Warden's Desert Surprise: Monsters

To say he despised water wouldn’t be correct. He didn’t despise water. He appreciated the rain, the dew, an oasis in the desert. What he didn’t appreciate was this deep lake that had appeared in one of the canyons within his territory - likely thanks to an underground aquifer erupting - and the fact that no matter how many times he dove down to retrieve items for the flooded village, his job never seemed to be done. Someone always needed something else.

 

“And you’re positive you can’t simply replace it,” he stated more than asked.

 

The jackrabbit shook his head.

 

“Of course you can’t.”

 

“I know you’ve already done so much for my colony,” the jackrabbit nodded back to where his colony had set up a temporary camp, “but this is truly an item that is of great value to us.”

 

“Just like all those toys I retrieved earlier?” Warden questioned, snaking his neck into an arch so he could eye the kits playing with the round hoops he had fished out the day before.

 

At least the father jackrabbit had it in him to look embarrassed. “What’s important to a kit and to an adult are very different, let me assure you.”

 

Warden grumbled and tilted his head to stare at the jackrabbit. “So help me, if this is yet another trinket, I’ll leave you and your colony to fend for yourselves on these dunes.”

 

The jackrabbit twitched at the thought of being left vulnerable for the predators that stalked the sands and canyons at night. Warden wouldn’t admit it outloud, but he wouldn’t leave the colony by itself, even if all this latest diving venture yielded was another toy. He didn’t have the heart. Besides, it was his job to keep the monsters from eating people.

 

But the jackrabbit didn’t have to know that.

 

He shoved out on the lake, gliding across the sandy water without hardly a ripple. It killed him to know that others of his kind lived on bodies of water such as this, and yet he was wholly unfamiliar with the ins and outs of what surely must be familiar and welcoming to those not raised in arid lands.

 

The sediment had yet to settle in the lake, reducing it to an ochre puddle of water he had no desire to swim in nor try to locate items in. However, his sense of direction had always been one of his strengths and had saved him from many sandstorms. He paused over an unremarkable part of the lake. The remains of the village were a little further up, but as he had learned earlier, things often floated in water - imagine that - much like the shifting of the sand dunes.

 

Perhaps life on the water and life on the sand weren’t so different.

 

He dipped under the surface, paddling with his webbed feet. Nictitating membranes slid across his eyes, shielding them from the grit suspended in the warm water. Sunlight streamed in golden bands around him, slowly fading as he plunged deeper and deeper.

 

The water was far cooler along the bottom of the lake where very little light penetrated. Shrubs and stunted trees dotted the area. It was surreal seeing a landscape that had been above water not even a week earlier now flooded and buried under a lake.

 

He scanned the area for the stone carving the jackrabbit had told him about. It was a meticulously carved ring with all of his forefathers’ names etched in it, along with his name and the sons of his who had children already. In his head he imagined it would have to either be a very large carving, or the name would have to be incredibly small. There was no lie in the saying ‘multiplied like rabbits’.

 

Something on the murky bottom moved.

 

Warden froze.

 

A three day old lake should not already have life teeming in it, but definitely not life half the size of himself.

 

He squinted. Whatever it was had stopped moving and had resumed perfectly blending in with the bottom. On the surface he was a master at tracking creatures, even the ones that tried to hide in the sand. To his frustration, his skills didn’t seem to transfer over to the water.

 

With a renewed sense of urgency, he continued scanning the flooded village. At last, what he hoped was the precious genealogical carving loomed out of the gloom. It was bigger than he had anticipated, though not as large as he had jokingly imagined. It was at least three jackrabbits in diameter, but was far thinner than seemed possible.

 

Carefully, he poked his head through it and began to paddle upwards with it looped around his neck.

 

Even with his skills hampered by the low visibility and the unfamiliarity of the water, he sensed a presence following him. Knowing he was better on land, he paddled harder, angling for the shoreline. Something brushed his tail feathers.

 

The water warmed and sunlight made the suspended sand particles glitter like gems in the firelight. Bubbles streamed from his nostrils. With a well positioned kick against a boulder, he thrust himself up and out of the water and onto the sand, much to the surprise of the jackrabbit.

 

A writhing mass of legs burst out of the water after him, narrowly missing his tail.

 

Warden hissed, backing up and putting himself between the jackrabbit and the creature. It appeared to be an oversized fairy shrimp. He’d witnessed them spring up in puddles after a hard rain, but those were miniscule. This thing could eat jackrabbits for breakfast. It was even brave enough to go after him, and he was no small frail creature of the desert.

 

Thankfully, just as he didn’t appreciate the watery landscape, it didn’t appreciate the dry, dusty land it had partially crawled up on. With less grace than an overturned turtle, it hopped and flipped itself back into the lake and disappeared beneath the surface.

 

When his heart beat returned to a steady rhythm, he turned around and faced the stunned jackrabbit. He lowered the carved stone to the ground and slipped his head out from it. Before the grin could fully break out on the jackrabbit’s face, Warden leaned in real close.

 

“No. More. Diving. Understood?”

 

The jackrabbit couldn’t nod fast enough. “Yes, Sir. No more diving. Understood.”

 

Warden harrumphed and lifted his head high above the jackrabbit and looked back to the lake. Just what he needed. More monsters to worry about.