Untold Stories: Animals

Rabbits

One morning in the fall season, in the meadows of Russian plains, a family of rabbits is eating some grass for breakfast. Chad the rabbit, the father of the six bunnies, is guarding them. For predators like foxes and humans might hunt them. He's being help by Martha, the mother of his offsprings.

Chad gathers some dry leaves, as winter is coming and they need to survive it. Three months of harsh cold hair and the lack of food may endanger their life. They either survive or die in the cold winter.

Cool refreshing wind sweeps by the meadow from the north, alerting the coming of future winter. A grumpy sound follows the wind, shocking all living beings in the meadows. Rocks rolling down the hill, dirt jumping off to the lower ground. A sudden landslide has appeared and rumbled the peaceful life of the rabbits.

The flight or fight response kicks in, obviously the  rabbits choose the flight path since they won't fight something almost like the unstoppable force. Their feet moves up and down just like a diesel machine. Racing for their own life, before the angel of death collects their soul.

Martha's leg is pin down by a fallen log, but they got no choice besides leaving her behind. They can't get her out, and the landslide is closing by. They run, and run, and run to an unfamiliar place. They're now safe, outside of their homey meadows. It has less lush green grass that they usually eat. The place is dense with high pine trees and grey bulky stones popping out of the ground like acnes on a teenager's face.

In just a few days, Chad and his children digs up a new brand new hole, just below a strong big tree. They can't waste their time grieving over Martha's death. They must work hard to build a new shelter that will protect them from the harsh winter. Inch by inch, they finally finished digging their new hole. They immediately scour the forest to find dry grass and leaves to cover the bottom of their new home like a mattress so they can sleep well at night.

One of the bunnies, Leena the eldest, searches too far. The curtain of the starry night sky have covered the earth, and yet Leena hasn't come back. An hour goes by, and there's still no sign of her. The five remaining bunnies have fallen  into their dreamy slumber. Another hour flies away, Chad decides to search for Leena. Adrenalin rushed in his veins, as this can be a matter of life a death.

A drop of scarlet blood drips to the soil. Sharp dark green thorns punctures the tender flesh of Leena's small weaken right front leg. It's been half an hour since the bush of torment unknowingly stabbed her leg. Each of her cell screamed in the life-threatening pain.

The scent of her blood rose to the air, with the help of the freezing cold wind of the north, it covers a huge area. A sensitive nose of a hungry red fox picks it up, alerting the fox of the presence of a nutrition source. Without any hesitation, the fox runs following the tasty scent. His mouth is flooded by saliva and the stomach is rumbling, celebrating the coming of food. It's been a few days since his last meal, there is an urge to fill the stomach before starvation kills the body.

A rough cry was  of the dying throat of Leena miraculously heard by Chad. He parkours through the dark forest, avoiding the  fallen branches and logs and dodging all rocks that are blocking his way. He doesn't care if his feet got dirty with brown mud or yellow dead leaves, all he care is the safety of Leena.

Tired and exhausted, drained from all the energy she got. Leena pants heavily, begging for the angel of death to come down and take her away from the horrible pain. A small pool of scarlet blood is formed beneath her dying body, since the thorns still trap her leg and punctures her weak flesh. She cries to the heaven to take her pain, but she got something else instead. Her father, Chad who is now exhausted searching for Leena, arrived with his tired small body. He quickly digs around with his tired small body. Leena slowly drags her body across the ground, moving away from the traumatic thorns. Crack! The sound of a cracked stick echoes through out the forest, a soft paw of the fox is the one who break it. The 2 rabbits heard the sound and rapidly hops as fast as they can. Leena is falling behind, hopping with her 3 remaining good legs when the hungry fox approached her. Chad goes back to her and tries to distract the fox with his chubby body. His tactic somehow successfully manages to deceive the fox. Now Chad is the one who is being chased, giving Leena a chance to escape. Leena  slowly crawl to the hole where her siblings are still in their dreams. Chad on the other hand, is thinking hard how to shake off the fox from his track. He doesn't want to end up as a meal for a cruel carnivore. 

They both run in a race with their life at stake. One for the his life won't end in someone's stomach, and one for the hunger won't kill his body. Both of them are just trying to survive, trying to live another day. Actually there's no antagonist or protagonist in this scenario, just another fight to stay alive. If there's ever anyone to be blame, all fingers should point to mother nature herself.

Anyway let's got back to the race of life of Chad the rabbit,  we don't want to to be off topic for too long, right?

 The lungs of the fox pumps air in and out heavily, trying to keep up with the amount of oxygen that are needed with the amount of oxygen that are needed by the limbs. The same goes for Chad, as they both have run for more than an hour. The darkness of night won't stop them, but it limited their precious view of the lane. Chad unknowingly jumps into the depths of a cliff, followed by the fox who is dumb enough to only focus on his target without watching the surroundings.

Sadly, the race of life have ended with a deadly tie. The angel of death is very happy with his reap, 2 poor souls in a single event is quite rare to happen.

The sun rises, joyful tunes of the chirping birds wake up the bunnies siblings. A calming requiem for last night event. The bunnies stretch up and go out from their shelter, facing the future with unknown certainty.

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Special thanks to YukimiYukisaki for editing this story even though I didn't ask for it! Edited without my permission but thanks though. You'll be a great editor! (For free of course! *insert mischievous smile here*) Hahaha Jk!