IV
The high powered rifle in my hands felt out of place in the peaceful looking land, but we kept watching back to back, while the two men worked and talked quietly. John spotted our visitors first. We turned at his shout, looking in the direction of his outthrust arm. Five or six small creatures bounded through the vegetation that grew to our knees. They came towards us in bouncing leaps, and we were so quiet in frozen motion, we could hear the swishing as they approached. John still held his rifle in his lap. When he raised it, I whispered.
"Don't kill anything." We were intruders here. I thought about unseen Gods watching this scene unfold. The creatures were about a hundred feet away when they saw us. They stopped, as if by command, vanishing into the thick grass. Nothing moved for a minute. Carl still held a spade in his hand, bent over in the act of digging. Paul was kneeling, holding a thick plant in gloved hands. Then we saw the creatures again, bounding closer. They were bigger than rabbits, fat and furry in appearance with large round eyes. As they came over the tops of the grass, I followed the first in the sights of the rifle until it was close enough to distinguish the brown fur and short legs. The others, there were six in all, hopped cautiously behind the leader and stopped in a comical straight line.
Carl straightened his back and they were gone. I stood up on the hood and watched them reappear.
"Here they are," I said quietly, pointing in front of the car. The creatures were twenty feet away, watching us with eyes that never blinked.
"Hey," shouted Paul to relieve the tension. They stood their ground.
"What's the idea of you six fat clowns scaring us?"
"I forgot to breathe," Carl said, sucking air into his lungs.
"They got us outnumbered but they look harmless," John chuckled.