Town of Gnawnia Chapter 3

Read Table of Content | +Kyla Sturchio
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        The walk back to the Town wasn't nearly as long as I'd hoped it would be.  Trying to figure out how I was going to convince the king, that the mice were acting and thinking like a human, would be more than difficult. Though some were not nearly as crafty as others, it was still a fear of mine that there would be even stronger mice than this elsewhere in the kingdom.

        To my utter surprise, before reaching the gates fully, I heard men screaming from the battlements. "It's Plankrun! Quick! Open the gates." "The Hunter has returned hurry men let him in, let him in!"
I tried to suppress a grin that risked breaking across my face. The gates were opened and shut in seconds. The King stood before
me, a small crowd gathered behind him.
"Welcome back."
"Sire you won’t believe what is going on out there, its madness. I'm not going crazy but the mice, Sir the mice are just, their just…."I was at a loss for words. We both sat a table in the council hall discussing my findings. The king sat peering over my first few pages of notes.

         "The mice are not normal, I believe you Plankrun." said the king, waving a hand in the air to silence my rambling. "It appears that a few of the pests made their way into the Town as you left and as you returned. I have hired a new Trap smith in order to supply you properly. There is also a cheese Shoppe that will open up within the hours. You of course are able to purchase your first batches free of charge."
I gawked at him "That's great Sir, thank you."

         I bowed my way out of the room an hour later, tucking my notes back into the book, and pocketing the Gold the king had just rewarded me. I had promised the King that, though crafty, the mice from the Meadow and inevitably in the town were of no harm to the Town folk. As long as they armed traps outside their doors they should have no worries of mice.

        It was amazing to me how fast Shoppes went up to supply the average man with Traps, bases, and cheese in order to be successful in the hunt against these strange mice. The King had even hinted at me, before I left, that he was considering hiring on some new hunters once I left certain regions. "In order to maintain the mouse population." he had said to me.  I knew I would need better bait and better traps before I set off again, so my first stop was the trap smith. I was most interested to see what these men had invented, and even more interested to see if they would work better than the common spring trap I had been using.

       When I first arrived outside the small little Shoppe the little craftsman was beside himself with glee.
"What an honor it is to make you, your first traps Plankrun sir." He shook my hand vigorously. What in the heck had the King been telling these people?
"Well sir, do you have any traps that will be able to, not only successfully catch these 'common' mice, but also catch any unknown stronger mice I may have to face?" I watched as his face screwed up in thought.

      "I may have just the thing, mind you it’s not ready yet, and it’s only just a prototype, but you could sure use it soon."
He placed upon the table a mean looking trap. "I call it the NVMRC Force field Trap!"
I gazed at the contraption confused. "Uh, sir, what does it do?"
"Well it’s still in the testing process but the idea is to catch the mouse without harming it. You see these pillars here, when triggered a force field builds around it harnessing enough power to trap your mice within it, then it sends the mice to a reservation unharmed."

      I eyed him cautiously, making sure he hadn't lost his mind. He seemed serious. I didn’t even want to know what magic was involved in making the Force Field. "Well that’s wonderful, and the power sounds great, but as you say it’s not ready what else do you have for me. Something I can take now.”
I watched as he rummaged in the back of his Shoppe. Finally with an "Aha!" he returned. "I made this last night, it has caught me a few little pests outside the Shoppe recently, so I know it works." He laid his creation in front of me. It had blades like a pocket knife sticking up ready to fall upon any mouse that got too near.

      "It’s called the Swiss Army Mouse Trap." He looked at me eagerly
"How much does it cost?"
"For you? Nothing. The King has ordered me to give you your first purchase free of charge."
"I'll take one. Also do you think by chance you could write me up a price list of your current traps and any future traps you plan to sell, if I'm going to be needing more advanced traps I will need to know how much gold to pay with." He nodded to me kindly, and went to pack up my things.
"In here is your Trap and your price list, and as a gift from me to you, I added a Stone base to the bag. I hope for the Kingdom's sake you eradicate these mice sir." I left his Shoppe with my pack much fuller than I had entered with.

      I came upon the Cheese Shoppe just up the street from the Trap Smith. He had been expecting me.
“Plankrun, welcome, welcome. I have the finest cheese here for you today.” He waved a hand at a case full of cheese blocks. Cheddar, Marble, Swiss, Brie. I was almost shocked when I saw Brie, such an expensive cheese all to be wasted on mice.
Though I stared greedily at the Brie I knew I would not need it for the current mice I was hunting. “I’ll take 100 Swiss please.” That should be enough to get me through the hunt at the Harbor, I hoped.
Before packing my cheese safely in my bag something caught my eye. A cheese much like Brie, but it had a glow about it, and the smell was so powerful I was surprised I hadn’t noticed before.
“What is that?” I asked pointing to the cheese cased by itself on the shelf in the back. the Shoppe owner got a hungry look in his eye.

     “That there is a creation so powerful mice can’t resist. SuperBrie as the King calls it. It has a near perfect attraction rate, I’ve used some myself and I never miss, but it’s such a waste to use precious cheese on these lowly mice. You won’t be needing that yet.”
“Let’s hope I never need it. That would drain the gold right out of my pocket.”
Impressed with the progress the Town had made in my absence, I left the cheese Shoppe, pack heavy, and tired. I knew there would be little time for rest once I set off towards the harbor, so I decided to sleep in the Town Inn. Before I slept that night, on my lumpy cot, I wrote an entry in my journal.

     “Town of Gnawnia- I made a few purchases today. And I currently have my Swiss Army Trap armed with the new stone base and my fresh Swiss cheese to go with it.”
I fell asleep to the sound of my trap slicing through the air. I shut my eyes knowing I’d have a catch in the morning, but for now, sleep was most important.