Music: Majestic Nature by Craig Stuart Garfinkle Artwork by Steve English Episode 3 - Horatio Arrives One of the dogs Winefry had noticed, a female border terrier called Flannel had got fatter over recent weeks. As he waited and watched that evening in the kitchen, he saw her lie down in her basket - as her partner, the male border, Spanner, watched and waited with her. But tonight was not to be a typical night. The dark rats seemed to know something was happening, something Winefry knew nothing about. There was an excitement about them as they waited in their holes and behind the walls and cupboards. The cat, Scragg, came and went. There was no animosity between the borders and Scragg as they’d grown up together and considered themselves family. Winefry noted that Scragg seemed on edge, coming and going, waiting and watching, sniffing and chasing - anything she thought might be a rat - or rat-related. Then, as Scragg left the room, a noise from the hall caught the bottles attention and the attention of Spanner who lifted his head and walked to the door to look. Spanner seemed unwilling to leave Flannel for some reason. Scragg was nowhere to be seen. What happened next left Winefry shocked - he had never seen anything like it before. Suddenly, the room filled with rats which split into two distinct groups. One group moved around Spanner by the door, while the other group headed for Flannel who, for some reason, seemed to be unable to do anything except pant and look uncomfortable. In a flash, Spanner attacked the rats around him as the other rats moved towards Flannel intent on taking from her something Winefry could never have imagined. For from Flannel, the most amazing thing Winefry had ever seen was coming, a tiny version of herself and Spanner, a miniature and apparently completely helpless dog. The rats wanted the miniature dog, to rip it to pieces and eat it. Winefry didn’t think, he reacted. He was a creature of the darkness, the darkness had given him life. But, he was also a creature of light. He was a creature of the moon. The same cold wolf moon that beamed through the windows this very night, revealing a scene before him of Spanner fighting for his life, and the other rats bounding towards Flannel and her helpful miniature dog. Winefry found himself zipping through the air - as his long, powerful legs thrust him towards the helpless Flannel who could do little more than growl and snap at the approaching rats. The sharpened poker was in Winefry’s hand. Then it was through the back and heart of the largest of all the dark rats attacking Flannel, the one that was about to snatch the miniature dog, intent on ripping it apart. At Winefry’s unexpected intervention, the other rats paused, unsure what had happened or how to react. They had assumed the wine bottle would keep out of it like it had for the last year. They had also thought that it was like them, a creature of the darkness – but now they realised they were very wrong, that this thing was dangerous. That moment's pause gave Winefry all the time he needed to pass between the rest of the rats as he pulled his weapon out of the dead rat and let its body slumped to the floor. Then, he stood in front of a rather shocked Flannel who had never even noticed the wine bottle before. The bloody battle of the other rats and spanner continued. Spanner was holding his own for now, there were dead rats around him, but he was bleeding quite badly and could not help. That had always been the dark rats plan, to distract and detain Spanner, while they stole the miniature dog from a seemingly helpless Flannel. No one could have predicted the intervention of Winefry. And, if it hadn’t been for him, the miniature dog would already be dead – ripped to pieces and food for the rats. The moments' shock passed, and the rats around Flannel, fuelled by a new rage at the thwarting on their plans, attacked again, determined to get their prize. Winefry’s poker sword,... Support this podcast
