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Rat Rebellion

Chapter 12

By Draconicon

They had one day left, and he told himself that would be enough. Enough for them to get what they needed, enough to leave the King unprotected, enough to get this done without anyone else figuring out what they were doing. He hoped that he was right. He prayed that he was right.

Two more foxes guarded the King. Anastus knew them by sight, though not by name. One of them had 'scheduled' him for the night, wanting the pleasure of a rat's mouth while he was on duty, while the other was waiting for him to be there on the morrow to use his ass. The thought was enough to make him feel sick, but he was ready for both of them. He would have them both today if there was time, but to push any faster than he had would risk the plan coming undone and the King finding out.

Certainly, things had been chancy of late. Lidochka had pushed her luck to the nth degree, dragging whatever fox she could put her hands on to her quarters and raping him, using him, cutting him and hurting him. The females received little of her attention, but the males...

Well, he had seen them leaving some days. He'd seen the cuts through their clothes, the bloodstains that they had been ordered to hide. They were broken, shattered from what she did to them, and they were barely able to keep from exposing the plan. Particularly the younger ones, the ones that would have been ordering a rat female around normally. They were broken in body and soul, and he doubted that they would ever recover, even if -

But no. He stopped himself from thinking that, leaning against the wall of his own quarters. Florus was dead. King Jovian had ordered the fox's execution as soon as he had been accused of this rebellion. There was no getting this back in the bottle, no curing it without extensive use of notes that Anastus had ordered destroyed once he understood them. Now, he regretted it. He had done that with the hope that he could order Florus to fix people afterward, but now...

Now...

Now, he and his people were little more than monsters, and any rat involved in the rebellion was a walking weapon, capable of damaging, converting, and corrupting anyone that they were intimate with. It was all too easy to imagine turning some female of his own species that way, and it sent a shiver down his spine.

Just one more day, then this is done, he told himself. One more day, and you can break the King.

No. Not break. Rape. He made himself think it. Rape. That was what he would do, and he could not lie to himself about it.

He breathed out slowly. Just one more day. One more -

Knock, knock.

"Come in," he said without pause.

The door opened, and Aeliana and his appointment for tomorrow stepped through the door. They kept it open, and he knew that this wasn't some secret chance for him. The other guard smiled at him.

"The King summons you, rat."

"...Then I obey his summons, of course," he said, bowing, all the while questioning why. He was not due with his report of the dangerous rats and the loyal ones until tomorrow. Why would he be summoned a day early?

There was no clear answer as he was led out of the room and down the great halls of the governor's palace. He thought that they would take him to the great hall, but instead, they took a different path, one that led to the high balconies that overlooked the palace courtyard. The windows were pulled shut and the curtains drawn, and a feeling of dread overtook him.

Something's wrong, he thought. They wouldn't be hiding the courtyard for no reason. What's happened? Why have I been summoned early?

A partial answer was finally given when he was led to one of the balconies. The King waited there for him, looking over the railing, and as Anastus approached, he gestured out to the courtyard.

"I have decided to send a message."

Oh, no...

Anastus could barely keep the terror off his face as he stepped forward, as he looked over the edge of the balcony. A hundred rats - some from the palace, some from further afield - had been gathered. He knew some of them, but most were foreign to him, not even part of the official rebellion. They were slaves, gathered from different manors across the city, all in service to some lord, some fox.

And there was Lidochka.

Her albino white fur stood out among the rest of the crowd, and she glared up at the King with all the venom in the world. Her pink eyes shimmered in the noon light, and she all but hissed through her teeth as the guards kept them in place with nocked bows and lowered spears.

"What...what's happening, Your Majesty?" Anastus managed to say.

"Are you so shocked at this?"

"I'm...confused, of course."

"Of course you are. Rats."

King Jovian shook his head, smirking as he leaned forward. There was a moment in which he could have rushed forward, shoved the other man, and sent him tumbling to his death, but he hesitated, and the moment passed. The King gestured towards the rats.

"I feel that you are wasting my time, beast."

"I - the list is nearly ready, sir."

"Slave, rodents will linger over things until the end of time. They have no incentive to work."

"Your Majesty -"

"Not without us giving them one."

No, gods no, anything but this.

"So, I shall give you one."

"You...you..."

"Execute them," the King shouted.

The first hail of arrows fell from two dozen bowmen, soldiers of the King that were not taken, that were not part of his bodyguard. Half that number of rats fell, and half that number died where they fell. The others screamed in pain, clutching at wounded limbs or a stomach that had been impaled by sharp steel and wood.

Some lunged forward, trying to break through the line of guards that stood between them and the palace, but the spearmen were waiting. They shoved their weapons forward, and a handful more fell to the earth, screaming and hissing and wailing as they were ripped open by the sharp spearpoints. The foxes pulled their weapons back, and more than one rat stumbled, their insides no longer where they were supposed to be.

"Loose," the King called.

Another hail of arrows brought more rats to the ground. Nearly twenty of the hundred had already died. Anastus could not breathe as he watched, the blatant cruelty ripping him apart.

The King turned to face him.

"They mean little to anyone but you, rat." King Jovian smiled. "Consider this, and make sure that your list is complete before our meeting. If you have nothing, then I will execute every rat in Cornu. Best to be sure, after all."

"...Yes...Your Majesty..."

It took everything he had to not rip the King limb from limb right at that moment, to not give in and just take him down. He'd die, the rebellion would be further exposed, and there would be no chance of it ever rising again.

But it would be almost worth it. Almost.

"Loose," the King called lazily, and the archers followed orders.

"Loose," he called again, and more rats fell.

"Loose," Jovian said, barely audible compared to the screams of the dying down below, as those still living and healthy dodged among the bodies and the shafts of death raining from the sky.

Anastus bore silent witness to the horror, unable to look away as so many of his own kind were killed before his eyes. He had seen culls before, had watched as the fox overlords brought down their wrath on their servants and slaves, but this was a whole different sort of callous disregard for life. This was...this was nothing but genocide in miniature.

He watched as Lidochka danced and dodged between the arrows, still untouched, but only barely. She kept lunging forward, trying to find a gap in the foxes between her and the gates, only to be pushed back by the spears. She was near-frenzied, and too late, he realized what her only option would be.

"Loose," the King said, and the remaining thirteen rats ran for the far side of the courtyard.

The rest of the King's soldiers waited for them there, their spears raised to pick off those that tried to flee. Of the thirteen that ran, half of them impaled themselves on the spears in blind panic, no longer caring about the death on the ground compared to the death in the air. Others tried and failed to fight.

Lidochka, however, fought.

With the strength that was brought on by the potion that infused both of them, she ripped one of the spears from a fox's hand and spun it around. One of them died, and before the rest could react, she had bashed two more over the head. She stabbed a third, and cut the throat of a fourth.

And then the gate was clear. She grabbed the great door and all but wrenched it free, a task that should have taken three burly soldiers to accomplish managed by one female rat.

The courtyard was silent as they stared at the slaughter that one rat woman had accomplished, yet ignored the wanton horrors that they themselves had committed. Lidochka ran, pursued by two others, before the order to loose could be called again.

The silence of her accomplishments stretched on, and Anastus cursed and blessed her in the same breath. She had done something...and she might have doomed him.

King Jovian slowly turned, purple cloak rustling as he did. The naked rat kept his eyes down.

"Rodent...what was that?"

"I...I don't know, Your Majesty."

"You are lying to me."

"I'm not."

"I think you are. Guards. Take him to the dungeons."

"What was she, rat?"

Anastus panted for breath, his eyes closed tight, his head hanging low. Even with his stamina, even with all that the potion had given him, he hurt. No, he was in agony, and that was selling it short.

Thick lashes had already cut through his back, ripping fur from flesh and flesh from bone, and the blood still dripped along his spine. His head ached from blow after blow, and his jaw almost felt like it had been broken. It wasn't - they had taken care to make sure that hadn't happened - but they came close. Knives had come out, cutting his chest shallowly and along his hands and feet, pushing him to give an answer that would doom everything.

Gloved fingers grabbed him by the head-fur, yanking his head back once more. He stared into the heartless eyes of the King.

"What was she, rat?" he asked again.

"I don't know," he wheezed. "She never...I've never..."

"You never saw that, you say?"

"She never...we thought...we were...I came..."

"Hmmph."

The King released him, only to slap him with the same gauntleted fist. His head all but whipped around, and he spat blood. Maybe a tooth. He wasn't sure anymore; everything was red, and pain.

"What was she, rat?"

"I don't know," he groaned, going round the same question with the same answer. "I never knew she could do that."

The King nodded, then punched him in the stomach. Anastus wheezed, retching, but nothing came up. It was dry. He had nothing left after hours of this.

"What was she, rat?"

"I...I don't..."

He expected the blow to come again, or something new, but nothing came. Silence reigned instead as he failed to finish his answer, and he sagged further against the restraints keeping him off the floor.

The King waited, and Anastus tried to think. He failed, so he tried to keep quiet. He failed at that, too, with little whimpers and broken sniffles coming through as he felt the pain pulsing through every injury that had been inflicted on him. Whimpers and sniffles weren't answers, though, so he tried to be thankful for that.

As the fox stepped around him, Anastus looked down at the floor again. He was drifting, he realized, drifting out from what he was dealing with. He had to...he had to focus...had to -

The King grabbed his tail, forcing it up. Anastus groaned as another finger was forced into him, one that wasn't covered in a glove, but whose fur and claw all but ripped at his hole. He grimaced, biting his tongue, whimpering in pain and discomfort. He wheezed as the King leaned in to whisper to him.

"What was she, rat?"

"...Disloyal," Anastus muttered.

"And?"

"A traitor," the rat whispered, hissing as that finger pressed down on that sensitive spot.

"And?"

"A rebel."

"Hmph."

They were all answers that the King wanted to hear. It didn't tell him anything, but they were answers that the King wanted to hear, and so he wasn't contesting them, wasn't fighting them, nor punishing them. Anastus wanted to cry, but he didn't have the energy. He focused on breathing, instead.

As the King forced his finger in and out, all while other foxes in the dungeon cell hustled and bustled, Anastus tried and failed to keep his focus. He tried to hear what the foxes were saying, what they were telling the King, but every time that he tried to bring his attention back, the pain pushed it away. The pain, the humiliation, the reminder that he was the only thing keeping the rebellion from being exposed: all of it came together and utterly overwhelmed him.

Even later - how much later, he didn't know - when the King pulled his hand back and replaced it with something metal and round in his hole, Anastus barely reacted. All he did was grunt. The King stepped around him, looking him in the eyes.

"You could have gotten me killed, rat," the King said.

"Nnngh..."

"You brought that thing into my court where it might have killed me. You did not tell me what it was like. And you tell me that you didn't know?"

"I...didn't...know..."

"Hmm..."

The King nodded at someone over Anastus's shoulder, and the rat screamed. Whatever had been forced inside of him stretched, opening on either side, pulling further and further apart like a hand opening up inside of him. The King nodded again, and it stopped expanding, but it didn't contract.

"You did not know?"

"I...I did not...know, Your Majesty," he lied through his teeth.

"Hmmph...You are a stupid enough species that I can believe it."

"We...are..."

"But you will still be punished. Expand it to three times the current size, and then leave him with it until morning. Rat?"

"NNNNNNNGH!"

Anastus was too busy screaming through his teeth as the thing inside of him was turned, pulled further apart. He felt like he would rip at any moment, and he couldn't hold back the tears.

"Rat. You will bring me the list by sundown tomorrow. Otherwise, I will kill every rat in Cornu, and save you for the last."

The King turned on his heel, leaving the cell. Anastus didn't see him go. He was too busy screaming.

The morning eventually came, and when it did, he was all but broken...but all but broken and completely broken were two different things.

The foxes let him loose from the bindings that held him throughout the night, shrinking down the plug that had been inside him. His ass gaped, nearly bled from what it had been through, and he doubted that it would ever close completely again. He had been shattered from what they had put him through, but the pieces that had come through to the other side had one goal, and that was to see the King punished.

Aeliana stood in the door of the cell when he could finally look up. Her eyes were...different, somehow. She looked at him as if she was confused, as if she saw something that she didn't entirely understand.

Anastus shook his head.

"Help...me..."

His voice was raspy, almost as dead as he felt, but she heard him and obeyed. She helped him to his feet, giving him support until he could stand. He almost immediately fell over again after that, and she had to catch him. It was painful just to exist, but more painful to think of leaving without doing something about the cause of all his pain.

"I need..." He breathed. Gods, but it hurt to breathe. "I need to see...Cassia."

"..."

"Take me to her."

"...I will," Aeliana said, and for the first time, it seemed like she was doing something less because he told her, and more because she was curious. About what, he couldn't have said.

Then again, he doubted he could have said much of anything at that point.

The End

Summary: The King grows impatient, and Anastus sees the cost of that impatience.

Tags: M/solo, M/M, Torture, Agony, Humiliation, Prison, Speciesism, Anal, Bondage, Rat, Fox, Execution, Death, Dark,