A Rabbit's Wish - Chapter 1

I am a male rabbit.

I am pregnant.

The father is a king cobra.

And he is hunting me down.

When I came of age, Mom kicked me out of our burrow.

“Don’t come back until you find a doe. Better yet, learn to take human form and marry into the human world.”

Marry? I was a buck!

She tossed me outside in the middle of summer, and I nearly roasted. I hated heat, so I burrowed into every shady thicket I could find. Eventually I discovered an unbelievably cool place. I stayed there overnight and accidentally crushed a sticky, soft egg. It stank.

In the distance, a female king cobra reared up, tasting the air. Her narrow pupils and scent screamed danger. A heartbeat later, she lunged.

My instincts said that if I did not run, I would die. I sprang up, all four paws working in perfect harmony, and boing—I was gone.

I bounded all night, out of the forest and into a garden. The cool air soothed my pounding heart at once. I grazed there for an hour, then curled up among the flowers and fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes, a huge hand was holding me aloft. A young human male squinted into my sleepy red eyes.

“Where did this stupid rabbit come from?”

What a rude human. I swiped at him, but he dodged and tossed me away.

“Leave. Stay, and you accept the consequences.”

But it was hot outside, and the garden was cool. I hopped back in, clung to his trouser leg, and gazed up at him with watery red eyes. His scent made me tremble, but his body was even cooler than the garden.

He studied me for a long moment, then curled one corner of his mouth.

“The silly rabbit likes me? How rare. Don’t regret it.”

He carried me into the big house beside the garden. It felt as if ice were hidden inside—cool and damp. This human clearly hated heat too. We were bound to become great friends.

The place was paradise. There were no predators, the garden was full of plants to nibble, and above all, it stayed cool day and night.

The human left early every morning and returned late at night. He even brought me carrots, though I did not like them. I preferred green grass and leaves.

When I refused a carrot, he lifted me by both ears.

“Aren’t rabbits supposed to love carrots? Now you’re picky too?”

It hurt terribly, but rabbits cannot cry out. We barely make a sound. I kicked helplessly in the air and stared at him through tears.

He froze and released my ears. “A mute rabbit?”

He was the mute one. Rabbits were simply quiet animals.

Fuming, I licked a paw and rubbed the roots of my aching ears. I was going to run away. This human kept lifting me by my ears. Terrifying.

Once I finished every blade of grass in his garden, I would leave. Hmph.

I grazed by day and by night. Thirty days passed, and the grass I had already eaten grew back. Oh no. It was impossible to finish. I had grown so fat I could barely hop.

Then the king cobra hunting me appeared beyond the fence, her hood spread as she hissed. I startled so badly that I actually managed one hop.

She slithered inside. I hauled my plump backside into the house. The human was home that day, sleeping behind a closed bedroom door. I was too small to reach the handle, so I scratched frantically. What an awful sound.

If only I were human. Humans could open doors. I would even marry into the human world if I had to. Marriage could not be worse than getting eaten!

At the thought, tears poured down my face. My body heated, my head spun, and as the terrifying cobra closed in, my legs went stiff and I fainted.