Hailey the Baby Wolf

A bright yellow butterfly landed on Hailey’s nose. Her eyes crossed, she shook her head and the butterfly flew away. Before Hailey could chase it to the next flower a bunny rabbit popped out of a rabbit hole and hopped across the grass.

Hailey loved chasing bunny rabbits more than just about anything and took after it. She was having a marvelous time zipping this way and that until the bunny rabbit headed into the dark forest. Hailey stopped, afraid to continue because her mom told her to never go into the dark forest alone.

But the bunny rabbit stopped and looked back, almost daring her to chase it. Hailey took off after it, figuring that she could chase it if she didn’t go too far. The bunny rabbit saw her coming and darted behind a tree. When Hailey got to the tree, the bunny rabbit had disappeared.

She turned to head home when she heard someone call. “Hailey. Hailey. Hailey.” She thought it was her mother calling and then realized it didn’t sound like her mother.

“Who’s calling me?” she asked, looking all directions and not seeing anyone.

“The Forest Wizard,” replied the voice.

Hailey’s mother had never told her anything about a Forest Wizard and she didn’t know if she should be scared or not.

“Where are you?” she asked, deciding to learn more about this invisible wizard. “Can you tell me where the rabbit went?”

“The rabbit went where rabbits go,” the wizard replied.

“Where’s that?” asked Hailey.

“It went into my hat.”

“That’s silly,” Hailey told the wizard, still trying to find the invisible owner of the voice.

“If you come closer you’ll disappear into my hat too,” the wizard told her.

“How can I disappear into your hat when I can’t see you?” Hailey asked.

Poof! A puff of smoke and a dark blue butterfly with orange and purple wings appeared on the end of Hailey’s nose. Frightened, she jumped back.

“You’re the ugliest butterfly I’ve ever seen and you’re not a wizard!” Hailey exclaimed.

“I am too a wizard,” the butterfly told her. “I know lots of magic and make things disappear like the bunny rabbit you chased into the woods. If you don’t believe me I’ll make you disappear too. Didn’t your mother tell you not to enter the dark forest, not even to chase bunny rabbits?”

Hailey shook her head as hard as she could but the butterfly wouldn’t fly away. She was so frightened that she might disappear like the bunny rabbit, she sat down under a tree and began to cry with the blue, orange and purple butterfly perched on the end of her nose.

“What’s wrong little one?” asked a wise old owl on a branch overhead.

“That mean wizard on the end of my nose told me he was going to make me disappear,” Hailey told him with a sniffle.

“Didn’t your mama tell you not to play in the woods by yourself?” the wise old owl asked.

“I wasn’t playing in the woods. I was chasing a bunny rabbit,” Hailey told him, a tear rolling down her cheek.

“I don’t see any bunny rabbits,” said the wise old owl.

Hailey shook her head. “The wizard told me it disappeared into his hat and he says he’s going to make me disappear too.”

“We can’t have that,” the wise old owl told her and flew off the branch. “Follow me and I’ll take you home.”

Hailey got up to follow the owl out of the forest and heard a giggle behind her. She looked back and a chipmunk was peeking out from behind the tree.

They soon reached the meadow and found Hailey’s mom searching frantically for her. When she saw Hailey following an owl out of the woods with an ugly butterfly stuck to her nose, she raced over and licked Hailey on the face.

“Where have you been?” her mom howled. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”

“I chased a bunny rabbit into the woods and this mean wizard on my nose threatened to make me disappear.” Hailey told her.

“I told you not to go into the woods alone,” her mother scolded and licked Hailey’s face.

“I won’t ever do it again,” Hailey promised.

“Get rid of that weird-looking paper butterfly stuck to your nose and come with me,” her mother told her. “There’s no such thing as a butterfly wizard. The wizard in the forest is a chipmunk and you’ll really be in trouble if you run into him!”

Copyright 2020, Katharine Giles

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