Sacred Rats: Fantasy

Be merciful, the rats murmured to themselves in quivers of whiskers and shaking of haunches. Be merciful. She was kind to us, she fed us, she listened to us, and she petted us. We like her. Be merciful. Their priest stared at the rats with blank eyes twisted by maliciousness before he spun to face the crowd and spread his arms wide. "The holy rats have spoken!" he proclaimed. "Her sentence for trespassing onto the ground that the holy rats hold sacred is death by hanging." The biggest rat hissed at the priest, but he was too starved to make his voice carry.

Inspiration: Something about being merciful in a Faith and the Muse song.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: I like the rats. I really like the rats. The plot's fairly standard--false priest, starving sacred rats, kind girl (or frightened of something else) breaks tradition to tend to them, and so on. It could make a good YA fantasy, though.