Tunnel Rat 120 Rough Draft (Patreon)

Not sure on this one. Going to look at it again and add more I think

It was indeed little fishies day. Each of the little blind cave trout were half a foot long and they had been fried in oil with spices and butter placed inside of them. Bleusnout took one look at Milo's bruised and battered body and scooped him up a double helping of fried trout, vegetables, and half a loaf of fresh bread. He motioned Milo sit at a table nearby and took the food to him.

"You look like you took on an army all by yourself, and your famished. Eat this and you'll feel much better."

Milo ate half of a fish in one bite and ate a chunk of bread without pausing. "Just four at once, but I'm sure Gilad will find an army next time."

Bleusnout laughed. "Then eat, and when you are done we will talk about your expedition." The chef walked away, and Milo did just that. He ate until nothing was left, and then sat back, watching the other ratkin go in and out of the huge messhall. Most of the Hollow ate here everyday. If you had nothing else to do, you could stay here and meet nearly everyone. Several hundred ratkin lived here. He'd learned that many caves branched out from the large central areas and served a small houses for families and clans. It was a well established Hollow, with a history, and some old secrets. Milo liked figuring out the secrets. Which reminded him about the ring, the gathering bags, and the mushrooms he'd been sent to find.

There were several large mixing bowls on the table next to Milo, freshly cleaned from the morning cooking. He took two of them, and turned his body so no one could see him pull a gathering sack from his ring. He transferred all of the mushrooms from the bag with edible fungus into the two bowls. Bleusnout was walking back over to him, holding a small pastry. "Finished up with lunch? Good, I have a surprise for..."? Bleusnout stopped talking, staring at the bowls of mushrooms on the table.

Milo could smell the delicious cheese coming from the pastry. "For me?" Milo took it and began nibbling the tasty pastry a little at a time.

The chef looked down at the pastry. "Oh, yes. This is a Cheese Danish. It turned out well, I think. Golden Puffballs? Where did you find Golden Pullballs? These are notoriously hard to grow. Special social and climate. But so delicious! I'll make a special meal of these tomorrow! You'll find some extra contribution points when you check the board next." He patted Milo on the head, still staring at the mushrooms. Then picked up the two bowls and began yelling. "Riftkind! Smiley! I'll be downstairs. Finish up the meal."

Milo walked over to where a harried Riftkind was trying to fry up more fishies while Smiley served people. Milo pointed to Larry's bowl, and Smiley gave him a bigs thumbs up. "I'll have it ready for you as soon as he shows up. Thanks for handling him." It didn't take long for Larry to show up. He came skipping and hopping, dancing to some inner music. The ratkin that saw him stopped to stare. Milo met him on the porch and they sat eating their lunch, (Milo's second, he was still starving).

Larry was excited, he was telling Milo a story when Milo saw a a board in the roof above the porch slightly bend. He got up silently and went into the mess hall and out another door. Larry was at the best part where Just and Larry had to fight all the bad sneaky guys and didn't even notice Milo was gone. It was easy to climb up to the slightly slanted roof and begin the skulk across it. As he had suspected, someone who wanted to play a game of surprise was on top of the roof. Milo snuck up slowly behind them, then yelled "surprise!" and pushed them on the roof. Both twisted in the air and landed on their feet.

Larry was just telling Milo about how the sneaky bad guys ambushed them, when two sneaky bad guys landed in front of him. There was always a thin wall between reality and fiction for Larry. That wall crumbled and Larry knew what he had to do to save Hamster Town.

"HEY HEY! HO HO! Sneaky Badguys got to GO!"

Two first year ratkin shadowskulkers suddenly found themselves in front of an enraged Cheese Fiend! They made the immediate decision to run. Larry ran after them, and today he was much faster and didn't fall over. Those ratkin who were in the marketplace that day were treated to the sight of two shrieking shadowskulkers running as fast as they could, with Larry in close pursuit, clad in his pink weasel slippers. Milo was three steps behind Larry, not knowing what his huge friend would do if he caught them.

They ran through the marketplace three times, with the harried ratkin unable to evade Larry, and Milo unable to calm him down. Finally, a second decision was made and they ran inside a large house at the end of the market and shut the wooden door. Larry dug in his heals and stopped, just before running into the door. He stared at it and then banged on it three times. "Can Larry come in?"

Milo began clapping. "You did it Larry. You saved Hamster town again."

"Indeed. That was very good rescuing. Can I offer either of you two heroes a cool glass of fruit juice and some cookies? I was just taking my lunch." The Old Healer was sitting at a table nearby, a pitcher and a plate of cookies in front of him."

Larry nodded. Heroes needed cookies to keep up their strength for doing Hero things. He sat down and waited patiently. Milo got him a cookie and a glass of fruit juice, and the same for himself. The old ratkin waited patiently, then spoke. "That was exciting to watch, and this is probably the best outcome that one could hope for. But I'm curious about the start of the adventure."

Milo felt slightly embarrassed. "It was my fault. I may have surprised them while they were on the roof and knocked them off when Larry was at an important part of the story."

Larry nodded seriously. "Best part of the story. Larry can have another cookie?" Old Healer handed the plate to Larry. "You may have the rest. I'm sure Tallsqueak and myself aren't hungry, and my grand-daughter is late for lunch."

Larry stood up with the cookies. "Larry will take these to Larry's house to share with friends." The happy Cheese Fiend wandered back through the marketplace, people scurrying to get out of his way. It had been a good day for Larry; Presents, new friends, dancing, cookies, and being a heroe. When he got back to his house, Larry told Larry the story of the best day ever several times, so that Larry would remember it later. Not all days were good days and stories helped.