“Awooooooooooooo!”

Mousey shook when he heard the sound and ducked his head low. “What was that?” he whispered to Nycht.

“A dog,” Nycht whispered back, glancing over the cinder-block in their path. “Have you never encountered a dog before?”

Mousey shook his head.

Nycht groaned and rolled his eyes. “Have you been living your life with your head in the sand?” Nycht stared at him for a moment, and when Mousey said nothing he shrugged, glanced over the cinder block again, and scurried off to the next shadowy spot he could find.

Mousey followed, not even daring to look up at the sky, lest he spot a hawk swooping down to snatch him up in its talons.

Just as the two of them had safely reached their hiding place, Mousey heard a licking sound in the distance. His eyes scanned his surroundings and fell upon a cat on a window sill, licking his own paws. Most disturbing was the fact that, unlike most beasts, the cat wore no clothes. The feline was completely naked, save for a collar around its neck.

“Cat…” Mousey whispered.

“You’ll see many of those around here,” Nycht whispered back. “And they’re far more savage than the ones where we come from.”

“More savage?”

“They eat thinking beasts, if those beasts are wild or vermin, like us.”

Nycht scurried off to a long stretch of tall grass, and Mousey followed. With this new cover, they could sprint far longer than they had before, and be fairly confident that they weren’t spotted. Part of the trick, as Nycht had told him, was to keep moving whenever you were concealed, but stay mostly still when out in the open.

Eventually, they came to the end of the tall grass, and in front of them lay a mess of rubble. Without hesitation, Nycht pulled himself up onto one of the broken stones and slipped through the tiny gaps between them. Mousey struggled to follow, finding it difficult to pull himself up as quickly as Nycht had.

Once Mousey had reached the shadows between the stones, Nycht shook his head at him. “You’re terribly out of shape for this sort of thing.”

Mousey wanted to protest that of course he wasn’t as fit for something like this as someone who’d made a career out of it. However, he remembered Sopher’s words about anger, and resisted the temptation.

Nycht continued through the crevices between the stones, grunting and groaning as he squeezed through.

Mousey followed as best as he could.

His paw found something sticky.

A spider’s web!

Mousey flailed, trying to get the web off his paw, and squeaked in panic.

Nycht hissed at him, “Keep it down! You’re going to get us caught!”

“Spider web!” Mousey whimpered. “Are there spiders in here?”

“Yeah,” whispered Nycht with a shrug. “What do you expect? If they show their ugly faces, we’ll kill them. Simple as that.”

Simple.

As Mousey got clear of the sticky web, he thought on his father’s words, and caught a glimpse of the fate he would have suffered had he continued with the Nocturnal Patrol. He’d have gotten to a point where killing was “simple” for him.

Stolen story; please report.

Then again, he’d taken the lives of a few beasts himself. How much had life lost its value in Mousey’s own eyes?

Nycht pushed through, until they reached a spot where light poured in from the outside. “You’re sure we’re still heading the right way?” he whispered.

“Yes,” whispered Mousey, pointing his paw. “The book is in that direction.”

“How do you know?”

Mousey thought for a moment. In truth, Sopher told him where to go. She’d been speaking in his mind the entire time, but he couldn’t tell Nycht about her, lest he seek to burn her, as was his duty.

“I read about it and saw a map,” Mousey whispered.

“But you don’t have that map with you.” Nycht folded his arms and shook his head. “How can you be certain?”

“I… I use magic to guide me, alright?”

Nycht snorted, a smirk on his lips. “Oh, really? Magic is based on your imagination, isn’t it? How do you know you’re not just imagining it?”

“I…” Mousey shrugged.

“Glad you really thought this out.” The lieutenant rolled his eyes and pointed out of the pile of rubble. “There’s a hole in that wall over there, just big enough for us to squeeze through.”

Without another word, Lieutenant Nycht dashed across the black street, and Mousey chased after him.

No sooner had Mousey left the pile of rubble, then his body shook as a huge animal shouted at him. “Mouse! Hey! Mouse!”

Mousey scurried faster and glanced over his shoulder to see the beast thundering after him.

A mouth full of sharp teeth, with four long fangs.

Frosty blue eyes.

Ears that flopped down on either side of its head.

The clamoring noise of the copper name-tag under his collar as it flapped up and down.

Though he had never seen one before, he was certain this was a dog, and that he’d surely die if it were to catch him.

With his eyes back on the path ahead of him, Mousey silently prayed he’d make it to cover quickly enough.

The dog’s hot, wet breath fell on his back. Mousey leapt into the hole just as those vicious jaws snapped at him.

Both Mousey and Nycht sat inside the hole, just outside the reach of the dog’s digging paws. The two mice did all they could to catch their breath after that brush with doom.

“I didn’t spot that…” Nycht said, once he’d caught his breath. He drew his sword and walked closer to the entrance to the hole, where the dog scratched and clawed.

“What are you doing?” Mousey asked, shaking his head frantically.

“Teaching this savage, a lesson,” said Nycht.

Just as one of the dog’s toes crept in, Nycht stabbed him on the pad.

The dog yelped and scampered away.

Nycht laughed. “Idiot pets!”

Mousey shook his head at Nycht. “That was just cruel…”

“He would have done far worse to us,” said Nycht, cleaning and sheathing his sword.

“We were safe,” Mousey protested, stamping his foot. “There was no reason to hurt him!”

“I very much disagree,” said Nycht. “Now he knows mice can fight back, and he’s less likely to chase us again.”

“Or he’s just angry.” Mousey threw up his paws and paced back and forth. “Maybe now he’s even more likely to chase and kill mice!”

“I don’t have time to argue with you about this,” said Nycht. He turned and started walking further into the building, his eyes and ears searching for any sign of movement within. “Come on.”

The two of them walked for several minutes in near silence, before Mousey whispered, “Last time we met you said you had been ordered to kill me. Then you didn’t. Why didn’t they throw you out of the Nocturnal Patrol?”

“I told them you defeated me and fled,” whispered Nycht. “They

find failure easier to forgive than insubordination.”

“How did you even find me in the swamp?” Mousey asked. “Did you use magic?”

“What? No. Aside from being able to fly, I can’t really use magic. I followed your tracks from your house like a normal beast.” Nycht looked back at him. “It’s pretty easy to track someone in a swamp. Mud holds prints well. It’s just common sense.”

Looking back on it, Mousey wished he’d walked backwards for at least part of the way, just to throw Nycht off his trail.

But then, something else occurred to him.

“How did the Nocturnal Patrol know where to find my family?” Mousey said, a hint of accusation in his tone. “Did you guess they’d go to Mr. Lapin’s hutch?”

“I did,” said Nycht, “But I kept that information to myself. No, the Day Patrol ransacked your house and discovered a crudely-drawn map in one of the books.”

A chill like ice water washed over Mousey. His mother had told him, in her note, that she’d hidden a map to Mr. Lapin’s hutch in one of his books. But Mousey had been in far too much of a hurry to find his mother to worry about the map.

The Nocturnal Patrol found the map he’d left behind.

It really is my fault Button was turned to stone…

A hideous screech snapped Mousey out of the moment. He leapt out of the way just in time as a pipe nearby spat burning steam from its gaps at him.

“We’ve gone about as far as we can go inside,” said Nycht. He climbed up on the window sill, and then motioned for Mousey to do the same. Once Mousey was up as well, Nycht pointed to a series of houses 100 times larger than the one Mousey had grown up in. “I’m guessing your book is in one of those?”

“The blue one on the right,” Sopher whispered. “I’ve seen it in Erinac’s dreams.”

Mousey pointed at the house Sopher had indicated. “That one.”

“Very well,” said Nycht. “Let’s see how this goes. I should warn you, there are Pets living in most of these.”