Chapter 1

Day 1

RATS!

…

Uh...

UWAHHHH!!!!

I can feel my body being tugged even though all that has feeling is my neck, face and scalp... I think they are biting me deeply and shifting me...

I'm only barely able to breathe anyway...

I think my spinal cord is partially severed. I still have autonomous abilities i.e. my heart still beats and my lungs expand and contract slightly. I just don't feel anything or have the ability to move.

I pray they cut my veins or an artery and kill me soon. I'm not a religious man but as the saying goes: 'There are no atheists in foxholes'.

…

Day 2

I'm so very tired...

You can't sleep in this situation.

There are more rats now. Perhaps twenty or thirty.

Eventually I feel the lethargic sensation I so desperately want.

I'm bleeding out.

As I start to lose my vision a great big rat crawls onto my chest. The size of a small cat the rat sits there grooming itself, because it is red with my blood. It stares me in the eye for a moment. Then my eye-sight fades to grey.

As I watch the rat it sniffs at my clothes then carefully grasps a button from my shirt and bites off the connecting thread. It leaves with the button.

Killing me wasn't enough? You had to rob me as well?

…

Fine... take all I have, I don't have a use... for it... any more.

...

Day 1- Reincarnation~

I'm cold, wet and naked...

Did I really just die?!

I mean, I feel alive again.

I can feel my arms and legs again.

I can even move them slightly.

Things are a little strange, as I can feel bodies nestled against me.

…

I'm blind.

No... scratch that I can't open my eyes.

I'm so thirsty.

I smell something nice and follow it...

I taste milk...

I think there is a nipple in my mouth.

I drink until I am well fed.

The feeling of satisfaction doesn't last long... but I fall asleep quickly.

This is how I spend my next six days.

Day 6

My brothers and sisters... I still can't see them.

We are all a bit fuzzy now. Mother seems to come and go.

I hear squeaks that seem to have meaning, but it is just outside my understanding.

Day 9

We are very hairy now and we continue to grow.

Day 13

Late in the day I manage to open my eyes.

My death was caused by rats eating me alive... and now I can only assume I am one from the smell and fur. Quite a cruel turn of events. At least I have had a lot of time to get acquainted with the idea.

Well after so much time sleeping on top of and beside my siblings I understood we were rats... but I am actually shocked by what little I can focus on.

We aren't rats. We are rat-people. We have hands and feet, even faces closer to human than rodent. Aside from the obvious rodent teeth and the scaly tail. All together there are four of us. As far as male and female goes... I haven't the foggiest idea which is which by eye-sight but smell is a different story. I have only a single sister.

…

We are in some kind of nest made of fir tree branches. It sits on solid stone ground and I can even see shelves roughly made from wood. I think this is a house, as it isn't a natural shape... it is rectangular and flat, like it was paved or chiseled. There are houses like this still used in many places on the world I came from, carved out of solid stone and used for centuries.

Tools, odds and ends and junk covers the room. Here and there I see things that might be precious, a candle-holder plated in gold, a few colorful stones that might be gems. There are also things that might at one time have been useful, such as a heavy tome that has been torn to shreds. So this is what a rats nest looks like from the inside. It feels kind of cozy.

I notice shadows moving at the entrance and see mother for the first time. She is simply a humanoid rat. She walks past on two legs. Delicate and careful. As she passes me she reaches out and scratches my head in a friendly manner.

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“You're a quick one.” [Mother] “Most wouldn't be able to see until tomorrow.”

“...w...wh...a...t... am...I?” My voice was hoarse and a different pitch from my human memories. I was only barely able to form the appropriate syllables... and I wasn't talking in English either. Is this some kind of genetic memory?

“Now that is impressive, I haven't heard a kitten speak a proper question in less than a month before.” She came closer and ruffled my furry noggin. “You're special.”

She pondered my words for a while.

“We are what we are.” She concluded.

“Wha...t...do...o...th...ers...call...u...s?”

“Vermin, I suppose.” [Mother]

I lay there quietly for a while. So even intelligent, talking rats were still considered pests?

Better try to get my bearings.

“Wh...ere...am I?” [Formerly John]

“My, but you are full of curiosity.” [Mother] “We are home.”

I was about to reply to the simple answer when she continued her explanation.

“This is the house I was born in. For as long as you live it shall be your home, too.” [Mother] “Likewise, out there is the village of our kind. It has been ours since before our grandfather's grandfather was born. Beyond that... there is the maze.”

Maze? We were literal rats in a maze?

“The maze is vast. You can walk for days and never see anything but the maze. There are paths and places in the maze, our village is one.” [Mother] “Aside from that there are two nearby we frequent: the swamp to the east and the forest to the south. Anywhere else and you will be in great danger.”

Huh... I guess that explains the tree branches.

“Where did the things around us come from?” I asked haltingly. I pointed at the book to clarify.

“Hmm... that one came from a looted caravan in one of the deep tunnels.” [Mother] “We do not go there without caution and stealth. A beast slaughtered the creatures that owned it.”

So... she couldn't identify the killer or the slain. That sucks.

… but perhaps she doesn't need to.

I waddle over to the book on all fours and take a deep breath.

Yes... something like soot mixed with the smell of... (to my senses anyway...) death. Not rot or decay, but imminent and undeniable slaughter. Like a horrific monster from a movie, in scent form.

I attribute the soot to the previous owners of the book, because there is no fire-place in this home of ours.

“You are clever, my son. I believe that is what I shall call you from now on... Chirrik (Sharp-minded one).” [Mother says proudly]

We talk more, as the other children squirm looking for milk.

Finally hunger gets the better of me and I fall asleep, feeling nourished and loved.

Day 14

Well... when I woke up my sister and one of my brothers had their eyes open.

I spend my time learning to walk and talk better. Mother seems to be out foraging, or whatever it is that she does.

She didn't understand the concept of a father... which is probably why she is the sole care-giver. Our species doesn't have those kind of bonds.

I sort through the odds and ends, the junk scattered around us, describing it verbally to speed up my control over my new mouth and vocal cords.

Five gemstones of questionable worth.

A kitchen knife a size too big and rusted solid.

Torn clothes and pages from the book.

An iron breastplate three times too big for a rat to use... I wonder how she got it in here... perhaps it was here before the rats, even? Funny, it isn't rusty.

A lone boot, which smelled like the book.

A small pile of pine-nuts.

I want to search more but my sister and both my brothers jump me. They can all see now and my movements had them curious. They try to pin me.

I quickly turn the tables as the most experienced in walking, by simply sliding out from under them as they can't clasp their fingers yet... which elicits squealing laughter from them. I spend the next few hours playing with them, until Mother returns.

What we learned:

The labyrinth is so vast it has villages/cities and traders.

Rats = mess

Kids will be kids.