The Fossil-Hare

Dispatch by Carrier-Bird

Dear Miss Connolly

I'm sure you will be grateful to hear we have achieved landfall, if in a rather sudden way, and have succeeded in erecting a base camp on this beach before venturing into the interior. As a rather surprising turn of events, we have discovered a stowaway- Miss Kiralette could not restrain from attending such an adventure, and made her presence known at landfall.
While I am fearful for her safety, I am gladdened she is near, in this, the final days of Caledon should we fail to discover the secrets of this island's appearance, and how to address the damage a vast volcanic explosion is likely to cause.

Several huts have been erected to stow our equipment and provide needed shelter once the boat departs to a safe distance, which it seems is the intention of it's captain, come the favorable tides and repair of the inadvertent damage it's sudden landfall wrought on the hull.

That the craft was being piloted by a Pengi, I will admit, for often I let the birds mimic my steering on the Steamboat at home- note that boat though, is land-locked, lacking an engine of yet, so I'm sure the bird in mimicking my actions at home had no expectation of a crash, or even control of movement of the craft, but only intent to help the captain by holding and turning the big wheel in his absence. Be that as it may, a the crash did occur, luckily no-one was hurt.

The Pengis have been uneasy of late, and one seems to have utterly disappeared the first night- I assume the burden I had given it sapped it of the will to journey, and over side it went to swim home. This is unusual for the character of these birds, who are usually steadfast and hardy, but I see no other explanation. This second night, they did not wish to be bedded down, clucking nervously as I left. One even ventured out of the hay-bed, and ended up seeking the company of Duchess Eva, who was startled in her sleep by the unexpected hronking.

The remaining birds have been brought ashore, and, after regurgitating on my leg in their peculiar method of thanks, seem much more content in these surrounding, as dangerous as they may seem.

I must not omit a discovery made by the professor at our land-fall, that of enormous depressions in the earth which he ascribes to rodents of extraordinary size. None have been spotted and However large, I trust our fire will keep them at bay for the night.

Evening- a fitful sleep due to gaseous rumblings and noxious gasses present here. No names.

Dawn- I awake to find another Pengi missing, the others in a fright- they screech as Bardhaven approaches, but I find nothing unusual in this. I move into the forest, where it has likely fled, penetrating the ferny brush, There on the ground I see a vegetable, a carrot of extraordinary size! Clearly as large as small-bore cannon. Half nibbled, and discarded, as I move to touch it it gives off an uncommon heat, so I leave it for the professor to examine in situ. I continue into the verdant rain forest, and reach an escarpment- Looking down i am amazed by the sight in front of me.

It is a rabbit in form, but an elephant in size, It sits amidst a field of ferns- wait, not ferns, these are carrot-tops of the size seen earlier, springing haphazardly from the soil, which is also strewn with overturned canisters, barrels of metal, with strange glyph-markings on the sides. This Beast does not see me as it sits in its field, waiting, perhaps tending. It sits 12 foot tall at the shoulder, its plush fur interrupted by enormous fangs protruding form it's whiskered head.
This, then, is the lepus Giganticus, the Proto-bunny, who has not walked the earth these 10,000 years, patiently minding it's garden!

I find charcoal and my journal and quickly begin to sketch in my seclusion, noting it's features, eager to return this back to the Professor for study. As I draw I am thankful that this monster is a herbivore, content with the giant carrots in abundance. I sketch on, when I see a wild boar slowly near the field, grazing at the carrot-tops, ignorant of the stone-still Paleobunneh in it's path. With a swoop, faster than my speed of sight, and but a horrible blur, the Protohare swoops up this boar in it's great clawed paw, picks the boar up and pops it in his mouth, where it is munched quietly.

I can but gasp!

Later- Running and Hiding

It has seen me! and is close behind, I must make for camp, even should it follow... I hope you receive this missive safely, pray for my safety, too! I must hurry!

G. Abel



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