It was a very bright morning when Lottie and Lucy were born and from that very day onwards they were best friends practically mouse sisters. They used to live in the basement of an old uninhabited mansion. As they grew up they used to play in the garden. Many a time, they were warned not to cross the fence as they would be in danger. It was hard winter and all the mice decided to have a picnic in the garden on a sunny day. Their relatives and friends were invited to the picnic. As the picnic was on, old Grandma Rita called Lottie, Lucy and their friends and told them to be careful of birds of prey. Hearing this Lottie questioned, “Who are the birds of prey, granny?” “They are very, very big birds. They eat mice and small animals.” “But we shouldn’t be afraid of them. We are so many in numbers, that if they attack us, we will drive them away,” continued Stephen, the overweight cousin of Lottie. “And if we are talking about its size, then even we are big”. He blew himself up to a huge size. “They are very fast with great eyesight and are very determined to catch their prey. They are even bigger than….” Grandma Rita was cut short when she heard a loud shriek in the sky.  Everybody looked up to see a great white falcon flying towards them. In a thrice, all the mouse scampered to their safety spots except one. That was Grandma Rita; she was slow but was trying her best to escape the falcon. But the determined falcon grabbed Rita and sat down to have its self-earned meal. Lucy could not bear the sight and ran to save her grandma. She was very quick in her movements. She quickly produced a rope and tried to bind the great falcon. The latter getting disturbed threw Rita and started chasing Lucy. She managed to dodge it for some time but soon gave up. Right then, she heard a shout, “Don’t give up, I am coming.” She turned around to see her best friend Lottie throwing a stone towards the falcon. The falcon’s attention diverted and Lucy got a chance to dive back to safety. Lottie in the meanwhile kept on throwing stuff at the falcon, soon supported by her Uncle Harry.                                                                 “Go away, you evil falcon!” Uncle Harry cried out. “Yes, go away”, cried the mouselings. After some time the wounded falcon flew away and everyone present there breathed a sigh of relief. But their work was still left; they needed to tend to Grandma, who was severely injured.  After making sure that grandma was all right, all their attention turned to Lottie and Lucy. Everyone started praising both for their clear- thinking, agility and intelligence. After this incident, the picnics in the garden ceased to exist. Life was back to normal again. Then one day, Uncle Harry got the news that the mansion was brought by a family and that they were going to shift on Saturday or Sunday eve.  The atmosphere became tense after everyone came to know about it. So they all put their heads together and tried to bring up some ideas to save themselves from being exterminated. That was when Lottie came up with the idea to scare them as ghosts and drive them out of the house. At first, no one was convinced by the plan. But then as Lottie elaborated them the process, everyone thought that it was the best plan ever; and the plan was put into execution. First of all, they found an old piece of chewed clothing which was used as a bed sheet for the mouselings. They cut two holes in it and wrapped it around the lamp post which was at the gate of the house. Then they went to the mousetronics shop and brought some coloured lights and a tape recorder which had spooky sounds recorded in it. They put the colourful lights in the shape of a ghost at the entrance wall of the house and put the tape recorder on it in such a way that as soon as they stepped in all the lights of the house went on and the tape recorder started playing those spooky sounds. After looking at the decoration, all the mice looked impressed but Lucy felt that something was missing. So she sat on animalibook and contemplated about contacting a big spider group called Tarantus. She picked up pawobile and dialled the number that was given. “Hello is this Tarantus?” she squeaked. “Yeah, I am Aragus the head of the clutter” answered a gruff voice. “Oh! I am Lucy the mouse.” “What do you want from us?” “We want 10 big spiders from your group.” “When do you want them?” “Umm… we want them on Saturday and Sunday.” “Ok. Your address please.” “The address is 72, mouse point road, Rodent’s galore, Rodentia.” “May I know the reason behind hiring us?” he questioned. Lucy explained to him the whole thing. Aragus heard patiently to all what she related and then answered. “I am extremely sorry ma’am but we don’t take such orders” he continued “It’ll be dangerous for the spiders.” “No, no don’t worry at all. We assure you that nothing will happen to your spiders”, she spoke hurriedly. “Ok, we will send our spiders on one condition that after the work we want 10,000 spideuros as the fee.” “Isn’t it a bit too much?” “No, it is not for this extremely dangerous event. Take it or leave it.” “Ok, deal done,” she said and hung the phone. All this while the others were waiting to hear what arrangement Lucy was making. So Lucy explained “I know that humans are scared of spiders, especially the big and poisonous ones like the Tarantula. Hence, I called the Tarantus group to get some spiders and we will position them all around the house in such a way that whoever sees them gets scared out of their wits.” Everybody agreed with her plan and praised both Lucy and Lottie’s clear thinking and braveness. Very soon the significant eve arrived; the plan was executed very well. Everyone kept their fingers crossed and waited to see the result of their hard work.   Soon enough a big car arrived at the main gate of the house and a couple with two children stepped out carrying huge stack of boxes. Children went in the gate first and saw the huge figure at the entrance of the house. They started screaming, threw the boxes to the ground and ran back to their parents. Their parents went in to see some large Tarantulas and the same scary figure. The lady screamed and the man though shocked did not scream but his face went white.   They scurried back to their car and the man started calling someone and started yelling “You gave us this mansion saying it was good but it is haunted. How could you do this? You idiot!” Then he stopped and apparently started to listening to the person on the line. But then he again screeched “No, I am not going to wait here even one second. And I also want my money back”. Saying so he hanged up the phone and announced, “We are going back to the hotel and will talk about it there”. He got into the car and waited for others to get in and then started the car and drove away. The last scene was much enjoyed by the mice and they called for a picnic. Everyone enjoyed the picnic as Lucy and Lottie received a lot of compliments from everyone. The most enjoyable moment came when they were called to receive the Ratlantry prize from the Mouseans Association for their brave deeds. After this all the mice lived happily ever after without any disturbances in their life.

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Disclaimer: The above story is inspired from one of the writer's favourite series, Geronimo Stilton. ____________________________ For more of such content follow us on Social Media: