Rodentia Adventures

CHAPTER 17: A PROPOSED ALLIANCE

"Professor! You have returned!" the research assistants gathered around their long missed superior, eager to hear his report. "How did you fare on your journey?" one asked. 

Dimitri shrugged. "The floors were sticky, the food overpriced, and the Makers just couldn't help talking throughout the shows. The stories felt a little bit on the derivative side, but the special effects were top notch. All things considered, I would call it a worthwhile experience." 

The researchers looked to one another with confusion but no sense of surprise. It was clear that the experience was an incredibly enlightening one, the head researcher already significantly above his peers, and now hardly on a level that they could even comprehend. "Um, yes... And have you learned anything? Anything that will aid us in deciphering the ancient text?" 

"Oh, right, of course!" the old mouse said, before looking about the damaged surroundings. "I trust that it is unharmed?" 

The bulk of the structure had remained intact through the assault of the dark lord, aside from a large metal beam which had broken through the roof of the library. Thankfully the book itself remained unscathed. 

"Fortunately, yes. We were lucky to have weathered this storm. Who could have possibly anticipated such a disaster?" 

Dimitri smiled knowingly. After watching movies for the past month or so, he had learned that the wide-scale destruction of cities was far from uncommon. 

"I have learned much from my studies. It taught little of true translation, but I've been able to grasp their grammatical structure, which, to some extent, clearly mirrors the written script of the Makers. My vocabulary is still terribly limited, but I have a lot more tools to make sense of the language, and from there, perhaps extrapolate the missing words from those which I recognize nearby. If nothing else, I truly understand the human alphabet now, and the sounds which each of these runes is meant to signify." 

The researchers 'ooh' and 'aah', impressed by the word 'human', which sounded so much more scientific than 'Maker'. It was clearly a sign that the head researcher knew what he was talking about. 

"It's time to get back to work. We have learned so much just from the pictures, but I can only begin to imagine the depths of the secrets that such a huge amount of text must hold, and how it will aid in the development of our society." Dimitri said, "Although it will be difficult to grow accustomed to studying without popcorn." 

"What-what is this popped corn?" an awestruck researcher asked. 

Dimitri simply chuckled. "You still have very much to learn, young one." 

<3~

Jerin squirmed uncomfortably. It wasn't that the ropes which bound her to the post in the center of the castle waiting area were extremely tight or anything. Still, they were just strict enough to keep her from moving in the specific ways that she had wanted to, into the positions that she was certain would be far more comfortable. Of course, chances were that the whole reason that she believed this was due to the fact that she was currently so uncomfortable, and that those other positions just happened to be the ones which she couldn't move into. With no opportunity to be proven wrong, she could only assume that she was, in fact, right. 

Her weapons, clothing and tools were all taken away, but what she missed most of all, even more than her metal sword, was her tail, the remaining nub of it rubbing uncomfortably against the wooden pillar. It seemed ridiculous, but the guards, very politely of course, insisted that it could be removed and used as a whip or some other manner of weapon. The young mouse rolled her eyes at the time, but had to admit, that sounded like a pretty great idea, and made a mental note of it for later. Her whole body ached, not so much from the brief skirmish in the throne-room. She had been hurting all over ever since the battle with Fury, and while no stranger to the sensation, having found herself banged up pretty badly on a few separate occasions since her journey had first began, it seemed to weigh more upon her now. Before, she was able to largely ignore it, putting it out of her mind when she needed to focus on more important tasks, but now, now it just felt omnipresent, sending at least small twinges of pain throughout her entire body whenever she so much as breathed.