Muffy discovers Miffy's Dark Side

So by now, Muffy had fingered the Photographer as the malevolent influence who had cajoled her dear Miffy into running away from her burrow. In her feverish rabbit brain, random snatches of memories of the man who frequently traipsed across the fields in Blea Tarn had quickly coalesced into a twisted, monstrous image - albeit a nameless one which nevertheless, warranted capitalisation - as the Photographer instead of a mere, anonymous "photographer". Muffy had decided that to find Miffy, she may well have to find the Photographer, too.

It had been many days since she last sighted the Photographer working in the fields. This morning, as she hopped about purposefully in the wan May sunlight, she thought she spied something glinting in the sun, lying in the grass. Upon closer investigation, it was a discarded Velvia wrapper. Muffy's nose quivered with excitement. So she was possibly getting close? But a quick survey of the lake revealed no such person. The grasses blew about idly in the wind, and there was not another soul about. Muffy had never felt so desperately alone in her short rabbit life.

Returning to her burrow, she glimpsed the tiny hallway mirror which she had always demurely avoided gazing at. But this time she caught sight of her own very white, very pale ears - and noticed that half the mirror was coal-black, as if someone had dipped it in tar. She recalled that Miffy had always been preening herself in it... was this Miffy's dark side? Again, uncomfortable thoughts swirled in her tiny rabbit brain and she fled to the kitchen to make herself more carrot toast, as if to quell her own, sudden hunger for freedom and knowledge. Yes, perhaps it was true; her sister never said much, but she had a passion for life. Unlike Muffy, who had until just now, lived a life just like any other humble, unreflecting rabbit - without having ever experienced any real intensities of emotion. Just little joys and disappointments, feelings that were mostly modulated by the size and colour of the carrots she found while on her long, food-gathering rambles. She had merely skimmed the surface of life like a mere dragonfly skating over a pond, whereas her sister Miffy wanted to plumb the depths. She acknowledged she had a dark side, whereas Muffy was not even aware she had one. With a nervous paw, she tried to wipe the black substance off the mirror, but it stuck on stubbornly. Clearly, this "dark side" was a force to be reckoned with.


It was clear that Muffy had to leave her own, comfortable existence - to leave everything that was comfortable and familiar to her, in order to find her sister, and maybe discover life for herself. Emboldened by this thought (and a satisfying carrot toast), Muffy hopped to the door of her burrow and imagined herself leaving it forever - or at the very least, for a few months. She felt no pang of regret.

Tomorrow, she told herself. She would leave tomorrow.