Cinderella and Alangazar - страница 7

– COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOOOO!

RISE AND SHINE, PAWS SHOULDER-WIDTH APART!

DON’T FORGET TO CLEAN YOUR BEAKS!

…and tails, if you’ve got one!

His crowing didn’t just wake the soldiers – it woke nearby trees, mushroom colonies, crow nests, and once even started the mess hall samovar by accident.

Even Alangazar, a giant, would cover his ears with a rug. Fox hid under the blanket and played dead. The cat tried setting his own alarm one minute before Peter, purely for hearing preservation.

But no one denied it: Peter was the best alarm clock in military history.

Once, he was asked not to crow – there was a secret night drill. Peter silently agreed. In the morning, he didn’t crow. Instead…

…he tapped out a march with his beak on a pot lid.

– TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!

Regulation wake-up!

If you oversleep – you march in your pajamas!

– That rooster’s louder than a cannon, – Cinderella smiled, stepping out of HQ. – But thanks to him, our army’s always on time.

Peter snorted:

– What matters most is waking up on time. Even if you’re a mare, a snail, or the commander herself.

The Story of Swiftpaw the Mouse – the Battalion’s Quietest Hero

If someone lost something – a button, a letter, a sock – everyone knew who to ask. Swiftpaw, the scout-mouse, was not just the fastest, but the most observant in Cinderella’s battalion.

Her paws moved so fast they left trails of smoke. She wore an invisibility hat (which was often forgotten during group photos), carried a cheese backpack, and had a map of all secret paths – even the ones beneath the kitchen cupboard.

Her missions included:

sneaking into a nearby camp to steal top-secret cookies;

eavesdropping on crow spies in the trees;

delivering chocolate to Cinderella before Alangazar devoured the rations.

Once, she was tasked with delivering a battle map during drills. Problem was – the map was twice her size.

But Swiftpaw rolled it up, strapped it to her tail, dashed across railings, somersaulted over a bucket, leapt over the soup pot – and in three minutes, the map was with the commander.

– How’d you do that?! – gasped Fox.

– I just have swift paws, – she said modestly, cleaning her whiskers.

Sometimes she got tired. Then Nettie would prescribe: “One quiet evening. Watch the moon.” That was the hardest order for Swiftpaw.