For both good and ill, the goblin had not gotten far by the time I padded out of the restaurant. Good, because that meant I didn’t have to waste time tracking.

Ill, because as soon as the little bugger saw me, he took off running like a pack of wolves was on his tail.

Luckily, the moment he rounded a corner, a dot appeared in my vision. This one was helpfully marked as a yellow enemy, a conclusion I had already come to thanks to, you know, the little fracas in the fridge. Nonetheless, it was appreciated.

As I loped after the steadily moving dot, I wondered idly what I was doing. There was bound to be more to eat back in the restaurant. There was no need to go chasing after this monster, especially if it was what the system wanted.

But I hadn’t actually seen any other chunks of meat in there besides the one. And anyway, it was the principle of the matter. I had been living on salty chips for days now. I needed real food.

The dot paused long enough for me to get the goblin back in sight. I rounded a corner to see him slip between two buildings. He seemed to have slowed again. Good.

I matched his pace and followed.

Idly, I was aware that we were steadily moving in the direction of downtown again. I hadn’t exactly been moving in the opposite direction this whole time—more like skirting the edges—since I still hadn’t entirely ruled out investigating where the system seemed to want me to go, but this blatant effort to lead me on bristled a bit.

To add to my frustration, many of the side streets began to grow impassable. Vehicles had been moved into piles along with other detritus, making it feel like I was being funneled along. Toward what, I could only guess.

The goblin stopped again, and I slowed to peek around a corner. It stood before a dilapidated apartment. The monster glanced left, then right, then slipped inside.

Yep, this was feeling more and more like some sort of setup. Why would these goblins have traveled all the way to that restaurant when I could see at least three others right from where I was standing?

Whatever. That meat had been delicious. I loped across the street and through the waiting doors.

It was immediately obvious this place hadn’t been occupied in a while. Half the lightbulbs overhead were gone, and most of the doorways were without accompanying doors. Or maybe this state was more recent? I didn’t know enough to come to any conclusions, and anyway, my attention was focused elsewhere.

There was a quick notification informing me that my stun wands were off cooldown. Excellent. Next time I had that little meat-stealing monster in view...

I turned a corner in the hallway and just caught sight of him about thirty feet ahead. He noticed me at the same time, gave a surprised warble, and bolted. I launched a stun, but it petered out before reaching him.

Well, I guess that told me the maximum range of the weapon. One shot left.

I dashed forward, my legs pumping. Left, right, left again. This place was a literal maze, but long as I had a dot to follow, I wouldn’t lose him. I loped up one staircase, then another. Down another hallway. Skidded to a halt.

The goblin let out a shriek that I was certain was meant as an insult, then leapt over an enormous sinkhole that had taken out the center of the building. It sailed easily to the other side, landed, then shrieked again. Waved at me.

My hackles were up, a low growl in my throat. I almost leapt after him, but a wiser part of me knew I’d never make that jump. Instead, I fired my stun spell.

The goblin locked in place, mid-shriek. My tail wagged in satisfaction. That should keep him from getting ahead.

The hole was too far to jump, but it looked less than ten feet. I had the perfect solution.

Turning around, I pointed my butt towards the goblin. My tongue lolled, and I would have laughed had I possessed the capability. The monster wasn’t going to know what hit him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Still lolling, I activated my bracelet.

Immediately, I felt that pressure at the nape of my neck, like I was being picked up, puppy-style. The pressure hurled me backwards, through the open space and right into the goblin’s waiting arms.

It was a good plan. Solid. I was proud for coming up with it, especially on such short notice.

Pity it didn’t work.

See, I’d forgotten a minor detail about the bracelet. It carried me ten feet—or until I encountered another solid object. Whichever came first.

In this case, the solid object was the goblin’s outstretched arm, still pointing at me in mockery.

The second my butt came in contact, the pressure on my neck evaporated. I found myself hovering in midair, the yawning black void the only thing beneath my paws.

Then I was plummeting downward, and the void reached up to claim me.

----------------------------------------

I snapped back to consciousness, leaping immediately to my paws. The concrete slab beneath me shifted, almost sending me pitching. I yelped and leapt away.

Into the open air again. Luckily, only a drop of two or three feet this time.

By the time I landed, I was a bit more clear-headed. At least enough to pause and take in my surroundings.

I was in a dimly lit but rather open space. From the rough look of the walls I think it might have been the building’s basement. What was likely the first floor is now a good twenty feet over my head, a ragged, gaping hole letting in a trickle of light from a nearby bulb.

Beyond that I could just barely make out another hole above the first. And somewhere above that would be the one I fell through...

How the heck did I survive a fall like that? I know a dog always lands on their paws, but that doesn’t matter if the paws in question get smashed to jelly in the process.

I spent some time studying the room in more detail, but even with my night vision I couldn’t pick out any details that explained my miraculous recovery. The room was filled with hunks of broken cement, rebar, and caked sheetrock dust. There was a doorway to another large room just a little past where I stood, and a stairwell just past that.

My paws carried me towards the stairs, my mind already turning to how I could track the goblin down again. He couldn’t have gotten far, so his dot should still be somewhere in the building. I swung my head around, looking, but didn’t see it anywhere.

What I did see is another dot, just on the other side of the staircase. A blue dot.

I froze. I’d never seen this color before. It must be significant in some way, but I didn’t... If yellow meant an enemy, than could blue possibly mean...

My paw still hovered over the first step. I pulled it away and padded around the stairwell instead. Immediately, the blue dot began to move. They must have been hiding, I realized, watching. Waiting for me to pass by. But if they were friendly, why would they—

Oh. Realization settled over me as the blue dot winked away and its owner came into view.

It was a rat. A big, black, ugly rat.

Gross.

Now look, I wasn’t being speciesist here. Just like with the raccoons, I’ve had more than my share of run-ins with rats during my time on the streets. Admittedly, most of those were at the end of my jaws... but even that wasn’t what I would call an enjoyable experience, for either of us. City rats mostly eat garbage. Which means they taste like garbage. Truly a meal of last resort.

What I’m saying is, I may not be the fondest when it comes to rats, but this little fellow had nothing to fear from me. Especially now that my new sapience made me aware of the wonder that was properly prepared foodstuffs.

So, once I saw the blue dot was nothing more than some city rat, I almost dismissed it and went on my way again. Almost. Except something was bothering me.

The streets outside had been quiet. Too quiet. I’d seen no humans, no dogs, no monsters, not even those raccoons from the day before.

And those raccoons made me think. When I’d been approaching the shipping crate, the raccoons had shown up as a trio of white dots. Now, my skill said that I only had a one in four chance of recognizing one of these dots as friend or foe. It seemed likely that the dots were white when I didn’t know. And yellow was clearly for an enemy. But if that was true, then why would the system think I’d consider this rat as a friend?

I was curious. So I followed the rat in as non-threatening a manner as I could.

Soon as it saw I was following, the rat let out a loud squeak of fright and ran faster. I followed, but slowly. Near as I could tell, there was nowhere else to go, unless it could somehow leap twenty feet to the first floor.

The rat seemed to realize this a moment later. It reached a small corner made from two pieces of cement larger than the rest and whirled around. It stood on its hind legs and pressed its back against the stone.

Huh. I’d never seen a rat acting like that before. I leaned down and sniffed at it.

Least, I tried to. Soon as I got close, the rat slipped by me. I have no idea how. One moment he was there, the next, gone. Poof. I spun around, just in time to see him slipping back around the doorway.

Oh no, you don’t.

I darted after, my eyes scanning until they found the blue dot on a piece of piping. The rat had to be inside.

Leaning down, I hooked the end of the pipe with my nose and flipped it up into the air. The pipe did a double spin as the rat was summarily ejected into the air. My tail wagging, I leapt up and caught it between my teeth.

Not hard, mind you. Just enough force to keep it from fleeing. I was getting to the bottom of this, no matter how—

[Help!] the rat shrieked. [I don’t want to die like this!]

Huh.

Well, that was new.