What’s Below the Soil

(Recap: this is a recap due to the long break this novel has taken.

Events so far: Brady met with the Chief of the rat colony and they reached an agreement together. Meanwhile Barbatrous (leader of a gang of thieves), Carolina (his wife) and Sam (his right hand man) embarked on a mission to investigate the script-stealing rats that Barbatrous spoke of. When they eventually caught the rats in action they immediately started following them to see where they'll go. From here the story continues

Recap End )

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We followed the rats closely behind while hidden by my 'stealth 3' script, the first level of this script makes your breath and footsteps quieter while the third level (which I have) can enable you and anyone within a 2 meter vicinity to disappear completely from sight. It was quite difficult for the 3 of us to run together in an only 2 meter radius, so it was decided that I would carry Carolina (and consequently, Tom Hammerfield who kept biting my nose all the way through). I didn't mind carrying carolina, we used to do this a lot when we were first married, she's quite light, much lighter than the weighs I lift daily. It's the damn monkey that was a nuisance.

Throughout the road the rats have been using side alleys, abandoned areas as to not be seen, it was really difficult to follow them.

But nevertheless we had finally hit a stop, the rats all went inside a tree trunk with tiny rolls of scripts rolled up inside their mouth and attached to their back by a rope. I put Carolina down and all three of us sat in front of the tree.

We waited for an hour in front of the tree to see whether this really was their den or just a stop, but so far it seemed like this was the place.

"What do we do now?" Asked Sam.

"Oh...yeah....I haven't really thought this far..." I chuckled

"What do you even want with these rats?" Asked Carolina.

"Nothing particular, I was just interested."

"It is very bizarre....maybe we should try to talk to them?" Said sam.

"Talk? You think they can talk?"

"I never heard of a talking rat but...maybe if not talk they could at least understand in a roundabout way?"

"Do we even know they're really rats?" Asked Carolina.

"What do you mean?"

"Isn't it possible they could be a result of some sort of advanced script? Maybe a level 4 we never heard of."

"Yeah, I guess that would make more sense." I said after pondering for a bit.

"Anyways I still think we should try calling them, if not we can smoke the tree and force them out."

Me and Carolina nodded in agreement. Afterwards I tried calling into the hole multiple times, it ranged from 'hello?' to 'stop being so cocky' but evidently none of them worked. I guess there was a chance they had some sort of underground tunnel that they have used to escape and are now far away from us, but there was no way to tell so we just had to do what we could.

After a few failed attempts we eventually decided on smoke, sam opened up his scripture to the 'Smoke 1' script and started funneling smoke into the entrance at the base. We didn't want to kill them so we only used a level 1 script and didn't funnel in that much, only enough.

That solution proved fairly effective, after funneling for some 15 minutes or so we started to hear faint scratching noise coming from inside the trunk. The noise kept increasing until eventually rats started flowing outside the hole in the tree, as soon as that happened Carolina shrieked and the 3 of us took some steps back, smart rats or not the risk of catching the black plague is not one you'd like to run.

"Now what?" Asked Carolina.

"Well, now we wait to see how this unfolds." I asked.

"Sounds flimsy."

"When have I ever been a man with a plan huh?" I giggled.

After a few minutes rats stopped flowing out of the trunk. There were perhaps a 100 or so rats all gathered around the trunk, it was a horrifying sight, I had initially expected that the pack of rats I saw were all there was, but it seems this runs much deeper than I thought.

The rats stood in slightly misaligned lines around the tree facing us. If they were regular rats they definitely would've dispersed already. It looked like I was right on the money.

After the rat flow completely stopped two rats broke off from the group and approached us looking upwards, all rats looked the same to me but those two somehow looked slightly different from the other, it wasn't their shape but rather perhaps their demeanor.

"You can talk can't you?" I asked looking at the rats, they didn't respond. "C'mon I saw you hustling those poor factory workers for scripts, I know you ain't no normal cheese biting honey crazed four legged idiot." The rat on the right looked at the rat on the left but still none of them talked, but tha didn't faze me, looking at them right in the face I could definitely tell those were different. I continued. "C'mon, don't make me look like a lunatic in front of my wife, it's unsavory, or if you still think you're regular rats then I guess I won't feel bad for exterminating you." I brought out my scripture calmly as a threat.

Silence filled the air for a few minutes before eventually one of them brought out a very miniature scripture and opened it. It was possibly the cutest book I've ever seen, I had expected them to just talk, I had thought they were some sort of experiment or some script trick. But a scripture could only be handled by a sentient being. This looked to be deeper than I thought. This was starting to get exciting.

The rat opened up his scripture to a certain page then spoke in a very stern tongue.

"Who are you?" He said. His voice caught us all off guard causing my wife to gasp and Sam to drop his jaw. It was a very deep brash voice, one more fitting of a seasoned army general who spent his days smoking cigars and has had a troubled relation with his family after years of bloodshed...not a bloody rat! I had thought a rat voice would be squeaky and funny. Seeing that voice come from that small thing was so bizarre on so many different levels that we all froze causing him to ask again. "I said who are you?"

His second question snapped me out of my daze and I answered. "Says the speaking rat. Don't you think you'd better say who the hell are you first?" I shouted. The rat didn't answer me, he just stood there staring at me. "Ok fine I'll answer damn it." Can't believe I was being strong-armed by a rat. That day will be a day of many firsts. "I'm Barbatrous. This is Carolina and sam. Now who a...."

"And Tom Hammerfield." Said Carolina, interrupting me.

"Oh yeah right, and that monkey. Now who are you?" I asked.

"Well then. Let me make formal introductions." He stepped forward and continued. "I'm Chief. Behind me is Squad leader. Behind him are our people. The Union. Below us lies Skavenblight. Skavenblight is our home. The home you are now standing over and have ruined with your smoke." He said in a stern commanding voice.

His speech was very eloquent, he spoke in a perfect tongue. If I close my eyes and only listen to his voice I would think I'm talking to an army commander. Not a rat.

"Now you have understood who we are, where this is and what you have done. And to that I ask of you only one thing." He said

"W-what?" I murmured, still taken aback by what it is I'm seeing.

"Are you prepared for war?"