SCBM
patreon
Warp Token Update
🕑 Added 2024-02-22 05:48:20 +0000 UTC2k words.
***
“Th… Thhhhaaaaa… thank-thanks,” she said, trying to say it as quickly as possible so he didn’t catch it. “Man-thing still stupid,” she added. “could have let feather-thing eat me-me.”
“The thought crossed my mind,” he admitted. “but, then I would be stuck in here, listening to it devour you for who knows how’s long. Don’t have the stomach for that.”
“Logical! But still stupid.”
“You’re very welcome.”
She slotted her weapon away, confusion overwhelming her. She couldn’t remember the last time a Skaven had shown concern for her safety, partly because it had never happened. From the day she was born, her life revolved around backstabbing and navigating the lowest echelons of Skaven society, staying one step ahead of her enemies. Sparing any adversary, regardless of threat level, was just unheard of. This surface-world was completely backwards, in more ways than one.
She shook her head clear of these thoughts, turning to the matter at hand. “Well?” she asked. “We leaving now?”
“Not just yet,” he said, holding up a hand. “Griffin’s probably circling the area, as hungry as it as confused. We should wait a while and let it move on, just in case.”
“Hrm, good idea-plan, yes-yes.” She plopped herself down on the hard floor, hugging her knees to her chest. The man-thing had just enough room to stand in as he walked over to the opposite end of the cellar, lowering himself with a little more grace than she.
Skyseeker drummed her fingers on the wall, boredom quickly settling in as the silence reigned. Every now and then she felt the man-thing glance in her direction, the fact she couldn’t slink out of sight troubling her after so long staying at his rear. The fact they were sharing the confined space wasn’t helping either, maybe she should risk it and hide up in the tower proper.
“Got some interesting blades there, rat,” the man-thing noted. She had a feeling he was trying to break the silence. “Where did you get them?”
“Gift from greatest Lord!” she chittered, clutching their handles just in case he tried to steal them. “Tailored with Warpstone, sharp as knife, regal! Just like Skyseeker!”
“Tell me about this Lord,” he said. “He is like an Emperor, I take it?”
“Lord Gnawdwell greatest and bestest of all rats,” she chimed, a toothy smile spreading her muzzle as she pictured the Lord’s face. “War-King Tyrant-General biggest, strongest rat on Council. He sees all, knowsmore, but secret strength lies in patience! Gnawdwell look-see bigger picture, not like stupid other Council members.”
“He really calls himself Tyrant-General?” he asked, blinking in confusion.
“Yes! Just told man-thing!”
“Sounds like he has a lot of faith in you,” he said, looking her up and down. “This all-knowing Lord sent you, alone, into the big bad world with nothing but two daggers.”
The way he emphasised Lord came off as insincere, but she doubted he’d be speaking like that if the Lord was standing next to him. “Goggles too! Don’t forget them!” she added, pointing at her face. “Gnawdwell not have faith, stupid man-thing. Great Lord have foresight, insight, sight-sight. When he chose Skyseeker, he saw not breeder, but assassin, perfect for mission!”
“Breeder?” he asked. “What’s that?”
It took a moment for Skyseeker to process the question. “Breeder… me? Man-things not have breeders?”
“Well, we have people who breed dogs, cattle, things like that.”
“No! Disgusting! Speak-talk of man-thing things! Skaven need breeders to make rats for Horned One’s War-Schemes! This not same for man-things?”
“Oh, you mean females?” he asked. “Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”
Skyseeker drove a palm into her face. “Man-thing stupidity grows like rash!”
“So you’re saying this Lord looked past you being a female? Mustn’t happen often, considering that was the first time I saw a female Skaven when you jumped me and my horse the other day.
“Wait-Wait!” she snapped. “Man-thing knew I was breeder? Explain!”
“W-Well, look at you!” he said, holding his arms out at her. “Barring a few absolute major details, you and human women are… similar.”
“Man-thing should stop looking at me-me and look more at weeping blades!” she snarled, baring her teeth. “Man-thing shouldn’t know breeder secret!”
“Maybe if you put some clothes on, it wouldn’t be so obvious!”
“Clothes too cumbersome! Make Skyseeker slow and heavy. Leave stupid clothes to clumsy man-thing.”
He pinched the bridge of his flat nose and sighed, Skyseeker’s scowl slowly receding in the resulting silence. He should end his life before he told someone that she was a breeder, but he seemed unusually reserved about the discovery. A clanrat would be foaming at the mouth the second they’d found her out, but not him. Why was that?
“What man-thing breeders look like?” she asked, leaning closer.
“We just call them women, or ladies, what have you,” he explained, using his hands to illustrate his next points. “Generally they’re smaller than us males, physically weaker. You’ll often find them in the supporting side of the Empire, merchants and diplomats, housekeepers, things like that.”
“And breeding stock, yes-yes?”
“B-Breeding stock? Gods, no, we’re not savages!”
“Man-thing ladies not breed-breed?”
“Certainly they can, yes, some more than others, certainly, but they do other things besides that.”
“Curious! Like what?”
“Pretty much everything besides serving on the front, that duty is left to men alone. Although,” he added, tilting his head in thought. “I heard of an exception once. In the village of Gluckshalt, a banner of archers was reinforced by a few dozen women who knew how to notch a bow. Drove a raiding party of bandits off.”
Her jaw dropped. Archer breeders? So openly talked about? Here she was, skulking the surface-world undercover (at least she thoughtshe was undercover), while man-thing breeders strut around, fighting and living like their male counterparts? She watched the man-things face, searching for a lie, but he seemed to be being truthful.
“Look like your ratbrain’s working overtime over there,” the man-thing noted. “Imagine it’s quite a different lifestyle compared to Skaven women.”
“Breeders good-good for one thing only,” she said, leaning back against the wall. “When female clanrat found, it is taken to breeding pits to become broodmother, or gifted to Warlord. Spend life… breeding.”
“But not you?”
“Horned Rat watches over me-me,” she said. “born in breeding pit, but escaped before discovery by ratwives. Ratwives always searching for breeder pups. Gave them slip!”
“Sounds like you were destined to be an assassin then,” he said. “So no one’s ever found you out? Since this Gnawdwell at least?”
“Many tried, but many-er failed! Stabbed rats that find my breeder-musk, embarrassed those that didn’t! Skryre Warlock, with all his Warpstone power, most recently bamboozled!” She snickered.
“Well,” he said. “I suppose you do look as decrepit and abhorrent as any male Skaven, you could fool anyone.”
Her tail flicked back and forth across the floor. “Thank you, man-thing!” she said, the gratitude easier to voice this time around. “Not complimented since Great Lord’s briefing.”
“Wasn’t meant to be one,” he said, turning his nose up, or maybe he was just looking up at the hatch. It turned out to be the latter when the man-thing got to his feet, reaching up to push the trapdoor open.
“Think we’ve tarried long enough,” he announced. “We should get moving, while we still have light.”
Skyseeker nodded, gesturing for him to proceed, following him up the ladder.
-xXx-
They saw no sign of the griffon for the rest of the afternoon, but that didn’t mean Skyseeker was about to relax, her heart rate rising every time they reached the exposed peaks of the hills, the land so barren the flying monster could have seen them from dozens of leagues away.
Every time she urged the Horned Rat to put a stop to these Trantine Hills, she would be disappointed, always met with the same scenery as she surveyed the world from the higher ground. The bumpy landscape seemed to have no end, slopes and inclines in every direction, save for the wall of mountains that formed a natural barrier far to their east. At least the cover of darkness would arrive soon, the skies turning a pleasant shade of orange as the sun dipped to the horizon.
“So, man-thing,” she began, slinking after the human as he descended the hill. “When will it tell-speak how it got outcast from… Empireialplace?”
“Never,” he muttered, his pistol clocking against his hip with each stride. “Stop asking about it.”
“But silence as boring as Tilee-place!” she whined, throwing her head back dramatically even though he wasn’t looking at her. “Need stimulation!”
“Then go find the nearest breeding pit, rodent.”
“Horrible man-thing! Males not know what happens to breeder in pits! Make death by feather-thing look very nice in comparison!”
“Could you stop shouting?” he asked, looking up to the clouds. “You’ll bring the griffon straight to us if you keep yapping away.”
“Want silence? Then spill beans!” she ordered, though she still took his advice and lowered her voice an octave.
“Urgh…” He dragged a palm over his eyes, Skyseeker peering up at him with an expectant look on her muzzle. He seemed to be considering her question, her relentlessness was finally getting to him.
“Fine,” he declared after a moment, Skyseeker pumping a fist in victory. “but not here,” he added. “Let’s find somewhere to camp first, then we’ll talk.”
She was already bounding ahead of him before he’d said first, Skyseeker combing the plains for shelter. It took maybe twenty minutes, but she soon found a small cluster of shrubs surrounding a raised rock, enough to provide cover should the griffon come looking for them.
It was getting late, Skyseeker having to rely on her trusty goggles to cut back the encroaching darkness, soon spotting the man-thing wondering around out to her right. Useless thing would have gotten lost in the night without her around. She called him over, waving her hands to get his attention, waiting for a few minutes for him to catch up. She pointed proudly to the campsite with a finger, the man-thing appraising the shelter with a nod.
“This’ll do,” he said, crouching down in the grass. “Don’t really want to make a fire and lure the griffon over, but the alternative is to freeze. Help me set one up.”
Skyseeker grumbled, but she soon set off in search of burnable sticks, dropping a handful of them at his feet after a few minutes. Soon they had a healthy campfire beating back the darkness, the man-thing’s shadow long and shaky as he took a seat beside the flames.
“It might not look so now, but I was one of the most esteemed generals of Reikland,” he began. “I had the ear of many noble families, I wore armour that would take a footman a decade to cobble the gold for, and I overcame villains that even the Emperor’s Finest couldn’t even dream of defeating. If that sounds arrogant to you, that’s because I was. A more pompous young lad you’d never find, but I always got the task done.”
Skyseeker sat across the fire from him, bundling her cloak over her shoulders as she settled in.
“When word reached my ears that a village had been seized by a band of secessionists, I leapt at the chance to prove my worth,” he said. “I was already halfway out of the gates with a regiment by the time the other generals decided to act.”
“Secessionists?” she asked.
“Imperials who no longer recognised the Empire, seeking to form their own state.”
“Ah, many Skaven Clans made from splintering too. Proceed!”
“When we arrived, we found the traitors had rounded up the entire village. They threatened to put every man and woman to the sword if we made a move against them, so we laid siege and awaited reinforcements, but fortune wasn’t with us. My scouts reported beastmen stalking the woods nearby, looking to mount an attack to our rear. Cursed things had us outnumbered three to one.”
“I had to decide between breaking the siege and face the beastmen,” he said, prodding the flames with a stick. “Putting the lives of my men at risk. Or to pull back and wait for reinforcements, leaving the villagers and the traitors to the mercy of the beasts. I made a lot of tough calls fighting for my country, but none were like this.”
“What did man-thing choose?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Neither. I assembled the men, and carried out a raid under the cover of night. The secessionists had to be dealt with, and I planned on the traitors surrendering once they knew we were inside the village. We liberated nearly half the village before the alarm was raised, but instead of giving up… the bastards carried through with their threat.”
