Onyx Brimstone
and the
Nightmare Rabbit
 by
J L Rees

Onyx the wizard was sitting in his sleeping quarters, staring out of the window. The clouds moved slowly through the sky.

“I'm so bored,” he thought to himself.

The young wizard got up and decided to go to the shop. Out of the door, down the hall, and down what felt like a thousand steps, until he finally reached the ground floor of the guard tower.

He walked through the door which was guarded by his friend Callan Skysmith.

“Hey Callan,” he said as he walked past.

“Hey Onyx,” Callan replied, “off anywhere nice today.”

“Not really, just to the shop,” Onyx answered. “Nowhere interesting.”

“Watch out for monsters.”

“I will have a good day Callan, my friend”.

Onyx followed the path from the guard tower down to the street below.

“I think I'll try going a new way today,” Onyx thought.

So instead of the usual route, he took a side street that led him past the Wizards Guild tower.

The Wizard’s Guild was a group Onyx has always been interested in. They were always learning and discovering new ways of doing magic and experimenting with powerful spells.

Although Onyx himself had magical abilities, the wizards would never allow him to join the guild, because of the way he gained his magic. The way Onyx had gained his magic was by falling into a pond when he was young. Not remarkably interesting or magical you might think, but this pond was filled with dragon's blood. The blood had seeped into the pond from the dragon that had fallen asleep under the temple in Onyx's hometown of Illindor.

The leaders of the guild thought his abilities would wear off as soon as his body had fought off the magical bacteria in his system. A bit like when you have a cold, and your body fights the cold until you feel better.

While Onyx was walking by the entrance gate, there was a horrendous crash and a shout.

“Oh no! It's escaped, quick catch it before it jumps out of the...” there was a pause.

“Never mind, it's jumped out of the window,” said another voice.

Curiously, Onyx peered through the bushes that surrounded the wizard's tower. Hopping about on the ground in front of the window was a rabbit. Seconds had passed when the rabbit noticed Onyx. Onyx picked up a handful of leaves and grass from the side of the road and bushes he was peering through.

“Hey little fella, do you want some tasty leaves.”

The rabbit hopped forward and towards Onyx.

“Good little bunny rabbit.”

It suddenly occurred to Onyx, if he managed to catch the rabbit and return it, maybe the Wizard Guild would let him join them so he could become a great wizard too. So that's what he decided to do.

The rabbit had hopped its way awfully close to him.

“This is the perfect opportunity to grab it,” he thought.

With that, he lunged forward to grab the little, white, ball of fluff.

That's when its fur changed from the snow-white it originally was to a mysterious purple colour that shimmered with a neon red. Its eyes glittered and frazzled a bright yellow colour.

Suddenly the tiny rabbit wasn't all that tiny anymore and was now the size of a cow, with a mouth that was slobbering and drooling.

Onyx gulped and slowly backed away.

“Nice bunny rabbit,” he said, trying to discourage the creature from eating him.

The rabbit bounded forward; its teeth gnashed like huge scissors.

Snip, Snip, Snip.

The rabbit snipped at Onyx's left arm, but Onyx dodged it. The rabbit then snipped at Onyx's right arm, again Onyx dodged it. The young wizard jumped through the bushes into the Wizard Guild's courtyard. At the top of his lungs, Onyx yelled.

“HELP!”

The rabbit jumped over the huge bushes in a single leap, landing just behind Onyx. Onyx ran for his life. Through the courtyard, he ran, dodging statues, dodging little fences and gates, and trampled through beds of strange flowers and herbs.

Fudoomp, fudoomp came the rabbit leaving cow-sized craters behind it.

“Help!” Onyx yelled again.

“Be quiet out there,” a voice said, from a doorway just ahead of him.

“I need help, I'm being chased by a huge, dangerous rabbit,” Onyx said.

An old man with a long grey beard and a big, pointy but slightly crooked, blue hat stepped out of the door. His blue robes ruffled in the wind.

“Right then what's all this shouting about?” The wizard said as he looked behind Onyx. “Ah! I see you've found our little experiment snowflake. What your shouting and yelling is for, I have no idea.”

Onyx turned his head to look behind him, then slowed down to a walking pace. To Onyx's surprise the huge, slobbering, nightmare rabbit was once again a cute, tiny, white bunny.

“But it...it was huge,” he stammered.

“Well, if snowflake was huge, it isn't now. Thank you for bringing it back.” The old wizard said as he bent down to pick the little rabbit up.

The grey-haired wizard swiftly turned back to the doorway and closed the door in Onyx's face. Onyx stood there for a moment and thought about what had just happened. Did it really happen? Had snowflake been a huge slobbering monster? Why didn't they invite me to join the guild? Onyx walked slowly back to the guard tower feeling glum.

“Hey! Did you fight any scary monsters?” Callan asked.

“No, I mean I don't know I got chased by a rabbit,” Onyx replied.

Callan laughed and went back to guarding the door. Onyx walked back to his sleeping quarters for a well-deserved lie down.