Heavy Are The Heads
written by: Bernardo Villela
@BernardoVillela
Heavy are the heads that wear the crowns, The Mouse King, thought, bowing his eight heads and reflecting on the centuries of warring and convoying he’d already experienced. He faced his soldiers and laid out his plan to cease their nomadic existence and conquer an entire village.
The King and his men picked up many fleas and nestled them in their fur. Come Christmas Eve they were infested, itchiness fraying their nerves. They marched on the village, entering houses through cracks in walls, root cellars, and under doors.
In the final house lived the Drosselmeyer family. Ten souls resided beneath its roof: a grandmother, mother, father, and seven children.
The fleas bit the adults with ease. Into the living room the rodent platoon moved, where the eldest boys slept on a chaise, bench, and couch respectively. Heinrich, the oldest, stirred.
As Heinrich stood in his stocking-feet, he slipped, nearly splitting his nightgown. Mice bit his legs. Scrambling, he got to the fireplace and grabbed the coal scuttle. He started thwacking downward, squishing and crunching the mice. There were so many it was hard to miss.
His younger brother Wilhelm awoke, saw the scurrilous scourge, ran to get the fire poker, and began impaling the Mouse King’s foot-soldiers.
In the corner, on a bench, their brother Torsten awoke to the smell of entrails and the sounds of squealing death and murderous rage. He cowered in fright.
Heinrich started shovelling mouse cadavers into the fire. Seeing this the Mouse King ordered a hasty retreat.
Warmed by the corpses, they stayed up consoling Torsten and checking on their parents.
The visible enemy was vanquished, but an as yet invisible one had struck. In a fortnight, Heinrich and Torsten would be the only ones the Black Death hadn’t taken. Had it not been for their heroism the Drosselmeyer line would’ve ended. Instead, two centuries one of their descendants brought about the death of the selfsame Mouse King by giving her a nutcracker.
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