RATATOSK - MY MERY FELLOW

Exhausted from battle after a severe defeat, I leaned my back against an old tree trunk, even more tired than I was. Its heart was no more; only the bark remained to embrace my shoulders

With the last quarter moon at its zenith, the stars shining with a thousand sparkles, I then thought it was a gentle end… But even when one decides to join their ancestors, one cannot do so peacefully

“Ahem! Excuse me for disturbing you, my good friend, but you see, this old pile of wood against which you have so delicately placed your behind… is mine!!! And I would therefore ask you to… clear off! And especially to go and kick the bucket somewhere where the smell of your guts won’t… indelicate… annoy my neighbors with whom, incidentally, I maintain very good relations!”

Not knowing who I was dealing with, the appropriate words for such a situation failed to find their way

“I.. I y…you…you”

“I you-you what?! So, are those all your excuses? Your corpse would have better wit, I have no doubt about that anymore!”

It was then that I saw a squirrel descend right in front of my face. A squirrel dressed all in green, a pipe in its mouth and a pint in its hand, no less. To see such an animal rappel down from a branch seemed so absurd to me that the desire to die suddenly left me

I then regained my composure, took a breath, and with all the energy I had left, introduced myself to him

« Dear little sir, I beg you to excuse the presence of my body so close to your dwelling. When I arrived, I had not realized that this tree had already found a heart within it

Seeing it, so hollow yet so full of life, I thought that with its bark, it could envelop my shoulders and keep my tired and bruised heart for itself. I am now afraid of being a burden for it as well as for you, and I will now pick myself up with my own hands. Could you indicate a more somber place for me to end my life? If only there could also be the same starry landscape as there is beneath the branches of your humble abode… »

He stared at me, gnawed on his pipe, twitched his nose, squinted his eyes, then with unusual speed, jumped onto my shoulder, uncorked the horn previously hanging from his belt, filled his tankard with the flowing nectar, and brutally said to me

« SKÖLL !! »

And he thrust his pint down my throat

The skin of my face became as hot and red as the flames of a blaze! From my ears came the same smoke that escapes from a chimney! It lasted so long that I finally thought it would never cease!

And then… phew. I laboriously reopened my eyelids; in front of me, the squirrel was grinning broadly. He took one last puff, blew a huge smoke ring that coiled around my head like a halo, and burst out laughing

« My name is Ratatosk!! We’re going to make quite a pair, the two of us! »