Great Artists Come From Anywhere
Chapter 2
"Well, that's the last of them," sighed Alfredo Linguini as he watched the last customers at La Ratatouille file out the door.
"We did good today guys." Linguini walked through the big double doors to find Remy and Colette cleaning up the remaining food of the messy kitchen.
"Well the Little Chef does have a habit of making irresistable food," Colette commented. Remy smiled brightly, but he knew he wouldn't be able to accomplish anything without their help. He wished he knew how to tell them that.
"Remy! Hey Remy!" Emile called to Remy as he tried to fit through a rat hole in the wall. Remy climbed down from the counter and went to help Emile get through the hole. It took a few pulls, but he got him out.
"Thanks little brother. At first, I was coming by to tell you that we're getting to a point of low food, but now I have something completely different I want to tell you."
"Well what is it?"
"On my way here, I found a girl lying on the floor at the opening of the sewer drain. She looked hurt so we took her into the colony and gave her a place to sleep. She is one pretty rat, bro. I would try to keep her there as long as possible." But Remy wasn't all that interested in what she looked like.
"What?! Is she okay? Where is she hurt? What happened to her?" He couldn't get the words out as fast as he wanted, but it was too fast for Emile.
"Whoa, whoa there! Slow down, she's fine, when I left she was still asleep. If she wants to tell us what happened, she can, we just got to wait now. And you might want to come so that we don't give her any poisened food. That'd be bad." Emile chuckled as he told Remy.
"Do you need to go Little Chef?" Asked Linguini. He couldn't tell exactly what they were saying, but he's been around Remy long enough to get an idea of how to understand their language. Remy nodded as he looked up at Linguini.
"Okay, Colette and I are going to go home now. Will you be coming back to the apartment?" Remy shook his head no.
"Okay, see you tomorrow." With that, Colette and Linguini walked out the back door of the kitchen and left to their apartments.
"Let's go now to see if she's awake." Remy and Emile went back through the hole and ran towards the nearby sewer drain.
"Wha-what happened? Where am I?" The still sleepy Faye had woken up, but not where she remembered falling asleep. She was lying on something soft, and she was bandaged up.
"Dad! She's awake!" Emile called to Django who ran over to Faye and gave her some water. She gratefully took it for she haden't eaten or drank all day. Hearing Emile, pretty much the whole colony had ran to Faye's aid to see if she was alright. That included Remy.
"Are you okay?" He asked concerned,
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just really tired, and hungry. Why am I bandaged?" She asked him, he didn't know.
"When Emile found you, you had some blood on your side. We figured you have been hurt." Django answered.
It was all starting to come back to her now. The argument, running away, her mother, the shopkeeper, and running into the sewer.
"Yeah, I remember now. I was walking on the sidewalk, and then a human hit me with his broom really hard, and I fell out into the street. Then I ran into the drain for cover." Faye tried to move, but she felt a sharp pain in her side. She winced.
"Don't move, you're going to have to stay in bed for a couple days. Remy! Give her the good food," Django told Remy. Remy was the only rat that really even knew what good food was. He ran off but quickly returned with a bucketful of fresh grapes and cheese.
"Here try this," he handed her a piece of cheese, and she gratefully took that too. Then, seeing that she was alright, the colony went back to their own business.
"Mmm, this cheese is good! What kind is it?" She asked him munching away on the delicious cheese.
"Tome de chevra de pays. You should try it with a mushroom and some rosemary, it's delicious."
"Really? I didn't know that. You seem to have a knack for food." Faye commented, she had somewhat of a knack for food herself.
"Well, I do cook in a famous restraunt." Remy wasn't trying to brag, but he couldn't help himself.
"A rat? Cooking in a restraunt? For humans?" Faye look appauled.
"Yep! It took me a long way to get there, but I love to cook. I have a highly developed sense of taste and smell. Oh, and by the way, my name's Remy."
"My name is Faye." She said forgetting about her hate for humans for a moment.
"Faye, that's such a pretty name. Where are you from?"
She didn't exactly want to get into her life right now, but she didn't want to be rude, he was being so nice.
"Well, I'm from the outskirts of Paris, and I just kind of wanted to see what the real city was like, but then I got hurt and here I am." Faye lied but she didn't want to say the truth, it was too much right now.
"So, you left your clan just so you could see the city?" Remy asked curiously.
"Well, I wasn't exactly with, um, a clan. It was just me, my father and my brother living together." Faye answered hesitantly.
"Why did you leave your family? I'm sure they miss you." Faye began to get annoyed with how he was getting into her personal life. Lying didn't exactly keep anything secret with him.
"I don't really want to talk about it right now, if you don't mind. I'm exhuasted, I'd just like to be alone."
"Oh yeah, sure. You just get some rest, and stay in bed. If you need anything, someone's always here." With that, Remy stood up, leaving the bucket of food for her, and walked to where his dad was accross the way.
Faye's ears perked up as she heard something in the sewer, music it sounded like. Yes it was. Very soft, quiet music. It was a familiar song, Le Festin by a singer named Camille. Faye had heard it before and loved it immediately.
i"Dreams are to lovers as wine is to friends. Carried through lifetimes, and spilled now and then. I am driven by hunger, so saddened to be, thieving in darkness; I know you're not pleased. But nothing worth stealing is free."/i
"Nothing worth stealing is free, no life worth living is free.
We must pay the price of dispair, and disapointment we share.
I have been through a life of pain, but now there is much to gain.
My price has been paid, and someone came to my aid.
A new life I have been waiting for, and now is my chance to live it evermore."
Faye made up the poem as she listened to Le Festin. She ran it through her mind over and over to make sure she didn't forget it. Poetry was the only way she could get the words that she felt out. It was her secret desire, to be known for great poetry. When Faye had lived her life as a pet rat, that was impossible to accomplish. The humans that owned her and her family kept her in a cage ever since she was born. Her father lived in one cage along with her brother in the little boy's room, while Faye lived in the little girl's room. The rats belonged to the children of a chef and a poet. So Faye did have some knowledge of cooking, but she loved poetry even more. She hated the humans for making her life miserable but she loved how they had such high levels of creativity. She learned a lot from watching the humans, but she never liked them. She believed that they weren't the only beings capable of accomplishing what they do. But she was surprised to hear that Remy cooked at a famous restaraunt. Maybe rats could be noticed after all, just maybe.
i"A lifetime of hiding, I'm suddenly free! My dinner is waiting for me. A life time of hiding, I'm suddenly free! My dinner is waiting for me."/i