The first rat, Illianna, had small, narrow-set eyes like a pair of black pepper-corns and a tongue like a lancet.

“Honestly, Celeste, another of your precious baskets?” she hissed. “Don’t you have anything better to do than this silly pastime?” She brushed the remaining grasses off the table, then slumped in a chair.

The other rat, Trixie, began pilfering Celeste’s food stores, searching through her baskets, helping herself. Celeste felt defenseless against the two marauders, who frequently bullied their way into her nook, ransacking and filching.

“Hmm…bread crust…more bread crusts…” Trixie said, her raspy voice wheezing between bites. “This bread is moldy! Where’re the good bits, missy?”

“Um…what good bits, Trixie?”

“‘What good bits, Trixie?’” In an instant the rat whirled around and nipped Celeste on the back. Celeste squealed. The pain was sudden and intense.

“You know what good bits!” Trixie screeched. “The really tasty bits…the bacon scraps and the sausage bits and the biscuit pieces…. You’ve hidden them from us, haven’t you?”

“N-n-no, honestly,” Celeste stammered.

“Try looking in her bed.” Illianna squinted at her.

Trixie yanked the oily scrap of rag off Celeste’s bed.

“Nothing!” she hollered. “There’s nothing here! Well, then, you’d better get to it, missy. Take one of those baskets to the dining room and bring back something good. And mind you. No eating along the way! I’ll smell your breath when you get back just to make sure.”

“But I hear humans in the dining room…. It’s still early yet.”

“Well, I’m hungry!” Trixie snapped, and she made a sudden move, as though she were about to bite Celeste again.

“Me, too,” Illianna chimed in. “Just keep to the shadows. Keep track of where the food is falling. And watch out for the cat.”

Celeste obeyed the two rats. She knew if she didn’t, the shoving and biting and insults and bullying would only increase. She skittered down the dark passage.