Jacob started to run around the village as he shouted.
In the meantime, I caught my breath and thought about what could be done about these red rats.
ââŠThere would be no point in explaining the whole thing.â
How much would they understand about infectious diseases?
Besides, it had to do with why the Lamias had been driven from their old home.
Giving them too much information at once could lead to them forgetting what was important. Ogres were like that.
It was best to keep things simple.\n
If you had people gather together without telling them the reason, you could expect to see a lot of angry and annoyed people gather together.
However, when it came to Ogres, they tended to obey me faithfully.
In fact, they were running as if to see who could get here first.
Some of them looked a little afraid. Perhaps they had seen something terrible on the way.
âIs that everyone?â
âYes! Everyone in the village.â
Jacob said as a representative for the others.
I had left a different Ogre in charge of this village, but I didnât really care about that right now.
âAll of you. Listen carefully!â
I shouted, and they all stood up straight.
I paused for a few seconds and then began to talk.
âThere is something that I want to ask all of you. However, donât talk unless I tell you to. Got that!â
ââŠâ
âCan I get a reply?â
âYEEES!â
ââŠGood. Now, the first question. Raise your hand if youâve seen a rat in the village recently.
About seven out of ten of them raised their hand.
That was a lot. I didnât normally see many rats where I lived. And it should have been the same in this village. \nâKeep your hand up if youâve seen a red rat. And lower your hand if you havenât.â
And then most of them lowered their hands.
Three of them didnât. They were all Ogre women.
âYou on the far left. Whatâs your name?â
âDanie.â
âAlright, Danie. This is very important, so I want you to remember carefully. Where and when did you see this red rat?â
âUhh⊠Oh, it was the day before yesterday. As for the place, I think it was near the ceiling of my house.â
Ogre houses were built on top of a stone foundation, and the upper part was usually made of wood and mortar.
If it was near the ceiling, it was likely running on the beams.
âNow you.â
âI-I am go Goe. Yesterday, I saw a rat jump out of the grass in my garden. I thought it was a lizard at first, because of the color. But when I got closer, I saw that it was a rat. But I didnât have anything with me at the time andâŠâ
âNevermind that.â
âYe-yes!â
âAnd now you.â
âIâm Miradis. TodayâŠI mean, just a moment ago. It was near the outskirts of the village. It was dead.â
âDead? Miradis, right? Did you touch it?â
âN-no. I didnât touch it. I would never touch a dead rat.â
\nAnd so I dug a hole in the ground and filled it with a wooden bucket.
I then filled it halfway with water and set up something like a bamboo seesaw near it.
It would tilt towards the bucket once the rat moved through the bamboo.
The other trap I made also involved a bucket of water. This one had a stick with a rat guard put inside of it.
Then we just had to put some bait inside and both traps were complete.
We used some steamed potato for bait.
âSo now you know how to make them. I want you to place them all over the village. But donât touch any of the rats. Just dump all of the contents into the hole.â
They would be limited by how many buckets they had, but this was as much as I could do.
I looked over to the two who were digging the hole. They had already dug up to their waists.
âGood. That should be deep enough. When the villagers come with the rats, put them in here. But donât touch them.â
âAye.â
âUnderstood.â
That should do it.
âOh, I canât just stay here.â
There were still other places to go.
I told them that I would return in a few days, and then I left the village.
It was too bad that I couldnât see things to the end, but I had a tight schedule.