Ben - Chapter Twenty Five

Crunched underfoot, grateful leaves loved the attention. Bored from hanging from trees, they would break free and chat about, hoping to land a passing animal to take them on an adventure. The chrysalis to the flying chute. Wings brown. Leaves were different. They didn’t have wings. They couldn’t flirt with animals like the flutterbys.

Ben sat atop a branch pondering all this as he used the last twig to pick his dinner from his protruding and elongated front-choppers. They would be due a pairing soon but Bessie the tooth beast was nowhere to be seen. Nature would need to suffice for now.

Ben could read the splines within each leaf and discern their hopes and concerns. One was jealous of autumn snowdrops forming while many others were trepident about how to spell and thus communicate. The leaves were the parchments of time. The living records. The message bringers. Their jobs firmly seated, for no rabbit could continue in good conscience or faith without having at least one fallen leaf to the great waterbeyond.

The cracking and rumbling from beyond could only mean the megabears were to feed again. The evening mountain shakers instructed a sunset thimble of hiding so as to be safe and not end up in a living hole fighting against white mouth-trees. It was rather cold but Ben was immune. The running water had turned into a joke against the large brown belching blurpy beasts who knew no. The ultimate source of laughter was to watch them slip helplessly upon the frozen, only for their infinitely hard landing to cause an involuntary jump amongst the smaller creatures, much to their delight.