Republic of Rats

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The rat sat on the back of a very large toad, floating down the stream.
What business had the toad in the river at such a time of the night?

Well, perhaps rats too, like human beings, had a destiny, and that day’s was with the toad. He waved good bye at the rat, which made an effort to stand upright and wave back.

Even in the night’s half-darkness, you could see that the small creature was happy, wearing a bold wide smile, the one worn by the black survivor of the first big war.

He stood there for a while and then remembered the ghosts and the guards, foolish men who might be searching for the stolen carcass of a rat. The boy carefully took swift steps back to his home, slid the door open, entered the house, bolted the door and went back to his bed. He had earned himself a big blessing after all. 

By the break of dawn, the rat had moved tens of hundreds of miles. He wanted to ask the toad where they were headed to, but he knew better than not to risk breaking a strange fragile unexpected parasitic relationship in the middle of a river.

A rat could survive in whatever environment he found himself. He was sure to call his next destination home. They passed via waterweeds, rocks and falls. Still went on, seldom saying a word. Then all of a sudden, the toad broke the silence;

‘Do you see the hill over there?’ He said, pointing beyond the river bank at the green hills interwoven under the layout of the horizon.
‘Yes, I do. It’s beautiful’ Said the rat, gasping for breath, finally relieved at this break of silence.
‘That’s where you are headed.’
‘Are you not coming with me?’
‘Yes, I am, but only up to a certain point.’ The toad said. ‘Life is a sea’.

He continued. ‘It is sustained by many generous rivers, but rarely does it return such kindness itself. If sometimes, just some times, life is kind to us in certain ways, we ought to be contented with what little life does offer.’ 

The rat was confused. An unknown friend had helped him all the way to bring him to this hill. Why on earth would he do that? They had passed several other hundreds of hills.

Why waste his energy? He might have as well dropped him on any other hill instead. A rat could survive anywhere on land, and in water, that is; if there was a merciful toad around.  But as they got closer, he realised there was something unusual about this hill. In day light and at a distance, the hill was shaped like a fortress, only you couldn’t see its top. It was independent too, from the other features around it. It stood far from the world, on its own.

It seemed to get higher and higher as you got closer. And then there were the rocks which surrounded it. You might have thought they were going to fall on you any time, and yet they seemed to have been like this for so long a time.

When they got to a point where there were several rocks and stones that seemed to have pilled on each other irregularly, the toad suggested that they needed a rest. Both sat on one rock, each facing his own way. It was beautiful to look at the vastness of the water, and feel how small one was against the world.

The rat breathed this new air, and it was reassuring to know he was alive again.
So, they pushed on with their journey again, two friends from two distant worlds. They trotted through the sandy river bank up to the short grass on the swampy side, hardly exchanging a word.

The air was chilly and life was everywhere. The rat was so grateful. When they had moved about a mile and a half the toad started moving with his two legs, and the rat, who was walking like a goat, was amused.

Even if he had been in good health, he couldn’t handle that. From the sides the toad was bogeyman. His triangular head with protruding eyes, frail tiny long arms and a huge belly supported beneath by doubly segmented short hairy legs. Every step he took was a giant stride against the chilly breeze and through the foliage.