N22.5, A Stroll Through the Ratmen's Village

‘So peaceful.’ I thought as my mouth opened to let out a big yawn.

I was strolling in the flat side of the village accompanied by the chief. It was one of the rare occasions when he made a round around the settlement to see how everything was going. The other ratmen would look at us and make way while bowing. They looked at us, and especially as the chief, with almost adoration. It felt as if he was some kind of royalty that had descended from his palace to visit the populace.

Suddenly the chief stopped and pointed at one of the tamers present. “Ya, yes ya! Go to the craftsmen and tell ‘em to mend yer coat.” Hearing his voice the intimidated ratman bent so fast that I thought his back would snap and quickly ran in the direction of the slope. We watched him for a moment before continuing our stroll.

Other than the nervous glances that some of the lesser ratmen discreetly shot at us, everything was calm down here. Despite all the attention, I was also feeling quite relaxed. That was, before I noticed a creature looking at me from inside one of the tents we passed by. It was the dumb wannabe bird. I still held quite a bit of resentment against that thing, but I was a magnanimous person and had decided to spare its meager life. I ignored it and was about to look away when the feathered reptile opened its mouth and clucked while swagging from side to side as if taunting me.

‘Ugh. Don’t look at it. You won’t win anything from snatching it. It’s barely a snack and with all those feathers it must taste awful.’

I tried to calm myself, closed my eyes, and inhaled deeply. That thing was testing my patience. I was sure a vein was popping on my head.

Not happy with its initial taunt the stupid creature left its perch and darted all the way to the tent’s entrance, as far as the rope on its leg let it go. There it flapped its poor excuse of wings at me as if asking for a fight.

‘Let it go, it's only a brainless imitation of a bird. It didn’t do anything to you, it was just bait. The ratmen tamers were the ones who screwed your gang.’

My internal voice was making great efforts to cool me. I knew my hate for the animal was irrational. But it was difficult to cope with my emotions since I couldn’t put a face to the true mastermind of the ambush that had cost me my band.

Far from stopping, the bird jumped at me. Seeing something approach my head I instinctively took a step back. The rope prevented it from reaching me, but once on the ground, the creature clucked at me again with a smug expression. This fake bird was declaring its victory.

‘Alright, now it’s asking for it!’ Even the rational part of my mind had stopped trying to stay cool. ‘It obviously wants me to end its sorry life!’

After holding my anger for so long I let it all out with a powerful roar. The cocky bird finally felt threatened and took refuge inside the tent. Seeing it get away I gave the chief a meaningful glance.

“Ya want that thing? It doesn’t have any meat,” he told me with casual indifference.

‘It’s personal.’ I frowned looking at him.

The chief pondered a bit with his hand on his chin. “Alright, my treat,” he finally conceded with a casual motion of his arm.

His voice had barely dissipated when I barged inside the tent and snatched the dark green reptile from the corner where it had hidden. My strong bite granted it a merciful death and with something else in mind I brought it outside to chomp it in front of everyone.

As I had thought it didn’t taste very well. The feathers in its wings and tail got in the way. ‘But I had had worse.’ I thought, remembering the crabs and others creatures I had the dubious pleasure of savoring during my first weeks in the underground.

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As I was plucking the reptile’s feathers, I saw the veteran tamer glaring at me from within the crowd of ratmen that had gathered around. I purposefully made my bites more crude as I kept my eyes fixed on the hateful ratman. The display clearly triggered him, I could see it on his face, but he couldn’t do anything about it now, especially not in front of the chief.

I was delighted at his fury and did my best to smirk at the tall ratman. Once I ended devouring the treat I shook the feathers that were stuck on my face and turned to the tamer. Then, I snapped my bloodied mouth at him.

‘Don’t think I have forgotten about you, you will be the next.’

He was far away from me but I could clearly feel that he was intimidated by the obvious threat. After evolving I was almost as tall as him, and a lot stronger. In a direct confrontation, he wouldn’t last me two movements, not even with the help of his mutts. Slightly trembling from a mix of fear and anger the veteran tamer turned around and left the scene with his three mutts in tow.

“I know ya ar’ angry at ‘im but ya should leave ‘im alone.” The chief had seen our small exchange and was looking at me with a troubled expression. “He is indispensable for the village and I already punished ‘im.”

I wasn’t satisfied with his decision but didn’t show it on my face. Someday I would find the chance to get revenge.

Afterwards, the chief and I continued our walk. We visited my followers for a bit and eventually passed by the craftsmen’s area and went up the slope. As always the two dogmen were training there. Lately, they had been going at it a lot more often.

The chief greeted them and they saluted him back with some well-vocalized words. They used just a couple of them, though.

‘These two aren’t talkative at all.’ I thought as they went back to train and the chief and I entered the house on top of the slope.

According to the chief’s routine, it was almost time to sleep, but I was still feeling energetic and pointed at the wooden furniture inside of the tent.

“Again with dat?” The chief felt a bit annoyed at my wordless question. “I told ya, it’s difficult to find wood ‘ere. You have to travel north for several days to find it. It’s a dangerous journey, so we rarely go there.” It was an interesting piece of information, or at least it was the first time he had told me about it.

‘I know that. You already said it a dozen times! What I want to hear are the details!’

For someone who was aware that I could understand the spoken language, he was a bit obtuse. This wood gathering place in the north was my only clue to an exit from the underground, but the chief wouldn’t tell me any details about the path that led there. Instead, he would start talking about wood and how it came out of these things called plants that grew from the ground. It was so frustrating!

‘I know! I wasn’t born in a cave!’ That’s what I wanted to yell at him every time.

Seeing me frowning, the chief gave me some meat to munch. With the meat in my mouth, I sat on the soft pelts that conformed my bed as he started rambling about some wood carving techniques.

‘Sight. More useless trivia.’

I didn’t bother to pay him any attention. Instead, my mind fluttered away and I recalled the events that had taken place since I arrived at the ratmen’s village.

At first, I was convinced I was going to be their dinner and later my mind was set on escaping this place. A lot of things had happened, but I only regretted having lost my gang. I didn’t know if I could have recovered them if had taken some more decisive actions but it was something I couldn’t change now.

After my failed attempt to find my minions, I had already subconsciously decided to stay here. I didn’t want to admit it, but I had grown a bit fond of this place. It was the safest haven I had found in this hellish network of caves. Here I could grow stronger without having to worry about any danger, and the chief would spill some bits of useful information from time to time.

‘I also can’t abandon those guys, especially now that they aren’t disgusting rats.’ I thought picturing my three followers.

But not everything was positive, staying here was hindering my journey. Sooner or later I would need to depart, I couldn’t postpone it forever.

‘Postponing things was the reason I was unable to find the other members of my gang.’ I thought gloomily.

There was also the matter with my current body. My new form was powerful, incomparable to the rat I had once been! But it wasn’t getting me any closer to recovering my human self. I had learned how to survive in this place, but I didn’t have a single clue about how to get my old body back.

‘I doubt this body of mine will surprise me and evolve into something half-human, but at this point, I can’t carelessly reincarnate as I did in the past.’

At least with this body, I could stay alive long enough to explore this place.