh.”

Sd’Aira thinks about it for a minute or two, before nodding with a resolute look in her eyes. She then nods, before gesticulating towards Mewl again. “You want to practice this?” Sd’Aira nods. “Okay. Let's do as follows, if you manage to grab me you win, and if I evade you for 5 minutes I win, okay?” Sd’Aira nods again, before slithering to one of the wardrobes and grabbing a timer to mark their rounds. Once they’re both in position, they go at each other again.