The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

about a street away, the one local rat that the Changelings had found alive was crouched in front of Dangerous Beans. The squads had been called back. This was not turning out to be a good day.
    Traps that didn't kill, Darktan thought. You found them sometimes. Sometimes humans wanted to catch rats alive.
    Darktan didn't trust humans who wanted to catch rats alive. Honest traps that killed outright… well, they were bad, but you could usually avoid them and at least there was something clean about them. Live traps were like poison. They cheated .
    Dangerous Beans was watching the newcomer. It was strange, but the rat who could think the most un-rat-like thoughts was also the best at talking to keekees, except that talking wasn't the right word. No-one, not even Hamnpork, had a sense of smell like Dangerous Beans.
    The new rat certainly wasn't giving any trouble. For one thing, it was surrounded by rats who were big and well-fed and tough, so its body was respectfully saying sir as hard as it could. The Changelings had also given it some food, which it was engulfing rather than eating.
    'She was in a box,' said Darktan, who was drawing on the floor with a stick. 'There's a lot of them here.'
    'I got caught in one once,' said Hamnpork. 'Then a female human came along and tipped me out over the garden wall. Couldn't see the point of it.'
    'I believe some humans do it to be kind,' said Peaches. 'They get the rat out of the house without killing them.'
    'Didn't do her any good, anyway,' said Hamnpork, with satisfaction. 'I went back next night and widdled on the cheese.'
    'I don't think anyone is trying to be kind here,' said Darktan. 'There was another rat in there with her. At least,' he added,'there was part of a rat in there with her. I think she'd been eating it to stay alive.'
    'Very sensible,' nodded Hamnpork.
    'We found something else,' Darktan said, still drawing furrows in the dirt. 'Can you see these, sir?'
    He'd drawn lines and squiggles on the floor.
    'Hrumph. I can see them, but I don't have to know what they are,' said Hamnpork. He rubbed his nose. 'I've never needed any more than this.'
    Darktan gave a patient sigh. 'Then smell, sir, that this is a… a picture of all the tunnels we've explored today. It's… the shape I have in my head. We've explored a lot of the town. There's a lot of the…' he glanced at Peaches, 'a lot of the kind traps, mostly empty. There's poison all over the place. It's mostly quite old. Lots of empty live traps. Lots of killer traps, still set. And no live rats. None at all, except for our… new friend. We know there's something very odd. I sniffed around a bit near where I found her, and I smelled rats. Lots of rats. I mean lots .'
    'Alive?' said Dangerous Beans.
    'Yes.'
    'All in one place?'
    'It smells that way,' said Darktan. 'I think a squad should go and look.'
    Dangerous Beans got closer to the rat and sniffed at her again. The rat sniffed at him. They touched paws. The watching Changelings were astonished. Dangerous Beans was treating the keekee as an equal .
    'Lots of things, lots of things,' he murmured. 'Many rats… humans… fear… lots of fear… lots of rats, crowded… food… rat… you said she's been eating rat?'
    'It's a rat-eat-rat world,' said Hamnpork. 'Always has been, always will be.'
    Dangerous Beans wrinkled his nose. 'There's something else. Something… odd. Strange… she's really scared.'
    'She has been in a trap,' said Peaches. 'And then she met us.'
    'Much…worse than that,' said Dangerous Beans. 'She's… she's frightened of us because we're strange rats but she smells relieved that we're not… what she's used to…'
    'Humans!' Darktan spat.
    'I… don't… think… so…'
    'Other rats?'
    'Yes… no… I… don't… it's hard to tell…'
    'Dogs? Cats?'
    'No.' Dangerous Beans stepped back. 'Something new.'
    'What shall we do with her?' said Peaches.
    'Let her go, I suppose.'
    'We can't do that!' said Darktan. 'We've triggered all the traps we've found but there are still poisons all over the place. I wouldn't send a mouse out into that lot. She hasn't tried to attack us, after all.'
    'So?' said Hamnpork. 'What's another dead keekee ?'
    'I know what Darktan means,' said Peaches. 'We can't just send her out to die.'
    Big Savings stepped forward and put a paw around the young female, cuddling her protectively. She glared at Hamnpork. Although she might nip him sometimes if she was annoyed, she wouldn't argue with him. She was too old to do that.