Rodential Advice

"Air-heads, egotists, idiots, oafs, underwits, all and every one of you!” Out of the cacophony, came a thin and high-pitched voice, small yet piercing enough to cut through the agitated crowd.

"Who speaks such vocalic insults?” growled Madame Lion.
“It is I! Unsung member of Rat Nation. Listen to ME, I will tell you the story that even Crows don’t know, for what you fear has already come to pass!”

"NO, no-no-no-no-NO!” cried a limber and quick Hyena, appealing with a wide obsequious smile to Madame Lion. “Rats are not to be trusted. They are Half-wilds. They are not like us. Rat must not speak, for his kind has lost wisdom, and must only listen, yes, only listen,” and here Hyena put on his most ingratiating tone, “to relearn the true ways.”
Madame Lion, her lips stretching out to reveal sharp canines, pointedly looked away from the hyena and said only, “Speak, Friend Rat.”

A nearly imperceptible smirk of triumph shook Rat’s whiskers. Then, directing her sharp nose up into the air, she began. "I know Rect-World better than any of you, and I have seen Who-mans spread into every corner of the earth. There is no escaping them--they and their Time-Eaters are unstoppable. All animals everywhere are at their mercy, and no sacrifice, no Wild plan will make any difference.

"Ask my Rat-kin, born to die in cages--every day poisoned, injected with diseases, cut, killed--hundreds, thousands of them and who lifts an eyelid? No one! None of you, certainly! You are only glad that it is the rat who suffers and not yourself or your own kin.”

The Long-Arms jumped up to object, but Madame Lion squelched their protest with a look.

"Frogs were daft to disappear,” Rat went on when the disturbance had passed. “A worthless sacrifice. Who do frogs think they are? They should have known their place, as rats do. What do Who-Mans care about frogs? Their disappearance is not even a minor inconvenience--they care more about the needs of their Shiny Ones than the needs of frogs.

"Besides, Who-Mans are used to things disappearing. It is their special gift, their obsession--whatever they touch, POOF, it is gone. They see a Wild homeland, and their fingers itch to destroy it, to ‘develop’ it as they call it, a word which shows how they delude themselves.

"Who-Mans and their soul-less creations heat up the world with endless, useless, destructive activities, yet they care nothing for the consequences of these fevered and inflammatory actions. They neither see nor care that Abundance gathers up her wide skirts and leaves. In their blindness, they believe that their own cunning and cleverness, along with more and better Time-Eaters, will more than make up for any losses. Your plans are brave, but foolish. No animal can stop them!”

Taking a deep breath, she said, “We must use other means.”

"What are you suggesting, Friend Rat?” asked the President.

"It is obvious. We should have done it sooner, only Wilds are so wrapped up in their little lives, so micro-involved in their delusions of superiority over Domesticates that they have too long delayed, refusing to face the truth.”

Rat’s words raised an angry muttering from the crowd, but holding her ground, she fairly spat out the following words:

"The Powers. It is time to call upon the Powers.”

The animals froze. “Powers, Powers, Powers, Powers” echoed like an incantation throughout the crowd.

"We must invoke the Great Dance,” asserted the Rat.

Utter silence fell as the animals absorbed her message.

Who alive or dead did not know the matchless terror of the Great Dance!