Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit

It was an ordinary Wednesday evening. Ellie had come home from school, she’d watched all her TV programmes and she’d even pretended to do her homework. The clock said half past five. She got up from the sofa and went to the kitchen.
Ellie’s mum was getting the dinner things from the cupboard.
‘Ellie, help lay the table,’ she said.
‘What’s for tea?’ Ellie asked as she set out the plates.
‘I’ll tell you - if you’ve done your homework…’
‘I know I’ve got homework!’ That doesn’t mean I’ve done it, Ellie thought.
‘…And you’ve fed the rabbit.’
‘Mu-um!’
‘When we bought him, Ellie, you promised. Every day, you said, no exceptions. I am not feeding that animal for you.’
‘Ohhh – kayyyy.’
Ellie trudged out into the garden.

Outside, the evening air was already cool. Ellie turned the wooden latch on the rabbit hutch door.
‘Out you come,’ she whispered gently. Her rabbit was young and very nervous. The bed of straw rustled as Ellie’s hand reached in and touched something smooth, not like rabbit fur at all.
She peered into the darkness. A black eye flashed.
‘Hello?’ said Ellie.
A small shark edged his way out of the straw and into the night air.
He was hovering above the ground, right opposite her face.
‘Hullo,’ he said.

‘Got a carrot?’ asked the shark.
Ellie flinched from his mouth full of jagged teeth. She made herself look at the shark again.
‘Did you eat my rabbit?’
‘What? Do I look like a cannibal? Where’s my carrot?’
‘Look, who are you? Why are you in my rabbit’s hutch?’
‘Duh. Because I am your rabbit! Look!’
The shark twitched his nose. ‘Cute button nose.’
He slapped his tail from side to side. ‘Fluffy cotton tail.’
He wiggled his head. ‘Long floppy ears.’ The shark looked confused for a second, then wiggled his head again. ‘Long…floppy…ears?’
‘I think you’d better see your reflection,’ said Ellie.
‘I think you’d better get me a carrot,’ said the shark, and then, ‘Yeep!’ as Ellie dragged him to the kitchen door.
‘Crikey,’ said the shark, as he saw himself in the glass. ‘I’m a shark. And I can fly!’
‘And talk,’ said Ellie. ‘You couldn’t do that before.’
‘Whee!’ The shark zoomed from one end of the garden to another. ‘This is brilliant! Better than hopping! Better than digging a tunnel!’ He tried a loop-the-loop, boinked head-first into the apple tree and then wobbled his way back to Ellie’s side. ‘Arrgh, I think I need a carrot,’ he groaned.
‘Why can you fly like that? And why can you talk? What’s going on?’ Ellie frowned.

Her pet looked up. ‘I think she might have something to do with it,’ he said.
Zooming through the sky, cackling at the top of her voice, there was a wicked Witch on a broomstick. She looped the loop and zapped at the ground below with blinding bright blasts from her magic wand. Ellie watched in horror. When the beams hit an animal, it changed – blinking in confusion and then acting like something else entirely. A cat got zapped and began barking at the moon. An unlucky sparrow landed in the garden, munched some grass and went ‘Baa!’ A hedgehog leaped from the dustbin with a piercing ‘Miaow!’ and chased after a fieldmouse at top speed. The Witch laughed at the trouble she had caused and flew off into the night.

Ellie and her pet left their garden and followed the path the flying Witch had taken. They quickly found themselves in a forest. The branches of the trees knitted together around them, until the moon’s light was blocked and shadows covered everything. Ellie and her pet huddled closer together, walking hand in fin.
By the time they made it to the end of the path things were seriously weird.
A chicken looked at them from the fencepost where it perched – ‘Moo!’
In the next field, cows lay sleeping. Ellie stepped carefully around the big sleeping shapes. One of them blinked its eyes and stretched its legs as they passed.
‘COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!’ it crowed.

Finally they came to the Witch’s castle. It stood on the far side of a wide moat. The black water reflected the moonlight. Ellie peered across to the distant bank, where something rippled like leaves in a breeze. Slowly she made out grey shapes which moved restlessly in the air. They were talking, flying sharks, the guards of the Witch’s castle. Over the wind you could hear them muttering, eager to attack.
‘Look,’ said Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit. ‘On the other side!’
Ellie stared hard through the darkness. Another creature sat on the bank of the moat, behind the line of the sharks, muttering more angrily than any of them. The creature had soft brown fur, a cute fluffy tail, and two long ears.
‘A Rabbit…with the Mind of a Shark!’ Ellie whispered.
‘We’re stuck,’ said Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit. ‘I’m only little, I can’t carry you across. There’s too many to fly through anyway.’
‘Ssh,’ Ellie said. ‘I hear something.’
A creature rustled in the long grass behind them. It was moving fast and getting close. Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit perched on Ellie’s shoulder.
‘I’m scared!’ He said. ‘It’s a snake. It’s got to be a snake. I hate snakes!’
‘It’s not a snake,’ said Ellie, ‘it’s a – ’
The shape in the grass made a strange little trumpeting noise. ‘BROOOOOOOT!’
‘It’s a – ’
‘BROOOOOOOOOOOT!’
A small mouse emerged from the grass and began to butt at Ellie’s toes angrily, trumpeting all the way.
Ellie and Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit looked at each other.
They looked up – and saw an Elephant with the Mind of a Mouse.
It curled its trunk and let out…a tiny…SQUEAK!

‘Quick,’ said Ellie, ‘I’ve got an idea.’ The Elephant with the Mind of a Mouse was timid and friendly. She carefully climbed onto its shoulders, and with her pet’s help she guided it to the water’s edge. The Elephant waded into the moat. Ellie held her breath as its shoulders sank beneath the surface. Only the tip of the Elephant’s trunk stuck out, like a snorkel, as it passed under the eyes of the Shark Guards.

In the castle, the Witch was getting ready for another experiment. She picked a tiny frog from its cage and carried it to her table. She looked out of the window, then back down to her work. Then she looked back up!
Out of the dark waters, past the Shark Guards, there came an Elephant, one step at a time…and on its shoulders, there was one very brave, very annoyed, very cold and wet, Girl with the Mind of a Girl.
‘YOU!’ shouted the Witch. Ellie looked up to the window, jumped from the Elephant with the Mind of a Mouse, and snatched up the Rabbit with the Mind of a Shark.
‘ARRRGH! Geroff!’ shouted the evil Shark-Rabbit, but he couldn’t twist round far enough to bite her. Ellie ran for the castle door while the Witch shrieked in anger.

With one big shove from Ellie and Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit, the door creaked open. They fell through into a large room full of evil looking machinery and animals in cages. There stood the Witch.
‘You’ve got my Shark!’ She spat.
‘You’ve got my Rabbit!’ said Ellie.
‘He’s got my body!’ the Shark and Rabbit both shouted.
‘Change them back!’ ordered Ellie. ‘You are in so much trouble!’
The Witch took a step back.
And another step.
And dropped her wand.
There was a bright flash of light.
And a loud ZZZZAP!

When the light dimmed, everyone looked around the room.
‘I’m going to get you for this!’ croaked a Frog with the Mind of a Witch.
‘I’ve got a trunk, this is soooo cool!’ said an Elephant with the Mind of a Rabbit.
‘BROOOOT!’ The Shark with the Mind of an Elephant was flying around the room.
‘Nyaaah, missed me!’ snarled the Rabbit, who still had the Mind of a Shark.
An Ellie with the Mind of a Frog was hopping in circles, trying to catch flies with her tongue.
And the Witch with the Mind of an Ellie looked down at her knobbly hands and her thick black robes.
‘Right!’ She pointed at the Elephant with the Mind of a Rabbit. ‘Come here! Let’s try this again!’
But as she reached for the wand on the floor, the Shark with the Mind of an Elephant barged into her. She stumbled onto the wand. It broke with a SNAP!
There was a blinding flash of light.

Ellie looked down at her hands carefully, then she ran her fingers over her face. ‘That feels like me,’ she said. She grabbed the Shark that now had the Mind of a Shark and pushed it into a cage, where it snarled and thrashed.
A frog went, ‘Ribbit,’ and hopped across the floor.
The elephant trumpeted happily.
‘Hey, I can still talk!’ said Ellie’s Rabbit. ‘That’s pretty cool. Got a carrot?’
The Witch went, ‘Ribbit.’
Ellie looked at her suspiciously. ‘What did you say?’
‘Ribbit.’
‘Quick, where’s the frog?’ Ellie and her Rabbit looked around the room. On the floor, staring back at them, was the evilest looking Frog with the Mind of a Witch you’ve ever seen. In one bound, she jumped on the shoulder of the Witch with the Mind of a Frog. She whispered in the Frog-Witch’s ear and the Frog-Witch ran.
The witch in the frog’s body looked back once as she disappeared into the night.
‘You haven’t heard the last of me – ribbit!’ She snarled. ‘I’ll get my revenge, just you wait!’

Ellie looked at her watch. She was very late for tea.
‘Mum is so not going to believe this,’ She groaned.
‘Wait til she meets your talking rabbit,’ said the Rabbit. ‘Do you reckon she’s got any carrots?’
‘She’ll give you a dozen just to shut you up,’ Ellie said. ‘At least you can help me with my homework now.’
They set off together on the path home, ready for tea - and their next adventure.