N15, Evolved Form

“Gjumph!”

I followed the command of one of the ratmen tamers and jumped in place as high as I could. Besides me my three subordinates were also following the order, each in their own way.

Number One had gotten pretty used to the training already, maybe too much. He was enthusiastically doing what the tamers commanded him. I wondered if he would forget who was his boss if this kept going on.

Number Two was trying his utmost to do the bare minimum. In the last few days he seemed to have learned what was the least amount of effort he could put into the tasks without being lashed and carefully stuck to that.

Number Three was at a middle point. He followed the ratmen commands, but he wasn’t doing his best. I had caught him lazing around a few times when the trainers weren’t looking.

As for me, I was acting as a good pet, as degrading as that sounded. I wasn’t trying to suck up to the tamers, but also didn’t disobey them. As someone who was planing a jailbreak, I didn’t want to stand out. The problem was, sometimes I had to intercede when Number Two got into trouble, and other times my followers would wait for me to do the tasks first because they hadn’t understand them. The final result was that I might be getting a bit of attention from the tall ratmen.

When we were in the walled training grounds I was mostly keeping an eye on my subordinates, but I hadn’t forgotten to gather all the information I could about this cavern we were in. Unfortunately we hadn’t visited any other area of the cave yet. Each day we would come to this ground once or twice to practice and the rest of the time we were kept in the rat pens.

During our forced stay here I had managed to confirm that the ratmen themselves weren’t always guarding the hallway outside the cells. But there were a couple dogs that took turns watching it. I was unable to tell them apart yet, so there might be more than two.

I had also been able to see a part of what I thought was the ratmen’s village lying against the side of the big cavern, in a slope that stood higher than the rest of the cave. There, packed into a few different levels separated by piled stone walls, were some kind of tents made of animal hides. Each day I could see dozens of busy ratmen going up and down carrying all kinds of stuff I couldn’t tell from afar. Another thing that had caught my attention was the upper level of the slope. It contained a lone dwelling that overlooked the whole settlement. I was pretty sure it had to be the village’s chief residence, but I was unable to confirm it due to the distance.

Apart from that, I could proudly say that I had grown quite a bit. I was still unable to measure up to the dogs guarding the pens, but I was still getting bigger. My subordinates had also started showing signs of growth, this time it seemed all of us would evolve almost at the same time. It wasn’t very surprising since they were only slightly younger than me, and unlike before they should be eating the same amount of food I did.

“Grunh!” One of the tamers of group shouted and I followed his command absent minded.

Not far from us some groups of two or three fierce rats were also being trained, and orders could be heard all around the place. I didn’t know the reason, but the ratmen’s crude language seemed to be a rough imitations of the human tongue.

Thanks to that I could already guess the full scope of the commands we would have to learn by looking at the rest of the rats being instructed. They covered a similar area to the ones I had taught my gang.

‘I wonder if they are doing well by themselves.’

Crack!

The sudden sound of a short whip being wielded by one of the tall ratmen shook me out of thoughts. The vaguely humanoid creature commanded us to run faster and I focused my attention on circling around the tamers. I hadn’t been lashed yet and I hoped things would stay like that.

“Gratthack!” Our next task was to sink out teeth in a skin-covered rock. This one was unmistakably from a lizard and had some padding under it. I had also seen some brown hides that must have belonged to big lizards like the one that had pursued me after chasing the mouse, and green ones that were from a completely different reptile.

Number One was the first one to attack the fake beast. He acted like it was a real one and shrieked loudly before biting the neck area from behind. Number Two also took action before me, this activity was the only one where he put some effort. Next Number Three and I charged at the rock with feigned enthusiasm.

“Cghome.” After biting the hide for a while the tall ratmen called us back and distributed some morsels as a reward.

Once we ate them the training session seemed to be over and I was separated from my subordinates. The three of them shared one of the pens while I was still kept alone inside mine. As the tamers led all the fierce rats towards the cell’s hallway, I paid attention to how they divided them. I was unable to tell apart the other rodents, but I knew the biggest ones were being put in individual pens. Maybe the reason was that they would evolve soon.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

When my turn came the tamer guided me to my cell and locked me inside, soon another ratmen would come to feed me. In the meantime I took some time to think about my next form. Currently I was noticeably bigger than the common ratmen, I didn’t know how evolution worked yet, but it didn’t seem like I would change into one of them.

‘Maybe I will end up as a tall ratman directly.’

I tried to calm the doubts that had been bothering me. In the few days we had been trapped in this cavern I had noticed that the dogs were given the same commands they taught us, and I suspected one of the fierce rats had evolved into a dog. Regretfully, at the time I was sleeping and only was able to witness a bit of what had happened when the fuss woke me up.

‘Ugh, there must be different branches of evolution.’

That one was my main hope. The dumber fierce rats would evolve into dogs and the intelligent ones would end up as ratmen or tall ratmen. Of the two candidate species the ratmen were the ones that resemble us the most, it would be strange that we weren’t related in any way.

‘But maybe there are special conditions to evolve into a ratman.’

The doubts were tormenting me. If I ended up as a ratman I would be on the right path to achieve my goals. The immediate one of escaping this cave and the long term one of being human again. If I could establish a village like this one my options would increase dramatically and I would be able to gather information about this mysterious underground place. On the contrary if I transformed into a dog I would be a pet for the humanoid beasts and it would be more difficult to escape from here along with my subordinates.

‘No! I must stay positive! This is where the dumb ones are separated from the bright ones!’

In the middle of reassuring myself the ratman in charge of feeding us reached the entrance of my cell and threw a few generous chunks of meat inside. I soon started eating, letting my doubts fade to the back of my mind.

‘I will surely evolve into a ratman. There is no other fierce rat as fitting as me.’

…

‘Shit! I’m part of the dumb ones.’

I had just woken up and had found my body completely changed. It had taken a few more days than expected, but I had finally reached my next form.

‘And I’m a fucking dog.’ I thought somberly.

My legs were a lot longer, it seemed like all the weight and muscles I had as a fierce rat had been stretched to make my body larger. I was sure I looked like those skinny mutts, dark brown short fur, with a slender body and tail.

‘Fuck this! Who decided what I must change into? I want a retake!’

I was really annoyed by the course my evolution had taken. I might be stronger, but it felt like I had drifted further away from a human form. As a rat I could at least use my paws to touch myself and handle some basic task, like I had done when I grew into a fierce rat and had used them to examine the shape of my head. But now I couldn’t do it, these dogs paws couldn’t grab anything, they were only good for standing and moving around.

“Dogh!” While I was gloomily assessing my new body a ratman had come close to my cell and was pointing at me. I was sure they would make a fuss about this.

More ratmen started gathering and soon a tall individual came to control the situation. Using disconnected words and hand signs he ordered one of the normal individuals to go look for someone. “Gho. Fjind. Dogh Mhagter.”

‘Damn! I bet it’s the fault of your shitty training. I could have evolved into one of them!’

I stared at the ratmen. My envy of them was is higher than ever, I couldn’t help but compare their hands with my useless dog paws. I was definitely getting further away from my objective.

After a while a familiar tall ratman arrived at the bony door, I could recognize him thanks to the necklace he wore. All ratmen had accessories made of teeth and bones, each one with unique patterns. I was sure they used them as some sort of identification since all of them looked almost the same.

This ratman was the same tamer that always took me in and out of the cell and who stood with me in the walled grounds. He told the others near the door to give him some space and took a morsel out of his pouch. Looking a bit anxious he threw it inside my cell.

I was in a bad mood, but awkwardly walked towards the piece of meat. It felt like I was balancing myself on top of four long twigs. Unlike my previous evolution it would take a bit to get used to this new body.

While chewing the treat I tried to put on a neutral expression, nothing good would happen if I acted up at this critical moment. After confirming that I wasn’t acting violently the tamer decided to slowly open the bony door. Then took another piece of meat and threw it at its feet. Following the whims of a humanoid rat was humiliating, but I swallowed my anger and behaved myself. Seeing me out of the cell the rest of the ratmen took several steps back with nervous looks.

From their actions I could deduce that there had been a few accidents with fierce rats going out of control after evolving into dogs. With my current strength I was sure I could at least kill one of the small ratmen before the others reacted, maybe even one of the tall ones.

“Ghsit.” The tamer commanded me and I begrudgingly sat on my hind legs.

“Fgholough.” Seemingly pleased and having gained some confidence he led me to the walled grounds. The rest of the ratmen scrambled to make way for us. It was my first time seeing the place so empty, there were only a few individuals looking at the two of us from the different openings in the wall.

“Grunh.” He ordered and I started to run around him. My steps didn’t feel right, and I stumbled a couple times. But little by little my strides grew more steady.

“Cghome.” Seeing that I had more or less adapted to my new legs the tamer called me back. This time he offered me a treat directly from his hand, he had only did this a few times before. I carefully took it in my mouth, trying not to touch his hand with my teeth. In fact I tried not to touch him much at all. Although I had nothing against this particular tamer I didn’t feel much sympathy for the ratmen, at the end of the day were the ones who captured us and separated me from most of my followers.

“Gratthack!” Once I had eaten the tamer pointed to a big rock with a brown hide over it. I charged at the mock beast and sank my teeth on the fake neck area. To my surprise the part came off easily, it looked like the strength of my bite has increased a lot.

“Cghome.” I approached the tamer once more to receive another morsel, then the tall ratman patted my head. I didn’t like to be treated like a pet, but I had to endure it for the sake of escaping this place.

‘Hmm, if this ratman is going to be by my side from now on I should give him a name. Tamer One? Ratmen One? T. One? Hmm… Tone? Yup, that will do.’

I would call him Tone, short for tamer one. I wanted to think about the ratman as a temporary associate rather than an owner or a master as Tamer One would suggest.

“Fgholough.” Tone started walking towards one of the openings in the tall wall that bordered the training area, this one wasn’t the same that led to the cells.

I was finally going to see the ratmen village.