Fall, 56th day

Quartermaster reports the following stores missing:

12 Cans figs

3 Cans pig hearts

Sack of feathers

2 Bundles kindling

1 Blanket

Spirits in the 12th Rattus are low. Bellafide’s maxim may soon be put to the test. Generals continue to report that the 9th Corvidae has been dispatched, but my rats are starting to lose faith.

Fall, 61st day

Scouts returned from the Warrens. Old Guard troops were seen marching North, towards the enemy.

Today was a good day, and we dipped deeper into our dwindling rations over an unruly fire.

Katrina had too much cider, she’ll be whipped when she’s sober enough to care. The Animal’s Army doesn’t easily conform to military discipline. We are angels, survivors: We are bred to breed, built to live, even if the process can be messy. Katrina will survive too.

Fall, 81st day

Dispatch reports that the 9th Corvidae intercepted a pork delivery headed to the northern front. “A Win for the Great Animal’s Army” they called it. Meanwhile, the 12th Rattus chews on fig root. I doubt we’ll see any of that pork, or the crows for that matter. Too fat to fly, I suspect.

Quartermaster reports that we’ve one week of rations left.

Katrina is recovering. Tomorrow we march.

Fall, 89th day

We took a westerly route around the Warrens, along the ridge abutting the Grey Sea. We expect to see Bellafide’s troops tonight. They fly their colors brightly. They aren’t likely to smell our approach, what with the wind whipping up from the valley.

We’ve been told they are turtled in a valley beyond this one. If our intelligence is correct, the members of PMC Lacertilia won’t survive till dawn. My rats are hungry.

Fall, 90th day

A bloody victory, but the spoils were ruined. The lizards were accompanied by an attachment of skunks.

The 12th Rattus did what we do best. We scrabbled down the hill, careful not to kick up the loose shale. We had only enough cloaks for half the troops, the other half closed their eyes to prevent glare from the moonlight giving away our position. The lizards were in a metabolic stupor on account of the morose Northern daylight, and so nine lizards fell to the knife before any woke to sound the alarm.

But the alarm did sound, and minutes later we heard the rattle of cannisters. The tell-tale black and white fled towards the Warrens, leaving their reptilian allies to choke. I lost four rats to the ‘mustard’.

Worse, the meat is spoiled. Not a single corpse was untouched by those damned skunks. Decisions will have to be made.

Winter, 2nd day

“The Culling” was barbaric, the church famously corrupt. Not once did the Pontiffs select one of their own to be sent to the ‘Shoppes. And so when Bellafide rose up against the Pontiffs, we all followed.

Then the clergy went into hiding and Bellafide rose to power on the slogan “Have Faith in Freedom”. But when we starved, did she replace The Culling? No. She left us to fend for ourselves, and so the aristocracy became fat on the meat of my brothers. “Pigs will eat pigs, and rats will eat their own,” she said. What she really meant was that the strong will eat the weak, and the rich will eat the poor.

Not us. That is not the way of the Animal’s Army.

We are all hungry. Tonight we vote.

Winter, 3rd day

Quartermaster reports that we have food to last 3 weeks: flanks, leg, offal are all in prime condition, back meat was ruined and was discarded. Today we march with full bellies.

Katrina will be missed.