Animal Kingdom Come (Chapter 2)

by

ShadowBunnyDragon

Elliott's entire body felt sore. His mind hazy, and his vision dark, he could hear many different voices. Blinking his eyes open, he struggled to understand what he was seeing. The trees and bushes were all on their sides and rising up into the sky. He tried to move, but his body felt like lead.

Wait, Elliott thought. Tree's don't float. Shifting his head slightly, the boy saw that he was on some kind of platform, low to the ground, made from wood and white cloth.

"Do you think it will live?" A voice drew Elliott's attention, and he managed to turn his head a little more to see a crow hopping along on the ground. Riding on a little saddle on its back was a mouse in armor that looked to be made from tree bark. Elliott was amazed at the leather straps which included a bridle for the bird, which seemed unfazed by the odd situation.

"He, Michael!" Elliott's eyes widened in shock to see that the mouse girl from before, Holly, was jogging to catch up to them, holding a tiny bow with a quiver full of equally tiny arrows strapped to her back. "And Argus said that it looked like his wound was healing. When we get back home, Treacle will be able to do a proper examination."

Huh... did she get bigger?

The mouse on the bird rolled his eyes but nodded.

"Fine, Holls, it's a he then. Doesn't change the fact that he's a human. You know? The kind of thing we're trying to stay safe from? I mean... it looks like that might change, but still!"

Change?

"Enough, you two!" Elliott instantly recognized the voice of the rat. A falcon landed next to the crow, with Argus holding its reins, frowning down at the two mice. "Human or not, we're taking the boy with us, and that is final. We'll see if we can't... mend his current... situation. Which, if we can, we'll wipe his memory and send him on his way back where he came from."

Memory wipe? Is that what he was trying to do to me before? And what does he mean about 'mending my situation'? Elliott, his mind clearing some more, started to feel a dull throb across his entire body, as well as a great and annoying itchiness. He tried to move, only to find that his limbs were still too heavy to move more than a clumsy inch.

"If we can't... undo what's been done, then we'll see what happens..." Argus said, looking over to Elliott and scratching his chin.

"I still say that this is a huge mistake." Michael gave Elliott a side-eyed glance.

"Duly noted and subsequently disregarded, Michael. Just because you're the top of your class doesn't mean that you are yet a knight. And even if you were, this still wouldn't be your decision to make." Argus stared down at the mouse boy, who started to squirm in his saddle.

"Besides, Mikey," Holly chirped up, hopping onto the cloth next to Elliott's head. "How often do we get the chance to actually see a real live human up close like this?"

"You wouldn't be saying that if it wasn't acting all docile." Michael grumbled.

"Mikey!" Holly slung her bow onto her back and placed both paws on her hips.

"Children, that is enough!" Argus shouted, rubbing his temples with his paws. He then glanced over at Elliott and sighed. "It seems as though your little discussion has awoken our... guest."

Elliott tried to speak, but could only let out a groan as the dull throb across his body became a loud roar of pain. The itchiness now burned like fire. And Elliott could feel his bones beginning to pop. Barely, he could make out voices.

"--ust as I feared. The process isn't finished with him yet." Came Argus' voice.

"Can you do anything for--" Elliott was wracked by more pain, unable to think or focus on anything.

"Yes. I think a strong sleep spell should do the trick. His body will simply do the rest while he sleeps."

"Th-the rest of what?" Elliott managed to croak out, his mouth feeling strange for some reason. Instead of an answer, all he heard was Argus say a word "Hephali", before a blue light shone across his vision, and Elliott knew no more.

* * *

Elliott sat bolt upright in bed, panting and looking around the dark room. A single bright beam of light piercing through some heavy-looking curtains on the wall opposite of where he sat.

"A dream... it was all just a dream." He sighed and turned to look around the room. A soreness in his chest made him gasp, and the boy gingerly felt around the sore spot. He graved some bandages with tender skin underneath, possibly bruised. It was the additional fuzziness he was feeling that made him pause.

Trying to get out of bed, the boy panicked and let out a surprised yelp when he became tangled up in the quilts and fell on the floor with a thud. Extricating himself, he stumbled over to the window, his legs and feet feeling awkward and odd. Tripping a few times, Elliott managed to throw the curtains open to allow the sunlight to chase away the darkness.

Elliott trembled as he looked down at his hands, or rather, his hand-paws, as he would best be able to describe them. Spying a full-length mirror, he hesitantly approached it. His breath caught in his throat as he looked at his reflection, only to see a giant mouse staring right back at him. He was covered in soft-looking light brown fur from the tips of his large and slightly twitchy ears, all the way down to his feet. And he had bandages wrapped around his chest, just like Elliott did. The lower part of his muzzle was coated with a creamy white fur that trailed down the front of his throat all the way to past his belly.

His nose was bright pink and was twitching even more than his ears. There were long whiskers near his nose that swayed a bit with each twitch. He almost let out a scream when he felt something curl around one of his legs. Looking down, Elliot saw what he took to be a large snake trying to coil around his foot. Jumping back and letting out a yell, he realized that he was dragging the snake behind him. Calming down, he realized what it actually was.

"I-I have a tail?" Elliott gave it an experimental tug, wincing from the pain at the base of his spine. Looking back into the mirror, Elliott recognized the bright green eyes staring back at him in shock. "I'm a mouse... a giant mouse..."

Leaning against the wall, Elliott sank down to a sitting position. Looking over at the bed, he spotted an unlit candle sitting in a candlestick. It was on top of what at first he thought was some kind of circular bedside table. But on closer inspection, Elliott saw that it was actually a spool of thread used for sewing. Looking back at the bed, Elliott could now make out the headboard. It appeared to be fashioned from... popsicle sticks? No, he realized that they were too wide. Tongue depressors, that's what they were. Inspecting his bed further, he stumbled over to lift up the quilts, which looked handmade to Elliott. It took him a moment to realize what he's been laying on. A bright yellow dish sponge.

"I'm not a giant mouse..." He mumbled, tears welling up in his eyes. "N-NO! C-crying doesn't h-help!" Elliott choked out in between hiccupping sobs. He sat down on the sponge bed, wrapping the quilts around himself, wiping at his eyes and sniffling. He froze when he heard a woman's voice humming. His ears twitched as the humming got louder and closer to the only door to the room he found himself in. He tried to steele himself for whatever confrontation awaited him, but the young mouse-boy still felt a tremble in his body as the door quietly opened. In poked the head of a silver-furred mouse woman, who seemed startled to see him sitting up and looking right at her.

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"Oh! You're already awake! That's wonderful, sweetie." Her voice was melodic and chipper. Elliott was taken aback while she entered. The mouse woman was wearing a blue and white sundress, and carrying a bundle of cloths in her arms. "Treacle said that you might not wake up for another day, but she did also say that you have a nice and healthy aura for a boy your age."

"Treacle?" Elliott asked, remembering the name mentioned before.

"One of our better healers. How are you feeling? I changed your bandages not too long ago, and it looks like you've healed up quite nicely, though still with some bruising."

Elliott's breath caught in his throat at that, remembering the big gaping wound in his chest. He looked down at the bandages, knowing that it had been much bigger.

"Easy now," the mouse lady said with a gentle voice, setting the clothes down on the sewing spool, careful to not knock over the candle. "It's alright, I promise. Treacle was able to close up most of what was left of your wound. Now we've just got a poultice on it to help with the bruising."

Elliott leaned his nose down and gave a sniff of the cloth on his chest. His face scrunched up as he smelled something foul, frowning as the mouse chuckled at his reaction.

"Yeah, she also said that it stank like the dickens, not that I'm sure just what a dickens is. Now, how about we introduce ourselves to each other, hmm?" Elliott looked into her big brown eyes and looked away.

"Okay... I'm Elliott..." He mumbled.

"Well, Elliott, it's very nice to meet you! My name is Melody!"

"Uhm... nice to meet you, Melody... why am I a mouse?" He looked up at her questioningly.

"That... is actually a very good question. One which my husband is much better suited to answering, at least to the best of his knowledge."

"Your husband?" Elliott couldn't believe he was actually having a conversation with a talking mouse about her marriage. He'd think he was dreaming if not for the soreness in his chest.

"Correct! You've even met him already, I believe. He's the Royal Wizard after all, my silly Argy."

Argy? Elliott mulled the info he'd just received around in his head for a bit, before his eyes went wide at the realization.

"Wait a minute! The rat! Argus! He tried to cast some kind of spell on me! A-and then h-he used a m-machine that... turned me into a mouse..." Saying it, Elliott knew just how crazy it sounded, his ears drooping, much to his slight annoyance.

"Yes... he was trying to use a sleep spell on you so that he could erase your memories of finding our home, give some false ones about being lost in the woods, and then send you back where you came from. But then you were injured, and no one else knew what to do..." Melody frowned slightly, seeing the boy before her looking sullenly down at his paws in his lap.

"C-can he change me back?"

Melody looked sadly down at the boy. "As I said, he can explain it better, but he really didn't know that this would even happen. But please don't worry!" She amended, seeing how distressed Elliott was becoming. "We're going to help you however we can! I promise!"

"... So what happens now?" Elliott asked, sniffing and wringing his paws together.

"Well, I brought you some clothes to wear. You're a little too... small for your old ones. These will probably be a bit roomy on you as well, but don't you worry about that one bit. My friend Annie will be more than happy to make you some outfits that fit properly!" Elliott was startled by how quickly her chipper demeanor returned. "Then, if you feel up to it, I thought we could go grab a bite to eat, and I could show you around town a bit, help you get acclimated to your new surroundings, for the time being."

"Uh... okay... but wait. Around town? Do you mean that whole... miniature kingdom I found?" Elliott's ears perked up in curiosity.

"That's right, sweetie! I know I'm a little late in saying this, but welcome to the Kingdom of Paragon!" Melody excitedly scampered over to the window and gestured for Elliott to look out it. With the quilts still wrapped around himself, he stumbled over, Melody steadying him and taking note of his flinching when she touched him. He then leaned out the window a bit, his jaw dropping in amazement.

His first view of the city, bumbling around in the dark, hadn't done it justice. In the distance, he could see the walls surrounding it. Stretching before him was an actual tiny city. He could see a spider-web of colorful cobblestone roads, lined with street lamps. He saw homes and businesses, gradually getting larger the further to the right his vision swept. There were tiny trolleys set up on tracks, rolling along and making stops. There even was what looked to be a miniature park with playground equipment for mouse-sized children next to a small pond, with mushrooms growing in lieu of trees. There were cable cars moving to and fro everywhere, some even going into some of the larger buildings. And everywhere were animal people, all hustling and bustling. He even could see that the larger the buildings got, the larger the species seemed to be in that area of the city. With the little buildings seemingly made for mice and other small animals, with hedgehogs and rabbits and skunks going about their daily lives in the next section over, and he spotted a couple cats and dogs in the next section.

"Woah..." Was all that Elliott could think to say in response.

"Do you still feel up for getting dressed and getting to do a little sightseeing today?" Melody asked with a happy grin.

"Yes?"

"Excellent answer, honey!"

Elliott found himself blushing as she exited the room. Discarding the quilts on the bed and grabbing the clothes, he struggled a little in trying to get his legs through the leg holes, but figured it out quickly enough. Though he did find having to thread his tail through a hole in the back a bit annoying. He looked at the yellow long-sleeved shirt and sighed, pulling it on over his head. The hemline of the shirt hung almost to his knees and the sleeves were definitely too long for his arms. After taking a moment to roll up his shirt sleeves and pant legs, he gulped and opened the door to the room.

Elliott found himself in a much larger room, the walls and floor made up of stone bricks. The room was furnished with lots of bookshelves (each crammed with lots of books), a fireplace with a mantle, some couches and easy chairs and a coffee table that, looking at it, turned out to be plastic. Going over to the nearest couch, it being red, Elliott took a seat to find that the cushions were soft. He looked out the large windows at more of the bustling city and realized he could also see a very generous portion of the sky. He pondered what it would be like to look at the starry night sky through this window. Looking down at the couch cushions and giving them another poke, his curiosity got the better of him. Elliott lifted up and unzipped one of the cushions, revealing another dish sponge inside.

"Is all the furniture made from used sponges?" Elliott mumbled to himself, making a gagging face.

"We do like to repurpose that which was thrown away, within reason," Melody chipperly said, startling Elliott to find her standing right next to him.

I didn't hear her coming!

"U-Uh... i-isn't that, uhm, a health hazard? Using an old sponge, I mean."

Melody chuckled and shook her head. "We thoroughly clean them first, Elliott." She ruffled his headfur, causing him to flinch back and frown. "Now I thought we were going to head out and see about getting you a much better fitting outfit?"

Elliott hopped off the couch and stuck his paws in his pockets. "I'm ready to go whenever you are," he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Melody chuckled and beckoned him to follow her out another door. She led him down a stone hall, passing by other closed doors and out into the sunlight. He had to shield his eyes and blink a few times, getting used to the brightness. Looking around the balcony he found himself on, he saw Melody over by a railing near the edge. He was a little curious as to why this section of railing seemed to have a gate on it, but kept his mouth shut. He looked around and saw that the doorway they had just exited was part of a white tower that continued up higher to a conical blue roof, covered in tiny blue shingles, and with a white flag billowing from a pole stuck into the very top of the tower. Turning to search the city spread out before him, it dawned on him that they were currently at the very castle he had seen when he stumbled upon the kingdom.

"We could just take the stairs down, but it is such a long walk spiraling over and over again. Plus, this way, we're taking the scenic route!" She gestured over to some ropes and cables on a pulley system hooked up to some kind of metallic contraption. He also saw that the wheels were turning and the ropes and cables were all moving. There was a ding from a bell, and before Elliott's eyes rose a platform, surrounded by tall railing, suspended by the cables, with several benches in the center.

They built an elevator?!

There was also a gate identical to the one on the balcony on the platform. Next to the elevator's gate stood a black rat wearing a deep blue vest and pants, with large polished copper buttons, operating some kind of control box with levers and dials. Melody stood back as both gates swung open, and a series of planks extended outward from underneath the platform, snapping into place right under the balcony. A set of metal rails slid up from slots cut into the sides of the planks, also snapping into place.

"Exiters first, boarders afterwards," the rat said, looking at a handful of other rodents in the elevator sitting on the benches. First came a pair of mice wearing white robes who silently departed, giving polite bows to the operator, Melody, and a very awestruck Elliott. Next came a squirrel dressed in a business suit, even wearing a tiny bowler hat and holding a folded newspaper. Elliott saw a black and white drawing of a large humanoid standing outside the city walls, and correctly deduced that the headline was about him. It read HUMAN SPOTTED NEAR CITY WALLS!!! After he passed came three brown mice. A male in a red button up shirt and brown pants with a large gold belt buckle, a female wearing a lavender cloak over a white blouse and a tan skirt, and a little mouse girl in a bright yellow dress with puffy sleeves.

"Oh, Melody, how are you on this fine day?" The mouse Elliott presumed to be the husband of the little family asked, stopping in pleasant surprise upon seeing Elliott's 'guardian'.

"Just fine, Julius, especially now that our special guest has woken up!" Melody motioned to Elliott, who had been trying to hide behind her, feeling suddenly nervous. "As you can see, he's feeling a little shy." Elliott blushed at that, but could only look away.

"So this is the big scary human who caused all that commotion two nights ago," Julius said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Elliott felt a pit form in his stomach, suddenly worried that maybe the people here in this tiny kingdom hated humans so much, that they'd try to kill him, or lock him up, or maybe even try and sacrifice him to some weird god. His mind was racing with even more grim possibilities. He was broken out of his brooding thoughts by a sudden poke to his side that made him yelp and jump. He looked to his left and found the little mouse girl smiling up at him.

"He doesn't look like a big scary human," she stated with confidence, leaning closer to start sniffing all around Elliott. "And he smells like a mouse and... something stinky!" Elliott blushed deeply at that, feeling around his chest where the bandages were still.

"Princess," the female mouse in the cloak said, stepping forward and putting her paws on the little girl's shoulders, steering her away from Elliott. "You are well aware that it's rude to go up and start sniffing people. Besides, we do not know if it's safe or not." Elliott frowned at that, not liking being called an 'it'.

"Sasha, don't go filling Eliana's head with such nonsense." Julius sighed and shook his head slowly, clearly not happy with what had been said.

"And I would appreciate you not calling my ward an 'it'. My husband already had to chastise Mikey for that." Melody put her paws on her hips.

"I... apologize," Sasha said in clipped tones. "But my primary concern is the safety of his majesty and the royal family. Therefore, I must be suspicious of all... potential threats."

Wait a second... is he the... ? Then, the little girl... when she called her princess... The gears in Elliott's head were turning, churning out the realization of just who he was standing in front of, realizing that the female mouse in the cloak must be some kind of official bodyguard. He took note of one of her paws now resting on the hilt of a sword that glinted a little in the sunlight. Elliott audibly gulped just before he felt something wrap itself around his legs. Looking down in surprise, he found Eliana, the actual princess (and not simply being called one by an affectionate caregiver like Elliott had at first assumed) hugging his legs.

"You're nice." Eliana giggled as she squeezed his legs tighter. "I hope you get to stay with Auntie Melody and Uncle Argy!"