Rat

Cage

I was curious. That should have been my first warning. Curiosity never got me anything. I should have been cautious. I should have been wary.

But, as always, the scent of food compelled me to be reckless. And now I am here.

Where is here?

We'll get to that. First, though: the food. It smelled so amazing. It was meat, and it was fat. What is it about the food the beasts eat that drives me so crazy? I could smell it from my burrow. The scent dug right into my brain. I had to go and find this food. I had to taste it. How could something smell so good and be ignored? It just wasn't possible.

After all, I am just a humble creature.

So I ventured forth, towards the food. I knew this place well: it is an outdoor space that the beasts only use when the weather is hot and the days are long. There is a metal rectangle on legs that is often warm, and that is where the food comes from. It is a magic box, but it is dangerous magic. At times it it so hot that I fear it will roast me in my skin. Other times, it is cold enough to touch. The beasts often stand around it. I do not know if it is the source of the food, or some kind of sacrificial altar that is important to the beasts and their customs.

But it doesn't matter; I went there anyway. And I found food.

The food was in a small basket of some kind. I had never seen one before. It was easily accessible and was completely safe: I could see through the large gaps in the basket, and I could tell that its sides were all rigid. There was nothing to worry about. The food was right there.

So I walked inside. I grabbed the food; it was resting on a slight incline, like a small altar of worship. I am not the praying kind. I just took the food. In an act of sacrilege, I had to stand on the altar to reach the food.

Snap.

That sound was so very ominous... I turned around and saw that the basket was closed. I was inside. There was no way out. The walls were rigid. I could see the outside world, but there was no way for me to get to it.

I was trapped.

It would be dark soon--the sun was already setting, barely more than a slither on the horizon. My eyes could see in the dark, but that was cold comfort. What point were eyes if I could only see freedom and not taste it? What point was food? What point was anything?

And then a beast came for me.

It was huge, lumbering. I thought it would step on me, but it bent down and picked up the basket. It knew I was inside--it wasn't blind: it could see inside the cage just as well as I could see outside. That meant it knew I was in the cage.

That meant it had trapped me on purpose.

A chill ran down my spine. I had thought these beasts were simple creatures, but this proved otherwise. They were capable of thought. They were capable of cruelty.

What else were they capable of?

The beast carried me away from its over-sized nest, towards a machine that I had observed, but never closely. It was strange-looking. Even now that I have been inside it I cannot explain it. It is like a nest, but it moves. Is it alive? I do not know. It growls like a dog, but only on command. The beast clearly has complete control over it. It has wings that are normally close to its body, but will open when the beast touches it.

It opened one wing and placed me in the space within. The wing closed around me, but the space did not disappear. It smelled... Foreign. I cannot describe it, but there was nothing natural about this creature's scent--if, indeed, it was a creature. I am not sure that it was alive at all, but how such a thing could exist, I cannot say. It might as well have been magic.

The creature growled and I sensed movement, although I could not see. No, wait--there! I could see if I looked up. Parts of the creature's wings were transparent and I could see the night sky and trees race past at such a speed that it made me dizzy. Were we flying? No, we were close to the ground. Running, then. We were running--and yet, the ride was smoother than swimming in water.

Truly, this was magic.

How long we traveled like this, I cannot say. I grew relaxed. I grew complacent. I forgot about my plight. There was nothing I could do except rest, so I rested.

Then we stopped.

My anxiety levels went through the roof. Why had we stopped? What was coming next? What was this beast going to do to me? These questions all ran through me head in an endless loop, one after the other. Just a constant explosion of noise in my brain that i could not stop.

Then the wing opened and there it was. The beast. It picked me up. It carried me.

In my stress-driven state I smelled and saw everything. I saw trees in the distance, I saw grass underneath us. I could smell water nearby: a creek or a stream. I could hear birds singing, preparing to roost for the night. I could hear small rodents running about in the long grass. Everything was at peace--everything, except me.

The beast placed me on the ground. The grass tickled my belly. It was cruel, being this close to freedom but stuck in a trap. I would never taste freedom again. This basket was my life.

The beast would surely kill me. I did not know how, but this was my fate. They could not be trusted. They were cruel.

The beast opened the trap. Freedom beckoned. I ran out, and then I hesitated. I hesitated because this would be the cruelest moment of all for death. But the beast just stared at me, its face unreadable. It made no motion towards me. It didn't seem threatening; it was a sentinel. A statue.

I ran towards freedom. Freedom embraced me.

I was trapped no more.