Wait ... that can't be right. I've fought rats. I've even killed rats. I think I would know if they were sapient. Sure, they seemed better organized than one would expect. They don't possess anything artificial though. No clothing, no weapons, not even any primitive tools. I ask Yuna about it, and she laughs at the very notion of a sapient rat. This has to be some kind of trick. What if it's not though? Well, there is one way to find out for sure. Focusing my thoughts I biggens to try and communicate with the rat.

"Hello, are you injured?" "I'm fine" comes the reluctant reply "my concern is for the young. They have been without nourishment for too long, I fear. You see our young cannot store energy the way adults or even the young of others can. So, they must eat regularly. Sadly, I am too hungry to feed them but even if I wasn't I am only one mother. I fear that most of them will die no matter what I do." "Is there anything that can be done" I ask. I've done my share of killing since coming to this world but even I can't just stand by and let babies starve to death. Especially not sapient babies.

"I thank you for your concern" she says. "Unfortunately, for most of them there is nothing that can be done. As I said before they must eat regularly, but what I failed to mention is that they cannot yet process normal food. Which brings us back to the issue of me being the only mother left. I reckon that with plenty of food, and I do mean plenty, I can care for at most 8 maybe 12. Even that would be putting a huge strain on my own body. If I tried to care for more than that though I would only be prolonging their suffering, I fear."

I briefly confer with Yuna who agrees to take them in. She even agrees to share some of her food on the condition that they stop hiding their sapiens and actually contribute once they are old enough. Ok so I may have added that last part in myself, but hey if they want to stop being treated like vermin they need to stop acting like vermin.

I stayed there trying to reach out telepathically, but I never got any response. Eventually, we had to move on. I tried not to think about what we were leaving behind instead focusing on what we were able to achieve. They would have all died without our help. We saved 12 babies and a mother. As much as I wish we could have saved them all at least that's something.

Stolen story; please report.

As I walk, I begin to talk with Ralette. Her name being one of the first of many questions I asked. I don't want to interrogate her but there are a lot of questions that need answers. For one "how come none of the other sapient races are aware that rats are sapient?" Her response was one that I was not prepared for. "The simple truth is they aren't. At least most of them aren't. I know of no other sapient colonies anyway."

"How is that possible" I ask now more confused than ever. "One of our ancestors achieved the spark of sapiens. None of us are sure exactly how it happened. Our oral history tells us that even as a freshly weaned pup he was smarter than his peers and even most of the adults. As he got older, he began using his smarts to get around traps and figure out how to reach otherwise unreachable food. One day something just clicked. to hear him tell it, it was like a blade of grass he didn't even know was covering his eyes had been removed. He was suddenly aware of way more than he could previously even conceive of. After these last few days, I can kind of imagine what it must have been like being the only sapient rat in the colony. It took some time after that for one of his offspring to be born sapient. It was rare at first but since sapiens allowed them to collect food faster and more efficiently than others, those with sapience were able to breed more often. Slowly as the descendants of that first sapient rat began to outcompete and out breed the other rats in the colony the odds of a rat being born sapient began to increase. Sadly, the odds are still only around 70% at best."

"But why hide your sapiens from the other sapient races" I asked not really knowing what else to ask after what I just learned. "That was a decision made many generations ago. It was decided that it would be best to wait until the colony as a whole was 100% sapient and we were sure that the last non-sapient pup had been born." Thinking about it I can see the logic. It's hard enough to be taken seriously as a sapient being. I can only imagine how much harder it would be for Yuna and the others to take me seriously if I was constantly surrounded by other turtles who weren't sapient. Knowing that there are non-sapient rats is not the same as watching a non-sapient rat do rat things while another rat tries to convince you he/she is not a wild animal. My biggest take away from our conversation is that Yuna and the others should be prepared for some of the pups to be non-sapient 'normal' rats.

Personally, I think they should have been more proactive. Once sapient rats became the majority, they should have kicked out all non-sapient rats once they became adults. This way the spark of sapiens would get passed to other colonies. Of course, that is assuming that they all contain at least the gene, or spark as they call it, for sapiens if not full blown sapiens. Either way I'm suddenly aware that there are some things my healing aura can't heal, and malnutrition is one of them.

I guess our next stop really should be some place to hunt and gather berries and the like. None of my residents are farmers and even if they were I don't exactly have any seeds. Not that anyone else thought to bring any either.