Quail and Young Mouse

Young Mouse loved visiting Quail in the nearby fields. They had a familiar bond. Young Mouse trusted the venerable Quail to be what he seemed to be. Quail don’t eat mice.

Quail invited the little mouse that summer day to taste the seeds in the field. The youth skittered happily over and joined Quail in the bright sunlight. He would take a few of the seeds to his family.

As the day wore on, twilight fell over the field and the mouse knew he should hurry home. While he gathered his seeds, Quail looked strangely down at Young Mouse and in the looming Darkness began to transform.

Young Mouse looked up at Quail and was frozen in disbelief and confusion. What appeared above him was not Quail. This was a beast of the night, an Owl, creature of terror and predator of young mice. Before he could run, the large talons gripped and held him while the evil, hungry eyes stared. Young Mouse tried to avoid looking at the barn owl’s grotesque face, but he couldn’t. The raptor leaned down and pecked Mouse on the head, hurtful and stabbing. He continued to tear and strike at Mouse, shredding flesh and exposing bone.

The taste of live flesh was enough for Owl. Satisfied, he loosened his grip on the bleeding mouse and became Quail again, knowing what he had done yet impervious to the pain he had inflicted. Quail instructed Mouse not to tell anyone what had happened. Young Mouse couldn’t think clearly and limped toward the path to home.

The unexpected came without clamor

And turned the stone over.

Gnashing its teeth and grinning

The elder gave way to darkness

Hammering body and cradling head

Toppling worlds with uncaring eyes.

The youth, no longer innocent

Paralyzed and numbed by reality

Entered the realm of swirling time

And disordered thoughts

Mouse wanted to be home and secure with his family. But the nightmare was too fresh for him to feel safe and the malevolent words of the quail followed him, swirling and repeating in his head.

“Now, don’t tell anyone.”

“Now, don’t tell anyone.”

Somehow, the dazed Mouse made it home and only wrestled a moment with the words the assassin whispered to him. “Now, don’t tell anyone.”

Oddly, instead of making him cower in fright, the words had the opposite effect. Mouse had the strength to do what he wanted to do.

He Told.

The future dealt different hands for Mouse and the Quail.

Quail found ways to continue his grisly hunt through the mind and body of the barn owl. But all nature succumbs to age and it was true of Quail. His senses were not as keen, his ability to fly impeded by frailty. Eventually, he involuntarily handed his life over to a wandering, hungry coyote, a two bite meal in the circle of life.

The unexpected came without clamor

And turned the stone over

Gnashing its teeth and grinning

The elder gave way to darkness

Hammering body and cradling head

Toppling worlds with uncaring eyes

The aged offender ran out of opportunity

Paralyzed and numbed by reality

Entered the realm of swirling time

And disordered thoughts

The Mouse grew healthy through the love of his family and did the things mice do. He foraged for food in the best places, avoided danger, grew wise, had a family of his own and held his knowledge of life for the right time.

One day, his young son asked if he could venture into the nearby field to gather seeds. “Someday you will be old enough to hunt and forage on your own, but I must tell you something first. . .