Fiction Fantastic 2026 Winning Story: “The Tale of Two Bunnies and Their Pet Human” by Hazel Rallen and Autumn Mooney

“The Tale of Two Bunnies and Their Pet Human,” by Hazel Rallen and Autumn Mooney, Ridgeline Montessori

Third Place, Elementary Level, 2026

The Tale of Two Bunnies and Their Pet Human

by Hazel Rallen and Autumn Mooney

Ridgeline Montessori

Okay, settle down. I’m going to tell you a story about two bunnies and their pet human. Let’s get started.

Chapter 1

The Mighty Carrot and his assistant, Dust Bunny the Magnificent, were about to do their favorite trick.

“And now we will do our favorite trick!” shouted the Mighty Carrot and Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

The Mighty Carrot pulled off his hat.

“I would like to introduce to you my pet human, Pipsqueak.”

And then he reached into his hat and pulled out a human. Pipsqueak was bigger than most of the creatures in the audience, but somehow, he fit in the hat. That’s the magic bit.

The audience was clapping, and Pipsqueak was walking around looking at all their little props and stuff. The Mighty Carrot and Dust Bunny the Magnificent were so distracted bowing, they didn’t notice that Pipsqueak disappeared behind the curtains.

After the crowd left, Dust Bunny said, “Okay, Pipsqueak, they’re gone. You can come out now.” (Pipsqueak was sometimes afraid of the crowd.) When Pipsqueak did not emerge, Dust Bunny told the Mighty Carrot, “Mighty Carrot, I can’t find Pipsqueak!”

“Did you try calling?” said the Mighty Carrot.

“Yes, I called a whole bunch!” squeaked Dust Bunny.

“Did you look under all the tables?” asked the Mighty Carrot.

“Not yet. I’ll go do that.”

A bit later, Dust Bunny came back.

“I can’t find Pipsqueak anywhere,” declared Dust Bunny.

By now, the Mighty Carrot was beginning to get a little worried. Pipsqueak had never disappeared before, except that time he got shut in the magical mailbox and got sent to China, and they had to go find him.

“Let’s take a trip to China to see if he went there,” said the Mighty Carrot. “He might have missed one of his friends he met there.”

“Yeah, let’s try it,” said Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“We’d better start packing right away,” said the Mighty Carrot.

Just as the Mighty Carrot was walking into his bedroom, he heard a little peep, and there was Pipsqueak under the bed.

“Dust Bunny!” shouted the Mighty Carrot.

“Don’t distract me. I’ve only put in one pair of magic clothes,” shouted Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“Well, you can put those things back because I found Pipsqueak under my bed!” shouted the Mighty Carrot.

“What?!” screamed Dust Bunny.

Pipsqueak made another “peep” and ran back under the bed.

The next day at the magic show, they’d just finished and everyone was getting up to go, when a mouse wearing a suit came up to them.

“The King has sent a message that you are invited to the Royal Ball at the palace next week, on Friday at two o’clock sharp.” And then he left.

Chapter 2

Next week at 2:00 sharp on Friday, Dust Bunny the Magnificent and the Mighty Carrot arrived at the palace with Pipsqueak. When they got inside, they saw lots of creatures with top hats, and Dust Bunny had to keep himself from taking people’s top hats off to see if something was inside.

They talked a bit and got some food while Pipsqueak wandered off. They planned to meet back at the entrance at 5:00 when they were ready to go. At 5:00 the Mighty Carrot and Dust Bunny the Magnificent met at the doors. They waited quite a bit until the clock turned to 6:00. Pipsqueak still had not arrived.

“Gee, I thought Pipsqueak got the message,” said the Mighty Carrot.

“Maybe he got lost. This is an awfully big place with a lot of creatures,” said Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“You should go look for him,” suggested the Mighty Carrot.

“Sure, I will,” said Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

Dust Bunny walked off into the crowd. At 8:00 Dust Bunny came back.

“Did you find him?” asked the Mighty Carrot.

“No, he simply isn’t here. He’s disappeared like a rabbit down a hole,” said Dust Bunny.

“You know who this job is for?” said the Mighty Carrot.

“Who?” asked Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“The police, of course!” shouted the Mighty Carrot.

Chapter 3

When the police arrived, there was only one officer. He was a guinea pig named Agent Squeakerton. Squeakerton started by asking some questions.

“Where was he last seen? What was he wearing? What did he look like? Did he have anything valuable on him?”

The Mighty Carrot answered: “He was last seen under the table around the snack area. He was wearing a purple shirt, red jeans, and a leash. He has a red mohawk. The only thing anyone would want to steal is the golden necklace he wears with a tracker in it, but we took it out because we thought he didn’t need the tracker anymore,” said Mighty Carrot.

They went over to the snack table. Agent Squeakerton pulled out a magnifying glass and some powder. He poured the powder under the table. The Mighty Carrot and Dust Bunny knew he was looking for paw prints or footprints of the creature who might have taken Pipsqueak, or Pipsqueak’s fingerprints. But there was nothing, no paw prints or Pipsqueak’s fingerprints.

“Are you sure he was here?” asked Agent Squeakerton.

“Yes, I’m absolutely paw-sitive,” said the Mighty Carrot.

Next, Agent Squeakerton poured the powder on the table (the food had been taken away) but all they could see was a place where guinea pig food had covered up something. The bunnies looked at the guinea pig food and then at Agent Squeakerton, the guinea pig.

“That’s odd, there weren’t any guinea pigs at the party tonight,” whispered the Mighty Carrot.

“You’re right, there weren’t,” whispered Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

They both looked at Agent Squeakerton again.

“You know what I think?” said Agent Squeakerton.

“What?” asked Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“I think that Pipsqueak ran away and he’ll come back a bit later and you shouldn’t worry.”

“I think he’s gone mad,” whispered the Mighty Carrot to Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“Okay, we’ll go home and read a book or play cards,” said Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“What are you doing?” whispered the Mighty Carrot. “We’re not going to just give up!”

“Just go with it,” whispered Dust Bunny. “We can look for Pipsqueak after he leaves. Clearly this police officer is no help to us, and he seems very suspicious himself.”

“Yeah, we will go home now, and we won’t worry about it at all,” agreed the Mighty Carrot.

Agent Squeakerton left.

Afterward, the bunnies went home to sleep and planned to look for Pipsqueak in the morning. The next morning they went out to look for Pipsqueak.

“We’ll go to the town square. There are lots of animals there who might have seen Pipsqueak. Pipsqueak is very big,” suggested the Mighty Carrot.

“Good idea,” agreed Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

At the Town Square, the bunnies walked around looking for suspects and critters who might be able to help them. But no one had seen any big humans.

They called for Pipsqueak. After that didn’t work they kept walking around and calling every now and then, and asking if anyone had seen Pipsqueak. After a bit they heard trumpets.

Everyone quickly got to the side because everyone knew what trumpets meant.

“Long Live King Hampton,” shouted one creature in the crowd.

“Hey, you say that after WE say ‘All bow down to the king’” shouted the guards. “All bow down to the king!”

Everyone bowed.

After they could stand up again, Dust Bunny whispered, “Let’s go follow the king. Maybe he has seen Pipsqueak or can put up signs for us or something.”

“Yeah!” agreed the Mighty Carrot.

So they chased after the king, staying behind some critters so no one saw them. When they finally got to the palace, King Hampton (who is a hamster) had already gone in. The two bunnies walked up to the guard of the moat.

“We would like to see King Hampton,” said the Mighty Carrot.

“Is he expecting you?” the guard asked.

“No, but we’re expecting to see him,” said Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“Well, let’s see your ID cards,” said the guard.

“We’re bunnies, we don’t have them,” said the Mighty Carrot.

“Oh, right. I forgot. I’m a mouse, I don’t have one either,” said the guard.

“How could you forget?” said one of the guards behind the mouse guard.

“Fine, you can go see the king,” said the mouse guard.

Chapter 4

In the castle there were lots of pictures and sparkly stuff.

“I think hamsters like sparkly stuff,” said Dust Bunny right after that they walked into the King’s throne room, which had lots of sparkly and shiny stuff.

King Hampton said, “Hampsters do like sparkly stuff.”

“So, what brings you here?” asked the king, in a more king-like voice.

“We came to ask if you had seen a rather large and odd creature. It basically has no hair except for a pinch on top of its head. It is called a human. Ever heard of one?”

“Have you ever heard of realistic life? Of course I’ve heard of one—wait—what are they called again? Hubibugs?” guessed King Hampton.

“You got the first letter right, but they’re called ‘humans,’” corrected Dust Bunny.

“Oh, right, I definitely knew that,” said King Hampton.

“Anyway, have you seen one?” asked the Mighty Carrot.

“No, but I can ask my guards that patrol the town every half a minute,” the king said, “or check my cameras that record everything except at lunch time, but then my guards are patrolling every half a minute. Oh, wait, did I already say that? I think I already said that.”

“Great, let’s get going. We only have our whole life,” said Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“First check the guard’s memory,” said the king.

Three guards were called in. He asked the guards what they saw. The first guard said he saw someone rob the flower shop.

“Not helpful,” whispered the Mighty Carrot.

The second guard said he saw a rat fall down the sewer pipe.

“Also, not helpful,” whispered the Mighty Carrot again.

The third guard said he saw a guinea pig with a rather big bag that kept moving go into an abandoned building with only spiders living in it.

“Helpful!” whispered the Mighty Carrot.

“Okay, let’s check the cameras,” said the king. “Since we heard that helpful info from the three guards, let’s check the three abandoned building cameras.”

“I think that King Hampton should be called the king of the threes,” whispered Dust Bunny.

King Hampton took them over to a place with a sign that said “The Three Abandoned Building Cameras” on it. On a tape replaying the day Pipsqueak disappeared, they saw the spiders lead the guinea pig to a secret cave.

“Now let’s look at the other two cameras,” said King Hampton.

“Sorry, we have to go! Byyye!” yelled the Mighty Carrot .

The abandoned building was very much abandoned.

“This place is very abandoned,” said Dust Bunny.

“How are we going to find Pipsqueak here?” groaned the Mighty Carrot.

“He went that way,” whispered a spider and pointed to a tunnel.

“Let’s go!” said the Mighty Carrot.

“Thanks, spider,” yelled Dust Bunny.

“Anytime,” said the spider.

The bunnies ran down the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel there was a big cave. In it was Pipsqueak and a guinea pig!

“Agent Squeakerton!” said Dust Bunny.

“Yes, it is me, Agent Squeakerton,” said Agent Squeakerton.

“Then why aren’t you wearing your police outfit?” asked Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“I am just a normal guinea pig named Jimston,” he answered. “I just need to sell this human. I’ll get a whole bunch of money for it!”

“That’s why he was so suspicious about the missing person crime!” whispered Dust Bunny the Magnificent.

“Don’t get distracted,” whispered the Mighty Carrot. “We need to kick his butt. On the count of three: one, two, three, ATTACK!” yelled the Mighty Carrot.

And with that, the bunnies were upon him.

“Ha ha! I kicked his butt!” yelled the Mighty Carrot.

“Fine, I surrender,” yelled Jimston.

Then they untied Pipsqueak and went home and lived happily ever after!