progress from today

book-1/10.tex

@@ -167,3 +167,115 @@ He wasn't able to pronounce the words,
 it was if his throat had been sown shut.
 Girl?
 \textit{Girl\textinterrobang}
+
+
+``I told you'', said Katt,
+facing her sister but without looking away from Andrew's face.
+She looked as if she was awaiting a specific reaction from him.
+No.
+As if she was \textit{afraid} of it.
+
+``Bullshit'', hissed Ratt.
+Her whiskers quivered like small nervous antennae as she shook her head intensely.
+``He'sss playing usss!''
+
+Andrew was far from overcoming his shock,
+but he was at least able to look at the rat girl more closely.
+Katt's sister wasn't really a rat,
+at least not completely.
+She was naked,
+so he could see that she was nearly completely covered with thick brown fur.
+Her build was more of a girl than a rodent:
+She had hands,
+her hind legs had turned into feet that were way too small on which she balanced with remarkable skill,
+and she even had a long naked whip tail that was nervously twitching back and forth.
+Her head was also a mixture of that of a human girl and that of a rat,
+but the result was utterly astounding:
+She was in no way ugly or even repulsive,
+in the contrary she was cute in a way that was hard to explain.
+
+``Yeah, whatever you mean'',
+said Katt and pulled a face that made any further explanation unnecessary.
+
+``Why don't you go and get something to eat for Andrew?
+He must be dying of starvation.
+And don't tell the others yet.
+I want to talk to him first.''
+
+Ratt nodded, but didn't move from where she was standing,
+instead flashing a more malicious look at Andrew with her little black button-eyes.
+Then she bared her teeth ---
+just that they weren't rat teeth,
+they were regular human pearly whites.
+
+``That's enough'', said Andrew. ``Now its enough.''
+
+Katt just looked at him questioningly,
+but Ratt puckered up disparagingly ---
+at least that's how Andrew interpreted it.
+He hadn't exactly had much experience reading the facial expressions of a rat.
+
+``You can stop with the theater now'', he continued.
+``I mean: you've had your fun, but I'm good now.
+You can take off your mask Ratt ---
+or whatever your name actually is.''
+
+Ratt stared at him with a murderous gaze and hissed threateningly ---
+but Andrew had the feeling that none of it was real and that behind the staged anger in her eyes in actuality was only tediously ill-concealed mockery.
+
+``The soup'', reminded Katt. ``and put a good amount of meat in it, he has a lot to catch up on.''
+
+Of course Ratt didn't leave without giving Andrew another angry look ---
+but she left.
+Andrew looked after her until the curtain had closed behind her,
+and even then he stared at the direction she had disappeared in for a considerable time.
+
+``Everything okay?'', asked Katt.
+
+``Of course'', mumbled Andrew.
+``I just had a conversation with a rat, but I'm fine \dots I think.''
+
+He tore his gaze from the door with some effort and looked at the girl.
+Katt's uncomprehending look made it clear to him that the irony in his voice hadn't been understood at all.
+He nodded again and this time in a serious tone
+``Yeah. I was just \dots caught off guard. I didn't figure something like this would happen.''
+
+
+Katt remained silent for a moment, then sat down on the edge of the bed with him
+and laid her hand on his thigh with a strangely familiar gesture.
+Her touch wasn't uncomfortable for Andrew,
+in fact it was the opposite.
+Even so he just barely could reign in his reaction to swat her hand away.
+He was frightened and for the most part more confused than he had ever been before in his life.
+
+``You're really from outside, right?'', she asked.
+
+Andrew kept quiet.
+He wasn't capable of thinking a clear thought,
+much less \textit{answer} anything.
+
+``Ratt still doesn't really believe it,
+but I know that its the truth.
+You were talking in your sleep.''
+
+``And?'', asked Andrew.
+`` What did I say?''
+
+``To be honest I didn't understand most of it'', Katt admitted.
+She laughed unsurely,
+as if confessing it were embarrassing.
+She raised her shoulders.
+``But maybe it was just pointless mumbling.
+You had a pretty high fever.
+For a time I wasn't sure if you were going to survive it.''
+
+``If I was talking in my fever,
+how would you know that it wasn't all just nonsense anyway?'', asked Andrew.
+
+``Was it?''
+
+``How should I know?
+I would have to remember what I had said.''
+
+
+