Rabbit Loses More Than His Tail, Part 1

Between writing articles I'm getting paid for (yay!) and posts to start arguments at PopBunker.net (also yay), I haven't written much fiction. I found the idea for this in one old notebook recently, and found a few paragraphs of it in another, newer notebook. Part of my family is Native American, specifically from the Seminole and Seneca tribes. When I was younger, someone gave me a copy of Chief Jim Billie's CD of songs and stories. My favorites are the ones about Cufe-Laksv, the trickster rabbit.

One summer evening, Rabbit decided to take a shortcut home. The alley was shadowy and full of junk, but he was confident in his cleverness and hopped forth. Rabbit might have been clever, but what he failed to realize in his infinite wit and wisdom is that alley Cat, while not terribly bright, was a lot bigger and had very sharp teeth. Before Rabbit could even think, he was running for his life. He did manage to outrun the hungry Cat and dive down a hole, but not before Cat had snatched off Rabbit's fluffy tail. As he recovered from the shock, Rabbit vowed to get revenge.

The next morning, Rabbit emerged from his hiding place. With the sun shining, it was easy for him to spot Cat, who had gone back to sifting through the dumpsters in the alley in search of food. Rabbit was wondering what he could do to get back at Cat for stealing his tail, when Butterfly meandered by on a scrap of warm breeze.

"Hey, Butterfly!" Rabbit called to her. "I heard a rumor you were poisonous. Is that true?"

"Damn right, I'm poisonous!" she snapped back. "So don't get any funny ideas!"

"Who, me?" said Rabbit, all innocent surprise. It helped that Butterfly was kind of a bitch. He wouldn't feel so bad now. "I was just making conversation," he began again. "What I really wanted to say was that someone planted some honeysuckles over on the other side of that alley and I thought you might want to know."

Butterfly blinked. "Wow, thanks," she said and flew off in the direction Rabbit was pointing.

Staring after her, Rabbit congratulated himself on settling the score for two insults at once.

"That was almost too easy," he thought with a grin.

To be continued.