After walking for a while, Sar reached the cafeteria and was surprised at the number of people that were already there. She had been under the impression that the Everguard was an undesirable place to be. After all from what the Rat King said, ‘’no one likes the Evergaurd except the Everguard themselves.’’

Sar also noticed that there were already cliques forming. She needed to get on the action and establish herself with a group before it was too late and she became an outcast.

Outcasts didn’t learn much information, and she was a spy. She had briefly thought about being a loner but ended up going the opposite direction because while as a loner she would be able to go places unnoticed and that would allow her to sneak into places and be places where people would not usually go and it would be attributed to the fact that she was a ‘weird.’

This was desirable, but the main reason why she decided against it was that without social interaction with other critters then if she was questioned as to why she was outside a place she wasn’t supposed to be she would probably mess it up. She also needed to be able to interact convincingly and the best way to do that was to observe. This was easiest when she was known and accepted into a clique.

The second reason was that she didn’t really want to have to spend a long chunk of her life without any friends and no companionship except for herself. After thinking it through some more Sar admitted to herself that this was probably the main reason why she decided to befriend some of the critters. Also, you learn more information by talking to others, though listening on the outside you can learn, you learn more when you can quiz someone.

With these thoughts in mind, she headed toward the guinea pig that she saw had been knocked out by the guard. She walked over and said, “were you the one that got knocked by that guard? I saw it happen and honestly, it was pretty crazy!”

The critter frowned, “yeah? So what?”

Sar sensed that things might start to get sour and so she tried to lead the conversation onto a note that made him look good, “I just thought the way you stood up to that noble was pretty nice. I’m not a huge fan of nobility myself and was surprised that you even tried it!” She truly was, anything like that happened in the Rat Kingdom you would be executed or in her case, sent on a suicide mission.

She also was impressed, it was true that she really didn’t like nobility at all, the Rat King scared her and the nephew that she killed was a downright creep.

The guinea pig grinned, “Yeah, I don’t like the nobility really either, and that stuck up princeling was getting on my nerves. We’re living in the Evertree for shade's sake, not the Rat Caves! What gives him the right to something like that? He may be a prince but he ain’t king! Evertree save us when he does.”

His triad over he looked at her a bit sheepishly, “I, um, gotta go.” With these words, he beat a quick retreat.

Sar could see why she wasn’t sure about the Evertree but words like that spoken about the King? His fate would not be a happy one. Not at all.

She was happy with herself, she had planted the seeds of friendship and just needed to talk to him a bit more often and then maybe she could befriend him.

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A Rabbit hopped into the room, “Alright! It’s bedtime first years! MOVE!”

Sar moved, she was happy with what was accomplished. All she needed to do was find a way to get some more interesting information.

…

Sar had slept in a shared dorm under the promise that a suitable arrangement would be made at a later date. She had actually been quite comfortable, it was much better than the rock floor of the cave or the moss patch that she slept on in the cavern.

After that, the Rabbit came back in and screamed at them until they had all gotten up. Then she got her first glimpse of the prince.

Sar found that she was not impressed. In fact, the prince reminded her of the Rat Kings nephew, unfortunately, she had decided long ago that befriending the prince was a priority. Already she was going through different ways to make a good impression on him.

Now, she was wondering who would choose to mentor her. She didn’t know anyone here and no one knew who she was, she just hoped that she would be chosen as fast as everyone else was. One thing that she did know though was that she probably wouldn’t be in as awkward a situation as the prince was. The tension was still in the air now.

“Sar, from Lefton, who will mentor her?” There was a brief silence before a Gerbil stepped up, “I’ll mentor her!” She was glaring at her evilly, Sar was decidedly uncomfortable with that clear and hoped for a different critter to step up if that was allowed.

To begin with, that glare meant a lot of things, Sar was used to such glares and knew that they never came with good intentions. That glare would blow her cover and make her time at the Everguard miserable.

The second years started to shift uncomfortably, it seemed that they also knew that something was up. Muttering abounded with lots of glances, this went on for a while before a mouse stepped up. “I volunteer in her stead! I will take the first year!”

The Rabbit coughed, “Timone, this is against the rules and you know it!”

The mouse responded quickly, “Give me a break, we both know what would happen if Teek became her mentor.”

Sar looked on in interest, it seemed that her misgivings were well-founded and it also seemed that maybe the Rabbits authority wasn’t as well-grounded as she first thought.

The Rabbit looked at Timone and then at the Gerbil, before saying, “I am willing for you to take on the mentorship but you will treat me with more respect!”

The Gerbil, Teek, spoke up, “No! I insist! I have already volunteered to become this critters mentor and tradition states that once a critter volunteers it can not be taken back!”

Timone sighs, “you and I both know that tradition nowadays is as easily ignored as an ill-intentioned Gerbil.” He looks at the Rabbit, “I’ll take her.” Timone promptly turns around, grabs Sar, and leads her out of the room.

Once they get out Sar speaks, “Why’d you volunteer to mentor me? What’s the point?”

Timone sighs, “I know first-hand what's it like to have a worthless, ill-intentioned, and downright mean mentor.” He looks up, whiskers twitching, “I would save you from that fate.”

He smiles, “Your lucky! If you had gotten her then the Everguard would be like living Pits!”

Sar sighs, “Thank you then. I knew that she meant no good but I had no idea that it was that bad.” Lydia, of course, had no idea what he was talking about when he mentioned the pits but she assumed that it was some sort of curse word.

Timone winks, “My pleasure. Now, let's get you to the cafeteria and then we can see about your dorm.”

Sar was led through the castle and was amazed at how windy it was, it rivalled even the Rat Kings palace! She could see why he needed a spy, there was no way that they could manage to take the castle even if they got people on the inside.

Though if they just snuck an army through the hole they snuck her through then they would probably be fine. Honestly though, the whole layout was confusing. She questioned Timone about it and got a secretive smile in return. “You’ll be told.” Was all he said, which wasn’t saying anything at all.

It probably had to do with Everguard secrets or something. She was shaken from her thoughts when Timone announced that they had reached the cafeteria.

“I’ll have to leave you now, each of the years eat in different places. You won’t be seeing the third or fourth years anyway though. They eat at different times. Don’t know why so don’t ask.” Timone said, before disappearing down another corridor.

Leaving her. Sar sighed and went looking for the prince.