The Rat King watched the tiny Human Things bustle around its feet, bringing food right to its mouth. All it had to do was eat. And the Human Things' food was so much tastier...
After so many days of delicious food from the Human Things, the Rat King could hardly bare its teeth at them anymore.
That was when Little Smo began the second phase.
He entered the tent and brought up what had happened that day.
"A terrifying whirlpool appeared on the sea, with green poisonous flames burning across its surface. We watched an entire peninsula sink beneath the waves. A few days ago, the Sea Folk found you on the seabed. Half a day later, and you would have vanished without a trace into the vast Deep Sea."
"Do you remember what happened?"
As Little Smo helped it recall, the memories the Rat King had refused to face since waking flooded back.
Its brother's death, the Island's silence, the destruction of its clan...
"Demons... and you Human Things!" The Rat King's eyes turned scarlet, and its mouth twisted into a vicious snarl. Only the memory of being thrown into the sea a few days earlier held it back. Its conflicted, ugly hairless face looked almost comical.
"Us? Impossible. The Far North is demon territory. How could we sink an entire peninsula right under their noses?" Little Smo merely shook his head, calm even though the Rat King could crush him to pulp with the slightest movement.
"The demons fooled you."
"Those demon things..."
The Rat King was not very smart, but that was precisely what made its thinking dangerous. It could draw conclusions riddled with holes and believe them completely.
For instance, once the Rat King decided humans could not have done it but demons could, it equated