Mouse Tail Chapter 7

            MINNIE


             Try telling a bunch of baby birds that your sister is probably worried sick about you and you're hopelessly lost. It doesn't work too well. The birds were STILL staring at me and my calm impatience. "Can any of you fly?" I asked, annoyed. They stared. "HELLO!" I yelled. That broke whatever spell they were under. They chirped to each other for a moment, then they bobbed their little/big heads. " You can?!" I was excited now. "Could you carry me around?" More bobbing.
              "Would you? Without eating me, that is...," They bobbed their heads again. I felt like screaming with joy. I went to the closest one and cautiously climbed on. The bird took off. I yelped. It was so sudden. But then the world turned around. Everything was so beautiful to see. Like a giant quilt. Patches of color, or, desert.  I snapped back to   reality and what I was doing way up here in the first place. I looked for Maggie and the big, coiled shape of Silver. I saw a big stick structure tied together with desert grass, but no Maggie. Where could she be? I let the baby bird fly around for a little and then landed it home. I took a short nap while the birds went back to staring at me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            MAGGIE

             Still sitting in our little makeshift home,  Silver and I talked and harvested little prickly pears. A long time ago, when I still felt like a young mouse, I had had nightmares about being alone then meeting snakes. Now, here I was, talking with a snake without my Minnie. I was surprised when I thought about it. I missed Minnie and I wanted to go home. I saw a shadow outside the stick building. A flying shadow with wings and a beak. Oh, no, I thought. another hawk. My mind stopped working for a minute and went into survival mode. I backed up against the wall and started squeaking madly. Then my face hurt. I snapped out of whatever was happening to me. Silver had slapped my face. He hadn't been talking much since we left the Nook. I had come to love the big guy. He was my strong, silent friend. I trusted him and knew if I was ever in trouble, he would be there. I rushed outside to see just a baby bird flying away. I thought there was something on it's back, but I was surely just hallucinating. I scampered back inside and pulled on Silver. "We're going searching now," I told him firmly and walked bravely out the door to start across the lonely desert.

               My mother says to discontinue this story...I would like some honest comments about if I should stop and start a fan fiction, or keep going, please.     

              

Mouse Tail Chapter 6

        My chapters on this story lately have been extremely short. I apologize to the people who have complained about that and I would fix it were it not that my blog is already so scrambled and confusing. Instead of having every character change be the start of a new chapter, I'm just going to make a little swirly thingy to say that we're changing scenes.




CHAPTER 6                                                                                                             MINNIE
SEPARATED


        We walked and we walked. Then we ran, then sat, then walked some more. I was beginning to tire. I felt tears welling up behind my sleep deprived eyelids. I wanted to find my family. I wanted to go home and what is home without loved ones? It isn't. Silver kept on, making no complaints and no sound. Sometimes, I had to look back to make sure he was still there. He scared me . It was very odd to be traveling with a rat snake even though he had promised not to eat us. Remembering the experience of being swallowed churned my stomach and want to curl up in a tiny ball of fear.  How could they do this? My own family! Abandoning us! "Stop it!" I told myself. "You're just thinking like that because you're scared and lonely!" And I was. Right from the top of my ears to the tip of my tail I was shaking with fear. I was glad that Maggie was with me. I jumped forward and grasped her paw. She was startled, I could tell, and scared too, but she held my paw firmly and bravely. She knew I was frightened and was understanding and sisterly. How much I loved her could never be put into words.
        Suddenly a shadow overcame us. I dared not to look up. Silver hissed in fear and Maggie gasped. I still stared at the ground. Then, before I knew it, I was in the air. Maggie screamed. I didn't let go of her paw. I dragged her into the air with me. She screamed again.
    Then she slipped.
     I knew that I was going to die. Finally, I looked up at the beast who carried me. A great hawk was leering at me with hungry eyes. Funny how the first thing I notice in a scary thing is it's eyes. Usually it is said that mice are looked at with great fear in their eyes. Not me. I just accepted my fate. I looked at that massive thing calmly and without expression. As if not wanting to admit defeat, the hawk turned away, looking forward and shaking it's head as if to say, "The eye trick usually works! I don't understand!" I kept  staring at it. I had no fear. I had no bravery. I had no feelings whatsoever. Now I was on the ground, or, rather on a flat surface thousands of feet in the air. Little birds were staring at me curiously. My kidnapper snapped at my tail, but the little ones just kept on staring. I looked at the massive bird, then back at the little  ones. They didn't DO anything. It must have been a first to see a mouse without fear or defiance. The only concern I had about being eaten was that Maggie would be heartbroken if she had even survive that fall. I lay down and slept like a dead mouse. " I'm sorry Maggie. If you survive, meet me in heaven. If not, I'll see you soon."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

MAGGIE

        I wept like a child. Silver coiled around me and squeezed softly. He had caught me when I fell. I didn't know what to do. Should I curl up and die? Continue the search for family? How could I face them when I lost her? I asked Silver if there were any places to stay close by.

    "No, I'm afraid not, my dear girl. Unless you want to be eaten."

    "We'll then we'll have to make our own. We can just stay unsheltered," I stood up and climbed out of the smooth silver coils. "We'll need some sticks. Can you help?" I knew it was a stupid question. Silver didn't have anything to grab them with. But he proved me wrong. He moved over to a small, spread out pile of twigs and sticks and moved his body along to scoop them along the ground and to where I had been sitting. He was more efficient than I was with paws! One by one, he coiled the end of his tail around a stick and carefully placed it in the ground for starting stakes. He built up a long wall. And then another and another, until there was a square with a hole in it for entrance and exit. Silver lifted me so as to put the roof on our little temporary home. I got some desert grass, for that was about where we were, and tied twigs together to make a door. Silver lifted it so I could tie it into place. We finished it off with a mouse sized grass bed and a rock for a chair. I got in my dry grass bed and fell into a deep sleep, dreaming about Minnie and how she might be doing if she was even alive.