werewolves or angry mobs of rich kids, this was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen.
I had not been wrong about rodents in the bamboo field, oh em gee.
It was a rat the size of a cement mixer.
It had bright red devil eyes and it salivated when it looked at me. I didn't dare to move in case it pounced on me. Its whiskers twitched and it shuffled forward. Oh man, why couldn't I have just died peacefully in the snow? If I was dead, I wouldn't care if the rat feasted on me. I'd be a tasty Lucycicle, probably. Way more delicious than devouring me alive.
I don't know if it was that my brain had frozen out all reasonable thought, or just that the idea of being munched on by a rat was so appalling, but suddenly my escape plan seemed super obvious. Rats were fast. Rats could go anywhere. If I could harness the power of this rat, the world was my oyster, no matter how big or terrifying it was.
I would be the Rat Queen and I would rule all!
The rat moved even closer to me and I took me chance. Using my pencil for leverage, I vaulted up onto the back of the rat and held on tight.
The rat screeched again, and I really hoped it wasn't calling all its rodent buddies to come tear me to bits. I dropped my pencil in favor of clinging to the rat's fur, which was surprisingly clean and soft. The rat gave another screech and then took off running.
It didn't seem to be going in any clear direction. I think it was just confused by having a tiny human on its back, and to be honest I couldn't blame it. I hoped it wasn't taking me back to its nest, but maybe it would adopt me and I could live there among the baby rats until I got big again. It wasn't ideal and baby rats kind of freaked me out more than almost anything else on this planet, but I wasn't really in a position to be picky.
The rat ran around like crazy, trying to fling me off its back. I couldn't even ride a horse, wasn't great on a bicycle, even the bus proved a challenge sometimes, so staying on the back of the rat was a tough job. It was not like in the movies. I didn't somehow get the rat under my control and make friends with it and convince it to take me home. My hands were all stiff and cold and my muscles ached, and it didn't take very long before the rat flung me off and I landed hard against the ground. The rat advanced on me, its eye flashing red and angry. Okay, so the rat-riding had been a dismal failure and I'd even lost my brand new pad of post-its and my faithful pencil now. This was it for me. I'd done my best, but my best wasn't good enough and now the gig was up.
"Make it fast, Mr. Rat," I said, gulping and squeezing my eyes tight shut.
There was a massive thud, and then another and another. Everything shook like the end of the world. I guessed it probably was.
After a moment, when nothing had happened, I cracked an eye open. The rat had scampered off and in front of me was something big, black and shiny. A gigantic shoe. A familiar shoe.
"I knew you would be in the middle of this mess," he said, bending down to get a better look at me.
Tennyson Wilde. Of course.
I would've preferred the rat.
Chapter 7
"Were you actually trying to catch that rat and ride on it?" He squinted down at me condescendingly. "Animals don't just exist for your exploitation, you know. You can't be surprised that it was angry with you."
I didn't reply to him. Not because I had nothing to say, because my teeth were chattering too much.
"What are you doing there in the snow?" he asked, because he was the most unhelpful person alive. "Did you not realize you would sink and die?"
I glared at him as fiercely as I could while chattering and freezing and mini, though I didn't think the full weight of my disdain was conveyed.
He scooped me up out of the snow and held me in the palm of his hand right in front of his face. It was a horrible sensation, like that moment when a plane takes off only a zillion times worse, because planes stayed in the air with science and I had no
I had not been wrong about rodents in the bamboo field, oh em gee.
It was a rat the size of a cement mixer.
It had bright red devil eyes and it salivated when it looked at me. I didn't dare to move in case it pounced on me. Its whiskers twitched and it shuffled forward. Oh man, why couldn't I have just died peacefully in the snow? If I was dead, I wouldn't care if the rat feasted on me. I'd be a tasty Lucycicle, probably. Way more delicious than devouring me alive.
I don't know if it was that my brain had frozen out all reasonable thought, or just that the idea of being munched on by a rat was so appalling, but suddenly my escape plan seemed super obvious. Rats were fast. Rats could go anywhere. If I could harness the power of this rat, the world was my oyster, no matter how big or terrifying it was.
I would be the Rat Queen and I would rule all!
The rat moved even closer to me and I took me chance. Using my pencil for leverage, I vaulted up onto the back of the rat and held on tight.
The rat screeched again, and I really hoped it wasn't calling all its rodent buddies to come tear me to bits. I dropped my pencil in favor of clinging to the rat's fur, which was surprisingly clean and soft. The rat gave another screech and then took off running.
It didn't seem to be going in any clear direction. I think it was just confused by having a tiny human on its back, and to be honest I couldn't blame it. I hoped it wasn't taking me back to its nest, but maybe it would adopt me and I could live there among the baby rats until I got big again. It wasn't ideal and baby rats kind of freaked me out more than almost anything else on this planet, but I wasn't really in a position to be picky.
The rat ran around like crazy, trying to fling me off its back. I couldn't even ride a horse, wasn't great on a bicycle, even the bus proved a challenge sometimes, so staying on the back of the rat was a tough job. It was not like in the movies. I didn't somehow get the rat under my control and make friends with it and convince it to take me home. My hands were all stiff and cold and my muscles ached, and it didn't take very long before the rat flung me off and I landed hard against the ground. The rat advanced on me, its eye flashing red and angry. Okay, so the rat-riding had been a dismal failure and I'd even lost my brand new pad of post-its and my faithful pencil now. This was it for me. I'd done my best, but my best wasn't good enough and now the gig was up.
"Make it fast, Mr. Rat," I said, gulping and squeezing my eyes tight shut.
There was a massive thud, and then another and another. Everything shook like the end of the world. I guessed it probably was.
After a moment, when nothing had happened, I cracked an eye open. The rat had scampered off and in front of me was something big, black and shiny. A gigantic shoe. A familiar shoe.
"I knew you would be in the middle of this mess," he said, bending down to get a better look at me.
Tennyson Wilde. Of course.
I would've preferred the rat.
Chapter 7
"Were you actually trying to catch that rat and ride on it?" He squinted down at me condescendingly. "Animals don't just exist for your exploitation, you know. You can't be surprised that it was angry with you."
I didn't reply to him. Not because I had nothing to say, because my teeth were chattering too much.
"What are you doing there in the snow?" he asked, because he was the most unhelpful person alive. "Did you not realize you would sink and die?"
I glared at him as fiercely as I could while chattering and freezing and mini, though I didn't think the full weight of my disdain was conveyed.
He scooped me up out of the snow and held me in the palm of his hand right in front of his face. It was a horrible sensation, like that moment when a plane takes off only a zillion times worse, because planes stayed in the air with science and I had no
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