The celery snatcher
a short story by foxhound2000

A short white male bunny named Fabs was out buying groceries. Fabs looks very unassuming, wearing no more than a green scarf and some purple earmuffs, has a dopey smile and looks very young in his complexity; but has physically lived for 60 years, rather long for a bunny. Fabs is an experienced esper, being able to utilize various psychic abilities so to speak. His spiritual age is even higher than his physical age, having millennia's worth of experience in the spiritual and mental realms... 

One of Fabs' favourite foods is celery, and he sees a really nice bunch on sale. He puts his hand on the celery, and it looks like he is lifting it to his shopping cart, although in reality, it's just for show since he is psychokinetically moving the celery; he just doesn't like attracting attention by displaying his psychokinetics. 

Another customer in the shop, a standard-looking male tabby cat named Lubi, wearing a coat, is a bit bored and has trouble suppressing his kleptomania. Lubi is an adolescent and a skilled thief, and can't help but to scan the environment for trophies to steal. Lubi sees Fabs unloading his grocery cart, and spots the celery that Fabs has bought. Lubi thinks to himself: That celery looks pristine! I just have to steal it! and flicks a tiny white gravel-looking object onto it when Fabs is making eye contact with the clerk while paying. 

Lubi follows Fabs out of the store from a distance, not having bought or stole anything from the shop. His gut feeling notifies him that something is unusual about how Fabs is carrying his grocery bag, but the urge to steal is so great that he ignores it. Lubi hides behind a tree, closes his eyes and hums with great concentration, a faint, bluish aura appearing around him. Shortly afterwards, his coat is a little bit heavier: the celery is now in his inner pocket. Fabs immediately notices that psychokinetic teleportation has occurred in his grocery bag, but carries on walking like usual. Fabs senses that his awesome celery has been replaced with an old fish skeleton and thinks to himself: Ugh, I was hoping that the cat wouldn't be a stereotypical thief. Seems like he is a slave to his urges... the urge to steal. A bit like how I am a slave to my urge... to teach this reckless boy some manners! 

Lubi headed toward the nearest bus stop to catch a bus homeward, while Fabs lived close enough to be able to reach his humble cottage quickly. While waiting for the bus, Lubi is reminiscing: This ability I learned about in my dream while a kitten is awesome! I just take a fragment from an object, like a fragment of fishbone from an old eaten fish, stick it onto something, like a celery, then go HUMMMMM... while concentrating, and then WHAH! The objects swap places! The bus arrives and Lubi sneaks onboard without the driver noticing. Feeling sleepier than usual for some reason... a catnap in this nice warm bus doesn't seem so bad... Lubi sits down and uses his coat as a makeshift blanket. Oh right, something seemed unusual about that bun... "...snoooore...". Lubi has fallen asleep, like cats tend to effortlessly do. 

Fabs had arrived in his cottage and is already preparing to get his celery back and teach the cat to not steal so thoughtlessly. After locking the door to his cottage and pulling the curtains over the windows, a green aura appears around Fabs and strands of it go into the walls. What a time to be alive, to have sensors and antennae in my cottage that can attune to my aura and that I can interface with, he thinks happily. I am so thankful that I can do the amount of spirit walks and dream walks that I do, it wouldn't be possible without these wonderful inventions from our real world's brilliant minds! Thank you, inventors! Fabs' closes his eyes for a moment, feeling gratitude. Now, to business... Fabs' dopey smile momentarily changes to a grin, showing his perfect teeth. He disappears from his kitchen window and reappears in his comfy bed, sitting. Time to tune in to this mischievous cat! He thinks, and removes his earmuffs, putting them on his nightstand. Then he closes his eyes, a green mistlike aura appearing in the room, constantly shifting. A serene lake... A drop of dew from a tree falling onto the water surface... rings spreading... The mistlike aura now draws closer to him, forming a spherical cloud around him. ...There, the ring collides with something... found you! 

Lubi is fast asleep, dreaming about a farmhouse where various vegetables are grown. The scenery is of a really nice countryside during the summer, sun shining. He sees some folks inside the farmhouse through the farmhouse window: "Oh hey, that looks like the bunny I took a celery from!" Lubi exclaims and giggles a bit, blushing and covering his lower face with his paws. Oh, I don't seem to have the celery or my coat with me, must be a dream. I'll stay in this dream for a while, the scenery is so nice... he ponders. The door of the farmhouse opens, the bunny stepping out. "Hi there! My name is Fabs! I stay here in this farmhouse often.Who are you?" the bunny greets in a soft, boyish voice, adding a smile with his eyes to the dopey smile of his mouth. "I'm Lubi, nice to meet you-" Lubi says with a trace of worry in his voice, thinking: Stay calm, it's just a dream character that looks like that bunny I stole from, it's perfectly natural to dream about things recently experienced. "Oh but I don't only look like him, I am him!" Fabs exclaims with his soft voice and changes his dopey smile to a grin. Lubi starts cold sweating, eyes wide with concern, thinking: I've never encountered, heard of or read about dream characters being able to hear a dreamer's thoughts! This is too creepy! I really like this farmhouse... but I don't want to be close to this dream character, I'll bounce!

Lubi briefly lets his body drop toward the ground. Then, he readies a huge jump with his legs, jumping high up into the air, reaching twenty meters above the farmhouse's roof. Lubi hears Fabs voice, except now it comes from within his mind, sounding authoritative and commanding instead of soft: You should not be running away from the consequences of your actions, kitten! I was looking forward so much to having that celery, and not some dry old fish bones! Lubi starts laughing. Some dry old fish bones! That sounds so funny! But I really wish I could stop laughing! I'm going to have to try to wake up because I don't want to deal with this angry dream character! he thinks and gets ready to pinch himself in the cheek. Before his paw reaches his cheek however, he is surprised to see Fabs vanish in the blink of an eye. Then Lubi is shocked when an invisible force turns him around in the air. After being turned around fully, he is terrified to see Fabs levitating in front of him. 

Fabs usually black eyes begin glowing green and there is a rumbling sound in the air around the two. Lubi feels the green light permeating his vision, entering his being, and he's unable to move, frozen in the air with Fabs. This is so uncomfortable, it feels like all of my emotions, memories and thoughts are naked in front of this glow... I'm realising that I made a great mistake stealing that celery, and I think Fabs somehow hunted me down and this isn't a dream character... he thinks. Tears well up in his eyes for a moment. Then he begins bawling. "I'm sorry Fabs! I should never have taken that celery from you, please let me return it! I will let you keep the fishbones even!" Fabs' concetration breaks and he can't contain his laughter when being offered the dry old fishbones. 

Lubi notices that the two are no longer in the air, and are now on the ground, Fabs hugging the regretful Lubi, comforting him. Fabs is speaking again with his soft voice, eyes not glowing green anymore: "Yes, I read your heart and your mind. I am an esper, like you are, though you haven't learned about yourself yet. I was initially planning to keep you in this dream for way longer, until you grew a new piece of celery on this very farm-", Fabs begins explaining before Lubi begins crying again: "Stuck in a dream without being able to wake up or escape! That sounds so awfuuul~...". Fabs giggles, wiping away tears from Lubi's face. "I didn't expect you to ahem, bounce, and wouldn't have gone the distance to read your heart and mind like that without you bouncing. I feel your regret and sincerity, and there's no way I can keep you here against your will right now. Drop by my place sometime if you want to get in tune with being an esper, it will be easy for you since you can already perform psychokinetic teleportation in the real world, not everybody can learn a feat like that from a dream in their childhood. No need to cry, okay?" Fabs gives Lubi a comforting smile: "You could have tried to attack me instead of running away from me. You have a pure heart, even if your stealing habit speaks against it. Also, you keep the fishbones." Lubi is blushing furiously while melting into Fabs' arms, and responds: "That was such an intense emotional rollercoaster, and you are so comforting right now... I know I just said I want to leave... but can we just stay like this for a while? I haven't felt like this since I was a small kitten, it's like I'm reconnecting with something I've forgotten for a long time..."

Lubi wakes up just before the bus arrives at the bus stop next to his home, an apartment in an apartment complex. He notices that he had been crying during his sleep, and remembered his dream vividly, even knowing where Fabs lived, since Fabs had left that knowledge in him. He knew that it would usually be difficult for him to swap two objects from such a distance such as the one between his and Fabs' homes, but had newly acquired faith in his technique: I strongly believe that I can increase the range of this technique drastically if I use it with the intent to deliver the item I have, instead of stealing the item I don't have. He closes his eyes and hums serenely, concentrating effortlessly while holding a small fishbone fragment on the celery, his blue aura enveloping it, before it disappears, the dry old fishbones replacing it. After exiting the bus, Lubi thinks to himself: I'm gonna feel butterflies every time I visit Fabs in the beginning. But it was so nice to be with him, like meeting a long lost friend. He could help me find a more healthy outlet for my urge to steal too, that could have ended really bad if it was a malign esper...

Fin