I'm Mathias and today was terrible! My family, housemaid Mary and I were eating our lovely berry pie, when an army of rats and their leader busted into our house. Every rat had a lit torch in their hand and started to throw the torches all over the house. Before I knew it the house was up in flames. I could see my parents at the table with rats scaring the pee out of them. I was surprised by intense heat and a loud and wicked laughter. I turned around and there was the leader with a torch in his hand. He told me if I didn't tell my family to leave he would kill all three of us. I guess he didn't see Mary. By then he was scaring the pee out of me too. Especially with his black eye batch over his eye and his matted fur with little bald spots every here and there. He repeated his threat, and then I was tugged back and thrown over, what could only be Mary's big badger shoulder. She ran out of the house as fast as she could and I could see and hear the leader shake his fist and swear he would find me and kill me when he did. I had no clue why he wanted me though. I was a poor little mouse that had nothing valuable except for the dream of being a hero. My parents were left behind and the farther Mary and I got away from the house, the fainter the sound of my parent's screams of pain got. It hurts to know that I will never (most likely) ever get to see my mum and dad again. Mary ran down to a tree and set me down. I asked her why she saved me and not my parents, and she replied that she was hired to protect me and to clean the house. I think my parents made a good choice hiring her since she's a badger and my family and I are mice. Also, journal, you're probably wondering how I got you so I could write this down. The answer is that I've always kept some paper and a pen in my pockets at all times so now I'm writing on the only possession I have (besides my clothes) under a shady tree. Tomorrow we can't head home so we'll probably go to the Redwall abbey where the other mice and critters will keep Mary and I safe from the terrible rats. Mary is napping and I believe I will now stop writing and take a nap just like Mary.
---Mathias