THE SLOW RABBIT- PART 1

Prologue:
He had never lost a race in his entire career, until today! He was never defeated, until today! He was never humiliated, until today!
He was now booed by his own people who once cheered for him. One of them shouted “You are not one among us!” and the other one cried out “We could have crawled on our bellies and won the race”. They shouted abuses, called him names, and threw dirt at him. The village head walked towards him and looked at the badge he was wearing which read “FASTEST OF ALL”. He then ripped him off his badge which he wore with pride and mocked at him saying “You aren’t the fastest, you aren’t the slowest either, because the slowest is a tortoise and you lost to it! Get out of my village and never come back! YOU ARE A DISGRACE” .He started to walk back when a young rabbit holding his mother’s arm ran towards him and said “You are not my Hero!” He stared at him and before he could say anything the kid threw his action toy at him which was a rabbit posing for a run, and behind the rabbit’s t-shirt in large fonts the kid had written… THE SLOW RABBIT .It was him!!

Years passed and seasons changed, but no one forgot about the rabbit that lost to a tortoise. And to ensure that no one forgets that ever, this story was published in the text-books of young rabbit kids. It was made compulsory that rabbits participate in racing events that were conducted at various levels. In one such track event the village chief was addressing the crowd “My dear fellow rabbits” he said “There is only one quality that we as rabbits must essentially possess and that is we need to be fast! The villagers clapped and shouted back “We are fast! We are fast! We are fast!”, and the chief continued saying “One among us disgraced us years before, and may the great rabbit lords curse him wherever he is! But we will prove to the forest that we are the fastest, and no one will defeat us ever”. “We will not be defeated!!” the crowd screamed. “Let the race begin” said the chief and the rabbits sprinted through to the finish line.

Things were going well for the rabbit-village and they were training harder every-day believing that they are the fastest and they cannot be defeated. The village grew in size and prosperity until one day when group of rabbits who had gone to the forest to collect food came back running to the village with a look of horror in their eyes. The entire village had assembled, when one of them cried out “Call the chief!” The chief came out running and asked what the matter was. One of the rabbit, still gasping for breath started to narrate the story “We were searching for food in the forest, but we could not find any. So we decided to go further deep and search there. There were ripe carrots and loads of food available for our village. We were collecting them and filling out our baskets when we were attacked!” This shocked the chief, he asked “Attacked by whom?” the rabbit continued “We have not seen anything like that before. The thing looked like a huge cat, but it was way big and not like any normal cat we had seen before. We thought we could out-run it easily, so we sprinted towards the village. But then…”and he stopped. The chief got curious, he could see fear dripping from the rabbit’s eyes “Then what” the chief grew restless. “He caught Streak!”

The chief was in a shock. He looked around at the group of rabbits that had gone to gather food, but Streak was not there. Now Streak was the chief’s grandson, and the only family-member of chief. Streak was adopted by the chief years before, when he found Streak abandoned and alone under a banyan tree on a cold winter night. Streak got his name from a birth-mark which was present on his back, it was a black streak which shaped like lightning on his back. The village astrologer-rabbits predicted that he would be the fastest of all the rabbits that the village had ever seen, and he would bring prosperity and fame to the village which the village had lost. And so it happened, Streak grew to be fastest and somehow the rabbit-gods smiled on the villagers after Streak came into their lives. Streak himself grew into a strong, handsome and very fast rabbit that the village had ever seen. Streak was proclaimed as their new hero, the chief was proud of his adopted grand-son, he was the villagers luck.

“How could anyone catch Streak!” exclaimed the chief who was now in shock. The rabbit continued “We were terrified when that thing roared. He picked Streak and tossed him in air like a pebble, and we could do nothing”. The chief was in tears, and asked “Is he alive?” The rabbit narrated further “He gave us three days” This came as amazement to the chief, and he was curious again “Three days for what?” The rabbit said “He wants Lightning!” The chief was surprised, “Yes, he wants Lightning and he would release Streak” said the rabbit. “But he is not here!” said one of the villager. The chief saw a ray of hope to release his grand-son from whatever had caught him, and he was not going to let this opportunity go. “I know someone who would” said the chief “Summon the Raven!”

Far away from this hustle across the hills was a small burrow surrounded by huge rocks “Hello” cried the Raven, and from beneath the burrow appeared a shadow. “Long time! Can you come out of the burrow please” said the Raven, and out came Lightning. They hugged each other and the raven narrated the entire story to Lightning. Lightning did not speak a word, but went inside and saw the large letters on the toy that had haunted him for years now. He picked the toy and came out, the Raven saw the toy in Lightning’s hand and said “You know I never believed that” “Doesn’t matter” said Lightning “They want the slow one back. Time to go home!”……..

To be continued!