A disheveled middle-aged man in a set of robes colored in the shade formerly known as green sat at a bench at his worktable. The room around him was filled with tools, flasks, containers of all shapes and sizes. The place lacked any traditional lighting but was instead lit by a series of evenly placed glowing white spheres, mounted on identical wrought iron sconces, giving the room a very harsh feel to it. The scent of sulphur and what could only be described as burned horsehair filled the room.

The man, working intently with an intense focus, after a time froze, staring at the object before him. “It. . . is. . . finished! Now to prepare the final incantation. Salvie! Salvie! Get over here! I require your assistance! What do I pay you for, girl? Move it!”

A young girl with deep brown, almost black hair timidly approached her mentor’s side, almost tripping on her own too-large light grey robes. “Yes sir, I’m here,” she practically whispered.

“Speak up, girl, I can barely hear you, that’s no way for an enchanter’s apprentice of mine to behave.”

“Yes, Master Felbin!” She repeated with a little more volume, but certainly a lot more zest. She did, after all, want to do her family proud and did not want to disappoint her quite-famous teacher in the magical arts.

“Much better, Salvie, much better. We’ll make a proper thaumaturge out of you yet! Now quickly, hold this, then accept my party invitation.”

Salvie quickly grabbed the wooden figurine of a rodent, accepted the invite and took only a moment to bring a confused expression to her face.

Seeing this, Master Felbin sighed loudly, started to say something harsh, shook his head slightly and then started to explain in a slow and precise manner. “Today, my young apprentice, we are going to be finishing up an interesting little project for our Lord Protector’s son. While he will be oblivious to the fine craftsmanship and time involved in its creation, his father will not be. I couldn’t give two shits about the brat, but his father is another matter.

This figurine is more than an exquisite example of the royal woodworker’s talent; it also will be a showcase of my magical prowess. The wizard’s world is cutthroat, my young friend, and every little thing you can do to prove your worth may be the difference between claiming a job as a royal court wizard or magically fertilizing farmers’ fields in the ass-end of nowhere. However, before either of these things can happen it needs to be finished. Now hold it while I imbue it with mana. I will get a notification when it is finished and according to the spell dialogue this should take no longer than a minute.”

Salvie tentatively received the rat figurine and held it gingerly, not wanting to find out what would happen to her should she drop it.

“Whatever you do, don’t move, it will disrupt the process. Let’s begin!”

Thaddius Felbin, enchanter extraordinaire, began the incantation that would power the binding of the statuette and a being from another plane. At first, little could be seen happening other than subdued chanting and slow, deliberate, parallel finger motions between both of his hands as he held them out at waist height. After maybe ten seconds, a soft humming sound could be heard emanating from the figurine as a pale green light began flowing from the wizard’s outstretched hands in chaotic waves. The chanting and hand motions continued and started to build in volume and intensity as the humming and the green light followed suit.

Salvie looked a little nervous to be the center of focus for what appeared to be an intensively strong magical process, but she held firm, not wanting to disappoint her mentor. With an effort of will, she firmed her resolve and concentrated on nothing except for holding the precious object still.

The process continued to build until the light grew so intense it caused both to squint and the buzzing sound could be felt in addition to being heard. Master Felbin was past the halfway point and began to change his chant into a language Salvie could understand.

“By the power of my soul, I bind your soul. By the power of my mind, I bind your mind!” He kept repeating this mantra, intensifying each repetition until the arcane power permeated their very beings.

Salvie looked to falter out of panic, but a reassuring nod from the older man gave her the courage to continue even as his arms, now wildly gesticulating, were beginning to power an arcane vortex focused on the figurine. She held her ground, the mixture of sight and sound becoming nearly unbearable. Growing dizzy, it was all she could manage just to hold still, as the capability for rational thought now waned. Then, as she could stand it no longer, the sudden shift to silence and the release of the arcane pressure caused her to collapse.

Out of breath, Master Felbin seemed to take stock of the situation for a moment, breathing hard, looking wide-eyed around his laboratory. “Salvie, girl, how is the figurine? Is it alright? Please tell me you haven’t let go, the spell still needs a moment to complete, although holding still at this point is not necessary.”

“I’m ok, Master, thanks for asking.”

“Silence! I will endure no backtalk from you!”

“Yes, Master Felbin, I apol. . . I aplogi. . .” Suddenly she began to scream out in pain. “My hands! My hands!”

As the confused wizard approached to see what the matter was, his eyes were fixated on her hands. Inspecting closer, while placing one of his own hands on the girl’s shoulder to calm her, he shook his head in disbelief. “Why this is most curious, most unusual!”

Salvie, by this point, had let the figurine fall to the ground and was holding her hands out in great distress. It was evident that she did not share Felbin’s opinion of the curious nature of the intense pain she felt from her hands. Blood could be seen covering much of the palm and fingers as a variety of cuts, abrasions, and punctures manifested with no obvious source. These injuries were all ridiculously small, but the sheer amount of them was disconcerting. Thirty seconds later, new injuries ceased but the existing ones remained.

While the source of the injuries was still not clear, he needed to at least tend to them. Helping her to her feet, he ushered the young apprentice over to a jug of fresh water. Rinsing her off over the washtub in the corner, he then had her wrap her hands in a couple of small towels. “Here, now hold your hands tightly together, this will help staunch the bleeding.” Satisfied that the worst was over, he left her to see the result of his crafting. Further treating of her hands could wait, he needed to know if he succeeded.

Retrieving the wooden sculpture from the ground, he inspected it.

Name: Fine Rat Figurine. Durability: 20/20. Effect: Once you name your rat, you can call to it, and it will appear. The rat will remain with you for 4 hours a day before it must return to its own plane. Although the rat cannot speak, it is intelligent and can understand and execute commands.

“Hmm, seems to look normal,” he commented to no one with a beginning of a smile reaching the corner of his mouth. Turning the object over in his hand, admiring the craftmanship, he hummed to himself, clearly pleased. “Salvie, we’ve done it! I thought for sure we failed when I saw your scratches, but we’ve done!” Salvie, for her part, seemed not to share his enthusiasm but he was far too focused to notice.

“Might as well try it out and see what exactly we get,” he mumbled. Grasping the magical device in his right hand, he focused his will on it. Feeling it activate, he looked down in front of him to greet the newly summon rat. As he watched, a silvery cloud of mist emerged from nowhere, taking a few moments before it coalesced into the form of a rat.

“That is most strange” Master Felbin reached down to the summoned rat in front of him, hesitant to touch it. “Is this thing defective, I think he is dead!”

Salvie, still in obvious pain but with the bleeding under control, couldn’t help but wander over to see what was going on.

In front of the pair, a light brown and white colored rat did indeed appear, but it appeared to be lying on its side, motionless. “It is dead! Which is certainly fascinating but is most problematic. Salvie!” He stared with anger so intense at his protégé that she took an instinctive step back. “Look at this. Look at it! You couldn’t hold still five damn seconds more?” He flicked the corpse over to emphasize his point.

***

There was that buzzing sound again – and the pain! Accompanying the pain and noise was a bright light – so strong I could see it through all three of my eyelids. In addition, something produced a humming noise so loud it felt like my whole body was shaking, though I was only partially aware as my world consisted primarily of the pain of the thrashing I was currently receiving. All three feelings grew so intense that I could not even remember who I was. Through the terrible mélange of sensations, reality wasn’t even a memory.

When will this abuse end? Will they not just hurry the bloodly hell up and finish me already? One would think a group of grown rats would have no difficulty in beating me, the runt, to a quick death. Surely if they were torturing me properly, they would have slowed down by now? No, this is not quite right, unless I am tougher than I. . .

The thought was interrupted by a deep booming voice that Runt could plainly understand but did not as he was in no way prepared to listen to anything other than his final breaths, maybe a death rattle, possibly even the sound of one of his legs twitching as he transitioned from live rat to the role of inanimate object. The voice boomed again. Did the voice just say, “look at it?”

At the same time, he both felt something large flip him over onto his back, and with that came the realization that his pain was gone. He suddenly gasped for the air he had been deprived of and opened his eyes wide, too stunned to move. What he did see in that moment both confused and frightened him. Standing before him, on two massive legs, was some sort of hulking monstrosity of a creature, covered in brightly colored furs. I’d like the beatdown pile back, please! The beast was angrily yelling at another smaller, but still large enough to crush a rat, of its kind. Egads, there’s two of them! So ugly and disgusting! And I can. . . understand them? Runt continued to listen as he attempted to get a better grasp on reality.

“Look, its not that hard. You had two jobs, stand there and don’t move! You’re lucky I don’t beat you, stupid child!” the taller one boomed. “Do you have any idea how much preparation went into this enchantment? Do you know how much it costs to commission a master-level woodworker to produce an item of this quality? Do you?!”

“I’m sorry, Master Felbin!” Salvie cried out after he paused for a second to inhale, having not come up for air for quite some time during his tirade. It was only because she was averting her superior’s gaze, which at this point was hot enough to melt iron, that she happened to look over to where the dead rat, the source of her shame, lay. Her eyes went wide as she noticed the dead rat had rolled over and was making eye contact with her. Her right hand shot out involuntarily, almost pulling her makeshift bandage from it, and pointed at the small creature as she gasped loudly, “Look!”

The elder man, surprised by the cowed girl’s sudden forcefulness, turned to follow her pointing hand almost before he realized what he was doing. A scowl started to issue forth from the corners of his mouth as he began to turn and face her again, not immediately seeing anything out of the ordinary. Before he could do so, he caught movement from the rat and whatever curses he was about to utter were lost. His mouth dropped open and for a moment it was all he could do to remember to breath. Breaking the newfound silence he spoke. “Well, well, this was. . . unexpected! Never in all of my time as an enchanter has a. . .”

Runt bolted, not having the courage or stupidity to stay around much longer than necessary. He may have not been the pinnacle of physical rat prowess, but his survival instincts were equal to the best of his warren. When the predator saw you it was time to run for cover! Spinning away from the two large things, he spotted a hole in the large wooden wall he was now running toward under which light could be seen. Anywhere else is better than where the giant predators are, he once heard am older rat say, and now, as always, the wisdom was immediately apparent. It was time to get his furry ass out of here!