After the couple stopped looking at the books, Thyme and Spyce accosted them from the bed they were resting on. They were a bit sleepy, since it was day.

“What is it, my dear rats?” Liliane said, looking at the two furry creatures that were looking intently at them, squeaking. “Oh, you are going to tell what happened here to your Ma, since there won’t be that many dogs around, now? That seems like a wonderful idea!” She gave them a big, heartfelt smile. “We’ll probably be around to buy some more provisions, but you can come to us whenever you need. Bring my deepest gratitude to your mother, too, please! Since she birthed such nice boys! Oh, and if you have time, go say hi to Dulci and Brama. They said they missed you, yesterday.”

They both nodded at her words, and then, Thyme and Spyce scuttled away again, after gently biting the nose of both Liliane and Lazar to say goodbye. There was a small hole in the wall, and they used it to get to the ground floor. After a quick stop in the kitchen, where they ate a bit of zucchini, they started approaching the stable where Brama and Dulci were probably waiting.

Indeed, the brown and the black oxen were there, side by side, looking towards the two rodents, trying to ascertain if they were going to stop. The one who could smell through eras gone and the one who could scuttle in the shadows greeted Bramaboxa and Dulcicloxia. They were still a bit wary of the weird beings who looked like oxen but smelled of… something else, but until now they did not seem to mean any harm to them or to the two old humans.

“Hello, hello, welcome back my little friends” said Dulci, a hint of mirth in its voice “where have you been? Are you well?”

“Hello Dulcicloxia,” they said in unison, while climbing on its back and starting to groom him a bit “we saved a big sulfury dog and many other small dogs from a little, smelly man” concluded Thyme.

“Impressive, I must say!” mooed the black ox, visibly happy, “You really are a testament to your species valor!”

“They probably just bit someone who was hitting his dogs, Dulci.” mumbled Brama, a bit upset by its brother blatant *preferenza.

“It was a two headed one and bigger than you two combined” Spyce interjected, looking straight in the eye of the brown ox.

“That’s… that is weird.” Bramaboxa was taken aback. “That’s weird, right?”

“Absolutely.” Dulci replied, pensive. “ A two headed dog you say?”

“Yes, and had a fiery breath and was very sad.” answered Thyme, looking a bit distraught thinking back at the living situation of the dog. Something so big should not live in a room.

Dulcicloxia looked at its twin.

“It seems like… what’s the name of one of the sons of Ujirien?”

“Orthrus? They freed an orthrus? How did one get caught?”

“Probably magic, or sold by some unscrupulous merchant when still a pup. In any case, good riddance. They are nice beasts, unless provoked. Or unless you try to take whatever they are guarding. Fierce protectors, they are.”

“And their flames taste divine when prepared the right way.”

“That, too.”

Thyme looked confused.

“What are you talking about? You use too big words. Speak clearly.”

“We were just saying”, Dulci explained, “that in our culture you can eat flames.”

“Uh, my aunt twice removed can do that too!” blurted out Spyce.

“Hn. Really. What species did you say you were?”

“What’s a species?” the spotted rat tilted his head.

“Doesn’t matter. You are really, really smart and you are at master level in the grooming department. That’s all we need to know. I’m sorry we can’t reciprocate.”

“No worries.” Thyme cleaned himself a bit, then spoke, while Spyce was grooming his fur “We can ask our family here or the humans for scritches. It's good. You are good. Keep being good, so the old human who smells of lies does not eat you for his meal.”

“We will, little one, we will.” Dulci said, its brother nodding along.

“Oh, and it seems like the old man wants to depart tomorrow morning, so you can rest today too!”

“We are a bit bored…” lamented Brama.

“Come on,” answered Thyme, drily, “it’s only until tomorrow!”

“Well, contrary to my brother, I know that a day can be pretty long sometimes, so I’ll teach you two something fun!”

“What can be fun stuck here inside a fence?” asked Brama.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Trust my brother” Thyme looked at the other rat, a bit of a proud look in his eyes “He’s very good at playing. One of the best of the colony. He was almost called ‘He who does nothing but play’ before he showed his Direction for the shadows, or, well, the shadows did.”

“Oh, come on, I was small! it’s normal that i liked to play more than other stuff.Llike sleeping. Or eating. Or finding a mate. You know. Boring stuff.”

“As I was saying. Very serious about playing.”

“Yes! so, you have to stand, one in front of the other, and try to guess which eye the other one will close first. Try it.”

“We can’t play that,” said Brama, upset “My brother would cheat!”

“No cheating allowed, black ox, or no more grooming for you” quipped Thyme.

“No cheating! No cheating, I swear.”

“Good.” The two rats got down from the black ox. “Now we must go. Don’t worry for us.”

The couple of small rodents said their goodbyes, reassuring the oxen, especially Dulci, that they would be back in time for their departure on the morrow.

They found the scent of one of the members of their colony, and followed it through a narrow path that snaked through the houses. They came near to a wrecked house, completely in pieces, where a lingering smell of fire and sulfur made them take a big detour not to stress Thyme too much. There were many new smells, mainly from the men the couple had talked to some time before. They smelled mostly of… ink, and faith. The one dressed like a butcher had the distinct smell of ashes on him, but also the faint smell that the oxen had,too. It was really scary, so they avoided being seen by them and gave them a wide berth, even if they perceived the stare of some sort of entity scanning them while they passed. It went away as fast as it came upon them. They found the entrance they used the first time, fought a bit with “he who guarded the door”, and for the second time during this moon, they were home again.

“So, my spawnlings, I trust that it all went well? A small rat told me that the human you travel with even tamed a fire dog, is it true?” asked ‘she who bit three cats’ to Thyme and Spyce, who went to her room first thing as they got inside the colony, to make a report.

“She put him to sleep like a puppy. Like you did with us when we got too rowdy. It was a bit…”

“It was horrifying.” said Spyce, abruptly. “It was a beast a hundred times bigger than us. three or four bigger than her. And she… she hugged him, stroked his fur and he collapsed like a lapdog. That old lady is…”

“That old woman” interrupted the old female rat “is wise and sweet, if she managed such a feat without losing a hair, and it would be best if you stayed on her good side. You never know what her kind can do, when scorned. You don’t really want to become a plague rat,don’t you?”

‘A p-pla-”

“Matriarch, you are scaring them” squeaked a silver maned rat, with brown and red spots on his fur and big, dark circles under his eyes “No one of her kind unleashed a plague since at least your great grandmother’s reign of terror.”

“What a lovely woman she must have been,” replied the matriarch, smug.

“Oh,” Thyme said, “the old lady says to send you her regards, for having sired two good rats such as us!”

“Did she, now? Oh, matriarch” said the new arrival, proudly, “we must definitely repay this nice compliment.”

“You say this only because you were the one I sired them with, didn’t you, ‘she who speaks and changes’?”

“Oh, no, I would never have such disrespect, they are your work of two moons, I’m just a little helper.”

“Are you? Look at you, always honeying your words, not even a moment after coming back from your journey.” The old rat smelled the air, then let out a soft whistle. “Living among humans is really making you more devious.”

“I do it for the colony,” replied the other rat, visibly upset, with fur puffed out in anger “I do it for the pack. I do it for you. I suffer the presence of awful men and other humans because it puts more than just stolen food on our meals. Do not be disrespectful, matriarch. I’m no leader, but remember I’m not your lesser.”

She who bit three cats was taken aback, realizing her mistake.

“Forgive the words of this old crone, young one. Sometimes I mix up rudeness and bluntness. You being devious is a boon on the colony and another layer of protection on this place. Did they suspect anything?”

“Who would suspect a minute maid?” squeaked the silver maned rat. “Especially in a rowdy tavern in such a big city! I probably won’t go back there for a moon at least. Too much noise. too many smells. Too many grabby humans. Even if they stopped trying after I’ve bitten off a pair of fingers from one of them.”

“Stay alert, some people can fancy that kind of female”

“I will, matriarch. I always live in fear, don’t worry. And you two, come say hi to your sire!”

The white and the spotted rat went toward the silver maned one. They groomed each other in greeting, and they told the story of their adventures, up to now.

“They are going to the city of coal and fires you said? I’m actually headed to the one of wood and sea salt, maybe our journeys will converge there, and I'll be able to meet these two humans. They seem very interesting…”

“Well, dears, don’t you want to go say hi to your little siblings,? They are big enough to properly play with you, now. A couple of them already have a Direction, too.”

“Oh, oh! Let’s go, this I need to see!”

Spyce practically flung himself out of the box-room and started climbing one of the scarves hanging on the wall. His brother followed him, and after a few jumps they finally reached their old resting place.

There, five small rats were sleeping, all bundled together looking for warmth.

“Is this the way you welcome back your brothers, small siblings of many moons ago?”

The five all woke up hearing the squeak of one of their lost brothers. They jumped on the two rats, and started trying to pin them down to groom them, with mixed results. Thyme fought fiercely before losing on purpose to three of them, mockingly squealing his displeasure, while Spyce pinned the other two under his weight.

“Come on, shadowy brother, can’t you let us win once? You didn’t change at all!”

“You’ll win when you can, until then, you learn how to fight better. Never sleep ok your laurels, death awaits the fearless.”

“Always the party killer, little shadow!” commented one of them, the bigger, with a weird auburn mane.

“Come on now, behave yourselves, little beans. Or we won’t tell you what has happened to us in the last few moons.” quipped Thyme, chuckling.

“No! Please! Tell us everything, we’ll be good!” the little rats said in a chorus of squeaks.

“Ok, ok! Now, listen well, because it’s early in the day and we won’t tell this story again. It all started when me and my brother decided to check if the crates on the back of the temple had some food in them…”