"There's ten pounds a sweet potato in the barn Boy!!! Peel all of em and I don't wanna see a single shred wasted!" The Giant shouted those words out into the air, crazed, focused eyes staring out into the distance. Sharp rolled back onto the blanket the Giant was using to cover his body, rolling down to the man's belly as he jutted himself upwards.
The rodent's stomach could have fallen to the floor at this point, Sharp ducking his head and scrambling for cover from the Giant's anger. Burrow squealed and held his head too, looking away and not wanting the last memory he had of Sharp being him smacked into oblivion by the Giant's enlarged hands.
Farmer Perkins had been riddled with bouts of sleep talking ever since he was a child. Even now as a 50-year-old man, it never ceased. After saying his piece, the poor tired man closed his eyes and fell back into the chair, falling back into his sleep and continuing to snore. Sharp, still covering his head and cowering in, realized that nothing was happening.
The rodent peaked out thorough his fingers, looking sheepishly at the Giant. Sharp saw that the Farmer was till sleeping. He rose up, puzzled.
"But he was up just a moment ago...now he's sleeping again?? Hmm....when he shouted, he wasn't looking at me. Maybe he was sleep talking...Giants slept talked to?? Thought only Cheesy did that. Hmmm! Ahhh well on I go" he leaped forward, his paw still firmly gripping the mint bush.
Burrow peeked out from behind the couch, his eyes raised.
He peered at the man who was now resting peacefully.
Him and Sharp exchanged surprised looks, both of them still quite confused about what just happened and not questioning it. Sharp proceeded to climb down the man's shirt and descending down the couch tail, meeting Burrow with the Mint Bush in his hand.
A stupendous grin plastered all across the victor's face, he rose the mint stalk in the air, waving it about like a peace flag, holding the other hand up for a high five.
Burrow stood there with his arms folded, the opposite expression on his face. He came forward to Sharp, pretending to smile and raising his paw for the high five, choosing to slap him in the head instead.
"Ow!!!" Sharp gasped, rubbing the side of his head.
"Are you insane??? Does everything you do have to be crazy?? He could've woken up and killed us all!" Burr whispered loudly.
"Kill us all how??? Giants are very slow. Plus, I got the bush didn't I? Now Mother can get better faster, and everything will be fine again, thanks to me. I can't have you do everything Burrow" Sharp answered, patting Burrow on the shoulder.
"Ohhh so is that what this is about??? Who gets the most points for Mother's affection?? Sharp this isn't a damned race for rat's damnation, if you had gotten killed then what would become of it? You know what, whatever. You win. Let's go home.''
"Right" Sharp agreed. The two rodents turned to walk away and as they did, two pairs of golden eyes greeted them.
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"Hmmm" To-mas purred delightfully, waving his tail as he observed.
In front of him was not one, but two rodents. Actually, this was four rodents he had seen in total since he came into the house. He was counting them every time they had an encounter and marking them. The big one whose back he left with a scar he assumed to be the Mother, the one who dropped the vase on him was right in front of him, holding that bush. The other one whose belly he scathed before having said vase dropped on him, was right next to the vase dropper.
It was a good thing I left marks on different parts of their bodies to differentiate, he thought to himself. Differentiation was key when you were dealing with pests. They all looked the same. Pigeons, those small boney hummingbirds, hamsters, cockroaches, maggots, ants.
Rats.
It didn't matter to him though. Pests were delicious, and it seemed that with their appearance before him, breakfast was instantly on the go this morning; And my oh my, what a pleasant start to the day. He felt gleeful at the thought of wetting his palate with two deliciously sized, juicy rats. Besides the big one had gotten away, and now it was time to make up for that. He faced them directly, sniffing in all the fear that the two, cowering rats were giving, revving up his desire to kill them even more.
"Sooooo...." He flung his tail about, finding it hard to contain his excitement.
" There are four of you here. With me, To-mas, in this house'' he uttered.
Burrow and Sharp stood there, glaciated in absolute dread. The brothers' eyes swiveled, both of them swapping nerve filled looks with each other. They continued listening to the feline as he spoke.
''There was another one I encountered the other day. Oh she was a big one. Adult like. I was about to grab her but she slipped out of my claws, '' The cat spoke carefully as he looked at Burrow, Burrow instantly looking at the ground. His body remembered the injury To-mas inflicted on him, his cuts on his belly beginning to ache again.
Straightaway, the cat looked at Sharp, Sharp's nervous reflection mirroring on his glossy eyes.
"And there he issss. The bravest rodent I've come across in my entire life. Ohhh I remember you. You know, no pest has ever thrown any type of vase or object on my back in that manner. It's always the Humans doing those kinds of things, but never small insects, like you all" The cat paused, looking up into the ceiling as if he were trying to remember something.
The cat simply flicked his tongue out, raising his paw to lick the underside of it.
Sharp and Burrow moved backward, cautious of any sudden movements.
"Wow wow wow, my little rat friends. All I did was lick my paw. Don't be alarmed." he said coolly, resting the same paw down on the floor.
The cat chuckled, seeing how frightened they were.
Burrow leaned his head over to Sharp, saying something ominous in a lowered tone.
"We'll split up. Meet me back at the room" Burr whispered, Sharp silently acknowledging him. Gearing up to take off, he placed the Mint stalk in his mouth.
"Oooohhh, sharing secrets now aren't we. Why did you push the stick in your mouth like that??" the malevolent cat placed one paw forward as he teased.
"I want to hear a secret too!!" instantly the cat pounced at them, Sharp going to the left and Burrow running to the right. To-mas twists his body around, speeding off after the one that went to the right.
I'll get that vase pusher later, right now the one already injured is easiest to catch, he thought to himself. Keeping his eyes laser focused on Burrow he scamped after him, following him, moving wherever he moved. They ran straight down the kitchen floor, passing the start of the island. Mid way of it To-mas pounced off of his legs and landed right on Burrow's tail, his claw digging into the thick middle part of it.
Burrow squealed in pain as the acute claw penetrated his tail; the shock travelling to his legs. Despite that he turned right, running towards the door of the storage room and squeezing himself under the door. The cat, slow to his turn, continued sliding across the floor with a screeching sound, his claws scrapping the wood as he anchored himself.
Calmly, he got up, seeing that the worm had squirmed into the storage room under some hole. But it was a familiar room, a room he always slept in.
"Hmmmm.... Let's see how long you can evade me Mr. Rat"
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The cat comes into the storeroom, his eyes roaming from corner to corner, searching for the escapee. The room was filled with old, torn up, grey rag cloths that were filled with black engine oil stains, scattered all over the floor. The Cat peeked his head in through the crack of the door, taking his time to mosey in, whiskers quivering as he snuffed the air. He smelt something.
It was the rat's scent close by. The cat turned his head to that direction. Immediately, he followed his nose to the left of him, going towards an extensive, two doored closets, both having mirrors attached to them. He got closer, the wretched scent bleeding through a narrow space between the back of the closet and the wall.
To-mas pushed his paw between the tight space, patting the wall and struggling to turn, examining the possibility that something might be there.
In the furthest, darkest corner, Burrow watched the furry white paw at the edge of the tunnel.
He dressed back, pressing his back even more to the wall.
At this moment, the rodent was grateful for his size. He and the rest of his kind could fit anywhere, no matter how compact the space would be. Cats couldn't do that, which meant they were limited in the places they went hunting for prey.
Burrow sticked out his tongue as he watched the Cat's paw feel around aimlessly. It was completely dark, and the Cat could not see him at all, which completely safeguarded his presence.
To-mas began to feel ridiculous doing this. He rolled his eyes and walked off, going further into the room. He wasn't giving up just yet. That dirty rat had to be somewhere around here, he reasoned.
Burrow breathes out as the cat walks away; waiting for the Cat to reach far away from him, and moving when he was sure that was. The careful rodent notched the edges of his claws into the wooden wall, feeling his way in the darkness and climbing up.
After going up what seemed an endless path, he finally clambered his way up to the top of the closet. There were five pink baskets that seemed trampled down, filled with old papers, rusty metal screws, nails and other miscellaneous junk. Burrow nestled into the rummage, nose tickling from the dust that surrounded him.
Burrow's eyes watched through the grided holes of the basket, studying the cat. The desperate Feline sniffed around between the spaces of old, beige barrels, seven of them aligned along the wall opposite to the side of the room he was at.
"Just look at him. Believing he's bigger and Badder than everyone else, expecting the World to bend to him " Burrow reflected, feeling insufferably weak. It took him climbing up to a heightened surface to gain any sort of significance in size over the Cat. Burrow looked down and sighed, wondering if this was the only way.
"Was this the only way that I'll be able to face up to them???? By going up to somewhere that was tall and extensive? what a miserable existence..." The rodent snuggled into the cloths; his mind riddled with all kinds of questions. He tried to re direct his thoughts, wondering where Sharp turned too, assuming that he must have reached home by now. He wondered how his mother was doing and if her fever had gone down. He hoped that it had gone down. This was the first time he had ever seen his mother in such a condition.
"Speaking of wounds..." Burrow swerved around and looked at his posterior, noticing the indentation that shows white flesh, blood trickling down the pink string of his tail. He poked at it gently, seeing that it was swollen to the touch.
"That cat really gave me a good nub in the tail...at least my other wounds are good" he patted his paws to the underside his stomach, feeling his sides again that were bleeding slightly, because of his vigorous running up and down.
"Damn! Or so I thought..." Burrow sighed, slumping in the pile of grey cloths. He looked out at top of the room. The cat was to the far end of the room now, underneath a closeted cloth rack where two scruffy curtains were drawn back, revealing a line of outworn dresses on hangers.
Numerous work boots and heels were aligned at the bottom, the Cat walked on them carefully, sniffing about in the darkened corners and finding nothing. Suddenly the rodent began to feel fortunate that he was not down there, even though the various objects where great hiding spaces to how clustered the room was with them.
"I think I'll just wait that cat out. If I stay quiet, he'll be gone in a few" he said to himself.
The tired rodent began licking his wounds, snuggling into the cloths.
Burrow struggled to keep his eyes open, sleep coming over him like a thief in the night.
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