Jaci Dawn

“Little mouse lives!” the big face reared back and giant claws ripped through the air, culminating in a clap just above Elle’s head. “I saved little mouse Eric!” Another clap, and a roar that nearly deafened the mice.
“Whoa!” Aric pushed himself up. “What!? Who?” He looked from Ella to the now grinning mouth of putrescent breath. “Gawd! Your breath smells horrible! Who are you?”
The face retreated. “Sorry. No toothbrush.” A paw the size of Texas covered the mouth. Beady eyes looked down from the darkness of the hulk. “”I’m Kyle. Kyle Beezer. Nice to meet you mousies.”
Twerp was the first to find his voice. “Kyle? Kyle Beezer? From Mr. Giles‘ history class?”
The eyes blinked. “I don‘t remember any mousies in history.”
Twerp shook his head, “No, I’m Deacon Smith.”
“Oh. Deacon… Deke? Wait. Is that you, Aric Peabody?” The face loomed over Aric, again.
Aric raised his paw. “Kyle. Do.Not.Breathe.On.Me.”
“Sorry. Again. But – Aric! Little Deacon! I was so lonely! Where’d you guys come from?”
Ella raised both of her paws. “STOP. Who are you, again, and what are you? How did you get here, and why did you save us? We get to ask first.”
“Oh. OK.” It sat in the water. “Kyle Beezer. I’m a bear. It was the first thing that popped into my head when the men in white coats came to my house. A big bear that scared them, and I ran into the forest. I’m just lonely.”
“Why did you save us?”
“Oh. That. I saw little raccoon slap little mousie into the water. It made me mad. Made me remember pushing little Deacon’s face into the toilet and I felt bad. I had to save the mousie. I didn’t know it was my friend, Aric.”
Aric coughed again and sat up. “Ow. My head hurts!”
“Because you’re bleeding,” Ella scolded. “Maybe your bear friend can give me a leaf out of the water to put on it.”
The bear brought up a paw, with a leaf of late watercress dangling from it. “Like this?”
“Perfect.” Ella snatched it and applied it to the side of her brother’s furry face. “Can you hold it there?”
“How bad is it?”
“Not too. But we should probably find shelter soon.”
Twerp had advanced and was looking up at the bear. “Kyle, I didn’t know you were a wizard.”
“I didn’t know you were, Deke. You have a lot of friends.”
“Well, I grew up here. You just moved there. And they’re not really friends…” Twerp paused. “They’re sort of family. That’s Ella, Aric’s big sister. And her friends, Billie and Gran, and Dish. We just grew up together. They call me ‘twerp’ instead of my name.”
“That’s mean,” the bear answered.
“I know. But, after awhile, I almost forget they’re being mean. You know where we can hide for awhile? Rest up? Talk, but not out here in the open?”
“No.”
“Rats.” Twerp missed his own rodent reference. “We need to hunker down, out of the open.”
“Well…”
“Look, dudes, we just need to get off of these rocks and somewhere downstream before daylight. We can’t be caught in the open like this.” Gran over came his fear and stepped forward. “Think you can help us out, Kyle?”
“Which one are you?”
“Gran.”
“Well, sure. What do you want me to do?”
“Just walk along the stream with us until we find a place you can fit into, and we can join you. Then we’ll talk.”
“Like a den? ‘Cause I found a cool den. It’s down stream a little ways.”
“I thought you said… Nevermind. Yes, like a den. Let’s go.”
“Remember, we walk a lot slower than you can, because of our size, you know. Oh – and because Aric’s wounded.” Twerp waved his paws dramatically.
“You could just get on my back and hang onto my fur, and I’d give you a ride there.”
“You don’t have clothes on?”
“I wouldn’t be a big scary bear if I was dressed, would I? Oh. You guys have clothes on.” Kyle added that as if he had just noticed. “Is this gonna be awkward?”
“You’re a bear. No.” Ella shook her head. She was both irritated and worried. Aric kept the cress pressed to his wound, but he also wasn’t talking. It wasn’t like Aric to not talk.
It was agreed that the mice would climb onto Kyle’s back and hang onto his fur until they reached the den he had spoken of. It was with some difficulty that they got Aric on and situated, but one he was on, he grasped a tuft of coarse bur hair with his right paw and said, “Let’s do this.”
Kyle’s rolling gait and wide back made for an interesting ride, as well as the branches and bushes he barreled his way through. He was surprisingly quiet as he walked along, except when he stepped into the water and splashed. His passengers were too awed, tired, and exhausted by the terrifying raccoon encounter to say much. They passed the trip in silence, the night now dark and moonless. Finally, Kyle stopped and said, “Well, this is it. I’ll sit down so you can just slide off, and then follow me in.”
‘This’ was a small, dry, cave under a ledge, a few feet from the stream, but blocked with huckleberry, snowberry, and nettles. Kyle went in first and curled up near the back of the shelter, making room for the mice. Ella grabbed some nettle as she passed. She put the milk of the broken stem on the little blisters that formed on her paw to stop the sting, and then made Aric sit down while she applied more of the milk of the nettle to his wound. The bleeding had slowed, but the nettle stopped it.
“It’s a narrow gash, but nothing that will need stitching,” she announced.
“I want to sleep,” Aric whined. He walked away from her, and picked a spot against Kyle’s chest. “Don’t roll over, Kyle.”
Kyle looked at the rest. “So who’s leading you guys?”
“I am, Gran said.”
“Well, Gran, Twerp, and I are,” Ella said. She shot Gran a look that silenced any protest he might have put up. “Aric is our warrior, but you can see he got pretty hurt.”
Kyle nodded. “Are your parents held prisoner, too? Do you know what’s going on?”
They briefed the bear on everything that happened thus far, skipping a great many details and concentrating on what Kitsune had told them (without mentioning the fox).
“In short, we’re following the stream and we think it will lead us to the detention center. Then we’ll form a plan.”
“Pretty weak,” Gran added. “It’s just, we don’t know what we’re up against.”
“So, someone stole a talisman?”
“Or something.” The mice looked at each other. They hadn’t mentioned the magic wands that Gran carried, and while they didn’t believe those were the pilfered item, they wanted to guard them. “Something magic.”
“And this is why the government is coming down on all wizards? Seems like it must be a pretty mad wizard high up to do that, and not a non-wizard. Revenge and all.”
“We don’t know.”
“Do you think there’s more like us out there? I mean, if I thought to turn myself into a bear, and you guys turned into mice, couldn’t there be others?’
“We’re hoping so,” Ella replied. “We’re hoping we meet up before we get to the detention center. But we really don’t know.”
“Mice storm the Bastille.” Kyle chuckled. “I love history. We just need little pitchforks and hoes and torches.”
“Maybe a guillotine.” Twerp scratched his nose. He met Ella’s stare. “We just studied the French Revolution in history.”
“I know what the Bastille was.”
“We could use Aric’s barbecue skewer,” Gran sighed.
“Barbecue?”
“He stole it out of our back yard garbage. Then he used it to piss the crows off. We made him leave it when we met the deer mice. You can guess how effective it would have been against those raccoons.”
“Look, guys, I’m getting sleepy. Maybe we can brainstorm after a nap.”
Gran looked at Ella, “Twerp has a point. It’s been a long night. My mouse body likes to sleep and eat. Can we think later?”
Ella sat down near Kyle’s big muzzle, her back to the cave wall. She watched her friends snuggle up against the warm bear. Kyle didn’t close his eyes, but looked ate her. “You’re the real leader.”
“I’m the bellwether. Gran’s a natural leader, but Twer- er, Deke – is the mouse of action. He’s really smart. What about you, Kyle? Where do you think you fit in?”
“I’m the big, brawny friend that everyone thinks is dumb because he’s big and brawny. I think we need to find out how many more of us there are, and what we’re up against at this detention center, if it is even that. I think Dish may be right about going to his parent’s cabin. I could probably get us there in a day’s travel.”
“We’re supposed to follow the stream.”
“Why?”
Ella stared into the eyes. Kyle was just Kyle. He wasn’t pretending, she thought. She wanted to tell him about Kitsune, but…
“Okay, if you can’t tell me, can you tell me why all of you have to go? Maybe Deke and Dish can come with me, and we’ll go to the cabin.”
“Is it that important to go to the cabin?”
“That’s where Deke said he sent everything that was magic that was in the attic. I dunno. It’s weird, but…”
“But you feel like there’s an answer there. I know. I do, too. And I feel like you’re trustworthy. It’s just that… “
“I get it. You’re supposed to go downstream.”
“If only I had some direction…”
“Yeah.”

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