./~ In between life and death, when there's nothing left, do you want to know? ~/.

[chess]

Once upon a time, there was a small mouse, called Susan.

She was a field-mouse by species, but a house-mouse by nature. There was a big, echoey barn which was patrolled menacingly by two fearsome cats. The barn was Susan's favourite place. A long time ago, she had assured the cats that she would not eat any grain, and would happily drag her dead relatives in by their tails so that the cats could show off how well they were doing. Lots of Susan's relatives died; mice tend not to be as bright as rats, and even rats eat poison.

It didn't seem to matter that lots of her relatives died, because there were always new batches of small squeaking things - even smaller than Susan herself - to take their place. It was awfully difficult to stop the other mice from getting into the barn, but Susan knew that the cats would have to eat them if they did, and wouldn't be very happy about it. So she squeaked and drew lines in the dirt, and occasionally ran around shooing her relatives away, and mostly it worked, and the cats didn't complain much of the few times it didn't.

Susan was quite merry and content with her little mousey life, until one day she met a dog. She had never come across quite such an animal before. There were big animals which were cows and sheep that might step on a mouse by accident, and large-ish shrill creatures who might chase one with a broom until it went somewhere small, but none of them had quite such big teeth, or quite such terrible claws. Being a sensible kind of mouse, Susan ran squeaking for the barn, hoping that her friends - the two menacing cats - would do something about this unwelcome new arrival. But when she got to the barn, she found that even the two most stalwart and strong-hearted warriors she had ever known acted terrified of this strange beast.

Hiding between two bales of hay - a tactic she had always found useful when the shrill creatures were after her - she discovered a new terror. This creature did not give up the chase when it couldn't see her any longer. At the end of the bales, there was a horrible snuffling noise, and the vicious mutt poked its muzzle right into the gap which Susan had only moments before run through. Shaking with fear, but determined not to give in, Susan stood her ground in the middle of the bales, knowing that the creature was too large to fit in there with her.

And then there was an awful sound from above: "Hey, good boy, what have you found us there?"

The hay bale before her was taken in two strong, rough hands, and pulled back to reveal the terrified rodent. Cutting her losses, she bounded up and over the hay bale behind, claws scrabbling for a grasp, but before she had worked out where to go next, the hound was upon her, its ghastly breath ruffling her fur before it scooped her up in those powerful jaws. Susan let out one final shriek, a terrible insult and curse upon the feline companions who had betrayed her to this foul beast, and promptly died of shock before anything worse could happen to her.

The sentance she pronounced upon the cats was carried out to the letter; they were banished from the barn and taken by those who had cared for them to a cold place, a place of absolute terror, where their lives quietly ended.

And thus ends the tale of Susan, an altogether sensible mouse.