20 Minute with Amy Challenge.
What's in a rat?
By Rose Williams.
Rating G.
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all associated 'stuff' belong to Joss Whedon and all associated people (and organizations). His Dark Materials and all associated 'stuff' belong to Phillip Pullman and all associated people (and organizations).
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Will looked both ways down the street again before disappearing behind the house after the shadowy cat. The cat was waiting for him by the door to the kitchen. He glanced down at her and she managed to look back with an expression both reproachful and concerned. Things would go a lot worse for him than for her if they were caught.
She shook her head and Will breathed a sigh of relief. With practiced hands he picked the lock and the pair stole inside. He closed the door behind him as she ran upstairs.
He began to explore the house. It seemed an ordinary family home. Much like his own had been, in fact, before everything had happened. Home was beginning to feel like home to him again – but this house felt kind of sad.
He knew his estimation of 'ordinary family home' was wrong. They were there, after al to collect a talisman for Mary's project. But he hadn't expected to find it on a coffee table next to a trunk of weapons.
Just as he was about to call Kirjava down stairs he felt her stab of curiosity. Kirjava was quite uncurious for a cat, claiming to have seen enough for nine lives already.
Will carefully climbed the stairs, hoping that Kirjava had been sure there was no one here. He found her in the master bedroom staring at a cage, or rather, at a rat.
He was surprise.
Kirjava looked reproachful again.
"She isn't an ordinary rat," she said.
"Someone keeps their dæmon in a cage?" Will demanded.
"She's human," the cat explained. "She turned herself into a rat when the town tried to burn her and the women who live here. They look after her."
Will frowned, thinking. He looked closely at the rat, which cleaned its whiskers and watched the cat.
"Does she want to come with us?" Will asked. "You can tell her what Mary's trying to do. It might help her."
He waited while the non-animals spoke. The room and the house began to put him on edge. Or possibly it was the strange metal disk in his pocket.
Not that he was comfortable with breaking into strange houses in strange countries, but it was at least something he knew how to do. And it was exciting.
The rest was depressing.
"She wants to come," Kirjava said. "Even if we can't help her she'd like someone to talk to."
Will caught the tail end of Kirjava's thought: "How do you think I feel, talking to a rat?" and smiled.
He opened the cage and gently scooped the rat up and put her in his shirt pocket. Together he and Kirjava walked quietly down the stairs and out the door. They crossed the street and started back to the hotel. They needed to sleep before the plane back to England.
"Oh," Kirjava said as Will put the key in the door of the their room, "her name's Amy."