N12.5, Dangerous Encounters

I stopped chewing the rat and ran.

There was no time to admire the big lizard, given it’s size I would only end as its dinner if I didn’t scram. A couple seconds later my thoughts were proven right, the scaly beast was giving chase. I could hear the sound of it’s feet and tail sweeping the floor as it rushed towards me.

‘This is the worst!’

It had been a while since I had to run for my life. After assembling the gang my life in the hallways had gotten relatively comfortable compared to the hell I had to endure during my first days.

“Shriik! Shriik! Shriik! Shriik!” I warned my minions of the imminent danger. Until now I had never used this command in a real situation. If things went well they would seek shelter without disbanding, and if things went wrong I could at least use them as decoys to distract the over-sized reptile.

‘Damn it!’

I didn’t like the prospect of losing some members, but a couple minions’ lives were a small price compared to my own. I reached the cave where I had left everyone to pursue the mouse. Number One was there at the helm of the gang, he was leading everyone to another lateral passage some distance away.

‘Well done Number One!’

That guy was very diligent, he truly deserved to be my second in command. As the members of the band disappeared into the narrow aperture I decided to follow them. The big lizard was still some distance away, but I could feel it was gaining ground. Escaping blindly by myself would only lead to an untimely death.

I caught up to everyone as the last of my minions got into the passage. The three members at the rear of the group were struggling with each other to advance inside the small space.

‘Shit! Why do you have to fight at a time like this!’

I grabbed one of them from his tail and pulled him towards me, the rat protested and tried to bite me back before realizing who I was. I ignored him and pushed the other two from behind. We needed to get further inside the passage quickly. I could hear the big lizard catching up. He was probably already at the opening of the small cave, but I didn’t dare to look back.

‘C’mon! Make way!’

The minions in front advanced at a glacial pace along the shrinking passage. My hearth was beating fast from the tension. Was this cave a dead end? I hadn’t checked it in my rush to escape. I ignored the dark thought and kept pushing the rats in front of me while trying to ignore the scrapping sounds coming from behind. That lizard would reach us soon, those scaly beasts were able to fit in surprisingly small places.

‘Push! It’s going to catch up!’

We were barely making any progress. The path ahead was a messy pile of rats hindering each other in their hurry to escape from the danger. The big lizard was now really close, I swear I could already feel it’s breath on the tip of my tail. I looked in horror at the minion by my side, the one I had pulled from behind, and wondered if I should use him as a sacrifice.

‘Should I?’ I hesitated for a moment. ‘Of course I should! Most of these guys would have died long ago if not for me.’

I was thinking about the best way to pull the rat towards the scaly beast without putting myself in danger when the minion in front went through an exceptionally narrow hole. I rushed forward without missing a beat, leaving the last minion behind.

On the other side the path broadened, I could see all the members of the gang waiting there. It didn’t look like we had hit a dead end. As I turned to asses the situation behind us the last of my minions rushed past me completely frightened.

The big lizard was struggling to reach this side. It scrapped it’s brown scales against the wall and menacingly snapped it’s jaws at us, but it could barely poke its head through the small gap between the walls. I took the opportunity to have a good look at it. Apart from its big size and brown color it wasn’t very different from the lizards we had hunt in the hallways.

‘Should we try to hunt it?’

I looked at its ugly mug, its wide mouth could hold a whole rat inside. If it caught one of my minions that would be their end. The claws it was using to scrape the hole that separated us also seemed uncomfortably lethal.

‘Nope! It’s too risky.’

The reptile was way too big for us to take it down. I wanted to get back at it for chasing us, but a single mistake would lead to someone’s death. In these circumstances I could only leave it be.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

‘I will come back for you on another occasion, maybe.’

I ignored the persistent lizard and moved deeper into the passage. We needed to find another way to our lair.

...

After many twists and turns we had finally found our way back to the path that branched off the main cave. All the time I had been nervous about the possibility that we could encounter the vicious lizard or another dangerous beast.

‘That thing was probably an evolved lizard.’

Given it’s appearance and size I was quite sure of it. That had to be the one of the creatures depicted by the humans on the walls.

‘What other dangerous creatures are there in these caves? There can’t be many more, can it?’

I comforted myself thinking that I could trace the new creatures we had encountered today back to the signs in the wall. There was no need to get stressed over it, I just needed to pay attention to them and I would thrive in this place like I had done in the corridors.

As we kept advancing along the cave a dim light shone from one of the passages, interrupting my thoughts.

‘Darn it!’

I hadn’t calmed down after our encounter with the big lizard and now we had bumped into a group of warriors. I promptly guided everyone to a side path, I didn’t want any more close death experiences today. We had advanced a few tens of meters when, after a slight curve, the passage abruptly came to an end.

‘Agh!’ I screamed internally, feeling frustrated.

In my hurry I hadn’t checked the marks on the walls, again. What a dunce! I looked back, the dull light had grown brighter.

‘Should go back and try another path?’

The humans were approaching, but they had to be relatively far away yet. We had better scram while we had the chance. I started making my way back when I heard a thunderous voice. “Keep your eyes open for any monsters that may be close. Don’t let your guard down just because we already explored this cave not long ago.”

‘Ugh.’ I staggered. ‘Too late.’ I suddenly changed my mind, the passage we were in was deep enough to hide and the humans had no reason to come our way.

‘Yes, I will let them pass by.’ My minions were well trained, and I hadn’t recruited any new ones that could blow our cover. I quietly instructed them to hide behind the boulders and crevices of the passage.

We waited in utter silence, only the sound of footsteps and the gritting of metal could be heard in the underground space. Then the footsteps ceased abruptly.

‘Are you kidding me?’ I couldn’t see a thing from my concealed spot, but I was sure they hadn’t stopped far from the entrance of the passage. ‘Shit, everything is going wrong today.’

“Look at this, here you can see some traces.” The same deep voice form before talked again. “What can you tell me about them?”

‘Oh, no.’

This was a lecture for young human warriors. I had listened to a couple ones from far away in the corridors while trying to understand their language. That was before I had formed the gang. It hadn’t taken many times for me to understand that these lesson always included killing big amounts of rats. They weren’t something we should get involved with.

“These are the footprints of a big group of dungeon rats.” A much younger voice answered. “And there are at least a couple fierce rats among them.”

‘Damn!’ I cursed internally. They had to be talking about us.

“It seems they have entered that lateral passage.” The young voice continued.

‘Shit!’ I wanted to bury myself on the ground.

“Something else?” The deep voice asked again.

“Hmm, they must still be inside. This passage doesn’t have an exit.”

‘Double shit!’ Even a kid could tell how dumb my move had been, but I didn’t have time to brood over it. I had to think about the best way to escape from this place in case the humans decided to get rid of us.

“Oh! Let’s go kill them!” A childish voice spoke enthusiastically.

‘No!!!’ I almost unintentionally screamed at the remark. ‘Oh God, let them go on their way!’ I plead to whichever of The Six Gods was watching us from far away. There was no way we could take on a group of warriors. I had seen too many rat massacres to think otherwise. The best I could do was try to slip the members of my gang past them. How many of my followers would be able to come alive from this? How many could resist the temptation of the human baits?

I heard a pair of feet slowly approaching. “Come back here, Vesturke. We don’t have time for that.” The deep voice called the owner of the steps back and the sound stopped.

‘Yay! Gods, you are the best!’ I was sure I wasn’t religious, but at that moment I thanked the gods with all my heart.

“Oh, c’mon! Can’t we just, like, kill a couple? And maybe have them for dinner?” The human with the childish voice protested.

'Ugh, do kids here eat rat meat? What a shitty place!'

A deep silence followed the nasty remarks.

“Well, now that I have explained the basics we should start to go back…” The deep voice ignored the child’s request and told the others to leave.

“What? Already? We didn’t even fight anything!” The childish voice complained loudly, but withdrew from the passage. The human warriors kept talking as they walked away into the distance.

I left out a sight of relief and promptly started to command my followers. We had to get out of here as soon as possible.