Day 52

(Little Rat POV)

This is great! I love all of this! Well maybe not the chains, the killing and the trudging. Seeing all these wonderful new places, I feel a wonderful sensation like joy. The woman with me seems tired. Perhaps she still hasn't gotten over the injuries yet. I find a nice spot and we rest. She seems thirsty and ill.

This room is filled with fine leafed plants, Chanti calls 'ferns'. There is no visible source of water but the room is moist. The floor is moss. It is chilly. Colder than the tunnels. I give her the last water in our canteen and leave her to rest, as I look for a low point in the ground.

Taking an old dry branch off a plant I dig. Mostly it is to see if there is more than rock below the moss. I find nothing but dirt for several inches, then clay. As I watch the soil weeps water. Ah, the ground is so sodden here (actually he found the edge of the water-table). It is brown and tastes bad. Just like Chirrik said he does as he forms things from base metal, I must filter out the impurities. However I have nothing that can do this, as the brown dirt seeps through the cloth baggage I brought to carry our supplies. Finally I have an idea. I try to use the moss. Pouring the water slowly through a layer of moss works! The water only tastes a little like dirt now! (No joke, it really does with the right kinds of moss: eg. Peat moss! Greydragon: teaching real-world survival in fantasy since... today. Don't forget to boil water from strange sources as well!)

I get enough to fill the canteen and our own bellies. We can't carry any more water when we leave so we have all we can drink before that. Our food, mostly nuts and spicy herbs is plentiful. As we leave I stumbled, slipping on the moss to fall on the soft ground. I can't really explain it but sitting in front of my nose is a small ring. It isn't stone or metal. What sets it apart from every ring I have seen is that it is braided fern and moss. The mossy ring is only big enough to fit on my littlest finger. I don't understand it. This thing shouldn't even hold together. I keep it to show Chirrik.

We set camp in a new room several miles further in. Chanti's injured face looks to be getting worse; it faintly smells bad. I chew up a few herbs and smear it over the ragged cut, it is the best I can do. She looks surprised, but I don't really know why.

“Why are you helping me? You should hate me like the others.” [Chanti]

“Why would I hate you? From you I learned this new tongue of yours, I saw rooms beyond my wildest dreams. This has been my yearning from as long as I have been aware: to see the unseen, to learn and observe. So why would I hate you? You bring me to places and thoughts I couldn't possibly expect. I cannot get enough of that.” [Tirmin]

For some reason she was quiet for the rest of the night. I wasn't certain she was even sleeping before, due to the pain. However she is now. The medicine must be working.

Day 53

She's still asleep. I let her sleep and explore this small cave. It has strange regular shaped rocks for a floor. They each have six sides and are roughly as wide as my foot. Strange, bitter scented water flows from gaps in the wall. It smells terrible and looks yellowish. It is warming the room. The water doesn't look harmful but the scent assures me it will kill. (Sulfuric acid from volcanic vents!)

Having sated my curiosity I head back to the sleeping Chanti. She seems to be waking. I serve her a selection of nuts for breakfast as she slowly becomes aware she's been sleeping in. She seems a little confused.

“Are you already pretending to be my slave?” [Chanti]

“Isn't this normal behavior? I mean you're sick and need rest. I can do the work.” [Tirmin]

“Godsdammit... just when I thought I hated myself, you have to raise the stakes?!” [Chanti]

“You hate yourself? Why would anyone think that way?” I asked, not comprehending this kind of idea.

I lend her a shoulder and help her walk as we leave for our destination. The scents are getting stronger, like home smells of my people, only vastly magnified.

A few hours later we are overtaken by a convoy of many people like Chanti. They look different though. They are smaller, are they younger? They are lead by a large one. Smells male. He is armed with a short, single-bladed sword.

The youngsters seem nervous and afraid, they look at me like I am something venomous. The male seems mildly surprised as well.

“You there, woman! How did you end up here on the trails alone and injured, with only this beast as company?” [Leader]

“Please help me! Our trade caravan was killed by a lunatic with poison! Only myself and my slave escaped. I have only been able to get so far because he helped me.” [Chanti]

“How could one person kill an entire caravan? You ought to have twenty, thirty guards.” [Leader]

“We lost a dozen out in the wilderness when the floor of one room collapsed and many more were injured by falling rocks, like me and worse. The maniac was the final straw, poisoning our water and sneaking in to finish us off.” [Chanti] “I was lucky, I had a canteen at hand that I filled from a different source and the slave hadn't been given water as a punishment.”

“Ah. That does make sense. Some kind of slow acting poison. It is a first hearing this kind of thing, but every now and again you get these amazing freaks, born here with their skills.” [Leader glancing at little rat] “What is his skill set?”

“I don't know, he doesn't speak our language yet, but he understands and follows orders.” [Chanti]

Huh. I hadn't thought about it. I don't really have skills. My siblings all received them, back when our mother took us out to search for food, but I didn't really listen to her lecture. I was too busy looking at everything in the forest room. I wonder what I'll get.

“Hey you two!” The older male points out two large boys. “Help the woman walk. The slave can carry your baggage.”

As we trudge along, another child gives me her bundle of clothes. Ugh, this is getting heavy.

Chanti however rebukes her. “Hey, he's my slave. Carry your own weight, Sky-born!”

The leader nods. “Yes, using another's slave for your own benefit will get you punished, indolent child.”

The girl takes her bundle back sheepishly.

We set camp in a tunnel, leaving room for travelers to pass. A small fire is made, like the one I saw in Chirrik's home back a couple of weeks ago. Grains are cooked in water, the same kind of stuff they made us eat as slaves. It is sloppy and faintly sweet.

The girl is sentenced to kitchen duty for trying to use me. She spits in the food she intends to give Chanti and then makes a one out of the leftovers to give to me. Late that night I pour a cup of warm water on the girl's bedding as she sleeps, since she deserves more punishment. According to the leader our travel ends tomorrow, so she shouldn't be inconvenienced for an extended period. I sleep near the smoldering fire for warmth, since the night is cold and there are no blankets for me.

Day 54

The girl received taunting and laughter, I intended only mild discomfort, why did it end up like this?

Our travel is quick, the embarrassed girl loitering behind the group. Some hours after setting off we arrive at our destination. A solid wooden gate guarded by several soldiers in heavier armor and carrying long spears. They are authoritative as they demand our purpose and origin.

They seem skeptical of Chanti's claims and seem very unpleasant toward me. Well we are falsifying our claims to enter. It can't be helped. Our story however is quite neat and her appearance adds to that. The corpses found by the larger group should make our story seem genuine. Assuming they have already returned.

[Guard Captain] “Capture, search and interrogate those two.”

Well, that isn't good.

I'm marched roughly inside, Chanti dragged along by a pair of men, because she can't keep up.

The inside is magnificent! Unfolding below us is a town bigger than home by many times! Huge buildings made from stone and others formed by strange brown rectangles (clay bricks). There is a winding stream of water, without the dangerous fish. There are trees and lush grass in the distance. This place resembles the forest room without trees (a grassland plain).

We are taken to the nearest building a wide, squat building made from the clay bricks and hard, dry sand (mortar).

There are windows! (They are barred but they are novel to him.)

We are thrown into a small room after our things are taken, onto straw and stone and left there. It is cold. I stay close to Chanti to keep her warm.

We wait for several hours.

I wonder if they are ever coming?

Finally the door opens. The man in shiny armor with a fancy hat glares at us.

“So it IS you. I doubted you would return virtuous and I was right! Look at you now, as dirty a whore as the gutters could produce.” [Golem Purchasing Noble] “Even laying with vermin. I am surprised you brought your love-slave back when you escaped. So tell me, since this isn't the one I met. What happened to the weapons shipment? What happened to the Maker-rat?”

Chanti screwed up her face in fury, but managed to keep it quiet.

“Gone. Dead.” She shrugged. “A Butcher hit the town he ruled. The bone monsters of his were broken. His weapons did somehow manage to kill the beast, but was killed himself by it.”

“Oh? Such a shame. His masterful creation is a thing of pure destruction, I have never seen the like... obeying any command. I would love to have more.” [Noble]

“We lost a cart when the ground collapsed. We fled the poison maniac back the way we came. I don't know what happened after that.” [Chanti] “We doubled back a few days later but when we returned that way the carts were gone. We are not enough to move them.”

“So now... what do we do with you? Look at you, filthy and diseased. I do hope you can serve in your condition in the same capacity as before, otherwise I may have to arrange for your purchase and feed you to my Gaund. No, on second thoughts you'll pox my beautiful pets. Throw them out, they are trivial.” [Noble] “Their rags as well. But the gold and the knife, they're confiscated to cover the lost caravan. Not enough to pay for all of the ore, but close enough.”

The guards kicked us down a few times laughing before we got far enough away. Chanti looks angry. Even I hate that man. Later. For now, rest and safety.

Chanti leads us to a small stone house, which seems to be occupied by family members.

“Get out, damn vagrants! This is my home! I'm not dead yet!” [Chanti shouting at the intruders living there.]

The six surly men spit and walk out before guards come.

Chanti crawls into her bed and sighs happily.

“Home again. It never felt so nice.” [Chanti]

She glances around and sees a forgotten bottle.

“Ha ha!” It sloshes as she shakes it. “Such nice guests, they even left presents!”

She takes a swig of the fluid. “Strong, but not bad.” She sighs. She offers some to me. I try it, the taste is rancid but I've had worse. It does add a pleasant warmth. I think I like this stuff.

We finish off the bottle between us, she seems happy for the first time. I don't really get it, but the drink is making my thoughts blurry. She pulls me into the bed and together we eventually fall asleep, as she hugs me.

What we learned:

Drunken Chanti adores fluffy things...

The nobleman is as vile as ever.

Little rat still doesn't have a class or skills.

He's also a hard drinkin', fighting, love machine.

Double 00 rat?