Rats are truly vicious creatures. When cornered with no way out, faced against an opponent hundred times their size, it will bite back. It’s nigh impossible to kill one with poison. And if it can escape a location only by gnawing through steel wiring, it will do just that.

And ratmen are even more fierce.

You can only imagine what the orc settlement felt, faced against three of these warriors.

The battle was fought on the edge of a hallway that reached the space that held a big mudpit from which the asexually bred orcs spawned. There was a lot of them, but that didn’t matter thanks to the fighting taking place in a slightly narrow hallway, making it nigh impossible to surround the vicious assassins. It goes without saying that the orcs were not prepared for this encounter.

Actually, their huge numbers were a blessing to the three rats. Orcs might be smart enough to run away from a challenge they didn’t think they could win, but too dumb to keep track of if they still had the numerical advantage.

But the victory of the battle didn’t depend on the orcs their stupidity, or the rats their strategic high ground.

No, it truly depended on-

‘BART not screwing up!’

‘Brynn!’ I exclaimed. ‘I’m telling the story!’

‘Well, I knew you weren’t going to say this right and interceded. I had a better view of things so why isn’t it me telling the story to begin with?’

‘No way, you’re the least charismatic person ever. You suck at telling stories and since our own Bart can’t even hit a note right, the responsibility of spreading word of our heroic achievements falls to me, obviously.’

‘Well I’m sorry I I’m not a knight.’ Brynn rolled her eyes. ‘I swear, it’s as if you people get a charisma boost. And we’re not an adventuring group! We don’t have the numbers.’

‘we practically are.’

‘But what happened next?!’ The three other female rats exclaimed in anticipation as Bart glared daggers at Brynn while he tried to take off the complex puzzle that was his armour.

‘Well, alright Anite, I guess you can tell the story.’ Brynn said begrudgingly, seeing as the three pairs of goggle eyes seemed to be aimed at me. Or two pairs at least, and Clemy’s resting scowl.

‘Very well then, but no more interceding!’

‘I second that.’ Bart yelled from a distance, which got him another eye-roll from Brynn.

So, what the victory truly depended on, was that the rats held their formation.

While true that the sheer numbers of the orcs could potentially exhaust the rats, and one wrong move could mean the difference between life and death, the rats had their teamwork.

On the front, a fully armoured champion pierced through even the most daring of grey critters with his spear, and to his left, a dashing swordsman instilled fear in their opponents small hearts.

But on the back… A brilliant archer shot down the mightiest of warriors and filled any gap that their frontlines showed. Triumphantly, Brynn raised her newly made bow, which got her a wink from Amethyst. She could oversee the whole battlefield, hanging from the vines, taking every orc unexpected.

‘So basically, those red-eyed little monsters never stood a chance.’ I concluded.

‘He’s really over glorifying me.’ Brynn assured our audience. ‘Most of what I did was putting an arrow in every orc that launched at Bart whenever he left an opening in his stance.’

‘You’re underselling how hard that was.’ I stated as I put an assuring hand on her shoulder.

‘Every fucking time.’ She sighed and from a distance we could hear Bart shouting some curses again.

‘But weren’t there a lot of them?’ An exited Tess asked. ‘It just seems so scary.’

‘Well,’ I started. ‘There were a lot more than the last time, but both nests were pretty young. I’d say there were around forty of with five adults among them.’

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‘The three of you are insane.’ Clementine stated coldly as she loosened the pink ribbon around her neck. ‘With the few numbers you had, you still picked a fight with an entire community, which, by the way, wasn’t even bothering us. What if we talked to them and established trade or something?’

‘Ahum, well young orc tribes are hardly talkative. And what would we get from them? Ratmeat? We already have that.’ Brynn retorted while I swallowed my shock from the unexpected comment.

‘Well said.’ A quick, lowkey fist-bump took place between the two of us before the secretary resumed to prove her point.

‘All that I’m saying is that there’s only eight of us. Even if all of us are highly capable it’s important that we fill the gaps in our collective ability and that we avoid creating unaffordable ones that you’d leave in the, very likely, case you’d get yourself killed. If instead of committing casual genocide,’ The group gasped at the word. ‘we could forge long lasting relations with other tribes it would be so valuable.’

As I tried to process the wall of words I looked at Brynn.

‘Any more of those good retorts?’ I asked.

‘No,’ She grimaced. ‘but she did say we aren’t expendable.’

‘That might be the sweetest thing she’s ever said.’

‘If they weren’t bothering us,’ The secretary groaned. ‘then what was the point to it?’

‘I don’t want to say anymore.’ I muttered awkwardly.

‘I don’t mind.’ Brynn commented happily. ‘I’m real contend with the situation.’ She was practically radiating.

‘Oh, oh, I know!’ Amethyst exclaimed. ‘You get items right? From Cordoliflos!’

‘Yeah almost. I got this.’ I said as I reluctantly waved at the brown shirt I was wearing.

‘I thought you just took that from an orc.’ Clementine stated in a bored fashion after which Tess and Amethyst exclaimed in disapproval.

‘Can’t you see what high quality craftsmanship this is?’ The seamstress asked the secretary. ‘It’s even fully buttoned with long sleeves perfectly tailored to Anite’s body… and the texture. How can you think an orc made this?’

Clementine held her hands up in defeat as Amethyst nodded in agreement.

‘You’d almost wonder if this god of caves is also a god of fine crafts.’ Amethyst pitched in.

‘But that’s not all.’ I stated triumphantly. ‘According to Brynn it has enchantments to make it sturdier. It’s almost as tough as Bart’s leather armour.’

‘And I have a cape!’ Bart exclaimed triumphantly as he reappeared, now without armour, but with his grey mantle and a big ceramic pot. ‘It has enchantments on it to repel stains and strange odours, so I don’t have to be careful while cooking.’

‘I think it’s actually a mantle.’ Tess suggested.

‘Whatever.’ Bart said as he put the pot onto some stone I raised to function as furnace. After which Amethyst began to lit a fire underneath.

In the last three days Several things happened.

We found a source of clear, drinkable water in the form of an underground lake. It took a lot of time and effort to bring back to the base, but King had made a storage facility and ceramic pots, so we wouldn’t have to walk two hours every time we fancied ourselves a sip of the good stuff.

Then we found another orc settlement, which we launched an attack on after two hours of careful planning.

And last but not least, we found out that every single one of us does in fact have a talent. For most of us it was pretty obvious what we could do, but after we begrudgingly admitted that Clemy was pretty clever when it came to words, numbers and politics we found out that Bart had the most grand and valuable talent of all.

He could cook.

‘How can Brynn tell what kind of enchantment there is anyway?’ Clementine asked, adding to her quest to scepticism.

‘She just sees apparently.’ Bart answered. ‘We don’t really know how it work either.’

‘So you killed forty people for magical clothing.’ Clementine concluded. ‘And how can all these things even be magic? Aren’t magical artefacts really rare.’

‘We didn’t know we’d be getting clothes and they’re hardly artefacts either.’ Brynn replied. ‘These are just goods with an enchantment. High quality goods with enchantments, but not something a god would fuss over. And this is what I got by the way.’

She opened the bag she’d put beside her when she sat down there and revealed the countless feathers after which Amethyst gasped dramatically.

‘And they’re hardly people.’ I assured her. ‘They’re just a kind of pestilence, a kind of monster, like goblins, or kobolts…’

‘Or ratmen? Yeah, let’s say I don’t get it.’ Clementine said as she looked away and redirected the conversation. ‘Any way, aren’t you supposed to get something from Cordifolius he thinks you need?’

‘Sure.’ I said heartily, not wanting to further dig into her earlier comment either. ‘I got this shirt because I was lacking armour. Bart got his mantle because he was shaking after the battle. And Brynn got these because arrows without feathered ends tend to sway.’

This caused Bart to nearly choke on the air he was breathing.

‘You’ve been shooting swaying arrows around me?!’

‘Oh so now you suddenly have a problem with it. Well don’t worry, I could see the arrows wouldn’t hit you.’ The archer claimed, having absolute faith in her skill.

‘I could’ve died.’

‘No… you would have died.’

‘These feathers will really help her a lot though.’ Amethyst then commented. ‘I just hope you get an actual bow next time.’

‘Oh, I’m so happy you say that.’ Brynn sighed in relief. ‘I didn’t want to say anything, but…’

‘I know. And I’m sorry. Apparently, bows aren’t my expertise. I wish I could’ve given you something better, but I will be able to attach those feathers. I just remembered how to.’

‘It’s definitely better than nothing though.’ The archer winked at the craftswoman.

‘You’ve been shooting around me with a sloppy bow and swaying arrows.’ Bart whimpered as he threw meat in the big pot of water that slowly started to simmer.

We waited for Bart to finish the stew. Somehow he managed to give it more flavour by throwing in bark from the vines giving it a herby taste. It wasn’t gourmet, but still the best thing we ever tasted. It elevated everybody’s spirit, just a bit. Even King seemed to approve as he started to partake in the hearty diner.