"The mighty Eagle has sunken its razor-edged talons into the head of the Cat, picking him up into the air and thrashing him about mercilessly!! Like nothing but a neglected ragdoll!!!Cawwww!!!!" Sharp picked up the Cat bishop off the board and threw him to Cheesy, who coincidentally caught the failed soldier in his tiny, cupped hands.
"Dratsmate! Fourscore! I beat ya again" Sharp slammed the King chest piece on the wooden table, nudging Cheesy's last knight out of the way, and invading his home base.
We were playing Dratsmate, a chest game that we invented for our entertainment. Sitting down in these holdings all day was boring, so we had to come up with something. The only problem was now the game became boring to me. I decided to sit this one out, watching Cheesy and Sharp play against each other. Well, it was more of Cheesy losing to Sharp. For the hundredth time.
"Ten games we've played Cheeesy.Ten!!! And you've lost all but two. Even when you had one of the most dangerous soldiers on your side" Sharp bashed.
"Huh!!! So what??? Having a Cat on my side of the battlefield is nothing in comparison to having a monster demon bird. Your Eagle snatched my Cat up and tossed it about like it was- nothing!! Cats are weaker than Eagles.." Cheesy defended himself, fishing for an excuse to compensate for why he couldn't win, despite the many hours we invested in teaching him the game.
"Excusees as usual. I had the Cat soldier last time and I still beat you, even when you had the Eagle. Your just slow!!!! I'll ask Burrs to make a tortoise soldier for ya, so you can use it next time we play" Sharp chuckled in his throat, winking at Cheesy who protested.
In Dratsmate each player got fourteen soldiers, seven of them standing side by side horizontally, protecting the royal guard, which consisted of the Rodent King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, and the powerful protector: The furious Cat or the Eagle.
The two most deadly enemies on the board were The Eagle (The Winged One) and The Cat (Fanged One). Their appearances were represented distinctly on the board, different from the normal wooden rodent soldiers. The Winged one being an extended piece of wax with a prick of wood impaling it vertically, to represent the wings, and the Fanged one was a wax ball smoothly rolled into a sphere with two sticks of wood jutting vertically out of its head, and a tail.
I had never ever really seen any of these creatures in real life of course, so I had to use my imagination based off the horrendous tales Mother often told us. Blood chilling stories of gargantuan winged beasts with stealthy flight who snatched up rats in one swoop; sharp toothed, furry felines that pounced on you and sunk their teeth into the back of your necks. The world was this giant place filled with blood sucking, meat gobbling creatures that were hidden in the lush forests, their yellow pinched eyes glowing in the dark as they waited patiently to pounce on any non-suspecting rat.
Before the game started, we would rock paper scissors for who got which protector. Cheesy had gotten the Cat seven times, and Sharp seven times with the Eagle.
Cheesy had been playing like a slop, not being aware of his surroundings, not defending his territory, leaving his Queen and King open. Could he blame Sharp for taking advantage of that opportunity?? Now he lost his most important players in the game, and only his Rodent King and Cat Bishop was left protecting his homebase. Sharp had bounced out his King, using the Eagle to ambush Cheesy's Cat Bishop and invading his territory, winning the game.
"Your in a Drat load a trouble Cheesy" Sharp grinned. "Give up now while you can. You have no protector, your King is left to be murdered. Hmph. I bet losing feels like having a stick shoved up your-"
"Language!" Mother shouted from the lengthy dining table at the back of the room, giving Sharp a stern warning. She grew weary of how uncouth her son's temperament could be.
''I swear you have the filthy mouth of a sailor..." She lamented. Mother was pacing from one end to the next of the table, preparing portions of food we got from the Giants garbage bin this afternoon for dinner.
"Sorry Mother" Sharp apologized quickly. He and Cheesy were at the round, miniature table that was six steps in front of the dining table, right next to the water bucket. The two brothers faced each other from each end of the table, Sharp turning his attention back to the game after his short apology.
Our holdings was a lengthy rectangular area that was the size of a long box of sorts. In the upper half of the room on the Northwestern side, there was an extended block of wood that was so thick in size it was a wonder how we got it to fit through the little peephole door, Mother used it for us to dine and prepare our meals. Just steps after it we had carved out a round table and attached a leg underneath it from the wood that was in the walls that surrounded us; we played Dratsmate on it mainly and sat and talked smack or fooled around. It was the gaming table. To the other far end of the room pass the door was our nesting, cotton pieces that we snuck from the Giant's living quarters, fluffed together like a cloud for where we would sleep. There was four of them, each beside each other, Mother's one having a greater size than the rest (as she was an adult rodent) to the very front, our other three were in the back. She wanted to be close to the door in case anything ''Happened" calling that protection. A few knick - knacks laid about here and there that we collected from the rooms outside, but Mother mostly loved a clean, spacious area.
Mother Mince continued dutifully laying our sharing's of food out in their respective corners on the table; Sharp's plate was at the left, Cheesy was right next to him, and I sat at the other end while Mother was stationed in the middle, to the adjacent side of the table so that she could see us.
"And now, for the main event my dear does and bucks!! Here's what you all came to see!!" Laying his final blow, Sharp stretched over the board and plucked The Great Winged Fiend off the sidelines, puckering his lips and making noises that were supposed to mimic an Eagle's wings.
"Oh, what's that circling in the air???The vicious, blood thirsty winged creature from the pits of hell, and he's starving!! For loser meat!! Is he going for the Rodent soldiers?? His favorite meal???" Cheesy sighed, folding his arms together and rolling his eyes at Sharp's dramatization.
" The murderous monster is clearing the army, slaughtering them from left to right!! There's no one to defend the castle so we the birds must..attttaaacckkkk!! rrarwrwrarr!!!" Sharp took his winged player and smashed the rest of Cheesy's soldiers clean off the board, they stumbled over the table and fell.
"Ohhhh come now, don't be so dramatic!! Isn't that a bit much!! Sheesh" Cheesy glared at the triumpher before him, his eyes narrowed in a mixture of sadness and disappointment. The two had been playing Dratsmate since this morning; now the orange yellow glow from the falling sun gleamed through the peephole, now it was late noon, almost Dinner time, which meant Sharp had been beating Cheesy all day. They played eight rounds of the game, and Cheesy only managed to win three of them.
Which was utterly disheartening considering how much time we took to teach Cheesy the rules. He always was a bit behind....
"Cheater!! You're an outright, immoral, pathetic cheater!! That's the only way you won the games for so long!! Therefore, I will never play this game with you again. Hmph!" Cheesy titled his snout to the air and folded up his lip, turning his back on Sharp.
"Fine! It's no fun playing with a loser that has a pigs' brains anyway."
Sharp, having to be satisfied with the final blow got up and stood directly in front of Cheesy, bending down and sticking his face out to him.
" Your stupid duuuuuh dwoooiii oink oink!! You Cheesy are a fat, dummy pig that couldn't figure nothing out even if the answers where right in front of you. Haha!"
"How dare you!! Mother did you hear what Sharp said to me!!???" Sharp jumped at Cheesy to stop him from telling on him but he couldn't get to him in time. Cheesy squinted his eyes and gave Sharp an angered glower.
"Now both of you stop!! This instant!!" Mother screamed.
In a flash she marched over to Cheesy and Sharp, standing in the middle of the two, holding them by their ears.
"Owwww!!!!" They both moaned in pain.
"Now, listen. You boys come sit at the table and eat!!!! Stop fooling around with this ridiculous game, when you have food to eat and enjoy with your Family!! Why can't you both be like Burrrow. Look how calmly he sits and behaves himself."
Ohhh nooo she was doing it again. Why did Mother feel the need to compare me to my brothers? I hated it...
Sharp and Cheesy leaned over to see me in the corner, still tending to my sticks. I got up slowly, making my way to the table. Both of them looked over, peering at me with a jealous scowl. I sat down quiely, putting my head to the floor.
"Hmph. Good!" she grabbed her hands off of their ears, tugging at them in the process. They both groaned, shifting their way over to the table at behind the designated plates.
Mother promptly sat at her seat.
"First, let us pray. Close your eyes" She instructed, closing her eyes and stretching out her hands from both ends.
Sharp and I slipped our hands into each of hers, Cheesy doing the same and holding our hands. She began to pray.
"Dear Heavenly Father....."