by Sue Bentley
“You’re welcome!” Becky scooted toward him on her knees and reached out her cupped hands. Arrow jumped straight into them.
She felt him snuggle up against her as she stood up. A happy feeling glowed inside Becky as she thought about having a secret friend all to herself for this week—especially such an amazing one as Arrow!
Becky cradled Arrow close as she walked back across the field. At the gate that opened onto the farmyard, she paused.
“We’ll sneak in through the back door. I don’t really want to bump into Mrs. Kelly,” she said to Arrow. “Uh-oh!” she whispered, quickly ducking behind the gate as the farmhouse door opened and the housekeeper appeared.
Becky didn’t want to have to answer awkward questions if she was caught with Arrow, so she crouched out of sight until Mrs. Kelly went off toward the henhouse.
“Phew! That was close!” Becky slipped through the gate and, cuddling Arrow close, sprinted across the yard and slipped around to the back of the farmhouse.
She looked down at her new friend as she walked across the lawn. Arrow was so cute. He had stretched up to lie full-length against her chest, and his eyes were closed contentedly as she stroked his pale fur. It was the softest thing she had ever touched.
“Oh!” Becky felt something very big and wet flap against her face.
A bed sheet! She hadn’t been looking where she was going and had stumbled into a line of clean laundry. A gust of wind made a corner of the sheet flick over Becky’s shoulder with a cracking sound.
Arrow gave a squeal of terror and tried to leap out of her arms.
“It’s okay, Arrow, it’s only a sheet!”
But the terrified magic bunny didn’t seem to be listening. He kicked out with his back legs, accidentally scratching Becky’s chest through her T-shirt.
Becky winced at the stinging soreness, but she made herself ignore it as she struggled to keep hold of her tiny friend without squeezing him too hard. She was worried that he’d hurt himself if he jumped to the ground from such a height. But her sneakers slipped on the damp grass and Becky felt herself tumbling forward. Stretching out one hand, she grabbed at the nearest sheet to save herself.
Snap! Snap! Snap! Clothes pegs pinged off the line as Becky collapsed into a heap of wet washing.
“Ooof!” She managed to twist around and land on her back, keeping Arrow safe in her cupped hands. Becky lay there for a moment, too stunned to move. She could feel Arrow’s rapid heartbeat against her palm.
“Are you okay?” Becky asked him worriedly.
“I am fine. You saved me. Thank you!” Arrow moved up to nudge her chin gently with his little wet nose.
Relief washed through Becky. She’d only had Arrow for a short time, but she already loved her magical friend to pieces and couldn’t bear to think of him being hurt.
She struggled to get free of the clinging damp material.
“Oh!” As Becky finally managed to stand up, the stinging came back. Now that the excitement was over, the claw marks Arrow had made in his panic were starting to hurt horribly.
Arrow laid his ears flat with concern. “You are hurt, Becky. Let me help you!”
Becky saw Arrow’s key start to pulse with light and felt a warm tingling sensation down her spine. He twitched his little pink nose and a fountain of crystal dust appeared, shimmering with a thousand tiny rainbows.
To Becky’s amazement, the magical dust spread all over the front of her T-shirt, before seeming to sink into it and disappear. The scratch marks turned cold and then stopped hurting completely as if they’d never been there at all.
When Becky peered down inside her T-shirt to check, there wasn’t a single mark to be seen.
“Cool! Thanks, Arrow. I’m fine now. Come on. Let’s get you inside before—”
“My laundry!” boomed a furious voice. “What have you done, you silly girl?”
Becky froze in terror. She slowly turned to see Mrs. Kelly standing in the kitchen doorway. She was staring at Becky’s feet.
Becky looked down, too, horrified to see that she was standing on a heap of trampled muddy sheets. She had been so worried about Arrow that she hadn’t given a thought to the laundry.
“I am in so much trouble!” Becky groaned, expecting a double scolding. She was still holding the fluffy bunny, who was now tucked safely under one arm. Mrs. Kelly seemed the sort who wouldn’t allow animals into the house.
“Just look at those sheets!” The housekeeper marched into the garden with a face like thunder. Becky leaped backward in alarm, leaving another perfect muddy footprint on a clean bit of sheet.
“It was an…um…accident,” she burbled lamely. “Sorry.”
“A likely story!” Mrs. Kelly looked as if steam might come out of her ears at any moment. “Help me pick up these sheets and bring them into the house. It will all have to be done again. I have to go down the lane to Buttercup Farm, so since you’re the one who made them all muddy, you’re going to be the one to wash them!”
For some reason, Mrs. Kelly hadn’t mentioned Arrow. It was almost as if she couldn’t see him.
“Me! Do laundry? But I’ve never—” Becky began and then stopped as Mrs. Kelly gave her a stern look. “Fine. Will you show me how the washing machine works?”
“That’s better. Follow me.”
The moment the housekeeper’s back was turned, Becky quickly hid Arrow under her T-shirt. She sighed. This was terrible. The last thing she’d expected to be doing on the first day of her farm vacation was washing sheets!
Becky sat cross-legged on the laundry room floor, where she’d been for the past ten minutes, staring glumly at the washing machine. Mrs. Kelly had gone out after giving Becky strict orders not to move a muscle until all the sheets were done.
“That woman is superscary. I bet she’ll tell on me to Uncle Den and insist that he grounds me! And how come she didn’t seem to notice I was holding you?” she asked Arrow, who sat in her lap, calmly grooming himself.
The magic bunny looked up at Becky, the tip of his little pink tongue still sticking out.
“I used my magic, so that only you can see and hear me.”
“You can make yourself invisible? Cool!” Becky smiled, wondering what else her magical friend could do. “I wish that could help us do the washing. These sheets are taking a long time. We might be here for a while.”
Arrow put his head on one side. “I do not think so.”
Becky felt the familiar tingling sensation down her back as Arrow’s magic key began pulsing again with a glowing light. Another cloud of sparkling crystal dust appeared and trickled down onto the washing machine. The machine started whizzing around at superfast speed. Becky’s eyes widened in amazement as it stopped dead with a loud burping noise. The door flew open and out came the clean sheets, floating through the air like ghosts and drifting out of the back door.
Becky scrambled to her feet and ran after them. She was just in time to see the sheets drape themselves magically over the washing line.
Snap! Snap! Snap! A row of unused clothes pegs, dangling from the line, marched toward the sheets like a line of soldiers and clipped themselves smartly into place.
Becky clapped her hands in delight. “That was amazing! Thanks, Arrow. That would have been a horrible job. Let’s go upstairs now and I can show you my bedroom.”
Becky and Arrow had just reached the landing when Leon’s bedroom door opened.
“What was all that shouting downstairs earlier?” he asked curiously.
Becky stiffened and started to hide Arrow behind her back before she remembered that he was invisible.
“That was Mrs. Kelly. She blew up at me!” she told him, rolling her eyes.
“Why?” Leon asked.
Becky told him about tripping over the sheets, being careful not to mention anything about Arrow. She was halfway through explaining when Leon began grinning and then laughing out loud.
“I wish I’d seen her face when she saw you trampling her clean laundry! Yo
u’re a lot braver than I am!”
Becky looked at him in astonishment. Someone seemed to have stolen her quiet, serious cousin and put this boy with the infectious laugh in his place. She found herself smiling with him and then both of them fell over laughing.
“Killer Kelly was so angry! I thought her apron was going to come right off, like the clothes pegs!” she gasped, dabbing at her eyes with her T-shirt.
“Killer Kelly? That really suits her!” Leon laughed, holding his ribs.
Arrow watched them both from Becky’s arms, with a look of puzzlement in his big soft brown eyes. He shook his head slowly.
“Humans are very strange sometimes.”
Becky laughed even more. “Arr—um…I mean…anyway,” she quickly corrected herself. She would have to be a lot more careful about keeping Arrow a secret. “I washed the sheets in double-quick time. I was just going up to my room because I don’t want to be around when Mrs. Kelly gets back.”
“I don’t blame you.” Leon looked thoughtful. “Come on!” he said, edging past her and starting to walk downstairs.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere I often go. Somewhere secret,” he said mysteriously.
Becky was intrigued by the fact that her cousin was including her in something for the first time ever. She didn’t need telling twice. “You’re on!”
Arrow nudged Becky gently, obviously as eager as she was about having an adventure. She tucked him more securely under her arm before hurrying after Leon. It wasn’t a moment too soon. As Becky, Arrow, and Leon crossed the kitchen, they heard the front door opening.
“Hello, Becky,” Mrs. Kelly called. “How’s that laundry doing?”
“Run!” Becky whispered.
Leon shot out of the kitchen door and headed down to the garden. Becky raced after him, but slowed down when she saw the tall, prickly hawthorn hedge that formed a barrier at the bottom.
“It’s a dead end!”
“No, it’s not! This way!” Leon kneeled down and wriggled through a gap near the ground that Becky hadn’t noticed.
She put Arrow down so he could hop through and then picked him up again after she emerged. “Are you okay?” she whispered.
“I am fine.” He settled in her arms again.
Leon looked back at her and frowned. Becky realized he had heard her.
“Just talking to myself. It’s a habit of mine!” she said, scrambling upright.
They jogged down a narrow strip of grass that ran along the edge of a cornfield. Leon was ahead of her and just turning onto a rough track.
Becky ran after him. This was fun—like doing cross-country at school!
After a couple of minutes, Leon paused. “That’s where we’re going,” he said, pointing to a hill that rose above the farm.
Becky shaded her eyes to look at it. It was mainly grass with just a few scrubby bushes on the slopes.
“What’s so special about it?” she whispered to Arrow, as Leon quickened his pace again. “Maybe there are really good views from the top or something.”
Arrow nodded.
Tall heads of corn rustled in the warm breeze and skylarks called overhead as they jogged onward. Becky could see the woods she’d glimpsed from her bedroom window and the towering shapes of other hills much farther away.
She’d almost caught up with Leon now. Picking up the pace, she caught up to him and then ran past him, her sneakers pounding the ground.
“Last one to the top loses!” she cried.
“No, wait!” Leon cried.
But Becky took no notice as she sped away. “Eat my dust!” she crowed.
Holding Arrow didn’t slow her down. Even cradling him carefully, Becky was a fast runner. They reached the hilltop seconds ahead of Leon.
“Yay!” she cried triumphantly.
Panting, Leon pushed back a strand of damp blond hair as he caught up with her. “Are you always like this?”
“Pretty much!” Becky said, grinning. She bent her knees to let Arrow jump down and flopped onto the grass while he hopped over to a patch of clover.
“I was trying to tell you that we have to be quiet up here if we want to see anything,” Leon told her, sounding a bit miffed. “The wild rabbits that live here are used to me, but you’re a stranger so they might take longer to come out.”
“Oh, sorry.” Becky smiled sheepishly. She did get carried away sometimes. She turned over onto her tummy to watch Arrow nibbling the juicy leaves. Even if the wild rabbits are feeling shy, I can see one special bunny right now!
Just then Arrow’s ears twitched and his big brown eyes glowed with tiny rainbows as he looked more closely at the hilltop. “There is a warren here. Like back home in Moonglow Meadow!”
He gave a mighty leap, followed by three hops and disappeared down the nearest burrow.
“Arrow!” Becky gasped in shock, only just managing not to leap straight to her feet and take off after him.
Why had he run away? She hoped the magic bunny hadn’t decided that he’d rather hide among his wild cousins.
“Why did you say “arrow”?” Leon asked, looking at Becky curiously.
“Oh, well…um…” Becky didn’t know quite how to answer without giving away the little magic bunny. But luckily, Leon forgot their conversation.
“Look!” He grabbed Becky’s arm and pointed toward a large grayish-colored rabbit emerging from a burrow a couple of yards away. Its nose twitched as it stood up on its back legs, watchful and alert. “That’s Smudge—at least that’s what I call her because of that brown mark on her right ear. She’s the top female.”
“Smudge?” Becky echoed, too worried about Arrow to concentrate properly.
She hesitated, trying to decide what to do. Her instincts told her to go closer to the warren and check out some of the burrows for any sign of her friend. But how could she explain that to Leon without giving Arrow away? She’d come really close already.
Becky forced herself to calm down. As hard as it was to wait, she would have to trust Arrow.
Leon was watching as other rabbits emerged. Soon, more adults stood up on their legs all around the warren, sniffing the air for possible enemies. Then, at some kind of invisible signal, six of the tiniest rabbits Becky had ever seen appeared from a burrow right beside Smudge.
“Look at those. Aren’t they sweet?” Leon turned toward her to whisper. “Baby rabbits are called kits. This is the first time I’ve seen them out of their burrows. Smudge has been feeding them milk in a special underground chamber, until they’re old enough to eat grass.”
Becky’s heart melted. They were very cute.
Suddenly, she spotted a familiar tiny fluffy pale coffee-colored shape hopping toward Smudge. Arrow!
“There he is!” Becky exclaimed. “I mean…there they are,” she quickly corrected herself, pointing at the kits.
Becky watched closely as Arrow stopped in front of Smudge. The tiny magic bunny looked about half the size of the lead female. Smudge laid her ears flat and her eyes rolled as she reared up above him with her front paws outstretched.
Smudge was going to attack Arrow!
Becky caught her breath, worried that her friend would be hurt. But the wild rabbit eventually sank back down and crouched head to head with Arrow. The two rabbits stayed motionless for a few seconds before Arrow touched his pink nose to the wild rabbit’s muzzle. Smudge bowed her head as if in farewell.
To Becky’s relief, she saw the magic bunny give a flick of his tail as he hopped away from the warren and came bounding back toward her. Becky felt her tension easing as the little rabbit settled down with his warm furry body pressed against her bare arm. Leon was busy looking at the kits, so Becky risked talking to Arrow.
“When you ran off like that, I thought you’d gone to live with the wild rabbits and didn’t want to be my friend anymore,” she whispered.
Arrow’s floppy little ears drooped. “I am sorry. I should have explained that I was only exploring. I am very happy with y
ou, Becky.”
“That’s okay, then.” Becky stroked his fluffy fur, feeling a bit silly now for being so worried. “Because I love having you for my friend!”
They settled down together to watch the wild rabbits. Becky was able to concentrate properly now. She noticed quite a lot of difference in the colors of their fur. Some of the rabbits were a dark brown and others were almost gray.
Leon edged closer on his tummy and started scribbling in a notebook as he studied another group of larger rabbits that Becky assumed were males. She was really enjoying being here with him. Maybe being quiet sometimes wasn’t so bad after all.
“The lead female is a nice rabbit,” Arrow told her.
“Leon calls her Smudge,” Becky whispered back. “Because of the mark on her ear.”
Arrow nodded approval. “Smudge. That is a good name.”
All at once, Becky noticed that the key around Arrow’s neck was shining brightly.
Arrow saw her looking. “Moonglow Meadow will soon be in need of more of the key’s magic,” he explained.
“Do you have to leave?” Becky whispered anxiously.
Arrow looked up at her with serious eyes. “Not yet. But if the key glows constantly, I might have to leave suddenly, without saying good-bye.”
“But you can come back here again afterward, can’t you?”
Arrow shook his head. “I am afraid that is not possible, Becky. Once I leave here, the magic trail to this place is closed forever. I hope you understand,” he said gently.
Becky pressed her lips together as she nodded, hoping that this wouldn’t happen too soon. She had barely recovered from the fright Arrow had given her when he had wandered off, and she wanted to enjoy every single moment she could with him.
Sitting back in the warm sunshine, Becky, Arrow, and Leon watched the wild rabbits all around them. The creatures fed and groomed themselves, perfectly at ease.