A WONDERLAND XMAS
SHORT STORY
It all started with a
snowflake.
The rabbit knew that was
on the start of the chaos. When one snowflake fell, there were more to follow.
Soon the forest would be
white and that only meant one thing.
They would all come out.
The crazies. The rabbit
twitched his nose and his long ears perked for any sign of any of them.
The forest was so quiet.
Nothing stirred. The snowflakes now were falling freely as light as air. One
landed on his nose. He stared at it as if afraid to move. It might make a
noise.
That was silly,
snowflakes didn’t make noise-only them.
Maybe if he made it to
his hole, he would be safe. So he went for it. He dashed across the forest bed
towards his home.
But he should have known.
The table that sat in the
middle of the forest clearing just before his home, had someone sitting there.
He didn’t want to look to see who it was.
As he got closer he could
tell they were face down on the table and snow was beginning cover their head.
He sighed as he went over
to investigate. That was a mistake as they popped back up and smiled at him.
“It’s snowing,” they
declared. “You know what that means?”
Rabbit shook his head. He
didn’t want to hear it.
“He’s coming. I can’t wait.”
Rabbit twitched his nose
again. And went to go home and hopefully shut them out before anymore came.
The trees started to
shake as rabbit made his way back. If he could hurry perhaps…
No.
“Let’s party. Come on
rabbit. Let’s set the table up.”
He knew that voice. It
was the forest sprite who liked to cause trouble. Her name was Chessie. She
also always traveled with her cohorts that also liked to cause all kinds of
trouble.
Rabbit slowly turned and
his eyes went wide. That crazy mad hatter was bringing up the party goers. In
his arm was the queen of hearts. Her red dress was bright against the falling
snow.
Fairies and strange birds
followed them with trays of food to put on the table. Two big cats came in with
wine and poured everyone a glass.
The one with the face
down on the table was the first to grab a glass and make a toast. No one paid
any attention to what he said.
The chaos had begun and
rabbit couldn’t escape.
Soon there would be music
and singing.
The snow was starting to
fall more and more but it just made them all more excited about his arrival.
They brought acorns and pine
cones and ivy. Rabbit shivered as he noticed some poison ivy and stinging
nettles in the mix. They didn’t care.
It was starting to get
dusk now. It was the eve now and the queen of hearts was dancing with one of
the sprites.
Then things started to
heat up as the snow queen made her grand entrance. She was riding on two snow
foxes. The queen of hearts hissed and the sprite she was dancing with laughed
and pushed the queen of hearts towards the snow queen.
All rabbit could hear was
shrills and laughter mixed with the hisses.
It was time for him to
leave. Maybe between the two sprites making bets on which queen would win the
fight, he could slip away.
But it’s always the mad
hatter. He notices everything.
“Hey rabbit, come on over
here for a bit. I have something to show you.”
He knew he could not run
away. He would catch him. So he slowly made his way over to where the mad hatter
was sitting.
His hat tonight was red
with white feathers sticking out the back with a white rose at the base of the
feathers. The queen of hearts must not have been happy to see that.
“Are you excited about
tonight?”
Rabbit just shook his
head and the mad hatter frowned. Then he smiled and pulled out a small gift.
“This is for you.”
Chessie came over to
investigate along with one of the big cats who sniffed it. Rabbit couldn’t read
the cats expression to see if he smelled something wrong with it.
“Take it, my dear friend
and enjoy.”
Chessie picked it up
first and shook it and then handed it to rabbit.
Rabbit very carefully
took the gift and pulled the large red ribbon and it fell into the fluffy snow.
He was almost afraid to see what was inside. When he peeked, it was a red
scarf. He pulled it out and held it in front of him. It was very nice.
“I knitted it you know,”
said the mad hatter. “Do you like it?”
Rabbit nodded and said a
quiet thank you.
“Put it on,” said
Chessie.
So he did. It felt nice
and warm. The mad hatter looked pleased with himself.
“It looks good don’t it?”
Chessie rolled her eyes.
“Yes, it looks good. Why didn’t you give me one?”
“Because you were bad.”
Chessie hissed. “I was
not. What about the time…”
The forest went silent.
Everybody stopped doing
what they were doing and stood there in the silence.
The snow fell silently
all around them.
One of them pointed up
into the sky. The sound of bells could be heard. They were getting closer.
They all gathered around
a spruce tree and waited. Rabbit kept back.
The bells were getting
louder.
Something else was
falling. The sprites were gathering them up. One held up a bag in their hand.
“It’s candy!”
They all went scrambling
for their bags.
Rabbit decided it was
time to go. Now they would be busy with their candy bags.
When he got to his home.
There was a little gift sitting by his hole. Rabbit picked it up and went down
his hole where a toasty warm fire was waiting for him.
He sat on his little
fluffy chair and opened it. Inside was some sweet juicy carrots and some greens
that smelled so fresh, it was like they were just plucked out of the garden.
“Thank you Santa.”
He snuggled down by the
fire with his gift and his red scarf to keep him warm.
Merry Xmas from
Wonderland!
TIP JAR:
paypal.me/VeraSoroka
No comments:
Post a Comment