Glieuaeiel's DJ

Sentient Jaguar

Suddenly I spot a mouse running along the side of the room. This mouse has been hiding in our house for a while now, so I'm really excited that we'll finally get a chance to catch it. I send Mom to get a plastic cup or something that we can use to scoop up the rodent. While she's gone, I try to grab the mouse with my bare hands, and I'm surprised to find that I succeed. I guess mice aren't really as fast as I've always thought they were. But then suddenly I realize that it will be able to bite me, so I rewind and try to catch the mouse again, this time in a slightly safer way that keeps its teeth away from my hand. Then Mom comes back with a square Tupperware container, I drop the mouse inside, and we snap on the lid. Excitedly, I run upstairs, showing the mouse to all of my family members on the way, mostly just to see their scared/grossed-out reactions when they realize what it is. Then I go out onto the back porch. In one motion, I take off the lid and flick sharply the container, so the mouse goes flying out into the yard. I watch the grass sway as it runs through the lawn, and suddenly another larger animal comes out of the night to start chasing the mouse! It's a squirrel!

Wait, aren't squirrels herbivores?

Oh, oops, trick of the light, it's actually a jaguar. They're native to North America, you know. I realize this jaguar could be dangerous to me as well, so I hurry back inside the house. Then I realize our pet dog is still leashed outside, so I slide open the door and start calling her back. She seems interested by the jaguar, but with my sister's help, we manage to get her back inside. A few moments later, I notice that the dog is back outside, and I wonder what happened until my sister says she didn't realize we weren't supposed to let the dog back out again.

Later, I'm hiding in a side room, watching through a window as something walks around in the kitchen. It's walking on two legs, and it's wearing a hat. I think it might be the jaguar. Admittedly, its behavior is rather human-like (at one point, it starts dancing around the kitchen, moving its hips and waving its arms), but this only makes me more nervous. A sentient predator is just that much more dangerous. I decide to go outside and hide somewhere.

Once outside, I decide the roof would be a good place to hide. But once I get up there, I see another shape moving around in the driveway on the other side of the house. It starts coming onto the roof as well. Maybe it's just a person, but I'm not about to wait around and see. I jump back down and go back inside.

Soon after, my parents introduce me to the man in the kitchen. Turns out it was just a neighbor. And the person outside is his son. Oops. I hope they don't think I was rude.

Clock Bomb

There's a bomb that looks like a clock. The second hand ticks from number to number, and the numbers go dark once the hand reaches them. Each tick is accompanied by a kind of high-pitched squeak. Halfway through the countdown, I wake up to realize that the squeak is coming from an insect or a bird (or something) outside my window.

Frags:

• looking up terms in the glossary of the fantasy book series I'm currently reading (namely, The Wheel of Time)