“Rabbit Tracks”
A Bearded Old Man of the Mountain Super-Short
Prologue: No one knows much about Bearded Old Man of the Mountain except that he left the city, went to the hills, grew a beard and things got weird.
The snow fell in a soft drizzle. The bearded man was unsure what the weather might do next, but for the moment, he could still make out the rabbit tracks weaving between the trees.They led to a small clearing.
As he stepped around two gnarled oaks, he spotted his objective. A cottontail rabbit was standing calmly in front of a muscled mass of mountain bear. It growled as it stared down at the tiny morsel in front of its nose. The bearded man wasn’t sure if either animal had noticed him, but he crept forward anyway. The rabbit twitched its ears but kept its stance. Slowly, the bear opened its jaws and began to lean forward. By instinct, the bearded man started to reach for the weapon in his pack, but then he paused. Something happened that he didn’t expect.
The rabbit turned its head towards him and raised its small paw. Speaking softly, it said, “Don’t worry, the bear is only here for me…The hour has come.”
The bearded man squinted slightly in confusion at this statement. He brushed the snow off his watch and checked the time. When he looked up, the rabbit was gone.
In 2019, you'll see more of my writing on my Transcendent Press website.
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