One day, there existed a forest, peaceful though not untouched. The trees were alive

with the vibrancy of autumn and the life of spring, the cool breeze in the summer and the

serenity of winter. The flowers would bloom and sway and sing... ok, not really sing, though I

bet they wish they could. But the trees did try to sing as the breeze passed by! Really!

...Maybe the flowers were a little jealous of the trees and that's why they wanted to sing.

Anyway!

Every day, the birds would fly to and fro, gathering food and passing idle chatter. Who

had the best nest, where the tastiest seeds were, what tree had a snake in it (they usually

got chased out, though, since no egg is worth a mob of angry robins)... the daily things that

makes a bird a bird. Every day, as well, the insects would crawl and flitter around the forest

floor, eager to make it to that next flower, which might be prettier than the last, honestly.

Oh, but there's a spiderweb in the way this time. (Then one more denizen of the forest had

herself a nice lunch!)

As expected, the other animals would go about their daily business, hearing the tweets of

the birds and... well, not really noticing the insects, though one would occasionally step on a

spider web and have to apologize for ruining the poor thing's home (if a bit oblivious to the fact

that lunch was now stuck to the bottom of their paw). The animals would eat, play, drink from

the nearby pond that almost never iced over when it got a little colder, talk, and generally

lived without a care in the world.

Though there's always an exception to this rule.

You see, at the base of one tree in the forest, there sat a rabbit, though an easily

missable one. This rabbit (coloured with such deep, black fur that if he closed his eyes and

covered his nose at night, one would never know he was there), had sat himself at the base of

one of his favorite trees in the forest (a favorite for good reason). It was here that he stared

his bright eyes (the left a lovely red and the right a deep blue) towards the night sky,

seeming to gaze longingly at the stars, though only a passerby would think such a thing.

For you see, though there were several other animals in the forest that were also

covered in black fur, none had such a deep, deep darkness as he that they could render

themselves invisible. And while this didn't bother any of the other animals of the forest, the

rabbit would always sit by himself and wonder at night, staring not at the stars twinkling far in

the sky overhead, but at the patches of darkness that sat between each one.

He would always wonder "Where do I belong?"

Now, to the other animals he was just a rabbit like any other, who ate the plants and

drank the water, though he didn't have quite as many friends as other rabbits did. He had

appeared in the woods one day, burrowing and eating and living as if he'd been there his whole

life, just like several of the odder denizens had done in the past. And while this didn't bother

them at all after happening so many times, he would often see the families of the birds and the

deer and even the raccoons in the forest, reminding him of how strange it was that he'd shown

up here.

One might think he was lonely, but that didn't seem quite right to him.

Laying there, lost in thought, the rabbit let out a forlorn sigh. Oh, if only he could get

his answer sometime soon. So lost was he, that he had yet to notice the figure leisurely

watching from above. A small paw reached down, patting him atop the head while a lighthearted

giggle. "Evenin'," came the familiar voice, playful like a child, but sharp like an adult. For

above the rabbit's head (hanging himself upside-down for no reason that I know of) sat his

friend, a squirrel... though this squirrel was an odd, vivid purple (and odder still, his muzzle

was a blanch white) and his eyes bounced with a rather bright orange. "Spendin' the night

thinkin' again?"

"But I must," said the rabbit, a smile on his face. "If I do not think, then I will not be."

"Why?" replied the squirrel, carefully lowering himself to the ground with a flip. He

sat next to his friend, the two almost the same size, as his tail curled around the rabbit as if to

ward off the night. The rabbit was a curiosity, if nothing else, always so shy to talk to the

other animals. "You don't travel like the birds do all the time. You should stop worrying and be

happy here." And with that, his mouth broke into the widest grin.

"If I learn where, I learn why I am here. Do you not wonder where you belong?"

"Hmm... I guess not. But why worry so much?" With a giggle, the squirrel waved to

the branches above him. "I collect what I need for the winter and see all my friends during the

spring, summer, and autumn. I guess I just belong wherever there's enough food and trinkets for

me to pocket, right?" Another giggle as he patted the rabbit's head, who slid to the ground,

sulking a bit. "It's that easy, you see?"

"Hmph. It is not that simple." The rabbit stubbornly pointed to the sky, to where the

stars sat and the infinite blackness swirled between them. "I think I belong there, so I must

find a way to go there. You cannot help me with this, can you?"

The squirrel shook his head, smiling and pulling his friend in closer. The night passed

overhead, the stars twinkling for as long as they could before disappearing to make room for

the clouds, so fluffy and full of life today, to take over the sky for the day. The rabbit

arose from his slumber first, looking skywards once again and see the blackness gone. 'I must

find where it's gone to,' he thought to himself. With a nervous glance to the squirrel, who was

still slumbering and unaware, the rabbit steeled his mind. Leaving a light kiss on the squirrel's

forehead, he mumbled a solemn 'Good-bye' before turning and heading for the edge of the woods.

The sun was as high in the sky as it could possibly go, so high that even the clouds

couldn't touch it, just covering for a bit when they tried, when the rabbit found that he had

made the right choice. It was then that he saw a great bird, its feathers, beak, and even

talons showing a distinct darkness that he had never seen among the other birds.This bird,

larger than any other bird he had seen before, for the rabbit had never met a hawk or an

eagle (thankfully!), landed on a branch just beyond his reach. There, it began to preen as he

watched, ever curious and possibly enchanted.

"Excuse me... Excuse me!" The rabbit waved, eager to get the bird's attention.

"Hmmm?" The bird turned its head to him, curiously observing this stranger. With a

great flap of its wings, it lifted off the branch, gliding and landing in front of the rabbit, and

looking up at him from the ground (for it was only as tall as his stomach, despite being the

largest bird he had ever seen). "Who... might you be, to talk to one like me?"

Dropping to his knees so that his eyes would be closer to the bird, the rabbit pulled in a

big breath, pushing away his nervousness for his question. "Sir bird, I must ask. As one who is

nearly as blackened as I, where do you come from? I wish to find my home, so that I might

learn where my place in this world is." The rabbit stared into the beady little eyes of the

bird, unblinking and unjudging as it looked him over from the very tip of his fluffy tail to the

end of his large, floppy ears.

"...Young one, you must return home." Was the reply, as the bird spread its wings. It

began to flap, preparing to go about its business once again, but as it took to the skies, a loud

"wait!" came from below. Veering back around, the bird returned to its branch as the rabbit

watched him, open-mouthed. "Do you still need me?"

"Where is my home? Where am I from, that no one in my forest is like me?"

"Young one... I have seen your home, for I have seen you many times in the forest to the

north. There, you would eat and sleep and play with the others in the forest, and always when

I saw you, you looked happy. You do not wish to go where there may be others are dark as you

or I, for we are likely this dark from some horrible misdeed in our past... Go home, and return

to the side of the one who you left this morning."

The rabbit, looking rather sullen as he kicked at the ground, didn't reply at first. It

wasn't until the bird prepared to fly away that he whispered his answer. "If I go home now,

then why did I tell him good-bye?"

The bird stopped himself, letting out a heavy sigh. "Well, if you're that determined,

then you should know that you've been going the wrong way this whole time. If the darkness in

the sky is chased away by the sun, then you should go east, where the sun lies in wait to

ambush it." And with that, the bird flapped his mighty wings, taking to the sky again.

So the rabbit continued on his way, taking a short break to eat a light supper as the

sky swirled into a new colour. Looking up, and realizing that the night was quickly approaching,

the rabbit leapt to his feet. "Oh no, I have to hurry!" he said, though no one was there to

hear him, and he dashed towards the east, eager to meet the point where the night overtook

the day again.

The rabbit ran for a long, long distance, but finally stopped to catch his breath. Looking

to the sky again, he saw that it was still the same beautiful swirl of colours that it had been

before, and he was still surrounded by the trees of the forest, though he had no idea how far

he would have to go to get back now. He sighed, his poor feet aching from all the running, and

sat in front of a nearby bush.

"How far must I go?" he asked the bush before laying back and closing his eyes.

As if to respond, the bush began to rustle and shake, the sound of the leaves echoing

through the otherwise lifeless trees. The rabbit blinked, finally realizing that it had been such

a long time since he'd heard the chirps of the birds and the squeaks and whines of the other

animals. He looked to the bush as the shaking grew, backing himself against a tree. Gulping,

his fears so strong, the rabbit stared intensely as he asked the simplest question, "w-w-who's

there?"

The leaves continued shaking and rustling as... something came out of it. The creature

moved from the bush to the frightened rabbit, its six legs working together as its body shined

brightly with a jet black suit of armor. Raising its head to stare at the rabbit, he saw a great

horn attached to the forehead, showing that it was a powerful creature. He let out a gasp as

its armor opened up and it flew at him, wings beating rapidly and letting it zip through the air.

A truly frightening sight... if it weren't smaller than his paws."What are you?" the rabbit asked,

having never seen a beetle before. ...Well, or so he

thought, since there were beetles all over the forest, but they were always so small and quick

that someone larger like him wouldn't notice them. Now, after such a frightful event, he stared

in wonder at the dark, almost shining armor that it wore. He gasped as it scuttled around his

hand, finally stopping as it faced away from him. He blinked just one time, and it buzzed its

great wings and flew towards the night.

"Ah! Wait!" the rabbit said, leaping to his feet and giving chase. His aching disappeared

as he ducked and weaved through the branches and trees, trying as hard as he could to not lose

sight of the beetle. "Wait, please wait! There is something that I must ask you!" His

stretched out a paw towards the fleeing beetle, almost close enough now to catch it... but fell

short as he tripped and rolled along the ground.

The rabbit sniffled a bit, standing up and checking to see if he was hurt. before taking a

glance at where he'd ended up. He had run and run, until the sun was gone and night had come,

and there was nary a tree in front of him. The sky was empty, the stars having run far from

this place... This place where the only sight was ripples within the pitch blackness, as if the

entire ground had become an ocean.

"Oh, great giant, I must thank you. Though you chased, you did not crush me."

The rabbit stopped for a moment, blinking and looking around to find this new voice. As

he turned back towards the vast darkness in front of him, he caught the familiar site of the

beetle, now flying directly towards his face. "You can talk?"

The beetle landed gracefully on the rabbit's forehead, turning and facing towards his

stomach. As it sat, he could make out the smallest hint of its eyes, covered by the horned

helmet that he now knew it wore.

"Oh, great giant, you did not know? We who scuttle the ground have always been able

to speak, but have never been given enough time before being swatted or stepped on by those

like you." the beelte replied, such a deep and powerful voice coming from such a small body.

"But you, who has chosen not to squish me under your paws, what was it you wished to ask of

me?" Its wings buzzed as it settled on the rabbit's forehead, waiting politely for the next

response.

"...Little bug, tell me. Where do ones as darkly-coloured as we belong?"

The beetle stared at him intensely (so much so that he almost felt disturbed!) before

finally scuttling to the top of his head and facing the area before them. "Great giant who has

spared me, do you believe that this is where you belong? I see nothing before me, no burrows for a

rabbit to hide in, nor any trees for the birds to sing. I would never think I should belong here,

so why do you?

The rabbit crossed his legs, scooping one paw into the rippling darkness. It vanished from

his sight, and he soon brought it up as if he were trying to cup water... His paw was empty,

though. "I am... different from other animals," he said, "they accept me, but I feel like I do

not belong among them. Is this place, that is as dark as I, my true home?"

"Do you feel it is?" The beetle's wings buzzed as it zipped to the ground next to the

rabbit. "If such a place is where you belong, then do you never wish to return to your old

home?"

"...Well..." the rabbit turned to answer, but he was alone, the beetle's wings beat rapidly as it buzzed away.

The rabbit let out a sigh, staring at nothing as he let his feet dangle absently over the

edge. Letting his thoughts drift as he had done back then, he began to kick his feet back and

forth, back and forth, noticing how the darkness kinda tickled yet somehow still didn't seem to

be really there. 'Should I leave it all behind?' he thought, remembering the friends that waited

for him back in the forest, and the animals he had met on his way here. 'Is finding an answer

worth all of that?'

...The rabbit smiled to himself, took a deep breath, closed his eyes... and pushed off.

The rabbit sank farther and farther, soon losing sight of the ground, his hands, his

feet... Only his little pink nose and his eyes were visible before long. And though he was

alone, he was not afraid, for he felt that this was truly the place for him. He had come home

at long last...

He looked up and thought that he could make something out, though...

"Litte one," a voice from the darkness called out to him, fluidly speaking as if it was the

ripples itself, "why are you here?"

"I have been looking for where I belong," he replied. The voice was loud, coming from all

sides of him.

"Little one, why are you here?" it said yet again.

The rabbit blinked, confused. "I have said... Do I not belong here, either?"

"Why have you left your true home behind to come to such a forsaken place?" it asked,

"This place where no creature can belong, for there is nothing here to sustain them.""My true home?"

The rabbit looked around, trying to find the source of the voice even though he

knew he could see nothing. However... there was something strange floating far above him, though it was

so small he couldn't tell what it was.

"You mustn't stay here, little one, for those who do can never return to those they care for," the

voice said, "You are not ready yet. You mustn't give yourself up this day." As it spoke, the darkness

seemed to swirl just a bit, and the rabbit could feel that he had stopped sinking. It almost seemed... as if

he was rising now.

"Hey... wait! After coming this far, will you only send me back?!"

"You must return home, little one," the voice told him, almost a hint of a chuckle in its voice.

"There shall be a day when it's time for us to meet, but it is not this day. Farewell."

...The rabbit awoke with a start, sitting at the very same edge that he had pushed off of such a

short time ago. He scrambled over on his knees, glancing into the darkness and seeing nothing just as

always. Night was coming to an end, though the sunrise was only visible behind him, where the forest

loomed in the distance. He looked around, trying to remember just how to get back to his home... and his

eyes settled on a body a short distance away.

The squirrel from before, the same one he had left just the last morning, was here, one paw

floating in the void as he laid sprawled out, sound asleep. As the rabbit moved over, he realized that what

he had seen had been the squirrel's paw, trying desperately to find him. His white cheeks looked matted...

as if they had been soaked, though there was no rain.

'Did he follow me the whole way here?' the rabbit thought. He smiled as he noticed the tail

curved around to one side, where the squirrel's other arm was resting. Carefully, the rabbit slid under

them, closing his eyes as if he had been there all night.. 'I can go home tomorrow,' he thought, 'by your

side, where I should be...' He soon fell asleep, waiting for the squirrel to wake and find him so that the

two could travel back to their home together.