A Mouse in a Bottle

The Wizards Hospital

To the eye of an uneducated observer, the massive oak tree, that occupied the centre of the clearing was nothing special. A more keen eye might have noticed the openings in the bark, and the multitude of animals that entered and left the tree, which was presumably hollow on the inside. But even they would not have guessed what this tree really held within. It was, in fact, hollow, and consisted of 17 floors on the inside. The majority of these held beds upon beds, some of which were occupied by various species of animals, all of which were sick. One floor served as a kitchen, and two were meant as operating rooms. Along the branches outside, benches and carved seats were used by rehabilitating patients.
But only those with the sharpest, clearest eyes might notice that somewhere, high above the ground, and almost entirely hidden by the canopy of the oak, grew a small, red mushroom, seemingly insignificant. But this mushroom was also hollow, and withheld the home of the master of the tree.

Periwinkle was, for the first time in weeks, totally and completely at ease. His hospital was basically empty, only two beds were occupied, and neither of the occupants had any serious problems or injuries. For Periwinkle, this was heaven, sort of like the way the last week had been something close to hell. The patients had been coming in like ocean waves on a high tide, as soon as one patient was cured, another with a worse condition would take their place. Periwinkle had not slept, or eaten, instead rushed around the hospital in a frenzy and watched with growing despair as his stock of potions and medicines declined at an alarming pace. When the final patients had finally left, he had spent several days by simply rebrewing the medicines and potions that had been used up in those weeks.

Now, at last, all that was finished and he had climbed to the very top of the tree to find peace and solitude in his simple, mushroom house. Spread out on his bed, without his spectacles on, he relaxed, sure that a sweet sleep would soon take hold of him. While he might have earned a good nights sleep, fate was not so kind. A voice found its way through the leaves, all the way up to Periwinkle's refuge.
"Oi, you there, doctor. Come on down, you have a new patient to tend to!", it called.
Periwinkle stirred, but refused to listen, telling himself if it was ignored, the voice might go away.
" I'm talking to you, mousey doctor. Come down, you are required."
The voice had taken on an annoyed undertone, and he decided since it wasn't going to leave, he might as well get it over with. He reluctantly shook himself out of his slumbers and positioned his spectacles above his whiskers, wondering why the world refused to let him rest. Leaving his house behind, he slowly began his descend down the oak tree, still drowsy from the sleep that hadn't quite taken hold of him, and made his way to the front lobby.

From the top of the stairs he was able to see the lobby below, in which stood a yellowish mouse. The mouse was clearly impatient, tapping his foot against the wooden floor. A permanent snarl was manifested across its broad face, and it's eyes darted around the simple lobby in obvious disapproval.

   To Periwinkles tired head it looked like a monster ripping him away from his well deserved sleep. The truth was, that this mouse was no stranger to him, and the comparison to a monster was not so far off. The mouses name was Flaxen, and their relationship was far from happy. Flaxen harboured a deep hatred towards Periwinkles hospital, and was not afraid to show it by his actions. He had done everything in his power to crush Periwinkle and his dreams, to erase them from the known land, to push them off the edge of the world. Periwinkle suspected that this hatred had something to do with the fact that it made no difference to Periwinkle what creature he cured, whether it was a fox, a mouse, or an eagle. As far as he knew, Flaxen had lost a large portion of his family during a fox attack and claimed this was Periwinkles fault, because he had saved the fox from a deadly illness a couple weeks earlier.
     Whether this was true, Periwinkle could not say, but it made no difference. Flaxen despised him all the same. Only last winter, when firewood was low and most were freezing, Flaxen had convinced a group of frustrated beavers to chop down the hospital tree for firewood. It had been  a narrow scrape for Periwinkle, they had only warded of the beavers by giving them each a bottle of fir-wine, the name for a liquid that, when swallowed, resulted in a warm feeling throughout the entire body.
    In short, Flaxen was not the mouse that Periwinkle had hoped to meet this evening. He considered retreating back to his mushroom, and letting one of his assistants satisfy Flaxen's interests, and quietly turned to go, but it was too late. He had been spotted.
    "There you are! I was beginning to wonder how long you were planning to hide from me." Flaxen's voice boomed loudly up the stairs. Realizing there was no way to avoid fate Periwinkle slowly trudged down the stairs.
    "How can I be of assistance?" His tone was deflated, he was too tired to argue, to even bother with the fact that Flaxen's loud voice was likely to wake up his two remaining patients.
   "To me? You can't. Unless you were planning to close down your pitiful little hospital and run away into the woods."
Periwinkle sighed audibly, and gave a slight shake of the head.
"Why are you here, Flaxen?"
Flaxen's snarl turned into a malicious grin.
"Now you're getting to the point. I'm only accompanying someone here. Truth be told, I had no wish to see your old snout today at all."
Periwinkle took a deep breath to calm down. This entire exchange had been completely useless, a waste of time. Flaxen didn't even need to be here. He was sure that the only reason he had come was to irritate him. But why was he so good at doing that too? Just get this over with, he told himself. He put on a fake smile.
"So, who wants to see me today?"
Flaxens smile widened.
"Oh, just my lovely bride to be. But you should probably just talk to her yourself."