As the remaining humans went down to the third floor, the hive got ready for a long wait. The group the wolfgirl belonged to had went around in circles on the floor before being wiped out by the werewolves. If they had a mouth, the hive would have sighed. 

The werewolves were not here but the newly made Ratlings were so the hive believed the result would be the same.  The humans would go around and round before the Ratlings got to them and kill them. No fun to be had for the hive and definitely no chance for the Fire Spirits to show off their beast. The hive was young but it wasn’t stupid. If the 5 humans of wolfgirl’s group did not managed to get to the hive, what chance did the 3 humans now had? 

None that the hive could think of, so it wasn’t all that surprising when one of the spirits within the hive had the idea, “What if we changed one of these humans to a Ratling?”

“That’s…not a bad idea actually!” a spirit admitted. “We did it for the werewolves, so it’s only fair we do it for the Ratlings.”

“Hold on,” another spirit said. “Didn’t we said we are not going to do that anymore? Changing a human to a hybrid takes a lot of energy.”

“True,” the first spirit admitted. “But we are almost full now and that’s not even counting the 3 humans that had died!” 

“Now that you mentioned it, how come no one is screaming yet?” one of the newer spirits asked. “There should be new spirits in us with the 3 deaths right?”

“We’re not eating spirits right now.” another spirit replied. “We eat spirits to convert them to energy. Right now, the deaths of the humans is already energy so no spirits, no screaming.” 

“Sounds about right. Still, we need to use the energy before it disappear. We can’t store anymore of the energy if we are already full.”

“What a great problem to have!” A spirit said. The rest of the spirits within the hive laughed loudly at the joke. 

“Hold on, we are holding on to the energy for the werewolves. It’s seems wrong to be using them for the Ratlings now.” the previous spirit argued.

“Oh, it’s been 3 weeks already. We don’t know how long they’ll be gone. It’s fine.”

“Hey look! The humans are finally going the right way.” 

The spirits within the hive laughed. By luck, the 3 humans had made the correct turn and was now heading in towards the room of the hive. Not that it matter much as there were 15 Ratlings waiting for them in the rooms between them and the hive. 

Somehow the Ratlings had noticed the presence of the humans in the tunnels even though they were digging the fourth floor. They had stopped their digging and most of they had creeped up onto the third floor. Now they were waiting for the humans. 

The hive had noticed this about the Ratlings. Unlike the werewolves who had stalked the wolfgirl’s group through the tunnels, the Ratlings seems to prefer to lay in wait for the humans. The difference in tactics was strange and very interesting for the hive. It never told the werewolves or the Ratlings what methods to use in fighting and seeing the natural differences between the two was something very intriguing to the hive. The spirits wondered what other tactics their future creations would have.

Then the humans stopped. They had reached a room and something had caught their attention. The Emperor Daisy! The flowers growing on the wall got their attention and they seemed to be arguing! The hive focused on the humans to hear what they were saying.

“Not possible!” the shaman said in a quiet voice. He was looking in shock at the wall of Emperor Daisy. “The Emperor Daisy grows on trees. They are not found in caves and not so far underground.”

“Well, there they are!” The Boss said. “Right in front of us. This dark mage must have found some way to get around that restriction.”

“That’s what I’m saying Boss; it’s not possible!” the shaman said. “It goes against the natural order. The Emperor Daisies do not grow in caves. To do this, that mage would have to change the very nature of the Daisies. That’s just not possible!”

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The Boss shrugged. “The wall in front of us says otherwise. There are 10 Daisies growing on it.”

The shaman could do nothing but shake his head. “Not possible!” He said again. “Even the mages in the cities…”

“What?” The Boss asked.

“That could be the reason the mage is here.” The shaman replied. “He could be doing some illegal magical experiments. The mages in the cities found out and chased him out.”

“Uh…wonder if they got some sort of reward for the death of this mage.” The Boss put his hand on his chin as he considered. “It would be nice if they had maybe some sort of a notice board so that we could see who they wanted dead…and how much they are willing to pay for their deaths.” 

“Ha! When pigs fly!” the hunter said. “Where would they put this notice board?”

“At the local tavern.” The Boss said immediately. “It’s the first place we go to when we go into the city right?”

The 3 humans laughed and the hunter of the group began plucking the daisies from the wall. “Hey Bron, what are you doing?” The shaman asked.

“Making gold! You know how much the city pays for Emperor Daisies? There’s 2 gold on this wall right now!” 

“That’s…not a bad idea,” the Boss said. “We’ll probably need to show them as proof anyway.” 

The hunter known as Bron smilingly plucked all the Emperor Daisies on the wall and put them in a small bag that was attacked to his belt. His smile suddenly disappeared. He looked sharply at one of the entrances of the room and the other 2 humans took their cue from him. Weapons at the ready, they took their battle formation. A short time later, 10 pairs of eyes greeted the humans.

The hive felt the shock of the humans and several of the spirits within the hive laughed when the shock turned into fear when a loud rattling sound came from the Ratlings. Feeding well from the shock and fear of the humans, the spirits within the hive fully expect the Ratlings to swarm and kill the 3 humans. Which was why what happened next surprised the hive to no end!

Then the Boss screamed. The Ratlings pulled back in shock as the Boss’ body turned reddish. To the shock of the hive and the Ratlings, the Boss then attacked! Leaping forward, the Boss cut down the distance between him and the lead Ratling in one big jump, and he swung his sword. The next moment, the head of the ratlings rolled on the floor. 

Silence reigned in the room as all eyes were on the rolling head of the Ratling. The death of the Ratling gave nothing to the hive as it was one of the hive’s creatures but once again, the spirits of the hive had to admire the strength of these humans. They were truly strong and the several of the spirits within the hive began wondering how many dead Ratlings it would take to kill these 3 humans. 

The answer was…none!

Seeing the rolling head of one of their own, the rest of the Ratlings turned tail and ran! In a group, all the nine Ratlings ran towards the hive. The group ran passed the remaining Ratlings who were still trying to reach the humans. These Ratlings did not know what was happening but they understood the fear of their kin and began running back in retreat alongside them. The Ratling ran into the last room of the third floor where the hive was and…ran past it without stopping.

If the hive had a mouth, it would have dropped onto the floor. What was happening? Why didn’t the Ratlings just swarm the humans? Why were they running down to the fourth floor? It would take the spirits days of discussion and arguments before they came up with the answer. The Ratlings were many; they were sneaky; they were strong; but they were also rats!

As rats, survival came from running away from predators. Rats do not fight unless cornered and with the hive and an entire floor of tunnels behind them, the Ratlings were currently not cornered. So the Ratlings did what rats do; they ran. In short; the Ratlings were cowardly. The Ratlings would learn in time that they were now more powerfulthan before and with numbers, they could take on humans but now, at only 3 weeks old, the instinct of the rat was supreme. They ran and made no apologies for running.   

The silence in the hive was supreme and was only matched by the dumbfounded looks of the 3 humans. Then the Boss of the group shrugged and the 3 humans went on further into the tunnels. That broke the shock of the spirits.

“Hey, you guys noticed that?’ one of the spirits asked. 

“Oh we did,” a spirit replied in shock. “The Ratlings were useless!”

“Yeah,” another of the spirits hotly replied. “They outnumbered the humans but were more afraid of the humans than the humans were of the Ratlings!”

“The idea we had about turning one of the humans into a Ratlings?” A spirit said. “Forgot about it! In fact let’s never create another Ratlings ever again!”

“Well, that’s an argument for later but that wasn’t what I/we were talking about.” The first spirit said.  

“What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t any of you guys heard the humans? The idea given by them?”

Several of the spirits had to ask. “What idea?”

“Two words,” the spirit replied. “…Flying Pigs!”

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