Leaving my last home was hard. But I had lost too many and it broke my heart. It was especially bad considering the appetite of their mother. I had to get away. And I swore an oath to live the rest of my life without acquiring any more families.
The world was dangerous for a small creature like me, but that only made it more exciting. I spent most of my days scanning the environment. I listened. I watched. I waited. And when I did hear an unexpected sound I bolted. Fear kept me alive, and I was proud of mine. No bunny had legs like mine. My thumpers made all the does puff out their chins in longing. But no, there would be no more of that. I am too fast for even another rabbit to catch.
Traveling the world was never dull. But I became particularly perplexed when I started finding eggs strewn about the ground. As much as I disliked birds, for they often saw me before I saw them and found the need to always alert the word to my presence, I worried about having so many babies waiting to be eaten. Just because I was a sworn bachelor didn’t mean I didn’t care. But the day just got stranger and stranger as I examined the eggs. They were more brightly colored than a robin’s blue. They were all cracked in the same place. And they smelled of wax and sweet things.
The contrary observations should have tipped me off. For while I was considering if I needed to pull some fur out to make a warming nest for the little fellas, I heard the most dreadful shriek. The shock kept me in place despite every nerve in my body screaming at me to bound away. Humans were mythical creatures in my burrows. They were beings of insanity, cruelty, and blindness. I had even told stories of them to my babies. Ghost stories they were meant to be. But now I was watching a horde of stubby crazed humans running towards my field like an army of drunk ants.
I finally found my fear again and set my feet to thumping. I ran blindly for a moment before I found a familiar scent and veered towards a tree with a hollow in its roots the right size for me. I saw spots as I dove headfirst into the hole and hit a dirt wall. I could have sworn this place was bigger when I slept in it last night. I spent forever trying to calm my heart which was beating like a hummingbird. I even began to worry I was having a heart attack and only made things worse. Too much fear could kill a rabbit, no matter how many predators they escaped. But I forced myself to do a cleaning and the repetitive motion slowed my heart to a manageable level. There would be no dying today.
When I did peek my head out of the roots I found my immediate area to be clear of anything living. But when I turned towards the field I saw a nightmare. Humans and even larger humans were prowling the grass and squealing like pigs when they found a brightly colored egg. I worried for a moment for the eggs but when one human with furry-limp horns cracked an egg open there wasn’t a partially formed bird. More oddities fell out of each one. Shiny things. Even more colorful than the eggs. And many humans were eating them.
A hunting ritual? Practice? Pure insanity? I couldn’t say and I didn’t want to stay and find out. So I left as soon as it felt halfway safe and ran another marathon away from the cursed field. Not quite the way I had come, but close in direction.
More days passed and I tried to find my journey rhythm once more. But the brush with monsters from a story left me a mess. I barely slept and I jumped at every blade of grass waving in the wind. I would have a heart attack at this rate. My freedom no longer felt free. So when I caught the scent of a female rabbit I did the only thing I truly knew how to do. I made more babies and my heart softened and told me this is where I was meant to be. There were worse things than a mother eating their dead children. That was nature after all.
Photo by Andreas Schantl