That one event set off an instantaneous collection of Chessy's development.
From that day forward, we increased his activities. Each day was harder than the last, so much so that we became more and more invested in him as our "project" rather than our brother.
"You can't have this munch if you don't run!! I better not see you slowing down, not even once" Sharp warned. A week had gone by and Cheesy was now able to run three laps instead of one, all as a result of keeping his eyes focused on the prize. Sharp was jogging in front of him, waving the food in his face while his blubbered, bulky body squirmed in sweat.
Cheesy's fur was smooth, completely drenched in perspiration. The watery toxin crawled off of his doubled chin, getting stuck in between the creases of its flaps, running its way done off his breasts and onto the globular circumference of his pot belly.
He still wasn't running as fast as we thought he could. Cheesy had a lazy, awkward way of running. He was trotting still, an in between stage of walking and running, not actually quickly going, but he had improved far more than he had before. His "trot run" was becoming faster as the days slouched by.
That wasn't enough for me. If I wanted to get out of here pronto, I had to really get him going. I didn't want him to hold me back anymore, he was taking way too long. So much time had passed..
We had to get him to the mark of the rope.
There was a rope that we had taken from one of the old rooms the Giant no longer used; we took and marked it by nibbling an indent on it where his waist ended. The rope was long enough to fit me and Sharp inside of it, and we were averaged sized rats. Cheesy's body mass had taken up the space of two of us combined, and then some. We needed to get him down at least four sizes before we could even think about stepping out that door.
There was no time to waste.
Three laps around the corners of the Kitchen counter turned into six. Twenty push-ups afterwards, and one climb up the counter before he could even get a whiff of Cheese.
This time his run of six laps was over, and it was time for him to do push-ups. I stood over him as he did his push-ups, one of my feet on his back while I bobbed the wedge of delicious Cheese over his head. Sharp sat in front of him, his arms folded as he watched. His eyes were pinned to him, probing and scrutinizing for even a hint of weakness.
Cheesy bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut, the hair on his back and shoulders stiffened. Drops of sweat fell to the floor as he came up, the flappy fat on his underarms wobbling as he came down to complete another one. He didn't come back up after he did the last push up.
"Brothers..please.I don't think I can do anymore..." muffled words escaped from Cheesy's mouth, his face buried in the ground. He did only nine push-ups, and now there was another eleven to go. If I wanted to go outside and stand taller than everyone else in that tree, Cheesy needed to get his act together. The sooner I could get him down a few, the better.
Taking my foot off his back, I went around to face him, sitting in front of Sharp and reaching down to face his eye level.
"Cheesy. Get up, now." I commanded.
The lazy rodent grunted a sound of exhaustion, his head stuck to the ground. I sighed, a feeling of deep aggravation bubbling up inside me. Okay. He didn't want to get up. That's fine.
"Hmmmm. Well then. I guess since you're so tired Cheesy, you don't have to get up. You can go to sleep then." I got up on my legs, turning my back and walking off a short distance. Then, I turned back.
"Hey Sharp. We've been training Cheesy all day and I don't know about you, but I?.. am quite famished." I complained. Sharp looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. Giving him a mischievous look, I winked, and gently swayed the stick in my hand with the Cheese.
"You know what Sharpo? I think we deserve to eat. Let's split this Cheese up in two and have some lunch" precisely as those words came out of my mouth, Cheesy suddenly found the strength to lift his head up. A mixture of confusion, innocence and deep hurt flashed in his eyes when he looked up at me; on the verge of crying. I didn't care about hurt feelings over food. I took the stick and untied the Cheese off of it, breaking it into two all the while looking at him dead in his glistening, tear surfaced pupils with an expression of extreme indifference.
"Bu- but that's my reward. You all can't just eat my Cheese. I'm working so hard for it..you promised me that I would get it" His voice heightened into that annoying, high-pitched tone it made when he was displeased. The same tone he would use on Mother to get extra food on his plate. The same tone that allowed him to become so big, hence why we were here, fighting alongside him to get out of it.
I was sick of his shit.
I walked up to him with the two Cheese's in both hands, bending down and giving him a piercing look that dug straight into his soul.
"Listen to me you self-indulgent, gluttonous Cheese guzzling simpleton. I have plans to get out of this Giant" I looked around and gestured to my surroundings.
"Hellhole. And no one, I mean no one is going to hold me back. The deal is six laps around the counter, twenty push-ups, and a climb up to the cupboard. So far you've done six laps, and nine push-ups which means, the terms have been broken." I got even closer to Cheesy now, puckering my lips carefully to his ear, so that he could pay close attention to what I was about to say.
"You back out of the deal now and you'll have to sit there, watching me and Sharp eat Cheese like Kings. All that work you put in. Would be for nothing. Then when you got home, we would take your food and eat it, stealing pieces of it when Mother isn't looking." I paused for a moment, allowing the gravity of what I was saying to sink in.
"So, if I were you Cheesy, I'd make a choice. Quickly'' On saying that I eased away steadily, still holding his gaze. Getting up I walked to Sharp and gave him the other half of the Cheese.
Sharp and I reciprocated the same look, him daunting the same mischievous grin I had.
"Cheers to us and all our hard work!" Sharp announced, we bumped the marcels of Cheese together and put them up in the air, having a toast. Just as we brought the food to our mouths, opening them to take a bite, Cheese pounced on his two legs, running to us and holding out his hands.
"No no no brothers just- wait for a second!" Sharp and I opened our eyes slowly, stopping mid way from shoving the Cheese into our mouths.
"I can do the rest of the exercises. I was just-tired but but I'll be doing everything. All of it. Look"
Cheesy got back into his position and started pumping push-ups again, as if he wasn't just the most tired rodent in the room. Hmph. Funny how he flings his "tiredness" out of the window when he sees some food...
"Ten...eleven...twelve...thirteen..fourteen..fifteen.." He counted as he went along, doing the rest of his twenty push-ups with no hesitation, his arms no longer heaving under the weight of it all.
Sharp and I loomed over him, counting along as well. We were very pleased, Sharp giving me a look of surprise.
"Well, welll well Burrs. Seems like you do have some balls in you. And here I was thinking I was the hard one" he smirked, patting me on the shoulder. I placed the Cheese back on the string, taking a small bite out of it anyway.
"It's not a matter of being mean Sharp. We really have to get this thing kick started. If it was up to me, I wouldn't spend not even another day in this Giant's prison. I want to go outside..don't you?" I gave him a look of suspicion, leaving that question in the air to hang.
I know Mother had already brain washed both of these fools into thinking the world was out to get them. It wasn't, and even if it was, I should be granted the opportunity to figure that out myself. I needed to get out of here and prove that. If he viewed me as a bully because I was focused on what I wanted, so be it I figured. At that time, I could see nothing else but myself climbing to the top of the Apple tree that stood in front of the house. And I would get it, by whatever means...
I didn't realize it, but my ego blinded me into thinking I was doing Cheesy a favor. He was our prized and precious project now, and nothing got in the way of that. We had to have something substantial to show Mother.
So, we got up every day at the break of dawn as usual, and Cheesy did his six laps, and Twenty push-ups without complaining. No ''Brothers please!!! My hearts about to explode and my legs are giving out'' no crying, no more whining. All I did was show him what was to be had, and then magically he got the motivation to do all that he viewed as impossible before.
Two more weeks passed, and everything was going well. Cheesy was getting comfortable with his routine. He was actually running vigorously springing up and touching the floor for him to launch off. He could finish his cardio in a lesser time, and we didn't carry home anymore. He walked home himself along with us, no one giving him help.
What annoyed me was his stubborn weight. We got home and measured him, Sharp taking the rope and wrapping it around Cheesy, going around him several times. The other end of the rope had reached around and around his waist, but nothing much had changed. The end of the rope had only passed the bitten indentation by two inches, which was a small accomplishment. Not what we were gunning for though. The indentation mark had to be way past the other end of the rope, else Cheesy would be stuck at this weight.
I sucked in air, irritated at the snail speed progression. All those laps around the counter and this is all we had to show for it?? At this pace, when will I ever get to go outside? I thought bitterly to myself. Cheesy hovered behind me, seeing that I was frustrated with his situation. He placed his hand on my shoulder in an effort to comfort me.
"I'll train harder brother. Therefore, I'll do whatever it takes, please don't give up on me" he cried softly. I looked up at him with a glimpse, hatred in my eyes for how much of an obstacle he was. There was light dancing in the corner of his eyes, which were widened and filled with innocence and naivety. He genuinely was trying his best, as best as he could, and looking back at it, I should have never had been so hard on him. He was doing all that we set out with no noise, trudging through the pain in his joints, the sweat, that gross itchy feeling your skin got when your blood started to warm up. And there I was, tearing him down still all because I wanted to go outside. Little did I know prior to his demise, there was nothing out there unless he was by my side.
. ......................................
The training sessions began to get more grueling.
Cheesy was now able to run around the counter effortlessly, without stopping for even the slightest break. His twenty push-ups were done within the blink of an eye, and now we were moving on to climbing. We stuck to our promise and gave him his Cheese every time he completed a routine. This fueled his obsession with it even more.
Now he wanted it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, craving for nothing else but that gross, yellow block he considered tasty. But we wouldn't accept that. He was becoming too complacent again. So, we cut down his meals of cheese every day and gave him something healthy, like apple bits and carrots and whatever else fruit was in the garbage. (Thank God the giant constantly ate fruit and vegetables every day.)
He would look at the plate in front of him and sigh deeply, screwing up his face to cry. When he used his "baby voice" to get his way and have Mother finally cave in to give him what he wanted, Sharp and I would steal pieces of his food out of his plate, Sharp acting as a distraction while I took the food when she wasn't looking. I would swap the plates, exchanging his for something healthy. After that, Mother would give him a full-bodied massage, her heart aching from hearing him groan over his pains.
'' This is too much for you to eat. It'll just make you gain weight''. I would say. We would do this, and still push him extra hard. I was so unequivocally focused on my goal that I didn't even incorporate stretches into our routine, I just knew that we had so much to do, and so little time to do it. Though we saw Mother helping him with that, we still didn't make an effort to do it.
"Before she let the rodent suffer and know what pain is like to toughen him up, she's chosen to massage him. Further turning him into a wimp. Didn't she know that pain made one stronger?" Sharp hissed, me rolling my eyes and ignorantly agreeing with him. Everything we did was centered around Cheesy now, especially when he wasn't in our presence. We would gossip about him and his lazy ways, how Mother spoiled him, and what cruel routine we were going to come up with to batter him during training in the mornings.
The next morning, after he finished his routine, we decided that it was time for him to learn how to climb. It was the last day before the Giant had his prolonged stay home, as he would leave his house for 5 days straight from early morning to late afternoon or night, then he would come back and stay home for the two days.
We were standing inside the space of the island counter and the wooden counter attached to the wall. All three of us beside the stove and the garbage bin that would flap up when you stepped on its stair.
"Okay Cheesy, today we're gonna teach you how to climb up to surfaces. Up the counters, up on the edges of doors, up the stove, up between the spaces of the couch. Once you have claws, and yes, you do, you can climb up on much of anything. Sharp? Show Cheesy how its done" I gestured my hand to Sharp, who quickly filed out his claws from his paw, bore them into the smooth surface of the wooden cupboard door, and heisted himself up.
We watched Sharp make a quick ascent up, bringing one paw in front of the other, his claw acting as some kind of suction cap to get him further and further up. Before we knew it, he was up on top of the Kitchen counter now, where all the spoons, forks, knives and food laid about.
The locks on Chessy's jaws were unbolted, he peered up in amazement at Sharp's agility. He had seen Sharp climb up a hundred times before, that couldn't have surprised him. What probably was so shocking to him was that we expected him to climb up on such a high surface. Facts remained that he was still too big. I wondered if he would be able to pull up his own weight.
Sharp descended down the lengthy wooden door, reverse climbing and going backwards until his tail touched the floor. Then he hopped off beside me.
''Alrite Cheesy so, this is what you do. You go like this'' Sharp stretched out his claws and etched it on the wooden door of the cupboard, sticking himself in one place.
"You dig your nails into the wood. Then you take that same claw, grab it out and reach forward. You pull yourself up, really digging and shifting the weight into your feet too" Sharp placed one paw in front of the other, clutching his sharp nail into the wood, and pulling himself up.
Cheesy sat there, stunned, looking up in bewilderment. He sighed with a hand on his hip, the other hand scratching the behind of his ear.
'' You guys may have been able to get me to run but... I'm no climber. I'm deathly afraid of heights. Suppose I fall?'' he complained.
"And plus, therefore, I don't think I can hold myself up for such a long time" he added.
"What do you mean you insufferable whiner?? Why do you think we've been having you do push-ups all this time? You must have some sort of upper body strength by now" I protested.
"Yes, but that's different. Push-ups are just from the ground. I don't think I could do anything from high up like that." Cheesy gave us his famous "please have mercy on me" look. I folded my arms and raised my eyebrows, not being convinced. Looking across to Sharp, I saw that he had a thoughtful look on his face.
"Hmmmm...well it would be alot easier for you to climb if you were just a little smaller in size..." Sharp conceded, his gaze carefully observing Cheesy.
A little smaller??In size?? Sharp had to be kidding me.
"What do you mean a little smaller in size? For Drat's sake Sharp, he's been doing push-ups everyday" I hissed, agitated that he could even bring up such nonsense.
"I think he has a point Burrs. I'm just saying, he's still a little thick. Let's have him run more and lose a few more pounds."
"He's been running for days Sharp!! The hell??you think I have any more space for delays?? He's climbing now, right now. He can still run and do his push-ups, plus the climbing. That was what we talked about. That was what we agreed on no?"