Imbolc

 Lance loved his rabbits, but he also loved his friend Charlie. One of the best things about Jackalope was how easy it was to trade responsibilities as needed. Things never went undone: not only were there trusted online viewers who reported irregularities, there was a whole team of residents whose job it was to review the cameras of the previous day; week; month to document changes and monitor projects. 

Charlie had family visiting this Imbolc festival who were very excited to see both him and the rabbits so Lance was happy to oblige with a swap; he’d also been curious to see the workings of the sky temple security team. There were layers to the sky temple; a part that was only accessible to residents was the VR Raven drone operation room where Charlie usually worked. 

Today was February 1st and his second day in the operation room. He was happy the Raven drone top let him back in the room after he almost crashed the drone several times yesterday. But today he was more confident that he could fly the robot bird. They were miracles of modern science: they’d almost be able to pass as a live raven if they weren’t bright blue and white. They also had a pepper spray nozzle that came out their mouth that could shoot up to six feet.

It might have been a mistake to make a rabbit warren in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The desert was a hungry place and keeping coyotes and cougars at bay was constant work. 

“Hi Max! Happy Imbolc!” Lance said to the no-nonsense Russian man who was the operation room top. 

“You come back to crash my bird today?” he said without smiling.

“No sir… just to fly around and have nothing but smooth landings.”

“I hope this is true what you say. Go to station ten. That bird is easy to fly for you.”

Lance went to the station and put on the VR headset that was hanging on a hook in front of the control panel. The hardest part was getting the muscle memory for where the controls were so he could reach for the different ones without taking off the headset that connected him to the cameras that were the eyes of the robot bird. 

Success! The take off that yesterday had given him so much trouble was easy today. Start the wings flapping; release the claws; increase the flapping. Each of these birds ran on just one EV battery. They could probably run without a battery change for two weeks but their batteries were changed every week so they were always fresh and good to go. 

His job was simple: fly in a circle around the perimeter of the land and fly directly at any prowler or predator and pepper spray them if needed - just until lunch time when the guard would change. 

As stressed as he was yesterday was how much he was enjoying himself today. It was a wild sensation: looking ahead of himself and seeing the land below as if he was flying over it; his raven drone was giving him a very literal bird’s eye view. 

That’s when he saw it: a cougar prowling on the edge of a rocky cliff. He got on the radio via his headset. “Cougar spotted!” and he gave the coordinance.

“Roger that Blue Sparrow. Stay where you are. Do not engage.” said Max through the headset radio. 

Lance lowered his bird to get a better view and set his bird to hover. It wasn’t long until several other raven drones arrived. It was amazing how these experienced flyers easily shot through the narrow passes of low branches. Soon they were right in front of the hissing cat. Out of the head of the birds came bright lights that flashed irregularly (the pepper spray was used as a last resort), and the cat ran off in the opposite direction. Supposedly the birds used to have fog horns but the noise would annoy the residents almost as much as the predators. 

Besides that the morning passed uneventfully. It was beautiful to see the buildings, and the trees, and all the animals and humans from above. When it came time to land his bird, Max commandeered the controls and landed it for him. “Maybe tomorrow you land your own bird,” he said. “If you understand ‘stay’ to not mean to lower for better view, yes?” Lance was not afraid of Max but he was more than a little intimidated; he had never seen him in any mood other than serious. 

Lance was crunching through the snow, on his way to Warren’s Hearth for lunch when he saw a fat old rabbit buck that was one of his favorites. “Hey there Billy Buck” he said affectionately to this particular rabbit who he had nicknamed Billy. “Are you exploring or have you lost your way?”

He picked up the old buck who was a resident of NorthEast. The buck relaxed in his arms. ‘I sure hope he was just exploring and not looking for me.’ Lance thought to himself as he began his way to NorthEast Warren to return Billy to the warmth there. 

The warren was empty when he got there, besides the rabbits, and it really warmed his heart to see how many of the rabbits who knew it was not a meal time came out to greet him anyway. He plopped Billy down in the center of the outer yard and pulled a baby carrot out of one of his jacket pockets that he usually kept carrots in and fed it to the fat old buck.

Soon Lance was back at Warren’s Hearth, finishing his own lunch, when Vince came and sat down beside him. “Come on babe! Let’s dance! I love this band!”

“Let me do some of these dishes real quick and I’ll meet you out there.”

By the time Lance got to the dancefloor, the band was playing a real slow country song and Lance was thankful for it. He nuzzled into Vince who pulled him in close, and the two of them kinda did a little two step where no one was really leading and no one was really following, it was just the two of them - moving to the music.