A Bird with a Ladder

Once Namine had found her way out of the woods, she saw a little white cottage with a red-shingled roof, a white brick chimney, blue window shutters, and a small blue front door. In front of the house was a gate that matched the window shutters and door, which was accompanied by a small white brick wall and a long white fence that surrounded the house.

"I wonder who lives here?" she said, as she walked over to the gate. She stood there as she then heard a familiar voice calling out from above an open window.

"Mary-Kate! Where is that girl? Where did she put them? Mary-Kate! Mary-Kate!"

"The rabbit!" Namine exclaimed, her face lightening up as she saw Br'er Rabbit from the window. Just as she opened the gate and headed toward the front porch, Br'er Rabbit closed the window shutters and opened the front door a moment later.

"No use! Can't wait! I'm terribly late! Oh, me! Oh, my! Oh, me! Oh, my!" he exclaimed, as he darted out of the house, holding a gold trumpet in his hand and wearing a white tunic that had a red heart printed on it and a pale blue court ruff over his regular outfit.

"Excuse me, Mr. Rabbit!" Namine said to Br'er Rabbit, "I've been trying to—"

Br'er Rabbit turned around and ran over to Namine, though he had thought she was this "Mary-Kate" person he was calling out earlier.

"Why, Mary-Kate! What are you doing out here?" Br'er Rabbit asked her, frowning at her.

"Mary-Kate?" Namine repeated, a puzzled expression forming on her face.

"Don’t just stand there, do something! No, no! Go get my gloves! I'm late!" Br'er Rabbit barked, hopping in front of Namine and holding up his large pocket watch.

"But late for what?" Namine asked him, "That's just—"

"My gloves," Br'er Rabbit shouted, blaring his trumpet vociferously, forcing Namine to go inside the cottage. "At once! Do you hear?"

"Goodness," Namine said to herself, as she headed up the blue staircase. "I suppose I should be taking orders from Toulouse next."

Once she made her way up the stairs to Br'er Rabbit‘s bedroom, Namine started her search for Br'er Rabbit's missing gloves.

"If I were a rabbit," she said, looking through a white wooden dresser, "where would I keep my gloves?"

When she opened a porcelain vase-like jar that was on the dresser, there were cookies in various shapes and colored frostings, and each of them had messages, such as "TAKE ONE" and "TRY ME". These were the same cookies she saw back when she was struggling to get the key onto the table at only ten inches tall.

"Oh, thank you." Namine said, as she picked out a pink flower-shaped cookie with the words "EAT ME" written in brown frosting and took a bite of it, "Don’t mind if I do." As she looked through a chest full of clothes while humming, however, Namine started to grow at an alarming rate, and her head hit the ceiling. The cookie had caused her to grow again—just like last time!

"Oh! Oh, no, no! Not again!" she exclaimed.

Br'er Rabbit tapped his foot rapidly and looked at his watch with an impatient frown on his face. He jolted in shock and rushed back inside the house, with a fear of being very, very tardy.

"Mary-Kate!" he called out.

Namine was still growing very rapidly as her arms emerged from the windows, and her right foot was toppling over furniture in Br'er Rabbit's room, just as Br'er Rabbit had darted up the staircase to the door of his bedroom.

"Now, you see here, Mary-Kate!" Br'er Rabbit started to say as he opened the door, only to see Namine's colossal right foot struggling to get through. "HEEEELLLLP!"

The brown rabbit gasped in shock and tried to escape, but he was pushed down the stairs by her foot, which had finally found its way through the door, and blared his trumpet again. He then headed for the front door and opened it, only to be pushed through some of his broken possessions by Namine's now fully huge foot. As he got out from underneath the destruction, the frenzied rabbit cried out in horror as he saw what was happening to his house. Namine's arms had sprouted out of the windows, and her feet had emerged from the doorways.

"NOOOO! HELP! MONSTER!!" Br'er Rabbit shouted in a panic, running away from his house and blaring his trumpet again, "Help! Assistance!!"

Namine was struggling to get up, but it was no use. Br'er Rabbit's house was too snug for her to break free, and therefore, she was completely stuck like a fly attached to flypaper.

"Oh, dear!" she complained, placing her left hand on the rooftop. Just then, she heard Br'er Rabbit's voice, as he had come back with someone to help him.

"A monster! A monster, Leonidas! In my house, Leonidas!"

"Leonidas." Namine repeated in an unamused tone of voice, as she recalled seeing him in the ocean and him ignoring her desperate call for help while rolling her eyes.

Br'er Rabbit was hopping around Leonidas, who was walking with him down the dirt path back to his house.

"Settle down, old chap," Leonidas calmly said to Br'er Rabbit, as he twirled his cane with his right hand. "Can't be as bad as all that, you know."

"My poor house..." Br'er Rabbit said to Leonidas, still worried about his precious home. "Ohhh, my beautiful roof and rafters...all my walls, and—there it is!"

Leonidas stopped in front of the house, and his hat flew off his head as his eyes widened in shock, and he almost dropped his cane in the process.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, raising his eyebrows and his shocked expression changing into a smile, "Jolly well is."

Namine's giant hands opened the shutters, and she peeked through the open window to see Br'er Rabbit and Leonidas, her eyes blinking with curiosity.

"Well, do your thing, Leonidas!" Br'er Rabbit exclaimed, pushing Leonidas through the open gate and hiding behind it.

Leonidas approached the gigantic Namine and examined her carefully, before replying as he tapped her sandal with his cane: "Yes, indeed. An extraordinary situation, but..."

"But-but-but-but what?!" Br'er Rabbit exclaimed, finally coming out from behind the gate.

Leonidas blew his nose on his light blue handkerchief and put it away before placing a paw on Namine's foot and crossed his right leg over his left.

"But I have a very simple solution!" he said, delighting the giant Namine.

"Thank goodness!" Namine said in response to Leonidas' announcement.

"W-W-W-What is it?" stuttered Br'er Rabbit.

"Simply pull it out the chimney."

"Yes! G-G-Go on, go on! Pull it out!" Br'er Rabbit exclaimed, running over and trying to push Leonidas, who was simply immovable.

"Who, me?" Leonidas questioned him, "Don’t be ridiculous! What we need is a...Er...Hmmm..."

A whistling noise was heard once Leonidas started thinking, and he turned to see a tall, slender bird with black feathers, gray sideburns, white eyes with black pupils that lack visible irises, a long, flat tail, and a yellow beak, feet, and long legs, wearing a red sleeveless shirt, a white shirt front, a matching shirt collar, and opera gloves, a blue bow tie, gray calf-length pants, red socks, a black English cap, and matching shoes with white spats over them. He was also holding a broom in his right wing and a long ladder in his left as he was walking by Br'er Rabbit's house.

"A bird with a ladder!" Leonidas exclaimed.

"Hmmm? Oh, Snipes!" Br'er Rabbit called out to the bird, grabbing his attention, "Snipes!"

Snipes lifted his cap up as a part of greeting the two, but he then felt himself being pulled through the gate by Br'er Rabbit.

"We need a lard with a bidder...a bidder..." the rabbit said to Snipes, "Can you help us?"

"At your service, governor!" Snipes replied kindly to the rabbit, saluting to him. He suddenly dropped his broom when he felt Leonidas' paw on his shoulder.

“Snipes, my lad," Leonidas said to him. "Have you ever been down a chimney?"

"Why, governor," Snipes said. "I've been down more chimneys!"

"Excellent, excellent!" Leonidas said with a smile, "You just pop down the chimney and haul that monster out of there."

Namine was confused by Leonidas' choice to have Snipes pull her out of the chimney, for she was simply too big to fit right through it. *Why would they have a small bird pull me out of such a tiny chimney?* she wondered, *I don’t think this will help me out at all...*

"Right-o, governor!" Snipes said, climbing past by Namine. Just then, he moved back down to see Namine through the window and cried out in alarm, "Monster?!"

He let out a frightened scream and scurried down the ladder, only to be pulled on the tail by Br'er Rabbit and Leonidas. The two were trying to calm him down and get him back up the ladder so he would do his job, but Snipes was too frightened by the horrific vision of the gigantic Namine to do so. Snipes scurried back down the ladder again, only to be carried up by Leonidas.

"Settle down now. That's better," Leonidas said to the frightened bird in an enthusiastic voice. "Snipes, lad. You're passing up a golden opportunity."

"I am?" Snipes repeated, a smile of delight lightening up on his face.

"You can be famous," Leonidas added, as he was still taking Snipes up the ladder. That added the fuel to Snipes' budding excitement.

"I can?"

"Of course!" Leonidas chirped. Once they reached to the top of the roof, Leonidas placed Snipes into the chimney.

"There's a brave lad! In you go now," he continued to say to Snipes. "Nothing to it, ol' boy. Simply tie your tail around the monster's neck and drag it out."

"Bu-But-But, governor!" Snipes started to reply, only to be shoved down the chimney by Leonidas.

"Good luck, Snipes."

Just as Snipes was completely pushed down the chimney, smoke came out from the fireplace, shrouded the room, flew up in the air, and tickled Namine's nose. She felt her head lifting itself up. The poor, giant Intergalactic girl was about to sneeze!

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Leonidas wobbled on the roof once he felt Namine's head bouncing him around, and he jumped onto the ladder as fast as he could.

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ahh...ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Br'er Rabbit took refuge behind Namine's giant foot as the smoke emerged from the open window.

Suddenly, Namine sneezed loudly.

"Ah-ah-ah...AH-AH-AHH-CHOO!"

Snipes swiftly flew out of the chimney and into the sky like a rocket launching into outer space. It was quite a surprise to Br'er Rabbit and Leonidas as they watched him flying into the clouds above them and disappearing out of the view.

“Well, there goes Snipes!" said Leonidas, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Poor Snipes!" Namine said as her eyes gazed from the open window, and her hand was in front of the window.

Now that Snipes was no use for the monstrous problem, Leonidas had something else in mind. So he took out a match and used it to light up a pipe that had been in his mouth the whole time he was present. "Uhh...perhaps we should try a more energetic remedy!"

"Yes!" Br'er Rabbit replied to Leonidas, pointing to his pocket watch, "Anything! Anything, but hurry!"

"I propose that we, uh..."

"Yes! Go on! Yes!"

"I propose that we...YOW!!!" Leonidas cried, as he had felt the flame of the lit match burn his paw.

"By Jove, that's it!" exclaimed the lion, "We'll burn the house down!"

"Yes!" Br'er Rabbit replied, chuckling and nodding in response to his suggestion, "Burn the house—WHAT?!" But his eyes widened in shock because he knew that would mean he would lose his house to the burning flames if they would choose to go with it.

"Oh, no!" Namine said, also alarmed by Leonidas' new plan.

Leonidas started gathering any of Br'er Rabbit's valuables that would be used as firewood as he started to sing a joyous tune of his. The first item he picked out was a chair, much to the poor rabbit's worries.

Leonidas: (spoken, laughing) Ho, ho, ho!
(singing) *Oh, we'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll put the beast to rout*
*Some kindling, just a stick or two*
*This bit of rubbish ought to do*

Leonidas picked up a pale pink-colored grandfather clock with disinclined help from Br'er Rabbit. The clock was tossed into the wall and smashed into thousands of pieces, shocking Br'er Rabbit. "Oh, dear!" he said fearfully, as Leonidas gathered more items with a pink wheelbarrow that belonged to the rabbit.

Leonidas: *We'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Namine was watching the entire scene with her bright blue eyes as Br'er Rabbit scurried over toward Leonidas.

"No, no, no! Not my beautiful birdhouse!" he exclaimed, but it was already too late for the anxious rabbit to stop him. Leonidas had already taken a white birdhouse and split it in half, scaring a small group of bluebirds away. He then tossed it into the pile of the destroyed furniture as Br'er Rabbit bonked his head onto the broken gate.

Leonidas: *Oh, we'll roast the blighter's toes*
*We'll toast the bounder's nose*
*Just fetch that gate*
*We'll make it clear that monsters aren't welcome here*

"Oh, me, oh, my!" Br'er Rabbit said with a nervous look on his face, as he carried the gate over to the pile and placed it there. Then Leonidas placed a paw out in front of him, indicating that he needed something from him.

"Match," he said to him.

"Match?" Br'er Rabbit repeated, as he handed a matchstick to Leonidas. Then Leonidas used Br'er Rabbit to light up the match and placed it on the stack of roof shingles and the obliterated furniture.

Leonidas: *Without a single doubt*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Then Br'er Rabbit sang along, as well.

Br'er Rabbit: *We'll smoke the monster out*

"Nooo! No! My poor house and furniture!" he exclaimed, as his worries had only heightened due to Leonidas' recent action.

White smoke started to rise up from the pile of the furniture, making Namine feel sorry for the poor rabbit.

"Oh, dear! This is serious," she said. "I simply must—"

Namine suddenly let out a short gasp of shock, and her eyes focused on a small garden of carrots located on the left side of the house.

"A garden!" she gasped, as she reached her gigantic hand for a carrot, not noticing Br'er Rabbit running over to the carrot and grabbing hold of it.

"Perhaps if I eat something, it would make me grow small." Namine strained.

It was a brief struggle, but soon, Namine lifted the carrot and Br'er Rabbit from the garden and up toward her face. Br'er Rabbit was struggling to break free from her grip as he swung around in a panic.

"NO!!! Let go! HELP!!!" he cried fearfully, thinking that he would be eaten by her.

"I'm sorry, but I must eat something." Namine said to Br'er Rabbit.

"Not me, you...you...you barbarian!" Br'er Rabbit shouted, aiming the carrot at Namine as if it were a sword. Namine took a big bite of the carrot and the tip fell off, surprising Br'er Rabbit. His left hand was hidden inside his pink shirt sleeve as it then popped out of there, and Br'er Rabbit fell off, free from the female's grip.

"Ahh! Monster!" Br'er Rabbit yelled.

Namine was shrinking at a very rapid pace, thanks to the carrot she found in Br'er Rabbit's garden. Leonidas was still blowing the smoke in an attempt to make a fire, whereas Br'er Rabbit was scurrying away from Namine and tripped over her shrinking foot.

Namine had shrunken down to the size of a small figure again, just like when she drank the bottle of the multi-flavored liquid.

"Ahh! I’m late!" Br'er Rabbit exclaimed, as he had taken yet another look at his pocket watch. "Oh, dear! I'm here! I should be there! I'm late! I'm late!"

"I say, do you have a match?" Leonidas asked Br'er Rabbit. However, he was given a rapid handshake by the rabbit instead.

"Must go! Goodbye! Hello! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" Br'er Rabbit exclaimed, as he then hurried off on the dirt path and disappeared once again.

Namine had made her way from underneath the front door, yet she still had to go after Br'er Rabbit.

"Wait! Please wait!" she exclaimed, running over to the front porch and jumping up and down.

"Ahh, young lady," Leonidas said to the miniature Intergalactic girl. "Do you have a match?"

"I'm sorry, but...Mr. Rabbit!" was all Namine had to say to Leonidas before hurrying off.

Leonidas shook his head and raised an eyebrow as his hands were placed on his hips. "No cooperation," he said of Namine and Br'er Rabbit. "No cooperation at all. Well, can't have monsters about. Very well have to carry on by myself."

Then Leonidas took the broken legs of Br'er Rabbit's furniture and used them to make a fire, and he blew some smoke once a small flame formed inside the hole of the broken piece.