Intruder

  Ratskeller rolled over in her super comfy bed and stretched. It had been a while since her father had let her out to take care of her business, but the sun was still up. It was the cold time of year with all the sticky white stuff on the ground, so that meant it would be a while longer before her humans got home. Father went to that place not far away that he took her to sometimes, but she wasn’t sure where mother spent all her time.

  “I feel really zoomy. Where’s my ball?” she thought as she opened her eyes. Jumping back because there was bright floating stuff in front of her face. “Go away. Go away. I want my ball.” she barked and the glowing stuff went away. There were still three bars glowing in the corner of her vision, but they were small and she could see around them. She chose to ignore them, she wanted to chase her ball.

  Standing up, she looked around. “There is my ball. Better run ball, I’m going to chomp you. Nothing escapes the landshark.” Ratskeller went into zoomy mode and ….”Wooaaahhh.” She flew right past her ball and slid into the next room. “I’m super zoomy. No one is as zoomy as me. LANDSHARK!!!!” she launched herself back at her ball and gave it a good chomp.

  Wooomp! The ball exploded. “Whoah. It’s never done that before. I’m super chompy also. No one is as zoomy or as chompy as the LANDSHARK!!!” She ran into the other room and took a lap around the sofa. She gave a small hop of joy after the second lap and couldn’t believe how high she flew. “I’m super bouncy. Super bouncy, super zoomy, super chompy. LANDSHARK!!!”

  After a couple more laps, she looked up at the sofa. “I bet I can jump to the snuggle spot. I’m so bouncy.” She dug her little paws end and JUMPED. “HUH? She thought as she flew over the sofa to land all the way across the room on the pool table. “Oh no. I’m not supposed to be up…BALL!!!” She blasted across the table to chomp the ball. CRACK! It broke into four pieces.

  “Oh no. I’ve broken it. I’ll just hide the pieces in the little hole over there and cover it with green stuff.” She carefully picked up the four pieces one at a time and dropped them into the pocket then proceeded to shred the felt to get enough green stuff to hide her little whoopsy.

  Feeling a little thirsty from her adventure, she hopped off the pool table and jogged to the water bowl. Slurp. Slurp. “Huh.” Sniff. Sniff. “Something smells really good.” Looking up she realized it was her special treats for when she was a good girl. However, the box was glowing. It had never glowed before. It smelled so good though, she was drooling. Her stomach burned with desire for the special treats.

  Looking at the ground and looking back at the treats on the top shelf, she knew she couldn’t make it. It had to be twenty landsharks tall at least. “Go away.” She growled as more glowing stuff popped up in front of her. She let out a little whine wishing she could get to the special treats.

  A noise. Outside. Sniffing. Steps. Crunchy white stuff. Something was in HER yard. “THAT BETTER NOT BE YOU IN MY YARD PUMPKIN. I’LL CHOMP YOU.” The noise stopped. Then it started again. Then the door slid open. THAT’S NOT PUMPKIN. She can’t open doors. At least not that kind. She once bragged while she was sitting on Ratskeller’s fence that she could open the push/pull doors. Pumpkin always made fun of Ratskeller. Called her stumpy because of her short little legs. Ratskeller really hated Pumpkin.

  “I come in peace.” a voice said.

  “YOU’RE GONNA GO IN PIECES. I’’LL CHOMP YOU” Ratskeller. She heard sniffing. Whoever it was, they were after her special treats. “Last warning. I’m going to CHOMP.”

  “Please don’t. I won’t hurt you. I’m a healer and can’t even do damage. I’ll make a great teammate and always make you feel better if you get hurt. I just can’t survive on my own. I need friends.”

  “I don’t need you. I have humans. Get out you…” Ratskeller paused. “What are you?” she asked.

  “Promise you won’t chomp?” the voice asked.

  Ratskeller wanted to chomp, but she also wanted to know what she was talking to. “Okay. I promise.”

  A small black hand appeared and then a face. A face with a black mask. Ratskeller growled. “BANDIT. THIEF. SNEAK. TRASH Manda?” No, that's not right. “Panda. TRASH PANDA. LANDSHARK CHOMP.” Ratskeller zoomed forward faster than she ever zoomed before and the intruder’s eyes went wide before he jumped at the last second and hung on the wall in terror as Ratskeller flashed beneath him.

  CHOMP. CHOMP. CHOMP. Ratskeller relished the glory of her victory as she ripped the stuffing out of the bandit. Stuffing? Bandit’s shouldn’t have stuffing. Ratskeller opened her eyes and to her horror she saw she was shredding Teddy, the giant stuffed bear. “Sorry. Teddy. I’ll fix that later.”

  Spinning around she growled and found the intruder standing where he had dropped down behind her. “LANDSHARK CHOMP!”

  “Wait. You’re breaking your promise. Good girls don’t break promises.” The bandit said.

  Ratskeller paused. She took being a good girl very,very seriously. “They don’t?”

  “No. They don’t.” The bandit said. “Now let’s start over. I’m George. And you are?” The furry invader said.

  “I’m Ratskeller. Fourth of her kind. Landshark.” She said.

  “Nice to meet you. Ratskeller. I believe you might not have read the notices. Do you know what is going on?” George asked.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “What notices?” Ratskeller asked.

  George shook his head and lowered himself down. “The world has changed. Some things and some people have changed. Some got smarter. Others not so much. The dumb ones, they’re… they’re killing everything they come across.” George seemed to think of something. “Do you have a small yellow light flashing down here?” He asked as he pointed to the left about neck high in front of him.

  Ratskeller looked and she did. She nodded and then she thought of something. “Why can we talk? We’ve never been able to talk before and I’ve chased a lot of you trash panda’s out of my yard.”

  George nodded. “That’s one of the changes. Focus on that yellow light. And look at the glowing stuff that comes up.” Ratskeller did as he said and the glowing stuff came back and she looked at it.

  “It says I’ve reached level two.” Ratskeller said.

  “Do you see the red mark in the top right?” George asked. “Focus on it and think CLOSE. The next set of glowing bits will show up.”

  Ratskeller did as he suggested. A larger screen with more glowing bits came up. She focused on it and her mind filled with information. Integration. System. Powers. Skills. Attributes. Paths. As her mind understood each part, the glowing bits moved up and more appeared. At the end she got to the warnings. Danger. “My humans are in danger!”

  “Do you know where they are?” George asked.

  “I know where father is. It’s across the big road for moving boxes.” Ratskeller said.

  “Okay, but before we go, you should eat that.” He said pointing up. “It will make you stronger. Whatever it was, it is now a natural treasure. It will help us help your human if you are stronger.”

  Ratskeller looked up and her stomach growled. “I can’t jump that high.” George looked around before grabbing the thing that mother pushed around the floor. Carefully lifting it from the wide furry end, he maneuvered it so it leaned against the wall just below the treat shelf. Quickly he ran up and lept for the ledge barely catching it with one paw before pulling himself up.

  Ratskeller watched, mesmerised by how chompable that fluffy striped tail looked. She realized something as he grabbed the box and opened it. “THIEF. I’ll chomp you when you come down. Those are mine.”

  “Relax. Geeze. I’m just getting you one. We’ll take it one at a time. I saw a rabbit explode when it ate too many berries earlier. I don’t want that to happen to you, so I’ll give you one. If you don’t feel full after one, I’ll give you another. You have to promise to stop when you’re full.” George explained as he threw a treat down to Ratskeller who made it disappear in one glorious chomp.

  “Okay. Give it a few seconds and see how hungry you feel. If you’re still hungry, then I’ll give you another.” George said.

  Ratskeller sat on her haunches and glared at George, certain at any second he was going to try to run off with her treats. After a short time, George held up another treat. “Still hungry?” he asked. Ratskeller thought about it for a second. She didn’t want to explode. But her stomach growled. She nodded. George threw down another treat.

  After the second one, Ratskeller felt full and a little sleepy, but she kept her eyes on George. Everyone knew trash pandas were nothing but trouble. After a minute or two, she felt really zoomy again and the world seemed smaller. George seemed smaller too.

  George seemed to have been waiting for that to happen because he grabbed the box again. “If I throw this down to you, do you promise not to eat any more until you feel hungry again? Good girls don’t explode, so if you eat too many and explode that means you are not a good girl.”

  Ratskeller thought about it. She had never seen a good girl or good boy explode, so he was probably right. She nodded. George slipped the box off the shelf and it fell down to her. “Put your paw on it and think STORE.” George said. Ratskeller did as he said and her box disappeared.

  “I knew you were up to something. I’ll chomp you.” Ratskeller growled as she began pacing back and forth.

  George waved his paws. “They aren’t gone. They’re in your inventory. Think inventory and you’ll see them. Focus on them and they’ll reappear.” Ratskeller stopped mid growl and did as he said as she remembered reading …”I can read?”... about inventories. The box appeared. She stored it again. It reappeared. She stored it with her other paw. It reappeared. She stored it with her tail.

  A light cough from overhead. “We should get going. It’s pretty rough out there and your human might need our help. I don’t think very many of the good humans got treasures or at least they didn’t get as strong as fast.”

  Ratskeller froze then finished her testing by sitting on the box and making it disappear with her butt. She stood up and started to run for the door to where they kept the moving box. “This way.” George said, pointing to the door to the yard.

  “Oh. Yeah. We can’t take the box. We don’t have a license.” Ratskeller said. George looked at her confused for a second then seemed to decide to ignore her comment.

  “We have to be careful. Some animals got smart and are nice like us, but others turned into monsters. Same with the humans. We’ll need to be sneaky.” George instructed her. Ratskeller nodded her understanding. She was built for sneaky.

  George carefully led her underneath the bushes along the house to the part of the fence that moved. He signalled for her to wait as he climbed up and opened it. Ratskeller was impressed. She thought only humans could do that. George hopped down and slowly led Ratskeller along the house. As he reached the corner, a flash of orange and George froze.

  PUMPKIN. “LANDHSARK CHOMP.” Ratskeller dove forward to save her new…George. She couldn’t call him a friend yet, because she still didn’t trust him. The paw pulled back and Ratskeller followed it around the corner of the house to the sight of Pumkin with her back arched and her tail all puffy looking quite chompable.

  She seemed to calm and her fur smoothed. “Oh. It’s you. The rat. Nice company you’re keeping.”

  “I’LL CHOMP YOU!!!” Ratskeller barked as she prepared to pounce, but a paw landed on her shoulder. She thought about chomping it, but decided not to. He had promised to help her find her father. Good boys don’t break promises and surely he wanted to be a good boy.

  “My apologies, Miss. We will be on our way if that is okay with you. One of Ratskeller’s humans may not be far away and we want to find him.” George said but Ratskeller noticed he kept her between himself and the mean cat. That made her feel good. Surely good girls protected their fri…George’s.

  Pumpkin’s haughty demeanor changed. “Your human. He might know where my humans are. Can I come with you. You have to help me. Bruno went crazy. He was tearing the house apart. Please can I come with you?” Bruno was a much bigger dog. He always seemed kind of dumb to Ratskeller, but never mean. He mostly just laid around and chewed on stuff. Oh, and barked at the mail lady.

  George looked at Pumpkin then at Ratskeller. “I’m okay with that. If you are.”

  “Please.” Pumpkin pleaded. “I have no idea how to find my humans.”

  “Okay. But I’ll chomp you if you try to hurt us.” Ratskeller said, thinking that was exactly what a good girl would say. Pumpkin cheered, but George paused. He seemed to be thinking.

  George put a palm on Ratskellers shoulder and gave her a small pet as he said, “Ratskeller. I’m going to ask you to do something you don’t want to do, but all I ask is that you calmly think about it before you answer.”

  Ratskeller’s eyes went wide. She thought she knew where this was going and she didn’t like it one bit. No sir. She didn’t like it at all. George continued, “Please consider…” Ratskeller started growling, but George held up a finger, “Please consider it. A good girl would think carefully before making a decision. Would you mind sharing one of your treats with Pumpkin?”

  Ratskeller was furious. She wanted to chomp both of them. But he said a good girl would think before making a decision. George noticed she was thinking and explained why he would make such a horrible suggestion, “The stronger she is, the more she can help us. The treat will make her stronger.”

  Ratskeller thought and thought. Pumpkin wasn’t a good girl. She didn’t deserve a treat. But George was right. Pumpkin could help them more if she was stronger. Ratskeller walked angrily in a circle while she thought. Coming to a decision, she slammed her paw down and her treats appeared.

  Ratskeller let out a little growl as George carefully removed one treat and held it out for Pumpkin whose head moved back. “I won’t lower myself to eating a dog…” She paused and sniffed. Her eyes went wide. The treat disappeared in a flash of orange. Ratskeller watched as Pumpkin looked a little wobbly for a second then her eyes opened wide and she stretched out as she appeared to grow a little. “Wow. Those pack a punch.”

  Ratskeller quickly stored her box of treats.