Ginger
A rabbit with a secret past and identity and a destiny that could change the world forever. A warren at the end of the world that is caught in the middle of it all, and an unstoppable enemy. Action, adventure, drama, and tragedy combine to create the epic saga of Ginger.
I hope you like this story. Here's the first chapter:
Part One: Dreams and Hope
Chapter One
Escape
Ginger angrily paced around the hutch where he was kept in. He hated it here. He was barely out of kittenhood, and a domestic rabbit to, but he felt sure his spirit wasn't meant for such a life, that he was meant to live wild and free.
He always had dreams of wild rabbits, running through countless dangers, many not making it and dieing a horrible death. Far from being scared, though, Ginger was just excited.
He was adventurous and brave, though a bit timid, he had promise. He knew that the ginger colored fur that gave him his name would only be a hazard in the wild, but his keen hearing and eyesight, sharp claws and teeth, and long, strong hind legs would make up for that.
He had a curious thatch of fur between his ears, he thought it gave him character.
The farm had cats that would come and stare into the hutch he lived in. and though he could tell from their movements and the way their eyes never left him that the cat was dangerous and meant menace, he was never afraid of them. Instead, he was curious. Whenever they came up, he went up to the cage door and stuck his nose out as far as it would go.
The cats would hiss at him. Bare their claws and show their teeth, tails lashing and glinting green eyes glaring. Soon they would go away.
Ginger was all alone in his hutch, all his family had died. Run over by a hrududu. That first night without them and in the hutch he had cried and cried wondering what to do. The terrifying episode of the lost of his family to the hrududu, and the first terror of the hutch when he was first placed in it, had confused and terrified him. He was, as rabbit's say in lapine, tharn. Or paralyzed. To him, all was zorn.
But his history had shaped his present. His resolve was stronger than ever, as was his spirit. He believed that his destiny was not to spend his life in the hutch, but to be a wild rabbit. He thought his dreams signified that. For why else would he dream of wild rabbits and the dangers they faced that so excited him?
He knew the person who kept him in his hutch was going to take him out later on in the day. She had told him as much yesterday when she went down to take him his breakfast: a pinch of straw, a slip of parsley, and a cowslip.
It was early morning, the cats had just left the front of his cage to hunt the mice that stalked the hay and straw in the barn where he was kept. He knew the girl didn't wake up until the sun was up, when that awful rooster made his dreadful crowing noises that would wake everybody up. Ginger thought of his time outside today as a time to explore his surroundings, but just then he had a truly brilliant idea. What if he escaped while he was outside?
Satisfied with his plan, but needing something to do in the time it would take the girl to get up, Ginger nestled down in his straw bedding and went to sleep. The much-needed rest was very welcome, and his dreams were as grand as ever, except at the end.
At the end of his dream Ginger saw a strange rabbit, he knew the rabbit's look because he had seen him speaking and playing to the other, wild rabbits. With him, on the left side, was the sun, and on the right side was a rainbow.
"Hello, Ginger." said the strange rabbit. "My name is El-ahrairah, these are my companions, Lord Frith, on my left, Prince Rainbow, on my right, and at my paws, my faithful captain of the Owsla, Rabscuttle."
A rabbit Ginger hadn't noticed before stood up and looked right at him. He was obviously Rabscuttle, and the more Ginger looked at him, the more certain he felt that these strange apparitions meant him no harm.
Just then Rabscuttle leaned over and whispered in his Chief's ear. Ginger couldn't hear what they were saying, but from the way they kept shooting glances at him, Ginger knew that they were talking about him.
"You have been given a great destiny. You have been chosen for a great task that we feel can be done by no other." Rabscuttle was speaking now. He and El-ahrairah had evidentially finished their conversation. "If you succeed in this wondrous deed, you be a most wise and respected hero. But if you fail, the whole of rabbitkind will twist into despair. You may not know it yet, Ginger, but when you were born, a powerful prophecy was made about you. The entire warren where you were born knew about it, but no-one knew about you except but your mother and father." Rabscuttle concluded.
"I think I remember my mother telling me something about it before she died." recalled Ginger. "She said my father was dead, but that I inherited many of his traits. My looks, for example, all except for my fur color, don't know where I got that from. She always described my father as big, handsome and brave. She also said we were fleeing her warren for a better life. She didn't say why we left, or how my father died. All she said was to go up the hill near the farm if we ever got separated. We were about to cross a road, she was showing me how to when the hrududu came. It was dark, the lights and sounds blinded and deafened her. Then the vehicle stopped. A little girl got out, walked to the side of the road, buried my mother, and then found me." Ginger was sobbing now. The pain and stress of reliving one of his most horror-filled moments was opening up new wounds, and each stun as sharply as the bullets from a farmer's gun.
"Shush now, Ginger." said Lord Frith, patting him on the back with a fiery ray of hope and happiness that immediately made Ginger feel better. "You're in safe paws now."
Then Prince Rainbow broke in. "Excuse me, Lord Frith, but we really ought to be going. It is nearly the end of dawn. Bye Ginger. Remember, we will meet you again in your dreams when the time is ripe." With that he and the others turned to go.
"But wait!" cried Ginger. "What about the prophecy! What am I supposed to do? What do you want of me?"
Rabscuttle came back to him and whispered in his ear. "Like Prince Rainbow says, we will tell you when the time is ripe. But right now we have to get Lord Frith up, or sunrise will never come. And that would be upsetting your plans for the day, now wouldn't it?" With that he hopped off, and Ginger was left all alone.
The rooster awoke Ginger, as he often did.
What a nuisance! thought Ginger bitterly. What good does he do about here? Besides, he woke me from a most wondrous dream. Can't quite exactly remember what it was, but whatever it was it was pretty grand.
Just then Ginger remembered his plans for the day. He instantly became more alert and waited patiently for the girl to come down and fetch him.
Today would be one to remember.
The girl came down a little later than usual. Yawning, she opened the door to find Ginger awake and alert at the door to his hutch, as if expecting something grand.
Immediately upon seeing him, the little girl (named Lucy) brightened and remembered that today was the day she was taking him outside. Rushing inside, she opened the hutch lifted him out, and carried him (albeit wrongly) outside into the yard.
A barrage of smells hit Ginger's sensitive nose, and he immediately tried to sort through them all. There was fresh grass, normal farm smells, and something else he couldn't quite name. But there was something outside that he could name. The stench was that of stale blood, the type of blood he had smelt on his mother when she had died.
The smell spooked him, and he began struggling wildly to get out of the girl's arms. All that did was made her hold on more tightly. Finally calming down, he gingerly took another whiff of the fresh morning air, and was immensely puzzled when he didn't smell the stale blood again.
Setting him down gently on the cool, sunlit grass, she lay down next to him on her back and put her arms under her head. Smelling the sweet scents of the country and grass, she let herself become sleepy in the sun's warmth and relaxed. Without meaning to, she fell asleep.
Lord Frith rose still higher into the sky and had soon climbed above the treetops to the west.
Ginger looked at the girl. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully enough, but then again, you never could tell with humans.
Slowly, as if afraid of what might happen if he did, Ginger hopped away across the yard. When he was a foot away from her and the girl still hadn't awoken, Ginger began to feel more confident in his plan. Perhaps he could escape after all.
What he hadn't counted on was the farm cats showing up while he was half-way across the yard and nearly to the ditch and the road.
Tab was furious. She was hidden behind the woodpile outside the barn where Ginger's hutch was kept, her tabby fur blended in perfectly with the dappled shadows by the woodpile, and she kept her white chest and paws hidden beneath her stomach.
She watched the rabbit run across the grass a little and do a caper, his eyes closed in pleasure. For some reason it enraged Tab to see the rabbit so happy, and her whiskers and ears twitched and her green eyes narrowed with annoyance. From the back of the woodpile, she could see her sister and sometimes partner, Elise (the calico female), waiting patiently behind some old wooden boards that the farmhands had left leaning against the wall of the house one day.
Tab smiled. The rabbit was getting closer to Elise, soon the cat's could launch their ambush. Tab was almost ready, she just had to check the wind direction. As her mother had always said, 'No use trying to catch prey if the wind direction's against you.'
So Tab, being the dutiful, diligent daughter that she always was, tested the wind direction. Needless to say, it was in their favor. Quickly, before the wind had time to change it's mind and the direction and the rabbit time to smell them coming, Tab lifted her tail and waved it, the signal to move out.
Elise watched Tab for the tail signal. She was getting impatient with her elder sibling. There the darned rabbit was, no more than 5 feet away from her very nose-tip, and there her darned sister was behind the woodpile, seemingly larking about. Elise was glad the human girl was asleep, it wouldn't do for her to see what was coming next. Sighing, Elise checked the sun's position, than checked back with her sister. With her keen green eyes she picked out Tab's tabby tail waving at her from the dappled shadows behind the woodpile. Here it was, the signal.
Ginger capered about in the grass. He was having a lovely time. Nibbling on the cool morning grass when he felt like it, not having to worry about a human picking him up from his fun and setting him back in the hutch. Further more, he was half-way across the yard, nearly to the road and the ditch. And to freedom, he silently reminded himself.
Ginger did another caper and, just as he was going back to nibbling on the grass, heard the near silent sound of pawsteps behind him. Slowly turning around, fearful of what he might find there but already know, Ginger faced Elise.
He stared into her green eyes, and felt himself becoming transfixed by them. A voice, tiny and drowned out by his own fear and loudly beating heart, spoke in his mind: "Run, Ginger. If you run the cat cannot catch you. Run. You are too important to all of rabbitkind to be lost today. And don't worry about a thing, for I will help you while my master is away, for I was assigned as your special guardian, and I will not fail in my task and make sure you don't fail in your task either. Now, RUN!"
And suddenly, Ginger was tearing across the field, moving faster than he ever had or had ever dreamed of moving. He covered the distance to the ditch in a few mere moments, and had crossed the road in a heartbeat. Only when he was hidden safely in a tangle of brambles and nettles at the bottom of the ditch on the far side of the road did he dare to stop and take breath again.
He didn't really remember much of what had happened back there with the cat. All he could remember was his panic, than the icy calm that took hold of him when he heard the voice. It had felt weird, as if his body were being inhabited by another rabbit, and then all he knew was of his heart-stopping dash across the yard, and then this.
Completely exhausted by the days events, Ginger fell asleep. But just before he did, one happy thought went through his mind and kept him up a little while longer. He was free! And then his tired body collapsed in the ditch where he lay and he knew no more.
Well, did you like it? Don't forget to tell me in a review. Feel free to flame and/or compliment!
