Rat

Pack

I am a lonely creature. There are others like me, but I rarely see them. It is just me. Occasionally, I find a mate and then we will make small offspring, but that is just a fleeting moment in the cycles of my life. The mate will disappear. The offspring will either die or grow and leave to head out on their own.

And then I am alone again.

But I crave company, and not just for a mate. I am a social being. I have needs. To be alone for so long has driven me close to insanity. I know there are others around like me--I can smell them. I just have to find them.

And so I hunt. I search high and low. I retreat into dark spaces and I expose myself on the top of hills. At times I leave my burrow for days at a time, and I sleep snuggled under tree roots or in a ditch somewhere. I always return with nothing. My search is always a failure.

Except for today. This search was fruitful--more fruitful than I could have ever imagined. I can hardly contain my excitement. I had ventured further than I normally would, out of pure desperation. I was just about to turn back when I sensed something was different. So I kept on my quest, for just a few moments more. That was when I saw signs of my fellows, and they were unmistakable: droppings were everywhere, and the smell of sweat and energy was all around.

I had found a tribe.

I was equal parts nervous and excited. By the amount of droppings I had found, this tribe was big. Would they accept me? Would they eat me? I had no way to be sure. I would have to find them first.

Finding them was easy: they left signs of their presence everywhere. I found empty husks of nuts and leaves that had been torn to shreds. I could smell their sweat on the grass. I could see where they had torn the grass into bits and left only a trail of dirt. I followed the trail, over the hills and through some trees.

I was close to them, but still so far away. But I was gaining. The stench of sweat grew greater as I closed the gap. It wouldn't be long now. I was in a different part of the world to what I was used to. There were more signs of the towering beasts here than where I lived. It was unsettling.

The change in scenery made me nervous. I lost the path a few times but I always managed to find it again. It was harder to see where the pack had gone, but there was always some telltale sign that they had been: either in some droppings or a few scraps of hair or some scent rubbings against a stone wall.

The day grew long: the star was low in the sky and the colour of the day was growing warm even as the air was growing cold. I feared I would have to spend another night alone in this strange wilderness, but that was when I saw them.

The pack. I was home.