37: Hombres Rata

Hello, mum. If you remember, I was in the cavern with some of those skeletons, and all their old equipment. This is what happened next, but there’s a bit of a lesson to be had, in this letter, towards the end. Despite what every halfling child knows, I think sometimes smoking isn’t always good for you. You’ll find out how I came to that conclusion a bit later.

Guido passed a torch through the gap we had dug so I could see everything. But I think he got a bit impatient with me, or he didn’t trust me to search through it all properly, and so he climbed through the hole, too. And then Blume thought we might be going through it to keep any loot for ourselves, and so she climbed in, too, and it all got a bit crowded in there.

But we went through all the stuff and we found about ten crowns. They wouldn’t need it, having been dead for two hundred years, so it made sense for us to take it. And we had incurred a lot of expenses, just getting here, so I think it was what they would have wanted.

We also found an old flask of green stuff which I gave to Willow, but I don’t think she knew what it was. And, funnily enough, we also found one of those key things we had collected from the signal tower, which we now know as Dagmar’s observatory. We gave the key to Dreamy and he said it was exactly like the other five six-pointed ones.

And then we noticed that Dreamy was leaning against the rocks looking a lot more injured than we had realised. But surprisingly, Willow said she was going to deal with the skeletons before helping him. So she gathered up all their remains and laid them out alongside the grave of the blue ghost, and covered them with earth. Then she said a prayer and told them that they would be joining Josias on the other side. Hopefully that was enough to lay them to rest.

And it was only when this was done that Willow went to help Dreamy and Guido (the dead can be hurting, too – Willow). She bandaged Dreamy’s leg wound and Guido’s head wound. I think Guido’s wound was worse than he wanted to admit, and Corrobreth came over to look at it, too. And although he told Willow she had made a good job of it, he started saying a prayer to Rhya, and the prayer turned into a bit of a song, and then we saw some green lights flickering around Guido’s head in time with Corrobreth’s song.

It was nice of Corrobreth to pray to Rhya on Guido’s behalf, but the song seemed to go on for ages, even after Guido was feeling better, and we all had to stand there, milling about until the song ended. It was a bit like when aunt Briony got drunk and stood on the table and sang that song at Primrose’s name day party.

We had a look through the rest of the cave but there was not much to see. One side ended in a few openings by a slow, fetid stream and that was about it. We were all a bit tired, and Willow wanted to spend the rest of the night in the cave sleeping alongside the ghost and the skeletons, but that felt a bit creepy to me, and we decided to head back to our camp by the standing stone (I think the ghost was our friend, now – Willow).

We did have a bit of a chat about the nature of death and the various rites for ensuring the dead pass on to the other side, but I wasn’t really interested. Corrobreth said that a priest of Morr occasionally visited Unterbaum to deal with the dead, but he said some of the villagers, when they felt their time approaching, preferred to simply enter the forest, and not return.

Willow told them about how we burn our dead, in the Mootland, and then put the ashes on the roses, which is a good way to remember people. She said that the smoke from the pyre drifted up to heaven and turned into stars, but Guido said that was definitely not true.

I think Willow is feeling a bit guilty about dedicating all her education and research to the service of the living, now that she realises that the dead need as much looking after. I don’t think that’s true, but that’s what Willow was saying. I think she may be considering joining the cult of Morr, instead of Myrmidia (there are lots of gods – Willow).

But the conversation was interrupted, because as we reached the entrance to the cave, we saw a strange figure coming towards us. It looked a bit like a man and it was about as tall as Guido, but it had a scraggly rat-like face, and it was wearing thick metal armour. It had a long, bald tail with the head of a mace tied to it which swished violently as it moved. And it was flanked by two similar, but smaller, creatures. It waved its jagged blade at us and said, ‘Stand still or die.’

Guido immediately said ‘Hombres Rata’ to himself, so he must have recognised the creatures, and said their Tilean name, because he is Tilean (he’s Estalian – Willow). Then the Rata said ‘Stone, stone. Where, where,’ which was a bit repetitive.

I could see Willow was frightened and she immediately backed away, and Guido assumed the sort of stance that he often assumes on the boat when he’s training in the morning, but this time it was for real. And he said a few words to Myrmidia. Blume could hear movement and scrabbling noises coming from the side entrance and behind us, so she realised we were surrounded.

And the big rata charged. It ran at Guido and hit him in his leg, and as it did, its long tail, with the mace tied to it, whipped round and narrowly missed Guido’s head. Willow ran back through the hole, to the far cavern and Dreamy backed up a bit and strung his bow. The other two rats stepped up to join their leader and one managed to slash at Guido, but in the cramped conditions, couldn’t hit him.

I could see Blume loading her pistol, beside me, and that reminded me that she still had mine. I couldn’t really see the point of her having both guns when she could only load one at a time and, despite her efforts when we faced the skeletons, shoot one at a time.

And I could see Guido was outnumbered and so there was little for me to do but to draw my sword and charge in to help him. It was very frightening, and I really wanted to run off and hide with Willow, but I managed to convince myself to face up to the creature.

In any case, Willow was having the same conversation with herself, and it wasn’t long before she emerged from the cavern ready to help us. And Dreamy loosed an arrow but it hit the creature’s shield.

The rata creature had another go at Guido, and Guido just managed to dodge out of the way of its sword, but then its mace-tail whipped round again, catching him squarely. The blow could easily have killed him, but fatefully it  just glanced his head and sent him to the ground, unconscious. As he went down,  Guido managed to get a blow on the ratman, but it just glanced off its metal armour.

Willow announced she was no longer afraid and grabbed some crimson shade and tarrabeth from her bag. She stuffed the crimson shade into a pipe as she heard it was a good, fighting smoke, and she handed the tarrabeth to Dreamy, telling him to put some on his arrows (tarrabeth is good at sending people to sleep – Willow).

One of the smaller rats attacked me, but I managed to get out of the way. And we noticed another rat emerging from one of the side tunnels. Meanwhile Corrobreth was seeing to Guido, but I don’t think he was able to help much.

Blume levelled her pistol at the big rat and fired. It saw what she was doing, and raised its shield, but it was too slow and the shot hit it in the face, sending it backwards. I took the opportunity to smack it in the head with my sword, but despite my very best effort, the blow just glanced off its helmet.

But at the sound of Blume’s black powder all the lesser rat creatures immediately scarpered, leaving only the big leader facing us. Dreamy quickly shot at it, but, again, the arrow lodged in its shield.

And I was left facing it, on my own, mano a mano, as they say in Tilea. It went for me with its sword, but I was too quick, but then its tail whipped towards me, and I thought I was doomed, but as fate would have it, it just missed.

And then I felt Willow place a lit pipe in my hand and so I took a big pull. I’m not the biggest smoker, to be honest, and I often mix babyleaf salad with my greenleaf gold to make it a bit milder (don’t tell Willow) (I’m writing this – Willow). And I think this was the strongest smoke I have ever had. It wasn’t normal pipeweed, and as soon as I breathed it in, I began to feel different. I felt a bit faster and a lot faster and stronger, a bit strong and a lot faster and stronger and faster. And faster. It was heady stuff.

Meanwhile, Blume was loading my pistol, which I think she had decided was now hers. And I attacked, again. I felt faster and stronger, and almost unstoppable. But my head was buzzing from the crimson shade, and I also felt very angry at the creature. And I got a perfect hit on the thing. But, again, the blow just bounced off its helmet. Say what you like about the ragged and dirty appearance of the rat creature, whatever they are, they know how to make helmets. And in retaliation, the creature got a hit on me, and I only avoided injury as the blade ripped open my leather jacket, ruining it. That was my Mootland River Warden associated with the Stirland River Warden Service official uniform and that made me even more angry.

Then Dreamy loosed another arrow, and this time it made it past the shield and lodged in the rat man’s left arm. Now the thing looked genuinely hurt. I think it felt that I held little danger for it, and it needed to deal with the missiles, and so it turned from me and went after Blume. I feared for her, but the creature’s sword attack missed and then it followed up with its mace-tail, and fortunately for Blume that missed too.

Then I spotted two of its minions returning to the fight, but Blume shot the leader at point blank range and hit it. I was upset it had turned away from me, but taking advantage of Blume’s distraction, I followed the creature and lunged at it, stabbing it in the back, and it fell to the ground, dead. Seeing their leader fall, the returning rat-things ran away again, and we were safe.

The ratman had been a terrible foe, and I did not think we would ever defeat it. I thought we might have all died there in the cave and have to spend two hundred years there until someone came along to put our unquiet souls to rest.

We decided to get back to camp as soon as possible. Corrobreth and Blume carried Guido’s unconscious body, while Dreamy dealt with the rat man, weighing its body down with stones and dumping it in the stream. I felt exhilarated after the great fight and was unable to sleep, so I did a few circuits patrolling the camp until the effects of the crimson shade wore off, and when they did I went straight to sleep and slept like a log.

I slept way past breakfast so Willow had to make it, and Corrobreth added some fruit from his magic tree. From what I gather Guido was up early as usual doing his Myrmidian training thing, fully recovered from his blow on the head. But I think that morning his heart wasn’t really in it. I think he was a bit disappointed in himself for the fight with the ratman, because falling unconscious like that meant he wasn’t able to protect us.

Anyway, he had a chat with Dreamy and told him he wasn’t sure what Myrmidia’s purpose was for him. Why, if he was supposed to protect the halflings, did she arrange things so that he wasn’t able to protect us after all. On the one hand she gave him the power, and on the other she didn’t allow him to use it.

Dreamy, though, told him that had he not been at the front of the fight and faced down the rat man then we would have been in much greater danger, and it was likely that some of us would be dead now. And it was Guido’s job to keep us alive, and that was exactly what happened.

And that made Guido feel better, and he started planning the next part of our journey. And he said that we now had the sixth key which meant we should return to Dagmar’s observatory. And that  perhaps Myrmidia had set up this challenge especially for him and it was part of some greater plan and his destiny. And it was soon clear he wasn’t listening to Dreamy anymore and was wrapped up in his mission from Myrmidia. And he grabbed the frying pan and banged it to get everyone’s attention (my porridge were in that – Willow). And he lectured everyone about it being more important than ever that we find Herzen.

And when I eventually woke up my first thought was to have a smoke of crimson shade. I’m not sure why, because I’m not a big smoker, but I felt like a little puff of the stuff would make my headache go away and I’d be ready to face the day. But Willow brought me some of the leftover porridge that she’d saved from the pan, instead.

She said that she was sorry that she had given me the crimson shade as she hadn’t realised that it was so strong or addictive and that I should stick to babyleaf salad from now on. She said she would write “highly addictive and may cause permanent personality changes” on her medical notes. I’m not sure about that, I don’t think it’s addictive, I just wanted a bit more to smoke. But she didn’t have any, anyway. And so that was that I suppose.

Then we had a talk about the things that we had faced the previous night. We knew that the edict said there was no such thing as mutants, but Guido said that just because the edict said something, that didn’t mean it was true, although I’m not sure the emperor would be pleased to hear him say that. And Dreamy said it was obviously some sort of mutant that had grown to be a bit like a rat, and he was probably right, but on the other hand, it looked a lot like all its other rat-like minions. Perhaps they were beastmen who I understand look like animals crossed with men (they might be like uncle Chicory, who had six toes – Willow).

But I think I had got a bit of an insight. Whatever they were, I was so riled up by the fight, and so annoyed at them, and a bit confused by the smoke, perhaps, that I think I hated them, and I decided that if I ever saw them again, then I don’t know what I’d do, but I would be sure to do it.

Then Guido and Dreamy went down into Devil’s Bowl to see if they could spot Herzen or see where she had been. They found a camp that had been abandoned a good few days ago but they found nothing much of interest in the camp. Dreamy found some tracks leading out of the bowl in the direction we had come in but once they got to the river, they were impossible to follow.

We wondered how we could have missed them on the way up. Guido said his flying eagle thing had excellent eyesight and if they had been there, he would have seen them. And then we thought about the dead horse we had fished out of the Stir, and the ferryman who said everyone he transported had had a horse. And so we concluded that they had travelled up the valley on their faster horses, made camp for a night or so, and then travelled back down the valley before we had even got to Unterbaum.

And for whatever reason they had chosen to cross the Stir without the aid of the ferry, probably because they were so nefarious. I suspect they had found the meteorite they were looking for, the one that the ghost had said was a source of great evil, and the one the big hateful ratman had wanted us to hand over. And now the only thing we knew about them was that they had circled Dagmar’s observatory on their map.

So, now we’re planning on heading back down the Narn towards Unterbaum, mum, and then probably on to the observatory. It was a long way to come, to Devil’s Bowl, and it wasn’t much use, but I suppose we did find that key, which we think will come in handy if we do go back to Dagmar’s observatory, so that’s something. I’m feeling a bit better after my lie-in, mum, although I do fancy a smoke.