Rue Rabbit Chapter 1: A Rough Beginning, a misc. books fanfic

Synopsis of Chapter One:

Rue Rabbit is a very young Eastern Cottontail bunny living with his family in Mrs. Wilder's yard in rural Michigan. Out playing with his brothers and sisters one day, coyotes attack and Rue's father loses his life to save his last living bunny, Rue.

RUE RABBIT – A WILD TALE

J.D. Ralston

ONE – A ROUGH BEGINNING

The little bunny stepped all over the mass of brown fur that was his three brothers and two sisters. His momma lay stretched out in their nest, her paws resting near her whiskers and her babies in a pile at her side. There was still enough light left in the day to see the gray-brown of Momma's fur and the speckles of black that dotted her back.

But nobody woke up. He sighed.

The bunny rubbed his whiskers against Momma's side then stuck his tiny pink nose into her plump, soft, white underside. He drew in her scent - a mixture of rabbit, wet grass, the earth and love.

Above him, the wind rustled the patches of dried leaves and twigs that covered their nest. Momma's nest was a shallow bowl she'd scratched out of the ground beneath an evergreen bush. Then she had lined the form with dried grasses and her own soft, shed fur.

He pretended to have an itch in one ear and then the other, scratching and thumping on top of the bunny pile. One of his sisters groaned and one brother said, "Cut it out!"

But nobody woke up.

"Come on, everybody, let's go outside and play," he said.

The little bunny lay down across his brothers and sisters then rolled to the ground. "Wheee!" he shouted.

But his three brothers and two sisters were happy to simply stay there all evening sleeping and drinking their mother's milk.

"Guys! Come on! Let's play tag before it gets too dark." He poked one of his brothers with his paw then hopped outside.

Momma lifted her head and smiled with her round brown eyes. "Go play with your brother, little ones." She got up and the little bunnies fell to the ground, two of them upside down. They moaned and groaned and stuck each other with their elbows and knees, trying to get up onto their feet.

"Go on now." She began washing her ears.

"Aw right," one sister said. She yawned.

"Okay," said a brother.

The bunnies crawled through a hole in the nest covering then scurried out from beneath the bush.

"Boo!" said the little bunny and he laughed when his sister screamed.

"Tag, you're it," she said as she touched the little bunny. Then she laughed at him while she raced across the backyard, and he chased after her.

"No fair!" he shouted happily.

The bunnies hopped and skipped across Mrs. Wilder's backyard, dodging around the trees and skittering beneath the bushes. The spring rain had fallen gently earlier that day, washing the earth new and the little bunny loved the coolness of the mud when it squished between his toes. They were having such a good time that none of them noticed the coyote as it crept out of the woods. The woods that edged the back of Mrs. Wilder's yard with beautiful old tall trees.

Until they heard their father. He shouted with such a sternness and hardness in his voice that they all instantly stopped and turned toward him. The little bunny was surprised to see him; he had not realized he was home.

"Bunnies!" he yelled. "Get home this instant."

His brothers and sisters began to run home, but the little bunny looked toward the woods. There was a pack of coyotes, their tongues hanging from their mouths and their shaggy fur barely covering their bones. They were hungry from the long winter. They had

seen the bunnies and this made them desperate enough to cross into the Wilder's territory.

The coyotes stepped out of the woods then ran after the bunnies. Momma burst from beneath the bush and yelled at her bunnies to come quickly. It felt to the little bunny as if a tornado of fear and danger were swirling all around him as his brothers and sisters raced around the yard, this way and that way, and the coyotes chased them. He looked at Momma and she yelled again, "Come here, little bunny!"

He swallowed. To reach her, he had to run in the midst of the tornado.

And then, he heard a terrible small scream and saw his father charge toward a coyote. The coyote had its mouth full. His father rammed into the coyote's legs a couple of times but could not get it to drop his bunny. The coyote slunk back into the woods to eat its dinner.

Another terrible small scream came from somewhere very near to the little bunny. "Get home, son!" said his father as he raced past him.

The little bunny looked right at Momma then ran as fast as he could to her. He did not look toward the other terrible small screams that seemed to be coming from all over the yard, like an awful nightmare you cannot escape.

With her nose, Momma shoved the little bunny beneath the bush. "Stay very still," she said.

They crouched beneath the bush, hidden but still able to see. The small terrible screams had stopped and all but one of the coyotes had slunk back into the woods. That

coyote began trotting toward Momma's nest. He and Momma backed up farther beneath the bush.

"Ssshhh," Momma said to him.

His father raced after the coyote. He went beneath its legs then ran a circle around it. The coyote kept coming toward the nest even though his father kept racing around it. The coyote got so close to the bush that the little bunny could only see its muddy feet and half of its pale brown legs. The coyote was panting and sniffing and searching around. He and Momma looked at each other.

Then his father rammed his head into one of its legs and it stopped moving around. His father hopped backwards, away from the bush and the coyote followed him. His father twisted his body to turn around and run, but somehow the coyote managed to step on one of his father's hind legs. This slowed him down. The coyote growled then lunged at his father with its mouth wide open. His father could not escape.

The little bunny closed his eyes and listened to the coyote run away. He and his Momma stayed very still and very quiet for what seemed like a very long time. He looked at Momma. She began to cry very softly. He began to cry also and they sat there together, just the two of them now. The little bunny did not need to be told that his father and his three brothers and two sisters were never coming home.