Prompt: Bats eat mosquitos, echolocate, and pollinate certain kinds of flowers, yet so many people are afraid of them. Include a necessary but not usually well liked animal (or Animal) in your story today.
Raikent and his fellow rats may not have been accepted in society very well, due to their frequent visits to the bars and pubs and their scavenging ways, but sometimes one has to defy social preferences in order to help something greater. This was one of those times.
Raikent hurried up to the palace doors. "I need to see the High King!" he called.
The guards pointed their spears at the rat, halting him. "Why would someone of your type need to see the King?" a mouse guard sneered. "I'd expect you're drunk half the time, seeing as you practicaly live in those nasty pubs."
"I have urgent news," Raikent panted. "Something I overheard. Please, let me see him."
"No," the faun, the other guard, said. "You can tell your 'urgent news' to me and I'll decide whether it's worthy of bothering His Majesty with, which I know it isn't."
"You're not in char–"
"I am when it comes to ruffians like you," the faun snapped. He gestured with his hand. "Get out of here, shoo! Thieves and scroungers aren't welcome in the palace."
"But–"
"Out," the faun hissed. "Before I feel a sudden urge to use my spear."
"But the queen–"
"Leave!" the faun yelled. "Now!" He took a threatening step toward the rat.
Raikent stepped back from the spear point and his shoulders drooped as he turned around slowly and walked off. "You shouldn't even be guards," he shouted back.
The guards just rolled their eyes.
A/N: So, this is a prequel of sorts to the assassination prompt (chapter 14). I still haven't resolved it and I don't know if I'm going to do that in this challenge or as a separate fic. I'm leaning toward a separate fic.