Into the relatively dim light cast by the sole bulb flickering outside their cell stepped a ragtag group of seven rats and a single brown ferret, they all looked quite travel weary and like they had a story to tell. If of course those who would be told could understand their incomprehensible dialect.
Bobby stared in bewilderment at the odd assortment of creatures, then composed himself and put a gentle smile on his face. “Who might you be?”
The rats all shuffled awkwardly for a moment, then one of the smaller rats stepped forward and spoke with the strangest accent Bobby had ever heard. “This one is Rho Dent, Saviour, and we have come to you with urgent business.”
“Yes I know you are a rodent, but do you have a name of your own?” Bobby asked, confused.
The rat looked even more confused than he was, it rubbed its head with a tiny hand and spoke again this time more softly, “Rho Dent, with a space between.”
“Ah,” Bobby said, suddenly struck by how surreal the situation was, “and why have you sought me out?” Am I going mad, or is there magic involved in this interaction somewhere.
The small rat looked like it was about to tell him some exciting tale, but then it got distracted by the position he happened to be in via no fault of his own. “Are you… trapped in a cage?”
“Ah yes indeed, the woman upstairs did that, I’m sure she’s actually really nice, but there seemed to be a misunderstanding.” Bobby then noticed his companions were looking at him incredulously. I mean I’d probably be doing the same if one of them started talking to animals.
Rho Dent seemed to take a minute to process his words. “She trapped you in a cage?”
“Yes”
“Is she powerful?” the small rat squeaked, looking a bit frightened.
“Errr, I mean she has a gun, so you could say that I guess?”
Bobby remembered the rat had been about to tell him something before it got distracted, “Anyway, why are you here again?”
The rat straightened and took in a breath like it was about to recite something, “I Rho Dent am entrusted with the sacred duty of transporting the body of Wat-haf Wedon, primogenitor of Intelligent rats to the saviour to be… saved.” The small creature stuttered a bit at the end.
“And why do you believe I am this saviour of yours?” Bobby asked curiously.
“You rose the dead.” The small rat chittered.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Huh, you saw that? I guess that makes sense then, is this uh… primogenitor of yours also dead?”
The small rat waved to one of the obscenely muscled rats and it set upon the ground a small pickle jar with a dead little rat floating in briny juices.
“Hmm, well we seem to have found ourselves trapped, but if you find the key to our cage and release us then I’d be happy to help you revive your primogenitor.”
The small rat twitched excitedly, “Save Saviour and Save Primogenitor?”
One of the older rats then stepped forward, it had a long crooked nose and a sort of evil aura. “Where is the key?”
“The lady put it in her pocket, but if you snuck in here then I'm sure you can sneak that key away from her.”
The rats chatted at great speed, enough so that Bobby couldn’t really understand what they were saying for the next minute, then the small rat spoke again. “We do it.”
The rats then all left, the ferret remaining and seemingly in charge of the little pickle jar of dead rat. The ferret eyed the possum, and kept its distance, staying where it was.
“Did you just send a group of rats on a mission to free us?” asked Michaela.
“Maybe.”
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Rho Dent hopped up the stairs excitedly, she now had two missions and the completion of both was almost in sight, they just needed to steal a small thing from the big sleepy woman, it shouldn’t be too hard? Right?
The rats all assembled on the landing and looked into the lounge where the woman on the sofa had finally fallen completely asleep. “That's the target,” she squeaked.
Her brothers Sqeep and Sqap, who had just gained the very unconventional rat names Nice Meetcha and Yewar Adorble from the target, decided to hold back from this stage of the mission due to conflict of interests, but Rho, Sunder, Thecheez, Ucol and Itsbuffa began planning their heist.
Her father, Thecheez, spoke first “The key is in her pocket, which is small, so in order to not wake her, you need to be the one to retrieve it Rho Dent.”
Rho nodded seriously, looking round the doorway at the small lump in the right pocket.
“She also has a gun, which I have seen before in my travels and is the shiny thing on her left side, Ucol and Itsbuffa will need to get that away from her together and hide it, so that she can’t use it on the Saviour again.”
Ucol and Itsbuffa took their turns locating their target and nodded.
“The rest of us need to be on call should the target wake up, in locations where she would immediately see or hear us and chase before noticing anyone else, that means we need someone in an obvious place on the floor, and someone beside her head on the sofa's backrest.”
They all stared at the cunning old rat in admiration of his plan, but he wasn’t done yet. “We also need escape routes, Sunder, you’re a genius when it comes to escaping, do you have any ideas on that front.”
Sunder stared at the scene for a few minutes, his eyes zigzagging around the room. Then when he finally had thought through the matter he spoke, “Those on the sofa can just hide in the cushions should the target wake, but the other two positions are more isolated. I will go beside her head, the drop on the other side is big, but if I run to the end I can jump into that box of books. Brother, if she goes after you, you should get her to run into the kitchen, there’s a space under the fridge that she won’t be able to reach.”
He turned to face the rest of them, “If we get spotted then it’s hide and seek rules, make your way back to the saviour when she isn’t in the room.”
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