BURROW'S POV
"Your destiny Mr. Burrow is simply, to be eaten. You see, as I explained when we were on the rooftop some time ago, this is all nothing that's personal. It is the way of life, how nature has declared it would be. I need to eat to survive, and so do you. We are all living, breathing beings. The only difference between me and you is power." I sighed, feeling the rest of my life being drained out of my body. To-mas words sounded like we were under water. My head drifted down without me realizing it, and I shook myself back, waking up.
I give up Mother. I tried to have Faith like you told me to, and it still wasn't enough. I lost, and I'm going to see you, Sharp, and Cheesy soon. My eyes wondered to the top of the wooden fence, and I peered out into the horizon, hoping to see their smiling faces again. The cat was babbling something in the background which I didn't have any more energy to pay attention to.
Maybe when he realized I didn't care he would put me out of this misery. Life was cruel and tiresome, filled with strife and suffering.
I no longer wanted to be a part of this game.
I looked on at the clouds, travelling slowly through the space of the skies. Their appearance didn't look the same as how I normally saw them up there; they were reeling from side to side, like a boat. Then, they started to fade in and out of clarity, until they were nothing but obscure white images. Squeezing my eyes, I struggled to see them.
My vison had gone full blur now.
Everything was foggy. The rims of my vision were growing darker by the minute, and as I struggled to look into the sky, I saw something peculiar.
It was a huge dark shadow that spread out like a veil, or a cloth. The black thing soared through the sky from the sun, descending lower and lower until it finally perched itself on a tall tree that was far away, to the back of the babbling feline.
Mother told me that it was normal to see shadows when you were bout to die. It happened with many of her dying family members. I slumped to my knees, peering at the phantom that was here to collect my soul.
I was drawing my lasts breaths and it only made sense that they came for me. I had hoped that wherever I was going to, was better than this reality.
I hoped they took me back to that bridge with the cool running river stream, so that I could have dinner in Heaven with my loving Family...
"I am in the upper hierarchy, the predator, the problem solver, the eliminator, Mr. Burrow. My purpose is to make the world a better, cleaner place. You my friend, were unfortunately born to be a pest. You make things dirty, your unclean, you leave spaces and areas with your germ-infested bacteria, and by doing this you make others sick." My eyes rested on the outline of the hazy, orange, and white talking furball. I sighed heavily, not believing that he was still bragging about how much better than me he was.
Wasn't he tired of announcing himself and his "Upper Echelon" species??
I was over his ego. If he wanted to think he was better than me, he was free to do so. I didn't care about all of that 'Cat vs Rodent" stuff anyway. Looking back at it, everything seemed so unimportant. Maybe it was a waste of time.....
I blinked slowly, looking back to the tree. I saw another shadowy figure fly from the sun, crouching itself on a thick, extended limb that jutted out of the tree, sitting beside the first phantom. Now there were two ghosts that I could barely see.
'' It's a predator versus prey world my little rat friend. Even when we were on that ledge in the tree, that Eagle could've been chewing on my bones right this very moment if he wasn't so scared to run away from me. So, it's nothing personal, we are all a part of the food chain....." To-mas continued talking. His words were mushed together. I was far more concerned about what was immediately in front of me.
Away from me, out there. In the distance.
Another shadow appeared, sitting beside the second.
Then another.
I squinched my eyes suspiciously again at the demons in the tree. Sets of red, crimson eyes glowering in their dark appearances,.
I ripped my eyes off them for a moment; terrified at how eerily they looked back at me. Even though the sun was blazing brightly in the sky, a quiver passed over my body that lead a track of tiny goosebumps under my skin, a frosty sensation running my blood into icy cold water. The rest of their bodies were just black mounds of nothing, literal patches of darkness who had escaped from midnight, sneaking their way into the dimension of daylight. They were odds creatures...Immediately, the feelings of serenity I had about passing into the afterlife had vanished into thin air.
The things began to vibrate aggressively, their bodies jerking from side to side, phasing in and of place, shifting. One minute they were there, the next they were gone. They had not moved from where they sat since I saw them, but their shadows were flashing in and out, like flickers of light.
Malevolent, demonic chuckles came from them as they opened their arms widely, they were deep throated cackles, some sounding high pitched, others guttural, and croaky. I blinked back at To-mas who was still talking nonchalantly. He wasn't the one dying, so he was unable to see it. It still baffled me how he could not possibly have heard that? There were so many of them. And more of them were coming.
Two more of them materialized from the blaring sun, each settling beside opposite ends of the five that were there. The waves of shrill cackles and raspy giggles got higher now, piercing, like crickets singing out in the night field. It was deafening. I wished I could've covered my ears, but my arms are too tired.
These Demons have begun torturing me, and I hadn't even reached to hell yet...I had a bad feeling in my gut about this. My stomach felt like it had dropped to the floor again, the furs on my skin were hiked up, and I was ready to run.
"Run. Turn around, and get the hell out of here"
"Get as far away from here as possible."
"Run and Hide"
The voices in my head kept throwing commands that were clear as day at me. But why? Even if I did run and find a place to hide, this was my fate. Those Demons would find my soul regardless of where I went. So why was I feeling like everything in me wanted to disappear from supernatural forces that were inescapable from?
Unless....I shook my head forcefully, scratching my eyes to clear the mist out of them. I peered at out into the distance at the tree on the other side of the road, squeezing my eyes suspiciously at the limb they perched on. Narrowed my eyes, I constricted them, blinking over and over again. Slowly my vision began to clear..
I blinked until I could see them, and when I did, I realized that they were not ghosts.
They were not demons, or phantoms.
It was much worse....
"But I'm afraid I've done enough talking rodent, my stomachs is beginning to rumble, and I'd much appreciate the meal that I worked so immensely hard for..." To-mas began stepping forward, inching even closer to me than before, his fangs bared. He hissed incessantly, claws unsheathed and ready to reap but something disturbed him. He saw that I wasn't buckling in fear like I should have been, he saw that my eyes were focused way past him in the distance.
He froze, perplexed.
"What the hell are you on about this time you imbecile?" the cat asked impatiently, annoyed.
To-mas was the least of my problems right now. There was a storm coming for the both of us..
And now that I had seen them, a part of me wished, that I hadn't.
They were all neatly aligned along the branch. Sitting quietly, calmly. Not moving an inch, not making a sound.
They weren't vibrating anymore. They didn't have red, glowing eyes. They were solid figures.
I began to step back slowly, cautiously with my eyes steadied on them. I had to sneak away. Then I would dash to the left and hide behind the tree I fell off. Any sudden movements and I was a goner... The voice in my head continued to shout at me to leave.
The irate cat narrowed his eyes at me, confused as to what I was on about. Finally, To-mas tore his gaze from me, turned around, curious to see what had made me look like I had seen a ghost.
He saw them.
He gasped, instantly frozen in place.
"Shit!!" he cursed,
His tail shot up into the air as straight as an arrow. The furs on his entire body spiked up like orange and white bristles, his face morphing into a ghastly white.
There they were.
Seven burly, muscular bodies, covered in jet black feathers.
Seven bald, snowy white heads.
Fourteen pairs of barbarous, feral eyes stared back at the Feline with a ravenous, revenge filled thirst. One set of eyes struck out to him. A female seated in the middle. He knew it.
"That..Bitch.." To-mas muttered under tight lips.
The avenged mother had returned, with help.
Raising her head into the air, she took off, her muscled wings sliced through the air, soaring straight to To-mas. The rest of the Eagles flapped their wings and flew, an ominous crowd of black following behind her.
All the fatigue and lethargy left my body, my legs dug into the ground, and I sprinted away, dashing across the grassy path to the left, not looking back.
To-mas tried to move, but his body was frozen. His mouth was parted in shock, his gut sunken into the deep depths of dismay. He still couldn't fully process that there was seven Eagles, all in one place, at the same time.
"Noooo!!! Shiittt!!! Get away!!!....''To-mas screeched, the black cloud swarmed over him.
I dashed away like a mad rat, reaching the root of the tree and diving behind it. I pushed my back against the root, ducking down and hiding.
Curiosity raked my brain, so I leaned out, peeking through the spaces of the tall, slender grass.
To-mas galloped across the field to the house, the Mother Eagle plopped down in front of him, impeding his path.
To-mas jumped back, hissing, and clawing at her.
The rest of them hoovered around him like bees, three of them at his back and two in front, while the others circled him from in the air. The Mother Eagle charged at him head on, her scissor like beak aiming for him like a missile.
To-mas got on his feet and raised up in the air, clawing the bird in the face.
She reclined back from his defense.
He turned to run away from her, one of them came forward and snapped its heavy beak at him.
He jumped back, screeching at them. They circled him the massive black demons, all seven of them. To-mas flung his head around from left to right, spinning around and around frantically. He saw a space between two of them to the right and dashed forward to it.
Before he could, the mother planked on top of him, shooting her neck out and pecking his eye, flailing her wings and flapping at him, threateningly,
A stream of blood splurged into the air and To-mas wailed out, bowing his head and holding his paw against his face. The cat staggered back, burying his head into the soil. Quickly he flashed his head up, knowing that he couldn't leave himself vulnerable for even a minute.
I looked on at him, noticing something peculiar on his face. As To-mas took his paw off his face, a line of blood trickled down to his cheek, from an empty, sunken socket where his eye used to be.
My mouth dropped to the ground. I used my hand to cover my mouth from screaming.
At that moment both To-mas and I's head gradually moved to the ground, our vision rotating to the round, bloody eye that rolled to the middle of the deathly circle those demons formed around him. I watched in horror, the pink, squiggly nerve ending twitching at the end of it.
Seeing the disengaged eye three of them flew to it, a cluster of black wings dipping bloody beaks into the eye, the beasts fighting over it.
Poor To-mas stood there in frozen, unfathomable shock. The fear was plastered over his face, not even registering the unremarkable pain of losing his sight, still lost in the astonishment of it. It all happened so quickly..
The cat shook his head and snapped out of it, turning to run through a space going to the fence.
When he turned an Eagle swooped down behind him, slashing the fur off of his back with its sharp, curved talons, leaving two jagged lines of white flesh peeking out. He cried out, more blood sprayed out into the air, seeping down his back like a river.
I felt bile rising in my throat. I held my mouth, swallowing it.
The ambushed cat fell to the floor, exhausted. Instantly he tried getting up, swaying his head about wildly, unaware of what just happened. He took his paws and attempted to stride them over his face, questioning the reality of his vision being snatched away from him.
Another Eagle swopped down from the air and jammed its beak into the top of To-mas' head, the cat scratched and clawed at the Eagle as it pecked away; he managed to cut the bird with his paw and it cawed, flying away from him.
The cat was surprisingly still on its feet. Blood oozing down his face he spun around, desperately looking around. But there was no escape; All that blocked what was left of his vision were giant, burly wings, venomous eyes and bloodied beaks, swopping down at him all at once.
He darted away as they came to him, but the Mother Eagle stopped him, swooping down and kicking him in the face.
The force of that kick pushed him to fall behind.
Before his back got to touch the ground another one came and sunk its talons into his chest, really anchoring it into his flesh. To-mas swirled and twisted violently, trying to get out of its clutch, his struggles all in vain.
The creature let out a demonic shrill and zoomed up in the air with him attached to his hooks; I rose my head up, shocked at how quickly the bird ascended into the air with the cat like he was weightless...
I gasped too loudly and had to cover my mouth, hiding behind the tree to avoid any attention from the rest of the flying imps.
"No no no. This is a nightmare Burrow, your asleep. Wake up. Wake up" I pinched myself to see if this was real.
This wasn't a nightmare. What was a nightmare was seeing my enemy being battered, disheveled and beaten; brought down to nothing. That pushed even more dread into my psyche. I thought I would have been satisfied to have seen him placed in the very position he put us in constantly, but now, looking at how much he was suffering, I felt nothing but pity for the poor cat.
I peeped my head out to see the rest of them gathering up in the sky, following behind their master.
The monstrous mother flapped its wings and continued to go higher and higher into the air with To-mas pinned to her feet, four of them following.
She continued flying higher, going so high that she almost reached the clouds.
When she decided that height was enough, she released the battered cat from her nippers.
I watched To-mas' body swiveling into circles as he fell, his body spasming and twisting while he descended through midair.
The floor of my stomach descended with it.
His body landed on the soil with a bloodied splat, only five feet away from the wooden fence he was previously blocking me from.
I peeped out, my eyes slowly rising over into the distance.
To-mas laid there, his mauled, battered body twisted and turned in the most unnatural way.
The cat's neck was broken, his head turned all the way around to the opposite side; blood leaking from the right socket where his eye was torn from, the other one leaning inwardly, to the side, sinking into his skull. His teeth were still bared and covered in blood.
His arms were still up, frozen and twitching in the air.
The torso of his body was ripped in half; blood pouring out in loads from his exposed mid area, dark red kidneys, intestinal tubes, and his stomach jiggling out of his skeletal frame, laying flat on the ground.
I heard a chilling screech out through the air followed by a fluster of wings. Gasping I dived behind the tree, ducking my head to observe through the small spaces of the slender grass.
The scene was horrifyingly gruesome.
Bundles of ruffled feathers floated about in the air, expansive wings flailing about sporadically, kicking up dust, blood and bones in a chaotic tangle of Death.
Two eagles tugged on a string of flesh, fighting back and forth for it until the left one yanked it away, the other flying back and hissing. Three others were at the top of the cat, white heads dipping up and down to show beaks dripping with blood, filled with strands of mangled meat. There were two others dragging the top half of the other part of the body, one heaving the cat's head by its ears, and the other securing its neck. The murderous group lingered over him for a few minutes, and even though it was a short space of time, it felt like hours. I shuddered at the sight of them as they took their blood-stained beaks, picking up the fleshy chunks and cramming it down their necks, then I closed my eyes again. I settled quietly in the grass, not moving an inch, breathing in the most unhurried way that I could. The anchor of fear kept me in horrified silence, my body having chills from the sounds.
I could feel my heart pounding at the rib cage in my chest, my breathing shallow just thinking about what would have happened had I not seen them when I did.
Supposed I hadn't seen them in time in that tree? Had my vision not cleared up, that would have been me out there along with him. I would have been crushed to a bloody pulp by one of them, much less seven...
I opened my eyes and looked up.
The clouds had turned to a morbid grey, the brilliance of the sun now covered by bleakness. It began to pour heavily, in drones of water crashing to the earth. I sat there, enjoying the coldness of the drops washing over my body; closing my eyes I tried to focus on the pitter patter of the rain noise, drowning out the clamps, chops and flutters I was hearing from the Eagles having their meal. I peeped over to see if they were almost done.
The rain didn't scare them away, not even slightly. The group of feathered tyrants still levitated over the body even more determined to feed. I sighed..
'"God please let them go, please let them finish..." I begged.
Then, out of nowhere, a thundering boom shot into the sky, scattering the dusky cloud of scavengers. The birds flew away in all sorts of directions, fleeing like flies after someone had thrown a stone into its heap. I jumped up at the blast, rolling out from the tall grass onto the root of the tree, startled. As soon as I realized, I scrambled to get up, swooping back behind the tree, hiding myself in the grass like before.
Promptly after that, I looked up to see the Giant appear in the yard, smoke rising from a fired shotgun he held up in the sky. He brought it down slowly, with a perplexed expression.
"Damned Eagles...damned rats, damned mongooses!!! Damn it all!! I hate the country! Imma move myself to the damn city, so I don't have to deal with this shit" he cursed. After murmuring expletives under his breath about his great grandfather leaving him a piece of crap, untamed land, he looked over to something that was laying a few paces ahead of him, in the grass.
Slinging his shot gun over his shoulder, Perkins walked towards it carefully, squinting his eyes and inspecting the ground curiously. The man walked cautiously threw the grass, hesitant about what he was to see, then he came over it.
It was the dismembered head of To-mas, leaking blood like a pipe, with one eye completely gone from his skull. His spine was still attached to his head, the lacerated pieces of guts, spleen and kidneys tossed about the yard, crimson lines staining the once green pasture. Perkins felt something drop in his chest. He placed his hand over his mouth, in shock of what he was seeing.
They got him...my poor To-mas...the disinherited Farmer kneeled to the ground beside his one-time companion, saddened at his passing.
"Just when I was getting used to you buddy.." Tears gathered in Perkins eyes. He reached out longingly to what was left of To-mas. He stayed in that position for a while, reminiscing over all the memories he had with the puss. Thinking about it more and more he grew angry, not being able to withhold his rage. He sprung up on his legs.
"Gadamn!! What in the hell!!" Instantly the man pointed his shot gun in the air, shooting it out into the sky. I sat there holding onto the tree for dear life, trying to calm my shaking body from the loud gunshots.
"Damn...stupid...Eagleeessssss!!!!!!!" he screamed, throwing the gun down and kicking at the air.
After a while the Giant stopped ragging. He looked up into the sky and sighed, his hands on his hips. Perkins brought his head down and looked at the cat with a saddened expression, the rain pouring over his head. He ran back to the patio and came back out just as quick with a huge garbage bag and gloves on hands, going around and gathering the discarded pieces of the cat.
"And to think I was beginning to like you..." he said to himself, gloss began to shine in his eyes.
If it wasn't for the rain that was already pouring and wetting his face, I would have sworn that he was crying. His eyes were red and saturated, and he dawned a pained expression, as if someone had kicked him in the gut.
The rain poured even harder, pelts of it pounding against the soft encompass of the soil.
The giant took the cat's head by delicately pinching its ear. Folding his lips and closing his eyes, he dropped it into the bag, with the rest of To-mas' dismantled body parts.
The man rested the bag on the ground, wrapping it up and tying it. He lifted it, walking towards the fire heap and dumping it onto a pile of dried-up leaves and tree branches. With one last curse he rested his hands on his hips and shook his head, puffing and walking away to go back inside the house.