The Rat Bastard Comments thread.
Dec 15, 2013 15:32:45 GMT -5
robertmarkbram, captain nemo, and 2 more like this
Post by rabidbite on Dec 15, 2013 15:32:45 GMT -5
The Warrens smelled of sulfur, scat and musk. Kat the Rat crouched on a ledge overlooking this corner of the maze like Fester Downs, a hidden ratkin city deep within the toxic scar. The city was the home of the Poison Tooth tribe but had once been home to the earth folk.
Fester Downs was ruled by two shamans Terikit and Orikot. The brother and sister had been part of a litter of six. They had managed to kill and devour all their siblings, but not each other. Their hatred and lust continued to this day. Orikot had born Terikit four litters, as many litters as attempts to kill him. Their spawn, paradoxically, never had the physical flaws of their inbreeding. Instead their minds were twisted and vacant of any morality, any semblance of control.
The Children of the Vile Twins were monsters in their mind. The Fester Downs became a very dangerous place, more so than the usual betrayals and murders of every day ratkin existence.
That was the Fester Downs Kat had been born to. It was a city bathed in the grotesqueness of its leaders and growing more fanatical to the Old Crone as the nights passed. The Poison Fang tribe was growing strong, there was no doubt about that. Yet, somehow it was growing in excesses.
Kat stared at his travel pack in thought. He turned his snout towards the city proper again. He was witnessing an idiotic self annihilating act.
As he watched, warriors hunted urchins to prepare them for a coming ceremony to the Old Crone. They would be gutted, and prepared as a delicacy for the shamans.
Kat found that abominable, not only because the urchins were being hunted down, but because the monstrous children of the Vile Twins weren't out there. Those children were kept elsewhere and formally trained. It was yet another deviation of the customs.
All urchins were the future of the Poison Fang tribe. They should be left to contest in the streets, to survive and become strong. If the tribe leaders intervened with the normal way of things, if they actively hunted the kits that should only be contesting with the already deadly realities of the city, while sheltering others, what was the point to it all? Tent-less kits had no chance against battle tested warriors. Did the Vile Twins think they could repopulate the city on their own? Perhaps they could, four litters, not a single birth death among them. That meant a full score of laborers, warriors and shamans. If rumors were true, Orikot was pregnant again.
Whatever the answers, Kat knew one thing. He would not stay to witness the outcome. There were many other tribes out in the vastness of the underworld. As an experienced hunter and scavenger, he was more than prepared to take his chances out in the dark lands.
Kat rose to his hind legs and domed his travel pack. He checked his bone bow, his barbed arrows, and his long knives. He had provisions for two weeks.
The ratkin turned his back on the city of his birth without much nostalgia. No one loved Fester Downs. It was just a place to begin existence.
"To the deepest foulest hell with it all."
Kat the rat scampered up the moss vines on the cavern wall and was gone down one of the crevices.
Time to see what the world could offer.
Fester Downs was ruled by two shamans Terikit and Orikot. The brother and sister had been part of a litter of six. They had managed to kill and devour all their siblings, but not each other. Their hatred and lust continued to this day. Orikot had born Terikit four litters, as many litters as attempts to kill him. Their spawn, paradoxically, never had the physical flaws of their inbreeding. Instead their minds were twisted and vacant of any morality, any semblance of control.
The Children of the Vile Twins were monsters in their mind. The Fester Downs became a very dangerous place, more so than the usual betrayals and murders of every day ratkin existence.
That was the Fester Downs Kat had been born to. It was a city bathed in the grotesqueness of its leaders and growing more fanatical to the Old Crone as the nights passed. The Poison Fang tribe was growing strong, there was no doubt about that. Yet, somehow it was growing in excesses.
Kat stared at his travel pack in thought. He turned his snout towards the city proper again. He was witnessing an idiotic self annihilating act.
As he watched, warriors hunted urchins to prepare them for a coming ceremony to the Old Crone. They would be gutted, and prepared as a delicacy for the shamans.
Kat found that abominable, not only because the urchins were being hunted down, but because the monstrous children of the Vile Twins weren't out there. Those children were kept elsewhere and formally trained. It was yet another deviation of the customs.
All urchins were the future of the Poison Fang tribe. They should be left to contest in the streets, to survive and become strong. If the tribe leaders intervened with the normal way of things, if they actively hunted the kits that should only be contesting with the already deadly realities of the city, while sheltering others, what was the point to it all? Tent-less kits had no chance against battle tested warriors. Did the Vile Twins think they could repopulate the city on their own? Perhaps they could, four litters, not a single birth death among them. That meant a full score of laborers, warriors and shamans. If rumors were true, Orikot was pregnant again.
Whatever the answers, Kat knew one thing. He would not stay to witness the outcome. There were many other tribes out in the vastness of the underworld. As an experienced hunter and scavenger, he was more than prepared to take his chances out in the dark lands.
Kat rose to his hind legs and domed his travel pack. He checked his bone bow, his barbed arrows, and his long knives. He had provisions for two weeks.
The ratkin turned his back on the city of his birth without much nostalgia. No one loved Fester Downs. It was just a place to begin existence.
"To the deepest foulest hell with it all."
Kat the rat scampered up the moss vines on the cavern wall and was gone down one of the crevices.
Time to see what the world could offer.
Great mix of humor and suspense.
