"What do you mean I'm a cheater??? You see how many soldiers you have to the side of the board??Of course I'm going to invade your home space!!" Sharp accused.
"No no no!!! You twist and bend the rules to suite you. Your a cheater!! That move you just did isn't allowed" Chessy combatted.
It was early on in the morning, and as predicted, they were both at it again, barking at each other, having played ten rounds of Dratsmate already. Cheesy had lost 7 times, only winning three, while Sharp remained the victor.
"You know what? Scrap the game and let's have at it again. And no cheating! Therefore, I am supposed to win this time!!"
"Never!!! You're the one whose too slow to understand the game and keep losing" Sharp rose his hands up defensively to Cheese's accusations, taking all the players off the board and rearranging them for another game, despite him disagreeing.
I was sitting in a corner to the back of the room, idly stripping thin pricks of wood from the wall, while occasionally turning around to pretend interest in the game at hand. For appearances sake, of course. My intuition told that me that Mother had already suspected that something was off with me, noticing that I hadn't been engaging in Dratsmate, or doing much of any group activities like I used to.
She could be extremely perceptive when she wanted to be, noting even the slightest change of anything, but even a blind man could see that something was weird.
Of course, I took my precautions in trying to be as stealthy as possible when I snuck out at night; because she'd be furious if she found out I was going to the clearing glass like that. I wanted her to keep being oblivious to what I was doing with my time, and me acting normal with my brothers was part of putting her suspicions at bay. There was one problem, however.
I didn't care.
There was nothing in me that could bring up the strength it took to even play pretense in social settings.
Dammit, I couldn't even fake it like I used to...
I knew exactly how this would all play out, so it was draining to even pretend.
Sharp, knowing the rules of the game would win way more rounds than Cheesy.
Cheesy would get upset, throw a hissy fit, complain about how Sharp is cheating and that he was being unfair, and how he would beat him and show him. Mother was at the dining room table busily preparing breakfast, or dinner, depending on the time of day. When we all sat down to eat, she would go on a rant about how many of her families' heads got bitten off, how she fought cats and dug through garbage dumpsters to find food. Sharp would make fun of Cheesy somehow, they would fight and argue more, Mother would raise her head up and yell at them reminding them of all she went through to carry them in this world and how they took everything for granted. Blah blah blah..et cetera et cetera....
Suddenly, a hard, painful prick thumped on the left side of my head. I was getting a headache just thinking about it. I closed my eyes and sighed, tilting my head against the wall.
The only thing that I was looking forward to in a short-term basis, was breakfast. I inhaled deeply, sucking in all of that delicious air into my lungs.
"Mmmmmmmm..." a grouchy vibration sounded in my throat, and I could feel saliva wetting my tongue as my stomach began to growl. Mother had a great catch yesterday from the Kitchen. The Giant had a great feast, some of his friends were here so he cooked quite a bit of food, leaving all kinds of chunks, pieces and crumbs scattered all over the place.
He baked Ham, which we loved. My favorite was when he put a sweet, thick, glossy film of honey pineapple sauce over the slowly roasted Ham, the flavor seeping into it while it baked, so that with each bite the juices would seep and drip down one's fingers. Table etiquette was something I placed high value on, but I licked all my fingers when I was done with that meal. For that one occurrence I had no shame, and I would waste nothing from that delicious Ham. Luckily, Mother ran back to us yesterday, with pieces of ham quadruple times the size of her head; and now she was breaking it all up onto our plates, siding it with baked potatoes, tomatoes, bread, and peas. I closed my eyes and smiled, tasting just how good I would feel when I sunk my teeth into that first lump of Ham.
I hope Mother would call us to the table sooner than later...
"And that's how you play Dratsmate! Ha!" Sharp's booming voice snapped me out of my hungry thoughts, redirecting my attention over to the game table again,
"Are you blind? That was my finishing move. That's a boss move! I should be a military commander!" he gloated. Cheesy stood there wordlessly, the poor rodent stammering in a cluster of ifs and buts.
Out of nowhere, Sharp climbed on top of the gaming table, turned his backside around and heisted it up into Cheesy's face, wiggling the white expanse of his exterior from side to side. Cheesy gasped, his bulgy eyes squeezed in frustration as he rolled his fists into a ball, giving Sharp a hateful glower. I looked closer at his expression. His eyeballs were moist. Cheesy looked hurt, like he was about to cry.
"You stop that indecency in this household right this instant Sharp!" Mother happened to have rose her head up to witness the incident, hollering from across the table, she waved her finger at Sharp as a warning. Sharp guffawed heartily, shaking his head and turning around to resume his seat on the stool.
At the corner of my eyes, I saw Chessy's heavy set figure trudge towards Sharp.
I swiveled my head around just in time to see Cheesy plunge into him; Him and Sharp plopping down on the ground. Mother's head was still down as she focused on assorting the dinner, mindlessly humming away.
"Owwwww!!Get off me you loser!!!!!" Sharp cried out, using his paws to cover his face as Cheesy gave him a rapid succession of blows, Sharp overwhelmed by this sudden attack.
Mother heard the noise and rose her head up instantly.
"Quit it you two!! Stop this instant!!" She moved from the wooden table and ran over to the both of them, bending down and struggling to rip them away from each other.
They rolled over the table and landed on the floor in a ball of hisses and fists. Cheesy flipped on top of him and clawed away. Sharp gained his balance and rolled over Cheesy, striking him a blow. Both of them rolled about in a frenzy of tooth baring, claw scratching, cloud of fuss, squealing furiously across the short expanse of the wooden floor, both of them bumping into the wall so hard the whole room vibrated.
I sat there, an innocent bystander, my face casting an air of indifference as I watched the scuffle that Mother struggled to part.
"Idiots..." I muttered, watching them fight was exhausting, so I turned my head away and continued picking at the wall. Sharp and Cheesy were always fighting over something Minal, like a failed game, food, or some stupid argument about something that didn't even make sense. I used to try my best to part them away from each other when they fought, but nowadays I wouldn't dare waste my energy. I didn't care about their petty bickering. They knew full well what they were getting themselves into.
I got up, strolling my way past the agitation as if nothing was happening. I stood in the doorframe of the peephole folding my arms, looking through it. The drapes that covered the table that shrouded our hole in the wall was torn and tethered, holes riddled the cloth that was flung over it. I squinted my eyes, looking up through one of the holes in the drape to see the sun shining through the clearing glass that was miles ahead of me in the living room.
It looked so bright out there. I could see a glimpse of the spiked golden ring that surrounded the sun. The clouds were fleecy today. Thinly stretched slices of them span across the cerulean blue atmosphere. I could see the fruit tree from here too. There were two birds picking on an apple that hang from a lower branch outside.
"Burrow!! Don't just stand there, help me!! Before the giant hears the fuss in the wall!!!" Mother's panicked plea gripped me out of admiring my dream reality. Reluctantly, I staggered my way over to her and the two dimwits that were rolling about on the floor. I sank my hand into Sharp's shoulder blade, pulling it back and grabbing him off of Cheesy. He tumbled over until he bumped into the wall, Cheesy lying flat on the floor, with his arms covering his face.
My eyes paced slowly between the both of them from the far corners of the room, and then back to Mother.
I could see the imprint of that huge vein popping out of the top of Mother's head; her whiskers flinched as she drew her lips into a tightened grimace, her eyes widened in fury.