Rats

"Vermin"..."Filth"..."Disease spreaders"..."Garbage Jockeys"...
The names, although different, say it all...
For anyone who has not had the displeasure of witnessing what a full grown Giant Rat can do to a human being (and I'd suspect Elven, Dwarven and anyone else unskilled enough in weapon use to slay it) then all I say is this - Count Your blessings, truly so...

Giant Rats are not an uncommon animal...Anyone who has spent any amount of time around civilized encampments of any sort (towns, villages, cities) have most assuredly bore witness to the "mischeavious" nature of Giant Rats...Usually encountered near Taverns or Landfills, they breed like a plague anywhere close enough that provides sufficent food for them (and You'd be most surprised just how little it takes to keep a giant rodent such as these, fed)...Most Giant Rats witnessed in such settings are Young or Juvenile Rats, never having exceeded 4-6ft in length...Because of this, they're many times seen as meer "Pests" and ignored for the most part...But unbeknownst to most, Giant Rats (like most rodents of their ilk) are communial creatures...These same young and juvenile rodents bring back food, trash and scraps to their larger, much more dangerous family, some of which when at full adult size rival some species of domestic Cattle!...There was one story I heard, just a couple of years ago during my travels, of a female Giant Rat that was UNEARTHED from it's nest underneath a Tavern, that was 12ft long (not counting it's tail which had been chewed off at some point in the past by it's rodent relatives) and 4 1/2 ft at the shoulder!...It had gained such a HUGE size that it couldn't escape from the nest anymore!...This means that it was probably stuck there for some amount of time, possibly years with no escape possible at all...And all the while it's Young brought it enough food to sustain it...It's enough to make the mind boggle at the possibilities of Nature...