I sighed in annoyance as the small army of police slowly forced their way to us, bringing their politician with us. We had a few minutes before they fully took control of the streets, and we all had them to deal with. Glancing straight down out of the window to the street below us, at the sight of the battle, one could argue that they had a reason to show up.

Given the pile of corpses and all.

Still, I suspected that they were in on this farce, and were supposed to arrive to ‘save the day’ and ‘restore order’ after the battle was over. I looked over once more at the man in the suit, the so-called Boss Tweed, who was standing a solid head taller than everyone else around him, and glared. His presence was a dead giveaway that this was a pageant, and given everything I had just learned, I suspected that we had already gone off script.

A small advantage, but a useful one.

If we moved quickly.

I turned back to the room, and finally focused on the strange device that was turning people into humanoid mice.

It was a strange looking device.

A rounded bowl for the base, a crystal in the center standing tall, glowing purple, with several magnifying glasses on movable arms around it. The inside of the bowl filled with an odd collection of cogs, gears, and other machinery I didn’t understand. The fact that the crystal was glowing was slightly concerning to me, but given how the gangster had used it to fire beams at people, I surmised it was meant to be fired in some way.

I stared at it, something nagging at my mind about it.

A device that turns people into animal hybrids? Why is that familiar…..oh. I groaned as the realization hit me like a train! Halona. The Furwraiths. The town of Sugar Leaf.

And now, here, hundreds of miles from that little ill fated Terminus Town out on the edge of the Frontier, was a similar device. Oh sure, it was different, but only in the details. In the same way that two different handguns could be very different, yet still operate and function in largely the same manner, with similar results.

So, someone’s passing these things out like toys. I thought darkly, looking it over, trying to figure out how to disarm the thing safely. That’s just all kinds of terrible.

“How the hell do you turn this thing off?” I muttered darkly, staring at the device, which was slightly existentially terrifying with its glowing crystal and proven success at altering people.

“Turn the key on the back side!” A tiny voice called out from somewhere in the room.

Somewhere above my head!

“The hell?” I muttered as I quickly glanced up and then just stared in stunned shock at the little alcove in the corner of the ceiling, where the wooden frames came together to create a large shelf.

A little mouse was standing on that little shelf, looking down at me.

Standing on two legs. With a body that seemed more like a human body than a mouse body. Wearing clothes!

Even wearing a hat!

Squinting in the dim light of the room, I saw that, he, had chocolate brown fur except for the tan color that seemed to be mixed in under his chin and down his neck. His face was similar to the unfortunate women who’d been transformed: a long nose, big & half curled round ears, big cheeks, a bit of the famous mouse buck tooth, and some whiskers. His eyes, from what I could tell, were the most startling feature though.

They looked like regular human eyes, just scaled down to fit his tiny face.

His clothes, such as they were, looked like rags stitched together to make a baggy pair of pants, and a baggy shirt.

I blinked. Stared back up at the grinning, now excitedly waving mouse….person. Then blinked again.

“Anyone else seeing this?” I asked, numbly waving back at the…mouse person, for want of anything better to do.

“The talking mouse in the corner of the ceiling?” Maggies asked back, a slight hungry put in her voice. “Yes, I see him. He looks so scrumptious.”

The mouse boy actually froze and looked suddenly very nervous. Understandably so, considering the look on Maggies very bloody face. I glanced from the tiny mouse kid to her and glared.

“No eating the talking mouse people.”

“Just a little nibble.” Maggie groaned back, actually licking her bloody lips as she stared in that still, focused way that cats get when they want to pounce.

Sighing in exasperation, the shock of the situation having left me numb and a bit snarky, well, more so than usual it felt like, I reached over and smacked her head.

Hard.

That got her attention.

“What?” She snapped, annoyed as she rubbed her head. “He’s a mouse! I’m a cat! And I’m hungry!”

“I’ll buy you dinner.” I replied, rolling my eyes at what I now suddenly had to actually put up with. “And lunch before that. So, behave like an adult, and restrain yourself.”

“Kill joy.” She grumbled, actually pouting, blood covered face and all.

God in heaven, please tell me, how in the hell did I somehow become the only adult around here? I silently half prayed, half pleaded as I sighed and looked back up at the mouse boy, who was now smiling and waving again.

“What’s your name boy?” I asked, waving back, half smiling at just how bizarre things were. I was also a little concerned at how quickly I was learning to take things like this in stride.

That should be concerning, shouldn’t it? I wondered idly as I focused on the mouse boy, just as several more mouse people came running out of a hole in the wall to join him. Or yell at him, as it turned out.

“Phillip!” A taller, well so to speak, and more stout mouse woman, in a tiny, patchwork dress no less, shouted while flinging herself at him! “What are you doing out here! You know you’re not supposed to attract attention from people! It’s dangerous! And that’s a cat-woman! She’ll eat you as soon as look at you! They’re all hungry savages! You know that!”

“I am not a savage!” Maggie protested, sounding both insulted and pouty. Especially when the mouse family completely ignored her.

“She says while her face is covered in blood, along with the rest of her.” I replied back to her, grinning in amusement at the absurdity of it all. “And had just finished whining that she couldn’t eat the little mouse boy.”

“I was caught off guard!” She defended herself, glaring at me as the rest of the mouse boys apparent family surrounded him, hugged him, and berated him for being reckless. “I’m tired, sore, and hungry! And mice taste so good! Well, normal mice anyway. I’ve never eaten one that could talk before!”

“I want to feel like I’m hallucinating,” Frichie muttered, staring at the scene playing out above us all. “But I know I’m not. I’m in too much pain for that.”

“I know the feeling.” I muttered, as I looked back over to the device in question, and taking the mouse kids words to heart, glanced around to what I guessed was the backside of the odd device. And right there, plain as day, was a little key handle sticking out of a socket of some kind.

Quickly, before I could think about it too much, I reached over and carefully twisted it one way, and then the other until it moved ever so slightly. Gritting my teeth, I then turned it until there was a click, and the device finally turned off as the crystal stopped glowing, and a faint humming sound I hadn’t even noticed, suddenly cut off.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

One could assume the device was powered down.

I hoped, anyway.

“Um, Phillip, was it?” I asked loudly while looking up at the little ceiling corner with the tiny, mouse family drama still playing out. The arguing family all stopped and turned to face me, a variety of emotions on their faces.

Fear was common, but curiosity was there too.

“Thank you for the help.” I said, mentally trying to simply shrug off the strangeness of the situation. With the police and local political boss coming down to what a few minutes had been an active war-zone, we had limited time.

“You’re welcome Mr. Wild Ranger!” The little Mouse Boy called out, waving his hands excitedly again. Behind him, his family all looked on, now more curious than afraid.

Except for the mother mouse, who was eyeing Maggie, and her bloody mouth in particular, with a huge amount of anxiety.

Maggie however, seemed to have latched her focus onto something else.

“Oh my, even the mice in the walls know who you are!” She giggled, actually giggled with her bloody face and all! “What fame you have amassed, Wild Ranger! I can only hope and dream to amass such fame like that one day!”

“Tanya, Chenya, you both stay away from that one.” Mother Mouse stated firmly, eyeing Maggie with the distrust all mothers have for dangerous characters. “That’s Hell Cat Maggie. And her face is bloody like that because she’s been busy tearing out peoples throats. She’ll eat you as soon as look at you!”

I glanced over to two younger looking female mouse girls in patchwork dresses, with odd sashes over their heads, with their mouse ears poking out of them.

I gave up and just stared, waving back mechanically to the excited little Phillip, while snickering at Maggies angry, pouty glare.

“I’m not going to eat anyone!” She snapped, her cheeks actually seeming to get more pronounced with her pout.

“You wanted to eat our brother as soon as you saw him!” One of the mouse girls yelled back, hands on her hips as her tail moved back and forth behind her. That drew my attention, and I noticed that their tails were oddly thicker and more lively than the standard mouse tail.

Granted, not by much, but I could see they even had tufts of hair at the ends that matched their hair color, and the girls even had tiny bows wrapped around them.

My life just keeps growing ever more bizarre. I thought, staring in wonder. The hell happened to our country?

“I thought he was a normal mouse!” Maggie protested, now sounding more pouty-irritated than anything. “I didn’t know you were people mice!”

“That’s a thing?” I asked, curious, even as the clock in my head continued to count down. “Frichie, can you move?”

“I can.” He nodded with a groan, getting up. He’d treated himself as best he could, and it would have to do before we found a proper saw-bones to see to him.

“No, it’s not a thing!” Phillip called out, answering my question excitedly, now that he was sure he wasn’t going to be eaten, or yelled at anymore. “We used to be normal people!”

I blinked, eyeing them, in all of their eight-inch, or less, tall glory with a skeptical look on my face. The mouse I could only assume was the father, however, caught my eye as I looked them over, and he gave a very quiet nod, with a somber look on his own furry face. I glanced back down at the machine in front of us, suddenly even more concerned.

“Did this do that to you?” I asked them, gesturing to the machine. Maggie blinked, shocked, then her eyes darted from the mouse family, to the machine, to the window outside.

The transformed gangster women were on both of our minds.

“No!” Phillip shook his head in the exaggerated way only young children do.

“We can tell you later, Mister Ranger.” The Father mouse chuckled before nodding to the window. “However, I think you have more immediate issues. Suffice to say, that this happened to us nearly two years ago, in our original country. And there was no glowing coppersmith magical device involved.”

I chuckled and nodded in agreement. “Fair enough then. We need to get this device out of here.” I stated, turning to everyone in the room and pointing to the device in question. “I don’t trust handing that thing over to anyone. Is there a back way out of here?”

“This is a tenement shack.” Maggie shrugged helplessly as she finally got around to wiping the blood off her furry face. “There’s hardly any windows, much less a back door.”

“We know a way!” Phillip called again, seemingly filled with endless excitement.

“Oh?” I asked, glancing back at the odd little mouse family. “And would you be willing to show us?”

“Maybe.” The father mouse cut in, a sudden gleam in his tiny eyes. A gleam I could actually respect. A gleam of hunger. A hunger for something more.

“What would you like?” I asked, deciding to cut straight to the brass tacks. “As you say, we have no time, and need the help. So what do you want?”

I actually found myself grinning wildly at the tiny mouse man. “Don’t be coy now.” Even without the fight, this was actually interesting and my blood was still filled with excitement.

I was actually a little worried I was starting to get a little battle drunk, but I simply had no time at the moment to focus on it.

“Take my family, and our people, all those of us that want to leave this place, out of here!” He stated firmly, an ambitious fire suddenly taking him over.

“Oh, such fire for one so small.” Maggie chuckled. “And where shall we take you, good sir?”

“Somewhere not here!” He replied instantly, with his family all turning to stare intently at me, a mixture of desperate hope and wary caution on their faces. Clearly they all wanted to go, but they were wary of being rejected on that front.

“Can’t you leave on your own?” I asked, a little lost on why they needed my help. If there was someone keeping them here against their will, that was going to be a real pain to deal with.

“This city is dangerous for a human, or even a beastkin with fangs and claws. How much more dangerous would it be for us?” He asked, not backing down, as his family watched the exchange between us with rapt attention. “We need help, we need protection, and we need a destination. None of that can happen without someone we can trust our lives, and the lives of our children to. For heavens sake, we can fit into the palm of your hand! We can’t just walk down the street on our own!”

“Oh my,” Maggie muttered, looking at them again with a new look of wonder on her face. “What on earth happened to you to bring you to this state?”

“And you would trust my word for this?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at them in confusion. “You’ve known me for less than three minutes.”

“I will trust the word of the man who made himself famous for doing heroic deeds.” Father mouse replied, focusing on me. “The one called the Wild Ranger. I will trust his word.”

I groaned as Maggie actually giggled next to me.

“Even the mice in the walls know your story!” She laughed as I shot her a glare.

“I am just a man, you know.” I warned them. “I’m an imperfect, fallen creature just like all the rest. You shouldn’t let stories make me into something I’m not. It’ll just disappoint you in the end.”

He actually smiled at me approvingly. “Then I would ask for the word of the man who gained such fame for doing what was right, even if it was dangerous. Even if he was standing alone when he did it. I would ask for the word of that man, and know and trust that he would do his best, under the eyes of God, to keep it, come what may. And then trust and pray to God that it will come out well enough in the end for us.”

We were all silent for a moment at that statement, before Maggie actually purred as she whispered to herself. “A pair of men I can respect! One’s an uncouth barbarian from the frontier, and the other is a mouse-man that can fit in the palm of my hand! What an interesting day this has become.”

I eyed them for a moment, ignoring Maggie as I silently weighed the request and situation, before glancing from them, to the window, then to the weapon, and then back to them. Then I simply shrugged, since while I didn’t quite know what I was signing up for, I honestly at that moment didn’t really care. They were talking, upright walking, clothes wearing mouse people!

Somehow, I doubted finding a better place for them to safely live was actually going to be all that hard.

And even if it was, that’s what gold, and a certain annoying newspaper woman I knew, were actually good for!

“Sure.” I agreed with a nod. “Now, where’s that back door?”

“Your word, under the eyes of God?” He asked, seeming to be desperate to accept, but wanting to be sure. I sighed, smiled, then stood straight, shoulders back, like I was back in the military, adopting a more solemn face and demeanor.

“My word, as Jake Ranger. Known as the Wild Ranger, to my great regret, under the eyes of God, that I shall do all I can do to take you to a safe and better place far away from here. And that, until you reach it, I shall look after you and protect you to the best of my abilities. Though I am but one man, and all things shall be as God desires them to be, in this world and the next.”

The family immediacy erupted into tiny cheers, while Frichie just shook his head in wonder, and Maggie actually giggled.

“So cute!” She whispered, watching them as they jumped up and down.

“Thank you Mister Ranger!” Phillip shouted, waving his tiny hands above his head in total excitement as his sisters all jumped around him while their mother wept, holding their father.

“You’re welcome.” I replied, amused but now really starting to feel the press of time. It was only going to be so much longer before the cops fully arrived in force. “We came in several wagons, and we’re loading up a lot of equipment in them. Get yourselves, and whoever else, into those wagons, and we’ll drive you out of here with everything else. I’ll take you back to the hotel I’m staying at, and we’ll figure out the rest from there.”

“I’ll start packing immediately!” Mother mouse shouted as she turned and sprinted into the mouse hole in the wall. “Girls, help me! He’s in a hurry, and we have no time to waste!”

“Yes mama!” The girls cried out in unison, and chased after their mother.

“Thank you sir.” The father mouse said solemnly.

“No problem.” I smiled back at him with a nod. “Now, about that back door?”

“Oh, Orna is just going to love this!” Maggie laughed out loud. I looked at her, blinked as I thought about, and then just sighed.

Why was it so hard to just do a simple task of picking up some equipment?

First it was a bloody street battle, and now I was seemingly stuck playing Mosses to tiny mouse people.

I knew God had a sense of humor, but this is taking the damn cake! I thought as we gathered up the weapon and followed the now excited father mouse out into the hallway of the cheap, ramshackle tenement building.

I mean for crying out loud, what next?! I thought darkly as he led us to their hidden back entrance as I thought about our next move.