The Subterranean Rodentian Tales: by Andrea M. Welsh (pride and prejudice read .TXT) 📕

The mouse came back, and dragged along a taller, thinner mouse that had the appearance of a child. His helmet barely fitted, as it dipped over one side of his face, and shaded the other. The armor also fit loosely on the bean pole of a mouse, and the sword seemed much overweighted for the him to carry. He stumbled around until he regained proper footing, then leaned over as the guard whispered in his oversized ear.

The mouse nodded nervously, and tottered over to Reformation shyly. Adjusting his poorly fitted helmet, and inhaling, the mouse prepared for a speech.

"Hello. I am Mauviette. In order to work, you will have to apply for a visa at our town capital. Follow me." declared the mouse with a sigh in his voice.

"Nice to meet you, Mauviette. My name is Reformation." greeted Reformation.

Mauviette seemed surprised by Reformation's politeness, as he glanced back at him with an expression of puzzlement. But before the mouse could comment, the guard slapped his helmet, causing it to spin.

"Get to work, sap." chattered the guard.

The guard then marched over to the irridecsent gates, and helped the other one pull them open revealing a busy township. Mauviette whimpered slightly, spinning in circles, then fell to the ground. Reformation jumped a little in shock, then extended his hand to pull out the small, boyish mouse.

Mauviette turned his helmet back around, then waved away the gesture of help.

"Thank you anyways." sighed Mauviette, scambling to his feet after seeing the guards snickering in amusement.

He hung his head in shame, then began to shuffle towards the entrance. He waved for Reformation to follow, who scurried behind him. After catching up, he took his time to take everything in. Over to the right were shop owners shouting out prices, competing for the interest of the crowds. Young mice squeaked and scurried around, looking and touching every object they came in contact with.

Women called for their children to come for supper, apprentices listened carefully to their mentor's instructions, and the constant cling of metal at the blacksmith's added to the melody of the busy town. Knights wooed young maidens, squires cared for the turantulas that the knights rode around on. It was never this busy back at the humble encampments he had grown up in. It was always quite, slow, and dark. Here, it was bright, noisy, and busy.

It excited, but also confused Reformation to be in such a different place. He felt a burst of energy bustling inside of him, yearning to explore every gnooke and cranny in the town. However, he had to focus on getting a visa, whatever that was. All he knew is that he needed it.

Mauviette still seemed pretty pessimistic at the moment, still just barely dragging along. Only occasionally would he look back to make sure Reformation was still following along. While Reformation wasn't the best at observing others, he did notice Mauviette's gloomy behavior.

Publication Date: 09-06-2015

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
The idea was based off of The Tale of Desperaux, however, is too different from it to be a fan fiction.