The First Jumper (first draft version)

The First Jumper 15: Departure

Willow awoke in the first light of dawn.  It had been cold, the night before, and the air smelled of snow.  She had a skin covering, but no more than that.  Yet she was comfortably warm, and her hand felt especially warm.

She opened her eyes to see Little Bear, lying next to her.  A little surprised, she reflected that it was a nice feeling, waking up to someone like that.  He was still asleep, snoring lightly.  Some of the warmth came from him, but not all.

Her hand was on his chest.  It should have been exposed to the open air, and should therefore have been quite cold.  Yet it was warm, and very comfortable.  It also felt very heavy.

Blinking, she looked up, to see that her hand was pinned.  Specifically, it was pinned on top of Little Bear's chest, by . . .

"Rabbit?" she whispered, looking at the big lump of fur on top of her hand.  What was it doing here? she wondered.  She had never been so close to a wild animal in her life.  Could it be the same one, that Tiger had caught in the snare, and thrown at Little Bear?

At the whisper, the creature curled up on top of her hand sat up, causing her to start.  It looked at her, wiggling its nose, while she sat frozen.  She had heard stories of animals that could make people sick, just by biting them.

She started to withdraw her hand, and the rabbit instantly reacted, dipping its head down to bump its mouth against her wrist.  It didn't bite her; she didn't even feel teeth, but she thought her heart would stop.

Looking directly at her, it shook the bottom of its jaw from side to side, making a crunching sound as if it were chewing something.

Willow was so frightened, her teeth began chattering.  The rabbit's ears laid back, and it chattered back at her.  Then it yawned and looked around.  Willow slowly retrieved her hand from under its chest, but it showed no inclination to attack.  Then it insolently turned around three times, and curled up on Little Bear's chest again.

On his back, Little Bear continued to snore, and in a moment, the strange rabbit appeared to be asleep again.

Willow slowly eased herself back and got up to her feet.  She saw that Raccoon was already up, as were the three women who had the night watch.  Their job was to sound the alarm when anything threatened the camp, but when Willow pointed to Little Bear and the huge lagomorph, the nearest woman just shrugged, fear in her eyes.

"I never saw it, until it was curled up there, on both of you.  Maybe it flew in there, or maybe it was invisible, like the invisible dragon Tiger told us about, flying across the sky.  Rabbits are powerful magic.  I didn't dare disturb it, or him--or you."

Willow was surprised that some of the magic associated with Little Bear's feat with the rabbit seemed to have rubbed off on her.  Yet as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and made her way to the camp latrine, she realized that what he had done last night was not as troubling as the rabbit returning to sleep on his chest--and on her hand.  That made no sense at all.

When she returned, most of the camp was up.  Most of the people were gathered fearfully around Little Bear, who continued to snore, with the rabbit curled up on him.

Tiger made to poke the rabbit with his spear, but his mother stopped him before Raccoon could.  The sound was enough to wake the beast again, and it sat up, looking at them all, blinking sleepily.

Then it licked itself a few times, pulled at each of its ears, and hopped down onto the grass in the diection of Tiger, who took a step back.  It nibbled at a clover, then munched it, looking solemnly at all the humans who were its most dangerous enemy.

It stood up on its haunches and looked at Tiger, raising its nose in the air.  Tiger gripped his spear tightly and would have speared it, but his mother would not let him.