Adventure 4 – Here There be Monsters
There are dozens of rumors of sea and lake monsters. Some of the legends tell of creatures that match the description of beasts of old, others tell about wildlife that are abnormal versions of existing animals, and the last kinds are beyond imagination. Most of these monsters are dangerous to humans only when they bother them. The one Ricky is going after is a lake monster that killed his grandfather and grandmother who were fishing in the lake. He has put their untimely passing behind him, but his parents haven’t so they join him. They bring bait, sharp knives, and other things to draw out the creature of the lake. They have to take quite the hike to make it to the lake where the creature is supposed to be, so Ricky and his parents hop on a merchant’s carriage that is going in that direction.
Ricky says to his parents, “This is going to be really dangerous mom and dad. Be careful.”
His dad, Apollo, says, “Look who’s being the parent. You don’t have to worry about us son.”
“We can handle ourselves. Just because we’re old, it doesn’t mean we’re weak,” his mom, Daphne says.
“I know. I’m just saying because I care.”
“Listen to our son, Apollo. He’s growing up to sound like a parent already.”
“At least he cares about us unlike other young rats his ages.”
“Well you know the saying the humans have, ‘Every son is a knight to his mother who is his queen. His father is king, and his love is his princess. His love will become his queen once he marries her and gives her children and the cycle goes on’.”
“Well he certainly is our little knight.”
“We’re here mom and dad.”
The rats get off the carriage and make their way up to where the lake monster resides.
“Tell me Ricky, when are you going to marry Becky?” Daphne asks.
“What? I don’t know. Why? Do you want grandchildren that badly?”
“No, we’re just wondering. You’ve been together for years and I know you have a ring somewhere in your room.”
“I-I don’t have a ring for yet. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You can impress her at the sports event coming up soon. I’ll be making the winner’s wreath again. Did I ever tell you how I met your mother?”
“You told me many times.”
“Well, I met her in a beautiful tree with pink flowers as leaves. It’s as if she were like the doves in the sky.”
“And your father always exaggerates our meeting.”
“He even made a painting of it with paint he stole from an artist’s house.”
“We still have it hanging in our room, so you must still like it.”
“Of course I do.”
“Hey, mom and dad. We’re here.”
Ricky and his parents set up their fishing equipment and have their weapons ready. They set themselves up in the same way Ricky’s grandparents were. To draw out the creature, they send their bait to the bottom of the river then wiggle the bait on what feels like a rock at the bottom of the lake. This makes a longnecked, snake-like monster emerge from the lake. It makes a loud roaring noise at the sky then focuses on Ricky and his parents. The rats attack the creature with sharp knives and sword, but their attacks barely affect the creature. Pores on the creature’s skin suck in Ricky and his parents who get sent to different parts of the creature’s body.
A light envelops Ricky’s body, which gives him a suit of rat knight armor, so he’s safe when he falls into the digestive stomach of the monster.
“Mom! Dad! Are you out there?!”
He can hear someone screaming something back, but he’s not sure if it’s his parents.
“Get out of here! I’ll take care of the rest.”
There’s silence this time. Ricky sees that he has a sword along with his armor. He walks around the stomach of the beast until he finds a tube that leads out of it.
“The heart has to be somewhere. This monster can’t be that big.”
Alas, Ricky finds himself walking through a maze in the monster’s body. It’s almost if the monster is designed from the inside to be a maze as the inside of the monster is vast and more open like a catacomb. There are skeletons of humans and other animals in the monster’s body that appear to very old. Among the skeletons, he finds a pair of rat skeletons with a couple trinkets on them. These trinkets are the ones that his grandma and grandfather.
“Grandma…Grandpop…I’ll be sure to avenge you and make sure this monster doesn’t hurt anyone else ever again!”
Ricky takes their trinkets as good luck charms. Suddenly, he’s attacked by goblins that act like the creature’s immune system against attackers. When Ricky slices them, they dissolve and split into two then two into three. Seeing that he can’t defeat them, he sprints towards the general direction he thinks the creature’s heart is. He hears a beating sound as he gets closer to it with the goblins hot on his tail, literally.
“I don’t have time to go through this maze of a body!”
As aggravation set in, Ricky cuts his way through the walls in the body until he cuts into the heart’s chamber. The heart is suspended by chains and worshipped by the goblins. Thinking on his feet, he scurries across the chains and cuts down the heart, which melts the monster from the inside out. Ricky quickly cuts his way out of the monster’s body while running for his life. Eventually, Ricky cuts his way the throat of the monster that lifts him up and out of the monster’s body as it uses its last breath to scream out at the sky again. With a sky view of the monster, Ricky can now see that the largeness of the monster’s insides makes sense now as its whole serpent body is a small mountain disguised by the forest.
“Wow, this view is-terrifying!”
To slow his descent, Ricky plunges his sword into the monster, which slows him considerably until he hits the ground and rolls down the monster and finally back onto solid ground.
“Mom?! Dad?! Oh no.”
Ricky cuts into the monster’s dead body to get to his parents, but they end up cutting themselves out not too far from him. He quickly runs to them and embraces them.
“Mom, dad! You’re okay!”
“We’re a bit bruised and cut, but we’re okay. What’s more important is that you’re okay,” Apollo says while holding his wife to help her stand.
“I found grandma and grandpop’s trinkets. Here.”
“Ricky…you found these in the monster?” Daphne asks.
“I found them near two rat skeletons. They died holding each other.”
His parents take a second to mourn but then smile.
“I’m sure they died happily,” Apollo says, “They’re probably smiling down from Heaven on their little boy who took down this giant monster.”
“How did you two survive?”
“We used our knives to slow our descent in the monster and wandered its body until we felt it dying. That’s when we started to cut our way out.”
“It’s a miracle you two survived.”
“It’s a miracle we all survived. Now let’s go home. I don’t think either your mother or I can handle another adventure like this.”
The family laughs before they go home where they tell the rest of the pack what happened and celebrate Ricky and his parents’ victory. The trinkets of Ricky’s grandparents are placed in a special part of their hideout where they keep treasured items that they honor from rats who were remarkable.
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