Tunnel Rat

Milo followed the Storm Mage into the tower, everyone getting quickly out of their path and bowing politely.

The exception was a very small, female student named Patsy. She had a stack of papers with her and was pinning one to a doorway. When she saw Arlothe and Milo coming, she squealed with joy and ran up to the professor.

"They liked my idea professor! They liked it! I get to be third assistant to Ginny Sue! She's in charge of events. We're holding a tea and cookie social in a week! You'll come, won't you? You're our official advisor! You should come and have cookies."

Milo saw Arlothe wince slightly, before he put a big smile on his face. "Ah, of course I would love to attend, but I've already been to one of your clans’ events, and that's my yearly limit. I can't show favoritism. And it would be so rude not to invite Tallsqueak as guest of honor. He is a visiting mage and dueling master. Think how exciting that would be?"

Patsy turned an looked at Milo, her eyes getting brighter and her smile wider. "Oh! What a wonderful idea. All of the girls were watching you duel today. You were so brave to face Professor Cremona. You even beat her and got to keep all your fur. She stepped closer to Milo and ran a hand along his arm. "It would be such a shame to have this silky soft fur ruined by a caustic poison cloud."

Milo agreed with Patsy, in theory. He wanted to keep his fur. He was also a little nervous about how close she was standing and how much she enjoyed petting his arm. "I'm, uh, not sure what I'm doing that day. Probably exploring spider caves or something."

Patsy nodded enthusiastically. "It's ok, we'll wait until you get back and you can tell us your stories. We love scary stories! We make hot fruit cider with cinnamon, and fresh cookies, and turn the lights down low. Scary stuff doesn't bother us at all. Promise you'll come, please?"

Milo found himself pressed against the wall by the small girl who folded one of her posters up and tucked it into his belt pouch. "There, you have all the information. We'll make lots of cookies just for you."

Out of his depth, and not knowing what the proper response was, Milo could only nod. And...cookies? "Can I bring a friend?"

Patsy nodded vigorously. "Of course, you can! This will be so fun. I have to go tell the others!" Having gotten an affirmative answer, Patsy ran off to tell the other members of the Clan Puffyfur event planning committee about their guest of honor.

Arlothe patted Milo on the back. "So good to see you inspiring the younger students that way. And for saving me from going, I totally forgive you for disemboweling my wife. Now let's hurry up to dinner before anything else happens. You probably aren't popular with the Eels, but Clan Manticore and Clan Raptor Tail will both be wanting you to attend their events as well."

The stairs of the tower wound upwards. Milo focused on staying right behind Arlothe so he could avoid meeting any more of the students. He got the impression the tower was a very large and complex building, with dimensions that seemed larger than he would have thought. Up and up, they went, and finally they came to the top floor.

"This floor is reserved for Professor Cremona and myself, along with the library, and the main laboratories. I'd give you the tour, but I'm sure you're as hungry as I am after putting out so much energy."

Arlothe showed him to a small dining room where another ratkin was setting out plates for two people and many dishes of food. "Just in time, sirs. I have a vegetable dish of mixed mushrooms, cave sprouts, winter leeks, and dwarven scallions. Next to that are skewers of steamed freshwater prawns with a light sprinkling of aged parmesan. There is fresh bread with honey butter and that large covered dish has an oven roasted cave tuna." He removed the covers of dishes, served them from the various foods, and then departed with a closing message. Arlothe thanked him. "Splendid as ever Cadburton, thank you." The waiter bowed in response to the thanks. "And of course, I'll be back later with tea and desert. But one question sir: Will Professor Cremona be dining tonight? I can fetch another place setting."

Arlothe seated himself and motioned for Tallsqueak to do the same. "No, she will not. She has to spend some time putting herself back together. I'm sure she would enjoy some thin porridge, a few raisins, and a six-pack of healing potions."

Arlothe began eating immediately and Milo took that as his signal to do the same. He hadn't eaten a meal like this since Sidney has tried to distract him with food. He missed that. Sidney had been a lot of fun. He hoped she had enjoyed their little talks as much as he had. Once again Milo wished there were places that he could go to in the real world for food like this. Could he reprogram the food processors? Probably not. But maybe he should look into some sort of advanced food preparation that he could sneak into Section E? Did they make automated chefs? They really should!

After they had stuffed themselves, the chef appeared again with tea, and something called flan. The large, wobbly looking desert reminded him of the Ever Pudding. He doubted that Oob had tasted this good. He needed to research this flan stuff more when he logged out.

Leaning back in his chair with tea, Arlothe studied his guest. He certainly enjoyed his food. It was obvious that many of the dishes were new to him, and he had enjoyed seeing the surprised delight on Tallsqueaks face as he tasted each. His guess was that he came from a very small hollow or even a cave in the wilds. That made sense when you considered his strange skillset with a mixture of magic and claw-to-claw combat. And there was that spanner...

"I was wondering, Tallsqueak, is that an Engineer's Spanner on your belt?"

Tallsqueak took his spanner and laid it on the table for Arlothe to see. "Yes. It's a symbol of a Senior Engineer. I earned it at the Deep Rock Engineering conclave, a couple of days travel from here."

That surprised Arlothe. Dwarves were known for being quite insular. "Dwarven Engineers? And they let a ratkin study with them and ascend to Senior Engineer? That is outstanding! I'd always heard that dwarves were a bit xenophobic."

Tallsqueak pondered that. "Maybe a little? They really don't like human beer, because it's weak stuff, and that may taint their opinion on humans. But they have a healthy respect for knowledge and efficiency. Maybe if the humans had more of that they would get along better?"

"But when we were fighting the World Boss, we all came together and fought, dwarf, human, even some elves and halflings. Everyone was getting along better after that. Although the loot chest and large amounts of beer probably helped."

Arlothe listened closely and nodded as Tallsqueak told him a little of his adventures. Much about him was explained. He hadn't spent his youth dueling; it had been real fights where his life was at stake. He'd have to warn the entire tower. They had no idea of just how deadly Tallsqueak might be in a duel, although they had been given some blunt clues today. Fighting like that didn't come with an on and off switch to change your style. Then again, it might be good to ramp up a few of the older students. Fighting duels wasn't going to help them defend the Hollow as much as a bit of real fighting. Maybe talk to Gilad about some classes together? That could be fun.

From flan, the two wandered into the laboratories. Experimental, (and mostly non-functional) equipment was everywhere. When Arlothe showed Tallsqueak his experimental apparatus for generating Storm Mana, the engineer became quite excited and asked many questions. "This is a working model of that old machine? We really need to upgrade it. This is a much better design!"

Arlothe was thrilled that he had someone to talk to. Cremona just nodded and said 'yes dear' when he talked to her about his projects. It was fair, as he did the same thing when she waxed eloquent about a new toxin she had integrated into a spell.

"Yes! Exactly. The rusting hulk by the waterfall was constructed by my grandfather and has been added to by many people. It has also been destroyed several times and rebuilt when a new part didn't work out like it should have. It's almost total junk now and the students steal parts from it for other experiments. I'd love to rebuild it with this design."

Tallsqueak asked many other questions and then nodded his head. "I think it can be done. I have fighting class in the morning with Master Gilad and then lunch with Larry, but after that I'll be over with my tools and we can get started."

The Storm Mage was greatly pleased. "I'll be there and bring several of my better students. They lack a good understanding of engineering. Maybe you can give them some pointers."

"I'd be happy to do that. We'll start with how to turn a screw, and go from there."

The discussion continued with a tour of the small library, where the tower had a collection of several hundred books on various subjects. Tallsqueak approached the books with reverance. "There are so many! I need to read these! Can I read them?"

"Well, it might take a few decades, but you can certainly get started and read when you can. It sounds like several people are keeping you busy. I'm going to shamelessly try to take some of your time as well. How about a trade? I can give you access to the library at all times, in exchange for teaching a class on Basic Electrical Principles for an hour a day. That also makes you a professor and all faculty can visit the library whenever they like, and if you are around for dinner, we can just set an extra plate out."

Milo thought that was a very good deal. "First class is tomorrow then. It will be on how to rewind an electrical coil. We need to do that with several dozen of the coils in the generator. Hands on learning is more efficient."

Tallsqueak departed later. He wanted to find Larry and see how his day had been.