The child had not made it more than three blocks before she noted that she was being followed. Even if she hadn't been watching out for them, the trio from the ratcatcher's guild was as inept at following her as they were at killing rats. She did not doubt that she could lose them if she wanted to, but perhaps it might be better to deal with this issue sooner rather than later.

She looked to her left and spotted an alley. It was a dead-end and still drenched in shadow despite it being mid-morning. It was fairly narrow, as well, making it perfect for her needs. She turned in and walked to the end of the alley, dropped the rat carcass at her feet, then set her back against the wall with her arms folded across her chest and waited. It didn't take long for the trio to show, the big brute leading the way. His broad shoulders nearly touched the walls of the alley, although he seemed to pay no attention to it. Her teacher had once told her that big, brutish men tended to think that size and strength were everything and paid little attention to their surroundings. This made them a lot easier to lead into traps, or into situations where their strength amounted to nothing. Here in this alley, the brute wouldn't be able to use his club in anything but an overhead strike, and his two companions could do little to support him.

A minuscule iota of compassion prompted the child to give a warning before she got started on him. "If you turn around and leave right now, I'll pretend I didn't see you and you can go on with your day. You take one step closer, and you'll spend the rest of your life regretting it."

The brute, in response, sneered, and said, "I ain't got nuttin to fear from you, scrap. I'm gunna break yer legs and braid 'em tugetha behind yer haid." He raised his club and began advancing on her in a way he probably thought was menacing.

"Have it your way," the child replied, then pulled a small object from the pouch at her waist and threw it into the brute's face.

The black egg is one of the nastier things that someone can use on another human being. It was a tool her master had showed her how to make, and fairly common among assassins and the like. It was a hollowed-out eggshell filled with any number of nasty things that can ruin a man's day. Ground glass is common enough, and if it gets into a person's eyes there's very little they can do to save their eyesight. The three black eggs she'd found on the assassin in the tunnels were no doubt filled with something that would be horribly, agonizingly deadly if it got on one's skin or eyes, or inhaled. Hers, however, was just filled with pepper. Five different kinds of pepper, the least unpleasant being common ground black pepper. The other four were varieties that she'd bought off of a merchant, with names containing the words reaper, viper, ghost, and scorpion. Whoever had named these peppers wanted to make sure that they were taken seriously. Given how her nose ran and eyes had watered while grinding the stuff to powder, it was clear that it would have a nasty effect on anyone unfortunate enough to experience the finished product.

The egg burst apart, leaving a cloud of pepper dust hovering around the brute's face. His eyes began immediately watering, and the lummox did the two worst possible things he could do: He inhaled and tried to wipe the stuff from his eyes. He was rewarded with lungs full of irritating pepper powder and eyes that now had pepper well-rubbed into them. He began screaming, stumbling backward and falling over his two compatriots. As they fell in a heap, she considered throwing another egg at the lot of them, but decided against it, as there was no need to waste something so clearly effective on the likes of these three idiots.

Killing them wasn't a good idea, she decided, and neither was torturing them. There was an entire guild of men like these, and if she took things too far, she might be dealing with dozens of them next time, instead of a trio of goons. No, this time, she needed to send a message, but it needed to be the right message.

Instead, she drew out her dagger, grabbed the corpse to the giant rat, and then walked over to the pile of idiots struggling to get up. "Now," she said, staring down at the three of them, "you three are going to get out of here and wash your friend's face off, then get him to a healer. I don't think he'll go blind from what I did to him, but I don't think you want to risk it." One of the two smaller ratcatchers nodded, a sentiment echoed by the other. The big brute, meanwhile, just whimpered in agony. "If I ever see the three of you again," she added, "I won't be nearly as patient or forgiving as I am today, and I have many more horrible things I can do to you than just throw pepper in your faces. Understand?" The two scrawny ratcatchers gulped and nodded.

"Good," she stated, nodding. "Now, when you get back to the guild, you tell them about what happened. You tell them that I took down your big, tough friend here in less than ten seconds." She dumped the dead rat's corpse in front of them, and added, "You show them that, and tell them that I held that thing with one hand and killed it right in front of you, while all the three of you could do, including that big bastard, was struggle to keep from shitting yourselves at the sight of it. You tell your guildmaster and his cronies this, too: If he ever tries to send anyone to bully me, or anyone who hires me..." she paused, then knelt to where her face was even with the three of them, and...

Her master had once asked her to smile for him. He'd been trying to teach her how to disguise herself, but part of that required control of one's facial expressions, and just keeping a deadpan expression all the time would be useless for such a task. The child had not smiled or felt like smiling in some time, and when she'd tried, her master had stumbled back, emitting a shout of shock and horror she'd never heard from the man, before or since. He let the matter drop afterward and asked that she never do that again. When she'd tried to smile again in front of a mirror, she'd ended up giving herself nightmares for a week, although admittedly, she had nightmares every night, it just changed the content of those nightmares slightly.

Years ago, when everything had been taken from her, something had been broken inside of her. Something that she couldn't name. It normally didn't show, but when she tried to smile, it was there for all to see, and even on the face of a twelve-year-old girl, it was horrifying when laid bare.

The child smiled, or at least consciously tried to, and said, "You tell them that if they ever try this shit again, the Ratter will come for them in the night and feed them to the rats."

The two scrawny ratcatchers ran off screaming, terror giving them strength enough to haul their larger companion and the dead rat away with them. As she watched them retreat, the child considered that name. The Ratter. Yes. It had a good sound to it. She'd come up with it on the spur of the moment since her real name wasn't all that intimidating, but in truth, she hadn't heard it or used it in years. Her teacher had never asked for her name and had only ever called her Little Worm. It was even on the guild tag that her teacher had given her after her registration. Given what her goal was, The Ratter certainly fit better than Little Worm and was far better than her real name, Periwinkle. She'd head over to the guild and see if they could put that as her official name on the rolls. After all, it was never too early, her master had taught her, to build a solid reputation.