It was a cold night, the rats were doing their usual of starting fires and committing arson around the neighbourhood. William bristled, he was feeling nervous, he looked around, it felt off like they were being watched, before he could say anything to the rat next to him figures filled the clearing and sounds of battle hit his ears.
It took him a moment to figure out what they were being attacked by- rat sized snails, wielding daggers?! One of the snails caught his eye, he had a beautifully patterned shell as he weaved between the rats, he didn't wield a dagger though, he just carefully knocked off the rats attacking him, as if he didn't want to cause harm to himself or anyone else, even if they were on the opposite side.
The snail locked eyes with William and he instantly looked away, trying to focus on something else- he couldn't get flustered over a snail just because they were pretty and weren't hurting his friends. A wave of guilt suddenly overshadowed him, he was hiding under a bush while all his friends fought for their lives- for rats sake, but he didn't want to hurt anyone.
His paws trembled against the ash and dirt mixed ground,"Come on- William you can just disarm them you don't have to hurt anyone! The snails are literally hurting your friends right now!" He muttered to himself before leaping out of the bush and slamming himself into a snail that was about to slash his friend. The snail staggered caught off guard. William took the chance to knock the dagger out of the snails grip and to the edge of the clearing before nodding to his friend and running off to help someone else.
A dagger whooshed, just missing his ear, he whirled around to face his attacker, strategically diving and dodging the snails next attacks. He used his tail to knock the dagger out of the snails grip then baring his teeth, it worked scaring the snail away without having to hurt them.
He felt a pair of eyes watching him as he carefully disarmed snail after snail, seeing a few escape back from where they came- the rats were winning! He looked up to find the eyes that were watching him but they had looked away before he could find them.
The rats wailed in triumph as the snails backed away and ran off leaving smudges of ash and red tipped daggers in the clearing. William puffed looking at all the rats around him, feeling bad that he was the only one unscathed. "We must report back to head rat." One of the rats said and the others nodded in agreement, trailing through the forest.
William stayed at the back of the group, they had buried the daggers but he was still nervous. What did the snails want? How many battles would come after this? Why are the snails attacking now? Thought filled his head as he padding through a hedge into another clearing, full of rats, big and small.
He watched as a few of the rats with cuts from the battle went to make a report, he sat down by himself and watched them before getting bored and going under an overhanging rock and taking a nap, falling asleep quite easily.
