"HYAAA!" Her Familiar screamed as a pair of stable workers came by and manhandled him into the small barrel of water, "UNHAND ME YOU MAN-THINGS!"

"This is what happens when you resist Itch." Louise announced as she watched the maids prepare a series of brushes, "You should get used to this now, since I expect you to take baths on a daily basis."

"But it will burn Master! Please don't put me into it!"

"Are you a damned mud golem?" The Academy Student glared at the two servants, "You two, shove him into the damned barrel if you need to!"

There was a momentary scream before the men dunked the rat into his bath. Louise of course had heard stories of horses and livestock fighting their owners to keep from being washed, but she never expected it to be so violent.

The Maids shakily approach, wielding their brushes like they were weapons to be used against the monster before them.

"F-filthy beast!" One of them said before taking the brush and striking it against the rat, "Stay still damn it! Or I will bash you again!"

"Agggghhhh!" He screamed as they began their work.

There was of course something morbid watching her familiar get tortured by the Academy's Servants. After picking up her familiar from the feeding lot, she had recruited some maids to help her clean him up. Everything was going well until Itch did it.

Once he did it, the Stable Hands decided to give the maids a hand and here they are.

"Just keep working at it, this fucker is tiring out!"

"G-got it!"

Yup, Louise could already feel the embarrassment of her Familiar upon her shoulders. At the very least she made it clear that she had a handle on her beast of a familiar. Last thing she would want is Kirche making the excuse that killing her familiar would serve the public good.

"He's clean, release him!"

And like a wild animal her Familiar threw himself from the Stable Hands, landing in an empty space before quickly rubbing his fur, "Are you okay, my precious? Man-things did not pull any of your fur-fur did they?"

Louise could only shake her head at the rat's antics, picking up the rat's clothing and taking a good look at it. The cloth was much closer to rag from Louise's point of view, and it only took a moment's decision before she threw the material into the damned barrel.

"M-my rag-clothing!" He announced while dramatically reaching towards Louise, "Why do you forsaken me Master-Boss!"

"Because you stink, damn it." Louise announced before shaking her head, "Also, you were the one who agreed to be washed. Why did you resist so much when things could have been a lot easier."

"Th-the sun plays tricks on me Master." He announced while covering his eyes, "It is a devilish torture that causes Skaven to say anything we must."

"Hmph, damnable creature." Louise began to shake her head, "Anyways your pistol was not in the clothing, where is it?"

"Hmm… grrr…." The rat reached into his mouth and drew the firearm from his cheeks, "It is only for safe-secure keeping, boss. You never know what can sneak up on us."

"We are in a school, one of the most secure places in all of Halkegenia..." Louise simply gave up while turning towards the maids, "How is the clothing coming along?"

"You will want to get him something else, Mistress." one of the maids admitted while looking at the green bath water.

"Get us a nice cloth to put on him for now. Best we just start all over again."

The rat looked upset for the moment, before shaking his head, "Fine, Itch shall wear new cloth-rags."

With that the maids quickly ran away, probably getting their best to get away from the damnable rat as they could. Louise herself simply huffed a breath, shaking her head at the stupidity that was happening.

"Why did you even resist?" Louise said as she was sure the servants were gone, "You do know that if you keep yourself cleaned up, that damned fur of yours is going to look better."

"Boss is wrong-wrong." the Warpsnout answered back with a snitch, "Water is too poisonous for fur, dye it brown it will."

"Maybe if you learned how to get clean water." Louise muttered while shaking her head, "I mean look at you, don't you look whiter?"

Itch took a moment, then looked at his fur again with a more inquisitive glare then back to Louise, "What have you done to me! Are you playing with my mind!?"

"No, you idiot." Louise answered with a glare, "Just… why in the name of Brimir do you believe a bath would make your fur more dirty?"

"Water is always dirty." He answered before looking at his fur again and again, "But why is it clean? That does not make sense."

"By the…" Louise could only question why in the darkness below why her familiar was such an idiot. However that thought was quickly squashed as she looked back to the barrel of water, "Where were you before? You know, before I summoned you?"

"Hmm? Human-Boss would definitely not know of it." He answered with a devilish grin coming across his face, "I come from the greatest part of the world, Skavenblight!"

"An interesting name, for sure." Louise said with a slight bit of sarcasm in her voice, "And what is the best place in the world like?"

"It is the most glorious-famed city of our grand-epic under-empire!" He announced as his eyes seemed to light up, "It is where my-Itch's workshop stood, where Clan Skryer sits under that damn-hateful Ikit Claw."

Louise took a moment to think about his words, taking note of how her Familiar was speaking their leader's name in vain, "And what was the quality of water there?"

"Best-Greatest of all the Under-Empires!" The rat laughed with a smirk, "We have done our best-greatest job to remove Pestilence from the Under-City."

"Is that so…" Louise hummed while looking where the maids had dumped the water. Where the water had moved, the plants had almost instantly started to wither away as if they were hit with some weed killing magic.

"Mistress, I brought what you asked for." The Maid came over with a dark grey blanket, with a few holes tastefully cut through it.

"That will do. Itch, put it on."

"Yes Boss-Master…" He grumbled while slipping on the makeshift clothing.

Put it simply, it made him look like a rat with a blanket on top of himself. However, with that said, it was much better than looking at the rat naked all the time.

"Good, we are done here." Louise announced while walking away, "Come Itch, we have more things to discuss."

"Yes-Understood Master." He said while trying his best to adjust the dreadful clothing.

They walked for a little bit, side by side just as Louise wanted. They were unluckily crossing by the gardens, watching as all the other Nobles were working with the companions. Many were obviously working on trying to perform tricks, probably for the-!

"By Brimir how could I have forgotten!" Louise lamented while smacking herself in the face, "We need to figure out what trick we are to perform for the Festival!"

Feeling a small threat to his character Itch's eyes darted about for a few moments, "Festival!? Will there be more Man-Things!?"

"Tsk, of course there will be you damned idiot." Louise hissed out the side of her mouth, "The School will be playing host to a competition in celebration of Spring. In it, those who participated in the Spring Summoning are to reveal what tricks and techniques the Familiar has learned. Even the Princess will be here."

"Status-Importance?" Itch said while looking towards his Master with a wild eye.

"Of course, this event is a prestigious event where we may court the Princess's choice for best of show!" Louise said with a small bit of fantisation in her voice, "Such a title will give me the cloat I need."

With a smile upon her face Louise looked towards her familiar, then lost the smile, "What in the world will we even be able to do?"

"I am hurt-hurt Boss." Itch said while placing his hand over his heart, "I am a Master Inventor, capable of creating anything this world-planet has never seen before! Give me your permission, and I shall create something the Humans will never forget!"

Louise felt her heart elate a little, and she kept remembering that this rat advertised himself as such. She was about to give the go ahead and tell him to do anything he wanted, but then some little worm came into her mind.

It was that of a terrified Maid.

Louise still does not know why the maid was terrified.

"I give you permission to do what you are planning, Itch, but within reason." Louise said with her eyes upon the smirking rat, "I… also want you to tell me exactly what you are making once things are underway."

"Yes-yes, understood Boss-Master!" He almost gleefully announced with the most chipper smile a rat could have, "I shall make you the most Glorious-Best invention of Skaven Kind!"

And with that he ran off before Louise could tell him otherwise. The other Nobles around her began to chuckle, but none of them really knew what the rat was going to get up to.

Nothing good, that's what.

With a small fire in his heart, Itch quickly ran into the small forest off to the side of the academy where his Master lives. With every step the rat took, he cautiously sniffed the air for the clean fleshy smell that would belong to elves.

Dreadful creatures Elves were, as many times when Itch was on exhibition with his Clan the Elves were the most dreadful opponent.

Simple memories of his fellow kin either being crushed by the trees or impaled by the numerous arrows filled the rat with a good sense of terror. He was lucky enough to have only been with the Skaven Weapon Teams to make sure none of the idiots got their weapon's jammed.

"Hmm, no hurt-painful knife-ears here." He announced with a devilish grin on his face.

That however left another scenario to bear. The issue that he now needed to find some way of getting into the earth.

His eyes shifted from one side to the other, searching for both natural and unnatural phenomena that would result in such a place. His nose is now sniffing for the smell of mushrooms and possible Warpstone.

With his nose raised into the air, he knew exactly which direction he was to go.

While many think that Skaven dug their own holes, that is a very bad assumption to make. While their claws may be good for digging, like most animals they prefer to find a hole already made for them. Especially for this Skaven, who does not want to get any of his fur dirty.

Itch grew a small smile when he arrived at the spot. It was a small wooden house that was too deep in the woods to be of usual make. Sniffing it a little more he noticed that the place was abandoned, long since used by the lower races of man. Walking in the rat looked around the place and noticed the furnishing that would be very useful if he were to transform this place into his laboratory.

What got him the most smug was when he removed a board from the floor and exposed a small tunnel. Narrow as it was the rat went in and realized that it seemed to lead towards the Academy. A small smirk appeared upon his face as the rat realized the potential of an under-empire might have been sitting right underneath his nose.

Thus a decision was made within the mind of the rat. These tunnels would become his, reclaimed from whatever man-thing that created them so long ago.