The Tale of the Rat's Daughter
		~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 As told by Reepicheep, Chief Mouse of Narnia, Noble Order of the Table


,___
  | was many years ago, on a diplomatic foray deep into Calormen, with
a party of Narnians including the King. We were in the port city of
Zalindreh, and seeing the city by night. I became separated from the
party - I thought I saw a blade being drawn, and hopped down from the
litter, quickly becoming lost amidst the crowd.

The Calormene are notorious for taking talking animals captive as
slaves and performers.. the noticed my sword and feather, and started
to chase me. While I might have held a good dozen off, even I know
when I'm outnumbered.

We eventually ended up on the docks, much to the dismay of many of the
local residents and sailors... mobs of cutthroats chasing a mouse are
not good for business.

Alas, they cornered me at the end of a pier. While I am a good
swimmer, and sought to dive in and escape my pursuers, they trapped me
in a net. By this point, they were none to concerned with my health
for labouring as a slave.

I was bound and gagged most roughly, and then without any ceremony
tossed out into the waters to meet my fate at the bottom of
Zalindreh's inlet. Needless to say, I thought this mouse had met his
match.

But 'er I could sink like a stone, a small hand caught hold of my
tail, and I was dragged into a small boat. Still bound and gagged, and
now waterlogged and face down in a boat, I wondered what could
possibly be happening.  The club which bruised my skull rather stopped
that line of reasoning.

...

I woke up in a most remarkable place, a tavern housing talking rats,
built 'neath the Zalindreh pier, the very one I had so soon before
been hurled off of. I came to in a chair, with some ghastly drink
waved under my nose. I was no longer bound, but certainly my head hurt
from the blow and near drowning.

The rats wondered who I was, not having seen one such as me before,
with my feather and sword. They were a ragged bunch, which stole away
on the Calormene ships and lived on stolen food and supplies. Peg
legs, eye-patches, scars and scrapes, they were a ghastly crew. I told
them who I was, of Narnia's wonders, and told them they could live
freely in Narnia instead of having to hide in Calormen and steal to 
live.

They laughed, and didn't believe a word I said. But they let me drink
with them, and promised they would return me to my Narnian
compatriots.

As I drank, I listened, and found that they weren't all a bad sort,
but that the Lord of the rats (who e'en styled himself a Tarkaan, and
wore a turban and short scimitar) would sell any who turned against
him to a corrupt Tarkaan (who, it was said, fed them to his tiger for
sport)...

Drinking at the bar, most of the others avoided me, as one avoids the
poor or plague-stricken in Tashbaan. The barmaid, a young female rat,
talked to me however, and told me that the Lord of the Rats planned to
sell me to the Tarkaan that very night.

I asked how she came to be aware of such a plot, and she told me that
the rat Lord was her father.

She was a very pleasant sort of rat, and I asked if she was going to
help them. She shook her head, and said she wasn't fond of how things
were run at all. I offered to take her with me if she could find a way
to escape.

She knew of a way, through the bar's back room, a trap door which lead
down to the waters, for delivery of kegs. But she did not have the key.

The bar's owner however, had the keys... but he was unlikely to give
them to me without a fight. And with a fight, I would surely be
overwhelmed by the brigands.

So, with some well placed jabs of the conversational tongue, I sparked
a conflict between myself and one of the other patrons of the bar.
Push came to shove, and weapons were drawn. Since it wasn't the bar's
owner, the patrons were rather more interested in the fight itself...
and as I parried with the drunken sailor's scimitar, the barmaid
slipped a little something into the owner's drink.

Rather soon, he found himself nodding off. We still did not have the
keys, so thinking quickly, I allowed myself to be kicked back by the
rat with whom I fought across one of the tables, spilling drinks
everywhere.

Knowing bars, I was ready for the brawl which quickly erupted among
all of the patrons, and kept my head, ducking and scurrying past the
combatants. I snitched the keys from the dozing owner, and narrowly
avoiding a few poorly aimed mugs of brew, snuck into the back room
with the barmaid. We opened the trap door, and looked down.

There was nothing there but the waters of the Zalindreh inlet. No
boat. Rats, at least these rats, were unable to swim well, certainly
not as well as I. While my escape was assured, the barmaid would be
unable to follow.

Soon, the rowdies in the bar would notice our absence, so thinking
quickly - and remembering an often told tale from long ago, I coerced
the barmaid into one of the empty kegs, and stopped it up tightly. A
rope I did secure to it, and I tossed it down into the water,
following soon after - just as the door to the back room crashed open,
and a number of very angry looking rats came after us.

I swam for the shore, under the pier, towing my precious cargo just
behind me. Knives splashed into the water around me as the rats tried
to sink me and the keg, but eventually I made it to the shore and let
the young rat free from the barrel. We caught our breath, then knowing
that we would be pursued, set off across Zalindreh.

If you know the layout of the city at all, you know that it is on the
eastern coast of Calormene. An inlet cuts inland westward, and the
city straddles the inlet, mostly on the southern side.

The inlet has carved a valley, so that the closer you are to the docks,
the closer you are to the waterline. The richest Tarkaans live far up
on the hill, overlooking the city.

And the Narnian party was staying at the rise of the hill... so we had
to make our way across most of the city, uphill all the way, with a
pack of bloodthirsty rats on our tails.

But we had one advantage - the rats did not wish to be discovered. I
remembered the path I had been chased along earlier by the Calormenes
who wished to sell me into slavery - and I backtracked, eventually
coming to a narrow alley which lead to Zalindreh's central markets.

We paused while - allowing the pack of armed rats intent on our
capture to draw close. Then we led them down the dark alleyway (this
was all at night, you see, starting in the early evening), and the
lady rat and I headed straight across the merchant square.

Not thinking, the other rats pursued us, ending up in the middle of a
lantern and torchlit array of traders and merchants, none to happy to
see rats about.. until they noticed that the rats were clothed and
organized, at which point the merchants started chasing them!

Meanwhile, the lady rat and I hid in a rather large basket, and waited
out the night.

...

Well past noon, we crept out, and carefully made our way across
Zalindreh. While the young lady rat was intrigued by Narnia, she wanted
to stay in Calormen for a while longer. I helped her sneak aboard a
case bound for Azim Balda, at the heart of the Imperial Post.

I watched her depart, and have not seen her since. I often think of
her, and wish that she is well. Without troubles, I made it back to
the Narnian entourage, and the trip proceeded without further incident
(for a few days, at least).

And that is the end of the Tale of the Rat's Daughter.