Ki wriggled along the tunnel on all fours, slowly, carefully squirming under a low hanging rock. He had to breathe in deeply and angle his back in just the right way to slip under the outcropping. After that the Avali had to actually get down on his belly and wriggle forwards another twenty metres of tunnel. He had reluctantly left his armour on the surface, he should be safe enough in the bunny village after all. After squirming forwards for a bit the roof lifted up again, becoming a good metre tall so he could move forwards at a crouch as it circled back on itself twice before he crawled out into the central cavern.
Clambering through the hole, Ki shook his wings free of dirt and slowly stood up and glanced around, squinting in the dim, crystal lit gloom of the bunny village. He was a good three hundred and fifty metres below the surface according to the counter inside his goggles. The temperature was also up from the -15°C temperature on the surface, to 4°C. Looking around the seemingly empty village Ki had to bring up the night vision mode on his visor to find anyone.
Everyone had gone to ground, with night vision on he couldn't see anyone at first and had to just wait and watch carefully until the pattern recognition programme in his goggles found someone. A shadow resolved into the shape of Tel, the older male bunny was lurking quietly in a patch of darkness. Ki considered himself pretty good at moving quietly and being stealthy, a skill he'd learned on some of the less than legal jobs his former pack used to take on. The bunnies ran rings around his skills. Tel was practically undetectable, holding so still, watching quietly; after seventy years of avoiding predators the bunny was a master of stealth. Ki only found him because the tech built into his visor had a recording of his silhouette; without technology to aid him he’d never have found them.
“It’s just me Tel,” Ki said, though he was sure the bunny had already smelled him, “I have that machine Tri wanted and I said I'd bring it down after my last visit.”
The bunny crept forwards on all fours then stood up, their snout twitched as they sniffed the air, “There are… other things in the tunnel, strange smells and… an Avali.”
“That’s just the machine,” Ki re-assured him, “And the avali is one of my brothers, he is going to help me build the machine.”
Tel nodded then cautiously lifted his head and sang something, the tone was three fold and quite enchanting but Ki didn't recognize any words in the song, it was a wordless message of sound. But like the lifting of a cloth the cavern suddenly came to life with Bunnies emerging from practically everywhere. Ki marvelled at how patches of shadow, the space under bushes and rocks spilled forth Vampire Bunnies who chirped toward Tel and started to resume their day. He also thought that the current place was an excellent spot to live in, almost impossible for any big predator to enter or, of course, any Horkers, if they ever decided to return. And the entrance could be easily sealed with a big rock, if necessary. Ki noticed all these details almost subconsciously, Ki’s advanced neural processor filing the information away and cross-referencing it against his own survival knowledge. Ki had, after all, learned how to find shelter during bad weather on strange planets back when he had his old pack and they had to take odd jobs with them to make enough money to survive the month.
A whole bunch of little bunnies bounded forward, gathering curiously around Ki and Tel; the older bunny tried to hold them back but they surged forward, each one wearing a tiny, unique hat. Ki had to admit they were damn adorable, he’d met a few of them the other day when he came down here with Tri to see what the cavern entrance was like.
Waving at the little ones he held up a paw, “Stay back now young-uns, we need to let the drones in.”
The first drone floated out of the tunnel, they were the smallest kind the Odyssey could make and each one had a cargo container rolling along behind them filled with the disassembled components of the machines. In total there were eight drones and following along behind pushing a tool-box ahead of him was Taran. The teal and orange Avali clambered out of the tunnel and stood for a moment blinking in the gloom.
“Wow… dark…” he squinted at the curious little bunnies, “Hello everyone, I am Taran,” he said, his bunny song was as flawless as Ki's, both of them had learnt it through their neural computers.
There was a lot of excited chirping and curious bunnies surrounded the drones and Avali. Tel wove his way through and peered up at Taran, sniffing the air, “You smell like you've been around Seinu and my nephews, welcome… Please follow me and I'll show you to the food cave."
Taran fell in besides Ki as the two started across the cavern, having to pause every now and then to shoo younger bunnies back from trying to climb on the cargo drones.
"They all seem very curious," Taran commented, "But the older bunny seemed to not trust I was a friend?"
“Tel is just cautious,” Ki said softly, “I mean, bunnies are naturally curious and friendly but have a lot of predators to hide from. Not to mention the older bunnies have grown up listening to stories about the Horkers, so aliens from space are worrying.”
Taran nodded and glanced back and sighed, “Ok, I am going to walk at the back… I think at this point we should just let them ride the cargo boxes.”
Ki glanced back and shook his head, the little bunnies were sitting on the cargo boxes singing away at each other, scampering back and forth as they switched boxes to talk to other friends. They were adorable and not doing any harm but the Avali did reach out to catch a little bunny who was trying to lean up and grab the drone pulling the box she was standing on.
“Ok you lot,” Ki said firmly, “You can ride the boxes but do not touch the drones.”
It took a little work but the message soon got through to them and the little bunnies were soon happily riding back and forth on the cargo boxes and leaving the drones alone. The cave where the village had been storing all the extra fruit was pretty damn full, stacks of the rough bark and reed baskets the foraging parties used to carry food in were piled up all over the place. There were also loose piles of fruit on the floor where they had clearly had to take some baskets out foraging and just left the berries, leaves and fruit that made up the bunnies main diet just stacked on the floor.
“I see why Tri asked for help, this is a lot, but ok,” Ki took charge and with Taran’s help convinced the baby bunnies to get down so they could unload all the components. Then Ki had an idea and set the drones to do small, slow laps outside in the main cavern so the youngsters could keep riding. With the lids off the cargo containers they were now little trailers which were a lot safer for the smaller vampire bunnies to sit in.
Tel was watching them nervously throughout all of this but as Taran started organising bits of machinery Ki walked over to the older bunny, “Are you ok?”
Tel turned and looked up at Ki, his hands held at chest height in that natural pose bunnies assumed when at rest, “I will be… I just… worry you will make them all too trusting.”
“We won't, I promise,” the Avali tried to reassure him, “If you keep teaching them to treat the surface as a danger as always then it doesn’t matter if we’ve made it a bit safer… I'm afraid to say even with everything we’ve done the surface is still deadly.”
“Would you like to help us build the Zero Chests?” Taran called out as he finished spreading out a large collection of parts, “We can show you how to put them together and how they work.”
Tel nodded and walked back over and peered with interest at the large sheet of hard-copy Taran was unfolding. It was covered with neat, step by step images showing how to put a Zero Chest together.
“So these machines,” the teal Avali said, “We call them Zero Chests, they are very clever little devices that will keep your food fresh.”
“How does it work?” Tel asked as he picked up the first piece from the piled components and handed it to Taran, “You want this one.”
“I…” Taran blinked at the piece and then accepted the second part as Tel seemingly worked out what shape and size they needed after just a quick glance at the instructions and then an equally quick gaze over the jumbled piles of components. “That’s right, but ok I don’t really know the science, I just know when you close the lid of a Zero Chest it does something funky and the food stays fresh.”
“I can build the mechanical system but explaining in easy words why it works is almost impossible” Ki said as he sat down cross legged next to them both, “But they work and we can show you how to hook them up to the power crystal.”
“I do like the crystals,” Tel admitted, “I saw the crystals Fi brought home.”
“Well this crystal will need to stay here, I could get you a spare you can keep in your room? I hear you bunnies like to decorate your rooms.” Taran reached out and used one of his claws to slice the tape on a box open and revealed the small white base with a large orange crystal set in the middle of it, “This will give power to the Zero Chests so they work.”
Tel peered inside at the crystal, “It is very pretty, I would like one please” they reached out with a paw and picked up the next piece they needed, handing it over, “So this somehow makes the food stay fresh?”
“Indeed,” Ki said, “The crystal generates something called electricity, which in turn allows the machines to work.”
“Elec… electric-ty…” Tel tried out the alien word, “It sounds weird, and this stuff will help keep the fruit edible for longer?”
Ki glanced at Taran who waggled a screwdriver back and forth, “Sort of,” the Avali said, “It is complicated, but yes it all works together to make the fruit not rot.”
Tel nodded and settled down to help, he would only have to glance at the plan once before moving to grab the next piece. His eyesight trained for spotting minute movements in the wild to avoid stalking predators was aptly trained for picking out different sized pieces from a pile of components.
It took about four hours to construct the six large zero chests and plug them all into the generator crystal. After that it was just a case of showing Tel and the crowd of interested bunnies, both adults and youngsters how they worked. The lever to open the hatch and the emergency release button for the inside if anyone did ever get stuck.
The bunnies then happily started to move all the additional fruit and piles of greens that their foraging parties had brought home into the chests. Tel seemed a lot happier too and by the end asked gruffly if he could nibble Ki and Taran so he would know them. Ki wasn’t sure how to feel about someone sampling his blood but he went along with it, he had heard about what a big honour it was for a bunny to ask, creating a friendship and bond of recognition that could never be broken.
Seinu squirmed impatiently as Doctor Rhaii and Doctor Taluni whispered together. He momentarily cursed his lack of quadraphonic hearing. As an Avali their voices would have been easily discernible but with Vampire Bunny ears he could hear them talking but not the actual words.
After a couple of minutes the pair of doctors turned to look at their patient then walked over, “We don’t like this idea Seinu,” Rhaii said with a patriarchal frown, “Something is still not working right.”
“I know,” Seinu said, “But Halyu and Halyan say it will take them several months to map the samples of my slime they have and work out a solution.”
“Yes,” Taluni said with a frown, “But we still think it’d be safer for you to be at home whilst we study this.”
“I can’t leave now,” Seinu said, “And I am already stuck as a bunny until you say I can safely change shape again so I may as well finish the job I started.”
The pair of doctors exchanged a long look then Taluni nodded and Rhaii sighed, “Very well, but you are to get checked over by the Infirmary at least once a week, we’ve taught it the specifics about your unique biology so it can now do more detailed scans.”
“I can live with that,” Seinu said as he hopped off the bed and bounced on his bunny feet, “The work we are doing here is important.”
“Fine,” Taluni raised one hand and ruffled Seinu's head fur, “But no changing forms. You are to stay like this and once your mission here is complete you are to report to the Medical Directorate on Avalon. We will hopefully have a solution by then and can sort this out.”
“Sounds good,” Seinu smiled, “And thank you both, honestly, I always only ever seem to see you all in person when something has gone sideways.”
This is a good thing,” Taluni chuckled, “We are your doctor’s, we’d rather not see you as this means everything is well. Now you run along and we will see you on Avalon in a few months.”
Seinu promised he would and headed out to the med lab to say goodbye to Halyu and Halyan, thanking them for all their help and checking to see if they had enough samples of his slime. After that Seinu took time to escort all four of them to the shuttlebay and saw them off personally. It was the least he could do after they’d come all this way to help save him after he was so stupid.
Apparently coaxing his body to come out of “shock” mode and absorb more mass had required a lot of delicate work. As the shuttle left Seinu decided to go track down the twins and see if they wanted to have lunch together and discuss plans for returning to the surface.
Seinu followed Ifelse’s directions which led the slime bunny down to the industrial decks and then back towards the rear of the ship. He frowned as he left their nano-factory behind, passed the armoury and stopped outside the shooting range. His frown deepened as he saw that it was in use and let himself in, peering around the door just in time to see Cri… firing a tier 3 chaingun! The copper bunny was bracing himself perfectly, holding the cannon and spraying a whole series of targets with flashing streams of bullets!
Seinu just stood with his mouth open in shock and horror. Standing next to Cri was Firi, pointing at the targets excitedly, her long braided crest swaying, “Yes, you’re doing great, that’s it, you have it properly balanced this time, your aim is perfect.”
Seinu kept gaping as Cri continued to spray bullets. The chain-gun was one of the huge ones that they only kept on board for emergencies. Firi needed her armoured suit to lift and fire the thing and yet Cri was aiming it wearing nothing but a hat! He was barely swaying under the recoil of the gun, legs spread wide as he absorbed the shock as the massive weapons fired.
In the next bay over Cal was sighting along the top of a smooth, white cased avali rail launched shotgun. He was shifting from target to target, pulling the trigger and blowing the discs out of the air. Like his brother he seemed to be easily absorbing the recoil from the gun. The big barrelled shotgun had quite a kick, they fired the slugs at such speed the stupid things always threatened to knock Seinu off his feet when he did his yearly firearm training. Yet Cal just swayed as he fired each bullet as if the recoil was nothing to concern him. Even worse, his accuracy was extremely high, like he had been practising it for months.
“Firi!” Seinu shouted, then shouted again, “FIRI!” her ears perked up and her head turned to look at the door. She smiled widely and waved and motioned to the twins to stop firing.
“Hi Seinu, they let you out?”
“Yes… I just saw the Doctors off on their shuttle, what is going on in here!”
“Fire-arms practice,” Cri chirped happily, he still spoke in broken avali but his grasp of the language was getting better, the speed at which both bunnies were picking up the Avali language was astounding, “Firi wanted to see if we could handle these heavy guns.”
“Their body strength is amazing,” Firi crowed as she rubbed Cal’s head, “You Vampire Bunnies are so strong for your size! I am honestly impressed, after a bit of practice the recoil from our heaviest weapons doesn’t phase them at all!”
“Firi..” Seinu rubbed his snout, “You cannot teach Vampire Bunnies fire-arms! We discussed this, that is so outside the realms of what is allowed!”
“Aw but Seinu they have a real knack for it,” Firi complained, “With their strength and eye-sight they can hit the target with every shot!”
Seinu walked over and took Cri and Cal’s hands, “No,” he chirped, “Firi, it is totally irresponsible to teach them about guns when they haven’t had basic weapon’s training. Did you even explain that these are for killing?”
“Oh,” Cri said, “She explained they are weapons and what they’re usually for,” the copper bunny smiled, “We have been trying to learn new things whilst we have been looking after you. She just asked us down here to try them out, they were fun.”
“That… is very commendable Cri, Cal, I want you to learn new things too… but there are some things that should wait or not be learned at.
"Spoilsports," Firi grumbled but fell silent as Seinu glared at her.
"So, er, now I'm out I was going to suggest we head back to the planet and the village.”
“Ok,” Cal said as he squeezed Seinu’s paw, “Let’s go find Selenu and go, she says you aren’t to go back to the village without her.”
Seinu nodded and started for the door, pausing to let the twins go first as he glared up at his sister, “No guns.”
“Ok ok,” She held up her hands, “Can’t blame me, they really are very good, but fine no more firearm lessons.”
She watched him leave, leaning back against an ammo rack and smiled as Ifelse crept up onto the counter next to her, “You gave in very quickly, why did you go to all the effort to time this for when he left the infirmary?”
“Because,” Firi smiled, “He was so fixated on the guns after hearing about me and the plasma grenades he has left me many different loopholes.”
“Oh Firi,” Ifelse sighed, “Selenu is going to facepalm so hard she’ll pulverise her own skull, I really should tell Seinu.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” she tapped the AI’s head, “He is a very busy bunny, and the twins have a surprise for him too. Now about my special project?”
Ifelse sighed, “It is ready to ship to the surface and all logs have been erased.”
Firi clapped her hands together and started for the door, “Excellent, Seinu has his work to do and I have mine, bring the special project to the cargo teleporter, I will be there shortly.”
“Yes Firi,” Ifelse said and flickered out, leaving the Avali to her business as she headed off down the hall in the opposite direction to the vampire bunnies.
“I am sorry about her,” Seinu said as he stepped into an elevator with the twins, “She means well but she thinks everyone should be like her and able to use guns and weapons to solve their problems.”
“We don’t mind,” Cri said with a smile, “She is fun! But Seinu,” he glanced over at his brother then looked up at the ceiling, “Ifelse, stop the elevator.”
“Wha…”
Cal took Seinu’s other paw and held it in his as the moving room slid to a halt between decks, “We meant what we said to Sher Guitar-Friend, we got you.”
Cri nodded, “We got you… before you race off back to the surface, will you spend some time with us?”
“Some time?" Seinu queried, looking confused, "But we are doing that now aren’t we?”
“Not work time,” Cal said firmly, “We want to ask you for permission to nibble you, and ask if you would like to nibble us.”
Seinu froze, “I would like nothing more,” he said genuinely, “I just wasn’t sure how to ask, you two… have been amazing looking after me.”
“You just ask,” Cri giggled, “You are our friend, we’d have asked before but you were ill.”
“There is something else too,” Cal said suddenly smelling serious to Seinu’s nose, “We aren’t letting you leave us behind, we want to see space, we can’t… we won’t go back down there and live in fear, like Grandmother Tri says we have to live and this is the life we want.”
“You guys…” Seinu chirped, feeling very small all of a sudden, “I… but… I can’t just take you away from your homes.”
“If you don’t take us, and teach us, we will leave on one of the automatic ships,” Cal said patiently, “We’ve seen the stars, so we either go with you or we find our own way… we’d like to go with you.”
Seinu hesitated, this hadn’t been how he thought today would go. He'd been planning to rush back to the surface, to resume his mission to learn about bunny life. He'd never stopped to consider how these last few weeks living on the Odyssey would have affected the twins. Leaning into Cri and Cal’s touch he let them hug him as he murmured and chirped softly, inhaling their scent, he had grown very used to having them around the last few weeks. They were such loyal, lovely friends, but could he really do this? Take them away from their home? He held still, enjoying the hug. Then he opened his eyes and made a decision.
“Ok… we will talk about this, Ifelse take us to my room,” he turned to the other two, “We are going to talk about it properly, in depth, what it would mean… the risks, the benefits, the stuff you'll have to learn. Only once I'm sure you really understand what you are asking will I let you decide."
“We can live with that,” the twins said together then laughed and grabbed Seinu’s hands, dragging him out of the elevator as it stopped at the living quarters floor, “But nibbling first, nibbling is more important, we shall be friends forever.”
Seinu laughed with them and directed them toward his private room. It was going to be an interesting conversation and a very different first day back on the job then what he had planned.
“Hello everyone Chantelle here,” the blue and white avali said into the recording drone as it floated ahead of her, “I have had an amazing break through down here in the Eastern village, I noticed a large portion of the population have deep blue fur which I thought was a bit odd.”
She gestured toward the glowing blue-green algae filled pond she was sitting next to, “Now I can confirm this bit, I took samples of the water here and there are minute particles of lapis lazuli in the water,” she pointed at a holographic display next to her, “My geology equipment reports there is actually a 35% mineral content of Lapis Lazuli and Cobalt in this water… and yes, it’s toxic for us; if I tried to drink this I would get very ill. Even my EPP is warning me that it would only recommend drinking from this pool in a dire situation where there’s no ammonia at all..”
She shook her head, “Now I cannot confirm this next bit, but this heavy metal appears to be being expressed through the bunnies in their fur. This is why the bunnies here at the Eastern Village are blue, it is passed on from parents to baby bunnies in their eggs, and bunnies absorb it from this water that for us is toxic but that for them is normal.”
She smiled at the camera, “Now, like I said, I can’t confirm this; we don’t have access to the caverns where the baby bunnies are incubating in their eggs. But I’ve confirmed water samples at Tri’s village, the majority element is copper while the Northern Village appears to be built over a vein of silver, giving rise to the majority colour being a silverish-grey.”
She shook her head, “I don’t understand the full biology behind what is causing this colour shift but the metallic elements in the water is what is colouring their fur. It's not just pigmentation but actual particles of the minerals woven into the fabric of the strands of fur produced by their follicles. I am going to have to run more tests back on the ship to confirm it but I think it's pretty clear. Honestly this is amazing, the mineral content in the water they are drinking is affecting their fur colour, it is fascinating! I hope we can learn some more about it soon. If what I am thinking ends up being true, it means you could see what minerals exist in an area just by looking at the fur of the bunnies living there.”
The Avali waved a hand at the drone, "That's all for now, I'll add to this report once I have full confirmation, Chantelle Trail signing off."
“Welcome back, Seinu Friend,” Tri said warmly as the silver bunny emerged from the tunnel leading into the village, “I smelled you coming, I am glad you are ok.”
“Hello Tri,” he replied and moved aside so Cri, Cal and Selenu could follow, “I am sorry I was gone for so long.”
“That is ok,” she smiled and turned, “Your coming was clearly a blessing from the great protector,” she looked around the cavern, “We have more food than we can eat, the surface whilst not safe is safer and I am not living every day in fear”
Seinu smiled and looked at her, she really did seem a lot brighter then when he first met her, “I am glad, Selenu has been telling me about how you are all Friends now.”
“Oh yes,” she glanced up at the lime Avali, “Your family have all been lovely, but we still have much to teach you, what would you like to know first?”
Seinu tilted his head, “Can you tell me about the great protector maybe? I’ve heard them being mentioned regularly by the bunnies but nobody has explained to us who they are.”
Tri looked for a long moment at the strange bunny before her and nodded, “Very well, come we will eat and I will tell you about the Great Protector and the Land."
Soon enough they were all sitting around a pile of leaves and fruit, nibbling slowly on the foliage. Except for Selenu who seemed content to just sit and hold Seinu in his lap. Tri considered her grandchildren and their space Friends and nodded, holding a fruit in her paws, turning the small pale pink globe back and forth as she gathered her thoughts.
"This story is something that we’ve been passing from generation to generation, since even before Horkers came here” she started, "The Great Protector is the one who shaped the Land, who formed each of us out of the snow and ice. Bunnies, predators, plants… they set the Land one task, to maintain the balance."
She glanced around the cavern, watching her bunnies going about their daily chores, "When we die, whether we are eaten by a Shadow Wing, caught by a plant, crushed by a falling Cinati fruit, it is because the Land must maintain this balance set out by the Great Protector. They maintain the world in harmony so we can all live together," she pulled off her hat and held it up, "This was my mother's, she was not killed for balance. It is why what the extremely awful not Friends from space did to us was so bad."
She set the hat in her lap and sighed, "Usually when a bunny dies our spirit, our self, our knowledge, our life experience returns to the Land, it grows wiser and we return, as a plant, as a tree or predator or bunny to continue to learn and grow. But those… Those monsters murdered us for fun, for pleasure, they delighted in killing us… in making us scream and Harmony Died. It is why so many of us die now… the land is still out of Balance, the Great Protector is struggling to restore the lost harmony. The Land thinks killing bunnies is necessary, it has lost itself but in time… it is my belief that if more of us live longer and die of old age we will teach the Land what it has forgotten. The great protector will guide the Land and there will be more bunnies again and balance will be restored for he is always watching, the high clouds are his eyes, the light clouds at night are his dreams, the wind the snow, it is all the Protector watching over us."
She smiled at Seinu and Selenu and put her hat back on, "That is why you are here, guided by the hand of the Protector, aliens from space helping us to restore balance and restore what the other aliens destroyed."
She looked around at the small gathering that had stopped around her to listen to the story, "Now you know, and you Seinu, an alien become bunny, I believe even though you were rescued the Land learnt from you and the great protector will call more of you to it from space to help us fix the lost Harmony," and with that Tri signalled the end of the story by sinking her fangs into the fruit she was holding.
The story was over, now it was time for food.
Ki was out walking through the forest, using both his back-pack computer and the systems built into his armour to run integration checks on the expanded anti-predator system. It all appeared to be working correctly but he wasn't taking any chances and was going to check it all manually. So far all was good but as he wove around a thick patch of ferns and approached a clearing he slowed and stared out at a frankly unbelievable scene before him. Shaking his head in disbelief he stowed his helmet as he pushed his way past the ferns, took a deep breath and screamed at the top of his voice, “FIRI!”
It was satisfying to see her jump, she leapt into the air and spun around to face him whilst the group of ten bunnies with her jumped as well. Most of them dived for cover, there was a rustling of bushes as they vanished and hid. But two of them, the two holding avali spears, levelled them in his direction before they relaxed as they recognized him.
“Oh Ki, hi,” Firi smiled, “What brings you this way bro…”
“I… FIRI,” Ki hurried over towards her, “What on Avalon… are… are those Avali spears…?” he stared at the white and black hafted spears with the orange aerogel blades.
“With built in aerogel blade printers,” Firi said defiantly, “Yes they are,” she span her own spear “Seinu said no guns, he was very emphatic about that, but I refuse, refuse to not do what I can to help them learn to protect themselves. These two bunnies volunteered to learn, they wanted to learn and they brought their friends here to convince them to take lessons too. Especially after Gra and Mri failed to come home the other week.”
“Wait…” Ki stopped in his tracks, shocked out of his ire, “Gra is missing?”
“No”, Firi said softly. “Gra is dead. Something grabbed him whilst he was foraging at night the other week and his hat was the only thing left of him" She looked somberly at the bunnies, "No one really talks about it, they grieve for him and say the Land called him home. Everyone just accepts it as natural. Well, I don't."
"But… Gra," Ki sat down in the snow and hugged his legs, his body trembling uncontrollably, "He was so good at stories... he shared some with me when I was fixing this damn anti-predator net and he came to keep me company… he can't just be gone."
"Well he is," one of the bunnies with a spear said, "It happened right next to me, a shadow wing grabbed him as we ran from one bush to the next. If I'd had one of these I could have saved him!"
Ki glanced at the bunny and realised it was Thiln, they shook his spear and bared his fangs, "I could have saved him", he repeated, sounding angrier than a moment ago.
"I could have saved Mri," another bunny said, Ki didn't know his name but he was crying, "She had just laid our third egg," he gripped his spear tightly, "She was hungry and wanted something fresh. I told her I'd get it but she insisted I stay with the egg… we don't even know what got her, she just never came back… maybe, maybe if she'd had a spear my baby would have a mother when they hatch."
Firi reached a hand down to rest it gently on the bunnies’ head who was staring up at Ki with a look as close to defiant as the black Avali had ever seen in a Vampire Bunny, “They want to learn to protect themselves… to not be afraid all the time and I won’t say no.”
“We are being brave Ki,” Thiln said softly, “We… we miss them every day, but it is our way to accept and… we still accept. If the Land calls me home I will go in peace, I will never raise this…", he shook his spear, "...to hurt someone first but I will use it to drive away predators so our little ones don’t go out to play in the snow and never come home.”
Ki hesitated for a moment. He wanted to cry as his brain relived again the nightmare he had to go through, but this time it got replaced with a different feeling. He wasn’t feeling sorry, he was feeling furious. He hated the way the bunnies just rolled over and accepted their deaths as natural, as part of some great belief about balance, it felt very wrong. “Don’t mind me, I’m not here to stop you or anybody. If I had been in your place, sister, I would’ve done the same. But we need to make sure Seinu doesn’t find out, he would have to stop you… heck keeping this secret is going to be impossible! We are Avali, we are fucking shit at keeping secrets from each other.”
“Oh, we’ll find a way,” Firi smiled at her brother and rubbed his snout gently- “We will, I promise… this is worth it and you know it. And as important as anything Seinu is doing. I made sure there are no logs of me printing these spears, the spears in the armoury are all still there so nothing will be missing when we do an inventory.”
“How did you get the factory to print them so small?”
“They are kit sized, the recipe was already in the system as standard, we trained with these when we were little and learned how to hunt food…”
“I didn't,” Ki rubbed his snout, “We lived on a space station, there was no basic pack hunting as kits, we ate pre-packaged food and learnt to bond in other ways.”
“What about you?” Firi asked the rest of the bunny group who had crept back out of hiding, “Will you join Thiln and Nty and learn to defend yourselves?”
“We… we can’t can we?” one of them asked, “It.. it isn’t the way, the Land…”
“Will still call us home,” Thiln said firmly, “This way we are just delaying it a bit when we can. It won’t always work but this way we have a chance.”
The group of bunnies still looked unsure and turned to look at Firi as she knelt down and set a wide circle of white and orange material on the snow, “Would it help you all to know it has already been done?”
She pressed a switch and a hologram of a vampire bunny appeared, “This is a bunny who lives out there in space who has already taken up a weapon and now she fights to protect her family?”
The bunnies crowded around to look at the image. It was a bunny, with orange and white fur wearing a long, ragged cloak, an Avali visor with a sword almost as long as she was tall strapped to her back.
Ki had to admit she looked pretty damn bad-ass and then the hologram zoomed out to reveal she was standing on the shoulder of a gigantic behemoth of a purple Sleriki, her slime friend wearing an even bigger sword strapped to his back.
“Who.. who is she?” one of the bunnies asked and Firi smiled.
“Have you heard of Sher? The bunny artist whose songs got us sent here?” several bunnies nodded, they had all heard Seinu’s stories about Sher the artist, “Well this is Roi, his sister, she has sworn her life to keep her brother and her family safe! She still follows the ways of the Great Protector and the Land, she never attacks first but if they are threatened she will use her sword to defend all that she loves.”
Firi looked around as she adjusted the projector to zoom in on Roi, again, “Will you follow in her footsteps and learn the spear with Thiln and Nty?”
Thiln jumped forward, “We have to, don’t you see? A hundred turns of the sun ago the aliens came, they ate us, they killed us, they ruined the Harmony of the Land.”
Nty stood up next to Thiln and looked around at the bunnies, “We can be strong, we can learn, we won’t be dishonouring the Land if you work to protect your family. It will still test us, it will still take some of us,” he shook his spear, “But not easily, not without a fight and maybe a few of us will save little ones who would otherwise be lost to grow and love and become the Friends the Land wants them to be instead of us losing them all too soon.”
Firi smiled and pointed at the hologram, “What do you say, will you be like Roi and stand up for your families?”
“Yes,” one of the bunnies said suddenly, “I… yes!”
Soon all of them had agreed, there was a small rush on the crate the spears were kept in as the bunnies started handing them out, “Ok…” Firi smiled, “We have a lot of work to do my Friends but thank you all.”
Thiln pointed with the butt of his spear at the picture of Roi, “Can we keep that? So we can tell her story to others?”
“Of course,” Firi said, “Of course you can, but for now… Everyone! Lineup! It’s time to learn how to hold these properly.”
Ki nodded and smiled, moving along the line from the opposite end to Firi, showing them how to hold their spears. It was going to be an interesting day for these bunnies, for sure. And while he knew eventually they’d have to confront Seinu about all this, he felt they were doing what was right.