A New Chapter Opens in the Valley

Spring came at last to the Valley. Babies were born and eggs hatched. Green shoots carpeted the meadows and flowers were beginning to open. The mystery of Rabbit disappearing was a distant memory, but still remembered.
One day a young squirrel named Chips was playing on a log with a young raven called Blackie. They were jumping and tumbling off the log when Blackie loudly whispered "Be still! There is a man coming. We must be ready to hide if he gets any closer!" Well, he came closer and they hid, Chips under the log and Blackie  into a nearby bush. The "man" turned out to be a young human, what they called a "boy".  He walked up to the log, sat down on it and began to talk to himself. Chips was astonished to realize he could understand the boy and quietly listened. The boy told himself a story he had heard from his father about the Valley and the special relationship their family had with it. They managed the trust that keep the Valley a Sanctuary, and when both his father and grandfather were young they could actually talk to and with the animals there. While his father had lost that ability, his grandfather, called "Little A" talked to animals all his life. The boy, whose name was Billy, wanted to see if he could find any animals to talk to and his father dropped him off at the gate to the Valley.
Billy told this story to himself as he sat on the log. And then just said "I hope there are some animals around to talk to. Are there? Can you understand me?" and he sat quietly.
Chips at first was very puzzled and even a little afraid. Who was this "boy" and could he possibly be telling the truth? Then he remembered a tale told by Grandpa Tortoise at a gathering about a man named "Little A" who was a friend to all the animals in the Valley, and who was even buried on the burial hill. "This boy must be his grandson! AND I CAN UNDERSTAND HIM!!!!"
Chips crawled a little way out from under the log and said "Boy, can you hear me?" "Yes I can"  and so began a wonderful and long friendship between another human and the folks of the Valley.
Chips took Billy to meet Grandpa Tortoise and they talked for hours, and when Billy was getting ready to meet his father at the gate, Grandpa told him about Rabbit, and asked him to think about what might have happened to him. Billy was sad to hear the story and pledged to do all he could to find the answer to the Mystery.
In the years after this first meeting, Billy spent many hours in the Valley, and was never able to solve the mystery, but by then, several more young animals had just disappeared. None were ever found.

Image: http://www.arkive.org/raven/corvus-corax/image-A24692.html
Image: http://www.arkive.org/grey-squirrel/sciurus-carolinensis/image-A21942.html

A Tragic Mystery in the Valley

Rabbit was hiding in the tall grass

There was good news and not so good news in the Valley. It was a school holiday, the good news, and it was a cold, dreary and misty day, the bad news. Near and downstream from the beaver pond was a rocky outcropping of stone, and in that was a cave. Several friends had gathered there to play, but the dreariness of the day was making everyone a little gloomy.

Finally, Otter suggested a game of hide-and-seek. “Good for you Otter” said Mouse. “You are waterproof but the rest of us get really wet in the rain.” “Oh come on Mouse, it’s only misty outside. You won’t get THAT wet. Just a little damp.” Mouse and the others, Rabbit, Weasel, Tortoise, Hawk and Snake talked it over and decided even getting wet was better than just sitting in the dark with nothing to do.

Otter volunteered to be “it” first and counted to 50 while the others left the cave to hide. The only rule was that they couldn’t go farther than the dam or the big bolder, or out of sight of the stream. That left plenty of places to hide. Otter yelled “Ready or not, here I come” and ran out into the forest. He quickly found Tortoise and Snake in a burrow not far from the cave, and soon found Mouse hiding under a Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Weasel was harder to find since she had decided to climb into a bush and stay very still. Hawk had flown onto a low branch of a Beech tree and hid in a cluster of leaves. Otter had a hard time seeing her too, but finally spotted her and yelled “Gotcha!”. After each of the friends was found, they went back to the cave to wait for the second game to start.

Something was wrong. Otter ran into the cave out of breath and said “I can’t find Rabbit! I looked and called but he never answered. We must all go out and look. He may be in trouble.” So the friends all went out into the drizzle to look for Rabbit. They called and looked everywhere but no trace was found. Rabbit had disappeared!

They ran back to Grandpa Tortoise’s burrow for help. Quickly a search was underway with all the parents and siblings on the hunt for Rabbit. They looked high and low, and well outside of the boundaries of the game. The Hawks glided up and down the valley using their excellent vision to try to find the missing Rabbit, but to no avail. As dark was approaching, Owl said that he and his clan would fly all night looking for Rabbit, but by daybreak, still no sign was found. All the next day the animals of the Valley searched for Rabbit, but no trace of him was ever found. For weeks after his disappearance, there was a sad and quiet feeling in the Valley, but gradually life returned to normal. On the hill where meetings were held, next to the hill where the dead were buried, a remembrance was held, and everyone told their favorite “Rabbit” story. There were tears and laughter, and afterwards most felt better.

But never again did the friends of Rabbit play Hide-and-Seek. And in years to come, children were warned to stay away from the cave. The mystery was never solved.

Image: http://www.arkive.org/rabbit/oryctolagus-cuniculus/image-A21550.html