Prologue
By: biacebaolck
"Backlash. What a wonderful name." cooed a female silver-furred hare to the babe. She was obviously the babe's mother. A black-furred hare sitting next to her stayed silent. His gaze at the babe, who had been born 1 season ago, was cold.
"We can't name a girl that! It's strictly a male's name!" he growled as the babe giggled when her mother tickled her footpaws.
"You swore that 1 season from when our babe would be born, the name Backlash would be given!" she argued, cradling her babe in her arms.
"I thought it would be a boy!" he shot back. "Selena, we're changing her name, and that's final!"
"No." Selena said, glaring at him. "You swore an oath, Lash, and you cannot break it. It's against our laws!" Lash glared back and stood up. He stomped out the door, slamming it behind him. Little Backlash, frightened by the loud noise, started to whimper and then cry.
Selena rocked her babe back and forth in her arms, humming softly to lull her to sleep. Backlash's eyelids began to droop, and she struggled to keep them open. After a while, she fell asleep.
Her mother looked at her lovingly and kissed her on the forehead. The little grey hare-babe slept on. Selena looked out the window. Strange, it was awfully quiet tonight.
She gasped as she saw torches being lit. Stoats, foxes, weasels, rats and ferrets were surrounding the village. Selena grabbed her cloak and wrapped both her and her babe in it.
She ran towards the forest, hoping to find a shelter for her babe, but a stoat spotted her and ran his cutlass through her. She fell to her knees gasping, her blood dripping down from her body, babe still clutched in her arms. She cried out in pain as the stoat whipped her.
The babe, now fully awake, was terrified. Suddenly, a shout erupted from the forest.
"Eulaliaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" cried a black hare, who she recognized as father. He injured and even slew vermin in his path as he struggled to get to his wife. "Selena! Selena!" he called out as he neared her. She didn't answer.
He knelt down and looked at her face. Selena's sapphire blue eyes were now clouded over, her breathing had slowed down, but she still held Backlash in her arms. They were both covered in blood, Backlash covered in more than her mother.
"Lash." Selena gasped out before she died, her soul now traveling to the Dark Forest Gate. Her hold on Backlash loosened and the babe landed on the ground. Lash glared at the babe.
"If it weren't for you, she would still be alive." Backlash began to feel terrible. The death of her mother…was all her fault?
A surviving stoat of Lash's attacks, the same one that had killed Selena, struck him with his sharp whip, ending the black hare's life. Backlash forced herself to look into the stoat's eyes, and felt cold all over. The stoat laughed evilly, whipped her, and put his whip away.
"Get up, yew! Yew'll be my slave if'n yew want ta live." He snarled and turned around. "Now git!" Backlash obeyed, her heart refusing to stop pounding. Her life was now in shambles, her parents were dead, her father's words still stung, and she was a slave even though she was only a season old.
Could her life get any worse?