by Karen Frost
~*~
Mary Jane did not know how long she had been asleep. It could have been minutes or hours when her eyes fluttered open to see a black and white rat standing on her chest. It stood on its hind legs using its tail for balance, sniffing the air with its small pink nose and twitching whiskers. When she saw the small creature, she squeaked in surprise and scooted her body away from it, smacking into the hard wooden headboard of the bed. Her movements startled the rat, which ran to the other end of the bed on all four paws and then stood up again to look at her.
“You’re not dead then,” it said.
Mary Jane thought the rat sounded glad. It leaned towards her, its nose wiggling with curiosity. Mary Jane was surprised to see a talking rat, then she remembered that she was in Devorian, not at home, and all the animals in Devorian could talk.
“No, I’m not. I was sleeping,” Mary Jane replied, rubbing her eyes.
“Well, I'm glad you're not dead, milady. Godrick,” he said, naming himself.
He added after a moment, "At your service."
“Hello Godrick, I’m Mary Jane,” Mary Jane said.
"A pleasure to meet you," the rat said with a small bow.
“What are you doing here?” Mary Jane asked.
She added quickly, "I mean to say, I thought Mirrin was the only person…or animal, in the castle."
Godrick dropped to all four feet and scampered closer to her. He stopped a foot away and stood up again.
“That's a good question. The Far Reaches is normally no place for rats, but I've always been the enterprising sort. When I heard about this castle with its full larders and warm fires, I thought it was the perfect place to set up shop, if you know what I mean. Who else was going to come a thieving? This castle would have everything I would ever need. Of course, turns out my stomach was bigger than my head. Now I'm trapped in here until that big candle out there gets blown out. What comes in can't go out."
Mary Jane felt her stomach twist.
"You can't leave," she said numbly.
"Aye," Godrick agreed. "Not a whisker can slip past those blue flames. And don't think that Mirrin hasn't tried everything."
Mary Jane closed her eyes. The feeling of drowning, of all the air being sucked out of the room overtook her for a minute. However, a drowning man will fight to his last breath, and so would she. She tried to think through what she knew.
"Godrick, the dragon, Hissarlik, he left. He came and dropped me off and left again. Why wasn't he trapped?"
"Oh, him?" Godrick asked, "He's got his own magic, don't you know. That flame does him as much harm as a pair of shoes would do me good."
He wiggled his tiny hands--paws--with amusement.
Mary Jane thought. And thought. And thought until Godrick had all but fallen asleep on the foot of her bed. When she had an idea, she shouted with excitement. Godrick shot onto his feet, looking around for danger.
"What is it?" He asked.
“Godrick, do you know all of the rooms in the castle?” Mary Jane asked, her voice feverish.
“Like the back of me paw,” the rat replied proudly.
Mary Jane leaned down so that her face was as close to Godrick's small head as possible.
She said, “I have an idea. Go now, but come back later. I think I know how to escape from here, but I'll need your help.”