The Legendary Rabbit of Death - volume four

By Ræchel Togden

The Rabbit of Death who lives in the Cave of Everlasting Terror, is a kind rabbit who enjoys helping rabbits in need of change. Ræchel's weird tales purvey a heart-warming message: Everyone has an individual genius that can be drawn out under the right circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aro Books worldwide
• Release date: May 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781898185550

Book preview

The Legendary Rabbit of Death - volume four

The Legendary Rabbit of Death - volume four

The Legendary Rabbit of Death - Volume Four

Ræchel Togden

2019

Aro Books

worldwide

, PO Box 111, 5 Court Close, Cardiff, Wales, CF14 1JR

© 2019 by by Ræchel Togden

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.The Legendary Rabbit of Death

First Edition 2019

ISBN: 978-1-898185-48-2 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-898185-55-0 (epub)

To my dear brother Robert who gave me good suggestions for my stories, and to my dear friend Ronja.

Foreword

My name is Ræchel Renate Tresise Togden. I wrote this book called The Legendary Rabbit of Death with my dad. I illustrated the stories too. It all started off with drawing rabbits. My dad scanned them and then helped me colour them with Photoshop. I didn’t know anything about Photoshop at first – but my dad showed me how to do lots of things. I learnt more and more with each rabbit. There are lots of good things in Photoshop but it’s not something that is easy unless you have a dad or mum to help you. At first my dad was always saying If you do that you’ll kill the texture, but after a while he didn’t have to tell me that any more. I learnt what the filters did and how to make different layers. I sometimes got mixed up between layers – so it was good to have my dad there to tell me when I was on the wrong layer. My dad and mum are good artists so they always gave me good advice and helped me with my book.

When I’d painted nine rabbits, ’ö-Dzin (one of my parents’ publishers) said he would make a calendar of my rabbits, and so I painted another three. Now the rabbits are on calendars, mugs, and refrigerator magnets. Because people liked my rabbits ’ö-Dzin asked me if I would like to write stories about them. I said Yes, and my dad said he would help me with typing – because I am very slow and make lots of mistakes.

So then I made up all these stories. I told my dad what was in the stories and he made notes and typed them. My dad helped me a lot by looking up weird and funny names on the internet for me. If I wanted rabbits to have a lot of names that started with the same letter we looked them up together and I chose the ones that sounded good. Sometimes I chose the names because I liked them – and sometimes I chose them because they sounded funny. My dad always liked loony names – or names like Borraccio from Shakespeare. I didn’t want to have a rabbit called Borraccio – but I did use it for one of the hedgehogs who live in the ‘Forest of Grunting Hedgehogs’.

My dad helped me when the story got confused and when I didn’t know how to end it. He gave me ideas and then I could change them round however I liked. Each story took a long time to write because I got tired after an hour and every time we started writing we had to read out the whole story again from the beginning so I’d get ideas for how to write more of the story.

I hope you like these stories because they were good fun to write – even though it was hard work.

Ræchel Renate Tresise Togden

The Rabbit of Enjoyment

No one could—ever—have imagined—not in in a million years—that Deirdre Mildred Griselda Grumbleburrow would actually—ever—enjoy—anything—with anyone or anything anywhere. She was the Rabbit of Moodiness – and she had the dreaded ‘Triple S Syndrome’: Sullen, Sulky, and Surly. Her friends—or those who tried to be her friends—called her Grumbling Griselda. Other rabbits called her Dreary Mildew or The Incredible Sulk. Deirdre was always miserable and complained about everything.

She moithered, whinged, griped, groused, grouched, kvetched, and bleated too. If the sun didn’t shine she would be miserable. If it did shine, she’d moan that it was too bright. In the Winter she’d grumble that she had to wear too many clothes to keep warm. In the Spring she’d wail about her fur après-ski-boots being too hot. In the Summer she’d complain because she couldn’t wear her suede coat. In the Autumn she’d whinge because she couldn’t wear her Summer dresses. If it rained she grumbled because she couldn’t wear her smart shiny shoes. If it didn’t rain she whined because the dryness was bad for her hair. Her favourite television programmes were always on at the times when she wanted to do something else. Her favourite books all came to an end—and, whatever happened—it was always unfair.

Everything was unfair. If anything nice ever happened to anyone it was unfair, because it hadn’t happened to Deirdre Mildred Griselda Grumbleburrow.

One day Jovius Jocularis Jocosemby, the Rabbit of Laughter, decided to have a big party and wanted to invite everyone he knew. He was a kind rabbit, and so he even invited Deirdre. Some of his friends weren’t so happy about Deirdre being invited. The Rabbit of Naughtiness said, Do you think it’s a good idea to have Deirdre at your party? She might whinge about not being comfortable – or blather about it not being light or dark enough.

Yes … that wouldn’t be fun … said the Rabbit of Skinniness.

Maybe … maybe … maybe … Jovius, the Rabbit of Laughter, sighed, … but she might change one day – and, if no one ever invites her, she will just get sulkier and sulkier.

Yes … said Norbert, the Rabbit of Naughtiness, … and that would definitely not be a good thing.

No it wouldn’t … said Melissa, the Rabbit of Destiny, … and we don’t have to stop having fun just because Deirdre sulks all the way through the party – do we?

No … said Hazel, the Rabbit of Skinniness, … I can still be happy – especially because no one calls me ‘ten tummies’ anymore. Maybe the Rabbit of Death will help Deirdre – like he helped me. That would be good – but … it would be very frightening … and she might not like that.

Yes – but how would the Rabbit of Death find out about Deirdre?

I could go and see him … said Byron, the Rabbit of Poetry, … because he was very kind to me, and I’m not frightened of him anymore.

He wouldn’t like it if we complained about Deirdre, though … said Jovius. "He doesn’t like it when rabbits complain about each other and tell tales about each other. Anyway – it will not spoil the party for me if