A rabbit’s tale

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky.

Lumberjack spat at the ground, rolling his yellow-gold eyes at the recurring scene.

“Bleachh! What a night for this!” He hissed impatiently, more to himself than anyone.

“It’s only been a few hours, Jacky, you might wanna try yer patience on ‘em, it will do your heart good,” the older mage said dutifully, clawing at her ears and yawning.

“Trystan, I can’t, I’m worried…” Lumberjack sighed, feigning a similar yawn. “Look, I’m tired as you, why don’t ya all go and I’ll be back in the warren soon.”

She lifted his upper lip stiffly in disbelief and growled lowly, “Nice try, youngster.”

“Why must this persist? They won’t come back. They won’t return. Our home is safe. There is no way-” Lumberjack started and Trystan put a feathered arm across his anxious mouth.

“No way of knowing’ without being sure, youngin’… your mind is too heavy with your idealistic hoo-haw to see the danger in letting the air go one night without this test…” she said with a heavy sternness that made him nod. He didn’t want to agree, but her tone was so confident he felt his body agreeing without his consent.

He saw her testing the air with the fainting purple clouds once again to see if the red wind would pick up.

“Blood magick, it is,” another elder mage said lowly, as a trickle of watery red seeped through against the backdrop of indigo blackened sky, and the purple blushing clouds were fading. “The solstice is to appear very soon. We must prepare.”

“Tommie said he’d be back soon after scouting out for humans!” Lumberjack whispered loudly in a pained panic and all of them turned to give him a aggravated and stern glare. He instantly shut up, his heart pounding.

“They said they’d make this place a luxury golf resort…”

“Not after Elder Mage Galehnta’s curse… they won’t ever try that now!”

“I heard a motor that sounded like what they use to mow the grass last week!”

“That was merely your stomach growling you overgrown Guinea pig of a fool!”

Lumberjack overheard the gossip of his fellow friends and neighbors and grew impatient and anxious. More anxious than ever.

His best friend and true companion, Tommie, was all he had and if he didn’t come back—he wouldn’t have the will to even hide from predators or humans anymore. This useless ritual by the mages and high priests and priestesses was gobbledegook to him and he hated magick.

Though, he had to admit, it had helped him in some arenas of his life.

Suddenly, he saw a familiar jaunty run coming nearby and the sandy brown hair that always stood up on end like he had been struck by lightning—-

“Tommie!” He said excitedly under his breath, his paws covering his high pitched voice.

He was met by green pools for eyes, the kind of pools Lumberjack often imagined diving into and never coming up for air again. With lopsided smile, they hugged each other in greeting. But the smile was off, very off.

They embraced again more intimately and he asked softly in his friend’s ear what was taking so long, as he was very worried.

“Oh, I’m sorrey, but… it’s.. rather a strange feeling that I got just now, Jack, is all…” he chittered and they got closer.

“What is?” Lumberjack whispered, his eyes seeing how bad his dear companion was trembling.

“A…” he whistled a low tune and said in a quiet, dead-pan tone, “a human spoke to me.”

“Uh what happened now?” He couldn’t contain his shock and his heart raced with a guilty streak.

“Is all.. we spoke, it understood me, the human did, Jack, and for all of this greenery in God’s sweet land, I can’t understand why or how…” the words hit Lumberjack in such a cutting way and as Tommie landed his soft face near his, he felt like a criminal. He backed away.

“What’s wrong? Did I say something? Do something?” Tommie asked in a hurt tone.

Lumberjack paced forward and quickly said, “No, no, course not, Tommie, dear. Just, let’s go home.”

He brushed against Tommie’s backside and hurriedly moved him away from the clan as hot and cold sweat cut an edge off his darker brown brow, and Lumberjack could’ve fainted—he saw that Elder Mage Galehnta was coming nearer.

His worst nightmare was coming true.

A mini argument as she approached, (“I think she needs to know Jack, please let’s tell her,” nuzzled noses, ears pushed against the other and worried wide eyes, “You might've dreamt it or been misreading, dear,” Jackhammer whispered and he stops talking after Tommie’s hard look. “I didn’t misread anything! The human understood me!”)

She gave the odd couple a kind look yet stern. “What have we here?” She merely asked, looking slightly down at the oddly huddled couple. She knew that were extremely close, and almost never parted—-

The green eyed one spills as the eyes of the mage gives him a long stare, “A human spoke to me as if knew me, as if, I was…” he couldn’t seem to put out the words.

Jackhammer started to cry. The sage knew why. She knew why the sky had red in it. “Jackhammer, you need to tell him and pay your price.” And she walked off.

“What is?” Tommie asked him softly.

“Tommie, dear, when the spell hit to keep our fluffle safe and guarded, I had already known you. I wanted you so much to know me. I’m sorry. I asked the elders to use mode magic along with that strong land protection spell the elders used—-to transform you.”

“Transform me? I was human?” He backs away, terror etched in his features.

“Yes. But.. it wasn’t a bad reason. You were so kind to animals around you. If I don’t reverse it, you might not survive. Ugh! I just.. loved you..” he cried. “Now I must pay the price.”

“Price? Jack, no..” Tommie looked at him worried, nervous.

“Price is cause I was emotional about you.” He looks up at the floating, swirling chasm of purple and red. “But to restore balance, and save you, I’ll do it.”

“JACK!” Tommie cried, as he saw a burst a lightning strike his best friend.

The price of love was blood, and now Tommie was human again. He could watch over the rabbits in peace, protecting them from any human interference.

He wrote down their histories with an aching heart, always wondering why the rabbit warren with the burnt lightning mark made him weep.