Urn stared into the mouse’s eyes emptily, waiting for the embrace of death to come; but it did not. He was alive, somehow, perfectly fine despite the line of flesh piercing through his neck. The mouse giggled, and withdrew its tail, a trail of blood siphoning out of Urn’s neck as it did so.

Urn stared at his hands wordlessly; he should be dead by all means, but he wasn’t. He was alive and well. Spinning around, he slapped his palms against his chest, feeling the vigorous beat of his heart. How-what-this isn’t-

“Don’t worry, Locket Bearer.” The mouse drew a circle in the sand with its tail, and then out of the circle emerged an hourglass. Blood continued to lift out of Urn’s wound like a fountain that defied gravity, floating in the air before spiraling into the hourglass and filling it up. “You completely fine. All you have to worry about is winning the race. All you have to do is win once, one out of three, and I stop hourglass!”

Urn’s lips quivered as he struggled to find the right words. “I-well-what if I lose?”

“If you lose, I no stop the hourglass.” The corners of the mouse’s mouth lifted up into a grossly unnatural smile. “And you die. Or I kill you now. You choose! I think it’s a kind offer!”

Oh. Urn’s panicked thoughts ceased. This thing must be a magic beast; no other way around it. Abrax might have purposely forced me into this situation, but he doesn’t want to kill me. And if I do die, that’s just an unfortunate outcome of this situation. He’s just assessing me; otherwise, he’d pit me up against a much more unreasonable magic beast. He grinned back at the mouse. “So why’d you choose such a game that’s so in my favor?”

“I humiliate you just like you people did to me. You lock me in temple; I have my revenge.” The mouse grinned.

That Abrax guy is too nice. Urn grinned, before raising a hand. “I will accept your terms, but on one condition; lower the stakes for yourself. Let’s make it a best of three instead; there’s no way a mice could outsmart a human.”

The mouse’s eyes narrowed down to slits. “What you say?”

Urn shrugged his shoulders innocently. “Let me guess. You were miserably and easily defeated by Abrax, then locked up in this temple to live out your days murdering intruders for him! You really think someone so stupid could beat me with such high stakes?”

The mouse drew itself up onto its hind legs, towering over Urn and casting a dark shadow over him. Its fur bristled and its tail raised menacingly; Urn could tell that with a single flick, the beast could send his head flying off his body. But it won’t do it. And that’s why it’s stupid. “Will you kill me? Go ahead; there’s no way an idiot like you could ever beat me in a game of wits, obviously.”

The mouse twitched furiously, its tail lashing back and forth as it tried to understand what it should do. Give into the pride that came with intelligence, or let brutal instinct take over? Wrapping its tail around its own neck, it wracked its brain for several drawn out moments, and then…

“We shall play game, but I increase stakes for myself. You get to pick fastest mouse! Then, we have mice run three laps around this entire room; whichever comes in first wins! Okay?” The mouse concluded.

“I agree to your terms.” Urn concurred, the mouse tracing a square in the sand with its tail, and a cage emerged from the ground. The mouse opened up the cage with its tail and pulled out two mice; a gray one and a white one, tossing the gray one over to Urn.

Perfect. Urn thought as he swung his head up at the ceiling. Watch, Abrax. Urn held up the gray mouse, and then stared it in the eyes. Holding eye contact with the mouse for several seconds, he lowered it, and then set it down at the line in the sand where they would start. The magic beast gazed at its own mouse for several seconds as well, before setting it down at the start line. Unlike the gray mouse, it was twitchy and hoppy, with a strange glint of determination in its eyes.

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“Ready? GO!” The mouse slapped its tail against the sandy wall, the thunderous sound serving as the start signal for the mice, who sprung into action. Immediately, the white mouse sped past the gray mouse, twitching its tail nervously as it sped around the room. The gray mouse, struggling to catch up, had barely finished its first lap when the white mouse was already onto its third, digging its tail into the sand as it shot past the start line. The first round was over.

“What?” Urn whipped around towards the magical beast. “I thought you said the gray one was the faster one!”

“Is!” The magical beast grinned mischievously. “Under normal conditions. But I encouraged white mouse to go faster; and it went faster! Did stupid little human not account for adrenaline?”

Urn clenched his fists, barely able to keep his furiously twitching mouth from spiraling out of control. “There’s still two more rounds.” The magical beast started off the second round with a mighty slap to the wall once again, and the two racing mice shot off, the white mouse noticeably slower; yet it was leagues ahead of the gray mousse, who struggling to keep up.

Hm. The giant mouse thought. It look a little slower then usual? Odd….why run slow? The mouse turned to Urn, who watched the white rat run circles around the gray rat again and again, and chuckled. Not matter. The human is barely able to keep himself from going feral.

The second round came to an anti-climatic finish as the white mouse once again claimed first place; and the gray mouse laid helplessly on the ground, exhausted. “Look like you the dumb one. You thought I just give you fast mouse and let you win? Stupid, stupid, stupid.” It said mockingly. It watched as Urn trembled; it seemed like he could no longer keep away his ‘rage’ bottled up.

…

…

And then a giggle escaped from Urn’s lips, which grew into an eruption of laughter, Urn collapsing to his knees and pounding his head into the sand repeatedly as he laughed. Drawing himself up from the ground, he wiped his eyes as the last of his laughter died down. “...Idiot.”

The giant mouse paused, the lashing of its tail stopped in its tracks; what was going on? He must be going mad with frustration. The mouse reasoned, whacking its tail against the wall and commencing the start of the third race; except this time, the gray mouse sprung forward with immense speed, nearly able to keep up with the white mouse.

“WHAT?” The magic beast swiveled its head towards Urn and glared; how? How did the gray mouse suddenly grow so fast to the point it was able to keep up with the white mouse? Was it…conserving iit’s energy? But how could it think of such a plan?

“It didn't think of the plan; I did. I told it to the mouse before the race started.” Urn gazed out at the race; they were on the third lap, and the gray mouse was at the white mouse’s tail, and only a little away from the finish line. But before the white mouse could step a paw over the line, the gray mouse sprung, yanking the white mouse back by its tail, and speeding ahead, crossing the finish line in a final stride.

Urn had won. “Idiot. I told you to increase the stakes; but you didn’t want to listen. Now stop the hourglass and heal me, like you said you would.”

The giant mouse loomed over the white mouse, and in a great fit of anger, yanked it up by its tail and smashed its limp body against the wall. “NO! YOU CHEAT! I SAID NO-”

“You only said that we couldn’t interfere. The mouse was the one that did it, not me.” Urn shrugged his shoulders, and the mouse shook its head.

“But you cast a spell, right? You interfere; that is why the mouse won! You broke the rule! I kill you for that!” THe mouse wrapped its tail around the hourglass.

“You didn’t say we couldn’t interfere with the mice before the race. Otherwise, it would mean you cheated too; you threatened you’d kill that white mouse if it lost, right?” Urn said, grinning cheekily at his adversary. Urn bent down, picking the gray mouse up before it became the next target of the beast’s anger, and patted it comfortingly.

“I made game. Whether I follow rule or not, does not matter.” The mouse said, twitching. Urn could see in its eyes that it had already made up its mind; his words wouldn’t be able to influence it anymore. Raising its tail, it swung it down at Urn…but just before the tail could touch him, a rift through space opened up behind Urn. Emerging from it came a hand, pulling Urn through the rift and out of the room just before the tail could hit him.