WAR!

At Canowindra Cornerstone there is a war in progress. Lives have been lost. Possessions have been plundered. Families have been broken. This war isn't obvious, in fact you could almost say it was hidden. Everyone is fighting in it, though they may not know it. Our side is greatly outnumbered but we have superior weaponry.
My name is Mark Albion and i am a fighter in this war. The allies are my fellow students and various staff members.
My enemy, everyones enemy, is.... MICE!


Encounter One: All Wars Have a Beginning...
The day i realised that i was fighting in a war, was the day that i first found evidence of the enemy encroaching on our land. I sat down at my desk, ready to focus on our daily lectures, when i spotted it... POO! i made a loud exclamation of outrage and ran to get a cloth. and it was then, while cleaning my desk, that i realised i needed to take a more active role in the war i was in.
After making this decision i found my second piece of evidence. The rodents had been behind the allies lines. i found mouse droppings beside where i kept my toothbrush. i threw the toothbrush swearing vengeance.
i knew what to do...

Encounter Two: Skirmishes...
We sat, the allies and i, on the lounge, watching a movie to bond and grow closer together as a unit. But, just when Danielle was about to kiss Prince Henry for the first time (Ever After), we found ourselves under attack. We spotted the first mouse as it sprinted across the back of a couch. At first we tried intimidating it with stomping and loud noises, and for a time it seemed to work, but we soon found that they werent so easily intimidated. The second mouse appeared on the arm rest. The nerve! Sergeant "Wally" Jess, Private Alyssa, Captain "Granny" Amy, Lieutenant "Cantle" Jess and I rose as one, a unit prepared for battle, and took up our battle posts. I grabbed the hardcover Aristocats book, Wally a pillow, Cantle prepared to lift couches, Granny went to her lookout post, Alyssa armed herself with a pillow, and we all went at it. Granny would shout and point when she spotted a mouse, Cantle would lift the couch to expose the critters, and Alyssa, Wally and I would go at it, flailing our weapons every-which-way and direction.
The mice, in the end, escaped however. They were too fast for us and too crafty in their hiding.
That was when the brilliant suggestion was made...
"Traps..."

Encounter Three: Booby Traps and Ingenuity...
We booby trapped the entire centre. every room, every nook, every cranny. Mouse traps were set, bait applied, and we settled in to wait...
We werent kept waiting long
The amount of enemy troops caught were amazing. The dead came in floods. At first i felt regret. They were so cute after all, and they couldnt help their nature. Finding a mouse on my pillow quickly changed that!
General "Boof" Tim was the one who set the traps in our room. And it was his ingenuity that has kept the enemy numbers in our sleeping quarters down. He found the place where all the enemy passed through on their way into our room, and so he set an unbaited trap right in their path. It worked like a charm. Mice don't survive long in our room now!'

Encounter Four: Why Didn't I Pack My Night Goggles?
Somehow, the enemy found out one of our big weaknesses. We are terrible fighters at night. And so they began their nighttime skirmishes...
Rustle rustle, rip tear, squeak, skuffle. These are all the noises of enemy activity. We know by these noises that they are there, but at night we have no will to fight, and can't see enough to be any use anyways. So we lie awake, listening to their noises, picturing them eating away at your clothes, peeing on your socks, running all over your floor, and there is no way we can get to sleep.
Boof our trusty general, however, has  learnt how to battle while sleeping. We allies call people with this skill a WalkingSleeper (also known as SleepWalker) and we are fortunate that General Tim has such a skill , however effective it may be. When the noises start, he gets up out of bed, still sleeping soundly, and prowls the room, rustling around in our stuff, trying to scare/find the enemy. When you ask him what he is doing you will probably just get strange murmuring and sometimes you hear the words "mice" and "find". So you know that he is trying to find the mice. He has never found any while Sleepwalking yet, but someday maybe he will...

Encounter Five: Reflexes like Greased Lightning!
The other night i walked past the office where Private Janet was studying. As i passed she says that she believes she saw a mouse run into the paper in the corner. And so, without hesitation, i dive towards the paper. Then, when i see movement as the mouse goes to make a dash for freedom, my hands jerk with lightning reflexes downwards onto the piece of paper above him.
Gotcha!
The next part was easy. A flick of the wrist, a squeak, and then silence and stillness. Another of the enemy is dead.

Encounter Six: Getting Sloppy...
We must have been wearing the enemy down because they began to get sloppy. Maybe they were just getting desperate. Whatever the case, i managed to kill another of the enemy purely by chance.
I had just finished eating the days daily rations and was headed to the boys dorm. I openewhen i took it by surprise. As you can imagine, the shock and unexpectedness of finding a mouse beneath my foot was quite substantial. Needless to say i jumped in fright, like any soldier would. But i had killed it. Fear me, enemy of mine!

Encounter Seven: "Ratatouille - sounds like rat and patootie... who wants to eat a rat patootie?!"
We allies are required to work for a set amount of time on local farms each day. And on this particular day we were working on the Gallea farm. They were also part of the war. They fought alongside us on a different front. We helped them out where we could though, sending allies to help keep enemy numbers down.
Well, we discovered on this occasion that our enemy also had allies. Rats! And they are a lot bigger. Thankfully, though, they arent nearly as fast as their little cousins. Kinda evens things out a little bit. So when they first joined in the battle, scampering across our feet as we picked pumpkins, we jumped in fright and horror. Surely we couldnt combat such a large hideous beast! And, to rub it in, they left poo parcels all over our pumpkins that we had to pick. We were forced to wipe of the nasty things to keep the Galleas happy. Disgusting.
Eventually though, we discovered their lack of speed. And so, at the end of our work day, when "Granny" Amy and i spotted a rat, we took off after it! We flew across the field, jumping, stomping and cornering until we finally caught up with it. It didn't take much after that to kill the beastie.
Big allies you might have oh enemy of mine, but we are still bigger!


We are at war here at Canowindra Cornerstone. Losses of life, possessions and dignity is to be expected. The war is being fought behind the scenes, not noticed by all, but nevertheless everyone is participating. Superior numbers, outweighed by strength and brains.Who shall win this war? Nobody knows. But we can always hope...
The enemy - Mice