Two of the animals most important in men’s lives are rabbits and dogs. Man has bred hounds to catch rabbits, hares, and anything of the sort, and hounds, loyal and kind, have done what man asked. Man bred hound to have great speed with which to catch, and great teeth with which to hold. Hound, of such kind temperament that he has been known to starve after losing a friend, so loyal that he may return to a spot for years on the chance that a man will return, has been asked to become a killer, and has obeyed because he was put on Earth to be the most loyal one of Adam’s three great sources of company (the other two being, of course, horse and woman. Cats tend to be more coincidental acquaintances than great sources of company.) Hares, on the other hand, man’s source of meat, put on Earth to keep man from subsiding on grain, vegetables, fish, and a very rare stag or boar, has put his energy into being quick, and so even though rabbits eat their young and are skittish and filled with hate and fear and resentment of man and dog alike, they have not had energy to make fighting teeth or intelligence, or tool creation or use, or even the implements to use tools, hands being primary, but crow’s feet working nearly as well.
All this held true until Christ came back, and the good men were taken from the Earth. Shortly after, Satan took the souls Christ did not want, and the animals were left to themselves. For a time, perhaps three full generations, hounds continued to hunt rabbits, it being what they were made for, but there was no one telling them to continue (the monkeys tried for a time, but decided dogs were not suited in temperament to hunting, having a fresh look at the situation and no word from God on what each animal was for.) Soon enough, dogs ceased hunting hares altogether, grew teeth for eating grass and fruit, and weren’t bothered by anyone, being too friendly for even the rudest of animals to bother them. Rabbits grew their teeth, made hands for themselves, and bode their time. Man’s bows and arrows were left, as were his law books, his rope, and his capacity for hate and revenge. Rabbits practiced use of the bow and the law, the rope and their hands, meaning to put all doghood on trial for the crimes of dogs against rabbitity.
After very little argument (for some reason adult rabbits are much less self-important and argumentative than man, though they are filled with hate for dogs,) rabbitkind decided as a whole to put doghood on trial, explain to dogs what they had done wrong, and sentence them to death. A heated trial occurred, with dogs asking what had been wrong with obeying humans, who were better than anything else, with some of the smartest dogs, those who had taken up reading as a hobby and were, perhaps, marginally more aggressive, asserting that the dogs of today were not even of the same species as the dogs of times gone by, but the rabbits showed pictures and told stories, and read from man’s books descriptions of dogs that still fit. The twelve rabbit jurors were quite convinced, in their hearts of hearts, and most of the dogs, by the end of it, were just about ready to give in and say “yes, alright, we should step forward, that we might be exterminated and better the world.” Several of the dogs did so, and they were taken in carts by the rabbits to the middle of the plains (for the woods were their sacred place,) and hanged from lone trees.
Finally, even the best, kindest dogs that were left began to fear for their own lives, and under the leadership of the Dog King, attacked each of the rabbit’s strongholds, which the rabbits had built in forests they held so dear. The Dog King ordered trees cut down and tents pitched, for by this point dogs too had grown hands and made tools, and learned to be like men, for it was the only way to defend themselves. They marched on the castles.
Eventually, after much siege, the rabbits decided it was time. They could not continue to live like this, for they had run out of most of their food. Someone suggested eating one another, but that idea would simply not do for sustaining a long-term defense. The rabbits asked the dogs for terms, but dogs, even those most like men, are basically kind, and the only term the Dog King wanted was the end of fighting. He told the rabbit leader so, and the first leader, Rabbitlord Stern, declined. He wished to speak about terms concerning a portion of dogdom being executed and extraordinary restrictions being placed on the happiness of all hounds in the future. Rabbitlord Stern’s First Mate, standing near behind him, knew the state of affairs, and that, if the Dog King walked from their negotiations, sieges would continue over all forests. He drew his sword, killed Rabbitlord Stern, without intervention from anyone in the room, dog or rabbit, and introduced himself. “I am Rabbitlord Vernor, and I would be pleased to end our conflict.”
Shortly thereafter, the news went out, and conflict ceased between rabbits and dogs. Rabbits were still mean, still ate their young, and had few friends, but dogs were their friends, because it is in a dog’s nature to be friendly to everyone, even when he is hurt by a person he is kind to them. Some dogs and rabbits stayed what came to be called dogs and rabbits of the hand, but for the most part dogs returned to tool-less, handless, fruit and grass eating. Rabbits returned to toothy predatory lives, but every rabbit knew that dogs were off-limits. Occasionally reenactments of the great wars of years past are held by Dogs and Rabbits of the Hand, and, for sport, Rabbits and Dogs of the Hand joust with one another, but never again would they actually fight, for the fear of the rabbits and the love of the dogs.
"Rabbits and Dogs" Short Story © Ben Clardy V
"Rabbits and Dogs" Short Story © Ben Clardy V
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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