Episode 6 continued…
Interlude Chapter
Present day; earlier; 12:05 hundred hours
The Rat Star…
A large but lovely white female rat stormed through the long elaborate halls. Someone had dropped the ball and allowed this bothersome woman entrance. Several guardmice tried to stop her, but she simply pushed past and ignored them, fueled by rage and an unrelenting desire to defend her dear husband.
"You horrible HORRIBLE rodent! You took my military career and you took my Mordax!"
Ratar-O's servants and underlings stared in shock as she cursed out their warlord mercilessly. Her thick Hook Mountain accent gave her tongue an extra sharp edge. With one perfectly manicured paw she held up the skirt to the fine pink silk gown, one of the many luxuries her husband labored over to provide. With the other hand she poked Ratar-O in the chest threateningly; shining red eyes fixed in a hateful stare.
The warlord backed away, but was only willing to back away so far. He stuck out his chest, pushing her back a step. "Dam Mordax, you're behaving hysterically and committing a very serious offense against Ratilla." He warned her, tone and expression calm. "I'm about to sit in council with my peers. Please leave now and I will discuss the matter of your husband's treason later in private OR I will have you escorted out and forget the matter entirely."
She stared, insulted a moment, but her nose quickly scrunched in anger. "How DARE you?!Mordax dedicated his whole life to Ratilla and his forces!" She fumed as she shoved him back with all her might.
The door mice guarding the war room entrance took her by her arms and pulled her some distance away from him. She jerked free to smooth out her dress. "Let him punish me! She snapped down at them. "BIG rat with his BIG crown-" She narrowed her eyes at the warlord, simply radiating hate. "Let him slit my throat so everyone in this fortress may see what a COWARD he really is!"
"Take her out of my sight." Ratar-O ordered.
"Come, madam." One begged as they escorted her away to the lower levels.
To avoid agitating him further the other rodents went about their business as if Dam Mordax never arrived. The warlord motioned for two other soldiers to guard the war room.
He paced back and forth anxiously; expression both vexed and worried. Lounging in the hall were a few high-ranking military officials and the elder-druid from the heart of Ratilla's swamplands. They pressured him to call an official meeting concerning the threat of Mumm-Ra and the encroachment of his forces into Rodent territories. The meeting should have already started by now, but a certain son of Ratilla had yet to show.
"Professor" *Ratigan, an alias given to him when he became head of the rodent spy guild, Ratilla's Ears, sprawled out on the couch, one leg crossed over the other. The eccentric black rat pulled a long drag off his cigarette pole. He filled the hall with tobacco smoke as he exhaled to Ratar-O's extreme displeasure. "Put that filthy thing out! Show some bloody respect for Ratilla and yourself!" Ratar-O ordered before continuing to pace. Prof. Ratigan flashed his warlord a nasty look as he put out his cigarette.
A second wave of smoke filled the hallway; a thick cloud of white. Elder *Yoshi, a scraggly brown rat, thin as he was tall and ancient by any definition sat with his legs crossed and back perfectly erect in meditation. Bound by a vow of silence his only method of blessing Ratilla's home was to puff on a long hand-carved pipe, inhaling and exhaling holistic sage.
The professor lit another cigarette and pulled on his pole. Ratar-O scolded him with a threatening glare. "What? He's smoking?" The spy motioned to the druid.
Admiral *Templeton, a silver ship rat- fatter than Ratar-O if physically possible, helped himself to an assortment of mixed nuts presented to him by Jenyo on a silver tray. "This one is cute." He remarked with full cheeks. "I like her. I bet your boy does too. Where is young colonel Vyrmin?" Templeton couldn't help but chuckle.
"I don't know. He's never late." Ratar-O's expression hardened. "He knows what I'll do to him if he is."
"I don't think the lad is showing, old boy."
"That's sir to you." Ratar-O snatched the cigarette pole from between Ratigan's fingers, put it out on his palm and then tossed it in his lap. "You bloody well remember it."
The professor cracked a grin. "Tense this evening, aren't we? Perhaps we should just get down to business. Is it really necessary to wait for the lad?"
"Yes." Ratar-O snapped. "You- "He looked to Jenyo. "Have you seen colonel Vyrmin?"
"Not since this morning in the laboratory, my lord." Jenyo replied, adding a slight courtesy of respect.
Ratar-O eyed the chipmunk girl closely. If she WAS lying, she was going about it a professionally. She didn't stammer. She didn't stumble. Her nose or big amber eyes never even twitched. "He knows I'm expecting him. Go look for him." Ratar-O ordered, pointing down the hall.
"Right away, my lord-" Jenyo bowed her head. Admiral Templeton gladly took the tray of nuts from her, allowing her to pick up her skirt and race off.
Ratar-O exhaled a frustrated sigh. "You!" He pointed to the dormice attending their post on either side of the war room entrance. "Have either of YOU seen colonel Vyrmin?"
"No, sir." The mice shook their heads; grips of their weapons trembling.
Ratar-O clenched his fists. "The lad better not be where I think he is." Elder Yoshi put a spindly hand on his shoulder, shaking his head gently. The warlord understood. "Very well; we'll start without him…"
The dormice took a step back. Ratar-O pulled the red eyed twin to his sais from his belt/sheath and traced an eye over his palm with the razor sharp edge. He aligned his wound with an eye carved into the door. Wincing in pain, he placed his bleeding palm against the surfaced and pushed while twisting his wrist in a half circle simultaneously. Ratilla's blood unlocked the door's enchantment lock. Ratar-O motioned for the others to follow.
They took their seats at the strategy table. Ratar-O called the meeting to order, allowing his "more significant" underlings to state their concerns. He inwardly thanked the good gods for his tinnitus; the result of spending nearly eighty percent of his life on the battlefield listening to cannon fire blasting in his ears for weeks to seasons on end. All he could hear for a solid ten minutes was a continuous whistle, similar to the sound of wind blowing through a tiny hole in a glass windowpane. The noise drowned out their incessant griping.
He tried to read their lips. He tried to read their expressions; sensing mostly fear through their guise of machismo. Not to say their fear was unjustified. Mumm-Ra's forces possessed technology beyond that of any Ratigan and his lower-ranking ears managed to take or buy from the birds. Enemy species rallied under his name in larger numbers every week. He also successfully and with little effort, ripped the sword of Plun-Darr right out from under Ratar-O, which did not inspire confidence from his fellow rodents. The rat's lands are being raided. Admiral Templeton tragically reported an attack from Queen Conda's ships. The snakes sank nine of his own warships just outside the boiling sea.; that much Ratar-O retained through the whistling. Ratigan demanded funding for the construction/ modifications to his Zeppelin air fleet; Ratar-O heard bits and pieces of that as well.
Elder Yoshi simply listened and reflected inwardly. He studied the warlord, waiting for his reaction. Ratar-O looked to the others soberly, nodding intently every so often as they pressed the issues with each other more so than him by this point. The bottom line is they wanted war. They wanted war with Mumm-Ra for plaguing their existence with malevolence once again. They wanted war with the cats for interfering with their affairs and essentially handing the sword of Plun-Darr over to the demon. They wanted HIM to lead them into the fray. They want HIM to drag their species through the fire, blood and gore to glory…
A very intense memory of the plague wars exploded into his thoughts...
Nearly forty years ago in the trenches…
A massive flaming boulder made impact with the ground, scattering rat/ mouse soldiers and smoldering debris. Several more followed, launched by the Thundergard and their catapults. This had gone on for nearly six seasons. The rats would start to push forward. The cats would push them back. Both sides were losing soldiers by the hundreds daily, not simply from a shower of arrows or the bombardment of war machines or clashing swords, but from a violent illness spreading across the continent and across species. The two most populated city-states, Thundera and Ratilla's underground empire were devastatde most severely by the deadly plague. Both blamed each other for spreading the disease.
An early teenaged Ratar-O and his litter-twin, Rattimus, each armed with only non-enchanted every day short swords weaved through the trenches, escorting their lovely Warlady and mother, Ratasia to the front. They cringed, keeping their mouths covered as field medics struggled to tend to sick soldiers. Well more than half the troops were blistered up with open soars, doubled over and hacking up blood. Bodies fallen prey to the plague were being carried away in piles on canvass stretchers. After the piles rose so high Lady Ratasia ordered the dead to be loaded onto their catapults and launched back at the cats. It was THIS act of rodent depravity that finally convinced the then Thundercat lord, Leo-Nix to call a temporary truce.
He sent a letter a foot scout to Warlady Ratasia with a message beseeching her to sit and discuss a possible permanent truce. Skeptical, she ordered Ratar-O to slit the messenger's throat which he did so without hesitation. She then ordered her heirs to escort her to "the lion's den".
The rat pups led her across no-animal's land as swiftly as possible. The thunderguard did not fire on them or attack as promised, but when Ratar-O looked up he spotted a cluster of rat bodies being launched across the sky. These were the same bodies Ratasia had launched a while ago, but set on fire. "Mum" He motioned to them as they flailed across the sky, scattering smoldering hunks of flesh and bits of limbs across the fields.
The regal she-rat sneered down at him. "What are you going to do? CRY about it?"
Ratar-O shook his head no and simply kept looking forward with his mouth shut the rest of the trip. His mother never paid notice to the mayhem around her. She stood tall, proudly sporting her well-groomed cinnamon fur and elegant modified silk uniform, half gown half armor. A pair of leopard foot soldiers greeted them. They led them to Lord Leo-Nix's tent through the cat's trenches which resembled the rat's trenches a little too closely. The cat soldiers suffered equally from the plague's wrath. It almost made Ratar-O feel sorry for them. Almost…
"Lady Ratasia, my lord." One if the leopards announced her arrival as they entered. The soldiers stood aside, allowing the rodent warlady to approach the Thundercat lord. Her sons eyed the lion with intense hate. He didn't bother to stand and offer to shake her hand as a king would any other king, or queen in this case. A greater insult still, his two princes, Claudis and Le-X had yet to show their faces during the entire war. Do the sons of Leo not fight alongside their fellow cats? Judging by their absence, even in the safety of the lion's den, the answer was an obvious no.
"Greetings, lovely Lady Ratasia. You haven't aged a day." The old lion mocked her with a lewd smirk through his thick red and gray whiskers.
"Your smile is inappropriate, lord Leon-Nix. What do you possible have to smile about in this Hell?"
"A good look at your face and figure, my dear. They give credit to your species."
"Do NOT disrespect me in front of my pups!"
"It's disrespectful to kill the messenger, m'lady. You may be tolerable to look at, for a rodent, but you are much too headstrong for your gender. It is because you are female however I forgive your little faux pas and allowed this truce to take place."
Ratasia slammed her hand on the table between them, knocking over the pawns placed on his maps. "You don't want a truce! You want my rodents and I to roll on our backs and let you take over."
Lord Leo-Nix's expression hardened. "You must admit, things are getting out of hand. If your people cannot stay contained in your territories then-"
"I may never live to see my people reclaim Ratilla's sword and glory but I will be damned if I ever allow a cat to define Ratilla's territories or confine my rodents to them! I will NEVER give your species peace, Thundercat! My CHILDREN nor my GRANDCHILDREN will give the cats peace!"
"I know where he is." Ratar-O thought aloud, as he partially rejoined the current reality.
The others eyed him peculiarly. Ratigan's ear twitched a little. "Who, old boy?"
"Colonel Vyrmin," Ratar-O clarified. "The help can search every inch of the undergrounds; he's not here. He left for Castle Plun-Darr."
"Good for the lad. And least one rat in this fortress has some stones." Ratigan commended him with a nod and raise of his cigarette pole.
"I have to bring him home. If Mumm-Ra's generals catch him they're going to keep him chained up in a cell somewhere and torture him until he spills everything he knows about Ratilla's forces." The hardened warlord quivered in his seat. "Good gods they're going to pry off his nails, burn him with hot irons, push rusty needles into his tail- It's going to be the battle of Cliffs of Vertigo all over again."
"No one is getting captured or tortured. The colonel is tougher than he looks." Admiral Templeton assured him.
"They will not waste the energy to torture him. Mumm-Ra already has the Sword of Plun-Darr. They will simply behead the lad and roast his carcass for dinner that night, severing Ratilla's bloodline entirely." Ratigan added casually.
Ratar-O buried his head in his palms and started to sob silently.
Admiral Templeton jabbed the professor in the arm as hard as he could, hissing "What is WRONG with you?!"
"I was trying to give him accurate insight."
Elder Yoshi had enough. He stood to confront the distraught warlord. His bony knuckles caused a loud WHACK as he swatted Ratigan and Templeton across the back of the head. Elder Yoshi backhanded Ratar-O across the face as hard as he could.
Ratar-O adjusted his helmet. He stood, glaring down at the druid, cheeks red with anger. The elder glared up at him defiantly. Finally after some deep breathing Ratar-O's complexion returned to normal. Elder Yoshi was right, as always. Ratar-O knew now what he must do.
Moments later, in one of the lower lobbies…
Dam Mordax sat hunched on a large plush sofa, furious and at the same time dejected. She could hear and feel heavy footsteps approaching. The guardmice stood aside as their warlord approached her, expression grim. He tossed a short sword onto her lap. "To be perfectly clear, madam, Mordax resigned and abandoned his position at Mount. Plun-Darr on his own accord." Ratar-O told her the story how he recalled the events.
"You drove him to treason." She argued. "You're a brute and a tyrant."
Ratar-O ignored her. "If you want your husband back, follow us to Castle Plun-Darr and fight for him."
She eyed him questioningly a moment before she picked up the blade. She removed it from its sheath for a quick inspection, admiring the shine of the steel. It made a satisfying click as she slipped it back into the sheath. "After all these years you're going to reenlist me?"
"By all means, resent me for my policies until the day you die, Ratkia. When Vyrmin is warlord he can decide what's best. I will never add females to the draft, but in this case I will make an exception."
Overwhelmed with gratitude Dam Mordax saluted him. "Bless you, sir."
"Be inline and in uniform in five minutes." Ratar-O ordered as he turned to walk away.
Author's note: Not a full chapter. The rest will be finished shortly. I still don't have time to dedicate to this fic as I would like. The climax will happen next chapter.
*Professor Ratigan and Admiriral Templeton are homage characters to the rats by the same name in "The Great Mouse Detective" and "Charlotte's Web". Elder Yoshi is an homage to the all awesome Master Splinter of the TMNT. Not major Characters by any means. Just a building of suspense chapter I wrote for my own amusement as I finish up the real final part to Episode Six. Thanks for reading everyone. For the folks in the US, enjoy the 4th!