You must come and see. The mustelids can’t make a decision at this point, much less the rodentia.
-Request from Scout Captain Inoktuk of the Mustelid Corps.
With a wet thunk, the rat fell to the ground in front of me. Silf had carried it in his mouth for a while, as far as I knew, and it had been thoroughly soaked by the trip. It struggled to stand, to move, but it was still quite disoriented by the journey. It struggled to hobble away, but was quickly boxed in by keelish. While the creature was held down, I turned to Silf.
“Why was this rat interesting? They’re not common in the jungle where we lived, but we’ve seen plenty of them in our travels.”
“I heard it talking.” The scout replied. “I don’t know the words so good, so I figured I’d just bring him to you so you and Sybil could talk to him.”
“Really?” I mused. “How far away were you when you heard him speaking? Are you sure it was this thing?”
“Maybe 200 feet away? But yes, I’m sure it was this.”
“Alright then.” I finished before stepping forward and, with a dart of my hand, I caught the rat. No, actually, it avoided my strike. I reached out three more times, each missing by mere degrees. The rodent actually escaped from the encirclement of the keelish and fled insanely quickly towards thicker brush. Though I didn’t want to kill the talking rat, I refused to let it escape. I gathered my sonic magic to my throat and shaped the blast to focus on the fleeing creature. With a [Crippling Cry], the rat shuddered and went still. There was no guarantee, but I didn’t think it was dead so I jogged forward and plucked it off the ground.
Its little chest was heaving while blood trickled from its ears and nose. As delicately as I could manage, I held it by the scruff of its neck and in front of my face. Though I wasn’t immensely familiar with rats, I couldn't say that I could see anything at all noteworthy about this specimen. It was maybe half a foot long, dark brown fur, a pink nose and beady eyes. A rat. Even so, I trusted Silf.
“And what is your name, little one?” I asked in the human tongue. One of these days, I’d talk to something or someone and have no luck communicating with them. As the silence dragged on, I wondered if this would be one of those cases. The rat’s nose twitched like mad as its eyes darted back and forth like a cornered animal, which I supposed it was. Impatient, I raised one of my right hand’s claws to under its jaw and lightly scratched it there. “If you respond, I’ll be able to let you go. If you don’t, I’ll have to eat you. Or at least kill you.”
Again, I waited for several seconds while the rat considered me. I was in the movement of tossing it in my mouth when it sighed and spoke. The male voice was a pleasant tenor, nearly musical in nature though it spoke in a clipped, formal tone. When the rat spoke, its eyes shifted slightly, appearing more human than before.
“I shall not bestow upon you my name, but you may call me Tar.” The rat fastidiously groomed its whiskers as it spoke. “You have proven yourself capable of catching me, and I shall not attempt to run again, so please lower me to the ground. Please, do not consume me, as I may yet serve you.”
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And there was that progress. “Thank you for not forcing me to eat you. I prefer not to consume intelligent creatures. Even so, I’ll keep you up here for now.”
“Meat is meat.” The rat with the obvious fake name Tar disagreed.”You are in a land of plenty, but there is not sufficient prey to discard whatever scraps you find.”
“True enough.” I replied. “Talking rats, huh? I can’t say I’ve encountered your kind before.”
“I am the only one.” Tar quickly confirmed. “I’m merely much smarter than the other rats.”
“And how do we have a language in common?”
“Just as you acquired your language skills, I would imagine that I could have learned them as well.”
“I doubt it.” I stated. “I don’t need to know how many of you there are. I don’t care so long as you stay out of trouble. You wouldn’t talk to yourself the way you were if there weren’t more of you, but I’ll let you and your friends know that, from now on, any rats we find will be immediately killed, unless they declare themselves first. Even if you give perfect information after being revealed to be a sneak, you will be devoured. Can you pass that information on?”
“... I suppose I can, though I would greatly appreciate your assistance in communicating that. If you shout, any nearby would hear and pass it along.” Tar ground out. “Why are you here?”
“Why would I tell you that when you’ve told me nothing?”
“So that I can tell the true masters of these mountains what your plans are. There isn’t any need for conflict, at least at this time. I would like to maintain the peace that currently exists.”
“If you think you can force us out of here, I invite you to come and feed the swarm already.” I grinned a predatory grin at the bite-sized creature. “We welcome anyone who wishes to keep us well fed.”
“How barbaric.” Tar replied, his nose high in the air. “I shall convey your message. Now, can you put me down already? It is quite discomfiting to be held directly before your gaping, toothy maw of destruction.”
With a chuckle, I gently lowered him down to the ground below, deciding to offer some measure of trust to the little rodent. He immediately betrayed that trust and sprinted quicker than I’d ever seen before into the brush. Silf made to go after him, but I stopped him.
“I think he let us catch him.” I spoke in keelish. “I suspect this little creature was instead trying to get information from us, and decided getting closer was his best option, once he was discovered.”
Silf merely twitched his tail in ambivalent agreement. “If you say so. Would you like us to keep an eye out for more?”
“Of course!” I replied, a savage grin again cracking my face. “I warned him that if we found any more, they’d be food. No need to turn a meal away, is there?”
“No, Alpha.” Silf’s smile mirrored my own.
“Also, let’s see if we can’t find where to cross these mountains while we hunt for any new prey, shall we?” I answered, and much of the swarm, curious to watch my “interrogation” of the rat, echoed cheers of their own in support of my suggestion.
[Tar POV]
He sprinted through the brush and into rabbit warrens for the better part of an hour. He couldn’t say for sure if he had lost the monsters, but he could say he’d given escape his best effort. When he finally let himself collapse into a panting heap inside an abandoned underground nest of some sort, “Tar” couldn’t help but mutter to himself in disgust.
“Disgraceful, that’s what that was. An absolute disgrace.”
The little safehouse would be nearly impossible to identify as such by anyone except for one of the Union’s scouting corps, and “Tar” left a quick scrabbled warning in the usual spot before rushing back out of the nest and towards the nearest river. There, he could conscript any vessel he found and make his way back to the Union. After all, the Council would need to hear about the return of the saharliard.