Day – December 13, 2000

Today, while I was sleeping in the infirmary (I decided to stay
a bit longer than overnight as you can guess, I just faked a headache and I got
to sleep in these warm, comfortable beds all day long while the cold December
winds blow outside) a big weasel tried to enter our colony from the front
entrance in the rosebush. It attacked Cid, who was guarding the entrance, and
it bit him up good. But Brutus, who was with Cid, helped attack the weasel with
a stray thorn and it ran away. Justin stressed at a meeting yesterday that he
wants a group organized that will defend the colony, by any means necessary. He
mentioned that using all the scrap metal we have we should make swords for
defensive weaponry. The motion passed, and Justin has aptly named it "The
Guard". He has selected me as a sort of right hand man because he assumes
I’ve been reading a lot of the martial arts book I took from the library at the
mansion. I have been reading it, and I am honored that Justin, now entitled
"The Captain of the Guard", has chosen me as a kind of lieutenant to
him. He is in the process of getting a sword made for me, and he brought me a
piece of paper asking me to draw for him what I wanted my sword to look like.
At the moment, it simply has a gold colored handle, a steel blade, and an
engraving on the sword that bears my name, LEON. It’ll look neat, I’m sure.

I’m starting to think Mr. Ages and Jack know I’m lying to them about my
constant headaches, so I think I’d better make them go away and leave here
before they get too suspicious. Oh well, it was warm while it lasted.

Day – December 14, 2000

I just saw Jenner a few moments ago. He looks a lot different
than he did before we came. He now wears a cape and is wearing a different
tunic than before. He now sports a red and black tunic instead of his blue one.
I guess I should go see if I can get a new one made, as my black and white one
is starting to wear thin and tear a little. Since I’m on the Guard I’ve got to
wear the elected uniform. I believe Justin made it a white shirt and a green
tunic… Maybe blue? I don’t know. Perhaps I should ask before I go and waste our
cloth.

Also, Jonathan stressed to us he didn’t want us EVER going near
his wife, nor her home, which is a big cinderblock near the garden patch. He
told us that he didn’t want her to know about us, or the injection’s effects on
our aging. He said that he didn’t want to risk telling his new spouse anything
that she might take incorrectly. He specifically told us that she was the kind
of individual who would think him a freak of sorts if he told her, and Jonathan
loves her dearly. But… Wouldn’t it just hurt Elizabeth (THAT’S her name) more
if she was going to die of old age and find out that her husband and probably
any children they ever had would live many years longer? It’d sure hurt me…
Jonathan seems to know what he’s doing, though, so I don’t worry too much about
him.

Day – December 17, 2000

My sword is finished, and boy does it look neat! They couldn’t
engrave my name onto it, but it looks just about the same I drew it before.
Justin’s sword was finished about three hours ago and he told us to all meet in
the recreational area once we got our weapons. I suppose I shouldn’t
dilly-dally and hang around my bed, I’ll write a bit tonight.

Day – December 17, 2000 (Night)

The first training of the Guards went by smoothly. Justin went
over how to hold the sword and step with the sword. That basically took up the
whole two hours we were there for. Justin wants me to practice my CQC, close
quarters combat, for the next class. We decided to hold meetings and training
sessions every other day for two hours. That would be plenty of time for us to
hone skills, and also maintain another job.

We’ve started pulling things together here, Arthur’s found a
series of cables we believe might be electrical. If they are, we might be able
to tap into it and get all the electricity we’d ever need. To think, we would
have lightbulbs and running motors!

Oh, I guess that kinda changed the subject a bit. For my other job, I’m
going to be helping out as a strategist for our plans of theft. Brought about
by Jenner at the last meeting, he suggested that there was no way we’d ever be
able to survive the winter without "borrowing" a few things from the
farmer. Jenner’s spiel with the lampost frame made Nicodemus and Justin worried
about what exactly that meant, and Jenner assured them that anything stolen
would be small and barely even noticeable. Nicodemus and Justin agreed and
Jenner approached me as the official. First thing he said we needed was some
power cord and wiring for tapping the electrical lines.

I suppose, since it’s my job, I should find some way to get our
paws on some wires then.

Day – December 25, 2000

I woke up this morning to the sound of silence. The snow outside
was muffling any noise from seeping under my covers, and all the rats had gone
to do their work. I get to sleep in late, as my job doesn’t really demand any
time commitment, just as long as I get the supplies eventually. I found our
wiring in the workshop at the back of the house, and got the confiscation team
to do the dirty work. I didn’t really feel right about us taking the stuff, but
the idea of heat made me order the group to go get the wires. I can only
imagine what Jenner has in store for me next.

I have to read a bit on my martial arts before the training
session tonight. I want to be in a perfect state of mind when I teach the
class. I’d better put down this book and pick up my other one.

Day – December 27, 2000

The exercise went fine, but something else more important
happened. Today we dissolved rule by simply Jenner, Justin, and Nicodemus.
Nicodemus brought forth the idea that we elected officials to be a kind of
council and they made all of the decisions. That sounds very nice, it’d be
easier for the lot of us, and we’d have to attend less meetings, especially
when some stupid disagreement is brought up between two rats and they want to
get everybody together to discuss it. Everybody elected Jenner, Cid, and some
rats I actually don’t even know about. Cid looks kind of rediculous now. He’s
the "Bigwig" of the council (I coined that phrase). He wears a
fake-looking white wig like the old Americans did in the 1700’s I believe the time
was. He has a gavel and brings the council to order whenever things get too
crazy, like when Justin pokes fun at Jenner’s oddball stories of Nicodemus
being a wizard and not telling anybody, then everybody starts laughing.

Nicodemus isn’t a wizard, though… He’s just like us, except he got that
weird shot that lets him do things, strange things, with his mind. I held that
stone, I know what his power is capable of, and I really don’t like it.
Nicodemus is just starting to try and talk to me about what happened all that
while ago. He knows that there is still some power left in me, just waiting for
a chance to come out. He told me the stone was now a permanent red because I
"stretched" the stone’s powers. Whoops.

He said that there was also an infinate amount of energy in the stone, but
it would need a jumpstart with the most powerful of emotions, love.

Love, I thought? Rediculous.

It’s not. Unfortunately.

Day – January 6, 2000

It’s been a few days since I’ve last written because Jenner’s
kept me on my toes with my job. First, he wanted me to coordinate us taking
some of the Fitzgibbon’s oddly colored lights from the windows of their house.
Alright, no problem there. Then he wanted me to find an extension cord so we
could connect the lights we found to a makeshift outlet that Arthur’s made. I
couldn’t find one anywhere in the shed, so I needed to have a look around
inside the actual house. Mr. Ages, who’s finally perfected his sleeping powder
formula the owl gave him, told me to put that he would have to run into the
kitchen himself and put it in Dragon’s food dish. I asked him how he would do
it without being seen. It seems that for a while, the building team has cleared
out a small area of soft dirt under the Fitzgibbon’s porch. The small hole that
was cut in the floor came out right under a cupboard in the kitchen, thus
allowing unseen entrance and exit from the house. I was hesitant, remembering
Alyssa’s incident, but he insisted he knew what he was doing. He told me to
crawl through the hole about 5 minutes after he left the rosebush to enter the
house. Mr. Ages said that by then Dragon would be done eating and be sleeping
soundly on the floor.

After Mr. Ages left that night, I waited 5 minutes, as directed,
and then started walking out the long, cold, icy path outside. It was deathly
quiet, and only a few moon beams managed to weave their way in through the
pricks and thorns of the rosebush. It was rather dark, but my eyes adjusted
quickly and I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. By the time I
got past the guard’s post, about three minutes had already gone by. I could see
the watcing alcove off to the side, where Brutus was standing at attention. He
was always alert, but this time he relaxed and gave me a polite nod as I walked
past him. I returned the nod and continued down the narrow path to the main
entrance.

As I began to feel the cold chill of the outdoors, I could see
Mr. Ages returning. He smiled at me and told me that he was successful in
drugging the bowl, and by the time he had crawled back through the hole, Dragon
was already looking woozy. That’s good. I thanked Mr. Ages and continued
outside.

The night was quiet. The silence was even more deafening than the one in the
rosebush. Some lights still were hung, up on the high windows of the
Fitzgibbon’s home, but they weren’t lit anymore. As I trotted slowly down the
snowy path, (If I were to go quickly, I might have sunk into the snow, and that
wouldn’t be good. I’d either freeze to death, or be cat food in the morning) I
could see that the only lights on were the lights upstairs. That meant nobody
was downstairs at the moment, and that made my job easier.

I crawled through the porch and quickly saw the hole in the floor. I
cautiously poked my head through and looked around. I could see the square
tiled floor, and on it lay Dragon, now sleeping his drugged, peaceful sleep. I
crawled up some more, then considered whether or not I should wear all the
layers I had on, as they may hinder my movement in a critical situation. I took
off the cape and blanket I wore, but left my Guard’s tunic on. I sure wasn’t
going to be running around in my fur, especially in freezing cold conditions. I
hung the clothes up on a piece of jutting wood, making sure to bring my sword
along, and slowly crawled out of the hole and under the cabinet.

Dragon didn’t move at all. He was really conked out from the drug. I could
only hope it lasted until I was done.

The first thing I did was look around the kitchen. I noticed that there were
two exits. One was a small hallway that also housed the stairs to the second
floor, and the front door. I couldn’t go out through the door, so I crept
silently through the hallway. I looked around a bit more, and saw that at the
end of the hall, there was a door that had been left carelessly ajar. I looked
inside, and low and behold, a small sqaure device was plugged in with an
extension cord. I gave it a quick look over, then turned to leave.

As I did, I accidentally tripped over the cord, making a small ruckus.

I stayed pefectly still for a few moments, but as I got up, I looked out the
open door.

Moonlit shadows caked the walls under the stairwell, created twisted,
gnarled images. One of them looked a LOT like a moving cat. And the shape was
moving towards the room. I was petrified. Was I going to die here? At the paws
of some cat?

I shook my head and looked around quickly, then I dashed behind the small
square object. I could hear the cat in the room, the matted paws making a small
noise on the rug. I eased my way around the square object, which was unusually
hot, (it was some sort of heater) to keep as much distance from Dragon as I
could.

I soon found myself on the opposite side I started out at. Dragon was
actually CIRCLING the heater. I went around two more times before I found out
Dragon knew I was there… And I wouldn’t be able to get away without
confrontation.

Thinking quickly, I counted my options as I crept along the heater. I had a
limited amount of directions I could move in. I could keep going, and risk
Dragon finding me, I could go the opposite direction and end this quickly, I
couldn’t go to the door, or Dragon would catch me, or… I could go… UP.

I looked up and saw that the exhaust openings created a kind of ladder I
could climb up. Of course, it would take a moment for me to climb the whole
way. Once I was up there, I would be safe until Dragon left, or he figured out
where I was. Either way, it bought me time.

My heart was in my throat, threatening to jump out and run away any moment.
Some butterflies had also found their way into my stomach as well. I was
extremely nervous.

The next time I circled around, I went a little faster, and actually caught
a glimpse of Dragon’s tail disappearing around the corner. I knew I didn’t have
much time.

I leapt upwards as high as I could and grabbed at the openings. I caught
one, then pulled myself up until I could stick my hind paws into the openings
as well. I scrambled up the heater in a few seconds after that. As I rolled
onto the top, I looked cautiously over the rim and saw Dragon right underneath
me, but he kept moving, being ever so silent.

He didn’t see me go up. I was safe for that moment…

After a few more times of circling the heater, he started changing his
rhythm, moving forwards, then backwards, then stopping, then running. I never
would have made it if I hadn’t gotten on top. I waited nervously, watching
Dragon go by for another dozen times or so, then he finally stopped and turned
to the door. He walked about halfway, then stopped and turned around. I hugged
myself as close to the top of the heater as I could, and thankfully Dragon
didn’t see me.

When I looked up next, Dragon was gone. His shadow showing him lying down in
his previous spot in the kitchen.

My heart slid back down into my chest and the butterflies succumbed, but
they didn’t completely go away until I snuck underneath the cabinet and was
safely out of the kitchen. I put my things back on, and hurried out to the
rosebush.

I need to have a word with Mr. Ages about his "perfection" of the
powder.

Artwork by MAL