Storytelling Week 12: A Rabbit's Tale

Robert Rabbit sat by the fire next to his hundreds of grandrabbits. This had been an eventful evening! He had taught his youngest grandrabbits how to make s'mores and only one managed to burn themselves. Harper, one of his eldest grandrabbits, soon asked for a story.

"A story, eh? Robert said with a grin. "I know just the one! Have I told you the story of how I fought elephants?"

The older grandrabbits rolled their eyes. They have heard that story hundreds of times. However, the little ones were jumping with excitement. "You fought an elephant Grandpa Rob???" They all questioned.

Boxer Bugs by Buster126 from Deviantart

Robert cleared his throat and began his story, "Once upon a time, there was a young rabbit (that's me!) who decided to take a walk through the woods. Suddenly, the whole earth began to shake! The rabbit ran to find shelter from this earthquake and just managed to get out of the way before a whole herd of elephants ran through right where he was standing! The rabbit was furious that the elephants could be so careless, so he emerged from safety and yelled at the elephants to stop. The elephants all turned around to see who was yelling at them and started to laugh. It was only a rabbit. The rabbit was offended by the elephants and challenged them to a fight if anyone dared. The elephants only laughed harder at the young rabbit. The rabbit started to get really upset and called the elephants cowards. If it was so easy to beat a rabbit then why wouldn't the fight him? The leader of the elephants then stepped up to the rabbit to accept his challenge. Another elephant counted down. 3, 2, 1, FIGHT! The elephant charged at the rabbit, but the rabbit was too fast for him. He jumped around the elephant's legs and dodging everything the elephant threw at him (literally there were some branches thrown). Finally, the elephant had an idea: he would squish the rabbit. The elephant weight about 300 times what the rabbit weighed. This would be an easy victory. He went to squish the rabbit and the rabbit jumped up on top of him and the elephant fell. With one swift movement the rabbit kicked the elephant in the head so hard that he knocked the elephant out. The rest of the herd than ran scared and never came back to the forest again."

"What happened to the elephant leader, Grandpa?"

"He woke up and then left to find his herd." Robert said with a shrug. "However, I sure taught them a lesson! They have not dared to come this way again!" Robert was beaming at the memory of him defeating a mighty elephant.

"Grandpa, I want to be like you someday!" One of the grandrabbits said and was soon echoed by many of their siblings and cousins.

"You will have adventures of your own! Perhaps one day you can tell your grandrabbits stories from your adventures! How cool would that be?"

All of the grandrabbits smiled and later that night each of them had dreams of adventures that are all their own.

Author's Note: I chose to write this week's storytelling post based off of "The Elephant Fighting Hare" from Indian Fables and Folklore. I decided to write this as a grandpa telling the story to his grandkids (in this case grandrabbits) because I feel like this was a story that this particular rabbit would want to tell everyone for the rest of his life. In the original, the rabbit did not knock the elephant out. The rabbit was simply on top of the elephant as he was laying down and the other elephants thought the rabbit was holding the elephant down with all of his strength. This scared the other elephants into leaving. The elephant that fought the hare then realized he was all alone and ants got into his trunk and then he left as well.

Bibliography: The Elephant Fighting Hare from Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi (1919).