The five of them sat in the quickly increasing shadow of the large barn. The heat of the day had started to wane after lunch and after a lemonade break and some food in her stomach, Ellen felt better albeit slightly nauseous.

She hadn’t shown much moderation when she had seen the pies and tarts that Viera had bought and now her stomach was doing somersaults and churning everything in her stomach together. 

“So, the villagers gave an estimate of a half a dozen to a dozen of the larger rats and they believed that they are under the barn here.” Teon read from her notes while they stood in a circle next to a large hole at the base of the barn. “There are holes like this one in the following spots: one hole on the eastern side of the barn, this one here, and then two on the south wall and another on the north western corner.”

Teon paused for a breath and Ellen picked up where she left off, “And we have the bags of dirt to fill the other holes. Do we like their plan to smoke them out and kill them when they come out of this hole?”

Around her Wosche and Riu nodded. Ellen continued, “The villagers told us that the rats were the size of smaller shepherd dogs so be careful when they are coming out of the holes. We take care of ourselves first, always.” Ellen’s eyes flicked over to Thredrin who stood just out of the group and watched impassively.

“We could look to set some traps for the rats around the hole if we have time for it? A few stakes in the ground to reduce the space.” Teon offered, gesturing with one her kali sticks as if it were stuck at an angle in the ground.

Ellen pretended to think about it for a moment before she responded, “I don’t think we will have time to set lots of traps around the holes. Viera wants this done before sundown.”

“The village would have some spears, surely. We could head over to the village leader, Ien, to see if we can use them so that we have a bit of extra reach as they come out of the hole?” Riu suggested openly.

“Ok, if you two want to go and talk to him again, you can but Wosche and I will be here carrying the bags of dirt into the other holes.” Ellen relented and let them do what they wanted. Sometimes even the best leader has to bend, as her father used to say. 

Riu’s eye twitched and she responded tersely, “Done, we’ll be back in an hour.” 

With that, Riu and Teon turned and left.

“Alright, well, I guess I am the lucky one that gets to do manual labour,” Wosche complained half-heartedly.

“Yeah but if we get to work, it will go fast. And they will be gone for ages.” Ellen rapped him on the shoulder with the back of her hand as she turned towards the sand bags. Thredrin stood by the bags not far away.

“You’re welcome to join the other two, Thredrin. Watching us filling holes won’t be very entertaining.”

Thredrin raised his eyebrow, “Oh really? My guess is around here will become plenty interesting if the rats take issue with you throwing dirt bags down their holes.”

Ellen tried not to let a ripple of trepidation show on her face. 

“That won’t happen. They’re just stupid rats.” Even if her face remained calm, the fear cracked her voice as she responded. 

“Of course, but you won’t begrudge me staying just in case.” Thredrin replied smarmily.

Ellen gulped and turned to find even Wosche looking apprehensive. The bags sat at their feet and she looked back down at the entrance at her feet, “Perhaps we can wait for them to get back before we fill these in, yeah?”

 

                     ---------------------------------Ilderson Adventuring Collective ---------------------------------

​

It took an hour and a half for the other two to return. Ellen sat beneath one of the trees near the barn and felt the blood rush to her head when she caught sight of them carrying three large bags each. 

Everywhere ached from the morning exercises and hampered her as she tried to sit up. And now, stiff and cold in the waning sun of the late afternoon, it was only getting worse. Ellen heaved herself off of the ground and strolled over to Riu and Teon.

“Wosche,” Ellen lightly kicked his foot as she moved past him. He lay sprawled out of the grass, fast asleep.

He opened his eyes and blinked lazily, “Oh good, they’re back.” 

Ellen moved down the path towards them and waved them in, “How did it go?”

“Good, that Ien can sure talk though,” Teon laughed lightly, “but he gave us a tour of their storehouse and we got a lot of stuff for traps and, look, three spears!”

Teon held the three spears up and one of the bags rolled off her shoulder and spilled out over the ground next to her. Ellen jogged over and took the spears off of her first and then one of the other bags that was hanging precariously off Teon’s shoulder. 

“It looks like a lot of stuff. Is that nets?” Ellen stared at the equipment that had fallen at Teon’s feet: several nets by the look of it, a bear trap, and a hundred or so metal tacks that were now dispersed alarmingly along the village path.

“It is. We were thinking of setting them in the air, and then we can have the net fall down when they start coming out to slow them down.” Riu responded curtly.

Ellen took another bag off Teon and tried to stay positive, “We can definitely set it up. Perhaps we do it last so we can get everything else set up before it starts getting dark?”

“We also brought some of the firewood for the fires. We bumped into the villager, Fern, and she said they were half an hour before they were ready to set the fires on the other side of the barn.” Teon said as she bent down to pick back up the third bag. She scooped the net and forced it back in the bag and then kicked the majority of the metal tacks into a pile with her foot. 

Ellen smiled sweetly, “Yes, we helped them figure out how to send the smoke through the nest. But we can discuss it later, we had better get started. I think the metal tacks can go right down the hole and then we figure out how we can do the other traps while we work out our positioning?” 

“That’s what we thought as well,” Teon shifted her last bag back onto her shoulder and Riu moved up to Wosche who had finally joined them.

“Bear traps? How big were these rats again?” he asked nervously while he grabbed two of the bags off of Riu.

Riu stretched her neck and turned back to Ellen, “They asked if we need any more help but we told them we can handle it.”

“Good, we can. We got this.” Ellen reaffirmed. Of course, the villagers asked if they needed help. When Viera had taken them to Ien, he had not been eager to let them handle the contract. He hadn’t believed that they could be adventurers when they were so young. But Ellen was sure his tune would change by the end of the day. 

Ellen followed Riu and Wosche back to the barn. She made a mental note to make sure she went back for the metal tacks on the path later before she hurried to catch up to the others. 

“The rats are big but they won’t be bear-sized, Wosche.” Riu tutted while she lugged her bag over. 

“Ah, but you don’t know that. The fact that they gave us the bear traps means they think they can probably get caught in a trap this big,” Wosche said as he rifled through one of the bags that he had taken. Riu sighed and Wosche looked back at Ellen for support.

Ellen put her hands up and shook her head, “I don’t think we will know until we see them.”

“Both of you.” Riu tutted and dropped her bag next to the hole. Wosche dropped both of his alongside Riu’s bag and Ellen chose to place hers on the other side of the hole. 

Behind them, Teon hurried to catch up with them, hands full of tacks, “Alright, so we have these and more in -” Teon looked at the bags for a second and then shuffled the bag on her shoulder, “Yeah, in one of Ellen’s bags.”

Ellen bent over to open one of the bags she had carried to find another net, a large bundle of rope and another hundred metal tacks spread throughout the net and a tangled rope. She pulled the rope up and shook the tacks back into the bag. 

“Alright, well, we can throw these down quickly and then we can set the traps on one side of the hole and have maybe one net held up over the hole and another one ready to throw if we need it?” Ellen was already exhausted but she knew better than to rain on her friend’s parade. 

Ellen kept her smile and asked Teon nicely, “We’ll need to find a way to get up high to set up a hook if we want to use these nets. Did they give you a hook or something to suspend the net?”

Riu and Teon shared a look before Riu replied, “They did not.”

Ellen sucked her teeth, “Ah then, it will be hard to organise the nets then. Maybe we focus on the other traps then.”

“We can figure something out if you want it? We’re happy to help.” A soft voice appeared behind Ellen.

It was one of the villagers approached, named Fern if Ellen remembered correctly.

“Fern, how are you doing? How is the fire?” Ellen hated how her own voice lilted to match the petite woman’s tone. 

“We’re about ready now. The fire pit is ready and we’ve got the steel roofing for the tunnel into their den. We were just wondering about the dirt bags because they’re not down the holes as of yet.”

Ellen felt a surge of blood rush to her cheeks, “Oh yes, we decided not to do the dirt bags until we had everyone back here again, just in case it spooks the rats. But Riu said you’d be ready in half an hour.”

Fern nodded, “That was about half an hour ago, yes. But we’re ready now. Did you want us to find something to set your net on?”

Ellen didn’t answer, choosing to instead look at Wosche, then Teon, before settling on Riu. Riu scratched the back of her neck, “No. We can get set up in the next ten and we’ll be ready. Perhaps if you can help us with the dirt bags though?”

“Done, we can drop them in. So ten minutes and we start the fire?”

Ellen jumped in to answer, “Yes. Ten will be fine.” 

Fern turned and left. An uneasy quiet filled the space after her departure and it all hit Ellen all of a sudden. Their first contract was upon them. The others looked tense with Thredrin watching hawkishly nearby. 

Ellen clapped her hands together loudly, “Right, well. We need to get moving. Wosche, can you set the traps out behind the hole towards the wall? I don’t want the traps anywhere near my feet. And Riu can you place a couple nets back behind us in case we need it? And Teon, you take those tacks and get to work putting them in the hole. Try and spread them out and down in there as far as you can.” 

Everyone nodded and then it was a blur of activity. Ellen cleared the area of any sticks or loose rocks on the floor and then helped Riu spread the nets out. They were both fishing nets, built with small delicate netting and a large cast but with any luck, they would do in a pinch. Ellen positioned it behind where she was going to stand and quietly prayed that she wouldn’t need to use it. 

She glided her fingers across the netting and counted the steps between the hole and the net.

Three steps away from where she’d stand. She picked up the spear and hefted it towards the hole’s opening. 

“You don’t need to use it if you don’t want it,” Wosche smirked from the other side of the hole. Ellen looked at him, then at Teon with the metal tacks in hand next to him.

“No no, I will use it to start,” she affirmed. It was just that it made no sense since she wanted to use her shield but she refrained from saying. 

She shared a smile with Teon and moved back away from the hole to her gear to collect her shield. Thredrin stood in the shade nearby and met her gaze evenly. She walked up to her bag, retrieved her shield and looped her arm through its leather straps. She took a few practice stabs with her spear and contented herself with the fact that she’d get rid of it when it proved too cumbersome. Her sword was in its sheath and ready should she need it.

“Ellen, I can smell smoke,” Riu called back from the hole uncertainly. She stood, spear in one hand and one of her daggers in the other. 

“Everyone form up. Teon and Thredrin in the back and the three of us around the hole. We skewer anything that tries to get out of the hole.” Ellen ducked down into Wosche’s bag and pulled out his scimitar and jogged over to the hole. She passed a nervous looking Teon checking her bijou containers and popping two of them out into her hand. She dropped the scimitar at Wosche’s feet and then returned to her position. 

Wisps of smoke curled at the edge of the hole and the smell wafted up into Ellen’s nose when she took her position next to Riu. Wosche stood opposite her, Riu in the middle, and Ellen with her right side to the wall.

Riu moved her hands up and down the spear and looked for the sweet spot to hold both her dagger in her fronthand with the spear. 

Ellen showed her grip to Riu, “Like this. If you don’t feel comfortable, use your daggers instead. We have trained for this.” Ellen forced herself to sound confident. Adrenaline coursed through her body and the smell of smoke filled her with uneasy anticipation. 

A minute passed and the only change was the sheer volume of smoke that funnelled out of the tunnels. It had been only the smell to begin with but the air had quickly transformed into a haze and then a thick cloud of black. 

From the tunnel, she could hear some commotion below her. The only thing she could see down the hole was the occasional glint of a metal tack at the bottom of the hole. 

“Have any of them come out yet?” Fern appeared around the corner, running over to them.

Ellen’s eyes flicked between Fern and the hole. Fern had a dagger in her hand and wasjogged over to them. 

Ellen twisted and placed the shield between her and the hole, “What are you doing here?”

Fern slowed down and joined them at the hole, “I came to help out. Alix is looking after the fire and he told me that I should come over. I can fight.”

Ellen locked eyes with Thredrin and he shook his head. 

“Come stay next to me. Have this spear and stop any rats that come towards you.” Ellen made space for Fern on her right and passed her the spear. She would be next to the barn wall and Ellen could look after her.

Ellen grabbed her sword out and swished it through the air in front of her. Her eyes started to water from the smoke but she blinked through the pain so she could keep watching for any sign of the first rats. It was only a moment later that she was rewarded when a mass of fur burst out of the darkness right towards her. 

She was shocked at how big the rat really was. It was easily big enough to make it up to her knee height and it leapt up easily out of the hole towards her. She reacted on instinct and placed her shield between herself and the rat, dropping down to minimise its options for attack. She waited for the impact but the rat danced along the edge of the hole and pivoted towards Ellen’s right side and directly towards Fern.

Ellen shifted her feet and swung her hip out to catch the rat on its way through with her thigh. The top of her hip rammed into its front shoulder and she body checked it into the wall with a satisfying crunch. 

Ellen followed the momentum into the wall, using her shield to pin its back legs against the wooden slats of the barn. She tried to weave her sword past to stab the rat somewhere but struggled to find an opening as the rat snapped at her arm. It tried to squeeze away from the shield as she jabbed with her sword, missing her mark. She shifted the shield further up its body and felt the rat beginning to push away from her and squeeze out towards Fern. Then, Ellen watched Fern’s spear appear to her right and plunge deep into the rat’s neck. 

The rat let out a horrifying squeal and tried to kick back from the spear but Fern drove the spear deeper still as Ellen forced it hard into the wall with her shield. 

Ellen pushed back and cut deep into the side of its neck with her blade. She pulled out the sword and the rat started to gyrate and blood poured out of its wounds. Ellen stabbed it again, this time scoring a deep cut through its ribcage. Fern pushed the spear deeper into the rat and Ellen watched the life flicker and die out in its eyes before she turned back to the others. 

Surrounding the hole was utter chaos. Wosche stood with his back to the hole, fighting for control over his spear with a skewered rat that was pinned against the barn wall. The rat had one half of Riu’s broken spear hanging out of its left eye socket but it kicked and fought to push away from Wosche but struggled as Woche kept the pressure on his spear.

Riu stood close to him with the other half of her broken spear but struggled to choose between watching the hole and helping him. 

A second later and she was given no choice. Another rat leapt out of the hole and jumped towards her at face height. It sailed upwards in slow motion and Ellen stood powerless to stop it on the other side of the hole. Her shield came across her body but she was far too far away to be any help for her friend. 

A heartbeat, a flash, and a chunk of the size of a fist sped into the fray and collected the rat mid-leap. The rat spun backwards and hit the wall so hard that the wooden slats of the barn cracked. Ellen closed the distance between her and Riu and looked down the hole to find the rat face-down at the bottom of the hole twitching half-dead. Ellen’s sword was too short to reach down there without her putting her face in the hole and neither she nor Riu had a spear anymore.

Ellen set her shield and waited anxiously at the mouth of the tunnel. To her side, Riu wasn’t willing to wait. Ellen heard the sound of Riu’s pistol cock and a boom that blastered Ellen’s eardrums. Once Ellen focussed on the rat again, it no longer twitched at the bottom of the hole. 

Riu pivoted away from Ellen and put the second bullet into the brain of the rat fighting Wosche.

“Reform on the hole, three down.” Riu called out loudly. 

“Five,” Teon corrected her in the back. 

Ellen risked a look back and found two other corpses behind them. Cracking her neck again, Ellen redirected her focus to the hole. 

A pair of beady eyes appeared as another rat leapt out towards her. She moved in close and met it on the edge of the hole. On a hunch, Ellen feinted to the left to leave the gap between her and Fern open once more. The rat took the chance and moved into the space to find Ellen already there. Ellen hunched down and rammed her shield to intercept it. She felt its head whip back and crumple into the rest of its body before a spear swept just under the bottom of her shield to stick deep into the rat’s side. 

The spear bent and flexed as it ran the rat through until the spear’s shaft could endure no more. Ellen heard the crack and snap of the spear giving way and managed to close her eyes just before the splinters flew into her face. She recoiled back but shoved the rat back with her shield as she stumbled away. 

She took a few steps back but was hit in the side by another rat. Its claws dug into her side and its body slammed into her, knocking her off balance and making her tumble and roll onto the net behind her. The rat fell with her, kicking and biting along her back while they fell.  

Ellen covered her face with her arm and felt her sword fall away. She elbowed the solid mass of rat that kicked and tore at her but couldn’t get enough force for her elbow to do anything. 

She could feel the netting wrap around one of her feet and she tried to grab the dagger that was on her belt. She kept her left hand firmly on the rat’s throat and forced it back from her and continued to roll deeper into the fish netting. Her shield twisted and stuck into her side and couldn’t get to the dagger at her back. The rat’s claws shredded her trouser leg and cut deep into her right leg. Ellen pushed the pain away, She couldn’t focus on it until she’d killed the damned rat. 

Ellen slapped at the grass near her and felt her hand slap the blade of her sword. She gripped onto the blade and wrenched it across her body and into the side of the rat. She screamed and shoved the rat back and stabbed into its face once more and dropped the sword back into the grass, feeling the deep cut along her palm from her blade fill her with another wave of pain. 

Her feet and her shield were completely entangled and Ellen struggled to free herself from the dying rat. She slipped her left arm out of the shield and grabbed onto a tuft of the rat’s hair. Her right hand found the sword again and she grabbed onto its handle and stabbed the rat. She stabbed it again and again until it stopped moving. She scrambled and pulled herself away from the netting. 

She shoved the rat out of the net and twisted onto her knees. The net tightened around her legs and she dragged herself away from the hole. Another gun shot rang out and Wosche stood over the hole and called out to Teon.

Teon fired another salvo of ice behind Ellen and Ellen felt the rush of cold air whip past her. Ellen cut the netting around her legs and skirted back to safety. Ellen pulled herself back to safety and stopped only when she saw Fern stuck against the barn with a rat on top of her tearing a chunk of meat off her shoulder. 

Ellen snapped up onto her feet and started to charge back towards Fern but only got two steps before she was bowled over yet again. 

This time it was Thredrin who crashed into her on his way to Fern. He hopped and righted himself before he reached Fern and promptly disposed of the rat with his sabre slicing through the back of its neck. He flicked and shoved his blade up and into its skull and it dropped limp in an instant. He caught it and launched it off of Fern before grabbing her shirt and hauling her up. “Back to the equipment! Ellen, get Fern.” Thredrin ordered and Ellen rushed over to join him at Fern’s side. 

Fern stood only on Thredrin’s grasp and scrambled and fought against his hold. Her shirt was ripped to shreds with a wide section of white bone visible at her collarbone. Fern shrieked in pain and begged them for help while she pawed at her ruined right shoulder. 

Thredrin let Fern back down and Ellen stepped in to take his place. She dropped her sword and gripped Fern on the arm, “Fern, we are going to get you help but we need to move you first. We have to get out of here.”

“My fucking shoulder! I can’t move my shoulder!” Fern screamed at her. 

Ellen ignored her and lifted her back up onto her feet. Fern swayed under her weight but held as Ellen started to move them back to safety. 

Thredrin was on their left, standing over yet another rat corpse and cleaning his sabre. He looked at Ellen and pointed to the bags before moving past her back to the hole. 

Ellen coaxed Fern towards Teon and Wosche who stood near their gear and kept focussed on getting there as quickly as possible. Another crack of powder roared across the open field and Ellen caught sight of a rat sliding to a stop at the edge of the treeline. It dragged its body into a bush and then promptly collapsed.  

As Ellen reached the bags, she heard another crack of one of Riu’s pistols but focussed on gently placing Fern onto a laid out blanket. Ellen wiped her hands onto the corner of the blanket and left a bloody smear. She turned to Teon and tried to keep calm, “Listen, Teon. Wosche and I will watch for the rats. But you need to stem the bleeding and try and strap it up as well as you can. Fern needs you.”

Teon nodded and went to search in her bags. Ellen took a breath and checked her shield. It looked like it was still in good condition. 

Behind her, it was bedlam. Smoke billowed fiercely out of the hole in a giant black pillar and rolled up the side of the barn and into the approaching night sky. Nine rat bodies lay on the ground around them and Riu and Thredrin were the only two that remained standing, back-to-back with their weapons drawn and their eyes scanning for any rats that remained. 

Ellen cautiously walked back to them and reached behind herself to get her dagger. Thredrin and Riu let her join them and they moved back towards Wosche who stood guard. 

“Call the all clear,” Thredrin instructed Ellen quietly when she formed into a defensive position with them.

Ellen waited, watched, and nothing moved in the fading dusk light. The only sound was Fern screaming on the mat behind them as Teon wrapped bandage after bandage over her chest. 

Ellen cleared her throat and announced for them all, “All clear.”