Chapter Text
Ok, he was lost. He had thought that this would be easy! But even after walking for hours all he had seen was that same green grass, dotted with the occasional flower. He didn’t know exactly where he was going, so maybe he was going the right way, but he had found no clue of that rabbit. Not even a single tuft of fur! Maybe he just needed to look a little closer, after all, rabbits were quite small; maybe it was hidden.
Now that he thinks about it, what form would the rabbit travel in? All hybrids have two forms, the animal they’re a hybrid of, and the human one(though it did show traits that identified them as hybrids). Most of them, including him, choose to stay in their animal form. This is because it’s normally very tiring to stay in the human form, and they don’t need it much. It takes practice to get used to it, practice that Fundy didn’t have, so that it wouldn’t be painful.
The rabbit must’ve practiced a lot to be able to stay in their human form, and even fight in it (if he was remembering correctly, the rabbit had been in their human form back in the cart). He’d just have to look for large, and small, clues. Whether that be human-like(from then human form) or animal-like(from the animal form). He hadn’t seen much so far, but there could be some footprints, or paw prints, that he had missed. If the rabbit was in their animal form then the paw prints would be small, and if they were in their human form they would be large; as well as leave less fur behind. From that it seems like they had been in their animal form due to the fur that he’d seen outside the forest, unless they had changed back to their human form after leaving it.
Well he’d never find out just by thinking himself into a spiral. He needed to get a move on, the day was fading; and while he did have night vision, he didn’t want to be walking the entire day. He looked around, searching for any sign of which direction was the best to head in, only to find there was an odd pull when he looked to his left. He took a couple steps in the direction, tail twitching curiously behind him. He looked both ways, behind and to his right. All he saw was long, whisky grass trailing in the wind. The sky was a dark grey, promising heavy rain, making the blue flowers that surrounded him pop nicely. He thought about how nice it’d be to just lay down for a quick minute, maybe a nap, before his gaze was pulled back to the left.
It was like somewhere in his instincts, he knew that this was the direction he should go in. Promising safety and all the things he had always wanted.
He had made his choice, well his instincts had. So he set out, minding the parts where thorns from sweet berry bushes would try to stick to his fur; sometimes taking a couple to eat along the way. One paw placed confidently in front of the other, he was sure this was the right way.
———
He had been walking for a while, and the landscape was changing around him. Each step brought new and exciting plants, some with giant fruit unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Others with massive leaves the fell into his face. He felt so small walking amongst these plants, the grass growing longer and brighter. What was this place?
It seemed magical, a buzzing in the air that he had never heard when he was in the forest, or in the plains. He let himself fall into a daze for a moment, his ears perked and taking in the sounds, his nose twitching with all the new smells. Then he felt a drop land on his fur, then another. The clouds he had seen in the sky finally letting down their water. He shook himself out of his daze just as it transformed into a light shower, knowing it wasn’t long before it turned into a full on downpour. He scurried away, hoping he would find somewhere to hide before it got too bad. He wasn’t the greatest fan of water.
There wasn’t any sort of story behind that one, he just hated the way it clung to his fur and took hours to dry; he also hated the cold. Sure, it was fun to watch, maybe fun to play in after it was done; but when he was the one getting wet, he hated it.
He ran underneath one of the large palm fronds, careful not to shake off any of the water already sticking to it; he had done that before and it was horrible. But the water was leaking through small holes in the leaves and landing on top of him. If he was going to be in a rainstorm he at least wanted a good shelter. So he ran out again, pressing his body low to the floor as he searched for somewhere or hide. His belly was becoming uncomfortably soaked as his fur dragged along the wet grass. He blinked the raindrops out of his eyes, but they came back immediately as the rain picked up speed.
He was just about to give up and go back under a leaf, even if it wasn’t the best protection from the rain, when he noticed a marring in the mud. There was a small, but noticeable, paw print in in. It was small, but he decided to follow it in hopes that it would lead him to some sort of shelter.
Look! He wasn’t below hiding out in, and maybe stealing from, somebody’s home.
He scampered along the trail, letting his eyes do most of the work (the rain washed away most of the scent). He could see some buildings in the distance, going high into the air, though they would take forever to reach. (Was that a floating island?!) He decided to continue along the trail, the buildings could be a second option if he didn’t find the end of the trail here. He continued to crouch low to the ground following any sort of mark he saw in the dirt(it was more muddy now though). He thought he smelled something, though it was hard to make out, it smelled like carrots and something else (was that blood?), until he found a low hole in the ground, seemingly a rabbit hole; but much, much larger. He stuck a paw in it, wiggling it around to see how far the climb would be, he didn’t end up actually feeling anything but he dropped in anyways. Yeah, he knew, a bit reckless; but he didn’t want to have to travel all the way to those buildings(and possibly a floating island).
What he dropped into was massive, definitely not made by a rabbit. But it didn’t seem like the owner was home, the dim lighting not effecting him due to his night vision. The walls were built with packed dirt, pressed tightly together and getting rid of any fear he had of a cave in. He pressed a paw to it, it felt like it had been pushed and layer against for years.
He continued down the hall that was directly in front of him, taking notice of the large amounts of weapons on the walls. That wasn’t concerning at all, definitely not. He quickly left that area, finding himself in another room. This one was filled with chests, they lined almost every wall; it also had several work benches with half-finished projects layer out across them. He wasn’t quite sure what all of this was, but he knew one thing! The chests hold the resources, sometimes even valuables; he didn’t know what he’d do with a diamond if he found any, but still, he wanted one.
He ran towards the chest, finally his favorite past time, robbery! He started digging in some of the chests closest to him, tail wagging in excitement as he found some food.
“Thank goodness, I was starving over here!”
He quickly shoved some cooked chicken in his mouth, being careful not to choke as he gulped in down without chewing.
Suddenly he heard a bang behind him, and quick footsteps towards his direction. What was that?! He quickly tried to put the food back in the chest, swallowing the ones he had already been eating. Quickly the once muffled footsteps began to become clearer and clearer as the owner came to the room.
When he turned around he saw a large, pink(?) man standing in the doorframe. They both stared at each other for a moment, the owner with large eyes, clearly not expecting someone to be in his house. He had a short stature, with large floppy, pink rabbit ears poking through his (also) pink hair. Despite his un-intimidating appearance Fundy had never been so scared. He knew who this was, it was he pink rabbit; the same person he had seen kill two hunters a few days ago.
“What are you doing in my house?” The man asked slowly.
“It’s raining.” Fundy replied simply, despite the fact shaking.
“And why were you rooting through my chests?” He asked with an expression of disbelief on his face.
“Um, I was hungry.” He slowly backed away from the chest.
The man sighed. Fundy couldn’t help a small chuckle escaping him, the man just looked so tired! He was drenched in rain and mud though, Fundy would be tired too. But he backed away as soon as he saw the man glare at him, his prior fear returning.
The man mumbled under his breath, but Fundy was able to pick it up with his sharp ears. “Ughh, I don’t want to deal with this. I already have to deal with one child stealing my stuff.” What did he mean by another child? Also he wasn’t a child, he was nearly fully grown! According to his village anyways.
“Wait a minute are you that child that was in the hunter cart?”
Fundy hesitantly nodded. Then went to speak, unable to hold back the question he had been curious about ever since then.
“Why did you save me?”
“Hey, I’m not completely heartless. In wouldn’t just leave a child to die stuck in some cage. I’m sure you had somewhere to go anyways.”
“Speaking of, get, get out of here. Go back to wherever it was you came from.”
“But- but I don’t know where to go.”
“Well I’m sure I can point you wherever it is you need to go. They don’t call me the human GPS for nothing.”
The what? He’ll just ignore that for now.
Fundy spoke again, “Also I don’t want to.”
“You sound like a petulant child right now. And either way, you can’t go living in my home.”
“I could live in the walls, you would never notice.”
“What? Well for now just go sleep with the dogs or something. You have to leave in the morning though, and don’t you even think of trying to hide out in here. I’ll know.”
Fundy reached for the chest again, sticking a paw in.
“AND, don’t go digging I my chests. Or I’ll just kick you out in the rain. My patience has limits.”
Fundy quickly scooted back away from the chests, looking back at the man as he walked away, mumbling something about how he’ll have “Philza” deal with this. He didn’t know who “Philza” was but he’d found the rabbit! He’d even been able to convince him to let him stay in their house!
He did a little victory wiggle, excitement pulsing through his veins. He’d check out the buildings tomorrow, and maybe meet that “Philza” guy.
But for now, he curled up among the large fluffy dogs, seriously he hadn’t even seen these things when he had entered the burrow before, and they could fling him; they were massive! But, he was excited for the days to come, maybe he could even make his own burrow.
He fell asleep with half thought plans for a home, and the days to come.