During the day, the quay is bustling with typical activity of a port: burly longshoremen carry crates and roll barrels away from ships for storage and sailors who still have their sea-legs saunter past on their way to drink and more adventures. By night, the quay is teeming with unsavory characters: men who are hardly men any more after losing their way through drink and gambling hunker amongst coils of rope stiffened by the salt water while rats scramble from box to box gnawing their way into the goods contained inside.
Quay, Port
rat
sailor
I am a sailor traveling the vast ocean with my big sailboat. I was sent by the king to voyage the seas. I do not like running into sea monsters.
Sure has been a long day, and I'm stuck here in this lousy Quay. The place is swarming with rats, too Swimming with rats it may be but there is only one rat like me. Gah! A talking rat! Get out of here, you anthropomorphic vermin!  Touch me again and you'll get the plague when I bite you. Tiny rat! I am vaccinated from all possible diseases you may carry! I have traveled the seven seas, and sent by the king to eliminate vermin like yourself! Big mission. The King must think highly of you. I... He told me this coat of arms was passed down from generations  He probably tells every lackey in his service the same thing. I've spent a lot of time crawling around the castle. I know how the King is. I have always wondered what was going on inside the king's head, and while I was always sent on these dangerous yet monotonous missions! Here, take this. We're going to see what he is up to and you're going to need a disguise. Got any bread crumbs? I miss the castle kitchen's bread. Looks like there's still some crumbs attached to this old fishing hook, but there's no telling how old it is.  Old doesn't bother me.