Lucinda Algamoon was not having a good day, first of all one of the algae farm pumps had broken down, and while this would normally be a quick fix, she had run out of several of the replacement components. Second of all some random people possibly belonging to one of the gangs had knocked on her door with a ridiculous request, making her have to imprison them to show that she wasn’t to be trifled with, one of them even seemed to have a crush on her despite all that.

I mean it wasn’t exactly a really bad day either, it was just proving to be a bit distracting, so she hadn’t really managed to follow her normal schedule, her usual coffee was unmade, her laundry wasn’t done, and the Tactical Slaughter Tower tournament she had been planning to play in had already begun, her pc sitting off in its corner.

Lucy flopped on her large vintage sofa, spreadeagled. Pops would know what to do. She reminisced the fun she’d had with her late father, it had been so much easier splitting the chores in two, also the man somehow always knew how to fix the farms tech without even delving into the spare parts storage, granted some of his fixes had catastrophically failed, but whatever miracle he had performed on the solar repositioning system had kept it running flawlessly for the last five years.

She rubbed her eyes tiredly. She could have a little nap now, sure she was delaying the inevitable, but the chores could be the future hers problem. Sleepily she grabbed a cushion beside her and hugged it to her chest. For a few minutes she was swimming in and out of consciousness on the edge of sleep.

Idly her half open eyes stared at the doorway, then a small pink nose poked its way round the door, sniffing at the floor like a sniffer hound. A bit more of the nose came into view and then it leaned down to lick a stain off the floor. What an odd dream I’m having, she thought, completely awake and slightly delusional, I wonder what creature that belongs to?

Ever so slowly a possum appeared answering her question, it crept along occasionally raising its head to sniff the air, a bit like a hound in a way. It seemed confused and a bit lost for a short while then it seemed to catch a scent and walked towards the basement stairs. What an odd dream I’m having, she thought, completely awake and slightly delusional.

Curiously she continued staring at the doorway, she didn’t try to move closer because she always found she couldn’t when she was dreaming so there was really no point, I hope that creature comes back, it looked funky.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

A few minutes or it could have been hours later some more creatures came into view, this was an even odder sight. A long brown noodly ferret led a group of large rats past her doorway, the creatures all paused as they came to the door, looking at her. There were 3 smaller rats, two older looking rats with greying muzzles, one even had a stereotypical crooked nose, and finally there were two enormous rats, the things were almost cat sized with bulging muscles that rippled under their fur, one even had a clearly labelled pickle jar hoisted over its shoulder.

She giggled at the comical group, “Nice to meet ya, silly guests.”

Two of the smaller rats began squeaking excitedly and ran in circles round each other, funnily enough they seemed to be able to speak, one kept saying ‘Nice Meetcha’ and the other was repeating ‘Silly Guess’. They then scurried into the room, stopping a metre away from the sofa and gave tiny little bows.

“You are adorable,” she told them.

The two little rats paused and looked at each other with obvious confusion, one of them scratched their head with their little rat hand, while the other tilted their head and tried to parrot her words, “Yewar Adorble?” it squeaked, before pointing at itself and its companion with its pointy little nose.

“Yes, you are adorable!” she said to it again.

The small rat seemed to shrug and once again it ran in circles with the other small rat, this time saying ‘Yewar Adorble’ while the other carried on saying ‘Nice Meetcha’. Then one of the other rats squeaked something loud and incomprehensible to the pair, making them look slightly guilty.

The two little rats bowed again and then scampered back to the group. One of the older rats, the one without the crooked nose, seemed to sternly tell them off in the incomprehensible rat language, and the two rats bowed their heads and calmed. She noticed their tails still twitching around with excitable energy. So cute, I could just eat them up.

The group of rats slowly made their way around the room, looking at her things, then they ventured into the kitchen, before returning and making their way down the basement stairs. The stairs were of course too big for some of the creatures and they carefully hopped from step to step like little furry frogs.

Soon the last of the creatures, the one carrying the pickle jar vanished, hopping the steps two at a time. Then the room became empty and she was left alone. Aww, I wish they had stayed longer.

It was only then that she realised how truly lonely she had been since her father had passed.

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