Kenji, Yuki, and Honey

  “Over here mighty Ratisskeller.” The voice came out of the darkness again.

  SCWING “Who’s there?” Pumpkin asked with her claws out. Ratskeller sniffed. George held a shield of shimmering air in front of himself and conjured a light in his right paw as he cautiously moved forward.

  “I can get myself out, but the others will need your help.” The voice said. George pulled back when he found the source of the voice. An enormous grey rat locked inside a metal cage. “I think the badger is immortal, but you should hurry just in case.” The rat pointed to another cage beside him. An adorable red face that looked a lot like a raccoon flinched back in fear when George moved his light closer.

  “Hold on. We’ll get you out in a second.” George grabbed the lock and began picking at it with his claws getting a feel for how the device worked. Rats came up and gently pushed him to the side. CHOMP. The lock fell and George opened the cage. The red masked creature was near the back of the cage looking back at him. She stood up straight and held her arms up in the air.

  “No need to crane kick me, Danielasan. I’m a healer. I can help.” He said as he noticed a lot of scratches and other wounds on her and she was definitely favoring one of her legs. George cast his recently upgraded healing spell and her eyes went wide. After a few seconds she relaxed.

  “Please help Honey. He has normally recovered by now.” the red masked animal stepped to the side and motioned towards a black and red form curled up on the ground. George immediately began healing the pitiful looking creature who was obviously covered in wounds.

  ‘Halt. Miss Yuki. I suggest you step out of the cage and we secure it until Honey has completely regained his senses.” For some reason, Yuki looked terrified and quickly stepped out of the cage and shut the door securing it with the longest piece she could find of the bolt from the lock.

  Pumpkin stepped up next to Yuki and said, “Hi Yuki. I’m Pumpkin. You’re cute.” Yuki nodded in greeting. Ratskeller was focused on the cage. Her instincts told her whatever was in there was dangerous.

  George started healing again. After a few seconds the poor creature inside stood up on wobbly legs and charged the door. “I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU. I DON’T GIVE A …” the black and grey face scrunched up in confusion. “Who the heck are you? How did you get out, Yuki?”

  “They are friends. They let me out.” Yuki explained.

  “If they are friends, why am I still in here?” Honey asked, but Yuki raised an eyebrow and Honey let go of the cage door and put his paws behind his back as he nodded. “Yeah…probably a good call.”

  Yuki opened the door and Ratskeller moved closer sniffing. “Hi. I’m Ratskeller. You smell tough and mean.”

  Honey nodded as he cast something on himself that removed the dried and not so dried blood from his body. “Nice to meet you, Ratskeller. Who’s the healer?” He asked, nodding toward George.

  “I’m George. How are you standing so quickly? You were almost dead.” George asked.

  Honey waved a paw, “Honey badgers heal fast and are tougher than we look.”

  “Yes, they are. Now if it’s okay with the Ratisskeller, could you take a couple steps back and I’ll release myself.” The enormous grey rat asked from his cage. Everybody looked at Ratskeller who could only raise her ears and cock her head to the side in confusion before stepping back. Everybody stepped back with her.

  Something punched through the plate protecting the latch on the door and glowed while the rat moved it in a semi circle around the latch. When his cut finished, he stepped out of the cage walking with a cane. He wore grey robes with a black fabric belt wrapped around his waist. When he stood in front of Ratskeller, he bowed deeply.

  “Mighty Ratisskeller, it is an honor to meet you.” the rat said as he held the bow. Following an instinct she didn’t understand, Ratskeller raised her right paw and touched the rat on his left shoulder, right shoulder, and then on top of his head.

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  The rat smiled wide. “Thank you. Ratisskeller.”

  “My name is Ratskeller.” she said.

  The rat nodded. “Small details are often lost over time. Either my clan’s or yours has probably changed the pronunciation and spelling slightly. I am Kenji. My clan hails from a mountainous region far from here. I was captured when I was young and brought to the zoo here years ago.”

  Ratskeller could tell they were a little weak and low on energy, so she produced her box of treats. Yuki and Honey started sniffing and Kenji smiled. George came over and fished out three treats handing one to each. “This will help you recover and make you stronger.” Seeing Ratskeller had not put the box away he continued, “These treasures are dangerous if you eat too many. If you feel full after one, you should wait before you eat any more. I saw a rabbit explode from eating too many treasures.”

  Honey’s stomach growled in obvious hunger, so after a few seconds George gave him a second one. Kenji cut his into three identical pieces and fed them to three small green heads that popped out through holes in his robe.

  Pumpkin stepped forward, “They are so cute. What are …?” she asked but stopped when a glowing point of a cane rose to hover an inch from her chest.

  “My apologies Miss Pumpkin, but my travels have made me wary of the instincts of your kind around small creatures.” Kenji said as he lowered his cane.

  “I wouldn’t …” Pumpkin started to complain.

  Ratskeller cut her off, “I saw you playing with a chipmunk once. The most adorable creature on the planet that even I couldn’t harm and you…”

  “I was just curious.” Pumpkin said.

  “And your curiosity killed the poor little thing.” Ratskeller said as Kenji, Yuki, and George all gave her a very pointed look. Honey’s stomach was grumbling again and he was inching towards the treats not really paying any attention to the conversation. George fished one more out for him and looked in the box before taking another out and handing it to Kenji who stored it in a pocket Two of the small green heads were obviously asleep. The third small head raised a small green leg and waved it at the group.

  “Seems like we have more left than we should.” he said with a shrug before he motioned for Ratskeller to return the box to her inventory while George burped loudly and had apparently reached his limit as he laid down to curl up and fall asleep.

  “My protege’s and myself will leave you now to find a place for me to train them. Perhaps we will meet again once they are ready.” Kenji said as he bowed again to Ratskeller.

  George cocked his head and asked, “Are you sure going off alone is a good idea? You could come with us to search for Ratskeller’s humans.” He then looked at the cage to get his point across.

  Honey suddenly woke back up with a roar. “I don’t give a … Oh sorry. Bad dream.”

  Kenji waved the concern off. “We will be fine. I only allowed us to be captured because I had seen the dishonorable heathens capture Miss Yuki and Honey and was waiting for an opportunity for us to escape but someone kept getting himself attacked every time he regained consciousness. Those poor excuses of rats have some kind of consumption spell that allows them to suck the life from their victims. Unfortunately, Honey could not resist repeatedly making himself the target of their castings.”

  “Rotten pieces of trash tricked us and locked us in a cage.” Honey shrugged.

  Kenji chuckled. “That fire in your heart makes you strong, but perhaps some temperance would be wise. You five should be moving. Your team is full and you must make haste to your objective and I must find somewhere warmer for the little ones..”

  The team wished Kenji good luck before he turned and walked off into the darkness whistling to himself. His cane clicked on the tile as he walked. George looked at the group with a smile, “We’ve got a tank now.” He said pointing at Honey. “But do you have a build yet Yuki?”

  “I can do this.” Yuki proudly said as she rose up on her hind legs and held her front paws over her head. Pumpkin awed at how cute she was, but Ratskeller felt something forming between her hands.

  “That’s certainly impressive, Yuki, but do you…” George stopped mid-sentence as a ball of flame formed between her hands and a ray of flame cut the top off of one of the sets of shelves. “And now we have a ranged caster. Our team is rounding out quite nicely.”

  The team made their way back the way they came and returned to the food court from the hole they had entered. Ratskeller looked out the door down the corridor across from them and Pumpkin said, “It’s dark out.”

  Ratskeller felt a twinge of fear. She didn’t like the dark, but she steeled her resolve. We need to find Mother and Father. “We should get going.” The group quickly made its way down the concourse heading for the entrance at the opposite end of the building. As they walked, they occasionally heard scurrying noises and squeaks of fear, but they made it to the exit without any trouble.

  Honey pushed one of the doors open after George unlocked it. They stood looking across the parking lot at the big road they would follow down to the bigger road and then to the VA. Suddenly the sky lit with fire and something massive flew above the large road towards Ratskeller and Pumpkins home.

  “Nope. Nope. Nope.” Honey said as he started to head back into the building.

  “Honey. We need to help Ratskeller find her human.” Yuki said. Honey froze and his head drooped as he turned around and cautiously walked back to them with his eyes scanning the sky.

  “Any idea what that was?” George asked. No one offered an answer. “Perhaps we should take the side roads parallelling the large one?” The group all readily agreed and Honey led the dash across the parking lot to a fence that Pumpkin cut a hole to get them through.

  Ratskeller remembered to check her inventory and equipped her Chestpiece of the Landshark. Def +10 Increases stamina recovery by 1 per second. Set item. (Two piece bonus +10 agility.) She had another book to read, but decided to leave it for later.

  “We should avoid the zoo area.” Yuki said. “The big cat with the furry head has them rounding up humans and putting them in cages.” She seemed to realize something and said, “Maybe your humans are there?”

  “We should check it out.” George said. Ratskeller growled at the thought of her Mother and Father in a cage. That was not something a good girl would tolerate.

  Honey said, “I think I remember the way. Follow me.”

  As they carefully moved from yard to yard, several large dark shapes jumped out in front of them as two of them attacked Honey pinning him down. “I’ll kill you. I don’t give a …mmmmmm” Honey’s battle cry was muffled as an enormous paw covered his shout.