“Yup kiddo, there’s sure some crazy stuff out there, out in the world.” Mr. Tim had muttered to her with a mild slur to his words late one evening, the one with the party. Before everything had gone wrong. Again. “First your village bur- goes away, ya’ never get to see ma or da again. Then you go to the city, hope to find some justice against the monsters, but they spit in your face. But then some light mercifully shines on your head. Just a little, mind you, but still there. You meet a little friend, one that helps you find many, many more. You make some mistakes, get some small victories, but find out that even with your many little friends, you ain’t enough. So you meet some funny grey fella’s. You try to forget that you coulda’ sworn that one of their people might have been at your home. When it happened. All so you can fight towards the bigger picture.”

Mr. Tim had sighed loudly and dramatically, the half-full contents of his tankard slopping over the brim to douse the snoring figure of one of Ellie’s new big brothers, who didn't react.

“The bigger fuc- sorry, the bigger picture. Always gotta’ look at it, kiddo. My little friend is pretty good with it. Funny thing, innit?”

Ellie remembered being rather confused at this point. Little friend. Did he mean Mr. Bert? He was little, or at least littler than Mr. Tim.

“Showed me the potential of the archives. Pointed me towards the big” He had gestured with his arms to demonstrate exactly how big he was referring to “big fu- er, big rat. That’s the thing.”

“Rats,” said Tim.

“Crazy smart. ‘Specially with that thing guiding them,” he slurred. “Showing them.”

With that, Tim took another swig. Ellie had nodded cautiously, playing along just as she had when her dad had gotten this drunk in the past, speaking nonsense and patting her on the head affectionately. What thing, though?

“You know, kiddo, just in case. I asked ol’ Philbert to put in a good word for ya’. Make sure you was taken care of, just in case someone tries to bully you or something and I can’t make it in time.”

Mr. Tim’s voice trailed off into nothingness, his spare hand playing with a cookie crumb, of all things, in his breast pocket as he sank into thought.

“Asked him to keep an eye on all of you. Even those Blinders. Getting’ kinda used to having them around.”

“…”

“Make sure, make sure you remember this.” Tim’s voice drunkenly stumbled, growing smaller and smaller as his eyes stared into a void only he could see.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Keep an eye on the rats. They’ll keep you out of trouble, you’ll see.”

And then his eyes closed as the thin half-elf in grubby scholar’s robes sank into a drunken sleep.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Ellie shrieked as a rat darted across her foot and nipped at her ankle, causing her to hop on one leg and glare at the offending rodent.

“No, no.” Galler rasped from her side, putting one hand on her shoulder to pull her to a stop. “It’s got a point. Something’s wrong. Not just the bodies. This whole place.”

He cocked his head to the side, one ear up in the wind as his eyeless face scrunched up in consideration.

“The shouting’s died down. Don’t hear no metal either.”

Now that her big brother had mentioned it, Ellie’s eyebrows drew together in thought as she considered it alongside him. It was odd, she supposed. Weren’t battles supposed to be loud?

Then, her eyes widened as she caught a blur of cloth shoot through the sky, followed by another blur of grey shooting in the opposite direction. She tugged at Mr. Galler’s sleeve in confusion.

“Something strange happened?” Galler questioned her with a tinge of concern in his tone. Ellie nodded in agreement.

“Oddities all around…” He muttered, and then straightened up. “Sorry Poncho. We’d better back off, get back to the base camp until things get straightened up.”

Another rat streamed over her foot, followed by a second and a third, all weaving drunkenly across the mud. Tiny claws drove deep scours into the sopping, thick mud, and she could even just barely make out that their legs were shaking under the sheer strain of dashing through the muck.

“Keep an eye on the rats.”

Her eyes widened as one of the rats swayed and vomited pure black bile onto the ground.

“Keep an eye on the rats.”

A whip-thin demon barreled past her and Mr. Galler, sparing not even a second glance at her before the demon disappeared around a bend.

Did he… was he missing the skin on his back?

Another rat dashed around her leg, causing Ellie to stumble and place a hand on the muddy wall to steady herself. It sank deep, deep into the wall, sucking her in up to her elbow until Galler roared in surprise and yanked her away into the center of the trench.

“ENOUGH! Poncho, hold on!” Galler yelled as he hoisted Ellie over his shoulder like a potato sack and took off running.

“Keep an eye on the rats.”

A morbidly obese rat sank its claws into Galler’s pantleg, its stomach heaving in exertion as it hitched a ride until Galler said something in a venomous voice that Ellie was able to add to her collection of new words and kicked it off.

“Keep an e-“ Ellie blinked as she forgot her train of thought. As she wondered how nice and chilly the mud would be. As the world became leached of all color. As the wizened faces in the walls muttered encouraging words to her and smiled gently. Only a quiet voice in the back of her head, one that sounded like it was speaking to her through several feet of water, whispered that those faces held eyes in them that were cold and emotionless. And then, the world flashed in color again as a skinny rat, so thin that its ribs were clearly visible through its fur, launched itself from the top of the trench to bite deeply into the bridge of her nose. The faces disappeared from the walls of the trenches in a flash, only to be replaced by several bodies of various races gradually sinking into the mud, all of them missing the skin on their faces.

“Keep an eye on the rats.”

Ellie was finally beginning to understand what Mr. Tim had meant in his drunken rambling that one night.