//------------------------------// // Chapter 72: Lessons // Story: The Reader // by GnollReader //------------------------------// The gnoll bent down to pick something up. He had smelled it long before he had seen it. He held it towards Berryshakes, "Tell Scar what this is." Berryshakes looked at it for a second, even in the little light the street lamps spared at night it was unmistakable, "It's poop." Scar raised an eyebrow, "And?" "It's old poop?" she tried to guess. The gnoll gave an impatient grumble, was she even trying? They barely had time for any real lessons and he wasn't keen on keeping any rats waiting. He held it closer to her, "Take it." She made a mortified face, "I'm not touching that! That's disgusting!" "Berryshakes wants to learn? Then Berryshakes does as Scar says." he nudged it towards her, "Take, and no magic. With hoofs." She eyed the thing with disgust, "I'm doing this because I want to, I'm doing this because I want to..." she quietly repeated to herself before reaching out with a shaky hoof and picking it up. Scar couldn't help but chuckle, she was holding it as if it would bite her any moment. "Now, tell Scar what this is, and don't drop." Berryshakes was barely able to even look at it without making a face, "Yeah, this... this is definitely old poop." "And?" Scar asked with expectation in his voice. Berryshakes looked at it again, "That's it?" Whatever he was aiming at passed her unnoticed. The gnoll blinked his eye at her for a moment, "Is it?! Does Scar really have to explain everything?" He snatched the hoof she was using to hold the droppings in one paw and held it there as he used his other hand to point out things, "Look, has bits of bones, fur and seeds. Is from fox... healthy too..." He used a claw to open the droppings on her hoof, ignoring her face as he continued, "Is still soft inside, with hot sun means is only day or two old." At this point Berryshakes was actually starting to forget her disgust and was listening intently. At least until he picked up a bit between his thumb and finger and held it before her nose, "Now, taste is next lesson." --- Having watched Berryshakes puke her guts out after being force fed fox droppings by the gnoll, Purple Haze was more than anxious to get on moving. It had been amusing to watch, but they had work to do here. They were currently using the cover of the night to travel to the downtown district of Manehatten. Old and run down buildings could be seen everywhere, old factories and empty windows staring at them silently. The guards led them into an old and dusty factory hall, "This whole block is mostly abandoned, only few ponies still live in this area." one of the guards explained, "However, we have several ponies reported missing in the vicinity of a nearby shut-down sewage work..." "And you figured that if something was dragging them off it would probably be hiding inside the old sewer tunnels..." Purple Haze picked up the sentence. The guard nodded and showed her an old map, "We have been observing several entrances for a few days now, but the tunnels are like a maze. If something is hiding in there it could enter and exit anywhere without us noticing." he shook his head, "And to be frank, leading a small group of guards into a maze with an unknown threat is not really an option." "Well, luckily we have someone to lead us in..." she turned to the gnoll, "Don't we, Scar?" The gnoll nodded and patted his hammer with a grim look, causing some of the guards to shiver in the process. "Where do we enter?" Berryshakes asked as Purple Haze studied the map. "There's a shaft leading to a central knot close by, if I'm guessing correctly it'll put us in the center of the maze. Whatever is down there, Scar should be able to smell it from there." "Is no need." Scar said with a low rumble in his voice, "Scar can already smell rat stink from here. Gnoll has much work to do." --- The two rats crawled through the darkness of the tunnel with quiet steps. It was their turn to patrol the outer tunnels, and it was just as boring as the last times. Some of the other rats had been lucky enough to slit a few ponies that had foolishly wandered into the tunnels, but they hadn't had that much luck yet. But hope died last, and so they carefully searched the outer rings. They wouldn't be here much longer anyway, the separate group sent to Ponyville was already several days late for their scheduled meeting so the rats assumed they had failed. They would wait one more day before breaking camp and getting the emergency plans running. How they could have failed at such a simple task was a mystery to the rats, there was nothing more simple than slitting sleeping ponies. "You smells somethin' different?" one of the rats piped up. "Crap'n blood, just as always..." the other rat replied casually as they walked on. "Don't know...there's somethin' different today, can't say what's it is..." they stopped in front of something they didn't recognize, "Since when s'there a pillar here?" one of the rats asked as they approached carefully. The other rat squinted his eyes as he whispered, "That ain't no pillar I remember... not moving either... put on a light so we can have a closer look." The rat struck flint and lighted a small candle in his hands. As he held it up and both rats stepped closer they realized that what they had mistaken for a pillar was in fact a giant hammer standing alone in the middle of the tunnel, "What the..." "Hello, I'm a distraction!" Before the rats could comprehend what was going on, they felt a hot breath on their backs. They turned around slowly, candle held up high as the light was reflected from a set of huge teeth and several armors. The gnoll gave single huff, the candle went out.