Wendy Elisabeth paused before
pushing the doors that lead to the Dining Hall... She was gasping for breath.
‘How did I get here? I don't even remember running down the hallway, I must be
losing my mind! Jenner, he... he really did offer me that job, didn't he? Why,
WHY would he? He hates me, and he knows I hate everything about him!
Something's going on, I only have to figure out why he wanted me to become his
Personal Assistant. Oh no, no way I'm going to take that idiotic offer of his.
I'd rather die than work for that creep. I, Wendy Elisabeth, am a follower of
His Majesty Nicodemus.' Her thoughts wandered off to what had happened before
her encounter with Jenner. She thought about Justin and her heart filled with
warmth, was this love? With a smile on her face she opened the two huge wooden
doors that form a massive shield between the hallway and the huge Dining Hall.
Huge it was, though not as huge as the Main Hall. It was brightly lit by
hundreds of Christmas tree lights, which were taken from the farmer. The lights
were beautiful, and all the rats loved them, but they also knew they were
stolen, and that was wrong.

She thought about ‘the Plan'
again. The one Jenner opposed to so much. But, somehow Wendy couldn't help
noticing that this Plan was far more serious than all the other plans the rats
had made before. Not that she had been present to any of the meetings, at least
she had learned it had to do with some wilderness called Thorn valley.

She shook her head, knowing the
Plan, how serious it was, was never to be. For some reason, Jenner had a mighty
influence within the group.

The Christmas tree lights weren't
the only things in the Dining Hall, which made it more appealing. The Dining
Hall was also decorated with candles and pieces of colored glass. They were
found, not stolen, and made into nice pieces of art, created by the women.
Wendy also made a piece, but it wasn't in the Dining Hall. Her piece was in her
favorite room; the library. She loves reading, and because of the peacefulness
of the room, the library is the most attractive place to be. Nice and quiet,
nobody who bothers you...She smiled as she thought of the library. But the
thought of the library made her sad as well, for it was Jonathan's favorite
place as well.  

In the Dining Hall were five
large, long tables, with chairs on each side of it. Normally the hall is empty,
now it was completely filled with rats. Wendy looked around, hoping to find an
empty seat. She finally spotted a nice seat next to Brutus, an extremely large,
black but young guard rat. Although he looked like he could be a perfect match
for Dragon, he never did any harm. He was quite nice, actually, in spite of the
fact that he never spoke much.

It was August, so there was plenty
of food. But the rats knew that during autumn and winter the storage would be
almost empty, so the rats had to be careful. It was important that enough food
remained. In winter the children and young rats were fed first. Then the women
who nursed babies, than the other women, like Wendy, and then the old male
rats, and finally, the young strong male rats, like Justin. Even today food was
hard to find, for Wendy was already far too late for dinner. She didn't mind
that much for she wasn't at all hungry. The conversation she had with Jenner
made her lose her appetite. She always seemed to lose her appetite when she saw
him, let alone run into him. Instead, she poured herself a glass of raspberry
juice. She looked around in the crowd, trying to find Justin. And there he was,
in the corner of the Dining Hall, eating quietly and, as always, surrounded by
three of his admiring young female fans.

Wendy took a deep breath, and rolled her eyes. Her heart sank for a moment. The
three very young female rats looked at him dreamily, with smiles on their
faces, hoping he'd give a charming smile away... but he didn't. He only
concentrated on Nanny's masterpiece, sunken deep into thoughts. Wendy wondered
if he was thinking about Jonathan, but when she looked closer, she knew she
wasn't for he was smiling. The female rats were still trying to get Justin's
attention, but still without success. They finally moved away, looking for
another single, good-looking male rat.

‘Good,' Wendy said to herself, and
walked in his direction.

‘Hi,' she stumbled.

Justin looked up and smiled at
her. To her surprise she saw that the bowl already was empty. He was now
playing with it. ‘Hi, didn't see you around for a while, I'm afraid you missed
dinner. I would have left you some, if I had known....'

‘Oh no, no, no, no, I wasn't
hungry anyway, you see... I ran into Jenner on my way to Nicodemus.'

‘That certainly explains your loss
of appetite,' Justin said with a smile. ‘What did he want?'

‘He... he made a proposal' Wendy
said, waiting for a response.

‘What kind of proposal?' Justin
looked at her with big eyes; all of a sudden he was looking alert. ‘He wanted
me to be his Personal Assistant.'

Justin's mouth opened without any
sound. His eyes grew bigger, but before he was able to respond, the three young
ladies re-appeared, throwing angry looks at Wendy. Wendy looked at Justin who
frowned and obviously didn't tolerate being caught in the middle of a
conversation.

‘Kids would you please play somewhere else, as you can see, we
are in the middle of something, shoo go on.' While saying so, he moved his hand
like he was removing an insect, and pointed at the door.

The three girls looked at each
other, dropped their whiskers and obeyed. Wendy was amazed. Justin never did
something like that! He always stayed polite, but not this time.

Justin looked at the departing
girls, and shook his head. ‘Women...'

‘Excuse me?' Wendy said, but she
smiled.

A blush appeared on Justin's face.
‘Oh eh, I meant young women, children in fact...'

‘It's alright, I know what you
mean.'

Justin cleared his throat, and
changed the subject. ‘So, what did you say? What did you do?'

Wendy smiled after seeing the
terror on his handsome face. ‘I didn't say anything yet. He wanted me to think
it over, but....' She looked at him, seeing a really puzzled Justin, and she gave
away a small and teasing smile. ‘Don't be silly, of course I'll never take that
stupid offer! That would mean betrayal!'

Justin obviously hoped to hear
that answer, and all his muscles relaxed. He was relieved. He looked at Wendy,
with his big bright eyes. She could easily discover a twinkle in them. A smile
grew on his face, and she smiled back. ‘Did you get a chance to talk to
Nicodemus about... about Jonathan?' Justin looked sad and nodded. ‘He says we'll
wait until she finds out for herself.' Wendy looked astonished ‘What?! Until
she founds out for herself?'

‘I know, Wendy... this is a terrible
thought, but she doesn't even know Mr. Ages that well. It would be rather
strange if he were standing in front of her doorstep all sobbing about the
death of her husband. She doesn't even know that Ages knew her husband! We have
to be very careful for our sake. I don't know if we are doing the right thing,
but this is the best solution for now.' Wendy didn't say a word. She didn't
think this was a good solution at all, but she knew that her opinion wasn't
important right now. Instead she tried to change the subject to an easier
level. She felt a bit uncomfortable, not only because of the heavy subject, but
also because of the fact that Justin still hadn't taken his eyes off of her.

She cleared her voice, ‘So... did
you enjoy dinner? She said, hoping he'd look the other way, for she felt the
appearance of a small blush.

‘I... I loved it,' Justin said
without taking his eyes away from her. Wendy felt she really started to blush
now, and felt a strange tickling feeling rushing through her body, a feeling
that she enjoyed.

‘I... I really should see if... Nanny
needs some help in the kitchen, washing the... the dishes,' she stumbled and she
wanted to get up.

Justin wanted to help her with her
chair, but did that on a rather clumsy way. The result was, that they nearly
both fell, but Justin was able to keep them both on their feet. They looked at
each other and started to laugh.

Wendy felt really happy and
relieved after talking to him, he knew now; he understood her and respected
her. He made her feel so good.

Wendy left the Dining Hall and
moved towards the kitchen. Justin went back to the entrance of the colony, to
guard it from trespassers. What they didn't notice was that they were observed
by a shadow for a while now, a shadow, which belonged to a dangerous rat, a rat
they would fear if they learned the truth behind him...