He turned the mask around and lifted it again to look. It lined up in front of Charlotte’s face. The eyes burst, gleaming, churning with shades of green. Puncturing pupils at the centre started a fear within Randy. He let go.
The mask lingered. Positioned in empty space.
It was like gravity had an alternative effect on the mask momentarily. It was being tugged and pulled in small sharp motions in this one fixed space in the air. It almost looked like the pressure would tear it apart, but the vibrations stopped as it reached its breaking point.
A fog of white and grey flooded around it, and it settled into a mouse-like vapour cloud. The eyes blinked, and the mask started to drift forward. Randy was falling away from the scene and falling apart in his mind. “You, are you… okay..?” his voice trembling under the weight of the magical effects he’d just witnessed.
The cloud quivered. Every time it did, the cloud became denser. It formed into fur, and tiny mouse fingers and toes sprung from it, replacing the cloud once in its place. The final gust of a shake swept the cloud away, leaving a white mouse with a paper face. “Erm… what happened..?” The mouse in front of Randy spoke. The paper face shifts up and down as if to show a mouth moving underneath the nose.
“Human. Help me!.” Charlotte was nowhere to be seen. Randy twisted his head around and found nothing.
The paper mouse spoke. “It’s me, Charlotte. What’s wrong?” Charlotte was starting to become more aware of certain parts of her vision. Randy was as big as her. The floor was made from wood, not carpet like it had been a moment ago. There was a paint pot behind Randy about the same size as him. Her hands were now paws.
“What’s going on..?” Her thoughts were warping around inside her head. She could see a city, unlike anything she’d seen before. It had towering buildings, which weren’t made from concrete or glass but plain old tin cans. Mice were everywhere. Then it vanished, and she could see her art lecturer, mouth wobbling around and her finger pointed at a projection behind her.
The pain was excruciating. It felt like her very being was shredding apart. Darkness. The last image that flashed through her was the paper mask hovering before her. Looking at the back of it, she could see nothing but a bordered void. It felt so deep that she must have fallen into it, just that it hadn’t entirely wrapped around her existence yet.
“Hey, human. You need to wake up.” Charlotte blinked. “Come on, that’s it.” She blinked a couple more times; her head was tingling and boiling. “You’re exactly who I’m looking for. I knew it.” Her eyes opened with a flickering set of blinks, and she could see Randy’s face up close and in full detail. All the way down to the finest hairs and even the little chip missing from his left ear.
“I feel wrong…” she uttered as Randy pulled at her until she was mainly in a seated position. He wobbled back a little. “You’re the paper mouse. At least you are now. Look at your face. It’s the mask. It’s paper. This is nuts!” You could see the excitement bubbling up and out of his skull; there was almost steam hissing out of his ears. “What do we do? We need to go. Everyone will want to see you. Wait, do you have any seething bloodlust at the moment?”
Charlotte was starting to get the hang of herself, and she straightened out, flat face pointed straight at Randy. “I don’t think so, I’ve felt like that before, and this is just a hell of a headache.” still utterly confused, she stood, taking her first steps teetering from left to right.
“Human, human.” Randy jabbed at her.
“My name is Charlotte. Please use my name. I’m not even human anymore.”
“Right, right. Charlotte, we need to go. This is it. The prophecy is right. The paper mouse has returned.” The glee in Randy’s eyes was insurmountable.
“Wait, where do we need to go? What is this prophecy? Why am I involved?” Charlotte took a chance to take in her surroundings. Her vision was slightly warped like she could see more now, wider. Everything was so far away. The bed she was in before looked like an ocean in the distance. The door in the wall could have been some biblical or mythical entrance to some heavenly place. Everything had become grander and gained grandeur. For a moment, joy crept through her heart.
This was new. This was utterly new and different. Charlotte didn’t have to attend classes, deal with her mother, or work on anything. She was free; she was a magic mouse.
“We need to go see Arching. The scholar from the city. Oh wait, you don’t even know about the city. Ahhh, the prophecy. It tells us that with the arrival of the next paper mouse, great change will come. An adaptation or an alteration to how we live and breathe that will improve everything for mouse-kind.” Randy spoke at such a pace it was hard to follow. So much was tearing through his head. “I know this is even more than the lot you had before. You’ve dealt with much, and this is more. I get it. You need to do this, though. You have to come with me. Arching can explain everything; it’s going to be fantastic.”
Charlotte was accustomed to shape now. She could move her arms and legs, twiddle her toes, and twitch her ears. Her tail even flailed from side to side on command now. “I’m in.”
You've become a mouse. A paper-faced one, but besides that, a mouse. What do you even do? Is there a craving for cheese? In all my years, I never. I may have to go on a jolly old quest of my own and find a paper tiger mask or a goose one. Can I just make my own?
Those were the words Randy so needed to hear. “You will? You will! Incredible.” He couldn’t really believe she was onboard so quickly. This time was for something other than thinking too hard, though. He knew what they needed to do. “Right, we better get a move on. With me, this way.”
Randy made off towards the corner of the table in a strut, breaking into a swift jog shortly after. Charlotte followed him eagerly, walking in a very human way. She watched Randy as his paws and legs synchronised, propelling him forward. She tried to match him, catching one foot on another until it clicked. Her claws caught on the wood, leaving tiny scratches indiscernible to a human’s eyes. Particles of dust were visible as she whipped by now. Small hairs, particles and other assorted micro-objects danced in the space around her.
At the edge, Randy paused. He looked over his shoulder, seeing Charlotte. She pulled up next to him and stared. To liken it to a vast desert or open grassland isn’t quite right. She still knew that it was the floor of her bedroom, it wasn’t any of those things, but the vastness of it was indescribable. The distance to the ground gave her shivers and pangs as her eyes started to wobble.
“Careful now. I bet this looks rather strange to you.” a reassuring voice from Randy seemed odd. “It seems like a long way out and down, but it’s not. You’re a mouse now. This is nothing. Just do what I do and have faith in yourself and your adventuring partner.”
Charlotte glanced over to Randy as he smirked, took several steps back and charged at the precipice. She started to reach out and stop him but needed to be faster. The air whistled past her, and she could see Randy soaring. Then falling. His face was contorted but had focus. Feet poised to hit the ground, legs at attention but with flexibility.
The landing was pristine. Randy continued to run after his feet hit, then slowed and spun to face Charlotte high in the sky.
“Your turn. Get a run-up, don’t fear it and stay loose as you come down. Keep yourself as level as possible.” Was what Charlotte would hear if she weren’t panicking or too far away. This was the adventure, the change in her life that could mean so much. No chickening out now, the cold sweat echoing over her and butterflies in her stomach needed to be pushed aside. Deep breathes. Several steps. Eyes opened wide. She soared.
“Ouch.” She next saw Randy picking her up from the ground again.
“That wasn’t the best, but you’re still in one piece, so you get a B- for your effort. The roll almost looked planned until it went sideways, literally.”
Once all paws were on the ground and bodies up straight, they surveiled. Mountains of clothing were in their path; sky-high sweaters next to vast t-shirt glaciers. Thankfully the carpet wasn’t thick. The scratchy short, dense kind meant they actually had reasonably solid footing. The filament lights still retained their soothing qualities, even if they were giant burning orbs in the sky at this point.
“Our first mission, Sharlug.”
“Charlotte.” She corrected his abysmal pronunciation. Focusing on the missing pieces.
“Ahh, Charlotte. I’ll remember. Promise.” Randy pointed towards the corner of the room to their left, directly over sweater hills and past backpack mountain. “We need to get there. That’s where the entrance is.”
“The entrance to what?”
“The entrance to the tunnels. They will take us to the city. So we can see Archings. Keep up.”
With a shot, Randy had set off. Charlotte was still frazzled; a nap would definitely be in order soon.
She felt different, though. Not just the whole being a mouse thing. This was actual excitement.