The Birch Leaf Army and the Maple Leaf Army drew up in a glade of the forest. The two armies eyed each other.
John stepped forward into the open space between the two armies. In his present size, he was not much bigger than either army. But he was undoubtedly stronger than any leaf. He was still human, after all, and possessing of human strength, even though he had been shrunk down.
“Greetings, Maple Leafs,” John called out. “I have travelled here with the Birch Leaves, but I come to you with a message of peace.”
“We do not trust you,” shouted the Commander of the Maple Leaf Army back. “We believe you come in deceit.”
“Why would I come in deceit?” asked John.
“Because you are travelling with the Birch leaves!”
“But why would I need to come in deceit?” asked John. “You pose no threat to me. I could tear through all of you if I needed.”
And at that moment, John felt a sharp prick in his right arm. “Ow, what was that?” he exclaimed. He looked down and saw a tiny arrow sticking out of his arm.
“We have weapons,” said the Maple commander. “Bows, arrows, swords, spears. Our leaf bodies may be thin and vulnerable compared to you humans, but if you get too close to us, you will feel our weapons.”
John pulled the arrow out of his arm angrily. “Very well,” he said. “Then how do I prove to you I don’t come in deceit.”
“You do not,” said the Maple commander. “You have nothing that we want, and we do not want to talk to you. Leave us alone, and let us fight our battle with the Birch Leaves.”
“I told you this was a bad idea,” said Benjamin the Mouse. “We don’t have Midor’s ability to negotiate peace. We should go.”
But then, another voice boomed out. “How dare you insult us like this,” said Klangor. And even though he was still in the body of the rabbit, his voice seemed to have the quality of his old dragon body.
“We will devour you,” said Starrof.
“Klangor, Starrof, no!” said John. “This is not why we came here.”
“This is not why you came here,” said Starrof. “But in these rabbit bodies, we can eat nothing but grass and leaves now. And we haven’t had the opportunity to terrorize and eat humans for weeks now.”
“How we have missed it,” said Klangor. “You do not understand how delightful it is to chase down a terrified prey and then swallow him whole. Or to chew him while he screams.”
“But now that we are among living, talking leaves,” said Starrof, “We once again have food that we can chase and eat while it is still alive.”
“But…” John’s voice faltered momentarily, as he tried to think about how he would form his objection. “But why do you need to eat food that is terrified? You can eat plenty of grass, and this forest has many leaves that are not magical.”
“Foolish human,” replied Starrof. “You can never understand the simple joy that we dragons get from running down our prey and eating it alive.”
“It gives us a feeling of tremendous power,” said Klangor. “A feeling that we’ve been sorely lacking the past few weeks. Human, we desperately need to chase and eat these leaves in order to feel alive.”
“No, no, I forbid it,” said John. “We came here to help these leaves, not to eat them.”
“That was never our agenda,” said Klangor. “That was only what you wanted.”
“I don’t understand this,” said Starrof. “These leaves are about to go into battle and kill each other anyway. It’s already apparent that you will not succeed in stopping their battle. So, what is the difference between them killing each other, and us eating them?”
“That is a good point,” said Benjamin the Mouse.
“You will not eat these leaves,” said John.
“But you are powerless to stop us, human!” said Starrof. “We are much bigger than you are, even in our rabbit bodies.”
It was true. Even though the dragons were now shrunken down to rabbits, they were rather large rabbits. And they were much bigger than John was at the moment. So when the rabbits charged forward, there was little John could do to stop them.
John tried to get in front of the rabbits, but Starrof and Klangor just knocked him over. And then they were like wolves among the sheep pouncing this way and that among the leaves.
Now, during the conversation, John and the rabbits had been speaking rather loudly, so all of the leaves could hear. And some of the leaves could easily guess what was going to happen next, so a few of the leaves (particularly those near the back of the ranks) had already started running once the rabbits had announced their intention. But the commanders of both armies had done their best to keep their ranks together. Once the rabbits began the attack, the leaves did fight back as best they could. They shot their tiny arrows and threw their tiny spears, and generally tried to mount an effective rally against the attacking rabbits. But although the tiny arrows and spears stung the rabbits (much like the feeling of stings from tiny insects), they were not able to drive them back.
“This is not quite the outcome we had hoped for,” said Benjamin the Mouse. “This is why it is never wise to attempt to do Midor’s job. If you’re not careful, you could easily make the situation worse.”
“We’ve got to stop them,” said John. “This is against the law of the forest.”
“Hmmm, I wonder,” said Benjamin. “The law of the forest forbids animals from eating each other. It doesn’t say anything about eating leaves. Even if they are magic, talking leaves. The rabbits might be able to get away with it.”
Meanwhile, Starrof and Klangor were having more fun than they’ve had in weeks. They laughed at how the terrified leaves ran before them. When the Maple Leaves attempted to form ranks and use their spears and swords to make a line of defense, Starrof (using his powerful rabbit hind legs) just jumped up into the air and landed right in the middle of the leaves, throwing their defensive formation into chaos, and causing them to run confusedly in all direction.
Eventually, in all the chaos and running around, the Maple Leaf Commander and the Birch Leaf Commander found themselves right next to each other.
“This is all your treachery!” yelled the Maple Leaf Commander. “You brought these outsiders here!”
“You take that back!” yelled the Birch Leaf Commander. And the two of them pulled out their swords and started fighting.
“Guys, no!” John yelled out. John ran between them and pushed them aside. “You can’t fight now. You guys need to save your men. You have to work together.”
“It’s no use,” said the Birch Commander. “The rabbits are too big for us to fight. We can only hope to kill as many Maple Leaves as we can before we perish.”
“No, you can do this,” said John. “Organize your men into formation. Form an orderly retreat, with the front line facing the enemy. Then back yourselves up into the trees. The rabbits can’t climb trees. You’ll be safe as long as you climb up there. But you’ll have to work together.”
“He’s right,” said the Birch Leaf Commander.
“Just this once,” said the Maple Leaf Commander.
And they began running to their men, exhorting them to form up into lines and start retreating back up the trees.
John, meanwhile, tried to distract Starrof and Klangor. “Follow me,” he said. “I’ll show you where even more leaves are.”
The rabbits were not fooled, but they were momentarily amused, and they stopped their attack on the leaves to watch John. “Human, what are you trying to do?” asked Starrof. “We are not fooled by your pathetic attempts at distraction.”
“We have all the prey we wish for right here,” said Klangor.
“Oh, sure,” said John. “If you want to go after the soft, easy leaves. But what about doing battle with the tough, heavily armed leaves?”
“Human, we’ve been travelling with you this whole time,” said Starrof. “We know full well that you have not encountered any creatures we have not, because we’ve been alongside you all the while.”
“Why do you try to deceive us with such transparent falsehoods?” asked Klangor. “How dumb do you think you are?”
During this time, however, the Maple Leaves and the Birch Leaves had formed their men into formation, and were slowly backing up into the trees, while keeping their rear guard. When Klangor and Staroff turned around to see what was happening, half the leaves were up the tree already.
The two rabbits ran towards the leaves. The rear-guard line of the leaves threw their spears and arrows. Although the tiny spears and arrows did little more than sting the rabbits, the coordinated volley resulted in some very painful pricks, and temporarily halted them.
While the rabbits were halted, the commanders instructed their men to change formation. The ones in the rear guard had already used up their arrows and spears, but the line behind them still had fresh weapons. So they changed order, and the line behind readied their weapons. When the rabbits tried to charge again, they were met by a fresh volley, which again halted them.
This repeated a couple more times, but by the time it was over, all the leaves had safely made it up the tree branch before any of the rabbits could eat them. Then Starrof and Klangor were left sitting at the bottom of the tree branch, silently watching their prey advance safely up into the tree branches.
“We shall never forgive you for this, human,” said Starrof angrily. “When we return to dragon form, we will eat you, but not before slowly chewing you alive so as to maximize your pain.”
John looked at the rabbit. “I believe that you are telling the truth,” he said. “It therefore makes no sense for me to continue travelling with you to the land of the fairies.”
“But we are not sure of the way. We still desire to travel with you,” Klangor said.
“Yes, but…” John paused, hoping the obvious would dawn on the rabbits, but it did not. “...it is of no benefit to me to see you restored to your dragon form, since you will eat me when you are restored.”
“That is a separate matter,” said Klangor. “It need not interfere with our travels.”
“Yes, but… it is in my best interest to not be eaten, and the way for me not to be eaten is to make sure you stay in your rabbit form, and the way for me to make sure you stay in your rabbit form is to make sure you do not find your way to the land of the fairies.”
“But it is only what is just! You’ve interfered with our actions.”
“Nevertheless…” said John. The rabbits looked at him like they expected more, but John just kept silent.
Finally Starroff said, “We wish to consult with each other. Will you allow us some time.”
“Please,” said John.
Starroff and Klangor hopped a short distance away from John and Benjamin the Mouse, and talked to each other in whispered tones. John couldn’t make out what they were saying, but after a short conference, they hopped back. “We wish to take back what we have said earlier,” said Klangor. “We do not make any threats or promises about eating you in the future.”
“So you’ve taken back your threat,” said John. “But that’s not the same thing as promising not to eat me.”
“We’ve taken back our threat,” said Starroff.
“That’s not good enough,” said John. “I want a promise that you won’t eat me.”
The rabbits then hopped away again, and this time they were consulting with each other for a full five minutes before they hopped back again. “We have forgiven you for everything you have done to us up until now,” said Klangor. “We will not eat you, unless there are fresh transgressions that occur after this moment. That is the best we can do, human. We can not make a blanket promise never to eat you. We are dragons.”
“Very well,” said John. “Close enough. Let us travel together once more then.”
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