Mouse Kingdom

After the symposium James dragged himself back to his dorm room and fell asleep in one of the beds that didn't look occupied. He didn't even try to change clothes or anything. It was all he could do just to make it to the bed.

Sometime in the night he felt a touch on his face. Startled awake James accidently sent a little body flying as he jerked awake. The mouse landed some distance out into the common area of the dorm room and then skittered back over to the foot of James' bed.

[Wow, there, calm down child. We are just visiting.]

Collecting himself James looked down and saw that Wilbur and Kareen were huddling together just below the side of his bed. The mouse that James had inadvertently catapulted was carefully checking itself over and then proceeded to huddle as well.

"Hey guys."

Said James while trying to keep his voice down.

[Hush child, come to our home. Let's talk.]

It sounded like a good idea and a moment later James let the mice crawl through before getting down on his knees and inching his was through the dark opening.

Once on the other side Kareen let the spatial door close. It was pitch black. Not a single source of light allowed James to see anything.

[Just a moment. We know you need light!]

Kareen told him. She was a very caring individual and James suddenly had a feeling of appreciation for her.

Soon another gate was opened up, this time on the top of the space pocket. James didn't know what was on the other side, but warm light suddenly lit up the entire place.

Wonder and surprise lit up James' eyes. He was not expecting what he saw. Last time he had been here there was a pile of trash where the mice lived and next to it a field of mice feces and urine. That had been all.

Now everything was different. First the volume of the pocket had increased by about three times. Second the trash was gone, third the field of feces was gone. 

[Do you like it?]

This came from Wilbur, but since it was a complete sentence James didn't recognize it at first.

"Wilbur! You can talk! What? How?"

[Well, I, ... , talk is no good.]

Wilbur shook his little mousey head and gestured to Kareen.

"Kareen? How did this happen? I am amazed!"

[Yes, I can feel it.]

Kareen said as she basked in the feelings she was receiving from her bond.

"No, really, this is amazing! You brought in dirt! And now you are growing your own food?"

Indeed James was still getting used to the light, but he could see that lots and lots of dirt had been brought into the pocket. Instead of trash there was a real mouse borrow with hundreds of holes built out from the wall and while there was still a field next to the expanded burrow, now the field had little green things growing all over it.

[It is all thanks to you. After you contracted with my whole family we gained so much. Some of us gained powers and for some of us our space skills increased.]

Kareen was so clear in the thoughts that she sent over the bond. So many of the words were actually really complex.

"You gained powers?"

[Yes, most of us didn't, but enough of us gained some power over dirt. My space wielding skills increased. I was able to gain a new skill!]

"Really! That is great! What skill was it?"

Now James was really curious.

[I call it [Combine] I don't know what you humans would call it. But now I can make our space pocket bigger!]

Pride and enthusiasm came through the bond from Kareen.

"Can you show me how you do it?"

James asked.

She looked at him questioningly like he was an idiot for asking.

But he didn't take it back so she opened another gate and walked through. Wilbur and a few of the other mice that were hanging around came through as well. Coming out of the mouse dungeon James saw Kareen sniffing about. They were in a field of grass and flowers on a hill looking out over a valley. It was very picturesque.

Sniffing around Kareen soon walked up to a point and looked up at a certain spot in the air. Then she turned her head to the side, there was a flash, and then everything was quiet again.

[That was a small space pocket that I just joined in with our mouse pocket. It is pretty simple.]

She explained just after the flash.

"This is pretty amazing, though. I can't believe it. This means that you can build your own dungeon!"

James was so excited. Images of dungeons of various types flashed through his imagination.

[Oh, please, little one, stop. It is too much!]

Kareen cried out in pain as James inadvertently forced a lot of ideas at the little mouse through the contract all of a sudden.

Contrite James admitted his mistake,

"I am sorry, I was so happy with what you can do. I wasn't thinking, I shouldn't send so many thoughts through our bond like that! I am so sorry!"

[Oh, it is okay. I like it. It does give me ideas. Just not so forceful, thank you! Now come.]

She made it all okay and then commanded him to follow her.

Making the large gate again so that James could crawl through they went back into the mouse dungeon. Kareen led him to the field were it looked like there were tiny little plants growing.

[See these plants? They just started growing in our home. This has never happened before. We were amazed!

She said while carefully touching and brushing a particular plant.

"This is pretty great! And you say that you guys didn't bring these in on purpose or on accident?"

It was hard for James to believe that one of these mice didn't do this even if accidently.

[No. Do you know why these plants started to grow in our dungeon?]

The matriarch bluntly denied that it had anything to do with her mice and then asked him a question that he was not qualified to answer.

"Ummm, I am not sure. Maybe you brought in some seeds?"

[Seeds? We know seeds. Seeds are good to eat. They are not those.]

For the first time James realized that Kareen was having a hard time explaining herself. She was a wise old matriarch, but in the face of things that she did not understand she was helpless.

"It is okay, hmmm, I read a book one time that was about how certain sizes of space pockets seem to be able to support life. Maybe your space pocket just grew large enough that it could sustain life. I don't know?"

Ending hesitantly James gave a theoretical answer.

Kareen thought about it for a while and then gave her response.

[I like this answer. It feels right, or at least half right.]

Maybe she could tell some things about the space pocket with her space manipulation abilities.

The next words that came across the taming bond floored James.

[Tame these plants.]

Without any explanation she again commanded James to act.