day 60 - 2/29/24 - LAGOLEAP
Lagoleaps only live on leapdays. Once leap day is over, they vanish from existence for the next four years.
Because of this, they live on a timescale we cannot possibly comprehend. They experience one day every four years. To them, the world changes overnight, and becomes unrecognizable within a week. Generations of humans pass within a month. One year for them is 1,460 years for us.
Do you know how long a rabbit lives?
On the low end, a lagoleap can live for 11,680 years.
And it will only experience eight of them.
The entirety of human civilization has happened within a single lagoleap's lifetime.
And it doesn't even know. It perceives time just as any rabbit would. It still only lives for eight years. They're just spread out impossibly far. From its perspective, it is just a normal rabbit, and every time it goes to sleep, the world changes.
Imagine, if you will. You are a small child. Six years old. It is a leap day. And you find an ethereal rosegold rabbit. You befriend it. You pet it, feed it, play with it, brush its fur. You bring it home with you. Sneak it past your parents, into your bedroom. Tell it goodnight, and to have sweet dreams, and that you'll see it in the morning.
When the sun rises, it's gone without a trace. Being a small child, you cry. Your friend has vanished. Your parents don't understand what has happened. You can't tell them you snuck a rabbit into the house! You're left to grieve all on your own, six years old.
Four years later, you enter your bedroom, ready to flop onto your bed after a long day of middle school. But there you see it. A golden glow, just where it was four years ago, as if it never left. You can't believe your eyes. You feel like you must be hallucinating, but why?
The rabbit hops up to you - thump, thump, thump - and hops in circles around you.
You reach down to confirm if it is real.
You stroke its fur, just as fizzy as ever.
It doesn't look any different from the day you met it.
You look like a completely different person. It's been four years. How does it recognize you? You don't know, of course, that it only met you yesterday, and remembers your scent.
You cherish every moment with the rabbit this day. Feed it tasty berries, cuddle it, give it all the love you can muster. After all, who knows when it will vanish again?
Immediately. The very next day, it's gone. Again.
Every four years, the rabbit appears to you again, exactly where you last left it, exactly the same as it was the day you met it. It continues like this for every major milestone in your life.
Oh, I should clarify - this story is not about you. I'm just putting you in someone's shoes for a moment.
Anyway, as I was saying. You graduate high school. Go to college. Get a job. Move out. Fall in love. Introduce the rabbit to your partner. Experience heartbreak. Fall in love again. And again. And get married. Introduce the rabbit to your spouse.
And one day, you will introduce the rabbit to your children.
And one day, you will introduce the rabbit to your grandchildren.
And one day, they will introduce the rabbit to their grandchildren.
And the rabbit will not have changed.
The leaplago is a remarkable creature indeed.