Day 16

I hate how exposed I am. I hate being unarmed.

I want to get a weapon but I don't have a clue where or how. All I can do is remain alert and try to solve the puzzle in front of me.

I clear away the dirt from the wooden section of floor with my furry hands. Some kind of trapdoor only a few feet wide. Rectangular with a keyhole, hinges on one side and a thin gap near the lock. Hmmm, how to approach this... I look at my claws. I take my forefinger and try to find the mechanism. I am pleased it is made for the giants, I can fit a whole finger down the hole. I twist and push but the mechanism seems stiff. Perhaps it is rusty.

I look around and find the book cover.

If one method fails try another. I slide the leather binding down, trying to find the bolt and push it back. Again it is too stiff. With nothing better to try I use both methods, and with a dull click the door unlocks! I spit and rub on the hinges in the hope I can still open it.

Pulling it I can barely lift it, injuring my finger slightly in the process. As the door opens the hinge creaks loudly.

Inside I find a cavity roughly five feet deep. I can't see the bottom as it has filled with dust over the years from the gap and keyhole.

I filter through it... and find to my dismay a bone. A skull.

As big as my own... there are more. Human-like with different features and no adult teeth... an infant giant perhaps stashed here for protection, only no one could come back. That's a depressing reality.

Aside from the bones I find a set of tools... a mallet, chisel and a rasp all sized for a giant. The rasp is as long as my fore-arm. I can't even shift the mallet.

Then in the corner of the safe I find a piece of cloth wrapped around something solid.

Untangling the cloth I find I'm holding a handkerchief the size of a towel. Inside I find a ring the size of a wristwatch. A pinkie-ring? It has a seal on it inscribed in a pale metal. The seal is an image of a bird-thing (it has teeth) with letters of an unknown script circling the picture.

I pause trying to identify the metal... but it doesn't look right. I look at my fur and see the same washed out gray...

I glance around and notice there are no light sources in the room. I'm using night-vision! No wonder everything is the same drab color. I retreat to the doorway and the dim light of phosphorescent moss.

I think the metal is silver embossed with bronze for the seal. As for my fur I'm slate gray. Huh. Slightly disappointing since I went to the trouble to look.

…

I'm about to try on the ring when my sister notices I'm in the doorway again and rushes over, half-asleep. She collides with me in a bear-hug and in the process knocks the ring from my hand. I catch it gingerly. She likes the look of it... the hungry look in her eyes is palpable. So... I guess that means we're pack rats. Not such a big surprise from the odds and ends around us...

Regardless I try out the ring.

Of course it sits there, dangling on my wrist inert. What? Did you think this was some kind of game? If magic items exist I'll eat my tail. Rare.

Well, as it serves no purpose and has no value... at least not a monetary one as far as I can tell... in rat society so I let my sister have it. She hugs it tight and wears it proudly, strutting like a fashion model... if only she actually looked like one, but all I see is a fuzzy rat-person. Still she has a calming influence on me, so what do looks matter? She's cute.

Next I try to figure out what is going on with the fake rear wall.

I take the rasp, holding it like a broadsword and tap at the wall in various places, trying to probe the cavity and find any anomalies. I find the wall is completely fake, a divider. I look at the gap in the wall. It isn't very big, about a foot wide and two long. Maybe I can grind a door with the rasp...

“Whatcha doin'?” [Sister]

“You talked!” [John] “When did you learn how to do that?”

“Dunno. Just did.” [Sister] “So... whatcha doin'?”

I gesture at the wall. “Trying to find a way past it.”

“Why'd you wanna do that?” [Sister]

“Because I want to find out what is on the other side.” [John]

“Nothin' much back there but cold, hard stuff.” [Sister]

I spun at the words.

“You've already been in there?!” [John]

“Sure, just squeezed through the hole, 'cause I was curious.” [Sister]

…

I forgot I'm a rat. Tight holes aren't a problem. They're a door.

I immediately force my body through the hole and once my head is through the rest is easy.

Cold, hard stuff indeed...

Gold. Bars of gold as big as mattresses. At least I assume it is gold bullion, there isn't any natural light in here and there is no way I'll be carting it to the doorway.

The weapons of giants... a mace three times my height. Beside that a dagger, still taller than me and far too heavy to lift.

Gemstones the size of apples in a rotten bag about the size of a sack.

Still nothing that really constitutes anything I can use. They might as well be rocks.

I wander into the back, the area is so dark I'm barely able to see. Even night vision has limits, if there is no light at all.

I walk into a slab of wood half my height.

I feel out the dimensions and notice a crack a foot down from the top... it's a box. I feel around some more and locate a hinge. I circle the box and find the other side, which has a clasp. A simple catch that flicks open... or would if I was a giant. I barely heave it open. Lifting the lid I find cold, hard objects that are smaller than the other stuff. I grab a few and move back to examine them. Broaches!

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I found a jewelery box!

I pull out things one after another, chains of gold like coils of rope, more rings. Earrings and hair pins. Feeling around I find a lot of miscellaneous jewelery which was probably some important lady's heirlooms. I guess that makes this room a vault.

A few pieces are cracked, probably by age. Amongst the collection I find the perfect thing... a tie pin of an anchor.

What possible use could a tie pin be?

Remove the cover and you have a needle an inch thick, as long as my arm. Add the anchor and you have a guard. It is basically an épée. A stabbing sword. It is silver, I think. The smell is different from the ring from earlier but that may have been the bronze I smelled. Well I'll find out in the light.

Plus as it has a cover, it doesn't look dangerous. More like a scepter with the needle guard on.

I search a little more before taking one of the broken broaches and introducing it to the rasp. I manage to snap off the short needle. I recycle the ruined jewel bag into a rough grip for my new dagger.

I stash my rough weapon behind and emerge with the épée.

My sister wants it as soon as she sets eyes on it.

“There are more rings back there.” [John]

“But the one you gave me is special...” [Sister pouting]

Sigh.

I have a glance at the weapon under the dim light... huh... it is almost white? Platinum?!

I have no clue... I wonder which is harder, silver or platinum?

Well, I'll sleep better knowing I've got this little spike nearby and a safe room.

I show it to her anyway, since she is so curious.

Since she can talk, I ask a few questions.

“Did you see how Mother reacted when she came home after that monster attacked?” [John]

“She was sad. She cried.” [Sister] “She took the other two with her and left. When are they coming back? I miss them. I liked playing with them.”

…

I forgot she is essentially a child. She doesn't even know about death.

“The reason Mother cried is because they are dead. They are gone, I am sorry but I am now the only brother you have.” She seems to be about to break down again... uh, what should I say... “But you shouldn't be so sad, they moved on. They will be born again in a different body, one day you might even meet them again. Okay?” I assume this is how reincarnation works anyway...

“They're alive?” [Sister]

“Yes. Whatever happens we live on, I know because it happened to me.” [John] “I have died and been reborn. Most don't remember, but I do.”

Wait... does that mean there is no Heaven or Hell? That the bloody murderer I killed still lives?!

Damn, damn, damn, damn... DAMMIT!!! …if I meet that bastard again I'll give him something his reincarnations will remember!

“So... that is why you are so different.” Mother says from the doorway, coldly.

Uh...

Bite the bullet and say it...

“It is true, but before that I am your son. I will always be your child.” [John]

“Liar! You left them to die!” [Mother]

“No...” [John]

My sister stands up suddenly and walks over to Mother. Without a word she strikes Mother across the face. They are silent for a while.

“You would protect this monster?” [Mother hisses]

“He did all he could to protect us. If you cannot understand that, then you are not my Mother either.” [Sister] “But then you were not here, at all.”

The pained look on her face is even more horrible because I understood why she was so hurt over everything.

“No... you were here, weren't you Mother? You ran like the rest. I can understand why you did, that thing was deadly. You gave up on us. Before we were dead.” [John] “I understand because I would have run too, if I had a choice. But my brothers and sister were here as well and they just sat there, too scared to even run. So I had to do something, anything to protect them. I may have died once. I lost family to a monster in that life as well. I was here and able to do something this time. You are as much my family as the others were last time, the only difference? I knew them a little longer.”

I looked her in the eye. “The only reason I did what I did was in the end because I remember who I used to be. If I didn't I would probably have been petrified by fear and eaten. I don't fear death as much as I used to. We don't end with our body. I know this now.”

…

I watch my Mother cry for the first time. My sister does as well. They hug each other and wail.

As I turn to leave them Mother catches hold of my hand.

“...I'm sorry... please... I was just so scared.” She pulls me into a hug. Before I know it I'm bawling as well.

What we learned:

The giants were involved in some kind of devastation.

The rats clearly had no clue about mechanics or lock-picking when they colonized.

Treasure you can't use is just pretty garbage.