The Rat King
Arne jerked awake, sitting completely upright and looking around rapidly.
He saw nothing but complete destruction ahead of him, the settlement, if you could even call it one anymore, was nothing but a few scattered tarps, nets, and sticks. Arne sat staring at the destruction before he remembered what had happened before he exhausted his mana.
He remembered the feeling of using magic... It was like a soft pressure within his mind. Not an uncomfortable one, almost like grabbing something with your hand. It was accompanied by the serene and cool feeling of water mana, and the control of the water...
It felt like he was pushing around invisible water in the air. It was indescribably amazing, to be able to defy physical limits... what a glorious feeling.
"ZZZzzz..."
It seems he wasn't the only one sleeping.
To his right, both Thea and Eli were sleeping softly. Well, Thea was. Eli was snoring. Eli and Thea sat side by side with their backs up against the walls, their shoulders were pressed together rather tightly, and Thea's head rested on Eli's shoulder, while Eli's head rested on hers. It was fairly warm down here, so despite the stench and the humidity, it could be considered mildly comfortable.
The two of them had fallen asleep while waiting for Arne to wake up, so it seems they had traded places...
He wasn't quite sure what to do now... They seemed to enjoy each other's company...
They would probably be mad at him if he woke them up right?
Hmm...
He had to think of a way to distract them so they wouldn't direct their anger towards him.
Now how could he wake them up without making them grumpy...
He could scare them? Maybe try and convince them that they needed to run? No... that would be just mean. He might as well have let them sleep if he did that.
He could just wait? No, that would be boring.
Ooh... yes... that could work... Arne flashed a sadistic and mischievous smile.
Eli was easy to embarrass so this would be a piece of cake to distract him, but Thea was normally a very tough shell to crack. Thea, for lack of a better word, was a tomboy. She was fairly practical, and never seemed to show much of an interest in girly things... so seeing the two of them together like this...
He would be able to get away with waking them up scot free!
Heh heh heh.
"So! When's the wedding you two?" he said loudly.
Thea and Eli both awoke quickly.
They looked at each other and quickly scooted away slightly.
"What did you say Arne?" asked Eli, embarrassed that he was found sleeping while he was supposed to be waiting for Arne to wake up.
"I said 'when's the wedding', didn't you hear me?" said Arne with a flat, expressionless face.
Thea and Eli looked at each other and back towards Arne quickly with wide eyes.
"No! It's not what you think!" piped Thea quickly.
"Yeah, yeah it's not like that" said Eli, clearly red-faced.
"Well it certainly seems like it!" replied Arne quickly, barely holding back his smile.
"No! We were just-" started Thea.
"We just happened to fall asleep next to each other!" interrupted Eli, somehow redder than before.
"We were just tired and we... and..." Thea started before trailing off and looking away, her face also showed twinges of red as well.
"It certainly was weird," said Arne "I thought you liked Roger?"
"I... I..." Thea didn't have any words to say, and covered her bright red face with her hands.
Arne burst out laughing, he was barely keeping it together that whole time, but seeing Eli and Thea both red-faced with their head in their hands... maybe they weren't such a bad match after all.
Arne wiped the fresh tears from his eyes and calmed himself down, then standing up onto his feet. After swaying a bit he finally regained his balance and was ready to go!
"Get up you two! We've got rats to fight!" said Arne, brandishing his small knife and hopping around on his feet, warming up for his upcoming hunt.
"We're going to stay down here!?" questioned Eli rapidly. He had only wanted to stay down here so they could keep track of Arne, but now he wanted to stay?
"Of course we are! It's not even daytime yet, so we will fight more rats until day. With my magic, think of how many rats we can fight!" chirped Arne. It was clear that he was going to stay down here whether they wanted to or not.
"How can you tell it's not daytime? We're underground." said Thea, curious as to whether or not Arne had been back to the surface since he woke up.
"They open the drop chutes in the morning so people can get rid of their sewage in the morning. We would be able to see the sun if they were open. Plus, fresh... stuff, would be falling down the chutes." replied Arne matter-of-factly.
"Huh. What will we do about my ankle though? I don't think I can walk on it." she replied.
"Eli can carry you," said Arne, "you can use this rope if you need it." He offered the rope around his chest.
Eli and Thea both looked at each other again before blushing.
"O-okay." said Eli. Normally he would have kept trying to get Arne to leave, but... Arne made it very hard for him to.
When Thea turned away from Arne, Arne flashed a thumbs-up and a big cheesy grin to Eli.
"Let's get moving!" said Arne, as he marched in the direction away from his destruction. The wave of water had left quite a few... "obstacles" along the path that he would rather avoid altogether.
Eli carefully picked up Thea, and carried her after Arne.
"A-are you sure you can't walk on it?" asked Eli.
"Y-Yep!" said Thea, strangely quickly.
"Hurry up!" yelled Arne, Eli had fallen behind quite a large distance.
As they reached a branching path, a strange sound could be heard ahead of Arne.
Click
Click
Click
Rhythmic clicking could be hear down the pathway. Arne was immediately reminded of the sound the rats made when they ran along the stone pathways. It was very similar. This clicking though... it was many times louder! It was approaching fast!
Arne quickly turned down the side pathway, signaling Eli to hurry and to be quiet. Eli could hear the approaching sound.
"Something big is coming!" whispered Arne urgently, "Set Thea down for a moment." he continued, before handing Eli one end of his rope.
"Tie this down here, about four inches off of the ground. I will be right back." said Arne quickly, before running to the other side of the tunnel, and tying down his end, and cutting off the excess rope.
He ran back over to Eli, and picked up Thea himself.
"Something big is coming," said Arne, "hopefully this will slow them down."
Arne then ran as fast as he could down the trapped path with Eli following closely behind.
A booming soldier's voice echoed down the sewer:
"Stop where you are!"
Followed immediately by a kindly woman's voice:
"Where are you running?"
Arne and Eli stopped running...
Did some adults discover they were down here? Well, they should be fine if they explained the problem.
Arne and Eli started walking back to where the voices were coming from.
"Hello? Is someone there?" called Arne.
As they reached the trap they had set, from around the corner walked a hulking mass of flesh. It turned towards them with bulging bloodshot eyes.
A mother's voice echoed from its gnarled mouth:
"You've been very bad!"
"ELI RUN THAT'S A RAT KING" screamed Arne, as they both ran as fast as their young legs could carry them, there would be a loop back somewhere and they would be able to escape the sewer and tell the city guard.
It has to be mentioned that Arne had never seen a Rat King before, but had read about them several times in books. They were elusive creatures, often making their homes in the sewers or in swamps. They possessed two abilities: the ability to summon rats, and the ability to mimic the sounds that they have heard. Though Rat Kings were rarely intelligent... it seemed that this one was an anomaly.
Arne had considered the possibility of there being a Rat King. He had figured that if he set a few traps, the creature would end up hurting itself enough that he could escape.
Unluckily though, this one seemed to possess enough intelligence to form sentences...
So Arne was out of luck with his traps...
and so began the game of cat and mouse.