Rodentia Adventures

CHAPTER 3: THE JOURNEY BEGINS! FOR REAL THIS TIME!

Long ago, there was a mouse. It had no name, names being a concept it that couldn't even begin to comprehend. It also had no family, it's children all long since dead, but this wasn't considered tragic, barely even unexpected, in fact. It also had no friends, because while sometimes joining with others to achieve a common goal did have its advantages, friendship, as a concept, it had little more grasp of than names. It had no religion, no real dreams or beliefs. It wore no clothing, and it couldn't even walk on two feet. It was the sort of creature that most humans would consider very mouse-like, but modern mice, on the other hand, would see as downright alien. 

This mouse was, however, different from its peers. Not very different, in truth, but different enough to count. It was shunned by its own kind for its strange behavior, not outright destructive or insane, but simply off in an unsettling way which others recognized as simply 'wrong' even if they could't quite quantify why. Prey creatures do have keen instincts, however, and are quick to recognize when something is different, and recognize that what is different more often than not represented a threat. Even if it the mouse wasn't outright malicious, it could easily be sick which which could easily mean contagious. Thus, the creature, the appearance and gender of which has long since been lost to history, set out on its own. 

It was hungry, as mice usually are, and looking for food as mice usually do. It found something else instead, something which helped sate a sort of hunger which, up to this moment, it had no idea even existed. There was a large booth nearby, one of the countless human items which creatures like itself didn't consider worthy of thought, a place where non-edible items (although, in a pinch, nearly everything was edible) were stored, and every once in a while, something would fall out of it, especially when it was overfilled with other objects. Humans were pretty much the only creatures out there that had so much stuff that even throwing it away (or in this case, donating, but often there was little difference) could prove challenging. 

This strange and interesting object sat next to the booth, atop a pile of paper, plastic and other dried refuse. Large, rectangular, and oddly colored, hardly the sort of thing worthy of notice, as if one were to be curious about every unusual item around, one would never get anywhere. Still, something about it felt interesting somehow. The cover to the book was somewhat heavy, but not too difficult to open, several pages flipping along with it, most of which showed endless boxes of incomprehensible black and blue shapes, but after several pages, the mouse came upon a single small image. This picture wasn't any more comprehensible than the lettering, and the mouse, while oddly intrigued, couldn't make much sense of it. It flipped through page after page, most of which were simple black text before finally finding another. 

This new image felt familiar somehow, but it couldn't say why. That was when the tiny creature looked about and saw the narrow tree line ahead, turning back to the image. The picture wasn't one of those specific trees, but it was something clearly similar. Many might take for granted the ability to recognize that a drawing of a tree is meant to depict the image of a tree. After all, beyond the occasional abstract works, that''s entirely the point. If a drawing can't accomplish such a simple task, then why bother with it? For the mouse, however, the sudden ability to be able to comprehend the connection between a two dimensional image devoid of scent or even proper coloring and the three dimensional reality was a dramatic revelation. 

It continued to scan through the pages, many of them stuck together, before finding another. This one was fully colored, but of a world and creatures completely alien. It was an even greater revelation when it recognized a part of the picture as human, because, again, there is a huge difference between a drawing of a human and an actual one. Even without the use of scents and environment, it was able to parse out the details, the arms, the legs, the head, the earth upon which they stood, an earth looking unlike anything that it had recognized. It did have some troubles, however. The bodies, especially the arms, looked rather deformed, elongated, asymmetrical. One with more experience in art might simply dismiss these oddities as creative interpretations, but this creature knew nothing of art nor even the concept of creativity. Not yet, at least.