Down a Rabbithole by Himring  

Down a Rabbithole

Marcho watched the Big Person with interest. They seemed to be wandering around with a somewhat bemused expression. And they did not seem to be sure what they were looking for. Sometimes their searching gaze seemed to imply the object was at least five feet up but, then again, they were looking around low on the ground. They had not spotted Marcho yet, of course.

The person did not look aggressive or particularly dangerous, although Marcho could not make out a great deal except the eyes and a great deal of brown: bushy brown hair all about the face, a brown broad-brimmed hat and a voluminous cloak.

Marcho decided to let himself be seen and moved out of cover into the person’s path.

‘Greetings, stranger’, he said. ‘What might you be looking for?’

The person did a double take.

‘Bless me!’ they exclaimed. 

Their voice was almost as deep as a dwarf's. Marcho provisionally decided the person was male.

Recovering quickly, the brown man responded to his question: ‘Thank you kindly, sir! I am Radagast, at your service. I was told to look for a Master Marcho hereabouts. I was told’, he added hesitantly, sounding doubtful, ‘that he lives in a rabbithole?’

‘Hobbit hole’, Marcho corrected him, helpfully. ‘I am Marcho; you have found me. Why were you looking for me, though?’

Radagast looked him up and down. He seemed more confused rather than less so. Marcho wondered whether he was being found wanting in height again. But it emerged immediately that it was quite the contrary:  it was the difference between the words rabbit and the unfamiliar hobbit that had still not registered and Radagast had been mentally trying to fit him into a rabbithole!

‘Very pleased to meet you, Master Marcho! And do you keep many rabbits, then, and what breed?

Chapter End Notes

It is totally up to the reader to decide what business Radagast had with Marcho! But I imagine that while the interaction is otherwise very successful, Radagast simply persists in failing to get his head around the hobbit / rabbit distinction. Marcho eventually gives in and shows Radagast, who is very interested, his nice big rabbit hutch inhabited by well-cared for, but not particularly numerous bunnies.

Wordplay involving hobbit and rabbit  of course goes back to Tolkien himself and is already found in The Hobbit.