"What!!!???? I can't believe this. Burrow, you're a cheater!!! Let's have a rematch!!" Sharp grabbed his Rodent King piece from the board and flung it over my side, hauling the piece with so much force that it scrapped my wrist.
"Owwwww!!!! So I'm the bad guy all of a sudden because your defense is weak? And you do know that if you play again, you're going to lose the 5th time in a row" I chortled mischievously, biting back at him for the wound he inflicted on my hand.
I hadn't played Dratsmate in a while against anyone really. To be honest, a small part of me missed it. Playing against my obnoxious brother reminded me of how much I enjoyed coming up with solutions on how to get myself out of certain situations. And the evil imp in me lived for his reactions to losing.
"This is unbelievable. This is the last time you'll beat me Mother's only begotten son. I'll make you cry. You watch" He narrowed his bushy eyebrows and wagged his finger at me, warning me.
Having to defeat Sharp for the hundredth time brought me nothing but great satisfaction. Sharp talked way too much and he needed to be humbled. I may not have been a fighter in the confrontational regard, but I certainly would go at any strategic method to gain victory. Strategy was much more satisfying than aimless brute strength and bravado.
Plus, his reactions were hilarious. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. In the third match we had, one of my rodent soldiers reached to his home base and turned into a Bishop so I ended up eliminating his Queen and King; The way his eyes bulged out of their sockets made his face look silly, and the expressions he made threw me off my chair, I had to hold my stomach and wipe my eyes, I laughed so hard that I cried.
"Haha!!Brother Burrow's got you in a pinch now Sharp!! Therefore, you're a loser!!" Cheesy was highly amused seeing his Sharp's misfortune, I was exacting revenge for him due to all those times Sharp had "cheated" him out of his win. Sharp began clearing the board and resetting the game since he lost, and as he did Mother came through the peephole.
"Boys! Mommy's home!!" her sweet, high-pitched voice reverberated through the hallway as she entered the peephole, the food knapsacks were the size of her body weight slung over her back. We swiveled around from the table to face her.
She let out a huge sigh, struggling to put even another foot in front of the other. The bags under her eyes were growing bigger as the days went by, and her eyes slanted, closing almost as if she were ready to sleep on the spot, right where she was.
"Let me get those for you Mother" I said, Cheesy, Sharp and I came forward at the same time, all of us lifting the hefty bag off of her back. We carried it to the dining table, plopping it down like an anchor sunken to the bottom of the sea.
"Ah ah ah!! Careful with that my loved ones. There are sandwiches in there, and I don't want the bread to get all crumbled. Take your time please.." Mother rubbed a spot in her back gently, a sound of great relief came from her as we took the burden. She smiled at us happily, getting on her hind legs and stretching her arms to the ceiling, showing the round, furry expanse of her tummy.
"So blessed I am to have three sons that love their mother intensely. I thank the father every day for you all. Now, let's eat!!" She roamed past us as we took the food over to the dining table, swinging her hips and singing as her paws touched our heads.
We all contributed to preparing the Table.
Cheesy and I set out the plates at their respective places, Mother instructed Sharp as he shared out the food, directing him on what portions to serve, and the size of the food.
"Yes yes, you flick the chicken off of the bread. Now give Cheesy two pieces with some veggies on the side" Sharp did as he was told, scoping up the shredded carrots, cabbage and onions and placing it beside the Chicken and Bread on Chessy's plate.
"Hmmm.." Mother stopped, looking between the plates and mauling it over. Her pupils strolled between the four plates before her.
"As a matter of fact, take a half piece off of Cheesy's portion. And add more vegetables to his sharing." Cheesy contested as he heard this.
"Mother!! That's too many vegetables and that portion of Chicken is fine. Please" Cheesy lunged forward so fast past me, grabbing the wrist of Sharp's hand as he dipped in the container for more vegetables to place it in Cheesy's plate.
"Oh would ya let go of my hand greedy buck. Vegetables are good for you" Sharp tore his hand form Cheesy's hold, grunting and cursing under his breath, loud enough for him to hear.
"You think that after all that Hell you put me and Burrow through, I'm gonna allow you to mess yourself up again??By eating unhealthy? Tah! I'd die first!!!" Sharp stuffed them heavily in his plate, taking the half of the second piece of chicken in his plate and yanking that off.
Cheesy turned to Mother with innocent eyes, puffing up his lips.
Out of nowhere, and I found It particularly strange, a shimmer of light bounced off of the corner of his pupils, shinning ever so brightly and complimenting his already oversized, ponderous eyes.
Mother rubbed Cheese's shoulder, puffing her bottom lip up in mockery of his attempt to feign empathy.
"I'm afraid I'm too tired to side with you on this one my Cheeseflower. Your brothers have spoken. They just want the best for you anyway." Mother chuckled under her breath, her feet sweeping the floor as she made her way around to the chair, sitting and taking the load of the day's troubles off of her feet. Cheesy rolled his eyes and got back to his seat beside Sharp, folding his arms and making a fuss about it.
"Okay my sons. You know we don't enjoy our food unless we hold hands and give thanks for what we have received. Bow your heads" Mother stretched out her hands to Sharp and I; Cheesy was in the middle. Sharp and I communicated our non-interest with weary, dreary eyes, while Cheesy already had his head bowed and his arms opened, waiting for us to grab them.
So I held his hand, closed my eyes, and swallowed my pride like I usually did, bowing my head for more of Mother's vain prayers.
...................................
Clinks of prickly claws scrapped against plates around the table, incisors ripping into meat pieces, lips smacking, crackling sounds of chicken bones crushing under teeth, all around the table. We were all ravenously hungry, and now that the cat had entered our situation; Mother had less time out there. She took longer intervals before going out again, only venturing twice every day, unlike the three times that she was used to.
And she was losing weight, which was typical for a Doe. Females tend to fluctuate in their weight patterns at any given period. But this seemed unusual..It's like she was losing it so fast. Mother was down almost two sizes than her regular weight.
"My my my..... I don't think I've ever seen anything like this! Forgive your Mother my Bucks! I am trying to have a complete understanding of some things..." Finally, she held her head up from digging into the Chicken, swiping the grease from her mouth as she talked.
"My fast paced, speed racer son wants to go out and have a rodent army, conquering the world and fighting against foxes, birds, whatever else, killing himself in the process of doing so." As she explained, she turned her neck to give Sharp a very unconvinced gaze. He smiled back at her and gave her a thumbs up to agree with her conclusion. She folded her lips and turned to Cheesy.
" The other one wants to climb to the most stacked tree and bite into the juiciest, most plump fruits. Hmmm..this one seems like Death by overindulgence of food" Moving her paws from her plate to her lips over and over again she scooped imaginary pieces of food into her mouth in a jester. Cheesy opened his mouth to contest and just as he did, Mother raised a finger up to stop him from speaking, turning her head to me.
"And my responsible, intelligent, and strategic son, wants something very simple. Something very, very simple.. almost too simple of a request if you asked me. But very unique" the corners of her face turned up into a loving smile; she rested her paw lightly on my shoulder. I looked up at her, wondering what her judgement of my situation would be. Then Sharp interrupted that.
" Ahhhh come on Mother. Yes we get it. Burrows so terribly responsible. So wise, so intelligent. So apparently different than the rest of us!!! Let us bow, and praise him" Sharp got out of his seat and rested on his knees, placing his arms out in front of him and bowing down, in an attempt to mock me.
"Tch. I don't see how in a rodent's wildest dreams is going to the top of a tree just to feel like your "bigger than everyone else" such a special thing to want. Seems delusional to think something like that'' Sharp raised up four of his fingers and phrased them when he said "bigger than everyone else" while rolling his eyes. He got back up on his feet and placed his hands by his side.
"My dream of leading a revolution sounds better. And it will benefit all of us more " He insisted, puffing out his chest and looking on into the distance.
This was one of the reasons Sharp got on my nerves. He always made it seem like whatever he was doing was far better than anything anyone could possibly come up with. His was the best option, anything else was crap. I got up and stood in front of Sharp, ready to state my defense against his belittling of my dreams. Mother grabbed my hand as I moved, coming in front of me and gesturing that she would handle this.
"Well, I think it's a special thing to want. For as long as the world has existed, beasts that are twice our sizes have reined. Would it be so bad to finally be in a position where you could be the one looking down at them? Where you were the bigger one this time??Even if it were for a second." Wrinkles squeezed in the corners of her bulgy eyes while she focused on Sharp with a questioning gaze. He looked back at her with a weary expression, nodding his head in acknowledgement and shifting to the side to the water buckets.
"I see there is no going against Burrow.." he muttered so low under his breath while I turned to Mother. She didn't hear his remark, but I did.
"Thanks Mother. I really appreciate how much you understand" A warm grin spread across my face; I hugged her while she affectionately rubbed my head. Of course, I didn't need anyone to validate what I sought out for myself, but having her support was nice.
After a few minutes of silence, we got back to finishing up our food. When done she implored us to get up and wash our hands, which we did promptly.
...............................................
Night came down faster than ever.
I was at the peephole, leaning against the doorframe and looking out into the space of the Kitchen and the living room. White luminous light painted the Mahogany floors of the empty Kitchen, the marbled island with its pots, pans and containers hanging over it as it centered the middle of the hallway.
I wanted so badly to go by the clearing glass. I longed to see the night sky.
Was it starless and clear? Was the moon up? Was it half-moon? A full moon? Was the deep blue black sky sprinkled with the twinkling bodies of the stars?
"Just...one look. Just one..." I placed my foot slightly out the doorframe of the peephole, slowly resting my foot on the ground. It felt so cool and soothing underneath. Even the ground outside of this constricted pen felt better...
"Burrow"
Sigh. I turned around to see Mother behind me. Why wouldn't she be? There was some invisible alarm that went off in her head as soon as anyone so much as attempted to step outside...
"Yes Mother?" I answered wearily.
"What are you doing up? And why are you going outside?? We've talked about this son" she inquired..
"Mother I wasn't going to do anything I was just resting my foot by the door. Would you please implore me some space-"
"Burrow"
"Yes?" I took her hand from off my shoulder while I turned to her, seeing the dim outlines of a worried expression on her face.
"It will happen Burrow, it will happen. You will get to venture out in the wild, you will get to step into the world and know your place. I know it's all you think about, more than anything else. You are going to have the time of your life out there..." she explained, lowering her head and motioning her two fingers for me to come closer.
"But in all seriousness, I beg of you to wait, just a bit more. Just a few more days, let that cat breeze out for a bit. We don't want him to get the impression that we are even here. The other day when we were under the couch was a really close call..." she held her chest and took a deep breath, seemingly terrified of remembering how close the cat came to figuring us out that time.
"After he's fully under the impression that there are no rodents in this house, I think its time me, you and the boys hit the road. We'll live out in the forest for a while. And most importantly, we will find somewhere else to live but I'll do it differently this time. I'll allow you boys to go out and come back into the other house we will find so that you don't feel restricted. We'll climb trees and eat fruits, I'll even show you guys how to make a real Burrow, and not just some hole in the wall. Promise?"
I tipped my head and folded my arms, my ears swallowing the words that were coming out of her mouth. Of course, she would want us to go live in another prison again. And even though she said she would allow us to go out and come in as we please, I wasn't buying her false promises.
When I got out of here, I was going my separate ways. I'd never live in a house again after having an experience like this. But what could I do for now but listen to her? The cat was a caricature in himself, and I didn't want her to die from a heart attack because I snuck out amongst his inhabitations.
"I suppose I could wait a bit more..." I answered reluctantly. A smile spread across her face, and she nodded in approval, rubbing my shoulders as she faced me.
"I know I can trust you Burrow. Of all my sons, you are the one that really listens to me. I know you'll watch over you Brothers when I'm gone-"
"Hey hey hey now Mother, please, don't speak like that" I warned her. I didn't want her to speak such things into being.
"No Son, we have to be realistic. Your Mommy won't be here forever." She admonished.
"Now, please, let's get some rest. I want to go out for some breakfast as early as possible for us, before that darned cat comes back inside. He ventures out early in the mornings I've noticed, so that's the best time for me to go" She patted me on the back and led me back to our nesting, caressing my shoulder all the while.
Before I got into my bed, she stopped me to say one last thing.
"And Burrow, you don't have to go to the tallest tree to feel bigger than your adversaries. It is by facing your enemies head on, even when you are afraid, that makes you bigger than the whole entire world, my son. Don't you ever forget that "
I sighed as she said that, acknowledging it and jumping into my bed.
Easier said than done Mother. Easier said than done.....
..................................