Day 4: It was somebody else's ideas...

The creativity inherent in putting the pieces together, in drawing the lines that connect events, places, times, emotions, people... What a joy when the pieces are given rather than contrived! Thus was this story received from the mouths of two friends willing to give random nouns, verbs and adjectives devoid of any knowledge that would connect one to the other. And so, the curtain rises on the Arizona desert and an impulsive and arrogant jack rabbit by the name of Hubert.

Hubie, for so he was known, was an incredible specimen for his kind. He just knew his ancestry included a jackalope somewhere in the blood line. It was the only thing to explain his incredible bound. No one knew when they had seen a rabbit with a vertical leap like his.

He came to call it his "Stellar Rising", claiming if he wanted to, he could reach the very stars. Well, one day a wise and hungry coyote came up out of the Canyon. He stumbled wearily, his paws dragging in the sand until he finally fell before the entrance to Hubie's home in hopes of a lucky meal.

Hubie leaped from the hole, leaving behind the slowly snapping jaws of an exhausted predator.

"I'm too fast for you!" he cried. "Why, with these legs I could reach the very stars."

The coyote, Salomon, as he was known in the Canyon, lifted his eyebrow in disbelief.

Hubie was irritated. "You do not believe me, I see."

The tired coyote looked up at the sky, then at Hubie. "Prove it," was all he said.

The rabbit scoffed. "I would, but I doubt you'll last the night to see the stars, must less my Stellar Rising to meet them."

"You are probably right," he replied. "Well, if the stars are lost to me, then may I witness your glory? Leap the Great Canyon, and I will be satisfied that you are worth of your hubris."

Hubie laughed aloud. So simple, he thought. He had planned to one day make the leap, for it seemed good on the other side. "So be it!" he proposed, "but we must have others to witness my 'Stellar Rising'.

Quickly he gathered all those he could find until a great group was standing witness. Lizards, Snakes, Tarantulas, and especially his jealous fellow rabbits. And there, a safe distance away, lay the dieing coyote.

"Friends, farewell! For I will not return from the other side. Follow me if you can!"

And with those words he sped to the cliff and with a great and prodigious leap he flew out into the space over the Great Canyon, but in that leap he discovered the depths of his egregious error and he fell to his death on the path below.

A raspy laugh broke the silence and the coyote rose and bounded down the path and into the canyon. He would have his dinner after all.