Willow sat with a respectful silence around a great wooden table. Seated with her was what remained of the Goblin mushroom farmers that provided the bulk of the Undercities food. Not long after her own farm had been attacked by rats that learned it was not an isoted incident and not everybody had been as lucky as her. Having a Necromancer in training for a girlfriend sure did have its perks. The entirety of the Undercities mushroom crops had been devastated as a result. This was along with some of the farmers who chose to go down fighting the unforgiving swarm. The Undercity was soon going to experience an unimaginable food shortage. Armed with this knowledge; the Goblins of the Undercity assembled with hopes of finding some kind of solution. For generations they had fed the people of the Undercity. They had even been there from the beginning being the ones to feed the first settlers and miners. It was this that made them feel a sense of responsibility to the people of the Undercity. A responsibility they took seriously.

  First to speak was the one that called the meeting; Gobson, the oldest of the farmers. It was, after all, he who had sent word to the other farmers. Additionally he had sent envoys to the Cartel asking for aid and others to assess the Undercities current food stocks. It was easy to deduce what they would find but he wanted to be sure.

  He looked over to Soot, his apprentice, who he had sent to the Cartel for aid. The boy noticed the look of recognition and stood up ready to present their reply.

  “I have spoken to the Cartel officials in charge of collections. They regret to hear what has happened and are willing to forego future collections until we are operational again.”, he began hesitantly. “Furthermore they are willing to donate, what I have calcuted to be, roughly a quarter of what we give to the Undercity. In hopes of limiting the damage that is bound to be caused as a result.”

  Once he had given his report he took his seat fearful of the reaction his news would provoke. To his surprise and that of Willows the table was silent. The young apprentices looked to their older, wiser mentors who mumbled to themselves with dissatisfaction.

  To the surprise of everyone, including herself, Willow was next to stand up and speak.

  “Are they insane? A quarter? Even with strict rationing it is nowhere near enough. Thousands will starve, hundreds will die.”, she yelled, completely baffled by her kins ck of outrage.

  “My dear, there is no need to be hysterical.”, one of the elders interjected. Before he could say anymore Gobson raised a hand to silence him. He looked at Willow and gave a simple nod inviting her to go on.

  “Our crops are devastated. It will take months to regrow what was lost. The people of this city in the meantime will be fighting over what little remains. Those not strong enough to fight will starve and those who starve will die. It`s as simple as that.”, Willow added feeling genuine fear at the situation and equal parts hatred at the Cartel for their indifference.

  Having said her peace she sat back down and waited for someone, anyone to join in on her outrage.

  Gobson looked to another, Aura, who he had sent to measure the Undercities current food levels. She rose to her feet and presented her findings, eyes red and raw from crying.

  “It is by my estimate that the sale of mushrooms makes up nearly eighty percent of all food sales in the markets. This is just in the lower ring. The other remaining twenty percent is a mixture of rat meat and bone meal porridge. Even with this sudden spike in the rat popution they remain elusive at best and predatory at worst. I talked to some of the catchers and even if they could double their efforts the yield would be insufficient to make up for the loss in supply. It wouldn`t even make a dent.”, she finished colpsing in her chair the full weight of the situation colpsing with her.

  And there it was, as pin as day, the problem they all faced. The table remained silent, not out of anger, not out of fear, but out of hopelessness.

  Willow knew that those sat at this table were not stupid. They could see the situation for what it really was, a betrayal.

  For as long as they could remember they had paid the Cartel`s taxes. They had given them more than was owed and did it without compint. But now when they needed them, now when their lives and the lives of the entire Undercity were on the line. They chose to provide them with a token gesture and nothing more.

  “What if we could get enough rats?”, Willow wondered out loud. “What if we could get enough rat meat to make up for the crops lost? Enough rat meat to feed everybody and just as much bone meal. Would that be enough?”

  Those present looked amongst each other once more and mumbled to themselves. Gobson raised his hand to silence them and looked to Aura. She perked up under his gaze and started doing the complex math required to determine the answer to the question.

  “If I`m right, and I usually am. We would need tens of thousands of rats, on a weekly basis. If we could do that, then yes everything would be okay. But even with all the catchers in the Undercity working twelve hours straight. Even if they doubled their yield we would only reach a fraction of what is needed. It`s just not possible with the man power on hand.”, Aura finished, what little hope the suggestion had given her plucked away by the cold calcuting hands of mathematics.

  Gobson looked back at Willow.

  “What if we could though, get the necessary man power that is. What if I knew of a way to get it done. A way to provide the numbers needed.”, Willow added, going all in.

  Everybody looked to Gobson who sat quietly, thinking. His eyes were closed and everyone at the table could tell his mind was hard at work. Most were surprised that he would even entertain the idea. It was a fantasy, had to be. There was no way to achieve what Willow had proposed. Some of them however knew that she wouldn`t have proposed the idea if she didn`t really mean it. If she couldn`t back it all up. To do so would simply be either cruel or stupid and Willow was neither of those things.

  Gobson opened his eyes and rose from his seat.

  “My dear Willow. If you can provide us with the numbers needed. Then we will see to the rest. The storage, the distribution, all of the logistics. If you can do what you cim, then we will be prepared.” He announced to the bewilderment and renewed hope of everyone present.

  [---]

  Despite Willow`s insistence that she stay home, Grey felt the urge to go for a walk. The accumutive life force she had drained from the swarm flowed through her veins. Her head felt clear, her lungs were clean and no matter how much she moved around she didn`t feel tired. She would be a fool to waste such energy in bed. She felt so well in fact that she decided to leave Whiskers behind this time. She wanted to experience the Undercity for once on her own two feet.

  She made her way to the market and was unsurprised to find it in a state of turmoil. Word had spread fast about the devastation that had befallen the farms. Those who could afford it were flooding the market purchasing all the food that they could. Those who did not have the money offered promises of future payment or bour. All of them did what they could to prepare for the oncoming famine.

  Grey was optimistic that things would be okay, unjustifiably optimistic honestly. But she couldn`t help it, the pure essence of life flowing through her veins made it impossible for a negative thought to tch on. She wondered if other people felt like this, if this was how she was supposed to feel, if this was normal.

  She wondered through the crowds of people dodging them with ease. Despite the panic she was having a good time. To move so easily with such grace, she never wanted this feeling to end. But end it eventually would.

  Before she could properly come to terms with her inevitable return to frailty she ran into a familiar face.

  It was Max, adorned in his usual mining attire of thick leather steel capped boots and skirt of furs, pick slung across his back.

  Grey admired his body glistening with sweat, little wisps of steam coming off of it. He must be on break from the mines, grabbing himself a bite to eat or some fresh air perhaps.

  “Using what little free time you have to stock up I take it?”, Grey enquired, caught a little of guard once again by his sudden sacious appearance.

  “Not exactly. I get all my food from further up the chain if you know what I mean.”, Max admitted giving away that he earned enough to frequent the middle ring of the Undercity. How nice for him.

  “I didn`t realise you were so well off.”, Grey replied. She looked at Max no longer with admiration of his physique but rather annoyance. His privilege outweighing his raw sex appeal.

  He reminded her of the inequality that ran so rampant in the Undercity. Surrounded by people who struggled just like you it was easy to forget that there were others better off. But here Max stood as a reminder.

  Grey shook her head and tried to be reasonable. Max was young, single, healthy, with little expenses and a high paying job his position was not unearned. Still, it left her with a bad taste in her mouth, to know that not everybody was so lucky. To know that anything but an ideal situation meant you were doomed to struggle.

  In all the time that Grey had been reflecting Max had been misinterpreting. From his perspective she was staring at him with a gssy look in her eye. Clearly she was charmed by him. Now would be the time for him to make his move.

  Swiftly he leaned close and kissed her on the lips. Caught off guard she was slow to react. But when she did, she did so fiercely. She pushed him back hard, her muscles strengthened by the souls of a thousand rats.

  “Feisty one aren’t you. Don`t fight it Grey…”, before Max could finish his sentence Grey had grabbed him and thrown him up against a wall.

  Grey looked at him staring back at her confused, he tried to push back against her but she was just too strong to his disbelief.

  “You don`t get to touch me. Nobody gets to touch me without my permission.”, Grey yelled at him, adrenaline empowering her on. “Regardless of what feelings you think I may have for you I love my girlfriend and would be an absolute fool to endanger what I have with her.”

  Grey`s words were emphasised by the tears starting to drip from her eyes and her fingers digging into his skin. Max looked at Grey and her face turned from anger to despair. She became overwhelmed with guilt. Guilt at the feelings she felt for Max while loving Willow. And guilt at the fact that she enjoyed the kiss, that she hadn`t wanted it to end.

  “Okay, okay, I`m sorry. I didn`t mean to overstep. I just thought you liked me and were pying hard to get.”, Max stammered apologetically, feeling afraid and confused for the first time in a long time.

  “I was pying hard to get. I do like you. But I love Willow. I will not betray her like this. I…”, Grey lost the words, wiping the tears from her face. She tried to regain her composure, supress the guilt and let the anger take the wheel.

  Max nodded understandingly, eagerly wanting to remove himself from the situation. She obliged and released him, turning her back to him coldly.

  “I really am sorry. I guess I got carried away, hormones you know.”, he tried to justify.

  “I do know, but you`re not an animal. So stop acting like one. I need to go home. I need to talk with Willow”, Grey decred, beginning to walk away, letting the crowd bounce her around as she went.

  [---]

  Grey`s mind was a mess of erratic, uncontrolble, thoughts and emotions. She knew what had happened was wrong. It was a betrayal to Willow and the love she had for her. A betrayal that stung that much more because she enjoyed it. She could still feel Max`s lips on hers, his body up against hers. Her blood still ran hot, she still breathed heavily with excitement. What was wrong with her? She loved Willow. She wanted Willow. But she couldn’t deny that she wanted Max as well.

  Suddenly a small stocky girl jumped in front of her and demanded her attention.

  “Oi miss! Care for some rats tails? They proper tasty and I can get em for ya cheap.”, the girl started yammering to Grey`s annoyance.

  “No, thank you. I don`t need any.”, she responded, pushing past the girl without a second thought.

  She took a few more steps trying to gather her thoughts when she heard a commotion behind her. She turned instinctively and saw the small girl was being harassed by some bigger kids.

  Grey looked on confused the thick crowd swarming around her bouncing her side to side. She fixed her eyes on the girl, a refuge for her attention. Something to help stop her mind from wondering. The girl was arguing with the bigger kids. Her body nguage was passive, submissive even. Something tugged at Grey`s brain when one of the kids struck the girl through her face. This drew Grey from her own thoughts and focused her mind with a singur purpose, to intervene. She charged forward yelling ahead at the bigger kids.

  They saw her coming and scattered into the crowd leaving the small girl on the floor fighting back tears.

  She reached her and dropped down moving in protectively. The crowd was suffocating, she couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. So she acted; she grabbed the girl scooping her up in her arms and muscled her way through the crowd until she made it to the outskirts of the Market.

  There they found a moment of reprieve, Grey ducked into an alley and put the girl down.

  “Are you alright?”, she asked, breathing heavily.

  The girl wiped the tears from her eyes and sniffed up the pain.

  Her cheek was swollen and now that Grey had gotten a better look at her she saw it wasn’t the only injury. The poor things body was covered in day old bruises and scrapes. She wondered how many had been intentionally inflicted upon her.

  “I`m fine. Really, it`s nothing. Please.”, she mumbled, trying to regain her composure.

  “It`s not fine. Those kids attacked you. Please, let me help.”, Grey insisted, standing up and looking around to make sure the kids weren`t lurking about.

  That small distraction was all it took for the girl to run passed her, disappearing back into the market crowd.

  [---]

  Grey returned home before Willow and sat with an excitable Whiskers outside their home. She had been pondering how she was going to bring up Max to Willow. Every scenario went poorly her anxiety being sure to ruin any potentially good outcome. She tried her best to remain calm and not let it get the best of her, but arguing with one`s own brain was no easy feat.

  Willow eventually came scampering out of the tunnel that lead to the Undercity and started running when she saw Grey. Grey got up and greeted her with a hug, her anxiety robbing her of her usual excitement. Willow did not notice, she was too preoccupied with thoughts inside her own head.

  “Grey! I need your help.”, Willow announced seriously.

  Grey perked up, her anxiety kicked to the back of her mind by the need to assist Willow.

  “I have spoken to the other farmers and I might have a way that we can solve the food crisis.”, Willow began. “We did the math and we could substitute the usual crops we lost for rat meat. The only problem is there isn’t enough man power to catch the number of rats we need. See where I am going with this?”, Willow finished leaving the rest up to Grey. She knew she was asking a lot of her but to not even try was to condemn thousands of people to starvation and death.

  “You want me to reanimate the rats we have here to hunt more rats?”, Grey surmised quickly. She went quiet for a moment thinking over the logistics of it all. She had enough energy left inside her to reanimate a good portion of what they had. If she ate well and rested she could raise more the day after. The pn could work, it would take a lot out of her but if it meant saving the Undercities lower ring then it was worth it.

  “I can do it!”, Grey announced triumphantly. “It won`t be easy but I can definitely do it. I just need you to expin the pn a bit better so I can get it sorted with as little problems as possible”.

  With a big kiss and a huge grin on her face Willow began expining the pn to Grey. From the reanimation, to the programming required to hunt and deliver their prey to specific designations.

  Grey would need to take a short rests every few hours but she would push on for Willow and the rest of the Undercity. The farmers would set up the networks of distribution, all Grey had to do was handle the man power, or in this case, rat power. In the next few days the panic at the markets would be a distant memory, all thanks to Willow`s quick thinking.

  [---]

  Grey and Willow y in bed covered in dirt. Too tired to clean, too exhausted to cuddle. They just y there and stared at the ceiling. Grey wanted nothing more than to sink into a deep sleep for the next week. But there was something she had to do, no, needed to do. She was confident if she didn`t do it now she never would.

  “Sweetheart, I need to talk to you about something.”, Grey began anxiously.

  “Can`t it wait until tomorrow, I`m dead tired.”, Willow pleaded.

  “It can`t wait any longer. I`ve put it off for too long and I owe it to you.”, Grey replied, rolling onto her side to face Willow with all her courage.

  “Okay. What`s up?”, Willow asked, turning herself to meet Grey`s gaze.

  “There`s this boy. Max, he works in the mines. I`ve run into him a few times and today he made a move on me.”, Grey began, Willows eyes growing rger with realisation as to what they were talking about.

  “What kind of move?”, Willow enquired, mildly concerned.

  “He kissed me. But I pushed him away the second he did. It was uninvited and not reciprocated I promise.”, Grey assured her, anxiety creeping through her body at an arming rate.

  “That’s good then?”, Willow asked, unsure of where things were going.

  “The thing is, there is an attraction. A mutual attraction. I find him exciting and physically stimuting and I know, I do the same for him.”, Grey expined, Willow deserving of nothing but total honesty no matter how painful it might be.

  Willow bit her lip and asked a painful question, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, “Are you breaking up with me?”

  “What? No! Of course not. Willow, I love you. I love you more than you could ever know. But these feelings. They eat at me and I feel if I don`t address them I`ll... Please understand what I am trying to say.”, Grey pleaded, reaching out for Willows hand.

  Their hands met and grasped each other longingly.

  “You love me, but you don`t love this boy right?”, Willow asked, Grey nodding her head in acknowledgement. “You just find him physically attractive. What is it that you want to do with this boy exactly?”

  “Honestly I don`t know. A part of me wants to get physical with him, kiss him, touch him and see where that leads. Nothing more than that though. My heart belongs to you and only you.”, Grey decred, her nerves rubbed raw by her anxiety.

  “Then I think I`m okay with it. You love me. I love you. You don`t love this Max. If it makes you happy then you can pursue him as long as it remains purely physical.”, Willow decided, squeezing Grey`s hands firmly. “But you need to answer any questions I might have. I need to know that you are safe and if you start to develop feelings. Understood?”

  “Understood, my Love.”, Grey replied, leaning in and kissing Willow gratefully a tear of appreciation escaping her eye.