Deliver Us (version 4)

Many thousands of years ago, before Christianity existed, before Columbus discovered the Americas, and before the British Empire, there was royalty in Ancient Egypt. Back when the Pharaohs ruled, a race of religious mice known as the Hebrews were enslaved by the royals, rats and mice alike. In the desert on a boiling day, thousands of slaves were pulling the head of a statue of the current Pharaoh while slave drivers whipped them to make them work faster.

Slaves: *Mud!*
*Sand!*
*Water!*
*Straw!*
Faster!

Other slaves were mixing sand, straw, and water into mud with their feet to create bricks for the monuments they were forced to build while others dumped sand, water, and straw in the mixing areas, and the water landed hard on some of the slaves, making them fall in the mud and the slave drivers whipped them. Many other slaves placed the brick mixture in molds to make the bricks while the others carried a load of them to where the monuments were being built and many other slaves dug through the sands with pickaxes.

Slaves: *Mud!*
And lift!
*Sand!*
And pull!
*Water!*
And raise up!
*Straw!*

The slaves near the Nile pulled large vats of water from the river and others lifted the bricks up to the other slaves building the monuments. Some slaves threw straw in the mixing areas, and a rat named Grasping roared as he whipped a slave, "Faster!" As the slaves worked, they sang out loud and Toplofty whipped a mouse, who was nearly exhausted from carrying a load on his shoulders, on the back.

Slaves: *From the sting of the whip on my shoulder*
*With the salt of my sweat on my brow*
*Elohim, God on high*
*Can you hear your people cry?*
*Help us now*
*This dark hour*

Throughout Egypt, the slaves worked harder and harder to get through their work and the 'camera' zoomed out to get a larger glimpse of Egypt, and we see slaves carrying heavy stacks on their backs while many others mounted a monument of the Pharaoh. An elderly mouse collapsed on the ground, exhausted, and reached his paw for help before he could die from exhaustion, and another mouse, Dylan grabbed his hand and helped him up. He comforted the old mouse until O'Bloat came over and shoved the two slaves to make them get back to work and kept a close eye on the rest of the slaves.

Slaves: *Deliver us*
*Hear our call*
*Deliver us*
*Lord of all, remember us here in this burning sand*
*Deliver us*
*There's a land you promised us*
*Deliver us to the promised land!*

At a Hebrew village outside the city, guards were swarming around the streets. The Pharaoh feared that one day, the Hebrew population would rise against him, so he ordered his guards to rid the Hebrews of newborn baby boys, only to spare the girls. From one of the homes, there lived a Russian-Jewish female mouse with brown fur, a tan muzzle, upper face and underbelly, some of the brown fur in a bun, and brown eyes, wearing a small spectacles, a yellow long-sleeved, loose dress, and a long, pink headscarf. She was also holding something close to her scarf. Her name was Mama Mousekewitz.

In the hut with her were two young mouse children. One of the mouse children was a young female mouse with brown fur, tan muzzle, upper face and underbelly, curvy ears, small whiskers, dark red heart-shaped nose, blue eyes, pink ear innards, and little hands and feet, wearing a blue short-sleeved, loose dress, and a dark blue sarong. Her name was Tanya Mousekewitz, Mama's daughter.

The other mouse child was a young male mouse, 5 years older than Tanya, with brown fur, a tan muzzle, upper face and underbelly, a small, white bucktooth, curvy ears, black hair, pink ear innards, hazel eyes, a dark red heart-shaped nose, thin black eyebrows, small black whiskers, and little hands and feet, wearing a teal long-sleeved, loose tunic and a taupe sleeveless, buttonless overcoat. His name was Tony Toponi, one of Mama's sons and Tanya's older brother.

As Mama watched the guards ran through the streets, she sang in Hebrew as she held the bundle protectively.

Mama: *Yal-di ha-tov veh ha-rach.*
*Al ti-ra vel al tif-chad.*

She pulled her scarf back, revealing a baby mouse with brown fur, a peach muzzle, upper face and underbelly, a small, white bucktooth, curvy ears, blue eyes, pink ear innards, a pink nose, tiny whiskers, and tiny hands and feet. She sang to the baby as she wrapped a blanket from his cradle around him to keep him warm.

Mama: *My son, I have nothing I can give*
*But this chance that you may live*
*I pray we'll meet again*
*If 'He' will deliver us*

Mama and her children heard screams coming from the outside and watched out the window as the guards searched through the village, stormed into the Hebrew homes, took away and killed every baby boy they can find. Scuttlebutt shoved Tankho out of his way and came over to where her newborn son was and took him away, and he left the house as Tankho cried over the loss of her child. Mama and her children snuck out of the house while she hid her newborn in her arms, and Tanya carried and hand-woven basket in her arms.

Slaves: *Deliver us*
*Hear our prayer*
*Deliver us*
*From despair, these years of slavery grew too cruel to stand*
*Deliver us*
*There's a land you promised us*
*Deliver us, out of bondage and...*
*Deliver us to the promised land!*

When the coast was clear, the mouse family ran through the streets to find a way out of the village. They came to a stop, and Mama pulled Tony over to her when they saw more soldiers running above the streets. When they were gone, the family kept running through the streets until they were out of the village. They ran across a small part of the desert to the Nile and hid in the oasis to make sure they weren't seen.

They hid deeper in the reeds until they got to the shore. As Tanya set the basket near the water, the baby started to cry, and Mama comforted him. She sang to him softly as she placed him in the basket.

Mama: *Hush now, my baby*
*Be still love, don't cry*
*Sleep as you're rocked by the stream*
*Sleep and remember my last lullaby*
*So I'll be with when you dream*

The baby mouse moved around in the blanket and got his arm free and gripped Mama's finger gently and started drifting to sleep. Mama leaned down to kiss her baby son on the head and closed the basket as the baby yawned and fell asleep. Once her son was safely inside, Mama went into the water and placed the basket down on it and sent it drifting down the river.

Mama: *River, oh river*
*Flow gently for me*
*Such precious cargo you bear*
*Do you know somewhere he can be free?*
*River deliver him there...*

As Mama finished her song, tears of sadness flowed down her cheek, saddened at giving up her beloved child. Tanya followed the basket down the river through the reeds to make sure nothing happened while her baby brother was in there. The basket drifted down the river while some monkeys, sitting on a branch watched the basket drift past them. A bunch of fish jumped out of the water and birds flew over it.

Suddenly, a giant Nile crocodile jumped out of the water and a bunch of hippos came out of the water and started fighting each other while making the basket jump over them. Tanya kept up with the basket and gasped as she saw it drift near the fishing boats. The fishermen pulled the net full of fish up while the basket fell out of the net and back in the water and drifted through the other boats. Tanya ran into the river, but she stopped and watched as the people in the people in the boats row their paddles and the basket drifted through the strokes and she gasped when she saw the basket heading towards a boat.

Then the boat came past the basket, and the waves it made caused the basket to drift towards the palace. The basket went through the curtains and herons flew out of the water to move out of the way and it drifted to the land.

At the steps of the water gardens, there was a short and very stout, but beautiful, female mouse with pale white fur, purple hair, curvy ears, a little dark pink nose, merry violet eyes, and pink innards, wearing a royal white sleeveless Egyptian dress, gold wristbands, matching armbands, Egyptian make-up on her face, and small, golden sandals. She was also standing in the shallows. Her name was Gussie Mausheimer, the queen of Egypt.

In her arms was a young male mouse, 3 years older than Tanya, but 2 years older than Tony, with gray fur, a bald head, curvy ears, dark brown eyes, pink ear innards, a dark brown nose, a small, white bucktooth, and little hands and feet, wearing thick, round, black-rimmed glasses and a white kilt with orange lines. His name was Noodles, Gussie's son.

Noodles was reaching out to a water lily floating in the water. Gussie picked up the lily and gave it to the little mouse, and he started pulling off the petals in curiosity. She looked down and saw the basket floating towards her. She put her son down on dry land and leaned down to look inside the basket. Tanya gasped, believing her brother would be killed if the royal members found him.

Gussie opened the basket and gasped in surprise at seeing the baby mouse wake up from his nap. He smiled at the queen and she gave him a soft and gentle smile. Tanya sighed in relief and smiled at the sweet happy moment. She sang as she watched Gussie take the baby mouse out of the basket and hold him gently.

Tanya: *Brother, you're safe now*
*And safe may you stay*
*For I have a prayer just for you*
*Grow, baby brother*
*Come back someday*
*Come and deliver us, too*

She watched happily as Gussie held the baby in her arms and the baby mouse tugged her hair with curiosity and interest, and Gussie kissed him on the head and held him close. She had taken an immediate love for the baby and decide to adopt him as her own. Tanya gave her baby brother one glance and left to go find Mama and Tony to tell them the baby was safe.

Queen Gussie came onto the dry land and came over to the servant women, who were looking over the baby mouse and they looked at the baby mouse with shocked looks and disapproval as the baby cooed happily at his new adoptive mother. The girls looked at the baby, but Queen Gussie glared at them and they looked away. The young held his arms up to her and tugged on the queen's skirt, wondering what she found. He said to her, "Mommy..." Queen Gussie looked at her firstborn son and smiled as they walked, "Come, Noodles. We will show Pharaoh your new baby brother..."

She finished as the baby mouse cooed and she gently touched his nose, "Fievel." The richest mouse queen, the baby mouse, the servants made their way to the palace to show the Pharaoh his new adopted son while the Hebrew mice worked in their slavery day and night and sang out loud.

Slaves: *Deliver us*
*Send a shepherd to shepherd us*
*And deliver us to the promised land*
*Deliver us to the promised land!*

The song started to coming to an end as we get a glimpse of the rest of Egypt and the Hebrew village as the sun began to set.

The scene ended, and Mama's voice was heard, finishing the song.

Mama: ***Deliver us!***