Excerpt

An excerpt from last year's (unfinished) nanowrimo effort.

As day turned to evening the owl woke up, and as evening turned to night he got bored. He watched, with superb vision, as the frogs wormed themselves into their mud burrows leaving awake only the few who were chatting to the pig. Eventually even they returned to their homes and the pig climbed out to a relatively dry patch, rolled over in the mud, curled up and began to snore loudly.

The owl sat stock still on his perch in the darkness, watching. Occasionally a frog moved, swimming just under surface or hoping from one pool to another, but there was little else. He pondered swooping silently down and taking one, but resisted. He was not that hungry yet, and it would annoy the pig.

Although, the way the owl felt at the moment, annoying the pig would be a good thing.

Then he saw something moving at the far edge of the pond complex. He swivelled his head and looked. It was a rabbit.

First one, then a second, then a third rabbit emerged stealthily from the undergrowth and skirted around the edge of the pond complex. The owl knew that rabbits had excellent night vision, and fantastic hearing, but they had no chance of seeing him so long as he remained motionless. He had been able to hear the conversation between the pig and frogs from his perch, so knew that rabbits were mentioned, but he had mostly been dozing and had not paid attention, so did not know exactly what was discussed.

The rabbits moved with a purpose and with precision, the one in front making short scouting runs ahead and then beckoning the other two to follow. He saw one of them spot the sleeping pig and point him out to the others. All three stood up on their hind legs and stared intently for a moment, before seeming to decide that the pig was not of interest and continuing to skirt around the ponds, ducking in and out of the forest.
They were, the owl realised, looking for something. It was immediately obvious to him what they wanted. Calmly, patiently, he waited.

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It took an hour before the rabbits stumbled across the backpack. The first to see gave one quick, light, thump on the ground that stopped the other two dead in their track. He gestured over to the bag. The rabbits moved with military precision. The first, the one that had seemingly been commanding the other two, went over to the bag, the other two stationed themselves on either side, a short distance away, and stood on their hind legs with ears pricked and kept watch.

It did not help them. The moment the first rabbit laid a paw on the bag the owl dropped. Gliding noiselessly out of the tree, feathers barely even hissing against the air, he grabbed the interloper in two razor sharp talons.

There was an explosion of noise. The rabbit screamed and kicked, the owl beat his wings heavily to stay aloft with the extra weight. The other two rabbits, shouting in alarm, ran to the aid of the comrade but without a hope of reaching him as the owl flapped out over the pond. Many frogs woke up in a flurry of splashes and alarmed croaks. The rabbit, kicking and scratching and biting and struggling, proved too heavy for the owl and the owl dropped him with an almighty splash into the water and flapped easily back up into the trees to watch, amused, the commotion he had caused.
There he chuckled quietly yo himself as the poor, soaked, bedraggled rabbit struggled to swim to shore, and its companions dashed about in a panic at the waters edge, and the whole place teemed with terrified frogs.

Only the pig still slept soundly.