54 Reek

Janick was pacing back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. 6 days ago, we found the body of Kar'den with a broken arrow through his belly. His body was still warm, and we assumed he had just been killed the night before. Aside from that, Jordah, Kadik, and Farrick were missing. And aside from that, we found Jordah's body this morning in a dumpster by Arsenal street, rotting of maggots and his own shit. Janick thought, well, he knew it was the Hornets. "Who else?" he had asked Miro. "The Fire Nation? They're assholes, I admit, but this is the kind of shit the Hornets do. We need to hit back."

Miro argued it was more important that they find Kadik and Farrick first. Janick agreed, but said that if we didn't do something soon, we would find them, but just inside another dumpster.

And now, Janick was gathering people. Gathering people for what he said was revenge. Didn't mention anything about a rescue mission. Treated it like Kadik and Farrick were already dead. And I wasn't stupid. They probably were. Janick first asked Mu, who in turn, asked Sarik, who asked Mouse, who asked me. And when I asked if Miro knew and they said "no", I knew my answer would be the same. I wasn't going to start going behind Miro's back. It wasn't fear, no. It was loyalty. Respect. I was loyal to the Rats, which meant listening to our leader's advice and not going behind his back, but it also meant not betraying the trust of our own. I wouldn't join the rogue Rats, but I wouldn't betray their rats either and give their intentions away. Unless I was asked directly of course. I wanted them to succeed. I did. The Hornets, if it really was them, which it probably was, went way to far, killing our people. And from what I saw was left of us Jordah, they weren't just murdering our own, they were taking their sweet time with it too.

I refused to believe it had been Luke. I knew he was one of them now, but I still couldn't believe he could be capable of something like that. Right. No. of course not. It was quiet day. The Earthbender hadn't come back for over 2 weeks now and we were getting nervous something had happened. Maybe the situation had gotten worse at Ba-Sing-Se, I don't know, but we were taking on new recruits eager to fight the Hornets and Fire Nation for a better life and they needed food, water, and equipment. With the new tunnel going straight through the slums, the Fire Nation didn't need to give the nuns food anymore to distract people from raiding Fire Nation convoys, which meant no more food going to the common people of the slums.

We Rats were being more than generous with our dwindling amount. Miro had organized some of the Rats and street urchins to set up a rooftop garden on what was once a Fire Nation barracks. I think he did it purely for the irony. It was that, and many more incidents that made me realize something. Miro hated war. He didn't want to fight. He left that to Janick. Miro wanted to leave. He wanted to not only grab his people, but everyone in the slums, and lead them away, to somewhere better. How he would, I don't know, but I know he'd die trying. He loved his fellow Rats like his own family. So, 2 days later, during the night when Janick and his crew had come back, carrying the mutilated bodies of Kadik and Farrick between them, and Miro asked for a moment to be lone, I knew he was crying. Not because he was a coward and afraid of war. His family, hi brothers had just been killed. And he had failed them. But Miro was human. He wasn't an idiot and he knew what the rest of the Rats, including myself were thinking. War was coming. So, when we heard about a Hornet raid on our garden where two of our own were killed, we knew that it wasn't avoidable. War had come. There was no more postponing it or avoiding it. Miro rearranged us into fighting groups once again, on the verge of a nervous breakdown as he did so. We were his family and he was sending his family to war. We all understood, but still, Miro didn't.

Miro never wanted war. He just wanted something better.

But I wasn't like Miro. I knew, that sometimes, you have to get dirty to cross over to the other side. I knew the Rats were ready because we were. We were ready to give our lives for Miro, but I didn't know if Miro was ready for us to do so. I didn't think he was, but now, he no longer had a choice. War was here, and he would have to be ready. Whether he liked it or not.