While the whole Jerald incident was one of my better successes, it was hardly the norm. More often than not, the harsh reality of life as an undersized rat in the warren would find a way to beat me down. There were times where my intelligence won the day only to have my victory snatched from me by others. Life was unfair, and more unfair to some than others. Such was the case on one particularly noteworthy afternoon.

A lanky white rat pulled me aside as I was walking back from the hunt to turn in my scavenged berries to the quartermaster and spoke suddenly in a most serious manner. “Runt, you keep this losing streak up and Lord Vincent will be displeased - most displeased indeed. I don’t think you ‘preciate the extra help I’ve been given ya, but you saving my ass that time can only buy you so much goodwill, if you catch my meaning.”

“I know, I know, Diller, but what am I supposed to do? At least I made quota today, so that should buy me a little breathing room, right?”

Diller had been the closest thing to a friend I had. Once, I had come upon him outside where he had fallen into a deep crevice while trying climb a steep incline in a rocky area near the gorge where he was trying to harvest moss that was known for its healing properties. He was an agile sort and as such would often be given the more dangerous jobs and had the reputation of being one of the more successful rats. The day I happened upon him he was trapped quite a way below ground level and I had saved him by biting off a large vine from a tree, harvesting it all in one piece, then anchoring it near the edge of the crevice and tossing it down to him. He climbed it like a rope and always had a soft spot for me and would try and help from time to time.

Diller nodded reluctantly and was about to respond when his eyes locked onto something and visibly stiffened.

“What the hell are you looking at, mate?”

“Don’t look now, but it appears your good friends are back, and they look none too happy,” Diller said under his breath, beginning to form a smile that just wasn’t matching his body language. “Hiya, gents, how are things? A fine day we had today, eh?”

I slowly turned around to face what I had expected, and their timing couldn’t have been worse.

“This don’t concern you, Diller. Get lost! Me and the boys need to have words with our good friend Runt here,” the brutish newcomer at the head of the approaching group warned.

“You sure you don’t need. . .” Diller began, but never finished. “Yeah, we were done discussing things anyway.” The wiring rat shot me a knowing glance and shrugged helplessly and quickly absconded.

As I turned to face the group of about a dozen serious looking rats, they surrounded me and Val, blocking off any attempt to escape what was coming. This probably didn’t matter anyway, since even the slowest of them could run faster than me. This was going to be a problem.

“Oh Runty, you knews this was comin’, right? I mean, you didn’t think you’d just get away with it, did you?”

“Um, whatever did you mean, my good man? Surely, we can diffuse this obvious misunderstanding. I’m sure no harm has been done that a pack full of raspberries couldn’t fix?”

Val stood there for a moment, looking contemplative after hearing something about berries, but I knew full well that the well of intelligence in this one was quite shallow. This was going to set me back a way, but it would be hard for me to survive with broken limbs or worse.

“I think that could help a bit, drop your pack on the ground and I will have me a look!” Val said with a faux-friendly demeanor. After reaching over and inspecting its contents, he nodded to himself, as today I had made one of my better hauls. “Not bad, Runty my boy. I think this may work; it will do nicely.” He picked up the bag and tossed it to one of his lackeys. “It was a pleasure doing business with you.”

What? Was that it? I thought for sure they brought the whole group out for something, I don’t know, more?

“Let’s head out, boys!” Val made a chopping hand signal over his shoulder toward the area they had come from and started to turn around to leave.

I breathed a large sigh of relief as this was not how this normally went down. The best I could typically hope for was at least a good beating. Not today, I guess. I guess it could be worse, I could have been kicked in the . . .”

A searing pain shot through my nether region as something hard embedded itself painfully in my crotch.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Val spoke as he turned once more to face me. “A little salamander told me something today about my good friend Jerald. He told me a lot of something about my good. . . friend. . . Jerald.” His eyes, moments ago having been almost smiling in delight had turned exceptionally dark. “It seems to be you had something to do with that, with your stupid shiny metal thing! Before we continue, I just wanted you to know. It’s not personal.” Thinking slowly, he seemed to have come to an epiphany of some kind, “You know what? I guess it is personal!” And he proceeded rush me and beat the ever-loving rat-shit out of me.

As he began, I noticed the weight on me beginning to build as the others joined in the one-sided melee. Teeth, claws, tails and elbows all began to pummel me at once. ? This hurt more than anything I had experienced before; it was pure agony. to move on the bottom of this beat-down pile.

Over time, I had developed a sort of sliding scale between one and ten to classify my beatings, the worst of which was a Pain Level 8, aka PL8. I had received that after someone lied and said I stole his chew toy, which of course was completely ridiculous as that was a filthy habit. I ended up receiving a lot of bruises, a few scars and my tail had been broken in three spots. Today was shaping up to be at least PL9 and rising.

My world had become pain, and pain alone, the ability to think about anything except for my injuries became next to impossible. I could vaguely sense thinking at least this couldn’t be any worse when, of course, it did. My right eye was lit with excruciating pain as something sharp pierced it as I heard something along my spine make a very disconcerting snapping sound.

The gang was in rare form tonight, and it appeared they weren’t going to stop until I was dead. With the crack from my spine, my pain seemed to fade somewhat and within that moment of relief, I had enough metal clarity to realize I was dying. I guess such was life, with the strong preying on the weak. The natural order of things could not be denied, no matter how clever one was. They were the strong and I was, well, the weak. At least I had this time to briefly reflect on that before my end. We rats worshipped no deity or anything like that, so I began to mentally prepare for my return to the dirt as my vision, what was left of it, faded, and my grip on consciousness fell away. I had done good – for a runt.