Mouse and Bunny: Soup at the End of the Rainbow

Once upon a time there was a little brown mouse. One day she noticed a shimmering light coming from under a tree root. Intrigued, mouse stuck her nose in to see what was there. And then she heard twinkling sounds. So she followed the sounds down a tunnel she'd never seen before, and came round the bend into a magical place.

It was the end of the rainbow. Prismatic light shone every color of sparkle off the drops of dew on the mosses and liverworts and ferns that lined the tiny magical courtyard hidden away inside the tree.  

Mouse was starting to take it all in when a little creamsicle lop-eared bunny came up beside her and nuzzled her with her little twitching nose. When mouse's eyes fell into bunny's eyes, they didn't speak a word, their eyes just started to glisten with tears that trembled with wonder at the sight of one another.  

Then bunny said, “hi little mouse; I made you some soup”. Mouse said, “for me?” and was reluctant to eat and didn't know why. She dashed away suddenly, heart racing. But when she got back to her burrow, she just longed to sit with bunny again in that magical place.  

So, every few days, mouse went back and left an offering for bunny of roots and herbs and mushrooms she could put in the soup. Each time she returned, the items were gone, but she didn't see bunny. She longed and wondered, and hoped it hadn't been a dream.

One day she stepped through the threshold and there was bunny, who twirled triumphantly and nuzzled mouse and said, “it's ready!” Mouse saw that bunny had been working hard on a new pot of soup, and had incorporated all of mouse's treasures.  

They sat and sipped the soup and mouse was in heaven. She'd rarely eaten anything so delightful. So mouse kept bringing her little treasures and bunny kept making them soup.  

None of the other mice knew about her secret place or about her special friend bunny or the special nourishment she was enjoying at the end of the rainbow. She wanted to tell all her friends, but she thought, no one will understand. Maybe this is a special little slice of magic the universe made just for me and bunny.

So mouse asked bunny her thoughts. And bunny just shrugged and said, “What I heard from owl is that the end of the rainbow is somewhere different for everyone. No one else could find our secret place. And many of the ingredients in the soup are magic and only exist here anyway.”  

Mouse just sighed and nuzzled into bunny's fur, ready for a nap, and said, “I hope the rainbow stays here for a long, long, long time.”  

Bunny said, “I don't know about these things, but I'm glad we're here now.”  

And they napped while rainbow light infused their dreams full of magical spells they would call on in service of the woodland critters each of them encountered on their paths.  

From then on, mouse would look at every one of them and wonder if they were eating special soup in a special place with a special friend, too. She hoped everyone was so blessed.