"Morning mate, you been up all night?"

  Matt's head jerked up, fighting the inevitable approach of sleep that he had battled against since the end of the battle. Oswald had tried his hardest to keep him amused, but there is only so far that a ten-day old sentient plush toy can stretch stories and anecdotes before they lose their anti-soporific powers. Blearily, he regarded Alan's large form in the living room doorway, stretching gingerly and wincing at some unseen aches.

  Matt shook his head a few times to clear the cobwebs, before standing and bouncing on his toes a few times to get circulation going. "Yup, I thought with the cats… busy, we should have someone on watch. Me and Oswald have been bonding over tales of bravery and shenanigans. And sugar, though that was mainly me."

  The conversation forced his brain slightly closer to normal speed, and the events of the previous night started crystalising into greater clarity. "How is Carry doing?"

  Alan sighed, shoulders slumping. "Not great, but she's asleep now. She couldn't stay settled last night, lots of bad dreams, lots of crying. It didn't feel great, not being able to do anything to fix it."

  His eyes were misty as he continued. "You know, after we lost the baby last year, we… we weren't sure what to do next. We'd been so set on everything we were going to do, so many plans and ideas, had it all mapped out. Horribly unrealistic, I know! Picking up the kittens on a whim felt like a terrible idea from the moment I walked out of the damn pet shop, but somehow it all worked out. They weren't a replacement, but they… they filled a hole. Once that was gone, it felt like we could… I dunno, move on properly."

  Matt moved over and put a hand on his friend's shoulder and almost managed to stifle a huge yawn, right in Alan's face. "I remember Al, Kira was more distraught than I'd ever seen her, she was dead set on having a little brother or sister to look after 'when you were busy'." He smiled at the memory. "The way that she and the kittens took to each other was some serious spiritual healing. Now, seeing the way that they have been looking after her, it gives me the confidence to do some of the stuff we've had to – to get by, to survive."

  He gave Alan's shoulder a comforting squeeze before continuing. "We can give Lion a proper send-off, mark the passing of a hero of the street. Maybe we can setup a memorial, put those landscaping skills to work. He might not be… well, something to keep his memory with us for whatever comes ahead."

  Alan nodded, a tired smile on his face. He caught Matt's meaning in the unsaid words – that Lion might not be the last one of the group to lose the struggle with their new reality. A sense of determination came over him at this thought. This sacrifice needed to be the spark that took them from getting by to moving forward. They had paid a price for leaving the threat of the rat's nest to grow unchecked, and this was one lesson that Alan swore would not need to be taught twice.

  "You get some kip mate, I'll keep an eye out until the others are up." Alan squared his shoulders and stretched once more. "We can bury Lion, pay our respects, and then… then we plan to eliminate that nest of f…" He glanced at the ceiling, all that was between them and the girls in the room overhead. "…furry menaces."

  Matt chuckled, which turned into another yawn. Slumping down onto the sofa, he laid down his head and was fast asleep in moments.

  Matt was roused by a glorious smell that had his stomach growling loudly, followed by a barely restrained bout of giggling. Opening his eyes, Kira and Lara were perched on the edge of the sofa, holding a plate with a steaming sandwich on a tray, wafting the steam toward him with exaggerated hand waves.

  "Wakey wakey sleepyhead, time to get up. We've been up for hours, and Mum made pigeon and cheese toasties for us all."

  Oswald was perched on Lara's shoulder, holding a lump of cheese in his front claws which he was slowly chewing through. The incongruous sight jump-started Matt's brain for the second time that morning and he swivelled into a seated position. Wordlessly he held his hands out for the tray, which the girls obliged. Aching from the previous night's exertions and barely recharged from a few hours of sleep, he chewed slowly through the hearty breakfast.

  "How is everyone this morning?" He mumbled around a mouthful.

  Kira replied. "The cats aren't in the front room anymore – we looked from the upstairs window, we didn't go out!" She quickly clarified as Matt frowned. "We used your old binoculars. Lion's… Lion's body was gone as well; I don't know where. Uncle Alan wanted to wait until we were all awake and had breakfast before going to investigate."

  She paused, and surprisingly Lara took up the explanation. "Mrs Brand is very sad about Lion, so I asked Oswald to sit with her. He always makes me feel better."

  Matt smiled, both at her thoughtfulness, but also in relief that she was continuing to demonstrate recovery from her own trauma. "That's kind of you Lara, thanks. I'm sure Oswald will help her. He was a real hero last night, you know? Without him distracting the rats and shining a light for us, it might have been a lot worse."

  She nodded, hair falling forward over her face. In a small voice, she replied. "He took care of me after… after… what happened. He helped me make the hole in the roof, and told me stories, and helped me forget for a little while." She sniffled, wiping her eyes on a tissue.

  Matt put down the now empty plate, leaned over and gathered both girls into his arms. Silently they comforted each other until Arlee came in and caught their attention.

  "Morning love, how are you feeling now?"

  "Better than I should do I think." Matt replied. "What's the plan for this morning and today?"

  Arlee held up a large bucket full of cleaning products. "As soon as you're ready, we're all heading over the road, to clean up, fix the window and door and… take care of Lion."

  He nodded, getting to his feet and cautiously stretching out aching limbs. The large number of creaks as joints and muscles protested drew a chorus of giggles from the the girls, and Matt grumpily admitted to himself (for the thousandth time) that he wasn't twenty-five anymore. Maybe one of these days he should give up the pitched life-or-death battles and settle down to a less strenuous set of hobbies. Wouldn't that be nice, he thought as the final clicks and creaks faded away.

  "Okay, let's get going."

  As the group moved cautiously across the road, they were struck by how few rat carcasses were left in sight. A greasy, burned smell lingered in the still air, but far fewer burned corpses remained than they had expected. There was some evidence of smaller scavengers, but they received a chilling reminder of ever-present danger at a number of huge claw marks, gouged into the earth of the garden, as well as the road's surface and even a car hood. A bloody smear in a crushed depression indicated that one of the rats had slumped there before something grabbed it. Matt mentally kicked himself that he had probably fallen asleep and missed whatever had happened.

  They aren’t rat tracks, and I don’t think kites fly in darkness. What could have taken all those rat bodies?

  The group found Lion's body in the Brands' back garden, lying in one of his favourite spots under a tall fir tree along the back fence. Apparently, the other cats had moved him there before their arrival, and Kira reminded them that the cats could move through shadows, even to the extent of taking others with them, as they had with her on occasion. This made a lot more sense than imagining the remaining felines somehow carrying the large body past a closed gate, though they had done well in arranging the body in a peaceful pose. Lion's siblings watched the humans from various shadowy nooks around the garden, silently observing, keeping watch.

  After a brief discussion the group split up to work on the various tasks. Matt and the girls started digging a grave, and they were joined by Frank and Sarah from next door. Matt took the opportunity to thank Frank for his intercession the night before, and they toiled together to hack a rectangular chunk out of the cold, chalky earth.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Alan retrieved tools and boards from the shed and set about closing the gaping hole in the front window, in similar fashion to how they had covered the gap in the Tappers' back door. Next, he salvaged as much of the original front door as possible, bracing it with an internal door which he took off its hinges. That would hold until they were able to find a proper replacement.

  Arlee took charge of cleaning the blood and mess from the front room, firmly refusing any help from Carry – not wanting her friend to witness any more reminders of their loss. Once that was done, the two women worked together to clear debris of broken furniture, as well as salvaging what they could of the sofa.

  The group came together in the mid-afternoon sunlight, to lower Lion's body respectfully into the ground. It was a sombre event, a reminder of their own mortality, and a farewell to a sibling, a pet, a protector. There were tears and there were words of remembrance, restrained laughter as anecdotes and stories reminded them of Lion's antics, his playfulness and affection.

  After covering Lion's body back with the displaced earth, the group drifted back inside. The three girls disappeared upstairs - Nala once more at Kira's side - and the adults settled around the kitchen table.

  "After last night…" Alan said. "…it's clear that we can't let that nest continue to exist. If we let their number build up, they'll be able to swamp us eventually – and they've shown that they can coordinate a focused attack, so we can't rely on luck to keep them away."

  He thought for a moment, before holding up his hand and counting off his fingers. "One – we need to start prepping the rat poison to use around the nest. Two – Matt, we need a lot more flame-tubes and armour patches – for house defence and to storm the nest with. Three – we need to get more survivors into the road and start building up our numbers while there are people to find. Four – we need to head down to the petrol station and see if we can find a way to get the petrol."

  Arlee cocked her head at this. "What would we need that for?"

  "Because I don't think we want to try and take out a whole nest of rats with some homemade flamethrowers and close-combat weapons. Those things are vicious and ideally, we want to keep them back from us – that's where the flame-tubes come in. After last night, they should be pretty wary of them. But…" He paused for a quick drink before continuing. "…if we can stock up on full petrol cans and dump a bunch of them into the nest, even if we don't set fire to the whole place it should suffocate everything in there."

  Matt thought for a moment. "That's got potential. If there is only one main entrance, we could trap them in the nest and burn them out. We need to find the other entrances first though; make sure we have everything covered."

  Frank looked confused. "I remember you telling us about the entrance on the King George's Field, but are there other places as well?"

  Alan exchanged a look with Matt, unwilling to compromise the secrecy of Kira's source of information. "It's likely, but we'll need to check. Mid-morning seems to be the best time to avoid them, so we could take a shed-load of rat poison down tomorrow, spread it around and search for extra tunnels at the same time."

  He cleared his throat, before turning to Frank. "I know it's not what you signed up for mate, but I don't know that Matty and me can do this by ourselves. Are you in?"

  Frank leaned forward. "Absolutely! If it weren't for you all, my whole family would either be starving, huddled in our house, or…" He shuddered. "…monster food for that huge mutt. We owe you, and we'll be stronger together."

  They were surprised at the ease with which Frank had signed up for the dangerous mission, but were both deeply moved by his support. Nodding gratefully and clapping Frank on the shoulder, Alan looked around the rest of the group. "Anyone else have any ideas?"

  Carry had remained silent, snuggled against Alan's side during the exchange. She piped up suddenly. "Should we check whether the supermarket has anything of use? We got a lot of useful stuff from the garden centre, but even discounting the fresh food which will be worthless now, there should be a lot of tinned goods, snacks and other long expiry stuff that would be useful."

  "I thought about that a few days back." Matt responded. "You're absolutely right, but it's smack bang in the middle of the village surrounded by houses – I would expect that it has been stripped bare by now. Worth checking, but I wouldn't get my hopes up."

  The group was silent for a few minutes, thinking through ideas and other possibilities, before Arlee got them back on track. "Well, we've got lots of stuff to do, so let's get on with it. There's a load of worthless expired food in the other houses that we can stuff with rat poison, so we should collect that and get started. The three of us…" She pointed to herself, Alan and Frank. "…can go around collecting any food which we can stuff with poison – we can do that at our house. Frank, maybe bring Belinda and the boys here while we're out, for security. Carry, can you please keep an eye on the kids for now?" Her friend nodded silently.

  "Matt, you need to get weaving. Lots and lots of patches. Like Alan said – fire, armour and anything else that might be useful." She smiled ruefully at her husband. "And to think that I took you to task for taking up such an impractical pastime. I'm really very glad you did now, o sorcerer supreme!"

  They laughed, even Carry giving a slight smile, and the group split up to get started.

  Upstairs, the three girls lounged on the large guest room bed, flanked by Nala and Oli, both of whom were napping. Dragon had faded into the shadows once Lion had been laid to rest, and they hadn't seen him since, but this was not unusual behaviour. They had been discussing all manner of things, catching up on their time apart since the advent of the weirdness. Most recently, they had turned to the information that Kira had found about Oswald and other plush animals in her magical encyclopaedia.

  "…so what it sounds like, is that you and Oswald could get some cool magic power if you find one of these…locuses?" Sarah asked.

  "Loci." Kira said without looking up from the page she was reading. "My dad has attuned to two of them now, and you could see the difference between the fire patches he made, when he was only attuned to one, then attuned to another one. It was, like, twice as big when it fired!"

  Lara sat quietly on Kira's bed, leaning against the wall with Oswald in her lap. She looked down thoughtfully at the small dragon, who had been a constant companion through her childhood and was now the only link to her family, the others so brutally ripped away. After a few moments, she spoke.

  "I like the idea of helping Oswald grow, be more magical. Do you, Oswald?"

  A wisp of smoke curled up from Oswald's mouth, tickling her nostrils and eliciting a giggle. He cocked his head to the side and considered her words before replying.

  "I should very much like that mistress. It pains me deeply that I was unable to offer more protection when you needed it most, and truly I would do anything to bring the light of joy back to your eyes. If by discovering these fonts of magic we might grow together, then if you are ever threatened again, I would be able to defend your person valiantly!"

  The small dragon had struck a heroic pose during his reply, and the girls laughed as he stood on hind legs, wings spread and claws wide in tiny ferocity. He looked downcast at this, and the laughter died off as they noticed his expression.

  "I'm sorry Oswald." Kira said. "We shouldn't have laughed. You're a wonderful friend, but we've all got some growing to do to be able to protect ourselves and each other."

  Oswald perked up once more. "This is true Miss Kira. I recall well the tales of dragons that my mistress would read – they seemed so mighty! I am but a poor reflection of their power, unable to offer protection, nor…"

  His words were muffled as the three girls all clumped together, wrapping him and each other in warm, loving arms. They held this pose until someone's fingers found some conveniently placed ribs and started tickling, at which point the group fell apart laughing, squirming to escape the funny torment.

  As the group regained their breath, Oswald walked up Lara's leg to address her once more. "I implore you mistress, let us quest to find these wellsprings that we might grow in power, enough to guard against whatever threat the world set bring before us." His little face was so solemn and sincere that Lara gathered him into a gentle hug once more.

  "We will Oswald. I don't know how, but we will."

  Kira dove back into her book, searching for guidance on finding loci. As she read aloud her findings, Sarah started rattling off ideas of what might constitute a physical manifestation of significant connection for Lara, most of which revolved around birthday presents, outings to amusement parks and the like. After a while, Kira butted in.

  "They're good ideas Sar', but not… important enough. I chatted with my dad about his – one was where he almost died when one of the rats broke into our house on the first night The other was where him and mum… where they… erm… " She was growing redder by the moment as her friend's looked on curiously.

  "Where they what 'Ra?" Asked Lara.

  "Where they mumblemumble."

  "What was that?" Sarah asked next. "I couldn't hear."

  By now Kira was blushing so heavily in embarrassment that she looked ready to burst. "Where they made me! Where they… y'know… had sex." She shrank back, holding the heavy encyclopaedia upright in her lap to hide behind. Sarah and Lara looked at each other, Oswald looking between each in confusion.

  "That makes sense, I suppose." Sarah said in a matter-of-fact voice. "That is pretty big and important. Probably even more than the disco party you had last year Lara."

  Lara nodded agreement as Kira's gradually fading blush re-appeared, the expected teasing not materialising. Relief covered her face, which lasted only as long as it took Oswald to turn to her and ask. "Excuse me, Miss Kira. What does 'had sex' mean please?"

  This time the laughter was not contained, and Kira's blush returned full force. Lara stepped in to rescue her best friend. "You find out about that when you're a bit older Oswald. It's not an option for us though, so we'll need to think of other places we can look."

  The small dragon nodded seriously. "I understand mistress, let us sally forth and begin our quest." He turned back to Kira. "You can tell me about this sex thing when I am of the right age, Miss Kira."