Week 9: Storytelling - The Rabbit Brothers

Linus the rabbit had a large family. He had eight brothers and five sisters. With all those siblings, Linus often felt overlooked and unimportant, especially when his brother, Alexander, was around. It was no secret that Alexander was the favorite child of all Linus' siblings. He could jump the furthest and the fastest, he had the most beautiful, sleek coat that seemed never to get dirty, and he was very clever. It was well known in the forest all of the tales of Alexander outwitting and escaping all manner of predator. Mother and Father were always bragging to the other rabbit families, and any other animal that would listen, about what brilliant son they had, and you could be sure that they weren't talking about scrawny, perpetually muddy Linus.

Alexander the rabbit (image source: Grit)

"You would think that they had only one son!" Linus grumbled to himself, bitterly, as he watched his father animatedly retell the latest of Alexander's triumphs to his other siblings, who seemed content to worship Alexander like everyone else he knew. He burned with rage and envy and resolved to kill Alexander.

 "Let them brag on their dead son then!" he said with a smirk.

Early the next morning, Linus went deep into the woods to work on his plan. He decided that, rather than get his own paws dirty, he would create a helper that would kill Alexander for him. There was said to be an enchanted tree in the heart of the woods that not only itself had magical powers, but gave magic to everything that fell under its shade. Linus used the dirt from under this tree mixed with water from the little brook at its base to create a monster that he would be able to control. When the monster was finished, it had the face of a rabbit, with the sharp teeth of a wolf, the deadly talons of a hawk, and the long, muscular tail of a snake.

"Since this monster has the qualities of many of our natural enemies, Alexander will shake with fear!" Linus cried happily, "There will be no brave triumph in this story! He will die a coward's death begging the beast not to rip it apart with its claws, impale him with its teeth, or strangle him with its tale."

Now Linus need only command the beast what to do! He approached the monster with confidence, and no fear - why should the thing that owed its creation to Linus turn on its master? Just as Linus was about to open his mouth to give the command, however, Alexander appeared out of nowhere, jumping from his hiding place in a brush to surprise his brother.

"Ho-ho, so you aim to kill me, do you?" cried Alexander, "We shall see about that!"

Alexander prepared for a fight, but the shock of the sudden appearance of his hated brother combined with the fury at having his plan discovered was too much for Linus' weak, bunny heart. He died instantly. Seeing that his brother was dead, Alexander hopped quickly back home, leaving Linus' monster behind him.

When Linus didn't return later that day, his family began to wonder where he had gone. Not wanting to disgrace his brother's memory by telling of his planned betrayal, Alexander told his family that Linus had mentioned something about visiting the Enchanted Tree. The family set out to the tree to find the lost rabbit. There under the tree, they discovered the lifeless body of Linus while his very own monster nibbled at his remains. Not wanting this beast to harm the rest of his family, Alexander quickly sprang into action, catching the distracted monster off guard, and killed the thing. For weeks, all anyone in the forest was talking about was Alexander's heroic defeat of the dreadful monster. What a shame, though they said, that he did not discover the creature before it killed his brother, Minus. What a shame for Minus, indeed.

Author's note: this is a retelling of the story Nukunguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak from the Eskimo Folk Tales unit. In the original, Nukunguasik one day discovers one of his brothers whispering to a Tupilak, a monster of the wizard brother's own creation, to go and bite Nukunguasik to death. I decided to make the characters animals just to give the story my own little twist. In the original story, it is not stated explicitly why this brother is bent on killing Nukunguasik so I decided to fill in the holes using a classic Cain and Abel type rivalry, telling the story from the perspective of the jealous brother so you could really understand how he felt about his brother. I also added the last bit, about Alexander's triumphant defeat of the monster being the talk of the community to create an element of irony in that Linus' plan to destroy his brother ended with the exact opposite of the desired result - Alexander continues to be great hero, and Linus is barely remembered.

Bibliography: "Nukunguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak." Eskimo Folk Tales. Knud Rasmussen. 1921