The Hazards of Country Living.
Feb. 23rd, 2012 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charisstomaTitle: The Hazards of Country Living
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 702
This one is for Nix, especially. But others have been asking for a story about this howling little critter.
Look meep, no sex. *evil grins* story #2
From the corner of his eye, Ross thought he saw movement going up the curtain but there was only the one light and the rest of the room was dim. Perhaps it was time for bed anyway if his eyes were starting to play tricks on him. Just to be sure he checked the curtain area before turning off all the lights he’d felt need of. It couldn’t hurt to be careful. In a dream he felt sharp little claws run across his neck.
A few mornings after, he did notice that the bag of high protein dog kibbles he was storing for a friend was significantly depleted. Relief made him smile. A mouse probably was the answer. He’d buy traps when he went into town to picked up groceries. ‘Problem fixed,’ he thought but he never caught anything.
He found the cache of dog kibbles stored neatly in one of his hiking boots at the back of the closet a couple weeks later. Well if there was ever a chance to capture the culprit, he’d use bait that he knew worked. He added a live trap to his list of items to buy and baited it with a few dog kibbles from the mouse’s horde then forgot about it for a few days.
Arizona is a dry climate and men have been known to die of thirst even in modern times under the right conditions. He felt bad when he realized that there was a victim in the trap. The mouse wasn’t dead yet on examination. Carefully Ross warmed some water and eyedropper full by eyedropper full he nursed the mouse then left it in a cloth padded open topped shoe box to rest. If it was going to recover it would happen and if not then he’d done the best he could to make amends. He left the bottom half of an Oreo cookie, frosted interior exposed, next to a capful of water. When he checked hours later, the water was gone, there might have been some scraping of the frosting but the cookie itself was uneaten and the mouse was gone. Philosophically he shrugged and made sure to use the canisters his sister had unloaded on him from her garage sale prowling.
Full moon risen and light streaming in through the window, he lay in bed listening to the sounds of the night. “The crickets are being extra noisy tonight,” he said to himself. “Almost like they know they have only a short time to find a mate with their chirping.” Ross shook his head, thinking he was being fanciful.
Perhaps it was his self dialogue that made him miss the flit of movement on the thin quilt cover over his thighs. It was impossible to miss the large male weight that appeared on that same quilt where the moonlight had hit him. Ross found himself looking up into the round black eyes of a heavy, mouse brown haired man who was pinning him to the bed. He of course shrieked like a little girl but nobody hears you in the country if you live far enough away from neighbors.
Morning sun made him question the dream. He had not had a conversation with a stranger on his bed telling him to buy more of the special high protein dog food and some pet store crickets would be nice the next time he was in town. The territory needed replenishment if there were more than one of them in it.
Stepping under the water, he felt the sting as it hit his ear. Hastily he quit the shower and cleared off the mirror with his hand to stare. There on his lobe was the mark of a bite that had broken skin and memory filled in the last thing he remembered of the dream. “Buy me the provisions, little brother, and I’ll teach you how to hunt were-mouse style before the rise of the next full moon.”
His shriek was loud in the enclosed small space of the bathroom. Dimly Ross thought he heard squeaking laughter from outside the door but it could have been a small howling predator who was protecting his territory and adding to his pack.
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 702
This one is for Nix, especially. But others have been asking for a story about this howling little critter.
Look meep, no sex. *evil grins* story #2
From the corner of his eye, Ross thought he saw movement going up the curtain but there was only the one light and the rest of the room was dim. Perhaps it was time for bed anyway if his eyes were starting to play tricks on him. Just to be sure he checked the curtain area before turning off all the lights he’d felt need of. It couldn’t hurt to be careful. In a dream he felt sharp little claws run across his neck.
A few mornings after, he did notice that the bag of high protein dog kibbles he was storing for a friend was significantly depleted. Relief made him smile. A mouse probably was the answer. He’d buy traps when he went into town to picked up groceries. ‘Problem fixed,’ he thought but he never caught anything.
He found the cache of dog kibbles stored neatly in one of his hiking boots at the back of the closet a couple weeks later. Well if there was ever a chance to capture the culprit, he’d use bait that he knew worked. He added a live trap to his list of items to buy and baited it with a few dog kibbles from the mouse’s horde then forgot about it for a few days.
Arizona is a dry climate and men have been known to die of thirst even in modern times under the right conditions. He felt bad when he realized that there was a victim in the trap. The mouse wasn’t dead yet on examination. Carefully Ross warmed some water and eyedropper full by eyedropper full he nursed the mouse then left it in a cloth padded open topped shoe box to rest. If it was going to recover it would happen and if not then he’d done the best he could to make amends. He left the bottom half of an Oreo cookie, frosted interior exposed, next to a capful of water. When he checked hours later, the water was gone, there might have been some scraping of the frosting but the cookie itself was uneaten and the mouse was gone. Philosophically he shrugged and made sure to use the canisters his sister had unloaded on him from her garage sale prowling.
Full moon risen and light streaming in through the window, he lay in bed listening to the sounds of the night. “The crickets are being extra noisy tonight,” he said to himself. “Almost like they know they have only a short time to find a mate with their chirping.” Ross shook his head, thinking he was being fanciful.
Perhaps it was his self dialogue that made him miss the flit of movement on the thin quilt cover over his thighs. It was impossible to miss the large male weight that appeared on that same quilt where the moonlight had hit him. Ross found himself looking up into the round black eyes of a heavy, mouse brown haired man who was pinning him to the bed. He of course shrieked like a little girl but nobody hears you in the country if you live far enough away from neighbors.
Morning sun made him question the dream. He had not had a conversation with a stranger on his bed telling him to buy more of the special high protein dog food and some pet store crickets would be nice the next time he was in town. The territory needed replenishment if there were more than one of them in it.
Stepping under the water, he felt the sting as it hit his ear. Hastily he quit the shower and cleared off the mirror with his hand to stare. There on his lobe was the mark of a bite that had broken skin and memory filled in the last thing he remembered of the dream. “Buy me the provisions, little brother, and I’ll teach you how to hunt were-mouse style before the rise of the next full moon.”
His shriek was loud in the enclosed small space of the bathroom. Dimly Ross thought he heard squeaking laughter from outside the door but it could have been a small howling predator who was protecting his territory and adding to his pack.
