{"id":590,"date":"2012-09-20T19:02:04","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T00:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/?p=590"},"modified":"2012-09-20T19:02:04","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T00:02:04","slug":"the-return-of-cyril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/?p=590","title":{"rendered":"The Return of Cyril"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-608\" title=\"MouseInBucket\" src=\"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/mouseBucket-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/mouseBucket-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/mouseBucket-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/mouseBucket.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><a title=\"Some Quick Bonus Fiction\" href=\"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/?p=486\">Cyril<\/a> surveyed his army of minions, arrayed below him.\u00a0 Their ranks stretched for feet in either direction, from the culvert on one side to the low spot with the puddle where no one wanted to stand on the other.\u00a0 Cyril&#8217;s enemy had thought him vanquished <a title=\"The Further Adventures of Cyril\" href=\"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/?p=504\">when he was dropped off near all the cows and windmills miles away<\/a>, but he had not counted on Cyril&#8217;s alliance with the League of Groundhogs, who were in turn owed a favor by a pigeon, who had carried Cyril back home.<\/p>\n<p>Now, before once again taking back the mailbox, he had amassed an army of rodents, now arrayed in the ditch below him, squeaking their fury to the sky.\u00a0 He held up his paws, waiting for silence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fellow mice!&#8221; he shouted.\u00a0 &#8220;Voles, moles and shrews!\u00a0 No longer will we be forced from the old boots and car seats that are ours by divine right!\u00a0 Today, we take back our homes, and we begin with that mailbox!&#8221;\u00a0 He pointed one paw at the mailbox that loomed over them in the gloom, basking in the cheers from his minions.\u00a0 &#8220;Tonight,&#8221; he shouted, &#8220;we return to that mailbox, one at a time.\u00a0 If one of us is seized and thrown into the hated cat litter bucket for the long journey into the countryside, another will take his place.\u00a0 Again and again will we climb the post and enter the mailbox, until the enemy gives up.\u00a0 That will be the first step.\u00a0 Once the mailbox is ours, unequivocally, it will serve as our beachhead to the next stage, the paper tribute that appears within it the bedding for countless new homes!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His army cheered, not seeing the smirk on his tiny face.\u00a0 For he cared nothing for the living arrangements of the other rodents.\u00a0 Once he&#8217;d used them to regain the mailbox they could go hang for all he cared.\u00a0 For if Cyril had ever been a good-hearted rodent, he had become twisted in the battle for the mailbox, and he was now a manipulative creature, more weasel than mouse.<\/p>\n<p>That night, the assault began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cyril surveyed his army of minions, arrayed below him.\u00a0 Their ranks stretched for feet in either direction, from the culvert on one side to the low spot with the puddle where no one wanted to stand on the other.\u00a0 Cyril&#8217;s enemy had thought him vanquished when he was dropped off near all the cows and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}