Jaci Dawn

Aric was the furthest from the duo and he called out, “They’re hypnotizing us. How can you be sure they are safe, Ella?”
“Drop it, Derp,” she said without looking back. “They’re talking to us. Can’t you guys hear them?”
One of the deer mice came forward, its nose twitching. Ella knelt onto all fours and let her whiskers touch the other mouse’s. It squeaked audibly, turned and scurried back to its mate before pausing to look back.
“It wants us to follow it. It wants to take us to a safe place, away from the Caw Birds. They came because they sensed our fear, and they didn’t know who we were, but they can only feel peace and friendship from us, so they’re offering us a place to hide.”
“You know all that from touching it’s whiskers?” Gran sounded doubtful.
Ella ignored him and followed the mouse. Billie followed her. Gran came in third, then Dish, Twerp, and, last, Aric. The second mouse faded back into the fern.
They didn’t have to go far: the mouse led them to a boulder under which was a crawl space, it ducked into the crawl space, and Ella got back on all fours. “Oh, boy,” she said. “We get to go spelunking.” She followed the mouse under the rock.
“It’s a mouse hole,” her voice came back, muffled and distant, receding.
Billie looked at Gran before she, too, got on all four. “No more mean birds,” she said before she disappeared under the rock. Gran shook his head and followed. Dish looked back at the other two. Then he, too, got on all fours and scurried under the rock.
Twerp looked at Aric. “Sorry, bud. I think you gotta leave your weapon behind. We’re going into friendly territory now.” Twerp disappeared under the boulder.
Aric threw his skewer to the side and muttered, “OK, but if El is wrong…”
The second deer mouse entered the tunnel behind Aric, blocking off all light.
The tunnel smelled earthy. Here and there, something brushed past Ella’s face, but since the mouse ahead did not startle, she did not. She could smell the mouse, and feel its pleasant thoughts. Happiness. Peace. Friendship. Welcome. It seemed to be talking, but its voice was very high pitched, and she only caught bits of the words – more like images in her mind, than actual words.
This was home, the mouse was saying. We all live together down here. We have many ways out. Caw Birds can’t get to us. Family is here (Ella saw naked baby mice sucking on their mother’s teats). Sleep. Rest. No fear. Happy. You friends. Smell good. We show you path.
The tunnel passed by other openings, and sometimes there was a whiff of something else up those tunnels. The mouse showed her a picture of the creature, and she decided it was a vole. How interesting, she thought. They dropped into a larger room amid high pitched voices and excited chatter. They were in the main chamber, where the baby mice were, and the mother mice, and several older siblings. The mice were busy sniffing, cuddling, and touching each other’s whiskers. So many came at her, that she felt like she was in a very crowded room, with no room to turn around. She felt frightened, and wanted to scream or run out.
Images flashed in her mind. She was picturing words, directions, orders, conversations. Her mouse touched whiskers with her again. It wanted her to keep following, to not linger in the big room. Ella called back, “Guys! Can you follow my voice?”
“Coming!”
“Wow, so many of them!”
“So nice. So friendly.”
“Following Dish’s tail.”
“I’m right here!” Aric’s voice brought up the rear, and they were in a narrow tunnel again, this time, running slightly uphill.
The mouse ahead didn’t seem fazed by the pace, but Ella’s front paws were getting tired, not to mention how her toes felt in her boots. She was panting with exertion when the mouse turned suddenly straight up. Ella followed, her boots making little purchase on the tunnel walls, She heaved herself upward, while Billie yelled from behind.
“Geez, El! Enough with the dirt in the face, Girlfriend!”
“Sorry!”
They came out under a flat piece of tin. The rivulet gurgled merrily a few feet away (yards, by Ella’s view, but she knew it had to be feet). The deer mouse was busy picking rose hips off of a wild rose, hanging upside down to do so. It was humming happily.
Aric was pushed up the tunnel by the second mouse, who kept sending him happy thoughts. Tumbling out into the bucolic scene of his friends eating rose hips and happily humming, Aric stood up. He wanted to be angry, but such peaceful feelings came over him: peace. Love. Happy. Family. Food. Aric knew he was hypnotized, but the sweet aroma of rose hips filled his nostrils, and he reached for one. It was like biting into a chocolate covered pomegranate seed. The energy seemed to go right to his belly and his head.
“Mouse cocaine,” he muttered as he gnawed his way happily through several rose hips.
Sated, Ella dropped down beside a stone, under the shelter of thick, round leaves. Aric dropped beside her. “They left, you know,” he said.
“I know.” She patted her tummy. “They were very nice.”
Gran dropped down on the other side of her. “Weird that I don’t even question their motives, isn’t it?”
Dish, Billie, and Twerp joined them. Billie giggled and said, “I wish I had my phone. I’d post on social media with a photo of Dish hanging from a wild rose bush: Just crawled through a mouse house with naked babies and feasted on rosehips. Life’s so good.”
“Attacked by rabid crows,” Aric added. “Not LOL.”
“Really?” Ella laid back. “I think I would just post something about being so darn tired.”
“Dear Evil Person: We have Kitsune on our side.”
They all chuckled.
“Don’t mess with house mice. Deer mice come to the rescue.”
“#deermiceheroes #underground tunnels #followthestreamlet.” Dish let out a long breath. “Probably a good thing we don’t have cell phones and can’t let the enemy know where we are.”
“If only we knew who the enemy was.”
“What now?” Twerp burped contentedly. “I could use a nap.”
“They showed me a place not far from here. Isn’t it weird that I could see the pictures they sent me?” Ella stood up. “They didn’t even notice we were wearing clothes.”
“Didn’t they think it was weird, us having shoes and all?” Gran fell in beside her as they made their way along the creek, careful to stay under cover and stay alert this time.
“They thought it odd that we walked on our ‘back legs’ at first, but once in the tunnel, we were all equal. They were even going to let us stay in their nest, but I panicked. Claustrophobic, I guess.” Ella grinned up at Gran. “I’m not a good mouse, am I?”
“I don’t know, that was pretty tight back in there. I was beginning to panic, myself.” Dish offered up from behind them. “I wonder how long we were in their tunnels?”
They dodged a large banana slug. It smelled of something sickly. The air was crisp, and song birds few and far between now. They climbed over mossy rocks. Dish lost his footing once, and fell into a hole, but Aric and Billie helped him back out.
Ella found what she was looking for after what seemed like an hour: a blackened hollow in a tree that was mostly grown over by the tree and hidden by some low plants. The picture in her head matched, and she clapped her paws in delight. “Oh! A place to sleep! At least, to rest.”
“Should we set a sentry?” They were inside the tree, smelling the cedar and feeling the lightning-carved walls. Billie was doing what she did naturally: gathering bark shavings into a nest near the back wall.
“We don’t have a weapon anymore.” Aric picked up some boulders and hauled them beside the door. “I don’t know how far I could heft one of these if I had to fight.”
“Can we just hope noone saw us come in here?” Billie stood up and looked around at them.
“Most predators have a refined sense of smell, and they’d likely just follow our scent to us. But I guess mice just live life in the moment and don’t worry about predators much…” Ella’s voice trailed off. She didn’t have an answer.
Twerp dropped down into the nest. “I’m claiming first sleep.” He curled up and was snoring promptly.
“Well, I guess that’s it. We nap, and hope noone follows us.”

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