A vague memory from the static and clouds surfaced from his locked memories. It was a simple memory about one of his friends showing him a printed out of an interesting article. A new piece about the rat swarm of a legend that happens every fifty years in India. And what followed afterward was a great famine and starvation of the population.

At the time before science could document it, it was treated as a myth until one year the bamboo bore seeds. Scientists watched astounded at the number of rats flowing through villages destroying crops on the level of a large scale natural disaster.

If would be fine if it was just that, but Urist knew he wasn’t on earth anymore. They had come across strange plants, fish, and even the oxygen crystal wolf these past days. If the event was important enough to get its own timer then it should be treated with the utmost care.

Would the bamboo seeds be regular? Would the rats be the same old rat? The more he thought about, the more he feared that he had underestimated the Event. Making up his mind, Urist decided to tell everyone his thought, he also wanted to ask if they ever faced strange creatures before.

He had forgotten that these dwarfs were people that had lived lives in different worlds. Although most of them had memory loss, they might remember something important. Digging out his oxygen light crystal he started to blow on it brightening the room.

The light seemed to agitate some dwarfs enough to awake them making them rub their eyes and look at Urist. They didn’t complain since this was their leader, he must have some reason to wake them when they were sleeping.

Seeing them get up Urist started speaking.

“Wake everyone and meet at the civilization stone, we are having an emergency meeting.”

The drowsiness they had was washed away when he told them it was an emergency meeting. They didn’t know what it was, but those awake started waking their fellow dwarfs. Urist left them to the task and headed out of the cave where the guards were watching the fire and the area.

“You two, come inside, we are having an emergency meeting, follow me to the civilization stone.”

Without another word he turned around, focusing on what he was going to say to the dwarfs. He needed to make a sound speech where they needed to speed up spear production and improve the wall's defenses by adding stone and watchtowers. They also needed to modify the walls to have openings to allow them to kill the rats coming at them.

If his theory was right, then there wouldn’t be your average run of the mill rats. Taking Reaver’s skill that allowed her to tame animals and increase their growth. Why couldn’t the rats gain an innate talent from eating the bamboo seeds and grow in numbers exponentially?

What if that wasn’t the only thing that happened? What if the rats would somehow grow larger from eating the seeds becoming massive masses of flesh? What if the rats could eat others that had also partaken in the bamboo seeds and grow even stronger?

He felt crazy for thinking of things like this without proof. Only, his soul screamed that his theory was correct for some reason, he felt that his current thoughts were on the money.

Maybe I’m paranoid and if so well shame on me. But what if I’m right? Then it would be better to prepare for a bitter fight to the death.

He didn’t know which he wanted more, being wrong or being right.

No matter, even a leader can make mistakes. If it comes down to it he could apologize to everyone, for his weird paranoid thoughts.

Strengthening his resolve, he waited in the civilization room for everyone to come. Soon the room held thirty-one dwarfs within the room, they all looked at Urist in bewilderment not knowing what was going on.

He looked at every dwarf in front of him with a serious expression, by now he figured out what he wanted to say. Closing his eyes he took a breath and began to speak in a grave tone.

“In my other world, whenever bamboo started to seed rats would increase in an explosive rate. It didn’t hit me until now that this isn’t Earth, meaning that this event won’t possibly be just us facing small rats that could be easily handed.

“In theory, I’ve thought up and hope I’m the wrong mind you. Is that I assume that the bamboo will accelerate the growth of the rats, increasing their size and numbers throughout the seven day period. If this is true I expect seven pulses or less to hit us until the rat tide is over.”

“My theory is this event is tied to the Bamboo seed event. I expect that in the next seven days this will be the most dangerous enemy our home has ever faced. Therefore I wish to strengthen our defenses in preparation. I want the smiths to work on making spears with many spikes on their heads.

“Warriors will be training and helping to build the new walkway along the top of the wall. Earth mages will be covering our wooden wall with hardened earth and stones. Besides covering the wall I wish to open entries to where the spears can settle.

“I have other ideas for the wall, but I will touch on those later. Next order is that we will still be running expeditions just until the outside becomes too heated, and people fishing will only be allowed to do so if guarded by warriors. This will only be in effect if my guess is correct, if not we won’t have to worry about the rat swarm until seven days from now.”

Finishing his long announcement Urist looked the dwarfs, nay his people’s expressions while awaiting scorn from them.

Some were confused, others serious, scared, bewildered, and relaxed. But no one showed him scorn which made Urist baffled. He expected to be laughed at, taken lightly, or even stripped of leadership.

It was until Rat spoke up and broke the silence, “Um, boss one question. Where did this feeling come from? I believe you’re too smart to be insane and you care for us well enough not to jump at shadows to scare us. Don’t get me wrong I believe you I just want to know.”

Urist looked at Rat in the eye and was scratching his head in confusion.

“I don’t know. It’s just that my mind seems certain about this issue as if… Never mind. I told you what I feel and that is all. If you wish to ask me any more questions I am open to answer. If not let’s get some rest, we’ll have a long day ahead of us.”

A silence filled the hall, and so everyone except for the guards went to sleep.

Bamboo Seeding timer activated 11 Hours 32 Mins

Rat Tide timer activated 7 Days 11 Hours 32 Mins

Beast Swarm timer activated 15 Days 11 Hours 32 Mins

Point Amount: 4917