A Tale of Meeting

Rabbit in his bed

Rabbit ran as fast as he could back to his warren and yelled “Grandpa, Grandpa!! Wake up. I have just met a human who talked to me.” Grandpa made a grumbling sound and turned over. “Wake up Grandpa!! I think his father was the human we all heard about in your tales !!”

Well, at that Grandpa shot out of bed and said “What? No, couldn’t be. Too long ago. Never came back. But, to be safe we should go talk to Grandpa Tortoise. He has lived a long time and has a good memory” and off they went.

Grandpa Tortoise was as usual having a snack at that time of day and was happy to talk to the rabbits, especially the young one. He loved to tell all sorts of tales, and all the older animals had heard them many times. He listened while the excited rabbit told of the encounter with the man and his child, and just hummed. “Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. So you say you couldn’t understand the man, but you talked to his child? Very interesting. And you say the child told you that his father knew tales of this very Valley, told to him by the elders? And you say the child said he would come back some day? Well, let’s hope he hurries up, because soon enough he will stop talking proper language and just speak gibberish. Happens to all of them sooner or later.”

“But Why Grandpa Tortoise? We don’t speak gibberish when we grow up” said the young rabbit. “One of the mysteries of their kind is all. It is very difficult to understand why they do the things that they do. A few years ago, a man moved in two valleys over. The woods, stream and meadows were full of good things to eat. Fruit and vegetables grew everywhere. Well, this human cut down all the forest, dug up all the meadows and planted one single kind of plant. Ruinous for the animals there. Some were killed, some fled and some died slowly of starvation. They make no sense at all. The man you saw might be our friend from the past and may not be. But you must be very, very careful if you ever see this human again.”

The rabbit thought back to his last session at school and remembered that the teacher warned all the children to be wary of humans, because they made no sense and were unpredictable. Now this had been confirmed by the old Tortoise. He went to bed that night remembering the child who spoke to him, and dreamed of a day when humans would make sense in the world. He didn’t know it, of course, but he would have a very long wait.

Image: http://www.therabbithouse.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/701.jpg