Darkness surrounded a dark
silhouette on the cold muddy soil. Raindrops were falling down on naked black
fur... The fur had stopped bleeding for a while. It was deserted, but not at all
alone. Quick, unknown feet shuffled near the black, dead fur. Then suddenly,
the feet kneeled and a small hand touched the lifeless fur. The feet and hand
belonged to a strange bare rat, a barn rat. The small rat suddenly screamed in
great terror: the fur moaned.

 

Justin's arm started to hurt. Mr.
Ages stayed with Wendy, just in case, so there was no potion to get rid of the
stinging pain. Not only his arm was painful, his entire body ached. He was
covered in scratches and there were pieces of metal in his right hand, probably
caused by the rough knife he held on so strongly during the fight. But he
didn't care. He didn't even care about the cold raindrops. Jenner was dead,
Nicodemus still alive and Wendy wasn't only alive but she was a hero as well!
No-one will ever find out what happened during the fight last night. Things
will be so different when she gets home... home, yeah home. Justin suddenly felt
the spring in his heart. ‘I'll ask her to marry me when I take her home!' He
thought to himself and a huge smile grew on his face. The farm was already out
of sight and the rats were moving towards the woods. The woods could be
dangerous, especially with this large company. He had to be alert, their lives
were in his hands... that was a scary thought, but an exciting thought as well. Adrenaline
was rushing through his body, it made him forget how tired he really was. There
were many strange noises in the forest and it was pitch-black because of the
thickness of the trees. Justin asked Nanny and Arthur if they wanted to keep
the group together by constantly asking if somebody missed another. In spite of
his age, Nicodemus was able to keep up with the young rats perfectly, in fact,
he was walking at Justin's left side. ‘I'm proud of you, my son.'

‘Why did you choose me to be the
next leader, Nicodemus, I'm much younger than...'

‘Yes, you are younger than other
first generation rats, in fact, you are the youngest, and you are a lot smaller
and more fragile-looking than most first generation rats, but you have courage,
a good heart and you are the most clever rat I've ever met. You are the one who
figured the way out of NIMH back than.' Nicodemus said and he placed his hand
on Justin's shoulder. Justin smiled and his heart filled with intense
happiness. ‘Nicodemus, I'll ask Wendy Elisabeth to marry me when I bring her
home.' 

After hearing these words Justin
felt a soft squeeze in his shoulder. ‘You'll make a handsome couple.' Nicodemus
answered, but his words didn't describe the warm happy feeling that rushed
through his old body, and a small tear shined in his good right eye. He lost
his left eye during a fight, which made him half-blind. But that didn't matter,
he didn't even need his eyes. He was able to see far more than any other rat
could ever see. Suddenly he felt a cold shiver. He felt a shiver he never felt
before, not even while staying at NIMH. This was a feeling of intense fear. He
immediately thought about Wendy, and he closed his eyes. No, it wasn't Wendy,
she was sound asleep. It was something else...

 

Wendy woke up after a short sleep
and tried to open her eyes again. Her head felt better now, probably because of
the darkness. She was able to see a small light somewhere to her right. Turning
her head was impossible. Her neck was very painful, though not as painful as
her head. She pulled her arm from under the cloth and she tried to focus on her
fingers. After seeing twelve fingers on one hand she decided to close her eyes
again. ‘Three weeks... I'll be better in three weeks. Justin will return...
Justin...I really love you.' Then she fell asleep again. She started to dream... a
restless dream. She saw a black, furious rat who swore revenge... She woke up
sweating and panting for breath... She felt sick.'

 

The next morning Justin didn't
feel at all as wonderful as he did the night before. He was very tired and sore
and all he wanted to do was sleep. He missed Wendy. He missed the fact that she
would curse the bad weather and the fact that her dress got all dirty because
of the mud. She'd complain about being tired and she'd constantly ask when they'd
arrive to their destination. But she didn't. Her part was taken over by
fifty-five other women and by the time the sun chased the rain away, Justin
decided to take a break. Brutus and Philip agreed to stand guard while Justin
and the other rats rested. Gosh, he needed sleep. He never felt more tired in
his entire life. He sat down on a flat rock and checked his arm and hand. His
hand started to infect and his skin was hot. So was his head. He was running a
fever.

 

Wendy woke up with a splitting
headache. She had a terrible night in which she was haunted by nightmares.
‘Good morning, Wendy!' Mrs. Brisby stepped into the room with a pot of hot tea
in her bandaged hands. She had burned them while she was holding the burning
Amulet last night. ‘Would you like some tea?' 

‘Well, I haven't slept that much
at all last night. But I'd love some tea.'

‘Mr. Ages will come by to check on
you. If you're okay he'll also go to Thorn Valley. He's a bit concerned about
Justin's arm.'

‘Justin's... oh yeah, he mentioned something
like that yesterday, or was it today... I don't remember, anyway, what exactly
happened to his arm?'

‘He and Jenner got into a fight
last night. Jenner is dead.'

‘Jenner's dead? Did they check
that?'

‘I don't... know... you see, the block
started to sink and...'

‘So, they didn't check! I had
nightmares about Jenner! He is alive!'

‘Wendy, please slow down, you're
still very weak. Jenner couldn't have survived his injuries and they even took
off his clothes. He's dead alright. Please, don't worry about that, okay?'

 Mrs. Brisby poured some tea for Wendy when
there suddenly was a stumbling sound.

‘Oh... all this rubbish! What on
earth have those brutes done to your garden! And what about all that mud in
your living room!'

When the voice entered the
bedroom, it stopped talking and started screaming instead. ‘Brisby! What's that
rat doing in your bedroom!'

‘Aunty Shrew! Please keep your
voice down! The children are still asleep and Wendy has a heavy concussion.'

‘Wendy? Such beautiful name for
such an ugly creature!' The shrew shouted.

‘Hey, watch your language!' Wendy
shouted back, but she quickly grabbed her aching head.

‘Wendy, please! You're not allowed
to sit up!' Mrs. Brisby shouted and gently pushed the much larger female into
the soft pillows.

‘Well, I guess she won't form a
danger to you and your children yet, but what if she'll get better! What would
Jonathan think about this!' The shrew said while shaking her head.

‘Jonathan would have welcomed her
as much as I do, in fact, he'd welcome their entire colony if the house was big
enough! She has saved my life, and she's not going anywhere.'

‘Well, I won't stay here to see
you being eaten by THAT, I'll go.' Aunty Shrew said and she quickly put her
coat on.

 

In the meantime Justin woke up
because of his arm. He tried to sit up, but he felt weird in his head, and he
fell back right onto his injured arm. ‘Ouch! Darn it!'

He tried again and succeeded this
time, but his cheeks were glowing and he couldn't really focus on something.
His fever was worse. He removed the muddy bandage from his arm and saw that the
injury was red and thick. It was infected, just like his hand. He was thirsty
but he smelled water nearby so he got up and moved away from the group to find
the water he smelled. He was right, or rather, his nose was right. There was a
crystal clear lake nearby. He took off his dirty clothes, covered with mud and
Wendy's blood, and walked into the water. It was cold but it made him feel
better immediately. Now for the hard part. He had to re-open the injury in his
arm to make sure the dirt would be washed out. He swam back to the shore and
grabbed his small knife. ‘Well, here goes...' He took the knife and slid it
through the closed injury. Blood and dirt came out of his wound and he sat down
in the water. The opening made the pressure disappear so the pain was
immediately eased. He sat back, closed his eyes and he whispered Wendy's name.

‘Justin? Are you okay?' Nanny
asked, and she picked up Justin's dirty clothes and inspected them with a dirty
look on her face.

‘Yes, I'm much better ... I guess my
injuries got infected, but most of the dirt is washed out by now, I'll be
fine.' Justin said and he smiled.

‘Where's your bag, Justin... you'll
need clean clothes.'

But Justin shook his head, ‘No
way, Wendy's blood is on it, that way she'll be with me a bit.'

Nanny shook her head but smiled,
‘You must really be fond of her.'

‘No Nanny, I'm not at all fond of
her, I love her... I LOVE WENDY ELISABETH!!!' Justin screamed and he jumped out
of the water and hugged Nanny firmly. ‘Oh... Justin...you're wet and... naked, but
that's wonderful news!!'

Nanny shouted, but Justin didn't
hear her. He took his dirty clothes from the ground and put them on and he
walked back to the group while whistling a happy tune.

 

Wendy Elisabeth finished her tea
and wondered if the shrew was like that all the time. She knew shrews had a
temper, she thought that was okay, but she didn't at all approve the
name-calling. She wasn't raised like that, even though that was about the only
thing she was taught back in London. But all that was behind her. Mrs. Brisby's
ordered her children to leave Wendy Elisabeth alone, at least until she was
doing better and most of the dizziness was gone. Wendy decided she wanted to
meet the children, especially Timothy, mainly because he was doing so well
again today.

‘Wendy, Mr. Ages is here, he'd
like to examine you.' Mrs. Brisby said in a small voice.

‘Okay, but you'll have to promise
me that you'll introduce me to your children once he's ready.' Wendy said and
she smiled.

Mrs. Brisby agreed and Mr. Ages
moved over to take a look at Wendy's head and neck.

‘Mr. Ages, how's Justin? I mean, I
heard he was injured, but how badly was he injured?'

‘Not too bad, Wendy... his arm got
scratched by Jenner's knife, but it wasn't that deep. I do fear that his arm
will become infected. He didn't want me to take a look at it.'

‘He didn't? Gosh, he's stubborn!'

‘Well, he had other things on his
mind. You, for example.'

‘Me? How come?' Wendy asked.

‘Well, you kind of... died in his
arms.'

‘Mr. Ages! Death is not the kind
of subject to joke about!'

‘It's not a joke at all! Wendy you
died! You were dead! I checked your pulse! There was nothing there! The amulet
brought you back to life!'

Wendy shook her head. ‘The amulet
brought me back to life? Yeah right. That thing doesn't have magical powers!'

‘Well I... I wouldn't have believed
it if I didn't see it with my own eyes.'

‘I really don't understand...'

‘Well, I wouldn't worry about it
too much, Wendy, you've gotten a second chance, and you made Justin a very
happy boy eh... man.'

‘Justin...' Wendy whispered and
intense happiness filled her heart.

‘Yes, I've never seen him more
happy, and I know him for a long time.' Mr. Ages said and he gave Wendy a new
bandage. ‘I wanted to get packed and leave for Thorn Valley myself, but I
decided that I'd stay a bit longer to take care of you. Don't worry, you are
going to be fine but you'll need rest, the sooner Justin can pick you up. That
boy always amazes me, he is determent to pick you up himself, even with all the
hard work he'll have to attend to.'

‘Yes, I guess there's a lot of
work to be done to build all the houses and such.' Wendy said.

‘Oh, that's right! You probably
don't even know! Justin is the new leader of the rats of NIMH!'

 

Justin felt a lot better after
washing most of the dirt out but his fever wasn't completely gone yet, his hand
was also still painful, but turned out to be a bit slimmer. Justin decided to
move on to Thorn Valley, they still had a long way to go.

The group gathered and they
continued the journey to their destination. The rest of the day was nice, the
weather was great and the group optimistic. The rats were in a celebrating
mood. They were singing and the group made a lot of progress that day. They sat
down to rest and eat and Justin over-looked the group. Pride filled his heart.
There have been moments in his time among the rats of NIMH that he wanted to be
alone, all alone, but now... now he was their leader, those were HIS rats, and
one of them, the most beautiful one... was going to be his wife, well... if she
said ‘yes' to his proposal, of course.

 

‘Justin... the leader of the rats of
NIMH... wow... I hope he won't completely forget about me once he is all busy and
such.' She took a deep breath and settled herself in the pillows. She met Mrs.
Brisby's children and they were really nice. They weren't at all afraid of her.
Her thoughts drifted off to Justin again. ‘He'll be the leader... he IS the new
leader. He'll change... and he'll see me as ‘one of them', I won't be special
anymore.' Wendy felt like crying, so she did.

 

The group passed a huge waterfall.
A soft breeze blew water drops away from the waterfall. Justin enjoyed the cool
water on his fur. His fever was raising again. He thought about Wendy. He knew
that he would ask her to marry him at this spot. She'll love it here... But
wouldn't she see him differently now he's the leader of the rats. What if she
doesn't want to marry him because of his leadership? He shook those thoughts
away and moved on.

‘Come on, we'll have to climb a
few rocks and then we'll be almost there. Justin looked up at the rocks. Thorn
Valley was lying right behind them. The rocks weren't steep, but for some
reason Justin wasn't able to focus anymore. He started to feel dizzy. ‘Brutus,
could you show them how to climb?' Justin asked the largest rat of the colony.
Brutus hesitated a bit but he climbed the rocks anyway. The other rats followed
Brutus's example. Justin's forehead was even more hot than it was the day
before and he started sweating. A while later all the rats were on top of the
rocks except for Justin. It was his turn now. Justin looked up and grabbed a
steady piece of rock. The rats were looking down to see what was taking Justin
so long to get up. Normally he didn't have any trouble with whatever kind
obstacle. He looked up to the rats, but all he saw was a blur. The fever took
over his body and mind and he passed out.