Edmond

Edmond

Edmond sat back on his haunches and surveyed his burrow.  Nice and cozy...and lonely.  No doe or kittens to share it with him.  Unnatural.

Edmond rubbed his paws over his face, then over his long ears, cleaning them, just like a cat.  He groomed himself for a long time.  He was a finicky rabbit, and liked himself and his surroundings neat and clean.  After he finished his toilet, he hopped to the entrance of the warren, took a quick sniff to assure himself that the coast was clear, then exited out into the cool, dusky spring evening. 

Taking a roundabout path, sticking to bushes, saplings and small trees, Edmond made his way to a small clearing in the forest.  The clearing was one of his favorites, where the grass was especially sweet.  He didn't visit it often, not wanting to overgraze and ruin it, but today was a special day, and Edmond was allowing himself a celebration. 

He worked his way around the edges of the open area, never quite coming out into plain site, for fear of predators.  Enjoying his breakfast, Edmond thought about all the things he'd seen over the past few days and let his fertile memory run wild; Edmond had been spying.  It had started when he'd seen a group of ungainly two-legs, the immature, noisy ones playing on a gently sloping hill.  They were carrying baskets made of woven materials; all dyed in bright colors, and were searching for eggs that were lying in the grass.  When they found one, they'd put it in their baskets, then squeal and jump up and down, sometimes spilling the contents of their baskets out over the grass.

Not much point to all of it that the nosy rabbit could see, but the young two-legs seemed to be having fun, as were the adult ones watching them.  When the young ones finished searching for the eggs, all of the two-legs gathered together at the bottom of the hill and ate strange smelling food while sitting on checkered skins on the grass.  After their meal was finished, the strangest thing had happened!  A giant rabbit had hopped up to the young ones.  A rabbit carrying a basket, like the ones the (chiden, childin, no...children, that was it) children were carrying. 

The rabbit (he hadn't smelled right) had passed out shiny things to the children out of his basket.  Things which smelled wonderful after they pulled off their shiny metal skins.  The children ate a lot of those wonderful smelling things right then and there, until the adult ones gathered them up and they all left.

Edmond's nose twitched as he remembered timidly hopping over to where he could see one of those shiny metallic things the large rabbit had passed out.  One of the little ones had dropped it.  I'd sniffed it, and it smelled even better up close.  Unable to figure out how to skin it, I'd put it carefully between my teeth and carried it back to my hutch.  How the others had laughed at me...strange Edmond, collecting things again!

Later that same night, I'd kept worrying at the shiny thing until I'd peeled part of its skin away with my teeth.  There was a squishy brown substance inside it, and that brown stuff tasted like Heaven.  I'd kept poking my tongue into the hole I'd made until all of the brown stuff was gone.  Then I'd fallen asleep.

While I slept, I'd had my first ever dream.  The giant rabbit with the basket from the hill came to me, and talked.  He told me lots of things that I had to do, now that I'd tasted the rabbit ambrosia.  Once a year, I had to do what he'd been doing, delivering the shiny covered ambrosia to the children.  Each year that I did it, I would grow larger.  When I was as large as he was, I would find a small one, one like me, that had tasted the brown ambrosia.  Then I would teach him as the large one was teaching me.

When the big one had told me that, his eyes had glowed, as if he was looking into a promise that had called to him for a long time.  My ears had twitched as I stared at his eyes, almost afraid to ask what would happen after I taught the new small rabbit...but finally I found the courage to ask what was going to happen to him now that he's taught me. 

I'd never seen a rabbit truly smile, but I did then.  His whole body smiled as he said, with his voice shaking in eagerness..."Tomorrow, I get to be born...as a baby two-legs.  In a few years, you will be sharing your basket with me."  With that, he hopped away.


I finished my treat breakfast, then hurried back to my burrow.  I had a lot of work to do.  After all, Easter is only eleven months away!


***Please excuse the changes in point of view...this is a work-in-progress, and was written in 45 minutes after working a 14 hour night shift.  Revisions are in progress.