The Rat King

By Patti Larsen

Susan’s been having very bad dreams, and without Tucker there to comfort her, she’s afraid something terrible has happened. He’s been ordered to stay in Cat City and do his duty as a gatekeeper, but it feels like the council is trying to keep him from his friend.

It turns out Susan’s nightmares are real, however, and when Tucker discovers Susan has been kidnapped by their enemies, he tries to rally help from the cats. But if anyone is going to save her, it’s going to have to be him! With the Rat King ready to attack and an old enemy still plotting to take over Cat City, it’s up to Susan and Tucker to save the cats from their enemy one more time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patti Larsen
• Release date: Jan 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9781998948208

Patti Larsen

About me, huh? Well, my official bio reads like this: Patti Larsen is a multiple award-winning author with a passion for the voices in her head. But that sounds so freaking formal, doesn’t it? I’m a storyteller who hears character's demands so loudly I have to write them down. I love the idea of sports even though sports hate me. I’ve dabbled in everything from improv theater to film making and writing TV shows, singing in an all girl band to running my own hair salon.But always, always, writing books calls me home.I’ve had my sights set on world literary domination for a while now. Which means getting my books out there, to you, my darling readers. It’s the coolest thing ever, this job of mine, being able to tell stories I love, only to see them all shiny and happy in your hands... thank you for reading.As for the rest of it, I’m short (permanent), slightly round (changeable) and blonde (for ever and ever). I love to talk one on one about the deepest topics and can’t seem to stop seeing the big picture. I happily live on Prince Edward Island, Canada, home to Anne of Green Gables and the most beautiful red beaches in the world, with my pug overlord and overlady, six lazy cats and Gypsy Vanner gelding, Fynn.

Book preview

The Rat King

The Adventures of Susan and Tucker (Two)

Patti Larsen

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2024 by Patti Larsen

Find out more about Patti Larsen at

http://www.pattilarsen.com/

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Chapter One

The darkness echoes with faint squeaking that grows louder and louder, the distant red pinpoint glow of lights appearing next. As the sound builds, so does the brightness until she’s surrounded by wriggling, chattering bodies that push against her, brushing her with their wiry tails and rough fur, their long noses wet as they press to her skin, their shining eyes unblinking while they squeeze her tighter and tighter.

One voice breaks through, lisping over the s sounds and crackling with anger. They think they’ve beaten uth, is says as the squeaking grows louder in response, scuffling and scuttling giving her goosebumps. We have only jutht begun to fight! Their arroganth will be their downfall. The calls of the rats rise until Susan cries out in pain, clutching at her ears to try to drown them out. But no matter what she does, the sound makes it through, dulling all of her senses until she simply can’t take it without screaming. Cat Thity will be ourth!

She can’t stay on her feet any longer, wailing out loud over the voices of the many who crush her with their endless motion. The weight of the rats pulls her to the ground where they swarm over her, tiny pinpricks of claws jabbing her skin, her cry of fear drowned out in their constant squeals—

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Susan sat upright in bed, her heart pounding very hard, quick breaths coming sharp and fast as she pressed both hands over her mouth to keep from letting out her own scream. Or another, since she knew she’d had such trouble in the past. She waited a long time in the semi-darkness, the nightlight Mom installed next to her door casting just as many shadows as it banished back to her, almost making the black pools left behind worse, not better. Sometimes her nightmares brought Mom or Dad running—or both on really bad nights—but not tonight. Had she screamed out loud this time as she had so many times before? When the sound of their door opening and footfalls didn’t come, Susan sighed deeply in relief. Either she had and they’d missed her nightmare, or she’d only cried out in her dream.

Grateful she hadn’t woken her parents—even as she wished for their comfort—she finally sank back into her pillow and burrowed deeply under the heavy comforter until even her dark hair was tucked under the patchwork quilt.

They couldn’t help her anyway. No matter how many times they asked, she simply couldn’t tell them why she was having bad dreams because she’d promised she never would. And Susan knew if she started to explain, everything would come rushing out, she was sure of it.

It took a long time for her heart to settle, for her gasping breaths to quiet down to normal while her skin tingled with the memory of the nightmare haunted by rats. She’d never had any kind of trouble with such things before moving to the big house in the country. Her friend Paula in her old school, Grand Point Elementary, even had two white rats that she’d let Susan play with a few times. She’d always found them silly and funny and rather interesting with their expressive faces and the way they washed their whiskers with their human-like hands, so clever and kind of sweet. And while their red eyes gave her the creeps the first time she met them, she’d learned they were simply that shade because they were albinos, lacking in color, rather than anything to do with being evil or anything like that.

If only the rats she dreamed about had been as friendly. Susan knew better, shivering as she lay there, trying not to think about them. Part of her wished she could just explain to Mom and Dad why she was having nightly visits from the horrible creatures. They’d started a week ago, seemingly out of the blue, at least according to her parents. While there was nothing out of the blue about it, they had no way of knowing where Susan had been, what she’d been doing.

Who she’d been saving a magic city under their new house with.

She exhaled a long sigh under the blankets, heating the air until she had to pull them back so she could get a fresh, cool breath. Thinking about Cat City and her adventure there made her restless. She’d had the chance to stay but came home to be with Mom and Dad. She knew it was the right choice. But it was so hard not to wish she could go back, return to the amazing city in the valley underground, to feel the magic that had been awoken inside her during her time there, to talk to the cats who understood what she’d gone through, what they’d all gone through.

There were times that Cat City felt like a dream, as though she’d made it up. Susan shifted under the covers, staring at the ceiling and the leaves from the tree outside whose shadows danced across the surface. The first night, Tucker had been with her, and she’d slept peacefully with him at her side. Maybe her cat friend—once thought an ordinary butterscotch tabby—and gatekeeper of the magical city below had kept the nightmares away. Or perhaps it had been the weariness of recovering from stopping the traitors, Khai and Julian, from turning Cat City over to the evil rats that had helped her rest so peacefully that first night.

But trouble started the very next day. Susan woke to find Tucker gone and no amount of searching turned him up again. She knew he had responsibilities in the city and didn’t worry so much, not until he failed to appear that night.

Panic had been a natural response, she believed, even if her parents had no idea why she was so anxious. Had something gone wrong again? She had tossed and turned for hours the second night, terrified the rats had found a way through the gate and into the city after all and that her cat friends were in danger.

She finally fell asleep, of course. Not that she got any rest at all. Mom and Dad had both come running when Susan woke up, screaming about the rats. The third night, still without Tucker to comfort her and despite Susan’s efforts to hide her fearful dreams, Mom sat with her for over an hour, waiting for her to go back to sleep and had installed the nightlight the next morning. But no matter what Mom and Dad tried, Susan simply couldn’t shake the terrible things that haunted her.

If only she could tell them why. But there was only one other soul she could confide in and not only was he missing, he couldn’t talk to her the way she would have liked even if he was the best listener ever.

Susan smoothed the surface of the blankets, tensing when she heard something moving near her door. But it was just the floor creaking, the old house stretching, Dad would say, not any approaching rats to worry about. She slowly pulled the covers up until only her nose and eyes were exposed, fighting the thickening in her throat and the burning in her eyes that was so familiar to her now. She almost crawled out of bed to go wake Mom, but it wasn’t her mother she really wanted.

She needed Tucker. But he wasn’t here. And while she knew she was being silly, assuming something was wrong instead of trusting he was doing his part to keep the city safe, knowing it didn’t help much when, at times like these, she wanted to weep in frustration.

She’d helped defeat the rats, the traitors to the city, and had come home again, vowing to protect the cats and their secrets. She shouldn’t have to suffer like this when she was doing the right thing.

It simply wasn’t fair.

Susan’s door creaked and she tensed. Not the house that time, but some(thing) approaching. Maybe it was Mom checking on her? She would have heard her parent’s door open. No, it wasn’t Mom or Dad that pushed open the door a crack and made it complain.

Please, let it just be her imagination! She hated being afraid, fought against it, arguing with herself as she clutched at the top of the blankets. Just look, silly, she thought to herself. Even as something heavy landed on the foot of the bed.

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Chapter Two

She couldn’t help the faint squeak that escaped and, gasping, Susan sat up again, staring into the mostly dark of her room. With a low cry of relief, however, and tears now wetting her cheeks for the right reasons, she wrapped her arms around the big, butterscotch tabby cat who’d joined her and now head-butted her before breaking into his loud and comforting purr.

Tucker. She breathed that name into his fur. Where have you been? She knew he couldn’t tell her, explain, but it didn’t matter now. She was just relieved he was back even if she couldn’t understand him outside the city. His returned embrace was answer enough. I’m having bad dreams.

He tensed, fluffy tail thrashing as his whiskers drooped and his ears flattened sideways. She knew immediately she’d hurt his feelings,