Rescued from the fiery woods by Balthazar, and set down who-knew where, Rat barely kept his feet and focused on breathing. The world felt as if it were tearing apart around him, but all he could focus on was trying to catch his breath. He might not be in danger of asphyxiation- the angel had made sure of that before he left to see to others worse off, but the smoke inhalation still wasn't doing Rat any favors. He coughed, then his breath caught again as everything around him seemed to hold its breath. Once, when he was younger, Rat had touched a live wire when he and a friend were messing around taking apart a radio. The sudden burst of electricity through his body had been like a strangely inaudible thump, every cell given a startling jolt. The feeling now was close enough, and it dropped him to his knees.

Then the world was solid again, and he gave a few more coughs. To say things had returned to normal would be an overstatement. Smoke still drifted on the air from the forest fire, there were a few distant cries of people in a panic, and of course he was still in the strange little town he'd arrived in roughly a week ago. Still, after a moment Rat got to his feet again, took a tentative breath, and began to trudge toward the center of town to find out what happened.