1

There’s a blizzard out there, covering the trees up with a thick layer of snow. Even the little wooden house seemed to have itself a ‘white blanket’. The snow gets lesser at noon.

In the little wooden house, there lived a mother bunny and her little child, the White Bunny. Looking at the better weather, the mother intended to head outside for food. She told the child “Dear, there’s no more carrot left at home, mommy…”
Before she could even finish up her sentence, the little bunny said “Mommy, there are a few!” As he finished, he stood up and climbed over to the basket hanging on the wall. From the basket, he took half a carrot out and gave it to the mother.

“But… but this is not enough, my dear…” explained the mother as she put the carrot down on to the table. “Mommy will be going out and hunt for some big carrots!”
As she was prepared to leave, she grabbed the basket on the wall and suddenly, two longan seeds rolled out of it. The little White Bunny quickly grabbed the seeds up, cover them in his chest and said “Mommy, these are the seeds given by a friend from the South. When Spring arrives, I’m going to plant them, one at the right and another one at the left of the house!”

The mother smiled and said “Oh, that’s good.” Then, she patted on her child’s head and said “Dear, stay home and keep yourself warm…”
White Bunny: “Mommy Mommy! I want to go too!”
Mother Bunny: “No, it’s freezing out there. You could get your tail frozen you know? It’s warmer in here.” The mother put some more firewood into the fireplace.
White Bunny began pulling his mother’s shirt and cried “No mommy, I want to go! I’ll be very lonely if you leave me….”
She opened the door and the freezing air rushed into the house. Suddenly, she had an idea. “My dear, mommy will give you a snowman. You won’t feel lonely when you have him then.”
“Yay! A snowman!” yelled the little bunny as he began jumping and clapping his hands.
She put down the basket, grabbed the little bunny’s hand and began making a snowman together.

A few moments later, a fat round snowman stood up gracefully. He even had some grass as his ‘hair’. The mother looked at the right, and then to the left. She smiled and told her kid “Look! How beautiful is the snowman. Hmm… too bad we don’t have any ‘eyes’ for him, or else, he’d be alive!”

The White Bunny remembered of the seeds and said “I know! I know! We’ll make his eyes out of these” Then he grabbed the seeds out from his pocket. She took the seeds from him, and carefully placed them on the snowman.

Miraculously, the eyes are on, and the snowman really did come to live! He moved his nose, his mouth, and winked with the eyes. At this very moment, a sparrow flew by and landed on the snowman’s head. He tried to reach his head and scratch it, but he had no hands.
Too bad both the bunnies did not see the snowman’s action as they were busy digging the snow away to give the snowman a clear land. In the same time, White Bunny grabbed a stick on the floor and stabbed it into the snowman as his right arm.
The snowman quickly lifted his ‘arm’ and scratched at his head. Before he could even put down his arm, the little bunny came forth and yelled “Mommy! Look! The snowman lifted his right arm!”
But when the little bunny was turning away towards his mother, the snowman immediately put down his arm.

The mother walked nearer to the snowman and began inspecting it. “Oh dear, isn’t the arm right there facing downwards?” She giggled and added on “Well, it really seems so realistic!”
The snowman winked again and smiled.
Little bunny seemed to found out something fishy with the snowman’s face. He did not see the snowman’s expression just now, but it’s the missing nose that had been troubling him. He quickly ran back into the house for a ‘nose’.
After a few moments of searching, he grabbed that half a piece of carrot and plunged it into the snowman’s face.

But the nose was short and the snowman did not like it. As the bunnies turned around, he threw the carrot away, but was mistakenly thrown in front of the little bunny.
“Hey. How come the nose fell on the floor?” he grabbed the carrot, and put it back onto the snowman’s face.
Yet, the snowman threw it away again.
This time, the little bunny started to understand something. “Hmm… I know why! You don’t like the nose huh? It must be too short. Never mind that. Mother will look for the best ‘nose’ for you. But you have to use this for now.” The little bunny began explaining to the snowman.
This time, snowman did not do anything to the nose and nodded his head after hearing to the little bunny’s explanation. Again, they did not notice snowman nodding his head.

Everything’s done, and the mother went back into the house for the basket. “Dear, stay home and keep youself warm, don’t catch a cold!”
“Yes, mommy!” shouted the bunny. “Mommy, can you please look for a beautiful ‘nose’ for snowman?”
“Alright then, quickly, get back into the house.”

The little White Bunny shut the door and sat down beside the fireplace. Looking at the dancing fire, he fell asleep in the warm and cozy little house.


2
Out on a snowy day, snowman began stretching himself and dancing around. He jumped across the clear land and landed on the snow, there wasn’t any mark on the snow though, since the snowman himself was made of snow!
Out of a sudden, there was some voice coming from the woods. “Ouch… Ouch… My back!”

“Who… who is it?” asked the snowman. The snowman walked forward with curiosity and found a small tree yelling. The tree was pressured by the thickening layer of snow and its back was crooked as if it was an old man. It is indeed tiring to even look at this.
“Ouch! My back!” The tree did not realize that the snowman was actually standing behind it.

The snowman tried to sweep the layer of snow on the tree with its arm, and the tree plunged back upward.
“Ahh~~ Now it feels great!” said the relieved little tree. “Hmm.. but who was it that helped me out?”
When the tree was trying to turn its head and have a clear view, snowman left, thinking it’s just a small matter helping the tree.
Up on the Pine tree, there was a hole. There lived a little squirrel who was bored of the weather. It’s time for him to come out and have fun since the weather had been better. The playful squirrel ran along the tree branch and slipped off on the frozen ice on the branch. Just when it was falling, snowman passed by and the squirrel ended up falling into the snowman’s wooden stick arm. The snowman rapidly put the squirrel back on the tree.
When the squirrel came back to its conscious mind, come to think of it, why would he fell on another tree branch when there wasn’t any tree below? It seemed like someone was helping him.

Just when snowman was trying to leave, the squirrel spotted him and said “Is it you who helped me?”
The snowman was stopped by the squirrel’s words.
“It’s you! It’s you! I know it!” laughed the squirrel.
The snowman did not move or say anything.

“Oh, I know. You don’t want anyone to know, right? That’s alright, you go on and leave.” The squirrel climbed back up into his tree hole, but he popped his head out and peeked at the snowman.
Snowman quickly ran off, but did not realize that the squirrel had been peeking at him.

On his way back, the snowman saw something on the floor. It was a lovely sparrow, lying on the freezing snow. He gently grabbed the sparrow up, and wiped off the snow on its body.
The sparrow was nearly frozen to death. Snowman wished to give it warmth and hugged it in his chest. Yet, since snowman was made from snow, his body would have been cold either!
Snowman suddenly remembered about the muddy area up ahead of the woods, so he brought the sparrow along and put it on the mud.
At this point, snowman was thinking, he should get something to cover up the sparrow. So he grabbed a flock of dried leaves and covered the sparrow up.

However, a cold wind blew off the leaves. The snowman couldn’t help it but to only keep on chasing at the ‘flying’ leaves.
The sparrow was shivering as the wind kept blowing. But, out of a sudden, the trees around the sparrow bent down and covered the sparrow with their leaves. It seemed that the snowman’s effort had even driven the trees to show some sympathy.
By the time the snowman returned with the dried leaves, the trees stood back up again.
The Snowman slowly placed the thick layer of leaves on the sparrow. The sparrow began to open its eyes, but somehow, it was so tired that it closed its eyes again. Anyhow, the sparrow had a glance at the snowman.

Snowman smiled as he saw the sparrow gaining back its consciousness. Then, he sat beside the trees and looked at the sparrow silently.
When the sparrow got warmth and gained back its strength, it flew above the snowman and began chirping as if it was saying “Thank you!”
Yet, Snowman isn’t moving at all and acted as if he did not hear anything.
While the sparrow was trying to fly back home, it fell onto the ground again. Snowman wanted to help, but was hesitating and worrying that the sparrow could see him.
Anyhow, he came forward and grabbed the sparrow up again, wondering where its nest could be. After a while of searching, he found the nest up on a tall tree. But how on earth is the Snowman going to help the bird back to the nest? He glanced at the nest helplessly.

“Hey Snowman! Over here! I’m here to help!” yelled the squirrel on the tree.
The snowman petrified himself again.
Knowing that the snowman would not move nor say anything, the squirrel bent down on the snowman and said “Come on little sparrow, I’ll bring you back to your nest.” Then, the snowman quickly put the sparrow on the squirrel’s back with his arm. With the squirrel’s help, the sparrow reached the nest in no time.
Looking at the sparrow being home, Snowman left in a great speed. Without being noticed, he collected the dried leaves back in his arms and put it under the tree.
When the squirrel tucked in the sparrow on its bed, a piece of the dried leaf flew into the nest, and the squirrel grabbed it to cover the sparrow. When he looked below, it was the snowman that threw the leaves up, one after another.
The squirrel was there to get the leaf and cover the sparrow. Sooner or later, the sparrow was covered in thick layer of leaves again.

The little sparrow gained conscious again and began chirping. This time, it was so loud that even the snowman sitting under the tree could hear it. Knowing that it is now safe, the snowman smiled and left home.

Along his way, he saw a cherry tree covered in snow. Gently, he blew off the snow and looking at the way the snow dances in the air. It was so graceful. He walked back to where he was with a happy heart.


(to be continued…)

Labels: n. Story palace