The past month has passed in a flash.

And I have to say:

I’m so embarrassed.

This human is really just passing through.

The entire thing was just a big misunderstanding.

From what she has told me, she is just friends with the phoenix.

And on top of that, not even good friends.

Or at leas,t that’s what I’ve puzzled out from what she’s been telling me

It feels more like she is just, dragging the phoenix around.

Kinda funny actually.

She even calls it Mister Dragon, which I really don't understand.

But back to the point.

Us kidnapping her was really stupid, but happened to be quiet the boon for this village.

She has been very helpful.

She has joined us for all the hunts, making them all successful with no casualties.

Making her hugely popular amongst the villagers.

And even the kids love her, as she visits every day to play “war”.

I’ve also noted that she is strong.

Very strong.

Even amongst her human brethren she must be on top

She is not a mage like I had presumed, but she can use magic, I think.

Maybe the gods blessed her with abilities like us?

It’s hard to know, I’ve asked her about it, but she tells me it’s her skills.

Whatever that means.

And I have also noticed something else.

She seems to want me to like her

I think.

Human culture is weird.

When I approach her to talk, she’ll look distant and annoyed. But when I move away she comes scrambling to me, seeking to talk and have fun.

So weird, human, if you want company just follow me, so weird.

Anyway, about two weeks into her stay, the elders came

Which turned into a real pain in the ass.

Especially when the one leading the group turned out to be that wrinkled, old fart of an elder.

Their reason for coming?

They wanted to use the human to exalt our rat tribe to greatness

They heard about her prowess in combat and believe that she could single-handedly overpower the other tribes.

Which is absurd.

Yes, she’s strong, but she’s still just a single human.

When I brought this up, the elders told me she could bring the phoenix to help.

And when I tell them she’s only a distant friend with it, they told me to shut up

That they would threaten her if she did not agree.

So very stupid.

All this turning very political.

I knew I had to keep my cool.

This will turn to months of back and forth.

Me arguing that she could never, call the phoenix for help, nor help us on her own

Even if she wanted to.

These talks would always be a truly royal pain in the ass.

But I was foolish enough to think the human would want to stay during these talks.

I forgot that human culture differed vastly from ours, and so, their political views.

When she came barging in to one of our meetings, yelling about wanting to leave.

The hall turned into a big mess of yells and screams.

Turning everything chaotic.

Like a bunch of birds.

Luckily for me, I had managed to turn a few of the elders onto my side.

But the majority was of the opinion that we should use the human.

Everyone involved quickly realising that this debate would either turn bloody.

Or extended.

Hoping that the human would stay for the short extension.

In our society, debates took month’s and month’s to conclude.

The only time they lasted shorter was during times of war.

Or times like this.

Luckily, our great, great, great ancestors knew of our rats tendencies to turn violent when faced with quick decisions.

So they made a law that all rat tribes must follow.

Which is to never, and I mean never, draw blood within the great hall.

Outside of it, blood may be drawn to reach a conclusion

But inside, blood may never flow.

Or news will reach to all the tribes, which will turn into a gathering of the swarm who will hunt the rats responsible for disobeying the law.

And, luckily, a swarm has’nt been held for the past 120 years.

And there will be none this year either.

No one here wants to face those consequences.

But using threats and showing how much manpower you have is not against the law.

And this being my village, I have every right to bring my guards into the great hall.

But then the elders did the same.

Those old

BASTARDS!

HOW DARE THEY!

No, calm down.

Amongst the gathered guards stands that old wrinkled farts son

He’s maybe the

No

He is the most proficient and experienced soldier in the whole tribe.

He could probably defeat a hundred rats all by himself

A frightening man indeed.

I have to be careful now.

I can't let the discussions come to a dual of honour.

“Ehm, what is happening here?”

“Human, you stay there, this is none of your busi-

“NO! SHE HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW. It’s her we are talking about anyway”

You stupid old rat

It’s you who is leading this discussion to have her, basically, imprisoned as our slave.

“We will have so much more to gain if we let her go in peace.”

“If she, no, when she decides to come back. She will have been grateful for our hospitality and bring other humans and goods that we could have never gotten ourselves. Even iron weapons!”

More yelling and screaming,

None of which was productive

At least I’ve made my point. The elders will join my side in time.

I just have to make sure that this does not turn to a dual

But strangely enough

That old fart is not even mentioning it

He must be scheming something

I would never, ever, in a hundred years believe that he forgot about the possibility to invoke the right of duel.

I must consider-

...

The unthinkable happened

Someone drew blood.

A head blew up like an overblown, pregnant rat

The rat in question, being the old wrinkled rats son

Standing just behind me.

Who was it, who killed-

Oh

Oh no.

My dear human, I should have told you sooner.

Why do you have to be so nice, I was never in danger.

You wonderfully ignorant human

Meeting her eyes, I perceived extreme focus and determination.

A small smile met my eyes.

Thank you, but you are so foolish.

“RUN AWAY!”

As she heard my words, she swiftly turned around and started jogging.

Darn

I forgot about her limp.

One of the elder guards made a move to stab, but quickly found himself with two spears in his chest

Falling limp to the ground

Gutted by my wonderfully loyal guards.

And then chaos engulfed the hall.

Spears met flesh

Both sides yelling insults while trying to push the other side to get an advantage

And as those outside heard the commotion, rats swarmed the hall

Most without weapons, but some branding spears.

Luckily for me, most rats belonged to the village, and in turn, to me

So the battle swiftly turned in our favor.

Elders already fleeing from the hall

The old wrinkled fart carrying a headless body, tears streaming from his big eyes.

Turning to one of my nearby guards, I yelled.

“You, You must get to the human and tell her that this village is not safe anymore, we have to leave, find someplace new, tell her this, BE QUICK!”

“Yes, dear leader!”

Giving a quick salute, the rat ran out, followed by a group of villagers from outside, brandishing wooden spears.

This village won't hold for long.

If I know that old wrinkled fart right, he probably brought an entire cohort worth of soldiers here to try to intimidate me.

And those will soon understand the situation and turn on the village.

Darn.

This is an enormous mess.

Soon after, my forces managed to kill or rout the last of the elders soldiers within the hall.

A few more villagers and guards streamed in.

Clearing my throat, I yelled.

“Blood has been spilled, the one responsible for this, is the human. But, as we of the village has accepted her as our guest, it is our paws that are bloodied”

All hearing my words looked shocked, knowing what it meant to spill blood within the great hall.

“Bring words to everyone in the village, we will gather by the evacuation point, be swift, gather only what is necessary, and know, we are not of the tribe anymore.”

As the words left my snout, all rat guards nodded in unison, moving out to spread the word.

The villagers tho, were left frozen in place.

“DID YOU NOT HEAR ME? I SAID MOVE!”

Those words brought strength to their legs, making them move quickly.

From my cohort, I still had twenty guards, four had died during the small skirmish

“Cohort, we will move, strike anyone foolish enough to face us in battle and gather those that can fight, is this understood?”

“YES DEAR LEADER”

Then we moved out,

Gathering many villagers as we ran

Most brandishing wooden spears and some, none

Our pace was slow.

To slow.

If this continued, reinforcement from the nearby villages would arrive.

Scanning around, I saw the reason

Around us, at every exit point that could be seen

There were soldiers, soldiers from the old wrinkled rats village.

All blocking, trying to buy time

How are they already here?

That can't be possible.

It should be at least one hour before any rat messengers reach the nearest village.

And another two hours before reinforcement could arrive.

These are too many rats to just be the old wrinkled rats’ own cohort.

...

This was planned out

The wrinkled fart was surrounding the village while we were speaking.

So that’s why he never brought up the request for a duel

He was waiting for everything to be in order

Tightening the rope around me

Just to

What?

Gain a human as his slave?

No, this is about more than that.

He did this to gain more power, to gain another village under his belt.

That bastard.

I should have known, been more prepared

I’m so foolish.

So stupid.

Well, at least his son is dead.

I can take pleasure in that.

Then, suddenly, the ground rumbled, a huge blast

Human, it must have been her.

Oh no, I forgot, she don't know where the evacuation point is

Turning to one of the villagers

“You, run to the explosion, the human will be there, and guide her to the evacuation point, BE QUICK!”

“YES dear leader!”

Upon hearing my orders, he ran off, with a borrowed stone spear in hand.

Well, we had one thing going for us.

The enemy forces were not ready for the unexpected bloodbath inside the hall.

Nor had they completely surrounded the village.

Some exits looked less guarded than others, some even lacked enemies completely.

“Cohort, we will use spear point. We shall move forward, never stopping, if anyone gets wounded or stabbed, you shall not stop, continue forwards. Using our momentum to break through the enemie’s weak blockade!”

“YES DEAR LEADER!”

I wasn’t a military leader, but I had my fair share of knowledge about it.

And I knew that the spear point should be used when you had superior forces, needing to wedge your forces into the enemies, creating artificial chaos that would hopefully be to your benefit.

This situation, tho, only required us to break through a token amount of enemies.

Which should be easy

Should

As we gained momentum, the enemies started realising what we were doing.

Throwing spears and poking as we passed them

Some falling, never to get up again

But most made it through.

And then we where upon the enemies guarding the gate

They had formed into a small spear wall.

Hoping to stop our momentum,

But were quickly swallowed by the wave of rats crashing into them.

We had made it through the blockade.

We were now out of the village,

But our momentum did not stop.

Moving towards the evacuation point.

Straggling villagers joined up in our group

Swelling our numbers to the hundreds

A few enemies chased us, killing off the slow and weak.

A thunderous boom echoed through the forest

Shaking all those nearby, many falling over.

Like lightning striking your eardrums

And many screamed in pain, grabbing at their elongated ears.

I stayed upright, glancing towards the source.

Eyes widening

A tree was falling.

A seed of the gods

One of the unbreakable

The old one

Was falling

How can this be?

How is this...

Then I saw her.

Like looking at a dream,

Bloodied beyond anything I’ve ever seen

Bow in one hand

The other open and empty

Infront of her lay the evacuation point

Swelled with dead and dying bodies of rats

All gored beyond recognition.

...

I was wrong.

She is terrifying

Stronger than I ever thought

But it was not fear I felt right now

No

I felt sad

Please don't be dead

Please

I beg you.