Snickers

Snickers lost his humans, and the world is a big, scary place.

Snickers paused his march in a bright clearing. A brook bubbled cheerily in the crisp mountain air. He leaned over the water took a long drink and then twitched his little bunny nose so that his whiskers danced.

He smelled arugula.

He loved arugula!

His fluffy rabbit tail wiggled. Arugula! The most delicious of all the leafy greens. His humans grew it in their garden.

Their former garden. Before the loud, scary fire turned it black.

Snickers decided he didn't want arugula. It made him think of his humans. But he was hungry, and where there was arugula, there might be carrots for dessert to cheer him up, or at least grass or hay.

With whiskers drooping, Snickers swallowed his grief and followed his nose through the forest underbrush, dragging the leash still attached to his harness through fallen leaves with swooshing and crunching sounds.

He emerged into the backyard of a house very much like the house of his humans, except, this house was still white and tall and its garden not at all bitter-smelling. His whiskers perked up, but not for long, because a very loud, very fast black-and-tan Dog tore out the back door, headed straight toward Snickers with its nub of a not-fluffy tail wiggling and pointed ears tall.

A squeak escaped his throat. Mama had warned him of the Protector-Beasts called "Dogs" gracing the homes of some humans. Her pa, Snickers' Grandjack, held a county record for garden Dog evasions. Mama recounted stories from her childhood of the famed garden heists executed by the notorious Jackbandit of 2015.

But Grandjack was wild. Mama cautioned that having humans, while wonderful in many ways, dulled our instincts and slowed our speed. Living in boxes didn't allow for much exercise, after all. So we must steer clear of the most fearful of threats, that monster knows as "predator", to avoid being someone else's lunch.

Snickers knew Grandjack's stories were true. His humans watched their TeeVees and their Netflixes, where Dogs and other monsters chased rabbits. Never once had Snickers seen a Dog catch a rabbit.

But now, one closed in on him.

Just as Mama warned, the little rabbit's reflexes failed him. Other than his foot, which thumped loudly without permission, he stood frozen.

Then two things happened.

First, the Dog screeched to a halt three or four rabbit-lengths away and wailed. It backed up, crying loudly, but the farther back it stepped, the more the crying subsided. Once it reached the smooth grass, it stopped crying entirely and switched to insistent barking.

Second, something attacked Snickers from behind. He found himself scooped up by the harness and dragged back into the woods. He unleashed a feral scream.

A silky voice behind him said, "Good heavens. Enough of that, now."

Snickers' feet hit the ground and started working again. He scampered away as fast as he could hop, until the harness tugged him back mid-jump.

"Are you done?" asked the voice.

Trembling, Snickers turned slowly around.

It was a large, sleek black cat. And it was standing on his leash.

Snickers' foot thumped.

The cat licked its paw for what felt like forever. It smoothed the paw over its head and face. It curled around and licked above his long, twitching tail.

Snickers' foot stopped. The cat stood tall.

"There, was that so bad?"

"Wh-who are you?" The rabbit's nose twitched. His whiskers began a dance once again, and he was quite sure he smelled a smorgasbord of greens and veggies on the cat.

"I am Mystic. And you have lost your humans."

"How did you know?" he asked quietly.

"I know these things. Besides, you smell like char. Not the good kind made of meat drippings. Your char smells human-made, like burnt house."

Snickers' head sagged. "It's true. I don't know where to go."

"I have just the place."

***

The little witch looked up from her cauldron.

"Mystic! What do we have, here?"

The cat dropped the leash. It clattered onto the rough wooden floor of the tiny hut.

Snickers hopped on the stoop and stepped through the doorway. His foot thumped, but only a little. The pair had traveled through the most beautiful garden Snickers had ever seen on the way to the hut. The cat had not objected when he paused to sample the wares, and it was harder to be scared with a full belly.

"Another stray, naturally." Mystic yawned and resumed grooming.

The witch took in the rabbit with sparkling eyes. "What is your name, little one?" Her voice was kind and gentle. Her robes were tattered and torn.

"Sn-Snickers," said the rabbit with a hint of a tremble.

"Welcome, Snickers." She sat in a overstuffed chair riddled with rips and tears near the fireplace, where her cauldron bubbled. "Come join me."

Cold mountain air seeped in through gaps in the wooden walls, but by the fire, it looked warm and cozy. Snickers crossed the space with tiny bunny hops, careful not to trip himself over the long leash that lay across the floor, and stopped at the witch's feet.

"I'm afraid of top hats," he whispered. He had seen them on TeeVee. "I'm afraid I might disappear in one, never to be seen again."

The witch giggled. "I'm a witch, not a magician. You may call me Maggie. Here, let's get this harness off of you."

The rabbit, his belly full, and his body warm, allowed the witch to lift him into her lap. As his mind drifted into slumber, he thought that maybe he had found his new home.