Kike's Bedtime Story

"I want to tell you a story..."

I want to tell you a story. A story set in a place far, far away.It's a place where fox and rabbit say "goodnight" to each other, everyone is beloved and kind, and hate or jealousy are foreign words for the residents.This story is about Ashanti, a little rabbit, and his best friend Cosmo, a flying squirrel, both of which saved their world and brought back peace and friendship.

It was a wonderful summer's day; the sun was shining, birds sang their songs and the baby animals played hide and seek in the glade.

A little way off, the rabbit and the flying squirrel were sitting in the grass sunbathing. "Cosmo", the rabbit began, "do you remember when we were that young?" The aforementioned squirrel looked at his friend with the white fur. "Of course, I do!", he replied, while jumping around. The rabbit laughed and frolicked with his best friend.

Suddenly both stopped, staring up to the sky. Every animal in the glade stood petrified, looking up at the sky which started to darken. "What's going on here?", was the only thing you could hear all around. "It's too early to get dark! Maybe it's going to rain soon", Cosmo whispered, but Ashanti shook his head, so that his long ears wiggled. "No, no rain", he said quietly. "It's not the rainy season yet. Let's go home and see if we can find anything in one of my books." The squirrel nodded and so they went to the rabbit's house.

Cosmo dragged out some books and Ashanti put his glasses on. They looked through many of the books until Cosmo gasped. "What did you find?", Ashanti asked excitedly and he hobbled over to his friend. "This dark cloud isn't a real cloud", he explained. "They call it 'Bad mood' and it is really contagious." The flying squirrel placed his paw at the point where it said more about it, so that Ashanti could read it too.

"It's going to unbalance the world...", he murmured and took a deep breath. "...shattering the pillars from friendship and acceptance and is going to unbalance the world, did you hear that, Cosmo?", Ashanti's voice grew louder. "I've read it myself", Cosmo replied and Ashanti closed his eyes. "We have to do something" Let's go and find Ares", the rabbit suggested and Cosmo nodded approvingly. "I'm sure he can dispel the bad mood with his wings!"

The friends ran off, across the glade, heading towards the mountain where Ares used to live. The glade was nearly completely shrouded in dark fog, and Ashanti and Cosmo had to be very careful not to be infected by the bad mood. You could hear conflicts between the residents everywhere, which was very unusual and frightening for the friends. "The book said, that the world is based on pillars out of friendship and good mood", the rabbit said, when they arrived at the foot of the mountain. They then had a short break. "And the fact that everyone is starting to argue with one other leads to disruption and the pillars become brittle. We have to hurry up, come on Cosmo!"

The rabbit ran off again, the squirrel right behind him, up to the mountain peak. "Do you think Ares will help us?", Cosmo asked while gasping. Ashanti did not turn when he answered. "He has to. He has to, if he doesn't want to world to collapse." Cosmo added nothing but drew up the pace again.

When they arrived at the top of the mountain near to Ares' cave they took a deep breath before entering. The big dragon, with the shiny and shimmering dark scales, lay on the floor and seemed to be asleep. "Ares?", Ashanti whispered and the dragon raised his head. "We're really sorry to disturb you, but it's an emergency." With a big yawn the dragon straightened up to his full size and looked at the two tiny animals. "What's so important, that you have to disturb my afternoon nap?"

Despite his incredible size his voice sounded friendly and gentle. "Something is going on in the glade", Ashanti started to explain. "An uncanny cloud of bad mood critically endangers all of us. It's going to unbalance the world by destroying peace and friendship." Ares watched the overanxious rabbit walking around while talking. "Horrors!", Ares proclaimed. "How can I help you?" Cosmo cleared his throat before he started to speak. "You have those insane wings and you might be able to dispel the cloud." The dragon nodded. "It's worth a try", he said, pointing Ashanti and Cosmo to climb on his back, before he took off to the glade.

When they arrived, they saw how much had happened in the last couple of hours. There was even more fog than before; it nearly took over the whole place. The animals, which got infected with the bad mood seemed to slowly fade away, to vanish. The grass, trees and even the sky lost all their colours and got grey and bleak. "We have to hurry!", Ares shouted against the wind. "Jump off, I don't want you to get in danger. I'll try everything to get rid of this bad mood." Cosmo grabbed his best friend and jumped off the dragons back without missing a beat. While jumping, the rabbit climbed onto Cosmo's back. The squirrel spread out his arms to break their fall and he started to hover.

They landed softly in the grey grass and ran out of the danger zone. Horrified, they looked around the glade and the forest. "Look at this disaster, Cosmo", the little rabbit whispered pointing at some baby deers, which were nothing more than slight shadows in the fog. Cosmo shook his head. "Oh no...", he looked at his friend and took his little paw. Over their heads was Ares, trying to dispel the bad mood. Slowly but steadily, the fog dissolved and it got lighter in the glade.

When the bad mood was completely gone, Ashanti and Cosmo were all alone. Ares was nowhere to be seen, and with him the fog, and all of the residents had gone. The friends sat in the grass, speechless, because of the loss. Both started crying silently, while still holding each other's paw. They didn't notice the rain, that had suddenly started and made the colours return.

It was when they heard soft-spoken words, that they looked upward. All of the residents, every little bird, every deer, every squirrel and rabbit, stood in front of Ashanti and Cosmo. "You've saved all of us", Dali, the old owl and mayoress, spoke with deep gratitude. She got closer and hugged them both. "We owe you a lot." Ashanti shook his head and tears started running over his face again. "Ares saved us", Cosmo explained. "We ran to him and he helped us and dispelled the fog and bad mood and now he's gone." Again, he had tears in his eyes and everyone lapsed into an awkward silence.

"We should keep this day in our minds forever. The 16th of July is now the day of the dragon. Every year we will organise a Remembrance Day for Ares", the owl said, with a strong voice, so that everyone could understand here.

All of the animals agreed and since this day, the 16th of July is the official Ares Remembrance Day. On this day, everybody remembers the trigger event, when the world was about to collapse and brave Ares sacrificed himself, without a second thought, to rescue everybody else.