Mouse, Sausage, and Bird Short Story Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, in a very cold and hostile world, there lived three large rats of the race Skay Wayal deep in the jungle. Their names were Mouse, Sausage, and Bird. All three were cousins, who had inherited a cozy cottage from their late grandfather Moon. They were each unique in their own way, and they each had their own role to fill around the house.
Mouse was short and brown and skinny. His whiskers were tiny, his ears were big, and his nose was pink. It was his role in life to fetch water from the well and to make sure that the fireplace was well maintained so that the cottage was always warm.
Sausage was short and black and fat. His whiskers were long, his ears were small, and his nose was white. His role in life was to cook all the food for himself and his cousins- breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and all the snacks in between so that they may never starve.
Bird was tall and white and stocky. He was strong and fast and brave. It was his duty in life as mandated by their late grandfather Moon, to collect valuable resources from the dangerous jungle such as wood and rocks and vines. And to above all else, protect his slightly younger and much weaker cousins from the dangers of the outside world.
Occasionally their roles would cross out of necessity, but those instances were few and far in between because not a single one of them could walk in the others’ shoes very well.
Over the past few years since their grandfather’s death the three rats prospered and acquired many delightful possessions whilst maintaining a comfortable life.
Mouse brought home the water and maintained the fire, Sausage cooked, and Bird scavenged the jungle and brought home valuable materials.
But then one day Bird allowed himself to be led astray by the ill advice of other Skay Wayal who knew naught about the words they spoke. Bird was busy chopping the sturdiest of branches from a sturdy tree when one of his friends from the jungle commented “Bird, I always see you doing such hard work but your cousins never come out here. Why is that?”
“Well,” bird stopped what he was doing, lowered his axe, and looked up into the black sky that was filled with thousands of shining stars up above a thin layer of mist. “Mouse is too weak and timid to come out here and Sausage is too fat. If me and them switched roles not much would get done and they might get hurt.”  
“Naw,” disagreed the other rat. “I reckon that in a few days they would get stronger and learn to work inside the woods. Right now they are just lazy and coddled like infants. You need to challenge them Bird, make them share some of your burden, and teach them how to survive out here. If you don’t they will die when you die. And you might die before them.”
At least twelve other Skay Wayal that had taken an interest in the conversation voiced their agreement.
Bird sighed. “My grandfather told me that this was my duty. To work in the jungle and protect my cousins.”
“They were adolescents then.” Another rat pointed out. “They are adults now. Make them do what adults do. You are not their slaves.”
Bird debated the point, but soon he found himself debating with several of the others. Not wanting to look soft, and halfway being convinced himself of the integrity of the charges that were being brought up against his cousins, Bird conceded.
He and his cousins would switch roles. They might not like it. But they would comply.

After the day’s work was done Bird made his way home underneath the green and blue canopy of trees, being careful not to step on any thorny blue vines or wander into the area of a hanging snake. Although the sky was always dark, Bird could see the path before him clearly because it was Day. During Day everything could be seen clearly because of the sun.
For a brief moment Bird thought he was being followed by a predator and climbed up into the branches of a very large tree with glossy blue leaves, taking shelter in the bough because he too was blue, having bathed himself in dye before he came out of the cottage.
When nothing sinister approached, Bird hopped back down to the moist earth, continued his journey, and eventually made it home with a huge backpack full of fresh firewood. He and his cousins needed it, because it was going to get cold after tomorrow.
Both of his cousins were waiting for him at the dinner table. As he sat down and helped himself to some red fruit and spiced fish, Bird wasted no time in making his decision known to his cousins.
Flabbergasted and afraid, Mouse and Sausage argued against the idea of switching roles all night, pointing out that only a day was left until Eclipse and that neither of them could survive in the jungle. They also pointed out that neither Mouse nor Bird could cook as well as Sausage.
Bird didn’t listen to their fuss. His mind was already set.

The next day Bird refused to go into the jungle and work, so his cousins were forced to swap roles. Bird was happy but they weren’t. Bird didn’t care because as he had pointed out to the two last night, he wasn’t their slave or servant and he was tired of doing all of the hard work. He was ready to relax and work the easy jobs. It would do them some good to some hard work.
They all did their best that morning in teaching each other how to properly work their respective roles. Even though these lessons used up much of the morning’s time, they were necessary.
Mouse taught Bird how to work the well and warned him never to fall in because only Mouse was small enough to escape via the grate. Bird insisted that he wouldn’t fall.
Sausage taught Mouse more on how to cook, but that didn’t take too long because Sausage had given him lessons before. Mouse felt up to the task, albeit he knew that his food never taste as good as his cousin’s.
Bird taught Sausage how to camouflage himself, stave off predators, and told him where to go for the best firewood and who might help him chop the trees. He also warned Sausage of the Cerberus, an evil three-headed dog that preyed upon the Skay Wayal. Sausage was terrified, but Bird assured him that he would do just fine, and that the Cerberus was only awake at Night and by that time Bird himself would be working the jungle again.
The day went by quickly and everyone had completed their tasks, albeit not as well as the others. Besides Bird, who finished bringing his pales of water into the cottage early because he was much stronger than Mouse and accustomed to working the harder job of the jungle. Bird was pleased with himself because he had gained himself enough time today to take a nap, wake up, and stare out the window to admire the beauty of the planet Plutarch in the dark sky.
Plutarch was purple and cracked all over. It was huge and filled a large portion of the sky. It was majestic and mysterious and his grandfather had always told him many tales that took place up there, in that majestic mysterious place.
Whilst staring up at Plutarch Bird decided that he had done Mouse’s job better than Mouse. Hahaha! Fancy that.
Mouse cooked the food and it tasted much less good than Sausage’s. But it was good enough. Sausage brought back home some lumber but it was barely enough. Bird told him that he would have to bring thrice as much firewood home tomorrow than he did today.

The next day was Eclipse. Plutarch rose to envelope the sun and the weather was slightly colder than Day.  The usual mist that clung to the surface of the earth grew thicker and completely blotted out the sky.
Bird finished with the well early and came home before lunch to keep vigil over the fire. Mouse cooked for him, and they played card games for the rest of the day.
Suppertime came and the two cousins grew worried because Sausage hadn’t made it home yet. Anxiously they waited for several more hours as the clock would tell it but Sausage still didn’t come home.
Heart thumping with trepidation, Bird went out to the hilly place in the jungle where he had told Sausage to chop wood in search of his cousin.
Nobody was there, but something was that sounded an innate alarm inside Bird’s head. “Cerberus footprints! Oh no!” He cried, quickly starting to follow the large paw-prints that had sunken into the frosting black soil.
Outraged, Bird followed the tracks all the way to the beast’s lair where it lazed, gnawing on the leftover meat that clung to faintly red bones.
The Cerberus was five times his size and black in color, heavily muscled and obviously as savage as it was evil.
“Why have you done this?!” Bird demanded of the monster.
Casually the Cerberus met his gaze and Bird realized that every single one of its six eyes blazed an ethereal, unholy green. “I am a monster, placed here to do this. This is what I do.” It answered.
In tears, Bird strung his bow and pointed it at the monster.
“Right now I am too tired and too full to pursue and eat you.” The monster said as it stared at him. “But if you dare strike me with that arrow I will tear you limb from limb until you are dead just like this other rat.”  
Ashamed, angered, remorseful, and heartbroken, Bird retreated back the way he had come, knowing that he couldn’t hope to slay the Cerberus and that Mouse wouldn’t be able to survive without the aid of himself and Sausage.

Unbeknownst to Bird, Mouse was already dead.
He had decided to prepare his cousins’ favorite dessert so that they may be surprised and delighted when they returned. A key component in that dessert was Opal fruit. The problem with Opal fruit was that it was poisonous by nature, and if not prepared the right way would induce bodily cold upon the eater so severe that the victim would feel as though he were freezing to death.
Suffice it to say, Mouse thought that he knew what he was doing but he didn’t. He prepared the Opal fruit wrong and then tasted it, got the chills so bad he couldn’t take it anymore and cast himself into the fireplace, screaming as the once enticing flames scoured his bones barren and baked them black.

Bird returned to the cottage and couldn’t find his cousin. Fearing for the worst because of what had happened to Sausage, Bird grew so angry that he began tossing objects in the house around and against the walls.
Eventually his carelessness started a fire, so he sprinted towards the lake to retrieve as many pales of water as he could to banish the flames. Sheer desperation enhanced Bird’s speed as made his way down the long path to the well. It also made him careless and unobservant. This carelessness and lack of attention to detail mixed with the weaken light of Eclipse caused him to overlook the stones of the well as he neared them.
Bird tripped over the ledge and fell inside of the well, landing inside a very deep, very cold pool of water. At first he tried desperately to fit through the open grate that led to a set of steps that would free him from this place. But he wasn’t as small as Mouse and thus couldn’t fit.
Quickly realizing that his efforts to escape were in vain, he wept bitterly as he realized his own doom was imminent, and knew that it was his foolish actions that had brought such an ill fate upon himself and his cousins. He remembered his grandfather telling him that each of them had their roles to fill in life and that these roles were determined by their individual unique set of attributes and skills. He admitted his folly, accepted the punishment given to him by fate, and prayed for forgives.
And then he drowned as the cold dark water drug him down into his grave.

The End.