As the evening sun fell behind the horizon, the dusk cast its nightscape quilt across the wooded lake.
Still, smoke rolled into the sky from a small campfire on the northern shore. The fire's warm glow painted the small beach shades of orange and brown. A cozy scene for the lone man sitting at a black, wooden table eating his fill of supper.
"You'll regret this! That's a promise!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" the man mumbled with a mouth full of steak. "Says the locked-up rodent with no way out."
"It's a guarantee!" squeaked the squirrel, staring up at her unbothered captor. "It's only a matter of time till you pay the consequences. You're rue the day you–"
K-Klunk.
The man kicked the cage as he wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his dark brown trenchcoat.
