The missing bunny Haseputz, engl.

 

The missing bunny Haseputz

By Joana Angelides

The forest sprite leaned on his spade, with which he was digging a deep hole. He wanted to make a rain shelter in front of his home, at the foot of the big oak tree. Whenever it rained and the water ran down the trunk, his living room was under water.  He had to put up two stands and the spider Arachne had promised him to spin a very tight web that would then be stretched over it to let the water run off.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a fern leaf. It was hard work.

Then the little vole Polly came along and looked into the hole that had already been dug.

"Shall I help you?" She asked.

 

"Yes, can you help me?"

"Yes, go away."

 

She turned around so that she was facing her little bottom towards the goblin and began to dig a hole very quickly with her front paws. This was done very quickly, but the earth threw her behind and unfortunately, when she opened up between the roots, all the earth flew into the little goblin's living room without him being able to notice.

He watched quite fascinated how fast it went. But only until he heard his wife's shrill voice from the living room.

 

"Help, stop, what's that?" She rushed out of the root hole, blowing the earth away from her robe and hair, wringing her hands.

"Oh," said the vole, "I'm so sorry, I wanted to help."

Mrs Goblin took the little broom that was leaning against the door and ran after Polly the vole. But she was much faster than her and disappeared under the leaves and was gone.

 

Mrs. Kobold now began to sweep the living room with the broom, scolding terribly.

But what was that? She stopped and listened outside.

 

Outside stood Mrs. and Mr. Hare. Mrs Rabbit was crying terribly and Mr Rabbit had his left spoon, that's what rabbits' ears are called, leaning against hers.

"Our Haseputz, our youngest is nowhere to be found." Sobs Mrs Hare.

"When did you last see him?" Asked Mrs Owl, drawn in by Mrs Rabbit's sobs.

"This morning, he was going to forest school, wasn't he?"

"Well, he wasn't at school today, I put it in the class register." Said Mrs Owl very firmly and put on her glasses and eyed the bunny parents.

 

"Something must have happened to him." Said Birr the snake then, dropping from his branch to the ground.

"Ohweh!" Cried the squirrel, quite startled, and once again dropped a hazelnut.

The wailing also drew in some fairies and the two elves Mo and Feno, the gatekeeper from the castle, who was off duty today.

"What happened?" Asked Mo

He listened to the wailing of the mother hare and then asked:

"So does Haseputz always go the same way to school? Or does he go a different way some of the time?"

"No, he always goes the same way, that's what we taught him." Said the rabbit's father firmly.

 

"So come on, we have to look for him, all of you follow me!" Mo turned and made a motion with his left hand, they were to follow him.

Now they all walked single file, one behind the other, to the Hare family's hole in the ground. Here Mo stood and said to Mr Hare:

"So now show me the way to school from Haseputz."

The father went first and everyone followed him. Mo went first, then Feno the gatekeeper, behind him the fairies Fari and Silja, Mr. and Mrs. Kobold, the squirrel, the frog from the lake, the snake Birr and even the little vole Polly dared to come out of her hiding place again. Her little nose went back and forth restlessly with curiosity.

The magpie also flew from tree to tree behind the caravan, always on the lookout for something glittering. The woodpecker had already flown ahead, hoping to find Haseputz and then to let him know with a loud knock.

Everyone shouted: "Haseputz! Haseputz!"

Then they listened again to see if they heard anything. But nothing.

They had been walking for a while, they were almost at the school when Mo made a commanding gesture with his hand. He had heard something. It was coming from the stream below them, flowing between the rocks to the lake.

He ran quickly to the sloping bank and there he saw Haseputz.

He had apparently fallen down or slipped and got stuck on a large tree root. He was holding on with his front legs and hanging down with his hind legs. He must have been hanging like that for a long time, because only a very soft whimpering sound could be heard. Mr and Mrs Hare breathed a sigh of relief when they saw their youngest down there again. They ran excitedly up and down the slope.

 

"Hello Haseputz, we are already there. Hold on tight, we'll get you up there!" Mo called down to the little bunny. But he didn't know if Haseputz could hear him.

 

"How are you going to do that?" asked the fairy Fari.

 

Mo propped his head up in both hands and thought.

"Where is the big brown bear?"

"In his cave!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Go get him, he has to help us there. Only he can get down there and bring up the bunny."

"I'll get him," cried the magpie, and flew back into the forest.

The little bunny's whimpering became quieter and quieter and his parents became frightened.

Then the forest fairy Fari flew down to him. From above, we could see her talking to Haseputz and encouraging him to hold out a little longer. She also flew all the way down to the water and scooped up some water with her little hands and dripped it between his lips.

"Where is Haseputz?" The big bear could be heard trudging through the forest from afar and his call echoed all the way to those waiting.

"Here, here!" Shouted everyone again.

"Aha" said the bear and came closer. He looked down at the bunny and the forest fairy.

Then he held on to the tree at the edge of the precipice with one paw and with the other paw he reached down to the root and brought up the little rabbit and laid it carefully on a little moss cushion.

 

Everyone clapped their hands and rushed over immediately. But Mrs Hare chased them all away and sniffed at Hareputz from all sides to make sure nothing had happened to him. Mr Rabbit kept the curious forest dwellers away.

Apparently nothing had happened to Haseputz, except that he was exhausted and tired. He sobbed loudly and snuggled up to the mother hare.

 

"Go away," said the bear, bending down and picking up the little hare again, "I'll carry him to the cave and lay him down there, because he can't hop any more today."

 

And now the whole caravan went back the way they had come to the hare family's cave. There the other brothers and sisters of the little rabbit were already waiting and were very happy.

The bear put the little hare down, cleaned his belly and went back into the forest. At the clearing, he turned around and said:

"Well, if you need a strong bear again, just call me!"  And he disappeared into the forest.

Now everyone was happy again and slowly peace returned to the fairytale forest.

 

 

The little fairy, engl.

 

The little fairy

by Joana Angelides

 

 

Deep in the great fairy-tale forest, right where the lake lies between the trees, the little assistant fairy Silja was sitting on a stone with her head resting in her hands and sighing deeply.

 

Her face was reflected in the water and she thought that she was not pretty at all. There was also no one who would have ever said it to her.

This was mainly because she had not yet been accepted into the circle of forest fairies. She did not yet get a white veil robe and small golden wings therefore she could not fly.

All this had to be acquired first.

 

 However, as long as she had not proven herself, there was no thought of it at all. She had to perform small services for the forest fairies, had to wash and iron their veil dresses and clean their wings, comb their hair and always be there for them.

Today little Silja was already quite tired. She laid her head on her arm and almost fell asleep when the voice of the forest fairy Fari startled her.

 

"Silja where have my golden shoes gone, I can't find them anywhere." The forest fairy Fari hovered over the lake and looked quite frightened.

Silja jumped up all startled.

"I put them down, right next to the dress!"

"But they're not there," Fari cried bitterly. If she lost the shoes, then she was punished and had to give up her wings and the veil dress and had to start all over again and another fairy moved up to take her place.

"Maybe someone has made a joke," said the little fairy Silja and got very big round eyes

"Not a good joke, please help me find her!" Fari said imploringly to Silja.

 

Silja closed her eyes and began to think.

 

Once there was the sly fox, always nimble. No, it wasn't him. What should he do with shoes!

The little bunny family was too busy watching over the little bunnies so that they wouldn't fall in somewhere.

The big brown bear had been lying in his cave for days, reading an interesting book about winter supplies, it wasn't him either.

The squirrels had a visitor from the other fairytale forest today and had been collecting nuts all day. They had no place at all in their cave for shoes.

The owl was a big lady, she was the principal of the fairytale forest, always friendly and helpful. She already sat all day at the big tree and knitted, it was certainly not her. She also loved her slippers, and the fairy's shoes were much too small for her.

The frog was lying in the water on a leaf of the water lily, waiting for flies. That's where the shoes would be seen.

Birr the snake lay lazily on a branch and had only one eye open, so that she would not miss anything.

 

"Hello Birr," little Silja called up to the branch, "did you see who took Fari's shoes?"

 

Birr now opened the second eye and swayed back and forth on the branch. She almost fell down.

"Such small delicate shoes, golden and very shiny?"

"Yes yes," Silja and Fari exclaimed almost simultaneously.

"No," she said, closing one eye again.

"Please, you must have seen something," Silja pleaded, "how do you know they are golden and shiny?"

"The magpie was there earlier and collected everything shiny, so she probably took the shoes too. She must have hidden them at the top of the big tree, where she hides everything shiny. You'll only get them back if you bring her something else shiny, but it has to be nicer than the shoes!"

"Oh dear, where are we going to get something like that?" Sighed the little help fairy Silja.

At that moment the wood elf Mo floated past and landed very gently on the ground.

"Open your hair, Silja, and lie down on the meadow, your hair is so beautiful and shines golden in the sun like I've never seen it before! The magpie will come and try to take it away from you and meanwhile I'll get the shoes out of the nest!"

"You think my hair is beautiful?" Silja blushed and didn't know which way to look.

"You are the most beautiful fairy in the whole forest!" said Mo.

"Go on," Fari nudged her impatiently.

So Silja, the little fairy helper, lay down on the forest floor and spread out her hair. The other two hid behind the bushes.

It didn't take two minutes before the thieving magpie flew down from one of the tall trees with an astonished caw and landed next to the little help fairy's golden hair and immediately tried to take some of the hair away.

At that moment the wood elf Mo rose and swung himself up to the tall tree.

"I've got her, I've got her," he shouted at the top of his lungs.

The magpie was so startled that she let go of her hair and jumped up in irritation.

When it realised that it had only been fooled, it flew away scolding and hid in the hollow tree.

 

Overjoyed, the forest fairy Fari picked up the shoes and kissed the forest elf Mo and also the little assistant fairy Silja.

"I will never forget this," Fari promised and flew up to the fairy castle.

 

The little assistant fairy and the wood elf Mo sat down on the stone at the edge of the lake and looked together into the water where they were reflected.

"Oh," said the wood elf Mo," look how beautiful you are, how the gold dust swirls around you and you suddenly have wings too, just like me!"

He jumped up and looked at her all admiringly.

 

Little Silja stood there, a white veil dress flattering her, her hair shining even more golden because of the gold dust on it and her little wings were transparent and golden like dragonfly wings.

 

She bent down to the water again and looked in.

 

"I am a forest fairy, thank you Fari!" she exclaimed with joy.

 

 There are numerous short stories, several novels and poems by Joana Angelides! Almost everything summarized in e-books! Delight to read for little money!  Download from amazon, Thalia, Kobo etc.

https://www.bookrix.de/-joanavienna/