A loud metal noise made her snap awake. In the almost total darkness, save the torches lighting up the room of her Master, she determined the sound came from outside the massive steel door. She quietly ran up to the door and put her ear against it. Somewhere in the sewers, there were a group of people moving around. She reasoned they were merely workers, but a sudden scream, followed by a great chaos of shouts, screams and noises of war sent a chill down her spine: Sewercats.

A deceptively innocent name, the Sewercats were a military group with a much more convoluted name full of pronunciations she never quite managed to nail down. The nickname stemmed from their main mission of systematically purging the 'rats' living in the city sewers. As she stood there, one of the master's goons approached from behind, his disgusting smile replaced by a deep, and quite understandable terror. The screams continued to echo within the sewers for a while, but was soon replaced by a deathly silence.

"Hey kid... Go out there and open the drain."

"You do it..." She whispered back.

"Go... Or I'll... Cut you real good...!"

"That'll draw them in for sure..."

"Just go!" He whispered half-loud before starting to gently lift the metal bar keeping the door shut. A cacophony of squeaking and metallic shrieks ensued, largely from his attempt at being gentle with the old lock.

"You're waking the whole damn place with that!" She whispered, to which he returned her a sour, threatening look.

Within moments, the locks on the door slid away, and with a loud squeak, he pushed the door open enough for her to slide outside. The tunnel was dark save for a small glimmer of light shining through a vertical pipe connected to some rich person's rain catcher. On the opposite wall hung a small metal chain, connected to a blocking stone which kept the usual flow of filth from flowing into the tunnel from above. With gentle footsteps she began entering the water which bore a deep red, mixed in with the otherwise normal filth. She made it to the other side with relative ease, and pulled the chain. A loud dunk, was followed by the rapid flow of water. Her mission complete, she began to head back, but nearly stumbled in a strange lump floating in the water. As soon as she reached the light, she saw that the lump was not the usual piece of trash, but a fresh, and still bleeding corpse. Her surprise was only temporary, as her attention was drawn to the noise of footsteps in the water, drawing closer.

She waded through the water and slipped in behind the door, the recently moved locks making slightly less noise. Inside, some of the people had begun to wake up, and some were already huddled together, shaking visibly with fear. She put her ear to the door and began listening. Over the sound of the running water, she could hear loud swearing, and muted complaints about the apparent wall of filth. A tense two minutes followed, before the silence returned, the footsteps gone. Her heart gradually returned to its normal beat, but the fear stuck to her, even as she tried to make herself comfortable.