Cats and Mice
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Once upon a time in a moderately sized house, there lived a mass community of mice. The mice were not the only ones who lived in the home. There also lived a family of humans. Due to what seemed like an unfortunate infestation, the humans bought two cats, Belle and Duke, to rid them of their "mice problems." Ever since this day, a great war between the cats and mice has been brewing.
Now, the cats were very malicious and cunning. They were able to trick the mice easily, especially towards the end of the "Great War." From the prolonged attacks, the mice had to be very sneaky. This inevitably depleted the mice's food resources and habitable spaces. The mice were therefore stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The cats were very aware of the mice's predicament. So, they planned together.
"Belle! This is our time to strike! We must finally rid our masters of their infestation!"
"Yes, I agree! However, we must proceed in an intelligent manner. The mice are currently struggling. We could potentially prey on their emotions and hardship and empathize with them in a fibbing manner, yes?"
"Okay, Belle. What is the best course of action? How can we execute this plan?"
"Well, let us initiate a treaty and offer to take them to the home next door in our mouths! We can tell them that there is plenty of space, food, and most importantly, the humans do not mind mice!"
"That sounds perfect! Let us proceed!"
After planning their final attack, the cats made their way to the small hole in the kitchen, which was the entrance to the mice community. They called out to the head mice, General Cheese, and informed him of their peace treaty. Now General Cheese had been fighting this war for a long time. Never had he known a time when cats and mice had gotten along. After the meeting, General Cheese went back to his community and divulged the proposal that the cats had made to him. He was very hesitant and believed the cats were up to no good, warning the others not to believe them. However, the rest of the community was tired, hungry and beaten down from the long war and unfortunately, they blindly believed the cats.
"We believe the cats, General! We are going to leave this wretched place and find a better one for our kids!"
General Cheese watched as Duke and Belle took his people to their new home. Unfortunately, none of them made it. The entire community had been eaten by the cats.
After some time, the general became very lonely. He eventually believed the cats and asked them to take him to the neighboring home. The cats were joyous! Finally, they had the opportunity to kill the last mouse. As they crossed the lawn the general saw the bones of his people. He knew he had been fooled.
"Any last words, vermin?"
"Just make it quick, you scoundrels!"
Right then the general fell from Duke's mouth unscathed and unconscious. As he woke he saw the bodies of Duke and Belle lying lifelessly next to him. As he looked up, he saw Waldo, the neighborhood dog.
"A dog has saved me? How can this be?"
"You may be confused, vermin. However, there exists a long rivalry between dogs and cats. You can say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Go, General Cheese, and live your life freely."
Author's notes: This story is based on the story The Cunning Crane and The Crab, from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. I really enjoyed this story in that there was suspense, trickery, and deceit. Therefore, I took these themes and transformed them into a story of my own. I did this by changing the characters to cats and mice (during this time, I was thinking about the TV show "Tom and Jerry"). Originally, there was a crane that deceived and feasted on fish and in the end was killed by a smarter crab. However in my story, I added a surprise character in the end that helped the last mouse, a dog named Waldo who saved the mouse by killing the evil cunning cats. I guess you can correlate Waldo and General Cheese as the crab in the original story. I also gave names to the main characters which I believe did not occur in the original story. I felt that by adding names to the characters, the readers would better be able to relate and identify with the characters of the story. I believe that by adding this variable to the story, it would allow the readers to be more engaged with the content.