Author's Note: Hey guys, it's my first Fire Emblem fanfic! I'm not sure how many people ship the ship that I'll be shipping in this, but for those of you that do ship the ship that I'm-
Vladimir: Get on with it already!
Me: Fine! Enjoy the fanfiction!
Disclaimer: No.
/OO/
The sound of her paws hitting the ground with each bound she made was her only constant as she traveled. Though it varied when the dirt was more densely packed in certain places than others, or when there was more grass covering the ground than others, it was the one thing that did not change. Sometimes, the sun hid behind the clouds above, making the ground appear darker than it really was. Other times, the sun was out in full force, making the ground reflect light in a way that hurt her eyes to look at for too long.
Sometimes the wind was at her back, seeming to spur her on into running faster. Sometimes, it was directly in her face, as if trying to turn her around, as if to tell her to go back instead of forward. It'd even team up with the cold rain that fell from the sky every now and then, soaking through her pelt and making her shiver. When this happened, she'd stand up on her hind legs and give a roar, as if challenging the very elements that dared to stand in her way. Then she'd drop back down and continue onward, her muscles burning and her chest heaving, driven by the sheer power of her will to survive.
At nights, whether the ground was dry or completely mud, she'd dig around in search of any edible roots she could find. On certain nights, when her belly just wouldn't stop rumbling out its demands to be fed, she'd even eat the roots she'd find that weren't all that edible. More often than not, it wasn't worth the bitter taste they left in her mouth, and they hardly did anything for her hunger, either. In fact, they usually on made it worse by causing her to empty what little food had been in her stomach prior to eating the foul-smelling roots.
Sometimes, if she was feeling particularly desperate for something to fill her belly with, she'd search for clean water to drink and quench her thirst with. Her nose was sharp, and never failed in leading her to a good source of water to drink from. The only problem with that was that it was usually a well close to a human village, or a pond surrounded by predators far stronger than she was.
Most nights, she went without adequate water or food.
After exhausting all possibilities for gathering food and finding water, she would dig in the ground until she'd made a good-sized burrow for herself to sleep in. She gave no thought to how dirty her fur became from the dirt and mud that caked it, only caring about getting underground before any predators found her, whether animal or human. Her body would curl in on itself, tired, filthy, hungry, and thirsty, and she'd close her eyes while thoughts of home flitted through her mind as fleeting as a hummingbird.
One night, almost a week into her travels across the land, a sharp pain spread through her left paw, causing her to shriek in pain as she fell to the ground, landing on her side. Vague half-thoughts flashed through her head almost faster than she could keep track of, each about what could have caused her to fall. 'Hunter trap hunter's trap manspawn caught-'
Lifting her head up, she looked down to her hurt paw, and was surprised to see no metal jaws closed around it. There was a cut along the side of it, but the cause was something much more tame than she'd imagined. She'd merely tripped over a jagged rock that jutted out from the ground at an awkward angle. Anger blossomed in her chest, both at the rock she'd tripped over and herself for reacting to it like some kind of newborn kit. She yelled out in frustration at the rock, then turned away from it and clawed with her good paw at the ground.
Pain once again erupted in her paw, causing her to yell out once more and pull it back to her chest in shock. She fell onto her side again, both paws curled up as she waited for the pain in them to subside. She took deep breaths, waiting until the pain had faded to a manageable amount, then stood on her back legs and began searching for what had harmed her a second time.
Not far from the rock she'd cut her paw, something in the ground shone under the light of the half-moon in the sky. Taking a few steps over to it, she leaned down and lightly sniffed at what seemed to be a small, oddly shaped pipe made of blackened metal. Her upper lip curled in disgust, knowing it was a manspawn creation that had hurt her, and felt angrier at it than she had at the rock that had cut her paw. 'Curse those humans!' she thought, then began digging around the metal she'd found. While normally she'd never intentionally touch something that a human had created, her fury at its existence causing her pain made her want to dig it up just to destroy it.
She made short work of the dirt surrounding the object in the ground, even by digging with only one paw. Despite not caring for the cleanliness of her fur, she did care to not get dirt in an open wound. As more of the object was revealed to the night, she became a mixture of angry and confused. 'Just what is this thing?' She thought, her long ears twitching a bit as she hooked a paw around it and pulling it out of the ground.
The metal manspawn creation she had hit was truly an odd shape. It had a metal loop at the end that she had her paw in to hold it with, and a body almost like a beet in shape. The base of it was located at the middle of its body, seeming to be what it rested on. The part she'd hit curled upwards to the sky, the tip hollow as if something was meant to come out of it. The entire object was black, and had strange symbols engraved along the base. She couldn't make any sense of it, and began rubbing off some of the dirt with her good paw to see if that'd make anything stand out that could tell her what it was that she held.
A bird-like screech came from the manspawn item she held, startling her into dropping it and awkwardly darting away on three paws. She stopped once she was a safe distance away, her injured paw held above the ground while her ears stood at attention. Her eyes, a red color that seemed to glow on their own, focused on the strange item still screeching like a mad bird. 'Gods, what have I unleashed?!' she thought. 'It's cry will surely draw whatever predators may be near here!'
The screeching suddenly cut off, leaving a ringing in her ears. She took a hesitant step forward, only to flinch back when a column of darkness erupted from the manspawn creation. 'Dark magic...' she thought in awe, never having seen such a thing before. The magic turned to feathers, swirling around a figure in the center. "Why hello there, you unlucky soul!" a voice cried as the feathers burst apart, revealing a white-haired human male in a strange robe with a book clutched to his chest. "I am Henry of the lamp, and you've just found the ticket to make your wildest wishes-"
The human stopped, looking down at the one who'd brought him forth from his prison. "...Oh," he said, floating down until his feet touched the ground, the grin never fading from his face. "You're a rabbit." A sigh left him, and he scratched the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't holding onto his book. "Well, at least it isn't wolves again," he said.
She snapped out of her daze, a low growl forming in her throat while looking at the strange human. 'I am a Taguel!' she thought. 'I am no simple rabbit!' She thought, standing tall on her hind legs and taking a step toward the human, the one called Henry.
"Whoa there!" Henry said, taking a step back and floating a few feet off the ground. "No need to get hostile. I'm your new best friend! Well... Servant. I'm your new servant. But I'm the best one you'll ever have! With me, you get all your wishes granted... With conditions, of course."
The growl in her throat only grew louder. If there was one thing her mother had taught her, it was to never rely on magic for solutions. She would obey one of the last commands her mother had given her before... Shaking her head, she turned her back on the human she now knew as some sort of dark mage, and lowered herself to the ground, walking on three paws to get away from him.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Henry asked, floating towards the Taguel. He paused to pick up his lamp, then continued on after her. "You can't just leave! I know you're just a giant rabbit, but wait up!"
She snapped, turning around and leaping at Henry. She tackled him to the ground, keeping him pinned there with her paws as her eyes narrowed venomously, and roared in his face. 'Give me one reason why I shouldn't tear your throat out right now!' she yelled.
"B-because I can give you wishes and I'm immortal!" Henry responded, covering his face with his arms.
She froze, looking down at Henry in surprise. "You... Understood me?" she asked.
"Of course I did!" Henry said, cautiously lowering his arms to look at the rabbit above him. "Perks of being a genie. Now, what's your name? I need something to call you, since Rabbit doesn't seem like it'll work very well."
Her ears twitched a bit, but she let the human's- or, genie's- use of that word slide. "I am Panne," she said, "and I am the sole survivor of the Taguel race."
"Cool!" Henry said, the grin never once leaving his face. "I'm a genie! I'm a couple thousand years old, I grant wishes with exceptions, and because you found and rubbed my lamp, I can't leave you until all your wishes have been used up! Isn't that great?! Oh, I bet we'll be the best of friends, Panne!"
Panne's ears twitched once more, Henry's excited shouting having a less than pleasant effect on them. "What was that about not leaving?" she asked. Surely she must have heard the human wron-
"I absolutely, positively, cannot leave you until you've used up all of your wishes!" Henry cried joyfully. "Isn't that great? You'll always have me around until then! Won't that just be the best? Huh, Panne? Panne?"
Panne got off of Henry, turning her back on the genie and beginning to dig with her good paw, not responding to anything he said.
"Helloooo?" Henry asked, looking at Panne before quickly dodging a clump of dirt that flew in his direction. "Whoa! That could have hit me!" he said, looking at the dirt he'd dodged before turning back to the Taguel.
Hearing this, Panne dug faster, more and more dirt flying behind her. 'Maybe if I dig enough, he'll go away,' she thought, listening to the genie's protests as he tried to avoid the dirt that came towards him. 'Gods, let him go away!' Somehow, as she continued to hear more and more shouts from Henry, she felt that her plea would go unanswered.
/OO/
Author's Note: And there you have it! Panne's discovered Henry in a lamp! I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter in a series of many more to come. Please leave a review and let me know how I did, alright? Until next time!