Sharp and Cheesy's eyes popped as they saw the light from the door enter the room.
Two pairs of evil, glowing eyes and a set of fangs glistened with the light shining from the door.
Sharp and Chessy stood there, frozen. The cat dangled his tail about and lowered its back, ready to launch off after them.
"Run!" Sharp rang the alarm and they both took off, him springing out of the tea pot and Cheesy leaping off the pipe, running behind him.
The cat scampered on pots and pans that clinked and clanked as he ran after them in the tight, clambered space. Sharp ran over a pot and so did the To-mas, he dug into a teapot, twisted and turned in between the narrowed spaces of the metals, the cat right on his tail; The bangs and clatters of pots went throughout the room. Cheesy had managed ran to the very far corner that below the hole that they came through in the back, spacing himself from the cat and waiting on Sharp to come.
"Run I said !! Noww!!" Sharp ordered him, the cat's mouth right on his back as he leaped over a miniature silver tray, To-mas bowed his head and snapping at him.
" No!!! I won't!!" Cheesy hissed, his eyes searching around for anything he could grab. He looked to the right at a metal pressure cooker top that had a bit of rubber on it. Cheesy ran to the metal topper and grabbed it, climbing on top of the pot to position himself to the height of the cat.
"God I hope this works" he whispered to himself. He held the metal topper in the air, arching it in his paws, behind his back the way a stone was set in the rubber bands of a catapult.
Sharp was running straight to him, in a labored attempt to get to the hole.
"Shaaarrrppp!!!! Duck!!!" Cheesy yelled.
Sharp jumped off of a huge pot and flew up into the air, the cat on his tail. Cheesy used all his strength and threw the metal piece straight into Sharp's direction.
''Drats!!!" Sharp braced himself backward, his torso and head falling back to the ground as the object whizzed over him, only missing him by a split second.
"Raawwwr!" the top piece smashed into the cat's face with the ferocity of a bullet, knocking To-mas on his back flat onto the floor, a huge knack sounded out the room as pots and pans of all shapes and sizes fell on top of him.
"Yessss!!!!" Chessy exclaimed. Sharp got up slowly from landing on his back, eyes widened in complete astonishment. His eyes goggled between the mountain of pots that covered To-mas and back to Cheesy over and over again, Cheesy standing there with his arms folded, looking on triumphantly.
''Cheesy what the hell kind of late warning was that!!!???" he shouted, feeling how rampant his heart rate was from having to bend backward in such a short space of time. Sharp stood there utterly impressed with the resistance his brother showed, but frightened in how wrong everything could have gone. If he wasn't a quick mover that metal piece would have slammed him right in the face, pushing straight to the cat's grip.
''I told you to duck didn't I???!! Now let's get out of here before that determined bastard gets up!!" Cheesy grabbed Sharp's hand and they climbed up and ran out of the hole, going onto the cupboard, climbing down and running across the kitchen floor.
They zoomed and headed straight back through the peephole, to their holdings.
By this time the Giant was hiding away in his bedroom having watch and heard the commotion and deciding that he didn't need the screwdriver as much as he thought he did.
"Ohhh you guys just soak it all up now, have as much fun as yuh can fellas. Enjoy it while yuh can cause y''all be sorry lata.." he mumbled, getting up and closing the bedroom door behind him.
................................................................................
Burrow sat there with his legs crossed and arms folded, listening to the action-packed adventure that his brothers just had.
"Running on the pots, tryna out run this dusty cat and then this one yelled "Duck Sharp!!" before I knew it the mad buck took some metal thing and hailed it straight at me!!! If I hadn't dipped in time it would've smacked me right in tha face, straight across the floor but it hit the damned cat iinstead!!" Sharp exclaimed, his eyes as round as the moon, hands shaking vigorously in the air. He was always so animated when he told his stories. Burrow swung his head around at Cheesy, looking at him up and down, left and right.
"Cheesyyy??? Did you really do that??" he asked, surprised, Cheesy face gleaming with a smile form corner to corner.
"He did Burrs!! He really did!! You should have seen it, it was incredible!!!" Sharp added excitedly, gripping my shoulders and shaking them.
''And then the lil miser had the nerve to turn and tell me "BuT i ToLd YoU to DUck ShaRp!" Another bout of laughter blasted out into the air, Sharp holding onto Cheesy as they both gaffed.
"But you ducked didn't you?? So I don't see what the problem is."
"Yeah but it was risky Cheesy, yoou could have hit me!!! But it was a good move. The cat certainly won't mess with you after a defense like that...hmmm I'm starting to rub off on you ehhhhhh??" Sharp teased, him and Sharp play fighting both of them putting their fists up like wrestlers.
"And, I got my reward!!" Cheesy mummed into the cheese holding in his hand, filling his mouth with the hefty block of Cheese that Sharp saved for him.
"Fun and games aside guys, that was a dangerous fleet that the two of you took today, just to get us some breakfast. Every time we go out to get something to eat now, it becomes life threatening and one of us almost dies. We've already lost mother, and I don't think I could handle losing one of you. So..I've decided" Burrow sat up now, Cheesy and Sharp paying full attention to him.
"I know Mother is shaking her head at us in the heavens, but it's obvious that we can't stay here guys. We have to go, as soon as possible" he mentioned.
"True" both Sharp and Cheesy agreed, nodding their heads. They were young bucks that needed to live their lives as rodents, they needed to get experience and adventure. And they surely wouldn't get it by staying in a house couped up like this.
"Life was meant for us to live free brothers. We need to go out, start families, build ourselves a home. Whether we find another house to squat in or stay there for a while, or choose to stay out in the wild, it doesn't matter. The cat and the giant are fully aware of us now, and I feel the urgency to get out more and more everyday as we become such a nuisance. So, we venture on tomorrow morning, early, and we won't look back. Agreed?" Burrow eyes flickered from Sharp to Cheesy, both of them exchanging looks and noticing each other's expressions.
Burrow placed his hand in, still watching for what his brothers would do.
"Mother is gone after all...therefore there's nothing here to live for" Cheesy said. He took a deep breath and stepped forward, placing his paw on Burrow's.
"Mother isn't here to guide us anymore..but I'm tired of this place. I need to go out and start my army" Sharp grinned, stepping forward and putting his paw in the circle.
"A Cheesy, Burrow and Sharp adventure!!" Cheesy shouted jovially, smiling from ear to ear as he looked around.
"It's us against the world now bros. The rodent brothers are coming to take over the world!" Brothers for life!!" Sharp shouted, Cheesy and Burrow following after.
Then the three brothers placed their heads down in a circle, listening carefully to Burrow as he explained his plans for them to escape tomorrow....
...............................................................................
IN THE KITCHEN
That same night the Perkins got up and went to the kitchen, yawning and stretching as he scratched his head to remember what he came in the kitchen for..
"Oh!! Yes that's why I'm here" he said, going into the cupboard above his head and taking out a tall bottle. The cat came around the corner, rubbing his head against the Giant's leg and purring.
He ripped a tag off of the bottle, placing it on the counter.
The man took a red marker from his pocket, screwing the top off and writing on the bottle.
He marked the words "Kerosene" in big, red bold letters on the front of the bottle. With a stretch of his arms, he got up, sleepily going back to bed.
.............................................................................
THE NEXT DAY
The morning rooster crowed in the distance, the cold chilliness of the night fading away. To-mas rested peacefully in the garden hidden by the left side of the house; his head ducking in and out of sleep from watching the bird and her babies in the tree.
"Crrrawwwww!!!!" the bird screeched, waking To-mas out of his slumber. He turned his head to the oak tree over the wooden fence and saw her. With a drawback of her gargantuan, broad wings she flew off, going to hunt for food.
The sly puss had been watching her nest for a while now and managed to clock her schedule down to a T, noting the times that she left her nest of eggs in the mornings, what time she got back, how long she was out for.
So To-mas began to calculate the equation.
She didn't take very long to get food, only about 10 minutes, 15 tops. And she leaves early when the sun is barely out, flying off at least three times a day. Now in the morning, another time when the sun was hot and blazing, and only sometimes in the late afternoons, when the sun was going down. Hmmm...I can work with this...To-mas thought manically to himself.
'Mmmmm...you don't worry little baby birds. I'll get to enjoy you just now...when the time is right" he said. The cat snugged back into the cool soil of the garden, licking his lips and closing his eyes to imagine what they tasted like.
........................................................................
THE HOLDINGS
Inside Perkins was still sound asleep, snuggled under his comforter in his bedroom, snoring away.
Burrow, Cheesy and Sharp were up and alert, having eaten already.
"Today's the day we get our freedom guys. No more cooping and hiding in a stupid giant house" Burrow cheered them on.
"That's right! We're fighters all of us, we're all ready for the world and I just wanted to say..that I'm proud of you two knuckle heads and no matter what happens out there, I'll always have your backs" Sharp hugged both of his brothers by the shoulders, Cheesy getting teary eyed. He never thought Sharp would come to a point where he could openly say how he felt freely, especially once it came on to his emotions.
Burrow got stiff under Sharp's embrace, not used to this sudden inflex of emotion from him. He wondered if the prospect of them getting out of their comfort zone by going outside was perhaps too much for Sharp, burdening him so much that he did things he usually wouldn't do.
''Okay now that they emotional exchanges are out of the way.." Burrow narrowed his eyes at Sharp, who flipped him off.
"Let's be off, before the Giant wakes up" Burrow straightened up and looked at his brothers, nodding his head at them. They nodded back. He took a few steps forward and as he stepped out into the peephole, Cheesy held Burrow back, one paw on his shoulder.
"Maybe we should pray first. You know..as protection" Cheesy offered hesitantly.
Of course, Cheesy would want to pray to that nonexistent, false God. Burrow rolled his eyes he sighed, him and Sharp sharing the same exasperated expression.
"Okay fine fine let's make this quick" Sharp insisted, all of them huddling into a circle with Cheesy in the middle, bowing their heads and beginning to pray. Sharp began.
"Dear Lord. We come to you today asking you to cover us with your wisdom, strength, and guidance. Protect us on our journey as young adult bucks, as we go out into this crazy world filled with enemies that are bigger, better and may be even stronger than us. Even though you know Lord, that I'm not afraid of any of them. I'll shove my foot so far up-"
"Ahhheeemmmm" Burrow cleared his throat, hindering Sharp's sentence before he could say what he wanted to. He paused, starting again.
"I mean. Lord, let us remember that even though our mother is up there with you now, help us to honor her by having each other's backs, by watching over each other and keeping our heads tall as rodents. Not the other r word. Amen"
"Amen" Cheesy and Burrow finished, opening their eyes.
"Lets go!" Burrow charged, the three brothers stepping outside the peephole.