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Bunny and the
Missing Chocolate an Easter short story for children
by T.S. Bryan In a magical place called Bunny valley in the Land of Myth; a five foot tall, white female rabbit sits on a hillside watching a small army of stone-like creatures called baldirocks as they push wheelbarrows loaded with cocoa beans into a cave. Her ears are streaky pink, her black whiskers are long, and her large eyes are as pink as roses. Above the cave entrance is a sign made entirely of carrots...
...and, in a clear blue sky, five huge raptorchick birds, so called because they have the head of a chicken and the wings of an eagle, carry large bags containing sugar, cream and milk from the city.
With twenty of them working for Bunny in all, the dairy ingredients are delivered much faster than the usual horse and cart.
Near to where Bunny is standing, a chute shaped like a gutter slopes down out of a gap in the mountainside. Inside it, hundreds upon hundreds of Easter eggs, all wrapped in red, silver or gold foil, tumble to the bottom and fall off the end and into a hole at the top of her Bunny rocket. Bunny loved her rocket because it was made from an enormous hollowed out carrot. It even had carrot-shaped engines attached to each side and, at thirty metres long, it was the largest, magical flying carrot in the Land of Myth. Everything was going to plan, the rocket would soon be full and this year’s Easter delivery would then begin.
As the last egg dropped in, elves and fairies, over a hundred of them, stormed out of the factory and headed towards the rocket, everyone of them ready to travel the world on Easter night to help Bunny deliver her eggs to every believer. Bunny ushered everyone into the rocket and followed them inside. With the fairies only two foot tall and the elves three, she towered over everyone. She hopped into the one and only seat in front of a large window, leaving everyone else to stand in the tight space behind her. By her right paw was a joystick and, seconds after grabbing it and pushing it forwards, the rocket lifted into the air and sped towards the horizon towards a tunnel of golden stars. She spoke softly and poshly, every word crystal clear. “Right everybody, hold on tight, we are about to enter the gate of Myth!” As they entered the portal that separated Myth from Earth, the rocket, the eggs and everyone on board shrank a thousand times and, not only that, they sped up a hundred times too. Nobody on Earth would see them now, not while they were so small and fast. Through the clouds of Earth, the rocket plunged towards the night time lights of cities and towns. “Approaching the first stop,” yelled Bunny over the whine of magical engines. “Prepare for delivery!” The elves and fairies opened the chute which would allow the first of millions of eggs to roll out from the rear of the rocket into a large tray, but not a single egg appeared. Everyone gasped. Markus, the elf leader, lay down on the tray and pushed the top half of his body through the opening. He called to one of the fairies. “April, I need your wand.” April scrambled up his chest, and both gasped as the light from her wand revealed a huge empty space with not a single Easter egg in sight. April went all the way in. “There’s nothing in here!” she cried. “All the eggs have gone!” Bunny clamped her paws on Markus’s feet and pulled him out of the way so she could have a look inside. “But this is ridiculous!” she said, “I watched the eggs drop off the chute into the rocket. It should be full!” April flew around the empty space and stopped over a large hole in the floor. “Look! The eggs have dropped in, but they must have dropped straight out through this hole!” Bunny was too big to get through the opening so she went outside and hopped onto the roof. She opened the hatch where the eggs had dropped in from the chute and saw April looking at the hole in the bottom of the rocket. She shouted up to Bunny. “Someone has cut this hole while the eggs were being made. Whoever it was must have dug a tunnel under the rocket so they could steal the eggs.” “But who would want to steal all our chocolate?” asked Markus, who had crawled inside along with most of the others. An elderly, grumpy elf pushed to the front and grunted. “I bet it was the baldirocks. You can never trust them. They always look at you like they want to pull off your arms and legs. I’m telling you, they’re evil.” Another fairy agreed. “Yes, you’re right, Percy. Ever since they began working at the factory I haven’t trusted them. They never talk to us without being rude.” Bunny stroked her whiskers. “Mmm… I don’t think we should lay the blame on the baldirocks just yet. There are lots of creatures in Myth who love chocolate. Any of them could have stolen the eggs.” “But the baldirocks are very good diggers,” insisted Percy. “What are we going to do?” said another tearful fairy, “the children won’t have any eggs in the morning and then they’ll stop believing in us.” “And then we’ll all be out of a job,” grumbled Percy. Bunny looked at her watch. “Right everyone, we’ll have to go back to Myth. We must find the eggs in one hour if we are going to get the job done.” Back in the sunny valley of Myth, everyone stared at the large, flat area of grass where the rocket had been parked. There was no sign of a hole in the ground anywhere. Two baldirocks ambled up the hillside looking very confused. “You’re back early,” mumbled one, “you can’t have delivered all those eggs already.” “We haven’t delivered any eggs!” bellowed April, “because you and your thieving ugly mates have stolen them!” The baldirocks looked at each other and raised their monstrous eyebrows looking very hurt indeed. “Us?” said the second, “we wouldn’t do anything like that, we’re nice… aren’t we, Thumper?” “Yes, Basher, we are. But in the light of what we have just been accused of, I think we are going to have to crunch a few bones.” Thumper stepped forward and cracked his knobbly fingers. “Right, who’s first for a squishing?” He pointed at April. “You, I think.” “Oh stop it, all of you,” intervened Bunny. She quickly explained the problem of the missing eggs. “We only have fifty-five minutes to find them and get them back into the rocket. There’s no way we can make that many again in such a short time, not to mention the fact that we haven’t got enough ingredients.” “Well it wasn’t us who stole your chocolate,” said Thumper, “so, if you want help from us we want an apology, don’t we, Basher?” Everyone looked at April. She sighed and said sorry, but she pulled tongues at them as soon as they weren’t looking. Thumper and Basher inspected the hole at the bottom of the rocket and then they stomped along the grass. Suddenly, a snapping sound filled the air and there was a cry from one and a yelp from the other as the ground swallowed them up. Bunny, April and Markus raced to a three foot wide hole which had suddenly appeared under the weight of the two boldirocks. A vertical tunnel disappeared into darkness, and chocolate eggs clung to the jagged sides. “Well,” said Bunny, “that explains where our eggs have gone.” April hovered over the hole. Other fairies gathered around her and, one after the other, they dropped down into the darkness, the light from their wands showing the way. Bunny waited patiently with the elves as the minutes passed. “Markus,” she said, “go and get the rest of the baldirocks.” No sooner had Markus left with a number of other elves, a panicking fairy appeared out of the hole. She spoke so fast that Bunny had to tell her to calm down and start again. “There’s a huge cave down there,” she yelled, “and there are about twenty raptorchicks putting all the eggs into the sacks that they use to bring the milk and the sugar! There’s a way out of the cave further down the valley and Thumper and Basher are trying to stop the birds escaping with the eggs. But they need help, quickly!” “Go and tell Markus and the other boldirocks!” commanded Bunny. “I know the cave entrance; we’ll meet you there.” Further down the valley, an army of raging baldirocks armed with ropes and clubs stormed the cave to see Basher and Thumper only just holding a winning position. The raptorchicks pecked them with their sharp beaks which only served to make the baldirocks angrier than ever. The birds squawked loudly and their huge wings flapped furiously. Baldirocks jumped onto their backs and ropes were thrown over their wings. A silence fell over the cave as everyone looked horrified at the sight of trampled chocolate. Bunny looked at all the bags, twenty of them, each one full of eggs. Had they returned to Myth a few minutes later, the raptorchicks would have been long gone with the lot of them. She let out a huge sigh and glanced at her watch. “Right everyone, we’ve only got forty minutes left to get all the chocolate out of those bags and into the rocket. And not only that, we’ll have to start up the factory to replace all the broken ones. We’ll never do it in time.” Markus stepped forward. “I’ve got an idea. We’ll seal up the hole in the bottom of the rocket, then we’ll untie one of the birds and make it carry the bags.” “But it might fly off with the eggs,” said April. Thumper nodded thoughtfully. “Not if we tie a rope to its leg it won’t.” Bunny’s ears popped up. “And who is going to hold on to the other end of the rope? Surely the bird will just fly off with them as well.” “I’ve got a better idea,” said Basher. “We’ll tie a rope to each bag and drag the eggs back to the rocket.” Bunny wasn’t happy with that. “No, the route is steep and stony. The bag will rip and the eggs will be destroyed, not to mention the fact that we’ll need to get the bags to the top of the rocket. How about we do as Thumper says. We’ll use a bird to lift the bag but all of you can hold onto the rope. It won’t be able to fly off with lots of you hanging onto it.” A raptorchick squawked. “There’s only one problem with all your stupid ideas. We’re not doing it!” Basher raised his club. “You will if you know what’s good for you.” “Look, we are wasting time here,” said Bunny. She raised herself upright in front of the birds. “You have two choices. You can either help us, or I’ll send the fairies to the Queen of Myth and have her guards come for you. The last creature to perform a crime like this was kept in a cold and damp dungeon for five years. Is that what you want?” The raptorchicks shuffled about and said nothing. Bunny repeated her question, louder this time. “Is that what you want?” A raptorchick snorted. “And what will you give us in return if we help you?” “I’ll let you go... as long as you promise never to come back. If you do come back I’ll let the queen know anyway and then a ransom will be put on your heads. You won’t be able to go anywhere without someone waiting to catch you for the reward.” Another raptorchick stepped forward. “How do we know you’ll keep your word?” “You don’t,” replied Bunny. “But you don’t have any choice do you?” “How about we all carry a bag to your rocket? The job will be done in no time.” Bunny shook her head. “Do you really think I’m that stupid? All of you would just fly off with the eggs anyway. No, just one of you and the rope will do. The rest of you will remain here, under the watchful eye of some very angry baldirocks.” The raptorchick brought the last bag to the opening at the top of the rocket with twenty baldirocks running behind on the end of the rope. Bunny became anxious because they had spent too much time talking and they only had five minutes left for the factory to make up for all the broken eggs with the last of the ingredients. All elves and fairies were working twice as fast but, with so many eggs damaged, it was taking longer than she thought. At last, a cry came from Percy who was sitting on the top of the rocket. “That’s it… it’s full!” Bunny hopped at speed into the factory. “Everyone to the rocket… Quickly!” When she came out, Thumper and Basher were waiting for her; the raptorchick had landed nearby. Thumper cleared his throat. “Erm... If we may make a suggestion, Bunny. We have all been thinking... and we have come to the conclusion that it would be better if we... erm... eat the raptorchicks. We could roast them over the fire and then they’ll never thieve from anyone ever again. No one need ever know. It would be our secret.” “Yeah,” agreed Basher, patting his belly. The raptorchick squawked loudly and tried to fly off, but it still had the rope tied to its leg with lots of hungry baldirocks on the other end of it. Bunny was shocked. “Thumper! That's a terrible idea! No, definitely not. I’m a rabbit of my word. Let them go right away." Thumper and Basher grunted and stomped away. As Bunny’s rocket left for the gate of Myth, twenty raptorchicks spread their wings and flew over the mountains, never to be seen again in Bunny valley. Fancy a bigger story? Then take a look at my mythical trilogy, starting with The Land of Myth (age 7+)
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