Eleven Days Escape Time

Day 6.

September 12. 5 days before the competition.

Gromit sat alone at the dining room table the next morning as the portraits of customers lit up all around him. Anti-Pesto was doomed at this rate. Hutch hadn't finished the machine quite yet, as the Wallace-ified rabbit had picked up Wallace's sleep routine and had headed to bed extremely early. The buzzer, signaling Wallace was awake, began to buzz. Gromit pulled the trap door, not sure what to expect- but it certainly wasn't what he was met with. As the machine got his friend dressed, Wallace's eyes met with Gromit's. Then he remembered. "What now?" He looked at himself. Instead of his hands, he had paws. Great big fluffy bunny paws complete with paw pads and black claws that protruded from the tips. Along with the paws, he still had fur that ran from his hands to his elbows, and the same went for his legs- he had paws, and fur remained on his legs and ran up to his knees.

"It's getting worse," Wallace mumbled, fixated on his paws. He looked up at Gromit, who was frozen. "We need help. We can't do this on our own." They sat in thought for a minute, then they both turned to each other with the exact same idea. "Madame Winniebago! She'll know what to do, I hope," Wallace got up to find some clothes to wear out. "I can probably wear a jacket, to cover my arms.... Oh, and some gloves, if they'll fit-" he rummaged through the coatrack. "And this hat should work to cover my ears," he buckled a winter hat under his chin, and with Gromit's help, concealed his ears. It was all working to hide his half rabbit appearance- except there was an obvious lump underneath the back of the jacket, from where his tail sat. "Hmm," Wallace looked across the rack-then grabbed a backpack and slung it open his shoulders. It hid it enough so people hopefully wouldn't question it. "Okay, let's get out of here,"

They drove along the road, searching for the purple van. It eventually appeared over the horizon, and they pulled over.

Wallace jumped out, followed by Gromit, and began to bang on the van's doors. A seemingly annoyed Winniebago appeared from the back of the van. Before she could complain, Wallace cut her off. "We need your help, Madame, we're out of options and we don't know what to do," Wallace quickly said, looking around, before removing his hat and jacket. "Oh my.." she began, "it's worse than I thought- hurry, get in."

"You're under stage three of the Were-rabbit curse." She began. "Three of five to be exact. As of of today, you only have 5 days to revert the curse, otherwise you'll be stuck as a Were-rabbit for eternity." She looked at them. Wallace swallowed. "5 days?" He quietly repeated. She nodded mournfully. "My crystal ball is telling me you have a long family history of a Were-rabbit curse," she stared at the glowing ball. "Any incidents lately that could have triggered it?" She looked back up at them. Wallace and Gromit turned to each other, before Wallace admitted, "I was only trying to help, and I accidentally brainwashed rabbits, and one got stuck and-" She nodded, "That'll do it." She looked back into the ball. Your ancestors, dating all the way back to the medieval ages, have been cursed- every single one- but not all have transformed. It depends on if they've done something to trigger it." She explained. "The curse doesn't just affect your family line," she reached under the table and pulled out a large book, The Observer's Book of Monsters, and flipped to a page with a giant rabbit attacking a human on the page. "It's happened before. The bearer has 11 days past the 1st transformation to revert the curse. If not done by the 11th moon, victim will remain a Were-rabbit forever." She read. "Well, how can I stop it?" Wallace nervously asked, "What do I do? I need help, this isn't helping!" He exclaimed as his voice trembled. "You can, 1, beg ancestors for forgiveness, 2, go deep into Hazelwood Forest and retrieve a magic mushroom growing from the oldest tree in the world, or 3, fix what you did to begin the curse, in other words, replace natural order." She read out of the book. "We can restore natural order, Gromit!" Wallace turned to his dog, "once Hutch fixes the Mind-o-matic, we can put him in and we can brainwash each other back to rabbit and manhood!" Wallace jumped to his feet. "Thank you, Madame Winniebago!" Wallace exclaimed as he jumped out of the back of the van and into theirs, Gromit waving goodbye to her and following Wallace out into the van.