The Crocodile and the Rabbit: A Magical Journey in Norwa

The soft clack of wood on wood filled the room. It had been a long day and the rabbit was trying to relax, but he ended up shifting restlessly in his chair, trying to focus on his game with the crocodile. His ears kept twitching back and forth, listening for the sounds of their friends returning from their day's work.

The crocodile lost another game, smacking down his piece with a groan. "I'm tired," he said. "How much longer are they going to be?" He looked over at the rabbit, who was giving him a look that said 'are you seriously asking me that,' and shrugged. "Never mind."

The rabbit slid his last piece into place, and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smile. "Checkmate," he said with quiet satisfaction. The crocodile gave him a rueful snort as he studied the board. "That was too easy," he muttered, knocking over the pieces with one heavy paw and gathering them up again to reset the board.

"I hear footsteps," said the rabbit suddenly, sitting up straight in his chair. A moment later there was a knock at their door, and the rabbit got up to answer it. His tail quivered impatiently as he waited for someone to respond to his knock; when no one did, he knocked again.

"I'm coming!" called out an irritated voice from somewhere inside the house. There were some more thumps and shuffles, then finally their friend the bear opened the door with an exasperated sigh. He was covered in flour from head to toe, and there were egg shells stuck to his muzzle and feet where he'd missed wiping them off before entering their home. He brushed himself off hastily before gesturing for them to enter; they dutifully did so, all three taking a moment to shake themselves clean as they entered.

"Everything all right?" asked the rabbit curiously once they were inside. "We didn't think you'd be back so late." The bear had only recently moved into town; everyone still felt newly excited whenever they saw him around town or at their house playing games or listening to stories by candlelight after dark had fallen and most of Norwa's residents went to sleep.

"Oh, I'm fine," replied the bear gruffly as he started rummaging through his bag for something else clean to wear in lieu of his flour-covered clothes; eventually he gave up on cleaning himself up and just grabbed another outfit from his bag instead of bothering. "Just got caught up helping some folks out fixing some machinery at a local farm." He shook himself again before turning back to face them with a broad smile on all three pairs of lips (the crocodile only had two).

"So what happened today?" asked the bear curiously as he plopped himself down on the floor by their hearth and held out his paws towards the fire gratefully; it wasn't long before all four of them were leaning close towards it, enjoying its warmth as they listened eagerly to what had happened while they'd been apart.

*

The next morning dawned bright and early; too early for any of them except for perhaps the bear, who seemed refreshed after only a few hours' sleep by contrast with how exhausted both rabbits and crocodiles usually felt after a full day's work themselves (they'd sworn never to tell anyone this). They dragged themselves out of bed reluctantly while their friend hummed happily in front of their lavishly decorated mirror ("beauty is pain!"), managing somehow not to wake either of their other two friends cuddled together tightly under blankets on either side of them even though when they'd last checked on them both rabbits had been muttering nervously in their sleep about predators chasing them through darkened forests (the crocodile knew better than to wake either one of them if possible).