As I wake up, I see Black has also evolved. We lead our sibling out of the burrow to meet up with the rest of our group. To my surprise, our group has grown. now all the children have left their families to join us, as most of the adults began to watch out for themselves more so. As usual, We head towards the forest and send my white siblings inside to scout it out. You can never be too careful.
Only one came back and reported that there were strange creatures walking around, around half as big as the straw walker (scarecrow). They had green skin and yellow eyes. They had seen my other white sibling, caught him, and ate him. I boiled with rage at this news. I really liked my white siblings, they were always so bright and cheerful, and they followed orders with no problems.
I squeaked to the others and told them we were going to kill the green walkers. They began to fidget around in fear and squeak about it not being safe. They had never really killed anything before. I sighed inwardly. All new recruits were like this, thats why you get them used to fights early, whether it be bar fights, or enemy gang members on the street. Then later once they're used to it, you have them kill the person their fighting with. Thats how I was taught at least. You can rush the process, make them kill to get in it'll harden them up kinda, but that way ends up producing quite a few emotionally or mentally damaged ones, so i tried to avoid it. I produce only the finest troops the streets have to offer!
But we don't have the convenience of waiting and doing it my normal way. I convince them that we’ll never be safe if we don't take a stand. I wish we could speak with actual words, these squeaks that we communicate with only relay the basic meaning of what I'm trying to say. Luckily they understand though.
As we venture into the forest, eating herbs as we go. I inform the mice of the plan. Rush over the creature one by one, never stop biting. They won't be able to defend from all of us, especially since there’s around 250 mice and a few rats now. Soon we see the first green walker. It...it looks like a goblin from the movies I read as a kid! First the walking scarecrow, now goblins? What kind of world is this…
I give the signal to approach stealthily. When we’re not far from it, the goblin begins to sniff the air, as if it could tell something was wrong. I signal to attack, and lead the charge. The goblin swings at me with a branch, but I jump and land on its shoulder, biting into its neck. The mice follow my lead, and soon, the goblin falls over, covered with rats.
After eating all the goblin’s flesh, we hunt the others in the area, before returning to some of the herbs. It goes without saying that we went home that night with our stomachs bulging. That night, I had the dream again. Kyleah appeared in front of me with an odd expression on her face.
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Kyleah: Well…. this is soon, but I understand why now. despite your small body, youve been killing goblins. Well, I have to applaud you, but I don't approve of your tactics. Just mindlessly rushing the enemy? You’ve been blessed by the goddess of strategy! Ugh I suppose it was the most logical approach as a mouse after all, ah excuse me, rat. Well, thanks to those herbs you've been eating, as well as for defeating goblins, you've been granted another evolution. May I suggest the poison rat evolution, you’ll gain more benefits as I am your goddess and poison is a tactical weapon. Well, then again, its your life.
Kyleah vanished, but unlike last time, more than one path appeared. A rat with flames sparling through its hair, A rat with fangs and claws dripping poison, A rat with larger, sharper claws and a spear-like tail, and… a bat all appeared. Why a bat? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. The goddess told me I should choose poison, I'm choosing poison.
When I awoke this time, All my siblings are rats. Ahhh, Its nice to see their growth. Black has also evolved, into the sharp clawed type rat. I think I’ll call it battle rat. Although we both grew, he’s bigger than me now, and has a bit of trouble getting out of the burrow. I see that there’s very few mice left amongst the rodents under me. ‘Gray!’ they all squeak happily upon seeing me. I guess that the same they chose for me. I have no room to complain because I’ve been calling people by their colors too.
The adults approach us. Apparently they want to join us. I look, and there's few rats amongst them. They probably want to join because now their children whom they abandoned are stronger than them. They want protection from the people they failed to protect. A memory of my former mother begging me for money flashed in my mind. I won't let these children be used by useless parents. Not like I was. Thankfully most of them have the same mindset. Just as we were about to leave the worthless trash behind, Someone went over to their side.
It was Black. He began squeaking about how we can’t abandon them, how its not what our mother would have wanted. We have power now, we could kill the scarecrow and take the field for ourselves. But I know better. This field was planted, and I know of only one creature that plants crops. Humans. I know better than most how good humans are at killing, and if we make an enemy of them, more than a few of us would die. When I tried to communicate this to him, he called me a coward. That ungrateful bastard! If I wasn't trying not to scare my new recruits, I’d kill you right now! Whatever, Black is dead to me.
I tell my gang to gather whatever they consider theirs and meet me in the forest. Two gangs can't share one territory, and I don't want a war right now. We gather together at the edge of the forest, and head inside. It’s time to find a new home.