"You are supposed to be dead!" said Mr Fox.
Rat twinkled up to him, and kept on spitting water.
"Well, as you can see, I am not", he replied insinuatingly, and coughed.
"I definitely see," Mr Fox said and looked at the picture of misery at his feet, thinking for a moment. "Then let's go."
"You're funny," said Rat, but his effort to laugh was won by another heavy cough. "I, for my share, am not goin' anywhere. For, if you did not know, I am livin' here." He bore down another cough and tried not to shiver.
Mr Fox looked down at him.
"If you pretend to stay here, you're clearly funnier than I am. You're soaking wet, it's cold as hell and this ... this something might come back any moment. And you're telling me you will stay here?"
Rat coughed. "Where else should I go?"
"You'll come with me, for this time," said Mr Fox. "Now get up."
Rat looked at him, incredulously, and tried to get to his feet, but fell down again immediately.
Mr Fox sighed. "Today, thinks clearly don't work out as planned," he said, bent down, loaded the wet, shivering and coughing Rat over his shoulder and left the canalisation.
Felicity Fox raised her eyebrows.
"You're not serious about this," she said and pointed to Rat, whom her husband had let down to the ground.
"I am perfectly serious about this," Mr. Fox replied.
She crossed her arms. "Honey, this dirty rat is definitely not going to enter my home, and you better kick it back to where you found it, for if not I will do it myself."
"Darling, calm down," said Mr. Fox. "He just saved my life."
"He did what?"
"I'll be telling you inside."
"Thanks God the boys are on their school trip," Felicity sighed.
A few minutes later, they had changed Rat's soaking clothes for a pyjama of Mr Fox, and prepared him a provisional bed in the kitchen, where Rat lay wrapped into a blanket and stared onto the ceiling without saying a word. He was still shivering, but obviously trying to repress it.
Mr Fox sat down by his side and handed him over a cup of hot soup. Rat sat up carefully to receive it, unable to hide how good the warmth in his hands felt.
"Why did you come back?" he asked while sipping a first gulp of hot soup.
"Why, I heard you call my name," said Mr Fox.
"However," said Rat. "I did not expect you to come back."
"Actually, I didn't expect you to do what you did, either."
Rat shrugged, and emptied his cup. "I guess that was kind of ... Let us put it like that: Nasty things were happening to your boys, and I was involved. And there was also a time when we both could stand each other better than now. I don't forget things like these. So I might be a rotter, and I am not plannin' to be anything else ever, but that doesn't mean I don't have a sense of honour, if you want to put it like this."
"Alright then," said Mr Fox. "It's the same with me. I like being a thief, and I clearly don't like rats, and less if they are like you, but nevertheless, right now I'm in debt with you. So, stay here for this night, because given your condition, anything else would kill you. And then, tomorrow morning get out here, and don't dare to come back. I shall have done enough for you with this."
"You certainly have," said Rat, and wrapped himself tighter into his blanket. "Good night." And he coughed.
"It's hard to believe," said Felicity Fox, when Mr Fox had told her about what had happened.
"It is," he agreed. "But I hope now you see that I couldn't leave him there like this."
"Nevertheless, it might have been better for all of us if that creature simply died."
"Don't say that, honey. He's a rotter, and has no education, but you remember how he defended the cider; he's definitely not a coward. He's rather able to risk his life for what he believes to be worth it. Today, he believed that I was worth it, and I wouldn't be here to tell you this if it wasn't for him. He's not a coward." After a while, he added: "He's never been one."
"You're fantastically right, as always," sighed Felicity.
"Now let's sleep. Tomorrow Rat will be gone, and we'll probably never see him
again." Mr Fox touched Felicity's belly and smiled. "This little guy hopefully will never get to know Rat."
He was wrong, and some hours later he was to know it.
