4:1

Rowan stood at the graveside and wiped yet another tear from her face. It had been a long, fantastical journey, and suddenly it seemed to be over. She never would have imagined that in just a few short years she would have grown to love the odd band that had formed as a result of her small favour for Gareth — or how bad she could be made to feel when an unwarranted tragedy like this struck.

Edward had become one of her dearest friends over the course of their journey. She realized that he had brought more to her life than anyone else ever had or indeed could have. The debt she owed him was unrepayable. But as she stood there in the rain she knew it couldn’t be over. Somehow, in some way, with the help of her friends, her family, with the love of everyone she had met in these few short years, right here and right now, she vowed to continue his quest. That was the least of her debts, and from this day forward she would dedicate herself to keeping the small but heroic bunny’s mission alive.

She had just been returning from the archives when she had heard on the van’s radio of the tragic and mysterious event that had occurred the previous night in the Colorado Rockies. She knew immediately it was them. It would have been too much of a coincidence as Beaver, Gareth and Edward had left just three days earlier for the U.S. on the trail of a woman named Caroline. And with what Rowan had discovered in the old records, it was a sure thing that this mysterious woman was not only the key to uncovering the last details of the slowly unraveling plot, but also the lynchpin that would allow them to finally and irrevocably dismantle it forever.

But now that chance was gone, and all that was left was to start again. Edward’s specialized knowledge and unique talents would be sorely missed, and Rowan felt a bolt of fear and longing as she realized she would never again rest her head on his soft back and discuss the nature of the universe or the shifts in time and place that had slowly and inexorably brought the rabbit to her.

For a moment she stood, lost once again in her own mind. The cataclysmic flow of anger, sorrow, fear and selfish indignation transported her away from the cold and wet grave site and into a hell unimagined before, sweeping her onto the shores that had been built with the love and trust of her friends. And she knew that shore would always remain, proof against the raging torrents of her worst emotions and self-doubt. Built with love and patience it could not be struck down; it would be the true monument to the fallen.

She cast her eyes down to the wet and sodden ground where three fresh graves had been dug the day before. The long plot in the centre was flanked on both sides by the two smaller ones. Tears welled up in Rowan’s bloodshot eyes as once again she read the inscription etched into headstone that joined all three freshly disturbed mounds of earth.

Here Lie
Edward,
Gareth
and
The Beaver

They met their doom on a dark, wet mountain ridge; mortally wounded by unknown assailants and left to die. They left the world a better place and will forever stand as symbols of the spirit of cooperation between omnivores and herbivores in our never-ending war against the meat-eaters of our times.

Long may their battle cries roar.
April 1, 2013

Happy April Fools’ Day