Donner and Thalia: The Lair of the Rat God (Episode 1)

Chapter 5

5.

Dusk had come and gone, and only the light of the full moon lit the group's path as they made their way one town over to Hasbeek. Thank the gods for the full moon as there were no torches or people or any sign of vibrant small-town salt of the earth life.

"Why is it so quiet?" Donner asked as he followed Thalia with the cat clung in her arms.

"Some people are scared of the full moon," she said as she stroked the cat.

"You don't think there could be a werewolf in the area we haven't heard about do you," Lenny said as he bit his lip.

Donner stopped, "That would be awesome, kill a werewolf, that's some high epic Knight work right there,"

"There isn't a werewolf, you idiots," Thalia said, scolding the boys. As she turned back around, the cat hissed again and jumped out of Thalia's arms. Limp and all, it approached one home. Hissing in front of its door.

"Is that it's owners house?" Donner asked.

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it lives somewhere else," Thalia said as she approached the door and gave it a knock.

No answer from the door came, the only sound being the cat hissing again as it went to scratch at the door. Donner approached it and held his hand out to Thalia, "Can I get a light?" he asked.

Thalia waved her hand over his palm and created another bulb of light in it. Donner held it up to the door and saw, painted in black ink, a symbol. "Lenny, can look at this?" he asked.

Lenny looked it over, two long black lines angled towards each other, two small lines between them near the top, and near their bottom were two lines crossing the long lines forming a kind of face, "What is that? It doesn't recognize any symbols I've seen in my studies," Lenny said, trying to remember if he had ever seen this symbol before in one of his books.

"I don't know, Thalia, can you make it out?"

"No, I've never seen that symbol before, it looks like the symbol of a God, but not any god I know of," she looked up and down the symbol.

A woman's voice from behind them called out, "Best stay away from that house," she said. The party turned and saw a middle-aged woman with a small girl clinging tightly to her leg. The little girl looked up, and her eyes went wide, "My kitty!" she said as she ran forward only to be caught by her mother's hand. "No child, I told you to stay away from that house, remember,"

"But mommy, it's my Kitty. I told you it would come back!"

"Keep your voice down, child," she said, scolding the excitable young girl. She turned back to the three, "Leave the cat here, please leave our town, no good can come of going in that house," she said before looking down at her daughter, stroking her hair, and looking back at the three, "Thank you for finding our cat," she said.

"All in a day's work, ma'am. See, I'm a Knight, and-"

"Donner!" Thalia hissed at him before turning to the woman, "You're welcome," she said as the cat ran to the little girl, Thalia turned to the boys, "Let's get out of here, we don't want any trouble tonight."

"Fair enough," Donner sighed.

"Thank you for finding my kitty, Sir Knight," the little girl said, smiling as her kitty limped towards her and into her arms. Donner smiled and led Thalia and Lenny out of the town.

On their way back once they were out of the town. Donner addressed the Dragon in the room, "So, what was that all about?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to know," Thalia said as she made her way past Donner.

"I don't know, and I feel like I shouldn't want to know," said Lenny, "But I want to know, is that wrong?"

"This is going to be a bug on me all night. What was that symbol? Why did no one in that house answer your knock? And where are these giant rats coming from?"

"Let's not ask questions, that woman made it very clear that she, and most likely by extension, that entire town, doesn't want anyone digging around for answers," Thalia said.

"I think I know who can find out what the symbol means," Donner said.

Thalia stopped, and turned to Donner, "Just let it go, Donner," she said, exhausted with her friend's ignorant crusade to find adventure wherever he could.

"Paul, of course, Paul has read more books on the Gods than anyone I know. He's read more books about anything then anyone I know, why don't we take the symbol to him and see if he knows what it's about."

"You are just incapable of not answering the call to adventure, aren't you?" Thalia said.

"These are not ordinary Rats we've seen. And now we've seen them twice in one day. These rats are huge. Cats hate rats. The cat was trying to tell us something, something about these giant rats. There's more to this, Thalia. I think they're connected." Donner said.

"They're just rats, if you can kill one so easily, they must not be a threat," Thalia said as Donner was slowly starting to whittle away her resistance.

"One isn't a threat. One of anything isn't a threat under the right circumstances. But we have seen that there is more than one," Donner held his shoulders high, "I am an officially registered Knight of Kinleath, and I took a binding contract to deal with a rat problem. This is a rat problem. I may have already received my pay, but my job isn't done yet. Do you want our town to be overrun with giant rats?"

"Fine! You want to see what you can find out, fine! You want to try to win glory slaying a bunch of rodents, be my guest," she said.

"It's not about glory. It's about doing your job. I can't believe I'm repeating the advice my dad gave me, but it's true. I said I would do a job and I intend to do it. I learned something, back at the town hall, all that business with the paperwork and the taxes, and all that nonsense just to be able to call yourself a Knight. Being a Knight isn't about glory. It's about doing your job, no matter what. That's the real reason I've always looked up to Knights. The glory was just the fun part of it. I want to be a Knight because I want to help people," He held his arms out, "We can help people, Thalia,"

Thalia sighed, she reached out and took Donner's hand, "There's only one reason I'll help you do this," she said before shaking her head, she let her smile come out, and looked Donner right in his eyes, "Because I think you might be able to become the greatest Knight the Kingdom has ever seen."

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