Lord of the warrens

King of the rats.

I tossed the name around in my brain a few times pondering it over. 

Looking at the red baron god knows what kind of creature could be called the king of the rats.

"What gives him the rights to call himself king" 

Sniffer this time piped up. 

"shush yourself you stupid little shit, Hes has ears alls of over the 9 clans"

"Itch you never told us about any of this. What are the 9 clans"

I finally spoke up. Why had Itch never told us this information? 

He must have known that war was on the horizon and all the clans would have to meet. 

"Is did not wants you to get involved in their silly politics. Its a shames you holds a part of that characteristic otherwise yous would have escaped it"

Itch made no sense. 

What the fuck is a characteristic and why does me having it mean something bad. 

"Itch your making no sense, you never told us any of this"

"Is ams not here to be interrogated, yous must prepare" 

Anger welled up inside me. This was information that we should have been taught. Clearly, the white rat was taught all this so why not us? 

I pushed past Itch to my tent. 

Sitting down I gently cleaned off my armour with the small piece of cloth we had been given. I suppose to meet a king one must be adequately clean and presentable. 

Stepping back out of the tent my armour now glistening in the sun as I confidently walked through the camp. 

After so long it felt almost weird not to be followed by my cohort but yet still i stood out being one of the few rats in this area wearing white.

It took but a few minutes to navigate to the center of the camp where the large tent stood. 

This time the guard gave me a soft nod of approval as I approached clearly aware of my business. 

The tent opened before me. A large room with wooden floorboards set up across the floor. 

The place looked less formal than I had expected with 10 chairs set out signalling one large chair in the middle. 

The chairs were simple and wooden, unlike the intricate designs of the tribunal's thrones. 

Out of the 10 creatures before me only two I recognized, the Red Baron and the lord of the Blue Legions. 

I had planned on inspecting each member but my time was cut short as a creak sounded from the centre seat. 

A voice as cold as ice echoed throughout the tent. It was a smooth voice devoid of the croaky or odd nature which rats usually embodied.

"So you are the this white devil the goblins whisper about"

Clearly, word had spread quickly among the goblins of my exploits. 

Staring towards the middle sea I saw nothing. Where the user of the seat should have been instead sat a blurred mess of colours. A searing pain throbbed inside my head forcing me to my knees. 

I stared at the ground as the pain slowly subsided. 

"Speak young one"

"Yes, it's a nickname I picked up from destroying a small goblin village just south of here"

I stuttered the words out still recovering from the pain. 

"It's good to have such promising youth, you've done well iron in nurturing this one"

The red baron stood to his feet his eyes transfixed on the ground as he did a small bow.

"Thank you, my lord" 

The blur let out a soft yet powerful chuckle. 

"I've been told you hold part of his characteristic, is this true"

That word again.

"I'm sorry my king, I don't know what you're talking about, whats a characteristic" 

A sigh dominated

"Iron the education in your clan is horrific, I remember the other white one had similar questions. At least this one is strong unlike her"

The red baron, whose name was now revealed to be Iron, let out a quiet and subdued apology. 

"Lorath, after we finish up here teach the young one what you know"

From the same corner as the Red baron the creature who had sat on the wooden throne at the tribunal came forward

"Yes my king, I would be honoured to serve you"

The king let out a booming laugh

"This is what I like about you humans, always talking about honour and servitude

Anyway, where was I?

Ahh yes, young one you have proved yourself well I shall keep my eyes on you from now on"

Eyes, what eyes all I could see was that blur of colours and shapes. 

"Thank you, my king" 

It felt strange to bow to another creature. Even the red baron had never made us bow to him. But this creature was something different. Even just looking at him almost incapacitated me. 

"You are dismissed child, Lorath go with him"

I stood up slowly not daring to look up at the creature who sat before me. 

Lorath walked confidently ahead of me. 

So this was what a human looked like. 

Why are they so ugly? 

He was like a goblin but instead of having no hair, it sprung out from his head. 

The hair was odd, not soft or harsh like rat hair but rather curled into thick locs that hung from its scalp. 

His skin a lightish brown which seemed to shimmer slightly in the sunlight.

"It's good to see you alive young one, I believe we've never had time for introductions.

I'm Lorath Ebele and humble servant to the Red Baron"

"Schreetch headtaker" 

"Haha, truly a humble name you've given yourself"

"I will earn my name"

"do not take my laughter more misintent. Names are an important thing. In my culture children are given their names by their parents and, like yours, have meaning"

"That's stupid, We rats do not rely on our parents to name us, I named myself because I can only rely on myself"

"Well from now on you will have to rely on me as your teacher, Eyes up were here"

I looked up to see a small tent far smaller than the Red Barons but still quite a bit larger than my own. 

Lorath entered first followed by myself. 

The tent had wooden flooring installed and a small chair and table in the corner which was stacked with books of all colours and sizes. The room had small glowing orbs standing on metal rods arranged around the room to act as lights. 

Lorath took a seat on the chair and looked expectantly towards me and then towards the ground.

"I think ill stand" 

"Well you do you"

He began shuffling around his desk fingering various items before finally pulling something out. 

A small orb of light, red in colour and emitting a gentle pulsing warmth. 

"You asked earlier what a characteristic was, well here you go"

he dropped the orb into my lap. Its warmth quickly spread through my fingertips as I rotated it in my hand.

"A characteristic refers to a concept as a whole

for example that's a tiny part of the fire characteristic, hence its warm glow and when used by the right person it can be used to fire the fireball spell".

The fire inside the orb seemed almost endless as is stared into it.

"Once used the characteristic will then appear somewhere else. There are 1000s of different characteristics but only a few of them are counted as main characteristics.

Some of these are things like fire , ice or water. "

Lorath took the characteristic and put it back inside his desk.

"Some beings however are born with a characteristic inside them. Fire mages for example would be born with the fire characteristic in them. These people hold a piece of the fire characteristic and can call on it without it dissipating. 

You yourself have part of the devouring characteristic inside of you."

"Is that why when I feed on the blood of others I can become stronger"

"Exactly, my your a faster learner than my last pupil. 

Creatures born with a characteristic can use other methods to increase the concentration of their own characteristic. 

A creature with high characteristics gains more control over the powers and concepts that come alongside it.

Our king is a good example with a high concentration of the devour characteristic.

Although it brings him great power it can also have major side effects which he refuses to share with the rest of the 9 clans".

So this was what Itch was talking about.

Merely being born with the characteristic made me a target. 

"The devour characteristic centres around the idea that a creature can devour remnant characteristics and power from others. 

I'm unsure of what it does at higher concentrations, the king keeps this information under heavy lock and key".

"Surely since the king has such a high concentration the goblins should be little to no effort"

"Well, that's the issue, the Goblin king seems to contain part of a characteristic that we are unfamiliar with thus far."

If I am to survive I will have to make use of this "characteristic".