The Shape Within - a Short Story

The Shape Within

"Please, please let me say my piece!"

But the mob in front of Mayor Aera's hollow wouldn't listen. Even when she roared to the fullest extent of her sparrow lungs, she could barely make a dent in the uproar. And how could she? The entire tree was in chaos.

Which is an odd occurrence, for the village of Chamsae Jwi, its population consisting of mice and sparrows, was normally a very peaceful place; a large tree that stood alone on a grassy hill.

But today, fear was king. All along the branch-roads, nooks and hollows that made their home, every creature was within its grasp.

Only an hour before, a family of mice had been found murdered in their homes, stabbed and mutilated with an unknown object.

And this wasn't the first.

But the worst part of this particular massacre was that it was smack dab in the middle of the tree, the Teal district... a place thought untouchable by predators.

And now the vast majority of Chamsae Jwi stood shouting in front of the mayor's front door, perched on branches in every direction and stood on the platform that had once been a lovely garden.

"Calm yourselves!" Aera chirped viciously. "We cannot begin to fix this until we stop shouting!"

Eventually, the mob began to quiet, allowing the mayor to flap up to the top of her doorway, where she spread her wings. "We're better than this! We can get through this! Just please stay calm! Sheriff Glen and his deputies are investigating this as we speak!"

"How are they going to find out anything!" a voice shouted from the crowd. "They never have before!

As the mob began to return to its panicked state, the mayor once again chirped viciously over the clamor. "I can assure you that you are all safe! We have been making great progress in finding the person responsible. You will be perfectly safe if you remain calm and return to your homes! As I have said before, stay put and make sure you lock your doors any way you can! Tomorrow I will return to you with results!"

The crowd, although skeptical, began to disperse, finally allowing Sheriff Glen to make his way to Aera's door.

The mayor shook her head, her beak clacking together. "Well?"

The old mouse stroked his whiskers with a sigh. "Nothing new; the victims were stabbed in the eye and had all their limbs torn off. And whoever it was carved the same eye symbol in the ceiling as the others."

Aera ground her claws into the ground, her eyes closing. "That's the third one this week. And in the Teal district..."

Glen cleared his throat. "No predator can come into that place undetected. There's only one explanation."

Aera looked up, her eyes wide. "They live here... they're one of us! We're never going to find them!"

Unbeknownst to them, a young sparrow had been listening to their conversation. When the last piece of information had reached his ears, he began to speed away farther up the tree, his eyes wide and his heart pounding.

One of us? One of us? How could it be one of us? Why would anyone here do such a thing? How could anyone here do such a thing!

He flew through the great plant, the rising sun sending small rays of light through the trees and branches, making the world appear almost ethereal. The sparrow finally reached his own hollow, a small nook in the high regions of the tree.

He entered through the window and hopped across the living room... okay, more like a mudroom with a moss clump and a closet... and dipped into his room, where he collapsed on his bed, a small mass of grass and fur. Sunlight flooded this room, so he closed his eyes.