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The cold breeze whips and nips harshly and mercilessly at our huddled bodies. My two year old little baby brother, Dirk shivers, his light brown fur is much thinner than mine and cuddles closer to me in an attempt to keep warm. The abandoned hole I found just outside the forest's entrance, perhaps an unfinished mole's hole, keeps a majority of the winter's brutal wind from hitting us, as it is a vertical hole that we will have to climb out of later, but it doesn't keep out all of the wind. There are still a few powerful gushes of wind that hit us, reminding us that we are nowhere near as safe as I pretend to my little brother we are. I almost cry when I hear Dirk's stomach rumble, but like a great little brother, he doesn't complain. He simply tries to sleep, believing that his big sister will take care of everything.

He's too young to realize I can't do anything to keep us alive much longer and it breaks my heart. It's been just me and him since the cats found our village and...did what cats do with mice and while we were able to escape, we didn't have the luxury to taking any food or resources with us. We literally escape with our lives and now two days later, we are paying the price.

Or rather Dirk is paying the price for his big sister's cowardly act. I could have waited a few hours until I was sure the cats were done murdering our family and friends to come back and get food, but I had been too scared. I simply took my brother's hand at my uncle's orders and ran as far as I could, fear dictating my every move and when I finally realized we had nothing to eat, it was too late to turn back. I had no idea where we were. No idea at all. I never left our village before and it was only by luck we found the way out of the forest without running into a predator, but that might have to do with the fact that it's winter time and most of our forest dwelling predators who have their own villages have vanished until spring.

Of course the downside of having winter is that many berries and fruits found growing near the forest floor have died out for the year. Luckily I find some bits of fruit here and there that have survived the winter cold and everything I find I give to my brother, but other than that we have no food. We are gonna die and now as I lay next to Dirk, trying to keep myself and more importantly him warm, I wonder if perhaps I should have just stayed with my family and allowed my brother and I to die with our loved ones. Sure it would have been terrifying, but it would have been quick. No starving to death, no freezing to death, no having my sweet little brother look at me with a hopeful smile thinking I'm his hero when I'm actually leading us to our deaths.

I sigh and close my eyes, wondering but not really caring if this gonna be my last day on earth when I hear something. It sounds like footsteps. Drik must hear it too because his eyes shoot open and he looks at me, his face fills with terror. He has nightmares about the cats and every noise that is louder than a tiny squeak makes him jump.

My ears twitch as I stand up and gently pull my brother to his feet as we climb down deeper into our little hole, the hole becoming slightly horizontal, but just when I think we can get ourselves deep enough to not been seen, the dirt wall hits our backs, letting me know that while our hole is just big enough for us to seek shelter from the wind in in, it's not deep enough to hide in. Dirk starts whimpering and holds unto my waist as I gently pat his head. The footsteps get louder and soon I hear two loud, powerful and extremely distressed voices outside the hole. One male, one female.

"My dear, please don't get upset. You knew that when we made this journey there was a high chance we wouldn't be able to get one. The demand is extremely high for females as it is and our village isn't the only one who wants them and are willing to pay good money for one," the male voice tells his companion. He sounds like he's trying to sooth the female voice but I can easily tell he is unhappy himself.

I quietly smell the air and my brother does the same thing. My heart stops and my brother starts to cry as we both recognize the smell that can only belong to only one predator: Cats. Stupid ugly cats.

Dirk looks up at me, his bright brown eyes getting wider as his crying starts to get louder. I wince and cover his mouth, silently apologizing to him for everything that's happened to him.

I'm nine years old and Dirk is two, I want to scream at the heavens. Couldn't you have waited until Dirk was older and lived a somewhat long life? The kid hasn't even said he's first word yet.

If the heaven answer me, I don't hear it because a shrilled and extremely upset female voice fills the silent air. Drik starts trembling at how angry and vicious the female cat sounds.

"We were promised a girl, Barry-"

"I know, sweetums-"

"And we traveled nearly four hours to get her and they have the nerve to tell us they don't have one? You should have ripped his eyes out."

I hear the footsteps get closer and gasp, feeling myself tremble now. I'm looking up and I can clearly see that the two giant cats are right above our hole. I'm hoping the darkness the hole provides and the odd angle we are at will hide us and keep them from spotting us, but I know that's false hope. The sun is shining too bright and if they were to look directly down, right at their feet, they would see us and all they would have to do is simply bend down, reach their paw inside our shallow hole and grab us.

Luckily, they are too fixated out their conversations to notice us. The male cat, a strong looking black furred fellow with white paws, a white face, and blue eyes, twitches at his female companion's disgusted and condescending tone. His long black-white tipped tail whips back and forth. He brings one of his paws up to his face and begins chewing on one claw as the female, a beautiful white-furred gray striped cat with dazzling mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, crosses her arms and glares at her handsome companion.

"You are the biggest wimp I have ever met, Barry. That man lied to us and denied us our child and you just stand there stupidly and let him walks away. What kind of husband are you?"

I gulp as I see the male straighten his spine up at her insult, his ears going flat against his head in irritation. Angry cats. Not good. Not good at all.

"Hey, I'm not the one who can't give birth, Lalia. That's your defect not mine," he growls and almost instantly the female cat begins to whimper, tears filling her eyes while the male cat's face immediately dissolves into regret.

If I didn't hate cats so much I might feel something aside from glee that there will not be another cat born into this world. One less cat means one less predator to deal with.

"...God...I'm sorry Lalia, but I'm just as upset as you are about losing that chance-"

The white cat, Lalia, hisses at her husband when he tries to reach for her and wipes her tears away almost violently. Her fur is standing up, making her look even more frightening.

"Just shut up and stay away from me right now, Barry," Lalia hisses and I lose sight of Barry as he backs away from her, though I do see his regretful face becoming fully guilt-ridden before my view of him is blocked.

His wife stares at him with absolute hatred.

Just kill each other already, I silently beg, but to my disappointment and despair, the female cat simply races off, and it's then that I realize she's missing her tail. There's just a nub where her tail should be.

Unfortunately her male companion doesn't follow her and continues to stands by our hole. After a second, his foot angrily stomps the ground and Dirk lets out a small muffled scream of terror as the ground shakes beneath our feet from the heavy impact.

"Fuck!" Barry roars. His rage-filled voice is almost enough to shatter my tiny body into little pieces and to make our situation even worse, it that were even possible at this point, the cat lets out a groan before plopping down on the ground, his legs luckily covering the hole as he sits crossed legged on the cold forest floor. My brother starts crying harder as complete darkness covers us up.

I can't tell him any words of comfort to calm him down, all I can do is keep my hand over his mouth, hug him closer to me and try to keep my own tears of terror from falling.

If there is any good that's happening right now is that my will to live is kicking in again. Apparently feeling this much fear sparks incredible hope and the desire to live in my body. Die? I couldn't believe I was even thinking that a minute ago. I can't die. My brother needs me! Adrenaline pumps through my veins as the need to live keeps growing in me by the second.

If we don't move, if we don't make a noise and if we don't attract the cat's attention in some way then we can make it through this nightmare. After that I don't know, but I do know that if we aren't spotted by this beast, we can face the harsh winter and find another mouse village. We are out of the forest after all. That's something right? That's an accomplishment-

There's a loud rumbling sound and it's not from Dirk. And it's not from the cat either. My eyes widened as my stomach lets out another painful unbearably loud growl and despite the serious and very deadly situation we are in, Dirk's sobbing stops briefly as an adorably baffle look comes over his face before he erupts into a small grin.

He thinks that noise is funny, I think and I want to cry. I push ourselves deeper into the wall as I silently pray that the cat didn't hear that noise.

But after that second rumble everything has become silent. Everything has become still. All movements from the male cat stops. And so does my heart when I hear him loudly sniff the air. He does it two more times before he lets out an amused and thoughtful hum.

When I hear him scuffling to get on his hands and knees, I know we are done for and when I see his grinning face and bright and wily blue eyes covering the entire hole, I look at my brother who is simply staring up at the giant in horrified amazement. This is the first time we have been this close to a predator and we are both frozen in horror.

"Well well well....spying isn't a very nice thing to do you little vermin," he hisses, his smile becoming angrier and much wider as he shows off his sharp white teeth and with that he pulls back and reaches inside our hole. His clawed paw is slowly coming towards us and he even flexes his fingers playfully. I stare up at his hand that's bigger than my body. I can't pick up my brother run past it, it covering up the whole hole, but that still doesn't stop me from trying though. I grab my brother and just when I'm about rush the hand, hoping to push it out of my way, Barry increasing the hand's speed and tightly grabs us both, squeezing us roughly and tearing the air from our lungs before taking up out of our little hiding spot.

My brother wheezed painfully as I squint at the sudden brightness of the sun after being in that darken hole for hours. We are raised up until we are only inches away from the cat's face and it's then that the paw loosens it's grip, fully opening and we pathetically sprawl out his palm, trying to catch our breath. He chuckles and twitches his fingers again almost as though he's gonna do it again but thankfully he's only doing what these evil creatures always do: he's playing with his prey. Allowing us to recuperate before messing with us again, before deciding his hunger is more important than his games.

And despite that, I can't help but notice that after two day of being in this icy cold weather and sleeping on the ground, his fur feels amazingly soft. Almost like velvet and it's so warm too, and it seems like Dirk has noticed the same thing despite his weak crying because he starts to knead at the paw with one hand as though he's trying to fluff of the fur and wraps an arm around my neck with the other, trying to snuggle with me into the cat's fur.

A huff of heavenly warm air hits us as the cat lets a sound of surprise before he lets out another horribly scary chuckle.

"Aww...are the little mice cold? Don't worry you pathetic little insects..."he tells us, showing off his razor sharp teeth. I scream and let go of my brother as Barry's massive paw plucks my tail up and suddenly I'm dangling upside high in the air, right above his mouth and he starts to swing me back and forth. "...because I have a place that will warm you up nice and quick."

I squirm, trying to push myself up so I can grab onto and force my body rightside up again, but his swings get rough and all I can do is move like a ragdoll. I force a sob back and close my eyes, feeling my stomach turn with every swing. There's nothing for me to vomit out and so I concentrate on the pain Barry is bringing me and not my urge to cry.

I hear him let out an annoyed sigh and once again, the warmth of his breath covers my body briefly.

"You two are such skinny and small little things too. Even if I were to swallow you both at the same time, you won't even make a bulge in my throat for my lady to play with, you won't...." his voice and threat dies off as he makes a strange noise in the back of his throat, tilting his head at me, his harsh and cruel look of glee softening into what could be....hope(?) before he continues talking again. "Now that I mention it, you two ARE very small...."

Suddenly I'm airborne and the second my semi-flying body becomes upright again, the white paw....when did he retract his claws...snatches me out of the air. My stomach clutches and I pant heavily and close my eyes as he brings me so close to his face that my chest touches his nose.

I feel the warm breath leaving his nose now and I try to gain as much comfort during my last seconds of life before he chews me to bit or swallows me whole. My only wish is that he accidently drops and kills Dirk so my beautiful kid brother has a quick and less scary death. I hope he meets mom and dad in heaven. I don't even fool myself into thinking that's where I am heading. Pathetic, cowardly older sisters who get their wonderful brothers killed like me aren't getting into anything but the other place.

I don't even open them when I feel him deeply inhale my scent. There's a moment of silence before something happens. He lets out a more excited giggle...I frown...(do I smell that delicious?) before his hand begins to shake.

"How...how old are you, my dear?" He purrs, his voice becoming much warmer and more sweeter, his blue eyes brightening before he looks down at my brother who is no doubt sobbing before he turns his attention back to me. "And how old is he?"

I swallow as delusional hope begins to build in my mind.

If we are young, will he not eat us? It's not like I have much options and so I swallow nervously before answering.

"I'm....I'm nine and my brother is two," I pause at his grin gets wider and a second later he drops me back into the paw that's holding my sobbing brother. Dirk grabs for my neck and crushes his head into my chest the moment we are reunited.

The cat stands up and now we are higher off the ground than we have ever been in our entire lives. The height makes me dizzy, but I still run a hand soothingly on my brother's back.

"My name is Barry. What are your names, my dear little ones?" he asks, his voice now nothing but purrs, his smile more pleasant with no teeth showing, making Barry look so handsome.

"My brother's name is Dirk," I answer and I pause before I tell him mine, another rumble of my stomach halting me. Barry smiles sadly at me. "Cold and hungry? Don't worry, my dear, I take you to my wife. She has a thing for mice children, but before I take you to her, I would like to know your name."

Why? I want to ask, now completely confused. I have no idea what's going on and what he means by his wife "having a thing for mice children" but if he's not planning on killing us, I don't don't want to give him a chance to rethink his decision.

"Milly," I say and he actually grimaces. "That's too mousey for my taste," he tells me before he chuckles to himself. "This is amazing luck," he mutters to himself before flashing us another one of those handsome smiles. At this point Dirk has caught the odd sudden change of the cat's mood and his crying has halted into small hiccuping.

"I'm so terribly sorry about that rough, ungentleman-like behavior a few seconds ago, my little dears, but don't you worry, I'll make it up to you," he tells me, his voice so laced with sincerity and warmth that I can't help but believe him.

He covers us up with his other hand and now we are surrounded by darkness and Barry's warm fur and it feels amazing. He opens his fingers up slightly and blows hot air into his hands. My brother lets out a weak little laugh and cuddles into the fur and after a few seconds I decided to do the same thing. I feel his breath become easy as he falls asleep and after a few seconds, I do the same.