Piper

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==A Little Note==
1. The story's not finished
2. I am the owner of it, and ask that nobody else edit.
==Piper==
Destilo was a town like many others in Lightmist County. Small, a collection of fifteen or so streets, a park, some basic shops, and a Nickel mine on the edge of town. It was built on and in between the hills, the streets concaving to match the shape of the terrain they were built on. Most visitors were family to residents, in spite of various “sights” (gimmicks) set up by the mayor to attract tourists. Outside of the attractions, the most out-of-the-ordinary thing about this small town was the inclusion of a sanitarium and an impressive zoo, even with a small population, occupying more space than they really had business to. Another draw of Destilo was a special recipe for moonshine, but most residents didn’t appreciate that kind of tourism. The sanitarium’s existence was contingent upon people’s habits, though, and many on it’s payroll would tip a hat to the men who made the intoxicant.
No person could honestly claim that they could tell if Destilo was a big town or small city. It had no skyscrapers, no tremendous amount of people. People were happy in their city-town hybrid.
Martin Leed, a bookstore owner, would walk to work every day, tipping his hat to passersby, and taking his sweet time. It was a running joke that no matter how late his employees arrived to work, they were still going to be victims of his lollygagging, and be stuck waiting in the cold for their boss, who apparently couldn’t be bothered to own a watch.
Martin, overall, wasn’t a bad man. He respected his employees, inviting some to his family outings if they dared to be alone on a holiday. He was a nice, if at times overbearing, man. He learned the names of most, and would assign them a new one of his own creation once he’s gotten to know them. He was friendly, showing little bits of vernacular picked up in Gellington (his hometown) like calling every friend’s daughter “little missy”. 
“The Leed Litter”, as they were called, was a collective of five little sects of the family,  divided by household, and led by each of Montell Leed’s children: Winston, Ida, Dolly May, Montell Jr., and Martin.
There was Winston’s Sect, who lived by the mine, and always would tend to preoccupy themselves most hours of the day away from their home in order to keep their smaller children from being corrupted by the debauchery of the miners. Their children, named in order of birth, were Chastity, Gregory, and Sam. Chastity was fourteen, and was a thoroughly sheltered girl, as all of them were. Gregory was ten, and showed some influence from the miners. He was the best natured, but his parents thought not, not knowing the difference between ‘bad’ and ‘impressionable’. Sam was two, a blondie with short hair.
There was Ida’s Sect, the biggest, being inclusive of eleven children, all born within fifteen years of one another. The oldest was Chaunsey, aged eighteen, and the youngest was Joceline, aged three. Listed in order of birth, between them were: Alex, Jack, Fantasia, Zachary, Alden, Astrid, Katherine, Natasha,  and Alistair. Ida was happy with her big family, in spite of the work that came with it. Her husband was judge who became a children’s author, inspired by the various personalities of his children.
Dolly May, the oldest of their clan, had four children, three of whom moved out and went to Gellington University to follow in their mother’s footsteps and become doctors. The other, Fredrick was only twelve, and had a memory to make elephants bow (and ears of a size that some would jest to say that they would do the same). Ironically, he would prefer to be a musician than a doctor. He, as his disgruntled mother would put it, “would like very much to ignore the cards he’s been dealt, and play with cards he wasn’t.” Still, she was a supportive mother, and never said it to his face.
There was Montell Jr., named after his father, the first of his sons, and was the only to adopt his father’s English accent, in direct spite of most other company the family had, said company being thoroughly American.  He had five children, all girls. Flora, Fauna, Rose, Daisy, and Lotus. You may think that he wishes he had a boy, but he, in reality, would not know what to name him.
Finally there was middle-child Martin. He had only three children: Joss, Freedom (a girl), and Martha. He was a loving father, and tried to teach his kids to be appreciative of fine art, simple pastimes, and to never let life rush them. This didn’t stop Joss from running like a bat outta Hell to share every piece of new information he gets to the world, literally shouting from rooftops (which he had a talent of finding a way on to). The other two were five year old twin tomboys. 
Destilo was, faults included, a home to the Leeds. The Leeds were, by and large, a happy, if oversized, family. Unfortunately, Destilo was a target, as many places were, to a criminal, a sociopath, an extortionist in his own right. And you’d never guess it was him causing the problems. His name was Piper, and Piper was a rat among rats, first part figuratively, the second part both figuratively and literally depending on the company you were considering.
One day, Martin awoke and found something troublesome. He found a rat in his bed. He hated rats. He leapt from bed and grabbed a bat. He took a swing, missed, and realized how foolish of an idea that was. He didn’t need rat blood in his bed. Even if his idea was flawed, it scared the rat into scurrying out of the bed. It made sure to leave Martin a present in his bed, though. He grabbed a bucket and chased the rat, awakening his kids, until he finally slammed the bucket over the rat. He and his wife disposed of it post haste, and a conversation between a disease fearing mother and a rat hating father woken up too early.
“I don’t want my children getting some kind of disease from these rats.” Mrs. Antoinette Leed said, sitting at a table.
Martin said, while pouring them both some coffee, “It was one rat. If you want, I can call a house inspector.”
“Please do.” his wife implored.
They went on to progressively more meandering prattle until their two daughters came downstairs dressed for school. 
Martin just looked silently at his two daughters. Freedom was wearing a knee-length green velvet skirt and a new seafoam green shirt, while Martha wore a brown corduroy overall dress and a white shirt. They both had brown unnaturally curly hair, curled up by the curlers their mother put in the other night. “It’s Sunday, girls.” Martin informed them. After some thought, he turned to his wife and asked, “It is Sunday, right?”
His wife delivered a crooked look and a speechless pause. “Yes!” She then began to laugh at her husband. “How are you so removed from reality!?” She asked.
“It’s seven AM.” retorted Martin. 
“Does that mean that I don’t have to wear this stupid dress?” asked Martha, who detested wearing any girls clothing.
“It does.” her father chuckled.
The girls sprinted upstairs to change back into their pajamas. It occurred to Martin that his son hadn’t come down, even though he was already awoken by his pursuit of the rat. He would normally join in on such a chase. 
“I’m going to check on Joss.” Martin said.
Martin made his way up the stairs, and peeked into his room. “How ya doin’ bud?” Joss was laying face down in bed, with a denim cover he stole from the guest bed. 
A stifled “what?” came out from somewhere around his pillow.
“You want cereal?” Martin asked. 
“I want a donut.” Joss responded, still not pulling his face from his pillow. Joss always would ask for a donut, and and Martin would often let him come along to the bookshop and get him a donut at a friend of his’ diner. 
“Get dressed.” Martin instructed. 
In one fluent move Joss placed his hands on his bed, pushed himself up, and maneuvered his legs to a point where he was a sitting position. He pushed himself from there off of the bed. He hustled to his dresser and began getting ready. He traded his pajama bottoms and purple shirt for a never before worn green shirt, a black coat and sweat pants, and topped it off with his favorite green beanie. 
While Joss got dressed, Martin made his way to the top of the stairs only to nearly be made roadkill by the twin girls zooming down, both now . Freedom tried to  jump on the handrail and slide down, imitating the trick she saw on a TV show.
“Freedom, honey, that’s dangerous,” Martin warned. He saw that his wife was wide eyed, and would have said the same had Martin not beat her to the punch. Freedom, in her blue shirt and overalls, then managed to pull herself up onto the rail, but was glued to the rail, too scared to get off of what she realized now was well above the height of her head.
Antoinette helped her down and made sure she knew that she was not to climb on the rail again. Her daughter nodded in agreement, brown curly hair moving with the shake of her head.
Joss rushed downstairs and he and Martin set out.  Joss habitually rushed ahead of Martin, taking notice of random things: animals going about with their animal business, winter flowers peeking from under the snow, a high school aged couple on a swing at the park,and water from melted snow. He spat whatever facts he had about whatever he drew from the environment. He talked about how he learned in school about what causes ice and snow to melt and how he saw in a brochure he got from the veterinarian’s office that cat’s are supposed to look a certain way when they’re healthy, and how the stray didn’t fit that description. He made mention that he learned about a tree that they  passed, and how it was called a Lilac Tree, and that it was dead. He was constantly reading encyclopedias on plants and animals, always watching documentaries, and seemed to have a great memory for anything to do with any animal or any plant or any element of what he called nature. 
One thing that Martin noticed and Joss seemed not to was all the rats.  There were rats near an open manhole that sewer workers used to get in and out of their workplace. There was one woman in her apartment who shrieked over the rat she found in her kitchen, and, when they passed the Sheriff’s Department, there were rats crawling about on the front step.
They arrived at the diner and found Ms. Johnson, the owner of the diner. She saw Joss and Martin and immediately said, “Gotcha,” indicating that she was getting them what they always wanted. Joss and Martin went to the counter anyways, and felt free to chat up Ms. Johnson. The diner was consistently understaffed, and on most days  lacked a waitstaff, so people standing at a counter was no uncommonality. 
Ms. Johnson asked Joss about school, and Joss responded with nothing but positivity. Ms. Johnson also took notice to Joss’ new glasses, with black rims and duct tape over the left temple (The tape was to make the glasses look like those of his favorite  character in a book he was reading in class). The conversation switched over to Martin and entailed the discussion of how business was going at the bookshop, how Freedom and Martha were doing, and how Antoinette was doing. Martin couldn’t help but steer the conversation to rats. 
“So, this morning, I found a rat in my bed,”  Martin mentioned.
Ms. Johnson was naturally surprised, and showed it with the raising of her eyebrows and the widening of her brown eyes. “A rat? That’s... unpleasant.” 
“It was, and I noticed some rats on the way here.” Martin pushed.
Ms. Johnson responded, “ I haven’t seen any rats in here, thank goodness.  But now that you mention it, I saw some rats on the way here. A man opened his apartment door and what possibly may have been over fifteen rats rushed out. I heard the commotion of people shouting about rats in their apartments. It’s... strange.”
Martin was now concerned. Destilo had never once had a problem with rats. The only species of rat that lived in Snowfall county wouldn’t go to Destilo, the coldest place in the area, during winter. Even during summer, rats were a rare sight. Martin’s thoughts were interrupted when the chef in the back of the diner let out a cry for help. Ms. Johnson rushed to the back. 
It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Martin politely let Joss know that the donuts weren’t going to be worth the risk of eating, and they left. Destilo was facing a blight of rats. 
Martin rushed to the bookstore and had everyone, including Joss, help load all books into large metal boxes. He completely had them throw all organization of the books out the window. Within an hour, every book they found was in a box and the boxes were locked tight. 
Martin called a taxi company for the ride back home. He made sure that his employees knew too lock  up their food and anything else of value that rats could eat or cause damage to in any way. When the cab arrived, Martin and Joss entered and Martin instructed the cab driver to take them home. Martin began to furiously make calls. He called the sheriff and got no answer. He called Mrs. Rails, a teacher that used to tutor Joss in mathematics. and she let him know that what he guessed was already happening  was, in reality, happening. People were on the verge of tearing the walls down from The Mayor’s Hall. Sheriff  Mancinetti was trying to calm the crowd, and The Mayor was missing in action. 
The cab stopped at the house. Martin implored the driver to wait as he walked Joss to the front porch. When they got to the porch, the door flew open. A disheveled Antoinette stood in the doorway. She tried to speak, but Martin spoke first.
“Are there any in the house?” Martin questioned.
“A few, but not as bad as most houses I’ve heard about through the grapevine.” Antoinette assured, ushering Joss into the house. 
“Make sure the kids are nowhere near the rats, and lock up all the food. There seems to be a pandemic of rats.”  Martin instructed. 
“I’ve locked up every scrap of food we have, and Freedom and Martha know not to touch the rats.” Antoinette said as Freedom peeked from behind her mother’s leg.  
“I’m going to head to the Mayor’s Hall.” Martin picked up Freedom and gave her a kiss on the nose. He then put her down and kissed Antoinette  three kisses. “Deliver two of those--”
“I know,” Antoinette said, smiling at her husband. It was one of Martin’s mannerisms to ask Antoinette to relay such expressions if he was ever in a rush (as rare as that was). 
Martin got into the cab, in which the cabby took to smoking a cigar. “Mayor’s Hall,”  Martin requested. The cabby gave a thumbs up to show that he was on it. 
Martin began furiously calling many other members of the Leed family, finding that they were alright. Ida had collected her kids and they were in their home. Winston  and his immediate family were similarly quartered. Dolly May failed to answer her phone, but her son Frederick answered his, and he revealed that she was on her way to pick him up from a friend’s house and would bring him to the Mayor’s Hall with her. He was oblivious to the fact that there was a pandemic, and hadn’t seen a rat himself.  Montell Jr. also had his kids at home with his wife, and was already in the zoo of denizens demanding answers from the mayor. 
Martin arrived at the same time as Dolly May and Frederick. They exchanged greetings and then found Montell Jr. 
“What’s been going on?” Dolly May asked. Her dyed brown hair was down, a rare style to see on her.
“Everybody is about ready to rip the mayor’s heart out. Nobody knows what’s taking him so long.” Montell reported.
Sheriff Mancinetti was trying to calm the more aggressive denizens. He was failing. Sheriff Mancinetti stood out as a tall man with a muscular build, with brown hair and a tattoo on his leg. He stood out in the community of Destilo, and was of a rather serious manner in public venues, but if in the company of only friends, he would be a fun guy to speak to. 
“Sheriff, what’s going on?” Dolly May asked.
“The mayor will be out soon,” the sheriff promised.
As the sheriff went back to tending to the crowd, a man strode out of the Mayor’s Hall, and took a position behind a podium. It was  Mayor Caldwell .
“Ladies and gentlemen, simmer down, your mayor is here to save you,” the mayor said. The voices slowly came to a stop as people rolled their eyes at the narcissist that stood before them. “I was toiling in my office, unsure of who could help us. The exterminators here have been hit as well, and are incapable of helping us, and their methods would poison the entire town. The ones in the next few towns lack the resources to fix such widespread rodent blight. We were in quite the predicament. Then, a man tapped on my window. This man gave me an offer, one that I couldn’t believe. He said that he could fix our problems. He claimed that Destilo would be free of  rats  by the end of the night.” The mayor backed away a step from the podium. “Please welcome Ronald Piper.”
A tall, scrawny man marched onstage. “Hello, citizens of Destilo, I am Ronald Piper. I have an amazing track record with fixing problems like the one that faces Destilo today. Unfortunately, your town’s problems will not subside without some.. ‘nudging’.  I am a skilled ‘nudger’ of sorts. I can remove these rats  from Destilo by the  next time the Sun rises. I do not work for cheap. I must make a living as you do. My fee is great, but the rats will be gone. Any questions?”
Everybody had questions. A man who had been there for a long while got answered first, being able to out-shout the others. His question was, “What is your fee?”
“I charge forty-five thousand dollars.” Piper said. “But my fee is only due after the work is done.” 
Everybody but Piper, Mayor included, was shocked at the price. Every man and woman in the crowd was trying to get the attention of Piper and  Mayor Caldwell until Mayor Caldwell instructed everybody to “conduct themselves in a more respectable fashion.” He asked that everybody start waiting to be called on to have their questions answered. 
Dolly May was called on. “I would like to know how he justifies charging that much.”
“I’m getting the rats out of all of Destilo. I think I’m being generous.  Anybody else would charge much more.” Piper claimed, defensive of his price. 
“Piper, as grateful as I am that you are doing this,  you changed, doubled, your price  since we talked in my office.
“Only now do I realize how terrible this epidemic is.” Piper excused. It was pretty clear that he only wanted to milk the town for all of the wealth it had. 
A man in a white coat was called on next. “How do you plan to get rid of the rats?” Resounding sounds indicating wonder on the same subject occurred throughout the crowd. How could he conceivably get rid of these rats? There were at least a few hundred in Destilo, and that was an extremely low estimate. 
Piper clapped his hands, and pulled a flute-like instrument from his sleeve. He began to play, but no man or woman heard music, but hundreds of rats poured out from nearby crevices they hid in and gathered at his feet. They poured out of the buildings surrounding the Mayor's Hall, and even the Mayor's Hall lost a sizable amount of rats. People were upset at first, not liking the rats scurrying by them to the stage, but were quickly switched into a mode of awe. He walked around onstage, and the rats followed. He twisted a knob like piece on the instrument, and the rats began scurrying in a circle around him. He blew a little harder into a reed like piece (one of the pieces that distinguished it from the others) and the rats jumped.
People were astonished. It seemed like something out of a fairy tale. A man controlling rats with music (or what they assumed to be)! It was the strangest thing anybody had ever seen. People applauded, barely accepting what they saw as something other than a dream.
One man did feel the need to break the veil of impression. “Why are we paying you so much if you can do this so easily?” 
Piper scowled as the crowd agreed with the inference that the work was disproportionate to the pay.  “I am the only man who knows my craft! If you do not pay me as I request, your town will be destroyed!” Piper fumed. 
“Piper, there is a problem. It rained a lot last month, and every one of the police stations and firehouses, along with King Elementary School, needed a new roof. We spent a lot of the Emergency Fund repairing everything. It only has about ten grand.” the mayor informed, fearful that Piper would pack up and leave.
“I refuse to work for a penny less than thirty-five thousand,” Piper said, standing his ground. “May I suggest that you ask the fine people of Destilo  to chip in?” Piper was revealing himself to be a smarmy, uncaring man. Many in the crowd would’ve described him as an extortionist, given the way he was threatening to leave their home to be destroyed if he wasn’t paid, even though he could easily remove all of the rats in what they assumed would just be the time taken to walk up and down the streets, but required payment that would require not only the remainder of Destilo’s emergency fund, but would require thirty five grand, crowdsourced. But he was the only man who could help them. 
The mayor reluctantly surveyed the crowd to get money. He got a thousand dollars from the drugstore owner Mr. Delmont, two hundred from the moonshiner Ms. Penny, Mr. Oxled gave five hundred dollars, the sanitarium counselor, Mr. Bennett, gave a thousand, and Quincy, who owned an electronics store, gave five thousand, and everybody else, excluding a few, together, gave enough to reach twenty five grand. 
Piper just stood onstage crossing his arms. He wasn’t pleased with the lack of money that was being produced. “Ten thousand more. I know that some more money must be out there.” 
People were running out of patience for the man who stood before them. He was demanding too much. “Sir, most of the men and women in Destilo are here, or have a member of their household here. There is little left we can give,” the mayor said, nearly subsiding his pride and begging Piper to help for less.
Piper was livid. “I settle for nobody! I make concessions for no cause! If your town burns to the ground, it is no quandary to me. I will get the amount of money I asked for!” Piper was standing less than a foot in front of the mayor. The mayor was frightened, not because of any truly intimidating features that this man had besides height, but because he seemed mad enough to do anything. 
Martin was tired of standing around. He had been saving up money to  buy a new house, but if his old one was no more, he wouldn’t  be able to sell it and get the rest of the money for a new one.  “I can give the rest of the money.”
Everybody else in the crowd was pleasantly surprised.  The mayor re-approached   the microphone. “Are you sure?” It was a surprise to everybody that Martin had so much money to spare. He wasn’t a poor man, but his bookshop was not insanely lucrative, and he never boasted about excess income. 
Piper was happy with how this went for him. “Everybody, go fetch the money you said you would pay--”
“We pay after you get rid of the rats!” Martin shouted demandingly. The crowd was frightened. Very few had even seen Martin even mad, and not a single person in the crowd had seen him shout. 
Piper was unafraid. He didn’t know what he had awoken. “Do you think you are in any position to negotiate?” he said as he walked over  to Martin, swaggering and trying to intimidate him. When he reached Martin, he made it a point to tower over him, and look down at him, expecting to see a frightened face, but seeing an irritated face looking just as intimidating as Piper could hope to be. 
“If you don’t play now, you will not get my money. You will either be forced to lower your price or not get paid at all.” Martin pointed out.
Piper was furious, but decided to listen to Martin. He began his march up and down the streets, playing his instrument. Many people, including Martin, Montell Jr., Dolly May and Frederick. 
Dolly May was wondering what Martin had so much money for. “Where did you get ten thousand dollars?” She asked. She was the kind to prefer to be in the loop than out, and was offended whenever she was left in the dark by her family. 
“I have been saving up to move closer to Dane Black Academy. Joss is almost always late, and they’ve been threatening to throw him out. Not to mention, we found something out yesterday.” Martin replied cryptically.
Montell, Dolly May and Frederick leaned in for this one. “They’re twins. Again.” Martin unveiled. 
Everybody was rather shocked. Dolly May extended congratulations, as did Frederick and Montell Jr. They always knew Martin was comfortable with the idea of having a fairly large family, and was always the type to be turned to a pile of pink mush over babies. 
“Wow, that would mean that you’re second to Ida, wouldn’t it?” Frederick said.
“If you count them already.” Martin said, walking within ten feet behind Piper. The conversation went on to reveal that the twins were fraternal, and both boys.  Once Piper got to Martin's house, he said goodbye to everybody, thoroughly tired of following the human trash that was referred to as Piper. 
"Bye Monte, Dolly, and Frederick," he said, shortening all names but Frederick's, only leaving his name intact because Frederick has shown disdain for any and all nicknames. 
Martin arrived in his home and greeted his wife and children. He told them what had happened, and explained to them  that the new house was going to have to wait. Martha and Freedom were happy; they liked the home they were in. Antoinette was concerned for Joss’ enrollment status, but Joss just stood there, aghast. He couldn’t believe that he was going to be kicked out of the school he worked so hard to get to be in. He, more so, was upset that he was losing what he worked for and that what he saw no reason to see as more than scum was to reap benefits from it.Joss, tears running down his cheeks, began to run upstairs. 
“Joss!” Antoinette and Martin shouted simultaneously. They ran after him up the stairs and into his room. His face was buried in a cushion that he 
Category:Fantasy