Reincarnation drives me nuts

I was frozen in shock at the sight before me. This enormous squirrel must have been six feet tall and had a fuzzy body weighing up to 200 pounds if not more.

"What is this?" I said. But instead of my voice I only heard a squeak.

(Squeak?) I thought as I felt my brows furrow. But it felt off. Like I had something blocking my expression muscles from moving. It took effort. And my vision was off. Like the space around my nose was too big.

I tried sitting up from my curled up position but my body didn't listen. All I did was manage to flop over slightly. This feeling... My body felt funny. Like it had more cushion than it should. I was very warm. Comfortable. Yet there was something going on inside.

Growl~~ I heard as I felt a vibration go through my body. I was hungry.

The squirrel tilted its head to the side slightly before toddling forward on its hind legs with its front legs folded to its chest sniffing at me expectantly. It then laid across my face forcing something fleshy into my mouth. As I could hardly breath I was forced to swallow something.

It was heavy and tasted much like the rich flavored cows milk. But the difference was this held a slightly grainy, nutty flavor. My stomache growled even more as I hungrily began to drink. My instincts kicked in before I could think any further. I was thirsty. I was hungry. And at the end of it all I was tired.

The squirrel soon moved away from my body when it felt my sucking motions stop. But my body still felt off. I slowly managed to look down and noticed fur at the corner of my eye. Short and grey fur with a silver hue.

"What is this?" (Squeak) I was confused. But I couldn't help but feel tired again. The need to sleep was overwhelming as I felt my eyes closed again.

For a long while all I could do was drink the milk of the squirrel and sleep. And I admit I truly needed it. My life up to this point was the not the greatest. No. Scratch that. It was absolute shit.

I forgot to introduce myself. I don't think I really have a name. But my aunt and uncle called me Boy. Not because I was named that. But because my parents abandoned me at their doorstep as a baby.

My aunt and uncle were very scummy people who viewed me as nothing more than a waste of space. A black hole of resources they would never get back. And so they took out their anger on me. Gambling debts. My fault. Work issues. My fault. School. My fault.

Even though I worked part time after school to pay for everything. Most of the time I starved. Why? My aunt and uncle were the worst gamblers I'd ever met. Always throwing the money into the roulette and the machines. But never winning anything.

And so another reason to vent their anger on me. Their bad luck.

And I found little to no grace in school either. Juice boxes and buckets of sewage water dumped on my head. A vast amount of bruises already covered my body beneath my clothes.

I guess my only saving grace was that I decided to break the mold of a coward in my last moments saving a little girl from a speeding car full of delinquents. All I remember besides the pain was a woman holding my head. Her voice as gentle as anything i'd ever heard. Like the whisper of an angel. "You need to stay awake. Please. You can even be my darling if you live through this. For my sister's sake."

I felt the little girl next to me even though my vision was so blurred from blood I couldn't see.

"Brother. You have to get up. You said you'd be alright. You promised." A tear filled cry came from my side.

I coughed feeling pain and tasting iron in my mouth as I vomited out blood.

I tried to pat the girl gently next to me as I heard crunching steps from my left followed by the smell of alcohol.

"At least... I got to... be a... Hero..." I panted. As. the alcohol smell grew worse.

"BOY!!! YOU CANT BE SLEEPING! GOT TOO MUCH TO DO TO PAY OFF THE DEBT YOU OWE US! 'HIC!'" A mans voice came. It was a voice I hated. The bloated and alcohol soaked uncle of mine. He was useless and I wished him death on more than one occasion. But it never came.

I suddenly felt a gentle breeze and breathed in a little. "Guess it's time to go." I thought as I felt my senses dull and the world turned dark despite all the cries and encouragement. I couldn't hold on any longer if I tried.

A small sigh escaped my lips as people began to panic and rush to keep my broken body alive. But I was already leaving. Though I wished I could've been held by that woman longer. I had no choice anymore. I drifted off into the godless darkness.

For the first time in years I heard nothing but silence. Peaceful and undisturbed. And I drifted in it. Waiting calmly yet exhausted by the life I had lived. ( Perhaps I can finally get a better life. A life where I can finally rest.)

It felt like years later that I woke in the squirrels nest. And I admit. After all that time being despised and hated. Animals honestly were the best family I ever had.

It took some time to adjust to what I had become. Squirrels only take care of their own. So... goes to reason what I was then. Reborn as a damned squirrel. Well... I suppose dealing with my past relatives could've been worse. But this seemed like a much better option. I hadn't gotten this much rest in over a decade. And it felt great.

My fur was growing longer and my senses sharper with every passing day. Though how many days had passed I couldn't tell. The days blurred together in a mess of waking, feeding, and sleeping repeatedly. But I did at one point find myself able to roll and stand up a little at one time.

My fur was indeed thick and my limbs scrawny and I felt the odd weight of the big fluffy tail that was a staple for squirrels to have. A water dish showed big beady eyes staring back at a long muzzle with a pinkish nose. My face was cute for an animal and my hind legs were recurved so that was going to need some getting used to. And it did take time. Perhaps a month or two.

Often I would hear terrified squeaking and noises from outside the nest. But thankfully the horrors that followed I was forcibly hidden from by my (squirrel) mother. Me and my 3 siblings were shoved into a crevice in some rocks to hide us from prying eyes and reaching enormous human hands. They came every month or so to thin our numbers and gather meat.

Or at least I thought.

The human language has changed much in the past while I've been out of commission. It sounds like a cross between Arabic, Spanish, and English now. Or at least. I think it is. Some words are easy to understand. But other phrases are mixed too badly for me to follow. But that doesn't really matter. My survival does.

Mother has kept us safe and for the past month I've been able to understand her. Mostly. Squeaks and chirps are a bit mixed but the tone was the key I found. And how she chirped specifically at each of us was our name. I think.

She called me "Cheep". Which I didn't really know it's meaning. But I imagine it was significant. And I liked it alot better than Boy.

And going from a human to a squirrel seemed easy enough. The food I've started eating consists of nuts, pinecones, worms, caterpillar pieces, and some kind of fruit. The worms and caterpillar pieces I almost threw up after eating my first time.

But given enough time I found them more appealing than others might think. I just began thinking of it similar to sashimi or sushi. Just raw food and I could actually stomache it better that way.

The nuts and pinecones aren't that bad. Kinda like a salad so to speak. Just nuttier? And the fruit is some mix of orange, cherry, and I want to say strawberry from the flavors and aftertaste.

All in all. Not a bad existence. That is until we got so big we couldn't fit in the hiding nook anymore. I suffered alot that day. One of my siblings was caught and dragged out of the cage along with others. Chinchillas, rabbits, and a few other creatures I didn't recognize.

And all I could do was watch as it unfolded. The big burly hand Hurled them into a thick crate with rope handles that had a lid slammed into it before being hauled away.

I felt frustrated and scared watching what happened. I felt like a fly waiting to be squashed.

I was too weak. A squirrel can only do so much. I couldnt fight and I certainly couldn't take on a human. Which is exactly why I decided that escape was a better option.

Going out the doors was impossible as they were always guarded. And after paying attention for a week I noticed that nobody walked behind the cage we were all held in.

So after some thinking I figured I would start digging a tunnel. Or at least the attempts of one. In hopes of getting out of there and away from the hungry grasping hands of humans.

I started in a back corner out of human view. It was beneath one of the rabbit nests. They don't like me in there but I brought some fruits every visit to make my presence more bearable while I dug.

Mother sometimes followed and helped which was nice. Soon we went from a small dent in the wall all the way to a 3 foot deep gap in the rock and wood behind the cage. A gap I made certain the humans would never notice by covering it with straw and junk.

I didn't realize when I stopped thinking of myself as human. Though nothing really changed. My intelligence was the same. My thought process was the same. Just... a sudden lack of love for the species my soul came from.

But as I said, this changed little of what I made of my situation.

A week after the last "culling" we finished the tunnel. The exit came out behind a red bush and the tunnel itself was about 4 inches wide and as tall and as deep as the wall which must have been 5 feet thick of stones, mud, and some kind of wood stick construction.

And it only took some convincing on my part to keep everybody away from it till nightfall. I even had to fight my brother over it. Which only took a light nibble on his shoulder to deter his curiosity.

The reason was that the "guards" or keepers were lowered to one person. A fat man that I came to know as Shinja. Or at least that's what he responded to.

And when this guy came to keep an eye on us. Well... all he really did was sleep. So tonight was going to be easy as anything i'd ever thought of pulling off.

As the sunset waned into night the animal pen darkened and we heard the customary thumping of heavy footprints. Shinja entered the room. His bulbous stomach trying it's best to hide under a cotton shirt. His head was balding with strands of hair here or there. And the smell of alcohol wafted off of him made me want to gag.

He pulled out a leather sack with a bone top on a corner of it. He pulled it to his lips and I saw him lean back for a drink of what was inside. A belch later and I definitely knew it wasn't water in there.

Now just because Shinja was there didn't mean we could escape right away. He would still watch us. But he had a bad habit I was about to exploit.

After what felt like hours I finally heard deep snoring echoing through the cage. Shinja was a tired drunk. He always fell asleep after a few drinks.

I moved to quickly to wake my mother and brother. They in turn woke the others while I moved the stuff blocking our tunnel. And just like that we found freedom. Not one animal made a sound. Not a single "complaint" was voiced. We just left. The only thing we left was an old chinchilla who we found he had died in his sleep.