<div class="floatright">(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/db/e9/cf/dbe9cf5fe0e93ceb0b2c4707e6679664--character-portraits-character-ideas.jpg)</div>Had the landscape looked this bleak when they were here yesterday? She couldn’t remember. Perhaps the difference was they hadn’t been lead there by a jailor who was determined to return them to the scene of a crime only to gloat and rub their noses in it. No. Yesterday they had optimism and a good night's rest and full bellies. Right now, even the squelching of the mud under their boots sounded like the very earth itself was blowing the pair of girls a giant raspberry with every step they took. How dare they show their sorry faces around here again? At this stage, Sophia was in agreement completely.<br/><br/>Her hair was a dripping tangled mess, tied in a very sloppy knot at the back of her head, it did little to keep strands of it from remaining plastered to her pale face. Despite the sun being out in full force, baking a thin layer of dry skin over the wet ground as they descended down into the valley where the mines were located, her tresses had soaked the back of her tunic and the parts that lay hidden below her vest made her skin clammy and cold. Other areas weren’t as dry, either, she noted as she attempted to pull the skin tight crotch of her breeches from her groin, which was starting to chafe from all their walking.<br/><br/>Now, the girls were in their prime and not in bad shape, but the hiking up into the hills then down the steep and treacherous path to the mines left her out of breath. She missed her horse and the carriages more than ever as her feet ached from too many days of use with little to no pampering from servants in between. The state of her toenails, for fucks sake!<br/><br/><em>“We have a little group of rats over there. Show me what you got ladies.”</em><br/><br/>She had been so busy glowering at the rocky ground, trying not to slip on the gummy mud and sharp rocks that she hadn’t even noticed they’d arrived until she almost plowed into his much taller and suddenly stationary back.<br/><br/>The pine trees that grew between the jagged gray boulders that littered the ground looked sickly, like they had lost fights with the larger evergreens and were now forced to live in a colony made up of only the losers. Their branches were thin and barely any needles decorated their fingers. Most of the bark had been scraped from their trunks by the rats that scuttled around. The earth was a patchwork of pawprints and lines where their thick bald tails had cut through the claylike ground. With a gulp, Sophie noted the various sizes, some as large as her own boot.<br/><br/>A breeze stirred the meager foliage and brought with it all the bounteous fragrances the valley had to offer. The sun had, no doubt, matured the items left out to rot on the ground, which the overcast sky had spared them yesterday. Dead animal and piles of rat droppings the sizes of small rolls of bread lay half baked and half damp around them. Through all that rot, the mucky, musky smell of perpetually wet dirt and rock seeped from the dark, mud splattered cave entrance that cut it’s way through the salt and pepper gray mountain before them. There was something decidedly perverse about it, the way the muck that coated the walls and doorway to the mines remained glossy and wet while everything else around it had dulled to a dry matte brown.<br/><br/>“Oh god!” She exclaimed, clasping her hand over her mouth as she eyed the scene before them from around the shoulder of their warden.<br/><br/>The rats chewed leisurely on the corpse, like large fat cats, ignoring the lack of threat that slipped down the hill into their home. Again, the shock to Soph at how much smaller they seemed than yesterday took her by surprise. They had felt like they were three times that size before. The vise grip of gloom and anxiety eased on her poor stomach.<br/><br/>Suddenly, this seemed doable. Maybe they wouldn’t starve after all!<br/><br/>The feeling of desperation lifting, it was replaced with hope and Sophie pulled her shoddy sword from her belt, feeling renewed and only barely noticing that her thighs were on fire. Tossing Les an encouraging look with a nod, the Evenember turned to the rats, ready for a fight.<br/><br/>She did her best to imitate her brothers as she spied on them while they sparred in the family courtyard, wooden swords and shields held high. She charged the rodents of unusual size, or ROUS if you will, with her blade grasped in both hands above her head, roaring with all the fury of a week's worth of nights in the stable, if they didn't succeed.<br/><br/>The rats, bless them, were not used to such tactics and they squatted in the mud, completely nonplussed as the pair of women descended upon them like starving flies on shit.<br/><br/>The blunted blade came down on the first, mashing it’s head into the dirt. The force of the blow must have popped it clean off as it didn’t come back up for air as she turned to pick her next target. Yesterday the idea of killing animals had seemed grotesque and uncomfortable but it is amazing what a person can overcome after no sleep and an empty belly.<br/><br/>Her foot had come down on another, pinning it’s valuable tail under her boot so she quickly removed it from its owner, who ran away squeaking furiously.<br/><br/>“Les!” She called, looking over her shoulder and finding her adopted sibling handling things well enough on her own.<br/><br/>“This is easier than I thought. Isn’t it?”<br/><br/>She bent down, plucking the twitching worms from the ground and tucking them into her pocket. Turning around she noticed that many of the smaller rats had begun to flee back into the cave while a few of the larger ones were preparing to defend their bounty of rotten deer from the wouldd be invaders.<br/><br/>“They’re kinda smaller than the ones the kids handed over last night, so he might try to short us, but…” She wiped her hair from her face, smearing a line of mud and gods only knew what else across her forehead.<br/><br/>“... we can just kill all of them and then we’ll be set.”<br/><br/>Her prideful voice rang out over the sloppy mud and raging rodent squaking, even the crackling of magic from her partner, the man all but forgotten. Why had they bothered with him anyway? She couldn’t remember but the feeling of not needing him in the end only fueled her forward.<br/><br/>But, what the cocky quick-tempered woman failed to notice was as her boastful words reverberated down into the mountainside, a dozen sets of glowing eyes twinkled like beacons cutting through the darkest of nights. She had caught their attention.<br/>