My Escape

It had been around three weeks since I had been trapped in this cave. Lanora Elder, one of the most powerful witches in the Northern continent, had locked me in a cage only about 6 by 6 feet wide. Barely large enough for me to lay down and sleep without having to curl my knees to my chest. The floor was but a slat of metal that riddled me with icy coolness every time I laid down. It always took me a few minutes to adjust to the temperature at the end of each night but I had slowly learned to get used to it.

I had hardly understood why I was there in the first place. In the time before my captivity I was a student at the Huma Academy of Magic. Everyone who was sent there had powers that they studied and learned to master. Not me though. I was sent there by my parents, both master Fae warriors who were well respected in the halls of the Academy. I, however, had the misfortune of being born without the measliest amount of power. A misfortune that has brought great embarrassment to my family and our lineage.

During my first year there I had been made a mockery. I studied, and I measured, and I trained but no powers ever came. Every day became a living symbol of my failure and the polarity between myself and my magic-wielding peers. Faeries, witches, shifters, and all other magical beings lined the halls of the school. And I was an outcast among them.

That was until one morning I woke up here, in this cage. That morning I awoke on the same metal floor in a dark cold room. The clothes I fell asleep wearing were no longer there, but replaced with a grey tattered tunic. My head had pounded and my back and neck ached no doubt from sleeping on the hard metal floor. As the haziness settled and I took in my surroundings, panic had started to creep in. The cage was built with thick metal bars that I couldn’t slip through when I tried. There was no door to which I could open and escape that left me wondering how I was put in here in the first place. I screamed terrified shrieks begging for someone to help me. Tears slid down my face until I couldn’t cry any longer. It was only until I had submitted to my captivity that Lanora had walked into the empty room and studied me. She walked around the cage in her high heeled stilettos that clacked with each step she took. She studied me as I hurled curses at her and begged her to explain what happened. She only pointed her nose down at me and scoffed. After she was satisfied with her exhibition of studying me like an animal at the zoo, she approached the cage and grasped the metal bars with both hands. In a soft cool voice, she spoke.

“Freedom is in your hands. Take it if it is what you wish.”

I charged the bars and reached my hands out to grab her wrists. She was quick though and strolled back before I could get to her. She stared at me with her hands behind her back as I begged her for an explanation.

“What’s going on? What do you mean? Please, please let me out! I want to go home. Please!”

She merely stuck up her nose, turned around and slowly made her exit.

Each day since then had passed with growing dread and loneliness. And while I was fearful of my circumstances, I hadn’t anticipated how much boredom would contribute to the torture of this solitude. I was imprisoned in a cage that only contained a single toilet for when I needed to use it. And considering the meager amount of food that was provided, I didn’t use it often. Around the cage was a dark room in what seemed to be a cave. There was a light that poured in from the exit and the sound of water consecutively dripping. That sound drove me even crazier. Every once in a while a mouse would sneak into the room and squeak around, likely looking for a crumb of food. I’d watch the mouse like how I would watch a TV show in my old dorm as it foraged the floor. As often as it scurried though, it never approached the cage.

A stout man would come in twice a day to provide food. He was a short fat man that looked elderly, perhaps in his 60s. Each time he arrived with food, he would inch towards the cage keeping his eyes glued to the floor. He placed the tray holding my food servings on the ground and whipped around to sprint back the way he came. I tried talking to him but eventually gave up after several failed attempts. I had hoped I could somehow get his companionship in exchange for answers. Each time though, he only repeated his tasks. Walk in, set down the tray, run away.

Every other day, Lanora would return and repeat the same set of actions she did on the first day. Circle around the cage, look down on me with disgust and disappointment, and repeat her same monotonous piece.

“Freedom is in your hands. Take it if it is what you wish.”

Three weeks had passed though and nothing had changed. At this point in time I had submitted to my defeat. Three weeks of the same consistent treatment with no solution was a nightmare and the loneliness within began to consume me. I had pondered Lanora’s riddle in my head over and over, staring at my hands and my arms and feeling for weaknesses in the cage’s infrastructure. I wondered if there was something completely obvious that I was missing to escape this prison. But I could think of no answer to her mysterious riddle. All I could do each day was pace the cage and stare at the door, waiting for someone, something to come save me.

As if by manifestation, the mouse hurried into the cave, squeaking loud and proud as it again scavenged the floor for food. I wondered if the mouse understood how lucky it was to be as free as it was. Even if it was small and had to rummage for food each day, it was free to move about as it wished. And with that freedom, it decided every day to come back here, to this cave. I stared at the mouse with envy and felt my shoulders begin to tense. My jealousy turned to anger and frustration as the rodent flaunted its autonomy at me, walking around the cage as it pleased, rubbing it in my face. I stepped up to the bars with gritted teeth and began to yell.

Unintelligible words poured out of my mouth cursing the mouse for whatever reason I could muster. The last bits of energy I had were now being spouted at a measly mouse who had committed the sin of looking for food in my cave. All the while it had paused its scavenge to sit and stare at the woman hurling curse words at it. I yelled until my voice went rasp and my throat gave out. I sank to the ground and choked on my cries - my tears being an endless stream of submission and hopelessness.

“It cannot end like this” I whispered. “This was not supposed to be my life”. With all the anger that had roiled, I cupped my hands to my face and screamed.

What followed was a flash of light which quickly dissipated into dust and darkness. I looked around to find myself in an entirely different place – or was it? I still sat in the cage but the mass of it had grown at least 20 times my size. The light that flowed in from the cave exit seemed to shine brighter than what I had remembered. In adjusting to my new settings, I sat up to stare down at my hands and widened my eyes at the appearance of claws at the end of my arms. I shrieked in horror only to learn the only sound I could exude was that of panicked squeaks. My body had been replaced, or had it been transformed?

“Holy gods, I’ve turned myself into a mouse.” I thought to myself. At least my consciousness could still speak English.

Before I had a moment to process what had happened, the mouse approached me. It stared at me just as it did while I cursed at it, looking both surprised and apathetic. I was too scared to move as I’d never felt so small and now stood before a wild animal that had years of experience over me in handling this weird new body. It didn’t get any closer though. In fact, it turned around and scurried towards the door. It stopped only once to look back at me, as if to say “Are you coming?”. I quickly realized there that this was my chance at escape. I was now small enough to exit the cage doors and I didn’t waste any time thinking about it before I somehow transformed back to my old anatomy. I hurried behind the mouse with no idea where it would lead me. I hadn’t trusted it in the least bit, but at this moment it was my only sense of direction. I followed it down the cave hallway, through a crack in the wall, and out into the open world.

The sun was bright. I realized after being hidden in darkness for so long that my eyes needed time to adjust to the light. I squinted my tiny little eyes as we traveled for what had to be an hour or two. We reached a campground that was flush with scented flowers and bright tall green grass which kept us hidden from the few humans that loitered by a quaint wooden cabin. We wound up nearing a metal garbage can that had been knocked over. The mouse crawled inside and was quickly engulfed by the pile of trash. Moments later, it came out with a leaf of romaine lettuce. Half of it had wilted, but the other half was salvageable. It laid the leaf in front of me as an offer and awaited my response. I squeaked in thanks and began to eat. The mouse followed suit.

After having only eaten bread and apples for the past few weeks, the lettuce was truly something to enjoy. It was a fresh, light, green delight that filled my teeny belly quicker than I expected. I still had much to learn about this new body. This new body, I thought to myself. I had been so concentrated on escaping the cage and following my new friend to freedom that I hadn’t taken a moment to process my transformation. My body began shaking in panic. I didn’t understand how this happened. I had never in my life wielded magic and never thought I would. And the first time I use it is to turn into a damn mouse. I would likely never be able to return back to my human form. A would get stomped on or contract the plague or die of dehydration before I could figure out how to manage my powers. How long would I be stuck in a body that was not my own? One I had foolishly made in pursuit of my freedom.

One problem has always followed another and life started feeling like a never ending nightmare. How long would I be eating trash from garbage cans? Spending my life looking up at what I once was? The panic set in and I couldn’t think of what to do next. How does one live as a mouse?

My thought train was interrupted by the mouse who had just finished chowing down its portion of the romaine and decided again to look at me with that blank stare. It approached me and did something I didn’t know it was capable of - it rested its hand on my back. A wave of calm ran through me and I felt my heartbeat begin to slow down. It must have been racing faster than the speed of light considering its tiny size. I had known from science projects that mice were intelligent species, but I had never known them to show sympathy or companionship. I stared at the mouse in front of me and closed my eyes. My face scrunched and I shouted my squeaks out into the open air. I channeled the rage, frustration, and confusion that I had felt the hours before when I was back in that cage. Channeled the shame I felt as Lanora stared at me with her daunting eyes. And lastly, I channeled the want inside me. The want to be human, the want to be back at the academy, the want to sleep in a damn bed again.

The light flashed again and a dark cloud poofed. I kinked my neck and looked around my surroundings to find I was no longer hidden in the tall grass of the camp ground. I looked over to find my toes and gave them a wiggle to confirm my very hopeful suspicions - I was back in my body. I laid on the ground in the same neutral tunic I donned for weeks in Lanora’s cage. How it happened to reappear with my human form, I wasn’t sure.

Better than coming back to a naked body, I thought.

I stood up and I gazed at the pale skin that caressed my body as if it were the first time I’d seen it in years. Though I knew it had only been hours. My lips curled and I felt a tear well up in my eye. A happy tear. I had not only escaped my cage, and returned to my original form, but I realized that my powers had finally appeared to me. The body I wore now was not that of a human, but of a shifter. I could now be whoever or whatever I wanted to be.

A soft squeak again interrupted my stream of consciousness. I looked down at the mouse who had just guided me through my transformation and smiled even wider. I picked it up with a gentle swoop and kissed it on the head.

“How about we keep this adventure going?” I said. An excited squeak was the only response. “I’ll take that as a yes”. So I placed the mouse in my pocket, breathed a breath of the fresh air I had missed so much, and began my venture back to the Academy.

The End.