章 25: Rabbit?

The light soon faded. Arthur opened his eyes and tilted his head to look up at the sky. He wanted to see whether the weird movement in the universe was still there and how that could be explained. How could the moon get so close to Earth?! Wouldn't the gravitational force from both celestial bodies pull each other apart?

However, when he looked up, all he saw was the normal night sky. The moon was its original size, shining silently surrounded by a canvas of stars. Arthur looked around and he realized the world had returned to normal. It was still night and even though there was moonlight, the world around the young man couldn't be described as well-lit.

In other words, things were as normal as it could be, and that really begs the question. Did Arthur imagine the scenery that he saw earlier or it was simply a part of his vibrant imagination?

Before Arthur could figure it out, something else distracted him. There was chittering coming from the ground. Arthur lowered his head and standing before him was the cutest bunny the young man had ever seen in his life.

The rabbit had the whitest fur and a pair of fluffy ears. The bunny was tall enough to only reach the lower end of Arthur's knees. Its pair of beady red eyes stared at Arthur and the young man swore he could see wisdom in them. Arthur squatted down to meet the rabbit at its eye level and he asked, "Bunny, are you my next client?"

The rabbit nodded its tiny head. 'So it can understand human language but it cannot speak it back? This is going to make communication rather difficult, isn't it?' Arthur thought to himself. He was trying to figure a way to overcome this problem when the rabbit bounded away from him. It leaped past Arthur and raced into the Midnight Emporium.

"Wait a minute!" Arthur called after the creature.

Inside the darkened storefront, Arthur noticed something magical about the cute-looking rabbit. Arthur thought the rabbit's fur was extraordinarily white earlier but that was not the truly magical part about it. Inside the Midnight Emporium, the rabbit's fur coat was practically glistening in the dark. It was glowing but the glow wasn't intense, it was more of a muted glow. For some reason, Arthur was reminded of the moon and its graceful moonlight.

The rabbit stopped in the middle of the store and raised its nostrils to the air. It sniffed at the air as if trying to find something. It turned to every corner and eventually its pair of ears drooped with disappointment like it could not find the thing it was looking for.

Arthur who saw this, stopped before the rabbit and asked, "Are you looking for something? What is it? Is that the content of your petition? You want me to help you locate something?"

The rabbit looked up from the floor before nodding at Arthur.

"Great, we're making progress. Now if only you can tell me clearly what you're looking for!" Arthur was quite excited. His second petition was off to a great start. At least it did not seem like the cute little bunny was going to send him on a death mission. Then again, Miss S' warning echoed at the back of his mind, 'not all things appear as innocent as they seem.' Arthur then reminded himself of that lesson. He could not let his guard down... even if the cuteness of his client made him want to rush forward to give it a tight hug.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. "So you're looking for something. What could it be?" Arthur asked even though he knew he would not receive an answer.

That was where he was wrong because an answer he did receive but just not a verbal one.

The rabbit reached out one of its paws and moved it around in a circular motion repeatedly.

"A circle?" The rabbit shook its head. "Something round? Wheel? Balloon? Pizza?" The rabbit still shook its head. Realizing Arthur needed more help than that, the rabbit pushed out its other paw and placed it under the other paw that was doing the circular motion. So the hint consisted of two parts, one moving part that kept going in circle and a stationery part underneath it that probably acted as some sort of collecting container.

"A windmill? A motor vehicle? Unicycle? Helicopter? Ice-cream swirl?" Arthur gave all the answers he could think of but the rabbit still shook its head. It did not seem like he was getting close to the real answer either.

After about 10 minutes of constant failures, Arthur ran out of both ideas and energy. 'Why am I playing charade with a mythical rabbit in the middle of the night?' Arthur asked for a break. He turned to look at the rabbit which hung its head in disappointment. Arthur did not want to break the poor creature's heart but they were going nowhere with the charade. Continuing it would only lead them further into... well, incidentally, a rabbit hole.

Arthur tried to tackle this from a different perspective. He asked the rabbit, "Perhaps we can try this from another angle. If I know your true identity, perhaps that can make things easier. Based on myths and stories, I might be able to tell the item that you're related to if I know what or who you are."

The rabbit looked at him and nodded. Then, the game of charade started anew as the rabbit leaned upwards and pushed its paws into the air like it was doing a yoga pose.

Arthur sighed as he shook his head. "Not this again." It was then that his eyes caught the Book of Thoth that sat on the table. "Actually, wait a minute, perhaps meeting you in person might update your client profile in the Book of Thoth. Let me go take a look."

Then Arthur stood up to head to the counter.