Tunnel Rat

It was indeed little fishies day. Each of the little blind cave trout were half a foot long and they had been fried in oil with spices, butter and chopped onions slathered inside of them. Bleusnout took one look at Milo's bruised and battered body and scooped him up a double helping of fried trout, vegetables, and half a loaf of fresh bread. He motioned Milo sit at a table nearby and took the food to him.

"You look like you took on an army all by yourself, and you're famished. Eat this and you'll feel much better. Was Gilad putting your through one of his challenges?"

Milo ate half of a fish in one bite and then tore off a chunk of bread, tossing it into his mouth without pausing. He managed to mumbled some words before his next bite. "Just four at once, but I'm sure Gilad will find an army next time."

"Yes, I'm sure he will. If you pass one of his challenges, he simply finds a bigger challenge. But on the bright side, that means he sees something in your worth training." The chef paused and then asked. "I know it's only been a day, but were you able to find any of the mushrooms I need?"

Milo started to talk, but his mouth was overstuffed with food.

Bleusnout laughed. "My apologies, you are hungry. Eat, and when you are done we will talk about your expedition." The chef walked away, and Milo did just that. He ate until nothing was left, and then sat back, watching the other ratkin go in and out of the huge mess hall. Most of the Hollow ate here everyday. If you had nothing else to do, you could stay here and meet nearly everyone. Several hundred ratkin lived here in the village. He'd learned that many caves branched out from the large central areas and served as homes for families and clans. Limburger was a well established Hollow, with a history, and some old secrets. Milo liked figuring out the secrets. Which reminded him about the ring, the gathering bags, and the mushrooms he'd been sent to find.

There were several large mixing bowls on the table next to Milo, freshly cleaned from the morning cooking. He took two of them, and turned his body so no one could see him pull a gathering sack from his ring. He transferred all of the mushrooms from the bag with edible fungus into the two bowls. He finished emptying the bag, and put it back into his ring. Bleusnout was walking back over to him, holding a small pastry. "Finished up with lunch? Good, I have a surprise for..."? Bleusnout stopped talking, staring at the bowls of mushrooms on the table.

Milo could smell the delicious smell of cheese coming from the pastry. "For me?" Milo took it and began nibbling the tasty pastry a little at a time.

The distracted chef looked down at the pastry. "Oh, yes. This is a Cheese Danish. It turned out well, I think. But, Golden Puffballs? Where did you find Golden Puffballs? These are notoriously hard to grow. Special soil and climate are needed! They are so delicious! I'll make a special meal of these tomorrow! And you'll find some extra contribution points when you check the board next." He patted Milo on the head, still staring at the mushrooms. Then picked up the two bowls and began yelling. "Riftkin! Smiley! I'll be downstairs. Finish up the meal."

Milo walked over to where a harried Riftkin was trying to fry up more fishies while Smiley served people. Milo pointed to Larry's bowl, and Smiley gave him a big thumbs up. "I'll have it ready for you as soon as he shows up. Thanks for handling him. He doesn't know me well, and Rift is really nervous around Larry." Milo shrugged. How could anyone be nervous around Larry?

It didn't take long for Larry to show up. He came skipping and hopping, dancing to some inner music. The ratkin that saw him stopped to stare. Milo met him on the porch and they sat eating their lunch, (Milo's second lunch, he was still starving). No one had objected to him grabbing a double bowl to eat along with Larry.

Larry was excited, and was telling Milo a story when Milo saw a board in the roof above the porch flex slightly. He got up silently and went into the mess hall and out another door. Larry was at the best part where Justin and Larry had to fight all the bad sneaky guys and he didn't even notice that Milo was gone. It was easy to climb up to the slightly slanted roof. Milo began to skulk across it, keeping as low as he could and concentrating on not being noticed. As he had suspected, someone who wanted to play a game of surprise was on top of the roof. Two someones, even. Milo snuck up slowly behind them, then yelled "surprise!" and pushed both of them off of the roof. They twisted in the air and landed on their feet. After taking a moment to glare at the smiling Tallsqueak on the roof, they realized how close they were Larry. Larry looked up and saw them before they could skulk away.

Larry was just telling Milo about how the sneaky bad guys ambushed Larry and Justin, when two sneaky bad guys landed in front of him. There was always a thin wall between reality and fiction for Larry. That wall crumbled and Larry knew what he had to do to save Hamster Town. As far away as the market, people heard his roar.

"HEY HEY! HO HO! Sneaky Badguys got to GO!"

Two first year ratkin shadow skulkers suddenly found themselves in front of an enraged Cheese Fiend! They made the immediate decision to run. Larry ran after them, and to their horror he was much faster than they expected and didn't fall over. Those ratkin who were in the marketplace that day were treated to the sight of two shrieking shadow skulkers running as fast as they could, with Larry in close pursuit, clad in his pink weasel slippers. Milo was three steps behind Larry, not knowing what his huge friend would do if he caught them.

The little parade ran through the marketplace three times, with the harried ratkin unable to evade Larry, and Milo unable to calm him down. Finally, a second decision was made and they ran inside a large house at the end of the market and shut the stout wooden door. Larry dug in his heels and stopped, just before running into the door. Milo suspected Larry could have gone straight through the door if he wanted to. Instead, Larry banged on the door three times. "Can Larry come in?" No one answered.

Larry turned to Milo, a frown on his face. "Badguys don't know how to play 'knock, knock, knock'!"

Milo began clapping. "You did it Larry. You saved Hamster town again."

More clapping came from nearby. "Indeed. That was very good rescuing. Can I offer either of you two heroes a cool glass of fruit juice and some cookies? I was just taking my lunch." The Old Healer was sitting at a table nearby, a pitcher and a plate of cookies in front of him."

Larry nodded in approval. Heroes needed cookies to keep up their strength for doing Hero things. He sat down on the ground and waited patiently. Milo got him a cookie and a glass of fruit juice, and the same for himself. The old ratkin waited for them to serve themselves, and then spoke. "That was exciting to watch, and this is probably the best outcome that one could hope for. But I'm curious about the start of the adventure."

Milo felt slightly embarrassed. "It was my fault. I may have surprised them while they were on the roof and knocked them off when Larry was at an important part of the story."

Larry nodded seriously. "Best part of the story. Larry can have another cookie?" Old Healer handed the plate to Larry. "You may have all of the rest. I'm sure Tallsqueak and myself aren't hungry, and my grand-daughter is late for lunch."

As he passed the plate of cookies to Larry, Old Healer noticed Larry's feet. "My, those are very pretty slippers. Did you find those somewhere Larry?"

Larry shook his head no, and stuffed two cookies into his mouth. When he had swallowed them down, he smiled broadly. "No, Larry not find. Good friend gave to Larry to help him dance better. And Larry has magic dancing ring too! Larry is a very good dancer. All of Larry's new friends say so."

The old ratkin was thoughtful for a moment. He had wondered how Larry had chased his students and nearly caught them. "That is good Larry. Very good. And clever of your new friend." He spoke more softly to Milo. "I've often wondered about finding new skills for Larry to do in the hopes that it helps him reverse some changes. Can you please keep an eye on Larry? Gifts from the Fae can be tricky, but I'm happy to see that he can actually learn new skills. Bleusnout has had him trying to juggle rocks for a year, but it hasn't helped."

Milo thought about that too. "Maybe it needs to be something he really wants to do? He loves doing the Happy Hamster Hop and has been dancing all morning. The ring helped him gain the skill permanently."

Old Healer considered his next words. "If it is similar to another ring I once saw, it has benefits as well as drawbacks. The slippers simply have the drawback of having to walk around in pink weasel slippers. But I don't see that as a problem for Larry. If anything, it softens his appearance to the people nervous to be around him. Gifts from a friend under another hill are always tricky, but I think there is little harm to Larry in this case.

Milo looked at the old ratkin. He seemed quite observant, and Milo suspected he recognized Larry's slippers and ring. He didn't regret giving Larry his presents. Larry needed every bit of help he could get. But pink weasel slippers were very unique. Milo didn't want to cause trouble for Larry. He grew very serious and asked, "Will you promise to keep a secret?"

The old one nodded, just as seriously. "I enjoy keeping secrets and will not divulge anything you don't want to be known. If you have a good secret, I might even share one of my own with you."

That was good enough to Milo.

"There is a secret tunnel that goes from a cave guarded by the spiders to an area full of mushrooms. The other end of the tunnel goes to Larry's house. But if someone disturbed him while he was sleeping, it could be very bad, and make Larry feel sad." Old Healer looked to where Larry was eating cookies with four-inch talons attached to huge, muscular hands and arms. "Ah, I see your point. Yes, we don't want anyone disturbing Larry."

Milo looked at where Larry was happily eating cookies. "And I don't want anyone taking away Larry's presents. He needs them."

Old Healer stared at Tallsqueak for a full minute. The younger ratkin across from him was very serious about this. He had claimed Larry as a friend and was protecting him. Old Healer approved. If only all the young ones in the Hollow could grow up this way. He'd have to make sure his entire clan understood that Larry was off limits. No games of surprise. No stealing. This was best for the clan as well. An angry Cheese Fiend was a force of nature.

"Do not worry. Long lost treasure belongs to whoever finds it. No one will steal from Larry. Or from you, for that matter." He indicated Milo's pants.

Milo smiled. "Good, these are great pants! They stayed clean all through the fight and are very comfortable."

"So then, now that we’ve had our cookies and discussed secrets, you say you found mushrooms for me?"

A Gatherer's sack appeared on the table. Old Healer laughed. "Ah, well that answers that question. I was wondering what else you might have found. I have one of those too." The bag disappeared and in its place was an empty Gatherer's bag of a different color. Old Healer showed Milo his hand, where he wore a duplicate of Milo's new ring on his own finger. "Now you know one of my secrets as well, and we can keep each other’s secrets. Shared secrets can build trust between friends."

Milo nodded. That was fair. He wondered how many of those rings were in the Hollow. They were very useful.

Larry stood up.

"Larry wants to go dance some more, but Tallsqueak is having fun talking with funny old rat. Larry will take cookies to Larry's house to share with friends." The happy Cheese Fiend wandered back through the marketplace, people scurrying to get out of his way.

It had been a good day for Larry; Presents, new friends, dancing, cookies, and being a hero. When he got back to his house, Larry told Larry the story of the best day ever many times, so that Larry would remember it when he had a bad day. Not all days were good days, and stories helped.