The Tibbar

Once, a little boy called Tom was playing in his back garden, kicking a ball around, when he noticed something amazing sitting on his front lawn.

It was a green rabbit, or at least something that looked very much like a rabbit with long floppy ears and fluffy tail but it was green all over and had a strange golden collar round its neck with some writing on it.

‘TIBBAR’, it read.

Excitedly, and without really thinking, Tom picked up the green rabbit and rushed into his house to show it to his mum who was working in the kitchen.

“Look! Look Mum!”, he said, holding up the rabbit, “Look what I found in the garden. It’s called a Tibbar. I think it’s magic”.

“That’s very nice, Tom”, said his mum, not really listening as she struggled to work a faulty washing machine that kept stopping and starting and pouring out foam, “But I’m very busy right now and this silly machine just won’t work properly”.

Suddenly, however, the ears of the strange green rabbit started to prick up and the golden collar around its neck started to glow with an intensely bright white light and the next thing that either Tom or his mother knew, a bolt of white energy shot out of the collar and into the washing machine and, suddenly, the machine started working again.

“That’s amazing”, said Tom’s mother, looking at the rabbit with wide eyes, “Your rabbit just fixed my washing machine”.

“I told you it was magic”, said Tom, smiling happily.

But then Tom heard the sound of his Dad’s car on the gravel driveway outside and ran to show him
the strange Tibbar.

His dad seemed too busy to listen as well, though. He was bent over the front of his car with the hood up, looking down at an engine that was making very peculiar noises, shaking his head and tutting.

“Not now, Tom”, said his Dad, “I’m too busy trying to work out what’s gone wrong with this engine.
Blooming car just stopped as I was coming home and now it won’t start at all”.

“Don’t worry, Dad”, said Tom, “I’m sure my Tibbar can fix it. He’s magic”.

Tom’s father only laughed when he heard this but then, just as they had before in his mother’s kitchen, the Tibbar’s two long floppy ears stood up and its golden collar began to flash brightly
then a bolt of white lightning shot out of the collar towards his father’s car and, suddenly, the engine of the car started up and began purring smoothly.

“Wow!”, said his Dad, looking up in amazement, “What was that?”.

“It was my Tibbar”, said Tom, holding up the green rabbit to show his dad, “It’s magic”.

But just then, high overhead, they heard a sound like thunder only a hundred times louder and looking up they saw what looked like a giant orange, carrot shaped space rocket descending with
green flames like carrot leaves coming out of the bottom and then it landed on the lawn right beside
Tom and his dad.

“It’s a spaceship”, gasped Tom.

“Torrac”, said the Tibbar.

Then, on the side of the Torrac, a hatch slid upwards and a gang-plank slid outwards and three other Tibbars that looked just like the one Tom was holding but were all different colours, blue, yellow and pink, hopped out onto Tom’s lawn and, leaping out of Tom’s arms and onto the ground, his Tibbar hopped over towards them.

“He must be from some other planet”, said Tom’s dad, stunned, “Some sort of Space Rabbit”.

But then, as if the Tibbar was speaking to them both telepathically, they heard a voice in their head,
“Indeed, humans”, said the voice, “We are Tibbar from the planet Ynnub and we wish to make friends with the people of your planet. I must go now with my fellow Tibbars but we will return.
Until then, we leave you this gift as a peace offering from our people”.

Then suddenly, the collar of the green Tibbar lit up again with a bright white light and a bolt of energy flew out of it and then, on the ground at Tom’s feet he saw something large and egg shaped appear and, picking it up, Tom saw that it was a kind of brightly coloured, shiny egg but also a sort of machine or toy that whirred and beeped and flashed.

“Happy Easter!”, said the green Tibbar as he and his friends hopped back onto their space carrot and roared off towards the sky and stars beyond.