The usoothe Nezumi, the all-mother, revered by her kin as the greatest prophet for a generation, was troubled that night. Gripped by a terrible vision of the future, unable to give voice to the horrors she saw, she pressed herself trembling to the glass of the aquarium.
"Get out," she said, over and over. "Get out before it comes."
The other rats puzzled over her meaning. Nezumi had often said strange things, but this was different. Her words chilled them all to the bone. But none dared question Nezumi's wisdom. She had been in the Beyond, after all -- had gone to live among The Great Ones, and when she returned she had borne six pups, pups borne by the spirits themselves the rumor had it. She spoke of so many things that the others did not know of, but she had never been wrong before.
That night, Nezumi's warnings faded into nonsensical ramblings, and a terrible madness took her. She shuddered and gasped, dying in the dark of night, and all the rats in the cage took it as a terrible omen.
The clever allaysi, White One, found a way out of the cage, and slowly convinced the others to follow. Nezumi had told them to get out -- and so they did.
They emerged into a world greater and stranger than any they had ever seen. It was huge, a thousand times larger than they cage they had grown up in, and filled with more food than they could imagine. It was paradise!
And then the waters came.
The flood poured in from the broken front door, washing over the pet shop in a single terrifying wave. Many were taken in its grasped and perished, washed away forever. The rats, clinging to shelves and desperately climbing up to higher ground, watched in shock and horror as the waves devastated the cage they had lived in.
If they had not escaped...if they had not heeded Nezumi's warning...they would have all drowned.
* * *
In the shadows, the wild rats watched as the humans left. This happened every day -- the humans came, the humans left. Stupid, worthless, hulking oafs of creatures. Giants that crushed the earth under their feet and laid out traps and poison. As if such crude measures could ever truly stop a rat. Hah.
Today was different, though. Today, the humans did not return. The wild rats watched and waited, but no one ever came.
Outside, the wound howled. A damp chill was on the air, the sort of chill that clung to whiskers and sent aches up the joints of the elders.
When the cage-dwellers escaped, the allaysi ran back to tell the Ukeshu of what had happened. Intrigued, he ordered his scouts to keep an eye on their movements, to report back with their findings.
They only barely saw the water in time.
The allaysi ran back, scurrying to the hidden entrances to the underground tunnels. Many were able to flee to higher ground, but many were left behind, stuck in the tunnels as they filled with water, suffocating as water filled the burrows and the earth caved in around them.
Numbers greatly diminished, the Ukeshu and his fellows set to the task of rebuilding their territory...and perhaps claiming more, in the absence of the humans....
...And so your journey begins.
