Swift as a flash he ducked into the same alley and followed the small child. They were speedy, but he managed to follow them up until he heard voices down a dead end. A quick glance told him that there were a gang of children huddling at the end of the alley.

“Hey look, got another one,” the child he was following said, handing over a coin purse to another child, this one older. They looked into the purse and laughed. “Still not as much as mine!” the older child exclaimed and, to Hugh’s surprise, drew out his wallet from their pocket.

(So these are the thieves… I don’t imagine they’ll just give my wallet back. I have to find another way to approach them.)

While they happily went through the contents of his wallet, Hugh went through a mental list of what he could change into. A gorilla would scare the children away… he needed to change into something small and inconspicuous… yes, a rat!

Ducking into another alley, Hugh quickly stripped and stowed away his formal wear. Then he took the image of a rat’s anatomy and twisted his body’s bones, muscles and cells down into a smaller size. This took some minutes, but at the end he confirmed himself to have changed into a respectable furry rat.

Changing from his humanoid form to a rat took out a lot of energy, but Hugh decided to take his chances. After all, he only needed to follow these children until they slept to pickpocket his own wallet back from them.

Checking back into the alley, Hugh saw that they were all getting up from where they huddled. There was a total of five children and what he noticed was that none of these children were human: a Goliath, two Reptillians and two Trader Orcs. Their leader, the one holding onto Hugh’s wallet, was one of the Trader Orcs. They looked like siblings, a brother and a sister.

They pushed aside a box, revealing a window down into a cellar. One by one they climbed in, their leader being the last. Hugh quickly ran and managed to drop into the cellar before they shut the window.

It was absolutely filthy.

There was dust all over the place and scattered around were food remains. Yet the children didn’t seem to stop here; the leader was the first to ascend the stairs that led out of the cellar. At the first step, he paused and made an audible gulp. In the weak light of the overhead bulb, Hugh could see that his face was contorted in fear.

He lifted a finger to his lips, telling the other four to be silent. The air was filled with silence and dreaded anticipation. Even Hugh dare not make any sudden moves.

The leader slowly made their way up the stairs. Hugh skittered as quickly and quietly as he could, fully curious as to what was going on. Sticking to the darkness at the edges of the cellar, he managed to follow the child up the stairs. It led to cellar doors, and when the child opened them Hugh saw that it led into a dank, dark house.

When Hugh emerged from the darkness, he was taken aback in disgust at the sight of what was in that room.

There was a husk of a woman sitting on the floor, her face full of bruises and cheeks hollowed so much that he could see the lines of her cheekbones. She was drooling, her eyes unfocused. That wasn’t what disgusted Hugh though.

It was the man sitting on the couch.

He was fat in a way that told Hugh something was wrong with his body. The television was blaring, allowing Hugh to see that the front of his shirt was filthy with leftover sauces. The smell of alcohol filled the air.

Taking his eyes off the man, Hugh turned to look at the child. He was looking at the woman, and what Hugh saw was a mix of sadness and anger in his eyes. Perhaps the child and the woman were related somehow?

After a moment, the leader walked slowly towards the man. “S-sir…” the child stuttered, but he was loud enough. The man turned to look at him, and his eyes immediately fastened on the wallet and coin purse in the child’s hands. A wide smile carved into his face.

“So you monster brats are useful for something after all.” The man stood up to snatch the wallet and purse from the child’s hands. He rifled through them and took out all the money held within before tossing them towards the child. “Get rid of that,” he said.

“Sir!” the leader blurted out. The man looked at the child, his face contorting into anger at the child’s next words. “Today, we got a lot of money, can we have some for food? And medicine for mum-”

He couldn’t even finish his sentence.

The man backhanded the child, sending him tumbling onto the floor. He shouted, “You ungrateful garbage! See if you’ll ask me for money again after I beat the shit out of you!” and squatted atop the child before sending blow after blow into the child’s face.

(The boy’s going to die at this rate!)

Hugh’s little rat eyes quickly scanned the room, but there was nothing there that could help him. There was, however, a side table right in front where they were.

(Oh man, okay, here I go!)

It was a crazy plan.

Hugh ran to and up the side table, then jumped down - onto the man’s face!

“What the hell-!” he swiped at Hugh, but he jumped off at the last minute, causing the man to punch himself. He bowed down from the blow, allowing Hugh to climb into his shirt.

From inside the filthy shirt, Hugh could sense the man straightening up to try getting rid of Hugh. Fortunately he must have been quite drunk as Hugh managed to climb all over his body, sending those possible blows into the man himself.

As he climbed up the man’s back, Hugh could hear other voices joining them. Did the kids from the cellar come up when they heard the commotion? That’s not good, the man might target them next. Hugh had to end this quickly.

He bit into the man’s skin as hard as he could. It tasted absolutely gross.

The man roared in pain and tumbled over. Hugh jumped out of his collar, giving him time to watch the man fall backwards, his head hitting the edge of the couch, causing both him and the couch to fall. There was a deafening crack as his head hit the floor and the couch fell onto his head.

There was a moment of silence. Then-

“What the heck just happened?”

“Mom!”

“Brother!”

It was cacophony as the children scattered this way and that. Maybe the danger had passed, but these children clearly did not know what to do next. Hugh wondered what he should do as he stood on the man’s stomach. It was as he was thinking hard that he suddenly felt himself being lifted up.

Looking at him was the Reptillian child.

“What’s a rat doing here?”

There was a wheeze as the leader sat up. “Wait…” he gasped out. “That rat saved my life.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

The leader slowly gave a summary of what happened.

“Whoa, what an awesome rat! Thank a lot,” the Reptillian said, giving Hugh a nice scratch on his head.

(Now’s not the time to be enjoying pats…)

Hugh waved at them. The actions must have been quite un-rat-like as the Reptillian child looked very surprised.

“Uh, I think the rat wants us to pay attention to it…?”

Having their eyes on him, Hugh gave a thumbs up and jumped down from the child’s hand.

“Did that rat just give us a thumbs up!?”

“Maybe it’s not a normal rat?”

Now the children just looked scared. Oops! Might as well own up to it.

Hugh nodded and signaled at them to follow him.

“I think it wants us to follow it…”

The sister Orc nodded. “He saved brother’s life, so he’s not a bad rat. Maybe he’ll lead us somewhere safe?”

The Goliath child nodded too. “I’ll stay with mum and Matty, you three follow him.”

They agreed and Hugh ended up on the sister Orc’s shoulder.