The Children of Hare Hill

by Scott McKenzie

  "There must be a way of getting across," Charlotte said.

  "Maybe we could take our shoes off and walk across. The pond didn't look very deep."

  "How can we test how deep the water is?" Charlotte said, and they looked around for something that might help.

  Ben pointed to the pile of logs. "What about one of them?"

  "Good idea!" Charlotte said. They jumped to their feet, each grabbed an end of the log on the top of the pile, and carried it to the edge of the pond. Ben lowered the end of the log into the water and they both fed it down and down, further than they thought it would go, until they felt it hit the bottom of the pond. Only a few inches of the log still peeked out of the water at an angle.

  "Well, it looks like we're not going to paddle across," Charlotte said.

  They sighed and let go of the log, thinking they would have to dream up another way of getting across the water, but something happened to it. It seemed to rattle, then shifted itself until it was upright, providing them with what looked very much like a stepping stone. From that moment, they both knew what they had to do.

  "We've got two more logs!" Ben said. They went back along the path, picked up the second log, and took it to the edge of the water. Ben was in front and stopped to judge the log that was already in the pond.

  "Ready?" Charlotte said.

  Ben nodded, then took a leap of faith and stepped off the shore onto the log. There wasn't much room for both of his feet. He wobbled, then righted himself and looked over his shoulder at his sister, relieved to still be upright and dry.

  "Are you okay?" she said.

  Ben breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at her. "No problem," he said. "Are you ready?"

  Once again, they lowered the log into the water. When they felt it hit the bottom, they let it go and watched as it righted itself, one big stride ahead of the first log. Ben jumped back onto the island and they went back to get the third and final log. This time they stood on a log each; Charlotte on the first and Ben in the lead on the second. They took a few seconds to find their balance, then lowered the third log into the water. Just like the other two, this log rattled and stood upright, fixing itself in position as the third in a line of three stepping stones leading into the middle of the water.

  "We need more logs," Ben said, looking at the wide gap between the third log and the shore on the other side. They jumped back onto the island and searched among the bushes for more logs to complete their path across the water, but there were no more. They stood at the edge of the water and looked at the three logs. The solution came to Charlotte in a flash.

  "I know what we have to do!" she exclaimed.

  "What?" Ben said.

  "I'll show you. Get onto the third step," Charlotte said, pointing at the third log. Ben hopped across, now confident with his balance. Charlotte followed him and stopped on the log behind him.

  "Okay, what now?" Ben asked.

  "Now, we can make our way across with these logs. We don't need any more than three of them," she said as she bent down very carefully and grabbed the end of the first log with both hands. She pulled on the log and it came loose.

  "Yes!" she gasped as she lifted it out of the water. "Here," she said as she moved it towards Ben, "take the other end and put it in the water in front of you."

  Ben did as he was told. The log rattled and fixed itself in place, then Charlotte made an after you gesture to Ben. They each took a step forward and saw the gap between them and the other side close.

  "Well done!" Ben said.

  "We're not there yet," Charlotte said. "It looks like we've got a few more steps to go."

  It took three more moves to get within a footstep of the shore. Ben stepped onto solid ground first, then Charlotte, and they surprised themselves by sharing a hug, an expression of their collective relief.

  They were about to take a step along the short path through the trees to the wooden hare when a noise from behind made them stop in their tracks. It was the sound of bubbling and deep rumbling, the feeling of someone or something exerting great power over the surroundings. They turned around and saw the water in the pond bubbling like boiling water in a pan. The noise grew louder and the bubbling became more and more violent. They felt searing heat from the pond on their skin. Then, all at once, the wreckage of all three bridges rose from the water and each one pieced itself back together, like an enormous jigsaw puzzle being completed by invisible hands. Splintered cracks in the wood sealed themselves and rusted metal rivets slotted back into their holes. When the final pieces were in place, the hot bubbling water stopped in an instant, returning them to a cool, still scene, as if nothing had happened.

  Charlotte felt Ben's hand searching for hers and she grabbed it, gripping it tightly. Whoever, or whatever, was doing this was more powerful than they could have imagined, but while some of the puzzles had been challenging, they had never really been put in danger. Not yet, anyway.

  "Let's go," Ben said, and they followed the path into the trees. They turned right and found the fifth wooden hare sitting next to the path, their father's ashes circling its feet.

  As soon as they stopped, they witnessed the sight that, while it had become familiar, would never lose its magic. The ashes rose as they twirled round the hare, which emitted a golden glow and, in a bright flash, turned into a real hare, which rubbed its eyes and ran away.

  They got out their magical dice and both rolled a one. Quick as a flash, they set off running towards the second hare, but decided not to go over the bridges this time.

  Chapter 13

  Charlotte and Ben arrived at the second wooden hare at the southeast corner of the park, but found no hints about the challenge that lay ahead of them.

  "What's on the map?" Ben asked. They looked at the map and saw the wooden hare with a question mark over its head.

  "That's not much help," Ben said.

  Charlotte sighed. "What I want to know is, who is doing this? Is it really a witch or is it someone else with magical powers doing this to us?"

  Charlotte and Ben jumped as they heard a booming voice in the distance. "Ask me one question."

  The shock they felt at the interruption dissipated as they recognised the voice. It was the Guardian of Hare Hill. They ran along the path from the second wooden hare to the clearing where the sculpture stood, and saw the stone face smiling at them once again.

  "Hello again," he said as they stepped onto the grass and into his field of vision.

  "Hello," they both said.

  "How are you doing? If you've got this far, you must know what you're doing."

  They looked at the map and Charlotte said, "We're on hare number two right now."

  "How many spells have you broken so far?"

  "Five. This will be the sixth."

  "Aha, so you'll be halfway there. Don't worry, this is an easy one. It's not really a puzzle—it's an opportunity."

  "An opportunity to do what?" Charlotte asked.

  "What I said before—ask me one question, and I will answer it truthfully."

  "What kind of question?" Ben asked.

  "Anything you want. Anything at all. But I think I know what you're going to ask me about."

  Charlotte and Ben said nothing and looked at each other.

  "Am I right?" the Guardian asked.

  "I guess so," Charlotte said. She left a silence hanging over them, expecting the Guardian to tell them what they wanted to know, but all he said was, "So?"

  "So what?" she said.

  "So ask me one question. I know the answer, but you have to ask the right question to find out what you want to know."

  "Okay," Charlotte said, holding up a finger that told him to wait a minute. "We need to talk about this."

  Charlotte and Ben turned away and talked in whispers.

  "Why not just ask him who's doing this to us?" Ben asked.

  "That's not specific enough," Charlotte said. "We need to ask him the right question, which means we need to understand what we w
ant to know."

  "How about, who put the spell on the hares?" Ben asked.

  Charlotte thought about this for a moment and shook her head. "No, that's not the right question."

  "Why?"

  "Remember what Daddy used to say?"

  "Yes. A wicked witch cast a spell on the hares and turned them into statues a long, long time ago."

  "Right. So even if there was a witch a long, long time ago that really did cast a spell to turn the hares into wooden statues, what makes you think she's the one who set up all the puzzles for us?"

  Ben screwed up his face, like he was being forced to think so hard it made his brain hurt.

  "What are we doing here?" Ben suggested.

  "He might just say, 'You're doing puzzles,' and not say anything else." Charlotte thought for a moment about what Ben had said. "You're right, though. What we need to know most of all is not who is setting these challenges, but why we have to do them." She looked at the Guardian and announced, "I have a question."

  "And your question is...?"

  "Who is waiting for us at the thirteenth hare?" she said.

  The Guardian raised his stone eyebrows and smiled. "Good question," he said. "I will leave you with a riddle. Solve the riddle and you get your answer. Don't worry—if you've already solved the number puzzle, this will be easy."

  Charlotte opened her mouth to protest, but the Guardian talked over her.

  "My first will glow and also has wings,

  My second can't be found in town, but belongs to these things,

  My third and fourth are in something that might scare,

  My fifth is waiting at Pistol Pond, but isn't a hare."

  Out of the corner of their eyes they saw a distant golden flash and knew it was the second wooden hare breaking out of its spell. They heard the scurrying of tiny feet and, as quick as a flash, the hare zipped along the path behind them and around the corner.

  "Why has it turned into a real hare already?" Ben asked. "Why didn't it wait until we’d solved the riddle?"

  "I don't think that's the point this time," Charlotte said. "All we had to do was ask a question and get an answer, which is what we did. Working out the riddle is our problem. Come on, we'll think about it on the way to the next hare."

  With the riddle still gnawing at their brains, they rolled their dice. Charlotte rolled a six and Ben rolled a four, but before they could shout "Ten!" there was a bright, blinding flash in front of their eyes.

  Chapter 14

  Ben rubbed his eyes. For a few seconds, he had been blinded and he could see coloured spots in his vision as he focused on his surroundings. He saw the stone sculpture standing in the clearing; the Guardian's face had turned back to solid stone. All around him were the moonlit trees and bushes that he hadn't paid much attention to so far, but now the scene took on a feeling that was suddenly more eerie and troubling than he could have imagined. He was all alone.

  Panic engulfed him. He spun round and round, searching for his sister, his mother, anyone who could comfort him and tell him everything was going to be okay. This had been without a doubt the strangest experience of his young life, but he hadn't been scared of the unknown up to this point. Charlotte had been there to help him on his way. Sure, they were a team, but they were a team of two with one of them very much in charge. Now he was on his own: a team of one with no one to turn to. He shouted "Charlotte!" over and over, but received only hoots from unseen owls in the trees in reply.

  The only other time he'd felt as lost as this was when he lost his mother in a supermarket. He remembered the panic he felt then—like he would never see his mother ever again and he would have no choice but to live in the supermarket, eating food from the shelves while the staff weren't looking. But a member of staff found him crying, took him to the front of the shop, and made an announcement over the loudspeaker. Within seconds, his mother had run to him and given him the biggest hug he'd ever had. She told him that he had done the right thing. He should always find a grown-up to help him—someone in a uniform, not a stranger.

  With that thought in his mind, he ran back to the stone sculpture in the clearing. The Guardian of Hare Hill was a grown-up, wasn't he? He was definitely in charge around here and, if anyone could do something like make a loudspeaker announcement in the park, it would be him. Then Charlotte or their mother—or both of them—would come running and give him a great big hug again.

  But it wasn't to be. The Guardian's face was solid stone. Ben shouted for Charlotte again, and the silence surrounding him brought a tear to his eye. He looked at the Guardian of Hare Hill. They had spoken to him twice, and on both occasions it had been when he had wanted to tell them something to help them on their way. Why didn't he want to help Ben now? Was it because he thought Ben didn't need any help?

  Ben thought of the last moment he'd been with his sister. They had rolled their dice—they added up to ten. Maybe this situation—this loneliness—was just another one of the challenges? From their trip through the park with their mother, he remembered that the tenth wooden hare was on the other side of the walled garden and, with no other idea available to him, he set off down the path, wondering if he would find his sister there.

  * * *

  Charlotte was also alone, standing in the same spot she had rolled the dice with her little brother, only Ben wasn't there. She had been through the same torrent of emotions as her brother. Fear and panic came and went—although not completely—and with no response from the Guardian, she also concluded that she should search for the tenth hare. As she made her way along the path that led round the outskirts of the walled garden, she thought back to the day Ben had got lost in the supermarket.

  She had been at school that day, so she only heard about it when she got home, but she was awoken every night by Ben screaming in the next room, his nightmare of being left alone in the supermarket recurring for two weeks straight. She could only imagine the distress he was feeling now, and hoped he would work out that their isolation was almost certainly part of the puzzle that would lead them to the tenth wooden hare.

  Hare number ten was actually two hares—a sculpture from a wide tree trunk showing two hares playfully boxing with each other. Charlotte emerged from the trees on the western side of the walled garden, expecting to see the sculpture sitting by the north wall, but it wasn't there. She took her backpack off her back and set it down on the wide step where the sculpture should have been, then took out the map. The tenth hare hadn't been drawn onto the map, but another hare was there, on the other side of the pond. She saw the number of the hare she needed to visit next and realised what had happened. Then she hoped Ben would work it out too.

  Chapter 15

  The wooden sculpture of the two hares wasn't there when Ben arrived on the other side of the walled garden. He had clung onto the thought that he knew what he was doing, and the fact that nothing was here waiting for him set him back to the edge of tears.

  We rolled ten on our dice, Ben thought. Where has the tenth wooden statue gone?

  He slumped onto a bench, throwing his backpack down next to him. For the first time in a while, he felt the cold air bite at his skin. He opened his backpack, hoping he had some extra clothes with him, but it had been a hot day when they had set off so his mother hadn’t packed anything more.

  He didn't even have a map—Charlotte had it in her backpack. He thought of Charlotte and tried to imagine what she would do if she was in his shoes right now. Somewhere deep in his soul, he had a strong suspicion she was in exactly the same situation, trying to work out why the wooden hares had disappeared. He knew his big sister was very clever, but hadn't she been just like him only a few years ago? Would he be as clever as Charlotte when he got to eight years old? He saw no reason why that wouldn't happen. He also had a strong suspicion that she had already worked out what she needed to do, so surely he should be able to do it too?

  He thought about what they had learned so far. They had to complete challenges and puzzles to
break the wooden hares out of their spells—spells cast by a witch, or maybe by someone else. Then, when they had broken the spell, they would roll the dice. A new hare would then appear—on the map and in the real world, or whatever world this was—and they would move on to the next challenge. The riddle the Guardian of Hare Hill had told them popped into his head, but he decided not to think about it for now.

  He thought again about the question that had gone through his mind when he got there: Where has the tenth wooden statue gone?

  They had rolled ten with their magic dice. But what if it wasn't ten between them—what if it was a six for Charlotte and a four for Ben?

  * * *

  The quickest path to the sixth hare was over the island in the pond. As Charlotte made her way, the words of the Guardian's riddle repeated over and over in her mind. She had solved this type of problem before, and she was sure that Ben could work it out, but she just needed some quiet time to think about it. That was time she didn't have right now—she had to complete whatever challenge was in front of her and hope it would bring her little brother back to her.

  She hesitated at the bridge that led to the island in the pond. It was safer to follow the path on the shore to the sixth hare, but it would take more time. Again, she told herself she didn't have time, and stepped onto the bridge that she had earlier seen collapse into the water. The boards creaked as she walked across, but she safely made it all the way to the island. She followed the path on the island, which forked to the left, leading over a bridge towards the fifth hare, and to the right, leading over a third bridge to the sixth hare. She took the path to her right and was about to set foot onto the bridge when she heard a shout from behind.