The Secret Potential of an Owlrat

Miss Catterby’s classroom was a safe haven for the delinquents, the loners, and the Others of the University where she could keep a close eye on them and ensure their unique growth. Her room was quiet and tucked off in one of the forgotten hallways, the wing long abandoned in favor of renovating the rest of the campus’ luxurious marbled halls.

She was fine with that. It meant that her space was tucked far away from any watchful eyes of the Administration or the Archivist’s Guild. She would be able to engage in some rather…interesting teaching methods, with a little more hands-on experience than what the Administrator’s would allow.

The students understand the need for discrepancy with her class. And for that, she appreciated it. She also awarded the secret keeping by allowing the students to skip their other classes and find refuge in her classroom, so long as they kept quiet during her actual classes.

Today, Miss Catterby’s watchful eye trailed across the faces of the students that were here during her class on the local flora and fauna of the Raindish region.

Kantelle Whistlebreeze, a catfolk, was snoozing away in the cushion corner, along with the halfling siblings Sugar, Spice, and Knice Everstone who were nestled in her fluffy, golden mane. Their little russet colored mouse-like ears barely poked out amongst the luxurious fur of Kantelle’s mane, though one of them - and Miss Catterby suspected Knice - was snoring quite loudly, though not too terribly distractingly.

Kantelle wasn’t the brightest, but she was hard working and typically came to Miss Catterby’s office hours for assistance and further information on the units they covered. The triplets seemed to share the same brain, getting near identical scores on tests that Miss Catterby worried they perhaps were cheating, but she kept her trained eye on them and was unable to find any evidence otherwise.

With desks pushed against one another, three of her students from earlier in the day were skipping their next class and instead were spending their time studying the local fashion trends that were sweeping through Pluviot.

One of them, a terafey named Lucille Aderborough, tossed back long locks of fair golden hair and smacked her friend, Yanila Jund, a catfolk, in the face, causing Yanila to sneeze.

Their third friend, Clang Stone, a bald half-orc with beautiful intricate tattoos covering her skin, snickered along with Lucille while Yanila scowled and pawed at her nose.

Those three could be a bit loud, but they were quiet enough right now, and Miss Catterby knew that Lucille’s attention would be drawn to her soon to come presentation on a peculiar creature that inhabited the alleyways of the city.

Lucille was extremely bright, but chose to study a “lesser” field than what her parents deemed appropriate, but she was a fiery one with a heart set on researching medicinal uses for byproducts from creatures.

Clang wanted to bring back fashion trends to her small hometown at the behest of her seamstress mother. Her attention to detail was phenomenal, though it could lead her to focusing too much on one specific piece of a problem presented to her rather than the issue as a whole.

And Yanila wanted to further her knowledge so she could help care for the creatures native to her home in Ochole. Her passion and love for animals far surpassed any student Miss Catterby has had, though she wanted to cuddle and play with the creatures more than answer any question on a test.

Those were the students who were not currently in her class.

The ones that were sat near the front of the classroom, looking at her expectantly.

Ramses Hotch, Valentine Canterbury, Lila Pitch, Etheles Skyes, and then finally sat at the end there, Rhylin Beltune.

Ramses was a dwarf bent on bringing underground vegetation to his hometown of Krystalis, a teragris mining town that was incredibly secluded and secular, run tightly by Baron Mephistos. 

He also wasn’t too particularly smart, and had a fiery temper which caused him to constantly get into scraps with any student that may give him a second glance. Miss Catterby appreciated his passion though, and allowed him to continue to sit in on any of his other classes on the flora of other regions. Though, in all honesty, Miss Catterby let him stay to figure out how he ever made it out of that zealot mining hole in the first place to pursue an education in the big city.

Valentine, on other hand, was an air headed terafey whom Miss Catterby was unsure as to how she got into the school at all. Compared to a couple of her other students who got in based on lineage alone, she had no impressive family behind her as far as Miss Catterby could see.

Still, she was sweet and often amusing to watch and interact with the other students. And, well, Valentine could also bake some absolutely delightful batches of muffins and cookies that Miss Catterby would sorely miss, so she passes the girl and lets her stay often.

Lila was…quiet. One of the few humans in the school, she had above standard grades across the board, and was sweet enough. Though after numerous analyses on Miss Catterby’s part revealed no particular inclination towards greatness, Miss Catterby tended to pay the girl little extra attention. Lila seemed content with that, staying out of the limelight and keeping to herself.

Etheles Skyes and Rhylin Beltune, two ashen purple skinned terafey, on the other hand, were of noble family and had sharp minds that Miss Catterby clocked earlier on in the semester.

Etheles mentioned wanted to follow in his mother’s footprints at becoming the head of the Archivist’s Guild.

Rhylin, too, wanted to join the Archivist’s Guild, but in the role of head Hunter to support Etheles and his ventures as the head.

Miss Catterby kept a close, weary eye on the two, and in the beginning of the semester kept her rather hands-on lessons to a minimum.

That is, until she had caught the two sneaking tomes that were off limits from the library, and she knew she had the bargaining chip over the two.

Rhylin was…not quite happy with the bargain, but Etheles only smiled and nodded his head. The gaze with which he gave Miss Catterby had her raising her eye, but somehow she knew he would keep to his promise of not reporting her to the Archivist’s Guild.

And, in exchange, she would allow them to squirrel away some of the tomes they borrowed in her room, hidden away amongst her own tomes and in other nooks and crannies.

Today, for instance, she had her own grimoire open upon her table, five dull knives sat next to the grimoire and odd fuzzy lumps of varying sizes next to those. The grimoire was an earthy green leather, with embroidered roses and spider lilies crawling across its cover.

Upon the page, there was an image of an owlrat, a peculiar little pest with the gray head and feathers of an owl, and the legs and tail of a rat.

She lifted her book up to show her attentive students the image on her page, and she said, “As you know, these little pests can be found everywhere. Check any high lamp post, any corner of an alleyway, and you’re sure to find the little things everywhere.”

She laid the grimoire out on her table, and then tapped the image of the owlrat.

The image flashed, and slowly but surely, a cylindrical cage made of thorny vines and decorated with roses began to rise up.

The head of an owlrat popped up first, and soon followed the squeaking howls of a captured creature. As soon as the rest of the cage rose, and the creature’s body was free from the confines of the grimoire, it began to rapidly scrape against the cage and attempted to squeeze past the thin bars.

“But, did you know,” Miss Catterby said, and she picked up the cage and set it off to the side. Then, she dug around in her desk and withdrew a tart with berries mixed in. She offered it to the owlrat who immediately grabbed it with its tiny hands and began to hungrily chew through the treat.

Miss Catterby snapped her fingers and the cage began to withdraw. Unbothered, the owlrat continue to chew through the treat, and even leaned into Miss Catterby’s hand when she began to stroke it.

“These little creatures have more to them than meets the eye,” she looked up, meeting the gaze of her students, pausing on Etheles who raised a brow curiously.

“When they are finished eating, these creatures don’t leave excrement in their wake. Instead, they cough up a pellet of what they had recently eaten, and often, certain materials may remain after the digestion of the item,” she said. “My queasy students, look away for just a moment, that’s you Valentine.”

At the sound of Valentine slapping her hands over her eyes, Miss Catterby raised her hand, gathering the aether from her grimoire and she muttered a word before clenching her fist.

In the middle of gobbling down the treat, the owlrat began to choke and squeak, pathetically wheezing as it dry heaved.

With another clench of her fist, an invisible hand squeezed the creature once more and the little owlrat spat out the dribbled remains of the tart it had been eating, along with a single fuzzy pellet.

It wheezed some more, and Miss Catterby petted the creature once more, soothing the pain she had caused away.

She offered the creature another tart, and it weakly began to chew away, its past trauma already forgotten.

Rhylin spoke up here, “And what would these ah…excrements, offer beyond the half dissolved remains of garbage its eaten?”

Miss Catterby smiled.

“Come up here and check for yourself,” she said, and she scooped the little owlrat and her grimoire up and stepped back.

“Really?” Ramses asked, brow furrowing. “No offense Catterby, but I don’t want ta dig through some shite.”

“I promise it is quite worth it,” she said, scratching the owlrat on the top of its head. She looked up with a serene smile upon her painted lips and continued, “Those willing to get their hands dirty will find that treasures await them.”

The group was quiet, and even the girls that had been pouring over their magazines had paused to watch curiously.

In one smooth movement, Etheles stood and strode forward. He met Miss Catterby’s gaze, and with a sweet smile said, “Miss Catterby I hope you aren’t making us dig through vermin vomit for nothing.”

“You know not everything meets the eye, Etheles,” Miss Catterby countered. “Go on, dig through that new one.”

Etheles looked down, glanced up at her, and then back down at the owlrat pellets with a sigh. Still, with a careful smile upon his face, he picked up one of the knives and began to carefully pick through the freshest of the pellets.

Slowly, the other students actively in her class crept forward, watching Etheles work. Lucille had stood up and was trying to catch a glimpse of what they were doing, but at the insistence of Clang, she sat back down and continued to talk fashion with her.

Shame, but this lesson was never for her. She wasn’t going to take this knowledge beyond the initial surface level knowledge.

Miss Catterby’s gaze went to Etheles, and her lips twitched when something silver glinted in the pellet.

Etheles dug a bit more, and with one more cut and scrape, a ring of a muddy silver flipped from the pellet and clanged on the desk.

The other students cooed, and Etheles glanced up at Miss Catterby who still held and stroked the owlrat.

“A ring?” he asked, and she nodded.

“Owlrats are the vermin of the streets,” she said, and she scratched the top of its head once again before setting it onto the desk once more. It scrabbled for a moment, before its wide eyes caught on the glint of the ring.

As it dove towards it, and scooped it up, Miss Catterby continued, “But the dumb little rats see anything put before it and it will go after it. Any piece of jewelry lost on the streets, every crumb, every scrap of paper too…”

“Oh so that’s why the streets are so clean!” Valentine exclaimed and Miss Catterby laughed at that.

“Yes I suppose. But more importantly, they are little vultures that will go after anything available to it,” she said, and then she met Etheles’ gaze as she continued, “And, if you borrow a spell from a grimoire to command creatures, they’re especially good at retrieving objects for you.”

Her grimoire floated out of her grasp, and she mumbled a word, the runes on the page lighting up for but a second.

To the owlrat, in gibberish to the students, Miss Catterby said, “Go and eat Valentine’s hairpin”

The owlrat squeaked, and began to scamper up and towards Valentine who squealed when the creature flapped up into her face and dove into her hair.

“It’s okay, it’s just saying hi,” Miss Catterby said pleasantly, and Valentine stilled only slightly, still smiling as the fuzzy little creature dug around wildly in her hair.

Soon, the owlrat jumped down and came back to Miss Catterby who scooped it up once more.

“What did you tell it to do?” Rhylin asked incredulously. “Mess with Valentine?”

“Oh Valentine, your hairpin!” Lila said softly, and Valentine’s hand fluttered up to pat her messy hair.

“You ordered it to steal her hairpin?” Etheles asked and Miss Catterby shrugged.

“To creatures, if you were to ever have access to a spell that allows you to command creatures, you want to give simple commands. Eating is a simple command, especially to a creature that eats just about anything already,” Miss Catterby said, and she squeezed the owlrat once more, forcing it to cough up the hairpin.

“That seems overly complicated,” Ramses said, grunting.

Miss Catterby shook her head. “I suppose so, especially for you folks who do not have access to animal linked grimoires. But, at the least, if you’re looking to make quick coin, digging through owlrat pellets is probably a sure fire way of finding some jewelry.”

She nodded her head towards the pellets.

“Feel free to dig through the rest of that and keep what you found. This little one was picked up outside of a jeweler’s shop and those were some of the pellets I had collected for this class,” she said, and Ramses, Lila, and Valentine moved forward to pick at the pellets.

Etheles and Rhylin, on the other hand, stood off to the side, as they had never needed coin in their lives. They were speaking quietly, hushed discussion and Miss Catterby could see the gears turning in their heads.

She smiled at that as she once more summoned the cage around the owlrat and pushed it into the grimoire for safe keeping.

While this little one was indeed picked up around a jeweler’s shop, there were some other secrets hidden deep within its gullet. And there were still some things she needed the creature to do, and she wasn’t quite in the mood to dive around in the streets to capture another one.

Etheles approached, and in a low voice, Etheles asked, “How well do they keep pages or letters?”

Miss Catterby smiled. She knew that boy had a mind for unique applications, and even if in his future career as the head of the Archivist’s Guild did not quite require the use of the creatures of the world, Miss Catterby would be damned sure to be a reliable and beloved resource to the boy so that she could climb the ladder herself.

“Very well, surprisingly. You’d be impressed with the kinds of letters I have found when preparing this lesson. Especially some particularly…steamy ones from some of the lovely people at the Guild,” she said pleasantly, and Etheles beamed.

“If you would be willing to share some more information about these creatures, I will be back later during your office hours,” he said, turning back towards Rhylin.

“Of course! Anything for the future of my students,” Miss Catterby said, pleased with the progress she was making with this particular pupil.