He clawed his way up relentlessly, head swerving form left to right, searching for even the slightest sound of that damned rat.
To-mas was up the tree, zooming past thick branches and leaves to no avail; twisting his head from left to right, searching branch after branch.
He stopped after passing five branches on each side, resting on the sixth and wondering where that stupid flesh bag had gone.
'"Shit!!!! That wasteful piece of-" before he could finish his expletives, he saw something on the trunk.
He leaned closer, zoning in to decipher what it really was.
It was streaks of dark red blood.
To-mas looked closer.
There was a trail of it going up further and further into the tree. He jumped off the branch, climbing up on the trunk, sniffing the blood.
"Hmm..rat blood." he confirmed. To-mas's tail danced giddily at this discovery. He was delighted at his findings.
'' Mr. Burrow forgot he was injured and decided to climb to the top of the tree. Silly, unintelligent creature'' To-mas licked his lips and smiled, clambering his way up in the tree eagerly following behind the trail of blood.
As the cat single mindedly made his ascent up to the tree, so engulfed with the trail of blood that unknowingly, he passed a suspicious pair of eyes hidden on a limb.
A pair of tiny eyes peaked out of the crevices of two broad leaves on the branch he zoomed past; The mysterious gaze following the cat as it went up to the top of the tree, watching until he completely disappeared. When it was clear that the feline had gone completely out of sight the eyes came out from the leaves.
Burrow sighed, glad that his plan worked.
''He fell for it...he actually fell for it'' He whispered, exhaling even more deeply to steady his shaking nerves.
"Thank God that second shingle slipped. It slowed him down and gave me enough time to fake a blood trail"
Burrow had done what any smart rodent would do, taking the inconveniences thrown at him and transmuting it to work in his favor. The shingle slipping was certainly something that could have made him fall off of the rooftop, but it ended up being a missile aimed towards the cat instead, so he used this opportunity as a head start that gave him enough time to fake a blood trail, making it look like he was desperately climbing up the tree to hide from To-mas.
It was deception, trickery even, like the games that that manipulative cat would play, but if he wanted to get out of here alive, he had to indulge in the deception of this game he whimsically called "cat and mouse."
He looked up to the sky and thanked his sweet Mommy Mince, glad that her and his brothers were watching out for his safety in ways he just could not explain. He felt them checking for him even in the afterlife, and at each step down the road of his dangerous, darkened path, he felt them there, with him.
Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted. He looked to his back.
The pain from his wounds was numbed from the rush of adrenaline. He couldn't feel the pain as he used to, but he did feel that it was bleeding out. He twisted his head to the side to see the lengthened slashes across his back.
They were swollen and pulsating, blood seeping over the white flesh down his waist and on the branch, crawling over it and landing to the depths of the Earth.
He watched the droplets of his life force descend down into midair, from so far up, being at least 50 feet off of the ground. Burrow shuddered at the plunge, choosing to focus instead at the view that was in front of him.
Green mounts of landscape that arched and bent in its dips and twists, stretched for miles across the horizon. The hills were studded with trees that stood tall, pink cedar flowers covering most of the trees and standing out from the crowd of green. Bamboo trees bent in the wind, the dried leaves on them creating a pleasant woosh sound as their bodies leaned for the strong winds.
Nature and all its wonder were so beautiful. The intense joy he felt when he was on the window ledge eating the chicken was back, and he recognized how blessed he was to be living in this particular moment. A part of him couldn't help but feel guilty, like he didn't deserve to be seeing this. He remembered telling his brothers days ago that the first thing he was going to do when he got outside was go to the top of a tree and look out.
Burrow felt a mixture of emotions. He always talked about how he would climb the highest tree and be bigger than everyone else. He remembered nights bragging about it over and over again with his Family.
Reaching his goal, he thought he would have been happy, ecstatic even. Now, being at the top and looking down at everything, he felt..alone.
He accomplished something that he said he would, and that was good. The lengths that it took him to get here seemed to overshadow his success...
When he made that promise, they were all there with him. Burrow didn't know that they wouldn't have lived to see his dreams come true... The joy he felt was quickly replaced by a deep, inexplicable emptiness. He felt sad that it had to be this way.
"No... I made a promise, and I did it. I know you all can see it from wherever you are" Burrow wiped the oncoming tears from his eyes and continued enjoying the moment for all of them. The sense of happiness permeating his being for the known fact that he at least fulfilled one of his promises to his Family, and to himself.
" See Mother Mince?? Can you see it Cheesy?? And Sharp??? I made it to the top of the tree...Look! Don't you all see that I'm bigger than everything??" twinges of emotion twisted in Burrow's chest and his voice quivered, he breathed and swallowed, trying to choke back the gut-wrenching sadness.
He shook his head and snapped out of it.
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I didn't have time to cry right now. I had to focus on escaping that ravenous cat. It wouldn't be soon until he realized that I tricked him. Almost instantaneously, the gravity of the situation hit me harder than Mother slapped Sharp that night, planting me back to where I was.
''I've got to get out of this tree''
I dashed across the lengthy branch away from the leaves that were hiding me and flew down on an even thicker branch that was below it. If I didn't move fast and take this opportunity to make my escape, I wouldn't live to see another day. That feline was persistent where most cats would've given up by now, and who knows what where or even how he would show up next. And I didn't want to be here to find that out.
So I got going, darting towards the tree trunk climbing and jumping down form limb to limb, descending rather quickly.
The wind blew through my fur as I travelled, hopping further and further down the tree. As I was about to jump from one branch to the next, I heard something.
''Boo!!!!''
I spun around quickly to see To-mas, sitting down in that awfully cocky, laid-back way he usually did, his tail swinging wildly from left to right.
His back was against the tree trunk that the branch was attached to, blocking my path to escape. My tail faced the ending of the branch, which lead off into the midair way over the ground and the garden; there was no more branches immediately under it.
It was nothing but a long fall to the ground below.
The cat got up and sauntered towards me slowly, stretching one paw in front of the other as I backed away further and further onto the branch. I looked down at the far ground that plunged far away and gulped, my chest tightening with fear.
''If I can't enjoy you for all this trouble you've put me through, Mr. Burrow, I can at least watch you fall to your death, '' he purred.
Dammit! Every time I thought I had placed enough distance between me and To-mas to escape, he came right back, even harder than before. Now I was stuck on the ledge of this branch, and if I continued backing further and further away, I would fall of this limb. The ground was so far down.
To-mas hissed, the sour, baneful gaze of his furrowed eyes pinned on me.
He swung his claws at me; I jumped back, my back foot slipping, almost going off the branch.
"Drats!!" quickly hooking my claws into wood, I steadied myself.
A splinter of the branch fell down to the ground, disappearing off into the distance of the long, unforgiving fall.
My paws shook around the wood I was clasping for my dear life.
My fingers were touching. I couldn't rest my feet properly onto the limb;
I took a quick glance back. The branch phased out into a thin, squiggly line, with only enough space for one more jump back.
After that it ended, off into the abysmal fall.
I turned my head to To-mas. He cackled lowly.
"It's funny. I thought I would have eaten you. But I certainly settle!!!-" To-mas swung his claw again, swiping blood and skin off my chest.
I rolled back onto the thin end, quickly sinking my claws in the wood to stop my body from rolling off the branch; my heartbeat sped up, I could feel the sweat easing into my wounds and burning my back again.
"For watching you fall to your death!!!" With a hiss, To-mas swung again, and I dodged, falling over to the very end of the branch, my space running out.
I looked down at the sunken fall nervously, feeling the spit in my throat dry up. The limb was shaking, and I held on to the thin, twiggy stem, pressing myself in to keep all my feet on the little space that was left.
My eyes swerved in all directions, looking for a solution even in this hopeless situation.
Come on Burrow. There has to be something you can do...I can't go out like this. Not like this!
I glanced over To-mas' head at the tree trunk and then, an idea hit me.
It was so simple, right in my face all along. All I had to do was give the cat what he wanted.
Taking a deep breath I spread my hands out, willfully letting go of the branch and falling back.
I twisted my body around in the air, swinging my claw out to the underneath of the thin branch and hooking it into it.
Swinging my legs forward till my toes reached to the limb, I anchored them into the stem, hitching myself upside down to the underside of the branch. My body was latched on to the underside of the branch, and now it was time for the second part of my plan.
I clambered my way back in a somewhat awkward reverse climb, zooming under To-mas and carefully, but quickly, passing him from underneath.
As soon as I reached the thick part of the branch, I turned up and swung back right side up, sprinting towards the trunk and jumping off the branch onto the next one beneath, descending down the tree; leaving To-mas behind.
"Hmm...the chase continues.." The cat turned around calmly, running off the branch and followed after Burrow, jumping off one limb onto another, Burrow way ahead of him.
"You did it. You did it Burrow. All you have to do now is get the hell out of this tree and dash for the fence. No more hiding and waiting "I said t to myself.
I leaped down the tree, hoping on one branch after the other, going further down in my descent. My heart leaped vicariously in my chest, the adrenaline blasting through my veins, a part of me excited for escaping that stupid cat and annoying him. The chase was life threatening, but fun. I chucked it up to animal instinct.
Looking down and judging, there was roughly under 40 more limbs to jump down from before I would reach the ground.
After jumping off another twig, I leaped onto the tree trunk, pressing my body back and springing forward to hop on a next branch. As I flew through the air an abrupt jolt zapped over my back, an outburst of pain exploding through my body.
My feet slipped off the branch and completely missed the landing; I fell over, slamming against the limb underneath.
The pounding from the slam was so great, that I was unable to scream or cry out, nothing but gasps of soundless air escaping out of my lungs.
I sunk my claws and gripped the wood to somehow cope with the pain. There was blood all over the spot where I landed, I could feel it seeping down the branch.
Everything was happening all at once. The stabbing, the burning, the itching, the nerve shock, all of it clumped into one huge wave of immense affliction, tearing through my back and travelling down my spine, shooting up and down, over and over again.
I tried to scream. I wanted to bawl, to cry, to howl like a dog, but I couldn't.
My mouth just moved, and no sound came out of it. I was in so much pain, I couldn't even express it.
It was just the tears that manifested. The tears with its burning emotions.
I wondered why God had put me through all this. His purpose was for me to live, to live for the people that couldn't, but the suffering. The toiling. The fighting, the running for my life...I couldn't stand it anymore.
This is too much hardship. Too much pain, too much enduring.....Dying was easy. Living is hard.
Arms shaking, I struggled to turn over, crawling forward from that awkward place on the limb.
I paused, looking up to the sky, looking for him. For God. For Mother. For hope.
For something. For anything....
Suddenly, the branch shook violently. I clamped myself down and held on tightly until it stopped rocking.
To-mas landed in front of me on the outer end of the limb. He rose up, antagonized and indignant.
As I rose up he came over me, pressing his paw down on my back and pinning me to the limb. He unsheathed his claws, digging them into the swollen, pulsating wounds, his claws deep into my bloody, throbbing flesh.
I flung out my arms and squealed like a child, whimpering in between tears for him to stop. Crying out for Mother, and for God to help me.
To-mas laughed, sniggering at the way my body twisted under the pain. After what seemed like forever, he unclenched his nails out of my flesh, bringing it up to his mouth, and licking it gently.
"You know Mr. Burrow. I have to give credit, where credit is due. You are quite persistent, and definitely, a worthy adversary. In fact, if you were a cat instead of a mouse maybe, just maybe..we could have been friends." As he said that, I breathed.
Adjusting my neck I brought my head up slowly under trembling arms; I stared at him intently through teared, squinting, frustrated eyes.
"I....would....rather die right here...right now, than to be friends with...the...likes...of...you." I gasped, panting in between breaths.
"Your...nothing..but a murderous, soulless....disillusioned.... puss, who can't even.... catch a rat the first...time...." I coughed into my hand, pushing forward. If these were my last words, I would get all of them out.
" It took you a million tries.... to catch someone... who's smaller... and weaker... than... you... and even.... now... with this wound... on my back, you... still will never ...be.... able.... to... catch... me." I began coughing, barely holding myself up to continue.
Saying that I began to cough, something wet and warm coming up my throat. I looked down at my paw.
There was a big splotch of blood in it.
"Drats...." I muttered.
To-mas stood there, frozen. His eyebrows scrunched up; his mouth twisted into a scowl. He flickered his tubby nose, his face an irate expression. He closed his eyes and inhaled.
"I'm not going to waste my anger on a rat. I have better things to do " he growled.
To-mas hissed, opening his mouth and hoovering over me; I could feel the warmth of his breath over my head, the sting of his fangs beginning to pierce my flesh.
Ultimately, I knew this was how it all ended.
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