A sudden rush of coldness wrapped around the old man. His mind could not fathom what was happening to him now. All he could do was kneel and bow his head down to this mysterious being. A god of good or evil? He doesn’t know but at this point, he doesn’t care.

“T-then please help us!” he whispered.

“You humans go here and disturb my hundred years of peace! I should be eating all of you above!”

“We apologize! I apologize for disturbing your peace. I will do anything! Anything! Please do not eat us!”

“You will what?” the voice said.

A fire of hope lit up on him. He thought that if he could get to the good side of this powerful being, maybe it could help him figure out what the knights were planning to do.

“Anything! A-anything! Just please let me find out what the knights plan to do with the refugee town.”

The skeleton stood up. Inside its ribs, something moved and crawled out to its left eye. A black rat with a small white crown. It went up on the skull and faced the chief.

“Then I have a task for you human.”

“I will do it!” he said immediately, still bowing.

“Open your eyes! And look at me!”

The chief slowly opened his eyes and saw the rat on the skull's head. The rat looked ordinary except for its eyes, which were shining pure white and its white crown.

“Long ago something was stolen from me by the knights. Get it for me.”

The eyes of the rat lit up and an image of a horned rat statue appeared in the chief's mind.

“Okay, can you please give me an idea where to get it?”

Another image appeared in his mind. A tower, The Bishops Tower.

"I will grant you an ability to help you with this task," A necklace was conjured on the neck of the chief. "That necklace will grant you the ability to change your form into a rat. When you find it, put it on that bag and handle it with care." A bag was conjured on his back.

“Change form?”

“Yes.”

"Follow the torches. Go!"

The skeleton fell to the floor and the rat was gone.

“A rat sculpture. Could it be his statue?” he whispered.

The chief went back to the stairs and found a torch lit up in one of the caves. The cave was in the southeast direction.

“Yeah, It's in the city city proper. Perfect! This ability can also help me get information from them” he said.

He passed through a cave system and a river. He then arrived on another ruin. This one was smaller. The houses here looked like some you will find on the surface. But there was no torch. He looked passed the ruins and saw a torch in another cave. In the cave, he found a wall. A brick wall.

“Is this it?”

He inspected the wall and found a hole above. One brick was removed.

“This is the time I turn into a rat, right?” he thought, “But how do I do it? Maybe...”

He held on to the necklace that was given to him. He then thought about turning into a rat and so he did.

“My Bathala!” he looked around. The cave was bigger and colder. He could feel the air hitting all the hairs on his rat body. His sense of smell was also stronger but his sense of sight was different. His eyes moved independently, it was like looking at two different pictures at once. He didn’t move for several minutes. He practiced this new way of looking at things. And at the same time, he could smell the odor of the cave, a mixture of damp air and unclean water but there was something mixed on it. A slight hint of wood, oil, and dust. He could smell it coming from a small opening above. He also noticed that the bag that he got from Rat King was still wrapped around his body. After getting used to new senses, he walked around and tested his new form. He ran in circles. He climbed the walls. He found it easy to move and he was quick.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“It's time to go there,” he thought while looking up.

He started climbing on the brick walls. In a few seconds, he was already at the top and on the hole. It was dark but his eyes quickly adjusted. The room was small. There were crates neatly stacked on the left side and long wooden shelves with weapons and small wooden boxes. He entered the room. No signs of men. He smelled the crates and checked the shelves.

“It shouldn’t be here if the knights stole it. It is most likely important and must be guarded. I have to check every room then.” He looked around. There was a door, no windows but there was a hole for air to flow in.

After several hours of going around, he concluded that the same mysterious being who gave him this task probably tried to get it or maybe it already asked some others to do it but all of them failed. The air ducts were clean and made with white bricks. Everything was made with white materials. Meaning he can’t break it. The good thing was all the air ducts were open so he could go in and out of the rooms. He went up and up. He found several knights and squires walking in corridors but did not pay attention to them yet because he was still trying to memorize the structure of the tower. There were two main air ducts that connected each level of the tower. One sucks the air out and another one sucks the air in from the outside. Based on the direction of the air movements inside, he thought both reached the top of the tower.

“Each room has two air ducts then,” he thought.

He started going to higher floors and on the higher floors, he started to hear a buzzing sound. It was getting stronger and stronger like it was moving towards him. He felt a weak vibration and a rounded object with brushes and hairs appeared to be moving downward from above. A cleaner! It stopped for a few seconds. It rolled and the brush and hairs were gone. It got replaced with blades. It suddenly moved towards him, running faster than earlier. He knew it was running after him but he was quicker and lost it in the maze of the air ducts.

After several minutes, he explored again and heard some knights complain about the refugees but didn’t get any important information. He found an empty room with a window and noticed that the sun was already high. He looked out the window and saw the whole city. He was on the higher floors already. The room was small and a thin layer of dust covered everything. The bed was small and had a small desk and a shelf with a few books and some white clothes. He went back into the air duct and noticed that there were many air ducts leading to small rooms like the room he found. It looked like a room for priests or maybe attendants. He wasn't sure so he moved on. He found some big chambers where priests held meetings and prayers but still had no idea where to find the statue he was looking for. He was getting tired and felt he needed to rest so he came back down to the cave below the tower and slept.

He went back up after a few hours of sleeping in human form. This time he was determined to find it. After exploring the upper half, he found a room with white statues but the air duct was closed. It only had small fine holes for air to get through and it was guarded by two knights.

He thought it was problematic but after observing it for a few hours. He found an easy way to get in. There was an old priest that went inside the room. The guards knew him and they didn’t check the books and parchments he brought with him. All that he needed to do was cling inside his white robe before he got back inside them.

He observed the priest through the air ducts. He was studying the statues and he was there for a few hours before going out. He followed him through the air ducts above the corridors. He jumped out of the air duct and landed on its back. The priest didn’t notice him.

Back in the caves, the chief already has the statue. Aside from evading the cleaners he never had trouble getting it. There were many statues in that room. Most of them were small except for a few big ones, a fish and a huge dog. All of them have horns even the small ones. He went back to the ruins and found the “Rat King” on the skull of the standing skeleton.

“Good work Human! I already know you succeeded!”

The chief knelt and bowed his head. He smiled while opening the bag and then showed it to the Rat King. He set it on the floor.

“Thank you!” the rat said.

The rat approached the statue and put the crown its head. The crown shone brightly and the statue became bigger and bigger about the size of a human. It turned into a big white rat. The chief felt warm and light. He felt energized. The black rat then lit up and became a human with normal clothes but his left leg was gone.

“What?” the chief said. He also noticed that the necklace given to him was gone.

“Thank you my dear one,” the white rat looked at him. The man hugged the white rat and it shined brightly again and turned into a female human.

“For hundreds of years, I waited. Thank you for saving me!” she said.

“The pleasure is mine! I am happy to see you both smiling. However, I humbly request your help. I want to know what the knights plan to do with the refugees. I think they have a sinister plan but I am not sure. Please help me find out that truth!” he said kneeling.

“We know what they are doing. And they have been doing it for thousands of years. I will tell you everything you want to know,” she said.