The Rat in The Raincoat

Prologue

  
   
    
      An eerie silence filled the lower part of the Maw. The soft swaying of the submarine-esk boat hardly being noticed. The smell of blood and death smothered the air of the lower levels, deep in the Lower Colony's territory and camp.

"Marigold?" squeaked a small rat, her rough red brown fur almost being blacked out against the light outside from a overhanging lantern. The other didn't respond, curled up in her nest, back turned to the rest of the den. Her pink tail curled around the small cold bodies next to her belly.

"Marigold, come on, let's get you some fresh air," she suggested. Marigold didn't speak, laying still in her nest. Her black fur was matted, wet circles around her eyes from her crying. Her paws gripped the bedding under her, her ears drooping down with obvious hurt and sadness.The smaller rat shuffled her paws slightly.

"Mari... please..." she muttered.

"Leave me alone, Violet..." Marigold whispered, her voice hoarse and quiet from her previous crying. She lifted her head, looking over to her sister with her dark doe brown eyes.

Violet looked at her for a moment, a frown on her muzzle. She didn't push the rat on, turning and walking out of the small hidden nest that in the metal walls.

The once formerly large colony was now something to laugh at. How could a colony of rats this small once be so large and empowering?

They were located in the bottom of The Maw, where they could run freely without any worries... almost without worries. A dark gray and brown rat stood next to another one, a soft black colored female.

"Mom, dad, she isn't coming out... any word about Rowan?" Violet asked. Their mother, Mulberry, shook her head.

"No word... we can't tell her, she's already lost too much," she whispered, drawing up her pale colored tail closer to her, ears back in an upset manner. She pressed against the other, her mate, Thistle, the colony's Captian.

His fur was still wet from blood, his and his opponent's. Scars covered his flanks and right shoulder, yet there was an air of comfort in his words.

"Don't fret, dear, she'll be fine and back to her own self in a week or so. Rowan wouldn't want her to be so sad and down," he said, twinning his tail with his mate's.

Violet couldn't help but think about everything though...

Why did those outsider rats attack? Why did they have to come in the dead of night just to massacre them for no reason? So many lives were lost...

She looked around she saw the bodies scattered around them. Velvet saw only friends and neighbors' bodies littering the ground, fur soaked in their own blood. There were some outsider bodies, but they didn't count up to how many member the colony had lost or had gone missing, like Rowan.

Rowan was Marigold's mate, a normally flirtatious and hard working rat. He and Marigold just had their first litter, five healthy pups, who would have been the future heirs of the colony...

He gave his life to protect the colony and to keep his family safe; yet it was useless. A pair of rats had gotten into the nesting den and killed all the pups as quickly as they could. Mothers tried to protect, but their blood was shed just as quick as their pups'.