A scant bit of moonlight slipped through Cregon’s curtains into the living room beyond. Jacob shivered at its touch upon him, as did a few of his inch-tall companions as they slipped into the living room. Normally the group of anthro mice would have reserved a hunt for a new moon when all was dark enough to hide them from prying eyes should the worst-case scenario come to pass. Any amount of light was a horrible thing. But alas, this hunt was far from ideal. Not only were they delayed by three days, but the sun would rise in five hours. They had no choice but to look for food tonight, however. And Jacob was intent on making sure they stocked up well this time! After all, it was his first time as the leader. He had to make a good impression on the others. “O-okay, Sam, Rina, and Kirk, you take the kitchen,” he commanded. Only the slightest stutter; that was good! “Kim, Thalia, and Cody can comb the living room. I’ll search the upstairs hallway in case anything fell while Cr-Cregon walked that sandwich to his room earlier. Does that sound good?” All but one of his fellow borrowers nodded and voiced their approval with confident looks. Rina, on the other hand, lingered as the others ran off to follow their respective roles. A suspicious, concerned glower remained on her face. Her tail swished uneasily behind her. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I know what you’re like.” Jacob, predictably, went red. His cheeks burned as he glowered and looked away. “I’m fine, Rina. Nothing to worry about. Just go do your job.” “If you say so,” she mumbled. At last, she departed at a brisk jog through the waist-high carpet fibers to catch up with the rest of her assigned crew, leaving Jacob to his own devices. His eyes turned toward the stairwell which would lead him to Cregon’s bedroom. Taking the tunnels in the walls would take too long, and Jacob was a man on a mission. He’d ascend the towering staircase and make his way to the upstairs hallway, at the end of which lay Cregon’s bedroom. No one had ever entered; it was far too dangerous. But there was nothing wrong with him scouring the hallway. And maybe, just maybe, he could get the slightest peek at the forbidden chamber and the gator resting within. In a safe way. Totally safe. With a skip in his step and excitement in his chest, Jacob hurried off to the hallway. * * * Sometimes, the universe gives you exactly what you want. This was one of those nights for Jacob. He could hardly believe his eyes when he saw that discarded sock halfway through the hallway. Jacob had rushed along with a thrilling beat in his chest, thoughts of searching for crumbs nearly gone from his mind. Yes, Cregon was messy, but a sock in the middle of the hallway, far from the prying eyes of the other borrowers? It was almost too good to be true. Jacob nearly had to skid to a stop on approach. His heart pounded. He could hardly think straight. For the last few minutes, the only thought on his mind was what he would do when he finally neared the behemoth of cloth before him. Now that he had arrived… he could only stare at the mass of stained fabric before him. Jacob wasn’t sure how much time passed before he regained his senses, but when he did, a thick scent hung in the air around him. He could have melted right then and there as he inhaled the heated, salty aroma. Cregon’s musk was not unfamiliar to him, but this was the first time he’d come this close to a source of it! Jacob inhaled with all his might, drawing a heavy, deep breath of heated air into his lungs. “This doesn’t look like crumb hunting to me.” Jacob’s eyes went wide. He whipped around with a pained, gasping cough. Standing behind him was Rina, her arms crossed over her threadbare top and a haunting glare upon her features. “You need to be more careful around those things.” Jacob grimaced and took a regretful step away from the discarded pile of cloth. “Y-yeah, I should have known better. Macro musk gets in your head I guess.” She nodded and began to turn around. “Well come on, there’s nothing up here. We could use your help in the kitchen.” “No!” Jacob cried. Only then did he realize how loudly he’d shouted. “I mean, um, I think we should check Cregon’s room.” Rina turned around, a gasp and a swear primed in her throat. “H-hear me out! He never finishes his late-night meals. We could find a lot more food there. Enough to feed everyone for two weeks straight!” He may have been digging for excuses—and both of them knew it—but his logic was sound. After a moment of frantic thought, Rina finally glared and nodded. “Fine. But the second we see there’s no food in his room, we escape. Understood?” Jacob’s lips pursed. Since when was she in charge? But he wouldn’t let his bruised ego get in the way of the best shot he’d ever had to get close to the giant who shared his home with them. He nodded and gestured, leading the way down the hallway. * * * “Just need to squeeze under… here…!” Jacob wheezed. He popped out from underneath the wooden door frame with only the smallest scratches upon his shirt. Sneaking under doors was always a hassle… but his kind was small enough to crawl under with relative ease. It was a simple, familiar matter. But what Jacob didn’t expect was for his first step into Cregon’s room to end in him tripping over a mass of fabric upon the ground. The very ground bunched up beneath his tread and carried him straight down. With a startled cry, he crashed into a soft, cottony tunnel and a pungent aroma slipped right into his nostrils. Jacob’s mind went fuzzy. His limbs went slack. He realized where he was, though even that thought seemed to come to the front of his mind at far too slow a pace. This was Cregon’s underwear. Discarded tighty whities which reeked of his intense scent. Why they had been left by the door, Jacob would never know, but he was helpless to resist. Until at last, a hand grabbed him by the back of the shirt and dragged him backward. He yelped and scurried to help as some semblance of his wits came back to him. At the very end, his head brushed against a slightly damp spot that left its mark upon his hair. Then, he was out in the open air once again, Rina finally releasing her held breath. “What did I say about breathing that stuff in?” she hissed. Jacob frowned and prepared to respond, but a sight behind Rina caught his attention. It was far more important than his embarrassment after all. “Look! There!” He pointed, and Rina turned her head to follow his gaze. There, upon the giant’s nightstand, sat a half-eaten sandwich. Ham, turkey, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, all packaged into one, glorious meal. It had everything their colony needed, and if kept cool, the ingredients would last them days. Jacob nearly salivated at the sight. Beside it was a wealth of beer bottles, each of them empty. But soon, his eyes drifted to the bed and the great, snoring lump upon it. Cregon himself, the great colossus who unknowingly fed and housed his kind. His great, rumbling breaths shook the room down to the core of Jacob’s chest. He rested on his back, his v-shaped maw slightly agape. “Look, at the foot of the bed!” Rina hissed. And so, Jacob looked a bit further down and saw a welcome, surprising sight. A bag of chips—normally an impregnable fortress—sat open at the edge of Cregon’s bed. A veritable mountain of salty crisps awaited within. Jacob drooled Chips were delicious. And oh so rare to collect. The two looked upon each other. No words needed to be spoken, yet the look in Rina’s eye entrusted all the warnings that should have been voiced. They looked at the clock upon Cregon’s nightstand. 4 am. Just two hours until their host awoke. Plenty of time to work. Jacob set out on a jog toward the bed, while Rina set out to scale the nightstand. The journey was fraught with danger and distraction, especially for Jacob. He ran past a discarded t-shirt, crumpled in a heap in the room’s center. Two leather boots that emanated the scent of a hard day’s work were strewn heedlessly about in random positions. And of course, about a half dozen beer bottles lay on the path. And at last, he reached the bed itself. Normally, climbing the slick, metal monstrosity that was its frame would prove impossibly daunting, but Cregon had made it easy. HIs jeans rested on the bed’s side, forming a trail straight to the ground. Jacob nearly plunged his fingers into the rugged material and started to climb. Past the old beer and dirt stains around his knees and thighs, past the rather pungent crotch, and finally, hauled himself over Cregon’s keys that jutted from his pocket to land in a heaving heap upon the bed proper. Already, the first signs of daybreak were upon him. Radiant beams of red and orange light rested upon and pierced the covers under which Cregon lay. They even illuminated the brown stains of old beer upon the mattress and sheets, along with a few beams of light reflected off a beer bottle beside Cregon’s foot. The sight that awaited Jacob took his breath away. He stood before an opening in Cregon’s sheets, a mere foot from the open bag of chips. The scent wafting from the snack was divine. But so too was the scent that wafted from the open cavern that housed Cregon himself. Food forgotten, Jacob turned his attention solely to the darkness in which Cregon rested. Cregon’s soles stuck out from the covers, pale and massive. Jacob regarded them with a mingling sense of awe and terror. Just one of his feet could crush a dozen of his kind without even registering a sensation. The claws that tipped his massive stompers could rip him to shreds. But still, he carried on and walked further. The heat increased. Jacob began to take heavier breaths. Subjecting himself further to the musk that awaited within. He could handle this. He just had to focus. One step ahead. Don’t think about what you’re about to see. But of course, that was impossible to ignore. With every step he took into the tented fabric of Cregon’s bedsheets, Jacob’s thoughts grew harder to manage. Until at last, he found himself before the most glorious sight he’d ever had the pleasure of meeting. Cregon’s fat, heavy nuts stood before Jacob, over three times his height. Upon them lay his heavy, flaccid cock.. A glistening sheen of sweat sat against the man’s groin, and the scent that emanated from it was enough to make Jacob stumble backward. As amazing as this was… he had to get out of here. As if to confirm his thoughts, Cregon suddenly groaned in his sleep. His broad leg muscles twitched and shifted upon the sheets. He was getting close to waking up! At last, Jacob turned tail and ran, his little mousey heart pounding with excitement. * * * Packs stuffed well and tight with enough food to make a borrower vomit, Rina and Jacob prepared to slip beneath Cregon’s bedroom door. Sunlight beamed through his windows, casting its uneasy glow upon the two borrowers as they hurried to escape. Traveling across the room with full packs had taken much longer than they had wanted. In fact… BRIIIING!!! BRIIIIING!!! Jacob gasped and looked back as Rina dipped beneath the doorframe. A sleepy groan floated into the air alongside the alarm’s peals. “Fuckin morning…” Cregon sighed. His hand darted from the sheets and slapped a beer bottle to the ground, then fumbled for the alarm clock’s off button. At last, the magnificent macro rose, then rolled on out of bed. Before standing, his massive hand grasped sleepily for a beer bottle. He sighed and guzzled down the remainder of booze in one fell swoop, then belched crassly. He then stood and began to stomp through the room, his every step a booming quake. After a few steps, he swayed somewhat and held a clawed hand to his head, groaning, “I hate hangovers.” Then, he took another swig of booze. All of the musky, pre-worn clothes that had been left out the night prior were plucked from their places… and Jacob realized just in time that the underwear near which he stood was to be next. Cregon’s immense footsteps approached, each one rattling the ground. At last, he arrived and plucked the underwear from the ground, but still, Jacob did not flee. Even as Cregon’s foot landed beside him with the force of an asteroid, he remained frozen in place. Cregon dressed himself one foot at a time, all the while grumbling about needing to clean soon. One by one, each of the pungent articles of clothing was slipped onto his broad, scaly form to intermingle with the scents he’d accumulated throughout the night. Jacob remained, enraptured at the deific sight. But at last, Cregon pulled on his jeans and marched back to the bed, leaving Jacob alone by the door once again. And with one, final, desperate look, Jacob finally ducked under the doorframe to join his fellow mouse. Rina gave him a strange look but did not push the issue. After all, they had places to be. Jacob would get his chance to be close to Cregon… one day. The thought put a drunken grin upon Jacob’s face.