1 The Mouse and The Beast

Sunlight shone down through a small hole in a stone wall. Dust specks swirled through the air as if they were tiny creatures with lives of their own. Down below on the dirt covered ground, a small grey mouse was scurrying along a long hallway, keeping to the shadows as best it could. Along the walls on either side of the hall were rough wooden doors held in place with cords and stakes. At each door, the mouse quickly peeked under and into the space beyond before backing out and continuing on again, zig-zagging across the hallway. It wasn't until one of the very last doors, that the mouse crawled under and did not come back out.

Behind this particular door was a dark room with the same dirt floor and stone walls as the hall had been. The only light came from a fist sized hole in the wall where daylight got in. The light came in like a beam, lighting a square on the floor. It was into this square of light the grey mouse hurried. In the corner of the room in the darkest of the shadows, there laid an enormous black beast covered in fur. For a moment the mouse just watched it but when it didn't move, it hurried forward and climbed over the beasts legs and up to its muzzle. It sniffed at the beast, its whiskers flickering around. It was the flickering of those whiskers across the beasts damp nose that made it's golden green eyes finally peek open. Upon seeing this, the mouse scrambled back towards the light. The beast watched it but still did not move.

As soon as the grey mouse was in the light again, something happened. The beast watched with dull eyes as the mouse began to change in front it, shifting in size and shape, growing larger and losing its fur. At last, in the square of light where a tiny mouse had been only moments ago, a young woman now crouched naked and looking worriedly at the beast. The woman was young, just barely old enough to be called a woman instead of a girl. Despite her age, over her shoulders, down her back and chest hung locks of lovely silver hair. She had pale skin with freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheeks and scattered about the rest of her body at random. Her lips were pale pink and long black lashes framed her most startling feature. A pair of lovely violet eyes.

Upon seeing the woman, the beast slowly lifted its head, revealing it to be an enormous black wolf. "Huck," the girl whispered, "Are you alright?" The wolf blinked but didn't respond. Crawling to him, the woman examined him closer now with her human eyes. She bit the side of her lip as she took in how beaten he was. He was also so thin when she wove her fingers into his fur she could feel his ribs. "I'm so sorry it took me so long to get to you," she whispered, a tear escaping her eye and her voice cracking, "I wanted to come sooner but I couldn't shift and everyone's been watching me. I came just as soon as I could get away without being seen." The wolf laid his large head on her leg and closed his eyes again. "Oh Huck," she whispered running her hand lovingly over his head before gently easing it to the ground, "Let me get you out of here alright?" The wolf didn't make any move to answer to the girl stepped back from him and closed her eyes.

Again, in the spot of daylight, the woman began to change again. Slowly she shifted bit by bit, down until she was the small mouse again. Wasting no time, she hurried back under the wooden door. Out in the hallway again, the grey mouse looked all around to make sure no one was there to see her. Her whiskers and ears twitched all around as she listened for the sound of someone coming. All she could hear though was the muffled groans and talking coming from behind the other doors. She climbed up the wooden to the place where a thick, coarse, rope was acting as a hinge between the door and the stone wall. She studied the rope for only a moment before she began using her sharp mouse teeth to chew through it. Her mind was on the battered wolf inside but the mouse instincts were kept alert, constantly listening and smelling the air for any signs that someone was coming.

It took some time but eventually the grey mouse made her way through the first rope hinge and moved higher up the door to the second. Half way through the second she heard the sound of men coming her way and quickly scrambled down and under the door again where she watched and waited for them to pass. The sun was going down so they were carrying a torch and laughing about something the mouse didn't care about. She hurried back up to the hinge and got back to work as they turned around a far corner. She needed to hurry. If Huck was going to escape his prison they would need to get out in the dark where he could use his stealth. She chewed at the ropes until her teeth ached and her gums and mouth were bleeding from the coarse fibers. When the second hinge had come apart the door had dropped, pulling the top and final hinge taunt holding all the weight. The pressure made this rope quick work as she only had to get half way through before the cord unraveled and the door dropped down.

The mouse clung to what was left of the last hinge as the door fell down. To her relief, it didn't fall out into the hall or back into the cell, but came down at an angle propping it in the doorway crookedly. She needed to hurry, so taking a breath, she let go of the rope and fell through the air. Her feet caught the propped door half way down and she skidded until she came to the floor. Back in the cell, the mouse was soon gone leaving the silver haired woman in its place again. "Huck we have to go," she whispered, "We have to hurry and get you out of here."