The day after Rho Dent brought back the news of the miracle an expeditionary force was formed, initially Keel Eet had wanted to lead the group, but he had found himself unable to fit his heft through the exit to his own cathedral.
This was indeed a conundrum, and instead of making himself smaller he immediately organised a team of the greatest chewers to widen the opening. Such an undertaking could be months long, so he had decided Rho Dent should go in his stead, and as such she was charged with the heavy responsibility of somehow convincing the Saviour to well… save.
Such a position was one of great honour, and elevated her to a very high position socially, as well as giving her the authority to pick her crew. Rho Dent being the inexperienced rat that she was, had decided that she would take her family foremost and the other positions in the delegation should be taken only by the strongest rats.
Rho Dents family consisted of her father Thecheez Bin Nibbled, her uncle Sunder Maya Chair, and her brothers Sqeep and Sqap, who hadn’t been properly named yet, her mother had decided to remain at home, but had filled their bellies with a rich fish stew and the muscled rats who came along were Ucol Thatarat and Itsbuffa Thanmi.
Their expedition was also responsible for the care of the Exalted corpse of Wat-haf Wedon, Primogenitor of Intelligent rats, Founder of the Ratpublic, Nemesis of Pigeons and Experiment 2138 of Cubecorp, a logo that had been tattooed onto his very skin. The small corpse resided in a small pickle jar which had been sealed since its death.
As leader, Rho Dent appointed the delegation with roles of responsibility, her father was Navigator, her uncle was Intelligence Officer, her brothers were in subservient positions to her father, Itsbuffa was in charge of transporting Wat-haf and Ucol was in charge of protection. Ucol was the only rat who had ever taken down a cat single handedly.
While the group had been gathering the supplies for the expedition in her fathers bucket, her uncle had got into contact with the Competent Rats Understanding of Movements Below, or the CRUMB, and had tracked down the current location of the white vehicle that was suspected to transport the saviour.
It had last been seen in the vicinity of the southern bastions, great fortresses where the humans resided in safety away from the gangs who wished to harm them, Sunder even was able to locate the very rat that had spotted it moving, with whom he arranged for the group to meet on location.
There was a final check to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything and then the group was off, their bucket powered by an old handheld fan, pushing it up the currents at speeds rats normally never got. Hordes of rats cheered the motley crew on as they left the waterways of the city centre. Rho Dent found the attention slightly overwhelming to be honest, and was very glad when they eventually entered the less urban areas.
Their bucket bobbed up and down for hours as they made steady progress, until finally around eight hours later the battery of their engine gave out. Luckily they were not too far from the area where they had arranged to meet the CRUMB agent above ground.
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Just as they were deciding what to leave behind when they continued on foot, Rho Dent was ambushed by her brothers. “Rho Dent”
“What, Sqeep?” she squeaked back at him.
“Me and Sqap were wondering when we are gonna meet any humans and if so whether we can get names.”
Rho Dent rubbed her whiskers with a small paw. “You know the rules, you must make sure you have a way to escape, and whatever they say while looking at you is your name forever, no matter what it is.”
Sqap had a question next “Can we get named by the Saviour?”
“Yes, he is human after all, but if another human names you before we find him then it can’t be changed.”
Rho Dents brothers had been envious of her for the few years they had been alive, despite being the same age as them she had gotten a name on her very first trip up to the surface, whereas they had been making trips up for months with regularity and rarely encountered a human, never managing to get noticed.
Names were important for rats, they only we treated as adults when they had one and until then they were called by whatever their parents wanted, some rats who preferred not to adventure never even gained names, which Rho Dent thought was very sad. How would you be remembered after death if no one even knew what you were called?
The rest of the expedition had finally decided what to take, and it wasn’t a lot, just a little pouch of food for each rat, except for Itsbuffa who had the jar. Then they came up through an old pipe that connected to the toilet of a partially collapsed house that served as the headquarters for the Southern branch of CRUMB,
The first thing Rho Dent noticed about the building was the sheer number of rats running around, it was comparable to the traffic at the centre of the city, but somehow faster, as they all were moving with purpose and had places to be. The second thing she noticed was that there was indeed a rat larger than Keel Eet, and this one seemed to be around the size of a dog.
The small beady eyes atop its great head turned to face her and the rat let out a noise that was somewhere between a bark and a squeak, causing the traffic of the place to instantaneously still.
In the silence Itsbuffa put down the jar.
“All bow for the bearers of Wat-haf Wedon, on his journey to back above the grave.” bellowed the Megarat.
Countless rats kowtowed to the small pickle jar. “Wat-haf Wedon, Wat-haf Wedon” they chanted, echoing the words of some horrified past scientist.
Rho Dent wasn’t quite sure how to react so she sat still until the Megarat called for silence again. “Send for Icey Anose, tell him his group is here.”
In contrast to the giant rat, the next rat she saw was the longest, vaguely resembling a ferret. Oh, it is a ferret. Icey Anose was brown with dark patches around his nose and ears, and on his side where the fur had been shaved away was a small Cubecorp logo.
The long noodle-like creature hopped over to her and stuck out a stubby arm. “Icey Ma’am, nicey to meetcha, I'll be your guide.”
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