[Prompt from Vikki W.]
Getting Caught Pulling Flowers From Someone Else’s Garden: “Peter Cottontail, eat your heart out!” “Will you shut the hell up, Simon?” Chastised in whisper was humorous to Simon. Francis Never liked to draw attention to herself, no matter the situation. But in this case, she was actually correct to lambast him, even quietly. Simon chuckled to himself and said, “Franny, don’t worry about it. We have it covered.” He gestured with his head, pointed nose towards the two watchers, heads up as high as they could go, looking out for any threats, be they human or otherwise. “Caution is one thing, yelling out in triumph to attract trouble is another, Simon,” Francis said. “And don’t call me Franny anymore. We’re not children.” “Sure thing,” he replied. Then added, “Franny.” With that, he hopped out to another part of the neighbor’s garden. The garden itself wasn’t particularly well arranged, with potted plants littering the grounds that should have been in the ground ages ago, along with various kinds of edible and non-edible plants and vegetables. Non-edible to him and his people, that is. Simon hopped around, enjoying the fruits of his labors. He had scouted, recruited the team, and planned ever moment of this raid. The garden, as messy as it was, was the most colorful and bountiful he had ever seen. While weeds grew in abundance in between planted flowers, he had seen the method in the madness. The others were dubious, at best. They had seen the same garden and only saw the weeds, the bramble bushes, and even heard the pet dog with it’s occasional barking at night. But Simon saw the opportunity and was able to calm their concerns, even pointing out that the dog was so small, the weeds were taller than it. It was not the fiercest animal in the lands. At best, it was a human toy without the ferocity that other canines usually were, especially towards his kind. As for the bramble bushes and weeds, he pointed out that the tastiest vegetables were literally in their midst. With careful planning of the route to take, they would avoid being stuck. Further, the weeds were natural camouflage if humans ever appeared. It was almost too perfect. Franny had been the most reluctant, but even she had to admit that the warren had been in dire need of fresh food for a while. Necessity bred risk taking. Seven were chosen, two watchers, Simon in the lead, and four to harvest as much as they could. “You’re daydreaming, again.” Franny had sidled up to Simon and nudged him back to the present. “It’s not good to lose focus, Simon. Not yet.” He had to admit that Franny was not only his best friend, but there was a spark between them, not too long ago. While they were planning this heist, he and Franny were out looking over the garden, contemplating the best path in and out when she casually leaned up against him. He was shocked for a second, didn’t know what to make of it other than she felt warm and soft against his cheek. His ears struck straight up in surprise, but he didn’t move lest she stop. He realized she had just nuzzled him and was the first moment of intimacy he ever experienced. He knew this was special, but didn’t know how to react, other than just sit still and wait until she stopped. Franny had just caught him daydreaming about that and was actually grateful she snapped him out of it. She was right, there were still dangers as humans were unpredictable and the threat of being caught was not lost on him. He had heard the stories of what humans did to others of his kind and he didn’t want that to happen today, other any other day. He looked up to the watchers, Rance and Chris were the fastest and sharpest of the crew. He saw them remaining alert and looking all around. Simon could trust their instincts. If they dropped an ear, that was the sign to get ready to leave. If both ears dropped, that was the sign to drop everything and run. He looked back at Franny, sensing her concern, and with his nose, he nudged her gently on her cheek. She nuzzled him back and it was an amazing feeling. He felt electricity at this contact running from his head to his toes. He needed to do something about that and soon. Suddenly, there was a rustle not too far away. He looked up at Rance who was also looking in that direction, just off to the right near the house. Rance was very still but no ear dropped and soon returned to his normal sentry duty. It was a false alarm. But it was enough for him to check on the others and see what their progress was. All of the harvesters had been busy. He could see the amount of upturned dirt around the carrots and lettuce areas, evidence of their successful harvesting. Was it enough, though? The seasons were starting to cool again, nighttime seemed to last longer. All signs that they were coming closer to winter. If they didn’t gather enough, the warren would suffer. Checking Rance and Chris again, he saw the coast was still clear. He encouraged all to quicken their pace as he started to feel like time was starting to run out. Franny took the lead and helped to get the harvesting to wrap up. Looking around the garden, Simon saw something that caught his eye: it was a colorful flower. It was something he had never seen before: a flower with bright blue petals and a calming yellow center. The petals were large, curving out and down from the center, forming something like a friendly face. This shade of blue just happened to be Franny’s favorite color. Simon had an idea. Checking to see that the coast was still clear and Franny and the others were busy hurrying up the last of the harvest, Simon hopped across the messy garden, crouching under a few old bushes, crawling around various pots and other plants, until he came to the flower. He hadn’t noticed that this flower was in a pot placed on a shelf cluttered with other less attractive flowers and quite a few empty pots. It was placed here on purposes, he deduced, to protect it from the others. It was a special flower and one that he had to get. From his vantage point, he could barely make out Rance’s head, but he was still able to see his and Chris’ ears still, so nothing to be concerned with yet. Cautiously, he hopped up to the shelf with the pots. There was no way to get the flower directly. It was surrounded by other planters so he had to wind around the other pots to get to his goal. He was afraid of knocking them over as this would create enough noise to attract the humans. Slowly, carefully, he wound around pot after pot until he reached the middle, where the blue flower was. He got up on his hind legs and started to gnaw at the stem of the flower until it fell. Thankfully, it fell without a sound and he was relieved. He only had to turn around and go back the way he came to get down. However, he noticed some movement off to his right. Of the four ears he should have seen, he now only saw two, and that was worrisome. He had to pick up his pace. Unfortunately, without his extra caution getting to the plant, his rushed pace caused him to knock over a couple of planters. While they were not the ceramic kind, they still made a significant clatter when they hit the ground. It was too much and he gave up all pretense and hopped faster down the shelf, knocking over every planter he came into contact with. The noise was more than alarming. He could see lots of movement as the harvesters sensed the danger and started to flee along their planned exit path. To his right, there were no ears visible which meant he had no more time available. He had to leave immediately. As he came down the shelf, he could see the blue flower and he was not going to leave this place without bring it home to Fanny. He ran to the fallen flower, grabbed the stem with his teeth, and promptly ran as fast as he could towards the exit path. There were voices now, human voices that were elevated. A door opened and even though he was running, he could hear the steps of more than one human running into the garden. He was certain they saw him as their voices amplified, yelling. Simon ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but holding the flower created some obstacles as it bent and slowed him down in some of the narrow pathways. When he attempted to crouch under a bramble bush, the flower became caught in the brambles, forcing him to stop, chew the step shorter, then grab the flower again and continue. This slowed him down considerably and he could hear the human’s footsteps get closer. He was only a few yards away from the edge of the garden, he could see that Rance had stopped and looked back from just outside the exit path, looking at him, assessing the danger. Then he saw Franny eight next to him, also looking back and she was more than concerned. She looked horrified. It was too much for him and he picked up his speed, heart beating faster than ever, panic starting to fuel his desire to leave. He was going to be caught and most likely killed. With the flower still in his mouth, he sprinted through the plants, weeds, pots, bushes. He was getting scratched on all sides, but he didn’t care. His only goal was to get out. Suddenly, he could sense something falling towards him so he darted to the left and saw that a large tool had been thrown at him, forcing him to alter his path. But he didn’t slow down. He darted back on path and in seconds, another tool was thrown his way. He could see the large shadow over his left shoulder and so he darted to the right. Once again, he was diverted but not caught. He kept running. He wasn’t sure if his heart could keep this up. He felt it beating through his breast and it was also starting to hurt. But he kept running. For a brief moment, he recalled the feeling of Franny nuzzling him and how great that felt. He wanted to feel that again, but for the first time he had doubts. Running, sprinting, darting this was and that, he was running for his life, but more and more things were being thrown in his way, preventing him from escaping. He saw something that terrified him. His exit path was under a part of the fence that was broken but another human seemed to be going in that way, possibly to block his only escape route. It was now or never, Simon put his all into his legs, urging them to do what they’ve never had to do before; outrun a human. There was no choice in the matter, this was life and death. He darted towards the fence opening, just to the right the human was stomping towards the same place. This was going to be close and there was not time for doubting. He closed his eyes and ran straight towards the opening and hoped for the best. And then there was darkness. * * * * * Something was hitting him and wasn’t sure what it was. He heard voices but didn’t recognize them. He opened his eyes and the world was blurry. When things came into focus, he realized what he was among friends. His voice dry, he said, “What happened?” To his right, a familiar voice said, “Are you stupid or something?” Everything was going to be okay. Simon went to sleep.
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