"Foxes, and Rabbits, and big bad Wolves" Part One
Once upon a time, deep in an enchanted forest, there lived a little rabbit boy named Arthur. He lived in a little burrow at the base of largest, oldest, and wisest Oak Tree in the forest. Now Arthur, as a rabbit, was very very small. Only standing at about two feet in height, he wasn't much taller than the smallest bushes. He had a mess of golden wheat hair, with his blonde floppy rabbit ears growing from the mad of hair. But his most prominent feature was the thick eyebrows that grew above his eyes. Many believed them to be caterpillars, before closer inspection proved them wrong.
On one particular morning Arthur awoke as the morning sunlight poured in from the burrows opening. He rose slowly and got dressed in the ragged white robe he wore every day, as he had no other clothing to wear, aside from his dark green cloak. Tying said cloak over his shoulders, Arthur set out to find his morning breakfast.
He trotted down the narrow ways between the trees of the forest. It was a beautiful morning, the butterflies and fairies tended to the flowers, the bees were making honey, the many birds chirped happy songs, and the trees stood quietly as always, but their branches occasionally shook with the wind making a wonderful rustling sound.
Arthurs belly rumbled slightly as he paused to check his surroundings. He'd left behind the hubbub of the fairies and the birds long ago, and now only had the trees for company. Just as he was thinking of turning back, a sweet juicy small caught in his nostril. Sniffing curiously, Arthur pushed through a large bushel of bushes and gaped at what he saw.
Beyond the bush was an assortment of berry bushes, neatly bunched together in the center of a very small, but sunny clearing. Little Arthur licked his lips in anticipation as his bunny tummy grumbled. Slipping out of the bush, he hurried towards the bushes and plucked one of the berries and popped it into his mouth. Tantalizing flavor took over his tongue, as a perfect mix of sweet and juicy filled his mouth. It was undoubtedly the most delicious berry bush Arthur had ever stumbled across, but he had to be careful to keep it a secret. He knew too many other inhabitants of the wood who would gladly steal all the berries for themselves and leave none for the little rabbit.
One was most definitely that confounding cat Francis. The cat always fought with the rabbit, and despite his small size, Arthur was capable of fighting him off because, unlike many of the other cats in the forest, Francis lived in a human home and had had his claws removed as a result. He was still a smart ass in the little rabbit's opinion and he hated the stupid cat's guts.
There were a few others but one who stood out in the little rabbits mind was the red Scottish fox Iain. The tiny rabbit couldn't win against the fox in a head-on direct fight, and the fox was fairly clever to boot, making him even harder to beat. He just knew that that red head would come and take the bushes away, keeping all the berries to himself.
In the time Arthur had known him, Iain had always picked on him along with the French cat. The two were burned into his memory as being his most constant bullies; maybe not the most vicious considering what inhabited the enchanted forest, but definitely the most consistent.
Arthur huffed as he took a handful of the berries and sad beneath the bush eating them as he fumed. He didn't understand why they felt the need to pick on him so much. He'd never done anything to them, or at least, nothing he could recall.
After finishing up the berries in his hand with a full belly, Arthur stood up and dusted himself off.
He took a quick look around the clearing. The surrounding trees were high enough and close enough together to block the clearing from view, but anyone could slip in through the surrounding brush and find the precious berries. He looked at the berry bushes. There were so many berries on the branches, and it looked like they'd been there a long time. He had to guess that they had been growing here in secret with no one disturbing them; maybe that's what made them so yummy. It must have been hard. He knew how hard it was to grow with no one around to really take care of you. It must have been lonely too….
Arthur looked down at the roots of the bushes and sniffled. He knew what that was like too. The only ones who ever really talked to him were Iain and France, everyone else just sort of went about their business.
He balled his little hands into fists with a new look of determination on his face.
"Alright!" Arthur decided. "I'm gonna help take care of this bush from now on!"
And so it came to pass that every day the tiny bunny would go to the bush, eat just enough berries to fill his little belly, before going to the stream to wash and get some water. Not having a bucket on hand at the time, Arthur used a nice big leaf he had found to drag the water from the stream to the bushes and gently water them. He would then pull up any weeds that grew too close to the bushes base and made sure the bushes stayed in the sunlight by climbing the trees as best he could and tugging away at branches and twigs that looked as though they may block the sunlight.
Arthur greatly enjoyed this new responsibility and the benefits it allowed. Arthur had a steady supply of food in the berries the bushes produced, and it gave him something to do on a daily basis when before his days mainly consisted of finding ways to avoid his two bullies, and all the harsh and vicious predators out there.
This went on peacefully for quite some time until…
"Ack, finally found ye, ya wee bairn bunny." A voice rang out as Arthur neared the berries hiding place.
Arthur gulped at the familiar voice before turning around and seeing Iain the red fox standing behind him. "Where've ye been this whole time?" He gave him a sadistic smirk like he always did before he'd start teasing the small rabbit.
Arthur shook nervously. At the very least Francis didn't appear to be near, but that was of little consolation. The biggest threat the housecat was capable of was flinging a few hurtful words at Arthur, but the fox… He focused on Arthur's physical abuse. Wet willies and noogies were all he got if the fox was in a good mood. On the other hand, the fox was rarely in a good mood, so he would do things like forcefully wrestle with the small rabbit and chase him around with caterpillars, bugs, and worms. He never got anything more than scrapes and bruises, but it was enough to instill a good amount of fear into him.
"I-I-I…" The rabbit stammered.
The fox frowned disapprovingly and reached towards Arthur. Finally overcoming his nerves, Arthur turned to run, only to have the much stronger hand of Iain pulling him back and up off the ground. He held him up at eye level and stared straight at him. "Stop mutterin so damn much! Nay anyone can understand ye!"
Arthur gulped and started shaking again, fear mixing in with the anxiety. He said in a quiet voice, "I-I've just been… around…" He did his best to try to avoid the fox's eye contact in an attempt to hide the lie.
Iain's frown deepened and he released his grip on the rabbit's cape causing Arthur to fall to the ground with a bump. Arthur held back tears as he rubbed his backside as it ached in pain after having fallen from the height he'd been held.
"Ye better not be talking to any wolves." Iain said, with a threatening tone mixed with some other emotion Arthur couldn't identify.
"W-wolves?" he stammered. Wolves were not creatures that lived in the bright sunny parts of the enchanted forest. No, they dwelled deeper in the forests dark reaches. It was rare for them to venture out of the darkness of the forest. So rare in fact that no one had seen one in a very long time. Which made Iain's question strange.
"Aye." The fox put his hands on his hips in emphasis. "I heard that the blue birds spotted em not a few miles from here. Everyone's keeping to themselves now, even Francy has been hiding away in his home. He's letting me stay in thar barn fer now until it all blows over." He looked down at the bunny.
Iain may have been a harsh fox, but he wasn't a cruel one. He didn't care whether everyone knew that or not, but he was often ostracized. Foxes were rare in this area of the forest, and because he was technically a predatory creature very few of the animals would come near him, not that he could blame them. It was part of their natural instinct after all. Though he did get blamed if another animal went missing for a time, even though he had tried to make it perfectly clear to everyone that after having grown in this area he had come accustomed to eating fish instead of small animal meat and wouldn't chase any of them down even if he was starving to death, which wasn't really a problem considering he was friends with a house cat and could get food if worse came to worse. Besides he could easily take care of himself.
He huffed, this rabbit was different though. No parents or family anywhere, he lived by himself in a hovel under a tree, and was only strong enough to fight off a declawed house cat. If the wolves got ahold of him… it wouldn't be pretty.
"If ye beg me I might convince Francy to let you stay at his place too." He said crossing his arms. "Better an gettin torn apart by wolves aint it?"
Arthur pulled himself to his feet, and looked at the fox. He wasn't sure what to say. Often Iain would just skip any conversation and torment him, but he was unusually talkative today. To be perfectly honest the idea of wolves scared him, but then again it was much more likely that the fox was trying to scare him. He and that stupid cat were probably going to lock him in the barn of Francis's home or trap the little rabbit in a tree as they'd done before.
He bit his lower lip and said, "No! You're just trying to trick me again!" before running off into the underbrush and getting away.
Iain glared at the way the rabbit had left and yelled loud enough so Arthur could here, "Fine then! Go get eatin by wolves, see what I care!" He growled as he turned to stomp back the way he came, but stopped to look over his shoulder before sighing at his own conscious and following after the rabbit boys scent.
((This is just a fluffy little Scotland and England fic I decided to write up. Honestly I started writing this thing back in like December and only started working on it again recently. So yeah not the most productive person. Hopefully I'll actually finish this fic, and everyone will be free to enjoy it.
In this AU Arthur lives in a magic forest where animals can take a semi human form. There are normal animals also that are completely different beings from Arthur and Iain that also inhabit the forest. They're not as inteligent and don't wear clothes like they do so they're pretty different.
Anyway there all kids here. I guestimated Arthur/Enlgand to being around 8-10, while francis/France (who will likely not show up at all despite being mentioned dunno depends on my mood when writing the ending) is like 11-13, while Iain/Scotland is 12-14. France and Scotland are just kid bullies. They don't really mean any severe harm, they just get their kicks out of picking on poor little Arthur but don't hate him at all.
Anyway review if you have the time. Thanks for reading!))