It was a very long process of elimination for the competitors for the Year of the Rat competition. Now it was down to three pairs of contestants: Mary and Jack Piper of the Brown Rats, Milly and Lenny Tillman of the House Mice, and Vishindo and Bahati of the Giant Pouched Rats. In previous years, this would have ended with a pageant, but this year they were doing something far more exciting.
The Rat is the first animal in the Chinese zodiac and there are many stories about why that is. The most common is that there was a race in which the Rat came first due to its cunning and cleverness. As such, the final round would also be a race, though much more vertical than the average one. The Mountain of the Zodiac which was set up in Claw Coliseum, is an artificial mountain designed to give the competitors the most trying time. The mountain was divided into three tiers, which became harder as they went up. On each tier, the climbers would need to find and activate four zodiac targets in the correct order. Getting one wrong would mean they would have to redo the tier they were on. The final target, the sign of the Pig, was at the top of the mountain. The one who activated it would get first place points to add to their overall score.
By popular demand, the ladies went first. Mary and Milly's rivalry had become very popular by now, even if most of it was staged for the viewers. But there was no smack talk now. Now was the time for action. The three of them were climbing different sides of the mountain, mostly to make sure they wouldn't interfere with each other. When the horn sounded, the two rats and one mouse started their climb. The first sign was easy: the Rat. The Ox, Tiger, and Rabbit were not that hard for them to reach after that.
When they got to the second tier, things became more tricky. A rock slide of foam boulders was being rolled down at them at regular intervals. They didn't really hurt, but being caught unaware could make the climbers lose their grip. The Zodiac targets were farther apart which made it more challenging. This was where the climbers started gaining or losing pace. Bahati wasn't quite as familiar with the Chinese zodiac and got the Dragon and Snake signs mixed up. That cost her some precious time as she had to back down a bit to get it right. Milly was pretty athletic for a mouse, but she was buffeted more by the boulders. Mary, however, being bigger than the average rat was able to forge ahead with little difficulty.
The third tier was much harder. This part of the mountain was near vertical with air conditioners blowing high to make it feel like an icy mountaintop. There was also snow being blown, but it was only made of scraps of cloth. The climb here was hard enough without making it slippery. The three targets between the start of this tier and the very top were in a pretty straight line, but they were still pretty far from each other. It was at this point that Milly's lighter weight allowed her to get farther ahead, though Mary still had a good lead. Anyways, mice and rats were pretty good climbers so they were able to ascend without much difficulty.
While Mary did reach the top first, Milly was right on her heels. It was a brief dash to get to the last target, but Mary had just enough of a lead to hit it first. When the horn sounded, everyone was cheering. This was certainly more exciting than a pageant. Though considering oxen aren't good climbers, it's not likely this will be repeated next year. Of course, the male rats (and Lenny) still needed to do their climb. But for the ladies, it was now down to the tallying of points the official handing over of the Zodiac titles.