The miller proved to be a large jovial man who seemed to take most things in stride. Except rats in his silo. That was something he wasn’t happy about at all. “I need to kill them off quickly before they breed and ruin the grain. I can’t sell the grain if it’s infested with rats. Not sure where they came from, but they are larger than normal and seem a bit stupid. They don’t try to hide much, just run around chasing their tails and fighting with each other. But it won’t be long before we will have a lot more of them and then it will be impossible to keep them out of the silo and the crop will be ruined.”

  He looked me over.

  “I’ll pay you a copper a rat. And a silver if you can tell me how they got here. The area’s pretty well protected, and it’s a long way to wander from the gate to here. Yet they just showed up one day in fair numbers.”

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  You have been given a quest! Kill 10 rats and find how the rats got to the silo.

  “To accept or decline a quest simply think ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” Said my guide.

  Accepting the quest, I immediately headed outside and walked across the porch and back up to the road.

  I noticed that Choral was watching me through the window as I went by.

  When I reached the silo, I could see what the miller meant.

  The rats were running around in plain sight. Their large bodies were fat from eating grain, and they almost seemed drunk. Occasionally two would get into a wrestling contest and roll around. But I noticed that they did not seem to be seriously fighting. It was more like play.

  “What’s wrong with those rats?”

  “Nothing, they are simply young.”

  “Young? They are huge!”

  “No,” said my guide. “They are young. They are giant rat younglings. If allowed to grow, they will become giant rats and destroy the hamlet in short order.”

  I unslung my bow and drew an arrow from my quiver.

  “That’s not going to happen.”