Side Story 2: Slave to Fate... and now a rat too...

Day 37 (set during Chapter 12: The Exchange continuing from the end of Side Story 1)

(Slave girl (real name: Chanti) POV)

SON OF A BITCH!

That dirty pig bastard threw me to the primitive as a bargaining chip?!

Ugh... the face... those teeth... he's hideous.

The weapons he has... those are different. I have never seen that metal before. He uses them to cleave the soldier's weapons like cutting a cake. I don't understand it. I don't respect the craftsman but the weapons are miraculous.

The big surprise is that he had two more of his monsters; a new type a lot like the Revenant that attacked us. That ugly rat had them hidden underneath our camp the entire time we slept and searched. It sent shivers down my spine to see it. He fully intended to wipe us out if we threatened him.

I had hoped it would put the same kind of fear into the pig bastard of a captain... but he laughed it off like it was funny. Go die in a ditch somewhere!

The dilapidated town has the most amazing gates... if they weren't made of junk I'd be impressed.

The hundreds of rats peering at me really terrifies me: am I going to be a personal slave or communal property? Will I be raped? Will I be abused? Looking at the piles of filth and garbage from decades past disgusts me.

I can't really tell the rats apart!

They all look mostly the same!

I only know I'm following the one flanked by monsters! The only one that is armed.

So many of them are here at the town entrance arguing and begging with the rat I know. He is some kind of leader? Must be. How could he not be ruler with the kind of military might provided by the monsters? He leaves one at the gate, the other remains as escort.

The town itself is grandiose; the doors and homes excessive... I can only assume this is originally an enclave of a different species that was colonized when abandoned. Jurgen probably, judging by the size.

It has been theirs for a long time; a cut off outpost? It would have been back when Bastion city was being purged of monsters.

The home of MY rat is different. There are weapons everywhere. He wasn't lying when he offered to make a shipment, I sincerely doubted his capacity to make seven hundred assorted weapons. However it seems like he is almost done. He displayed a distinct genius for mathematics, I was quite impressed by his simple method of addition. I must steal it. (The ape-men don't yet have more than a basic base ten system, with words rather than symbols. It gets long and frustrating trying to keep written tabs on figures as the former accountant knows. A score based system would be a VAST innovation, a modern Earth based system a revolution!)

The home itself is filthy, there are huge pieces of scrap metal and garbage not to mention the excrement. The bedding is unpleasant looking, but I've had worse in the scribe dorms. The far end has piles of various strange things.

The food however is amazing! I've only ever eaten wild berries on the farm, these strange fruits are magnified beyond compare in sheer flavor and size. The water is clean enough, but the fruit is astounding.

There are two other rats here, the big gray one seems a little nervous and the brown one looks annoyed. At me.

Day 38

I slept restlessly, scared at every movement.

My clothes are stained with sweat, from my stress. I hurriedly change and notice mid-way through the rat, my owner is watching. I'm so shocked I freeze. I'm even more terrified since he clearly has lustful eyes.

Yet in the end instead of something cruel... he merely holds my wrist... I don't understand the gesture. Is it affection? He clearly seemed pleased.

While the rat family is out I try to clean, using a simple broom. It is hard work, I'm not at all used to housework.

The rear half of the room is an astounding treasury! Wealth that would rival the entirety of Bastion City's earnings for a decade. Trust me, I know.

When they return there is no praise or even positive affirmation.

I am ignored by the male rat, aside from a brief glance over the odds and ends I sorted.

He leaves, the big female with him. The small brown rat stays. She still hates me. She chases me out of the house. I spend a few hours in the street, trying to stay calm with all the eyes on me.

The monster the rat had with him is broken! He went out and hunted down some massive creature. Then he made massive bow things in the street. I don't understand, but his look is grim. The things he does with the shell of the creature and it's parts is fascinating, as they twist and meld together without his touch.

We end the day with a meal of meat. Meat! I haven't seen this much meat, outside a storeroom. It is a rare and valuable thing and the flavor is magnificent.

I give the rat my arm again in his culture's strange gesture of kindness, but his expression is bafflement.

Now I'm even more confused. What was the point of the gesture in the first place?!

Day 39

Lots and lots of talking.

As he makes things I barely recognize the male rat talks, asking about what this and that is. He seems to be remembering our lessons fairly clearly, even writing them down in some strange, foreign language on the wall to practice. He's diligent.

A small rat joins us, one I'm not familiar with. He learns along with the older male. He's cute. He reminds me of a furry vole. We used to catch them in the fields. He is very young, so I help him as best I can. My owner makes a miraculous knife out of the strange light gray metal, a more beautiful piece than I have ever seen.

The brown female rat got into my baggage, took my underwear and shredded all of it. Not a single piece but what I wear is salvage-able.

Day 40

The rats learn languages quickly. I'm astounded.

My owner has demonstrated his ability on the monster he controls, the broken one. He made it a new arm, more fearsome than the last. It looks a lot more intimidating, almost as scary as the revenant.

Not much happens otherwise, aside from loud noises in the distance. Cave in?

Day 41

More noise, it is endless. The owner looks frightened. He works harder.

His speech is almost at the point where we can converse.

The brown rat eyes me as usual with an unpleasant glare.

I try to confront him about his 'wife' in front of his 'son' but he takes it literally. It was sarcasm.

Later I try to get his affection by offering my wrist again but he seems disappointed. Rats. They're frustrating.

Day 42

The monster (golem) is stomping loudly in the room.

Everyone rushes outside with a weapon. What?

I follow and hear more of the rumbles. Then I see it at the gate... Butcher! We're all going to die!

I run and hide. Maybe it won't find me here if I burrow deep in the junk.

…

There is silence?

I wait for a while and eventually I check.

The Butcher is dead?!

That is incredible. The male rat, my owner is dying. The big female is dead. Shit. I'm going to be in Hell living under the orders of the brown female or the other rats.

Then the merchant caravan arrives. They must have left home immediately with the ores...

I don't want to be a slave...

I offer them the wealth of the rat and the weapons in exchange for freedom and a share in the money. I can't leave the female rat alone as my legal owner... I talk the merchants into taking the female and the little rat as slaves, since they have value as a healer (brown female) and novelty (little rat). They are the only two the male rat could have told I was a slave, the other rats weren't close. He talked a lot with these two. I can't take the chance they can press their claim later. As slaves they have no rights.

Shame about the male rat, his skill was special.

I take the knife he made as a memento. I am sorry, but I can't be kind. I liked you a little. I don't like the idea of being slave to the brown rat. Die peacefully as you asked, I know the female rat won't let you with her healing. She is obsessed, not that I don't understand her.

I'll never forget you, either.

What we learned:

Chanti really had a crush on Rick!

Her betrayal was as much to give him a clean death as it was to secure her extended freedom.

Seen from the other side Rick is really confusing.