An Easter tale from the 2012 “Canadian Magic Forest Tales”
By
*Gypsy Joy*
It’s being whispered by the giant emerald trees in a dense forest somewhere in Ontario that the Easter Bunny on an early morning before Easter got trapped in the midst of their fabulous Emerald Forest where distant cousins of a European Forest Tribe called the “Petit Laugh Folk”, make their home. The “Petit Laugh Folk” are small in stature, always seem to smile, sing, dance or play music and are of French and English heritage. It is not known how long they have been living in the Emerald Forest. If you were able to meet them, they would most likely tell you that it must have been million light years ago. They remind a stranger of the dwarfs in the magical story of Snow White but seem to be smaller, a bit younger looking and they laugh a whole lot more. They whistle in the same way as the famous seven dwarfs and each morning when they leave to work in their dense emerald forest they sing a song that slightly differs from:
“Hi Ho… Hi Ho.. Off to work we go!”
The Petit Laugh Manfolk start marching off early in the morning, walking and giggling one behind the other, singing their song:
Ya’Ho… Ya’Ho…
Into the forest we go.
Ya’Ho!
All day long they clear paths through the dense forest and gather broken shrub and tree branches while their children gather berries and flowers. The women and older girls stay at home to tend to their homes and lovely gardens. A stranger would not be able to enter the path into the centre of this dense Ontario forest, because any path leading to the beautiful homes and gardens of the Petit Laugh Folk will immediately be closed off by the trees lowering their mighty tall branches should a stranger enter the dense forest. No one but only Petit Laugh Folk or other forest creatures who carry a magic wand and know the secret passage word are able to enter or walk through the centre of this dense forest with its many rocks and beautiful lake. The lake features a few small islands where sweet faeries live in their tiny pretty cottages. Birds, ducks, loons and swans can be seen swimming or sunning on a rock in the lake where a beautiful Lake Fay rules.
One day very early in the morning before Easter while not a creature was stirring in the dense forest a sweet bunny from a nearby field in Bunnyland had lost its way. Seeing from afar a forest path that was leading to a beautiful garden it had hopped into the dense forest only to get tangled into the closing branches as soon as it had reached the path leading to the centre of the dark dense forest. The bunny not knowing what was happening yelped and tried to get out of the tangled knot of branches wrapped around its fur. The tiny creature soon became so scared that it almost fainted. It was early daylight when the bunny heard the singing of the Petit Laugh Manfolk and tried to get their attention. No such luck! The bunny felt disappointed, worried and unhappy. But what to do? Perhaps when these forest dwarfs were coming back they would lend a helping hand, the bunny hoped. Not being able to change the situation the bunny went to sleep.
The emerald tree who’s branches prevented the entrance to the path also did not know what to do with the stranded bunny and did not feel quite right about the bunny’s situation. Holding an intruder until someone from the Petit Laugh Folk came around to see what was going on felt different. But holding a Bunny just did not seem right. To top it off the tree began to get really tired. His top branches were bending much too low to the ground. The little bunny entangled in the lower branches was no help as he or she had drifted off to dreamland. The emerald tree’s friends, the sun and the wind, could not help Mr. Tree. The sunbeams could not shine through the entangled branches to give the emerald tree strength and his friend Mr. Wind had unsuccesfully tried to blow a storm to lift up the tree’s branches. Mr. Tree sighed, he had done his duty but it certainly was not his day! He felt worried. Looking down on the bunny he wondered if the tiny bunny belonged to the Easter Bunny’s entourage or had he trapped the real Easter Bunny. If so, in how much trouble would the magic forest be? Would the Petit Laugh Folk ever forgive him if they discovered that he had trapped the real Easter Bunny? Would the Petit Laugh Folk have to leave the magic forest when the Premier of Ontario would discover that a big forest tree had trapped the Easter Bunny? So many questions popped up in Mr. Tree’s head that his top began to spin. He almost toppled over and might have uprooted himself were it not for the fact that he heard a sweet voice calling out: “Here you are! You look exactly as on the photo on this flyer. You must be the missing Easter Bunny. I finally have found you. What happened? Everyone in Bunnyland is searching for you. Why are you sleeping here?”
The Easter Bunny jumped up, blinked and cried out “sweet Lake Fay, I am delighted to see you. Can you get me out of this nasty situation? I have been kept a prisoner by the branches of this gigantic forest tree. What seems to be the matter with this tree?” “Oh, Easter Bunny”, laughed the Lake Fay, if only the Petit Laugh Manfolk had seen you this morning on their way to work you would have been free and laughing all the way to your home in Bunnyland. You see, the tree was only protecting the path to the Petit Laugh Folk’s gardens and homes, so no one will invade the centre of this magic forest while the Petit Laugh Manfolk are at work,” and with a slight touch of her magic tail on the evergreen branches the Lake Fay freed both the Easter Bunny and the forest tree who tearfully cried out: “please forgive me, I meant no harm.” “Don’t worry, Mr. Tree, think nothing of it”, answered the Easter Bunny and the Lake Fay spontaneously. The Easter Bunny continued: “promise to let me deliver the Easter eggs to the Petit Laugh Folk and creatures living in this wonderful forest and don’t take me prisoner again, please.” Mr. Tree promised this from the bottom of his tree heart.
Whereupon the Easter Bunny and the Lake Fay quickly said goodbye to Mr. Tree, because soon it would be time to deliver pretty Easter baskets to all the homes in the dense forest. Very soon they landed at the shores of Bunnyland. In the distance they heard the singing and giggling of the Petit Laugh Folk. The Easter Bunny and the Lake Fay smiled at each other when in the field near the shore a black forest squirrel hurried away with his treasure box. It made them sing a little Easter Song.
Ya…Ho!
We wish you, we wish you a Merry Easter
and a full basket of fun and good egg hunting under the mid-day sun.
Ya…Ho!
All is swell that ends well!
Ya…Ho!
