Chapter 7: Return Home
Nethanel opened his eyes and immediately, a familiar scent wisped into his nostrils. He took a loud, surprised breath and lifted himself so that he was in a sitting position. His vision was blurry at first, but cleared up in a couple of seconds. He was inside of a sewer tunnel. This tunnel was somewhat narrow, a stream of murky water carrying the raft ahead. The rower rats were seated on the sides of the raft, resting their paws and conversing among each other quietly. The captain was in the front of the raft, keeping his eyes looking forward. His arms were folded and he almost seemed like a statue.
One of the rats noticed Nethanel's awakening and called out to the captain. The burly rat turned his neck swiftly with a look of shock on his face and ran to Nethanel. He started to inspect all the parts of his body. It was still ugly with scratches and gashes. The captain shook his head.
"You need your rest, little warrior." The burly rat said with a quiet, yet rough tone of voice. Nethanel attempted to chuckle, but ended up coughing as he tried to.
"I'm fine." Nethanel stated, trying to sound as assuring as possible.
"No, you aren't." The captain said, laying his hand gently on Nethanel's lower neck. The young rat fell effortlessly onto his moss bed. "You are still weak. It will take months to get your wounds healed perfectly, and that fractured leg of yours is no joke." As soon as the burly rat mentioned Nethanel's broken leg, the young rat felt a sharp pain course through his left leg. He winced aloud and breathed deeply a couple of times.
"Okay then." Nethanel said angrily, wincing in pain again. The captain just smiled and walked back to the front of the raft. Nethanel wondered to himself just how long this trip was going to take. He could not stand lying down like this any longer. With the pain and aches coursing across his body, Nethanel was struck down with even more stress. He just wanted to move around again. Knowing he had no other choice, Nethanel closed his eyelids and thought about his past once again, eventually falling asleep in the process.
He saw his child self standing on the shores of the rat kingdom, staring out at the hundreds of rafts floating away. Each of the rafts was filled with soldiers, every single one of them equipped with an arsenal of sharp weapons. He had never seen anything so spectacular in his life, and his eyes twinkled against the awesome sight before him. So many rats were also at shore, waving frantically and cheering on to their protectors.
Within the myriad of warriors he saw his own father, a general at this time. His figure was so bold and powerful that it caused Nethanel to beam with pride. He knew that his father would be okay. Nethanel just wished so much that he could be just like his father one day. His childish desires often got the best of him, giving him extraordinarily powerful hope in strange times. For nearly all his life, Nethanel had longed to replace his father and make him proud by lifting up the rat kingdom to new heights.
It was soon after that the rafts suddenly drifted away from the shores of the underground kingdom. Nethanel suddenly started running towards the end of the shore, pushing his way across the crowd in front of him. His small size enabled him to finally reach the shores quick enough for his father to hear him. Nethanel stood on tiptoe and bellowed the loudest he can.
"Goodbye, Father!!" Nethanel said. To his relief, his father looked back at him from the distance and waved back at his son. The rat child sighed happily and put his hand on his heart, slowly reciting the national anthem under his breath. "Oh, one day I'd see…on that watery plain…a shipman or two…rowing on their way. Chins up high…facing white and blue skies…calling down on them…revealing their pride. They are warriors…they are symbols of strength…facing great perils with an unafraid face. Authority driven…is how they're known…showing the world just how we row…triumphing…victorious…eternal dignity."
Nethanel opened his eyes all of a sudden, a loud trumpet-like noise emitting from the distance. He blinked his eyes several times before attempting to sit up straight. He noticed that he was no longer in the sewer tunnels, but within a huge structure. The walls seemed more polished than the rough sewer walls and the ceiling above him was the shape of an almost perfect circular arch. He immediately realized that he was inside the rat kingdom. He slowly sat up and strained his eyes, seeing before him the shores of the kingdom. The shore extended backwards until it became a huge slope connecting with the arched ceiling. On this massive slope were small rectangular buildings just big enough for about five rats to fit in. The network of buildings strewn across the slope forced a sigh of relief to come out of Nethanel's mouth. He was back home, and he was very happy to have returned. On the edge of the shore, hundreds and hundreds of rats stood waiting for their young hero to return. Once they saw the raft slowly arriving, cheers started to emanate from the crowd, growing louder with each second. Nethanel smiled upon the welcoming sight of his people. He felt extremely grateful that he had survived to see these familiar faces once again.
Beaming with pride, the young warrior rat picked up his spear and weakly lifted it above his head, feeling his arm trembling violently. Despite that, the crowd's cheering still grew ever louder. The captain of the raft walked over to Nethanel, kneeling beside him with a smile on his face.
"Glad to be back home, young one?" The burly rat asked. Nethanel gave him an apathetic look and scoffed. He looked back at the crowd and carefully inspected the rats. His father was not among them. Nethanel wondered if he was doing any better and sighed sorrowfully. "Something wrong?" The captain asked.
"My father…" The young rat said quietly. The captain shook his head.
"Nethanel, don't worry about your father. He's healing up, only slowly." The burly rat's assuring tone helped Nethanel to relax. "Lay down, prince. We'll take you to a hospitality center right away." Nethanel laid his head down on the mossy bed and stared at the ceiling above. Its shape always took the young rat's breath away. How in the world could rats have carved something so magnificent? Nethanel never thought he had too much pride in his own kingdom, but now that he had seen the amazing structure once again, his spirits were lifted and his urge to fight for his people once again grew within him – but that would have to wait. Nethanel groaned at the thought of this as his mossy bed was suddenly lifted and being carried off by several medic rats. He did not want to think about how bad his wounds were. He would go absolutely insane if he had to lie down for months. He had to move around, he had to see what really happened after Marina and Griffin had left him to fight that hideous monster. Now that he thought about it, he was lucky he survived the stand-off. The monster was far larger than him and was more powerful in almost every aspect. It was Nethanel's agility that saved his life. The monster had left a gaping wound on his chest just before he had thrust his harpoon into its heart. Right after the creature fell dead, he had no idea what to do. He went into the hole on the wall in which Griffin flew into, but he was nowhere to be found. Nethanel was left alone in the pyramid with no direction. He wandered around the pyramid for what seemed like hours until suddenly the entire structure started to crumble and collapse. In great haste, Nethanel ran across the pyramid corridors with lightning speed, praying that he would find an exit. The pyramid had reached its end in a matter of minutes. Nethanel had fortunately found an exit but the falling debris had crushed him before he could make it out. That was all he remembered until he woke up beside the collapsed structure.
Nethanel, awakened from his train of thought, found himself inside one of the rectangular buildings. The medical rats crowded the room, bringing out a variety of medical supplies from boxes seated neatly against the walls. These supplies included a large amount of strange-looking leaves, berries, and liquid in small pots. Nethanel was not familiar with any of these substances.
Just outside the building, Nethanel heard a familiar voice shouting out to the crowds around the building he was in.
"Excuse me! Come on! Make way for the prince's good buddy! You don't know who you're dealing with here! Move it! Make way! Come on now! I'll get him to call the royal guards to dispose of you, I will!" Nethanel sighed. It was his close friend, Lou. The handsome, scrawny rat pushed through the front lines of the crowd and made his way casually into the building as if nothing happened. Once he saw his injured friend on the moss bed, Lou broke out and kneeled next to Nethanel, acting his over-exaggerating self.
"Great clams! Nethanel!? I cannot even recognize you anymore with all these cuts and bruises! By the hair on my hide, you look absolutely awful! Is there anything I can get you, friend!?" Lou panicked. Nethanel rolled his eyes subtly and tilted his head over so his eyes stared right at Lou's.
"I would really appreciate it if you would leave me be." Nethanel replied with an irritated tone. Lou was taken aback.
"What? Oh, come on, friend, there must be something I could do for you! Just say the word!" Nethanel tilted his head away and shut his eyes tightly while the medical doctors attempted to physically force Lou away from the premises. Ever since Nethanel befriended Lou, the scrawny rat became something that Nethanel expected him to become. Lou thought now that he had befriended a prince, he could have shares with his power and have the lower class of rats to look up at him as a figure with as much importance as the prince himself. Of course, he was not all that bad – his constant will to help Nethanel helped the prince to see the rat as good company; however, as of now, he was in absolutely no mood to be tormented by his annoying presence. He wanted to sound nice about it, but his constant worrying and his frustration caused him to be harsh and brief when it came to conversation. There was one rat that Nethanel wanted to see right now, and that was his father, but he did not even know if he was able to even come down and see him. Nethanel relaxed himself as the doctors did their medical work on his injuries.
He closed his eyes and thought. He would have to do a lot of thinking during his time in healing. Nethanel thought about Shade and everybody else. Did they make it through the pyramid's collapse? What exactly happened while they were away from him? For some reason, he did not want to find out, and strangely, he kept thinking that the war was still going on even without the pyramid standing. Nethanel tried hard to avoid these thoughts, since they urged him to get up and find the answers quickly.
After several minutes, the crowd outside died down and the soft, soothing sound of busy life outside rang across Nethanel's ears. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at one of the doctors working on him.
"How does it look?" the prince asked quietly. The doctor was surprised at Nethanel's sudden question and looked in his eyes for a while before answering him.
"These injuries are indeed terrible, but with the more beneficial properties we have applied to our medicines, we should be able to fix you up in about less than a month." Nethanel's eyes widened.
"Did you use these medicines on my father?"
"Yes, prince."
"Then," Nethanel started, lifting himself up and startling a couple of the doctors, "my father must be fine right about now!"
"Prince Nethanel, listen – your father is doing fine. He will be able to walk again in about a week. You must give him time. You will see him soon enough." The medic stated. Nethanel lied down again on the moss bed and sighed. "You should sleep, Prince. More sleep means that your wounds will be healed quicker. You will be fed with food and drink once you wake up." Nethanel closed his eyes. It was hard for him to get some sleep, now that his mind was filled with unanswered questions. Soon enough he would be on his feet again. Soon enough he would reunite with his father. Soon enough he would find out what became of the heroic bats he accompanied.