There And Back Again

THERE AND BACK AGAIN:
A RABBIT'S TALE


Daisy stopped nibbling on the sparse long blades of grass. She stood up on her hind legs, stretching her body upward and was twitching her nose nervously.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Hush," she said, while still twitching her nose. "I smell two-leggeds."

"Orcs?" I whispered.

"No. It's a different smell. Quick. Let's hide."

We scampered over and ducked into one of the few nearby thick bushes; hiding ourselves from view. The two of us peeked out, waiting for the arrival of this invasion of two-leggeds that had the nerve to interrupt our early evening meal. Then, we saw them. Oh, my! What a strange array these two-leggeds were at that!

I recognized one of them, as I had seen him once before during one of my longer journeys away from home. A wizard he was, wearing his tall blue, pointed hat. His silver silk scarf was billowing in the wind that had suddenly picked up. In his left hand, he was carrying a tall, twisted, gnarled wooden staff. There were two others of the human sort; a tall lean, golden-haired elf, carrying a bow in his right hand, and a helmeted, armored, axe-carrying dwarf.

But...what on earth were those other four with them? I had never seen the likes of them before in all my years. They weren't much taller than the dwarf. One of them was holding and pulling the reins of a bridled pony. Poor fella. He looked so miserable and tired from being heavily weighed down with all those possessions and a large bundle of wood. I wiggled out a bit from the underbrush, wanting to get a better view.

"Careful, Jack! They might see you. Come..let's go home."

"You go on Daisy. I want to stay."

"Why?"

"I want to see what they're up to."

"Oh, honestly, Jack. You better be careful, or you'll wind up in a stew like your poor uncle," she said. Quietly she scampered away leaving me alone to watch as the travelers made their way closer and closer to the mountains. As the darkness of night began to fall, I felt a drastic chill in the air that made me shiver despite my thick white fur coat. The two-leggeds were now struggling to climb up the steep cliffs.

"Mmmm....," I thought, "They're picking a lousy time for a mountain climb." I remained where I was, hidden in the bush. I sat huddled up trying to keep warm.. Suddenly, I felt something wet touch my nose. Soft white flakes were coming down. From the sky, it was beginning to snow. In only a few moments, the wind had picked up, and the snow felt harder and faster.

The storm didn't seem to deter the two-leggeds, as they continued to make their ascent up the mountain. Upon reaching one cliff, they halted, huddling close to each other for warmth. My keen eyes saw the wizard pick up a single faggot of wood and in a minute or two, I saw a spark of blue and green. Soon, a hearty fire was burning.

"Well....that should keep them warm a bit. Sure wouldn't mind being near that fire myself," I thought. My eyes were getting heavy and drowsy. I yawned. "Don't think they'll be much to watch now."

I buried and nestled myself amongst the pile of dried leaves that carpeted the ground near me; curled myself into a tight ball, and nodded off.

A fairly rough, warm, wet touch was licking my face. I slowly opened my sleepy eyes to see Daisy looking directly at me with an annoyed _expression upon her face.

"Have you been here all night? You could have caught pneumonia."

"Is it morning already?"

"Morning? Good gracious, no! It's well past the mid-day sun."

"Oh, dear! Have I slept that long?"

"Yes."

I stretched my body a bit, trying to rid myself of the stiffness I felt in my limbs. I peeked out from the bush, glancing up toward the mountain.

"But......where are they?"

"Oh, they left sometime ago. What a struggle they had plowing through all that snow. Thought the poor souls were going to be buried alive."

"Which way did they go?"

"They went down that path over yonder. Why?"

"I'm going to follow them."

"Jack! You'll do no such thing! It's too dangerous. I've been hearing the howls of those hideous wolves."

Without waiting to hear anymore of her warnings to me, I scampered off. My poor, sweet Daisy. I knew she loved me, but, oh, how I must have exasperated her at times with all my rather fool-hardy, reckless need for adventure.

Feeling my stomach grumble, I stopped and began nibbling on some grass. I was quite famished as I had slept through and missed my morning and afternoon meals. I was angry at myself for having slept so long and now darkness was once more upon the world. "Well," I thought, "There's nothing for it. Might as well sleep now and make an early start in the morning."

A chill crept upon my spine as I heard not one, not two, but a virtual chorus of the howls of wolves. Not knowing if the wolves would come my way, and not wanting to become a wolf's meal, I began to climb up a large, old tree. I was one of the few of my type who could manage this feat, having taught myself when I was just a very young lad. Up high, on one of the limbs, I found a large empty bird's nest, and I settled myself inside, falling asleep almost instantly.

The next day, after a hasty repast, I continued on my way, following the all too visible tracks of the two-leggeds. At one spot, I came across their campfire, yet it was now stone cold, telling me that they must have left this spot quite sometime ago. Thankfully, I counted my lucky stars, for at least now, I no longer heard anymore of those terrible howls of the wolves.

Now, however, I had wished I hadn't been so determined to be so adventurous. As I continued to follow the tracks, I was starting to feel a bit panicky, for they were traveling to a place I had never been before. "Oh, I'd never hear the end of it from Daisy if I got myself lost." Here and there I marked the territory in the hopes that upon my return journey, I'd be able to find my way back without too much due concern.

If I had had any amount of common sense at all in me, I could have given up on the whole idea of following the two-leggeds. Oh yes, that would have been the wiser choice. Leave now; turn around and head home where it's safe and warm and where I could cuddle up to my lady love, Daisy. But no! My curiosity got the better of me, so onward I went.

The land I was passing through was the most desolate area I had ever seen. Never in my life had I seen such a barren country. To my dismay, not even one blade of grass grew here, and my growling stomach was telling me of my hunger. I heard no sounds; not even the twitter of a single bird chirping. I no longer saw any tracks on the ground of the two-leggeds, yet my twitching nose still caught their scent. For a moment, I stood up on my hind legs, staring directly in front of me. In the distance, I saw a series of cliffs with one much taller than those surrounding it on either side. This was obviously the place that my party of adventurers were heading for, so onward I went.

The darkness of night was fast approaching. It seemed to take me forever to catch up with the two-leggeds. The path they had chosen to take wasn't an easy one to follow. There were many twisting turns, and steep, exhausting climbs up numerous slopes. But, at last! I had made it! I could see them now. They were on the other side of the rather large lake that was before me. I rushed up to the lake with the intention of quenching my parched throat, but upon looking at that brackish water, I thought the better of it. I smelled a strange scent coming from the water that didn't seem right to me, and, every once in awhile, I saw bubbles and ripples disturbing the water's surface.

I backed away from the lake and raised myself on my hind legs to stay and observe what the two-leggeds were doing. From my viewpoint, it didn't look like they were doing much of anything except stand before one section of the cliff. My keen eyes saw the wizard pass his hands back and forth, back and forth several times over one area where the cliff had a smooth, almost glass-like surface. Suddenly, the moon peeked out from the clouds that had hidden it; its brightness was almost as strong as the mid-day sun. Then, I blinked my eyes several times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Where the wizard had just moments before passed his hand on the surface of the cliff, there now was a large, visible design upon it.

Even from where I stood from across the lake, I could sense the two-leggeds mood of elation, for clearly, this was what they had been searching for. For quite awhile though, it seemed as if nothing was happening; they all remained standing there watching the wizard with his raised staff. I could hear echos of his voice, saying several different words, that didn't make much sense to me. Still.....nothing happened. Then, after a fair amount of time had passed, I heard the wizard's voice say in a clear loud voice one single word, and suddenly from where I was I could feel the ground tremble underneath me. Oh, my! The cliff was actually opening up as though it were a door!

Oh, how I was just itching to follow them! I was all set to make a fast scampering around the lake to where they were, when a horror of horrors took place! I saw a pale-green snake-like arm bolt out from the lake seizing and grabbing the ankle of one of those short two-leggeds. More and more of those long arms came shooting out from the water. While the attention of the two-leggeds were fixed upon rescuing this poor victim, I saw the pony make a fast dash with lightening speed away from this gruesome terror. He was fast approaching to where I was, yet he had apparently saw me, for he began slowing down slightly. The pony yelled out to me, "hop on," of which I did. Once settled safely upon the pony's back, he picked up speed once more and ran as if his life depended on it.

Whatever fate was to occur to those two-leggeds I would never find out, and quite frankly, I didn't want to know. At that moment, all I wanted was to get away as far and as fast as possible from that lake. I wanted to be back in the safety of my own home, and in the company of my sweetheart, Daisy.

As I clung onto the pony's back, I lifted my head up a bit and saw a bright, twinkling star in the black sky. I made a solemn vow upon that star......that never, ever would I have anymore adventures.


~~~~~The End~~~~~