So just a little nothing, set in the Lepus universe. Enjoy!
A Mid-Winter’s Tale
Eren poked her head out of the burrow to find the world
awash in grey and white. She sniffed the air and was met with the stench of damp and rotting
plants. A dull piercing cold breeze went right through to her bones. She made a
face and snorted out through his nose. Then she gingerly stuck out a paw and
felt it get wet. There was a heavy mist, or was it a light rain, falling down
out of the featureless grey overhead. As she looked out from underneath the
hole she could see that everything was wet. The trees, their leaves dull and
brown, dripped water onto the forest floor. The weeds and flowering plants,
yesterday so lushly green, were today shriveled, dead and soggy, like a wet rat
that was a sickly shade of dark green. Eren shivered at the thought of going
out on a morning like this.
Deftly she turned around in the entrance and hopped back
down into the burrow. Down she went, into the warmth of her home. Her mother
and three sisters were nestled in a pile in the middle of the main room. Eren
smiled and sighed a very satisfied kind of sigh. She sat down next to her
mother and carefully pushed her sister Meg away so she could get in closer. Meg
grunted in protest, but did not wake up. Eren settled in and nuzzled her mother
on her side. She felt her warmth flow into her and she let out a long, deep
breath. A few minor adjustments later and she was ready to go back to sleep.
A snort from his mother woke her from her fade into slumber.
“Eren?”said her mother in a sleepy thick voice. “Did you
check outside dear?”
“Yes mother.” Eren mumbled, drifting even further into the
warm recesses of sleep.
Her mother nudged her slightly with her big wet nose.
“What’s it like outside?” Eren did not answer, lost to
dreams already. “Eren? Eren! Wake up bunny!”
Eren surfaced and slightly opened her eyes.
“Eren dear, wake up! I want to know how it is outside. Did
the whitekiller come last night?”
“Yes mother.” Eren said thickly.
“I was afraid of that. You need to wake up Eren dear. Old
Mrs. Thistle will need some greens brought over.”
Eren rolled over and sighed. “Mom, its cold and raining out
there. Its miserable!”
“Yes dear, all the more reason to take some greens over.”
“Couldn’t she just eat carrots for a day or two…” Eren
mumble under her breath.
“I heard that young lady. Mrs. Thistle has no one to look
after her the way you do-“
“Lucky.”
“Annnnnd so we need to look in on her. You know she hasn’t
been feeling well lately.”
Eren rolled her eyes but said nothing. Her mother got up and
went to a large cupboard in the corner. From its depths she pulled out a
handful of dandelion greens, some broccoli sprouts and two parsnips. She
wrapped them in a bit of cloth and tied it with a string.
“Here you go Eren. Now hop along to Mrs. Thistles and you’ll
be back before you know it.” Eren made a face, and I’ll be wet and miserable
before I know it, she thought, but held her tongue. Then she had a sudden thought.
“Can’t Dad take it by, when he goes into town to work?”
“Eren, he left an hour ago. Now stop making excuses, you’re
only prolonging the inevitable” her mother answered with a smile. “I know its
cold outside dear. Take a scarf and hop along quickly. You’ll be ok.”
Eren sighed again and gave her mother a peck on her nose.
She took the bag and hooped up to the entrance of the burrow. The mist had
formed into more of a steady drizzle. Her breath formed a cloud in front of
her. She took a deep breath and hopped out.
Her padded feet touched wet leaves on the earth, squishing
slightly in the mud. Instantly her feet felt cold. Large wet drops splattered
on her head, and in a matter of seconds her back was wet matted fur. She
shivered and began to hop from under the bushes out into the large open field
in front of their burrow. The grass was wet too, and now her underside was
almost as wet as her back. The wet cold ran straight through her body. Eren wondered
if she would ever be able to get warm again.
All around her the world was damp and brown. The yellow
grass seemed worn and broken, with dead crumpled leaves littering the ground
underneath the wet stalks. Eren hopped
with her mouth set firm, eager to get across the field to Mrs. Thistle’s as
fast as possible.
By the time she got to a rather small and worn looking
burrow hole, Eren was soaking wet and shivering with cold. Her breath, ragged
from hopping as fast as she could, hung in front of her like a small cloud.
“Hello?” She called down the hole. “Hello?”
From deep in the hole she heard a faint and somewhat tired “Hello
dear, who is it?” Eren stuck her nose into the hole, smelling cool damp earth
and a faint whiff of mold and stale lavender.
“It’s me Mrs. Thistle, Eren. I’ve brought some greens.”
“Come in, come in child, out of the cold!” said a voice, now
closer and also a bit more eager.
Eren hopped gently down the hole, being careful least she
bump into the dusty spider webbed walls. At the end of the hole was a smaller
burrow than her home. In one corner was a small table and several plates and
bowls, all empty. In the other corner was a pile of blankets. From underneath
the blankets Eren could just make out a very small grey rabbit head poking out.
The rabbit’s eyes were milky, but her nose twitched and her mouth formed a smile.
“Hmmm, smells like parsnips. Put it on the table dear.”
Eren put the basket on the table gently. She was worried the
table might collapse as she did.
“How is it outside dear?”
Eren tried not to sound sulky when she replied, “Cold Mrs.
Thistle, cold and wet. Everything’s gone dead too, the whitekiller came last
night.”
“Atch dear, too bad, too bad. I should have gotten in some
snapdragons yesterday. Thought about it, but the joints were freezing up. Sure
sign of the whitekiller coming I guess. Should have known, should have known.”
Eren said nothing, she thought about the pile of Snapdragons
sitting in her mother’s larder back in her burrow. Eren liked snapdragons a lot. There was an awkward
silence.
“Is there ice dear?”
“No ma’am. Just cold and wet. Everything’s ugly.” Eren
flicked some water off the top of her head. “I hate this time of year,” she
added, making no attempt to hide her true feelings.
Mrs. Thistle propped her body up out of the blankets and
smiled.
“Well, true dearie, it’s not July. Certainly not July then,
no. But you know I still enjoy this time of year…”
“Really? How is that? It’s so raw and cold, I am soaked and
frozen to my core…” Eren regretted saying the last part almost right away. Mrs.
Thistle clucked.
“Sorry to hear that dear.”
“No, no, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to complain.”
“It is not so bad out, as I recall there is a certain beauty
to this time of year.”
Eren cocked her head and had a funny look on her face, as if
Mrs. Thistle had spoken in a foreign language.
“But Mrs. Thistle, everything is dead out there, all those
luscious greens are dead and brown, slimy wet.”Eren shivered is disgust. “And
it’ll be forever before they come back in the spring…”
“Bu they always do, don’t they?”
“Well, sure, but…” Eren trailed off.
“And if we didn’t get a frost, or even the snows to come,
how would we appreciate the coming of spring?”
“I guess so.” But Eren sounded dubious. Mrs. Thistle
chuckled.
“Oh dear child, dear child. There is beauty in every day of
the year, even on a day as ugly as this one, even in the doldrums of early
winter. Do you know why I like this time of year?”
Eren couldn’t imagine, and wanted to blurt out “because you’re
a crazy old lady,” but held her tongue.
“I like this time of year because it is the most honest time
of year.”
“I don’t understand, do other times of year lie?”
“Oh yes, terribly so! Do you know what they lie about? Life!
Or to be more precise, death.”
Eren started to say something, but then stopped. She had
seen plenty of death, it was not strange. She had even seen a dead Lepus
herself, Mr. Grange, who had drowned in the river last Spring.
“I don’t understand Mrs. Thislte.”
“Well, when you go outside now you can see death all around,
don’t you? You cannot escape it. You see the bare stick of the trees, their
dead leaves on the ground. All over you
find the dead, droopy brown plants that were so lush and green yesterday. The
world is laid bare in its death. It has no way to conceal it. Soon the snow
will come, the white sheet will lie over the corpse, and in the spring the body
is reborn, covered in life even if there are little deaths all around. But for
now the earth is dead and we are forced to look at it.”
Eren shivered, not from cold but from the idea of a dead
earth, she thought about Mr. Grange, his dead eyes still open, his fur matted. “How
can you like that Mrs. Thistle?”
“I am old child, no way around that, and while some would
prefer to ignore that, I cannot. I am forced to see myself for what I am, a
body awaiting the coming of death herself. But this time of year, as ugly as it
is, reminds me of the promise of what is to come. Spring, and its warmth and
eternal sunshine, all promised. Life goes on even if I am laid bare in death.
It gives me great comfort.”
Eren sat quietly, nibbling at her lip while she thought
about this.
“Then you’re not afraid?”
Mrs. Thistle laughed again, this time loudly. “Well, a little
child. I’d be a fool it I were not. But it is best to look death straight on if
we can. I am blessed to go like this, old, with the full knowledge of what is
coming.”
For a long time Eren and Mrs. Thistle sat there, in the
moldy chilly burrow.
Finally Eren shuffled.
“I should be going now Mrs. Thistle.”
“Yes dear.”
Eren shuffled back to the hole, but before she left Mrs.
Thistle stopped her.
“Thank you Eren, for the greens… and for listening.”
“I liked listening Mrs. Thistle. I didn’t like getting wet, but I liked listening.” Eren turned to leave but then stopped again.
“I liked listening Mrs. Thistle. I didn’t like getting wet, but I liked listening.” Eren turned to leave but then stopped again.
“Mrs. Thistle, can I come back sometime?”
“Yes, or course dear.”
Eren smiled and hopped back up the hole into the cold wet
day. The sun had come out but was behind a thick layer of clouds. It wasn’t any
warmer and the rain, if anything came down harder. As Eren looked around she
could see what Mrs. Thistle meant, the world did look dead. Eren smiled and
hopped at a gentle pace through the rain. She didn’t mind the cold so much as
she looked around, glad to be able to experience the cold day. It really is not
so bad. Maybe, she thought, she’d even hop back to Mrs. Thistle’s later in the
day with some of her mother’s snapdragons.
If you liked this story you might enjoy The Hare, The Bow, And the Girl, a novel set in the Lepus universe. It is available as an ebook at Amazon:
