Citrus Jelly's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

The tracks ran out. Citrus Jelly stopped where the last green smudge faded into black. The slope kept going down, he could feel it under his paws, but he couldn't see it. The blue light from the seam above was gone. He held one paw in front of his face and saw nothing. "Spearmint?" he called. The hum answered. His brother did not. He took one step. His foot found floor. He took another. The floor tilted a little more than he expected, and his squishy bottom slid, and he bounced once against a wall he couldn't see. He bounced back to the middle. His cape swung. "Okay," he said out loud. "Okay. If I keep walking I'll get lost. If I stand here I'll lose him." He sat down in the dark. His feet went wiggly. He stood like a lemon, except sitting. Something small moved near his knee. He froze. Then two blue lights opened in the dark, low to the ground. Eyes. Round and shining, the color of pool water with a lamp under it. A soft white shape came with them, close enough now that he could see the outline of long ears and a round back. A rabbit made of snow. It sat in front of him and blinked once, slowly. "Hi," Citrus Jelly whispered. The rabbit hopped one length forward and stopped. Waited. Its eyes threw enough light to show the floor for about a paw's width around it. "You want me to follow you?" It hopped again. Then again. Each hop lit a small circle of packed snow, and in each circle Citrus Jelly could see a green smudge. Spearmint's track. Then another. The rabbit was walking the trail. Citrus Jelly stood. He stepped into the circle of light. His feet were still wiggly, but the rabbit didn't wait for him to be brave, and he didn't want to lose it. He walked. The tunnel curved. The rabbit hopped. Green smudges appeared and disappeared under its glow. Citrus Jelly counted them so he wouldn't count other things. Four. Seven. Eleven. At the twelfth smudge, the rabbit stopped. Its ears turned toward a low sound ahead. Citrus Jelly heard it too, past the hum. A voice. Small. Flat. "I'm here," Spearmint said. "I stopped. My belly went quiet all the way through." Citrus Jelly bounced forward into the dark past the rabbit's light. He didn't wait for the next circle. He hit something soft and green and cool and caught it in both paws. "I found you," Citrus Jelly said. "You did," Spearmint said. He didn't move. "I don't think I can walk back on my own." The rabbit's light showed Spearmint's face. His eyes were open. His paws hung at his sides. He was sitting in the snow like something had been switched off inside him. Citrus Jelly held on tighter.