Rodentia Adventures

CHAPTER 8: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

The vast majority of mouse society and technology existed within the shadows, completely unknown to the local humans. Even when they happened to see a mouse, it was easy for them to dismiss it as an ordinary unintelligent creature, or at least it had been in the past. Humanity might have seen very little of their weapons and their cities, but one thing was apparent at even a glance: They frequently wore clothing. 

Mice had gotten smarter, and weren't spotted quite as often, usually able to avoid traps and the like. Still, mistakes were sometimes made, and some of the small creatures were considerably more cautious than others. Every once in a while, a human would see a group of well dressed mice strolling around on two feet, a fully clothed corpse carried in the mouth of a pet, or a pair of the rodents hurling teeny-tiny bolts of arcane energy at one another. These sightings were consistently ignored. 

Humans are busy creatures, after all. They have families to feed, jobs to go to, cars to maintain, and countless other minuscule problems which add up to a fairly complicated existence, even for the simplest among them. They just don't have the time or energy to need to contemplate the nature of sentience, and with it the ethics of setting traps for creatures which could very well hope and dream and fear and feel in very much the same way that humanity does. 

As a result, they simply looked away, considering it someone else's problem, which someone else could, in turn, worry about. Every once in a while a local would speak up about these strange occurrences, but found their concerns quickly dismissed. 

"Seriously? You're talking about mice while the economy is in the shape that it's in?" they'd say, or something else very much along those same lines. These reactions would shame the original questioner into silence, putting any hope of discussing the matter to an abrupt end. 

It's easy to notice the obvious flaw of simply passing the buck, leaving it for someone else to think about: if everyone does this, nobody thinks about the matter at all. This, of course, was not actually a flaw, it was the machine working exactly as intended. 

As much as one might be tempted to look down on such a philosophy, thinking poorly of those who hold it, both the humans and mice were probably much happier this way. 

<3~ <3~ <3~ <3~ 

Their newly purchased supplies in hand, the four stood, side by side, looking to the massive metal gate, the portal to the outside world.  

"Are you sure there's no tunnel which can take us to this dark lord of yours?" Aaron asked. 

"First of all, it is not my dark lord, it is simply a dark lord whom I and Mathias happen to know of." 

"We do?" The thief asked. 

Rowan nodded. "I suppose you would not remember. You were quite young at the time. Your mother had taken you to visit it on a personal matter." 

"And it didn't kill them?" Aaron asked. 

Rowan furrowed his brow, shaking his head. "No, not that I can recall... although my memory is, admittedly, not quite what it used to be." 

It was a rather stupid question, but still somewhat good news. The region hadn't gotten any more dangerous over the past months, and if a mother and small child could safely make the journey, a group of armed adventurers should hopefully have little trouble. 

"Huh, yeah, I don't remember that at all." Mathias said, scratching his head. "Why did she need to see this creature?" 

"I cannot say exactly. She claimed that it was of the utmost importance. This creature we seek is a very unusual one, blessed with foresight, which it uses to aid those who find themselves lost." Rowan said.