Hekana, monster, Hellswine. They had long ago ripped through the lands and desecrated the holy sites. They cared not for the traditions of the ancestors, no, they tore through the land like beasts. The thought of them brought forth into a chill in a mammal's blood, they stood two and a half cubits high with tusks that dwarfed the teeth of a lion. They were minions of the devils and worshipers of the evil spirits and were evil themselves.
Wild stood in the presence of the Owsla and felt his own fear ripple through him. The Hekana had returned and they had killed, they had killed so many and they would not stop. The rabbit elders discussed in hushed worried voices, at one point they released Wild, who was more than happy to return to his tent.
His fate was now in the hands of those rabbits, he mused as he stripped off his cramped and now heavy armor. He placed his gear by his cot and stretched, letting his spine release a string of cracks. He was exhausted and as worried and scared he was of the coming days and of their trials all he could do now was sleep.
He collapsed into his cot and let his mind cloud in sleep.
They moved closer, swiping at him, he felt their claws dig into his flesh. He tried to scream, but his mouth found no voice, he was mute to his mutilation, and yet he heard a squeak. He looked in horror as the creatures surrounded her, they left him for her, he ran his legs tied down on rocks. He was helpless, helpless as the day his family died, the day he failed them and now he would fail her. Her eyes were full of horror as she pleaded for him to help, to save her. All he could do was watch, watch as the beasts tore her apart, her gray fur ripped and dyed with her own blood. The beast finished their meal and vanished into mist, his ropes were gone, he crawled over. He held her broken body in his arms and wept, he was to blame. He heard a snarl behind him.
Wild shot from his dream, his fur raised, claws bared, and his lips curled to reveal his sharp teeth. The small bunny in front of his was terrified, frozen even, in her fear. Wild relaxed as the tharned rabbit in front of him remained frozen in place.
He blinked at her and let himself examine her closely. She was a brown doe with a clasp of wood around her wrist marking her as a servant. Her eyes were a deep blue and Wild thought that when she wasn't utterly horrified she would have made a rather attractive rabbit. He snorted slightly at the fact he was now concerned with the beauty of a prey. The rabbit started and hopped slightly in her place, she addressed him as if he were death itself.
"The Lady Hops has requested your presence."
Wild looked at the rabbit curiously before rising to follow.
Hops stood, pacing in her tent as she remembered the words her father had spoken to her the night before.
"If it is what you wish, why are you afraid to tell me?"
Hops had paced with her paws clutched to her head as she listened to her father speak.
"Are you afraid of what I would say? What I would do? He saved my daughter, why would I garner him any ill will?"
Hops stopped and looked at her father, the Rah, with tearful eyes.
"I think I love him father, and I know it is wrong. I fear myself."
Her father rose and went to her, gently, he cradled her head in his hands and patted her ears.
"There are many things that one must fight, but love is not one of them. The Great Spirit cares not if you are marli and homba, you are of one spirit. If what you feel is true, then call to him when he returns. The fates have brought him to us for a reason my child, I would not question them."
Now Hops stood in nervous anticipation for the servant she had sent to return, and to bring the fox with her. She couldn't stop and think, her mind would wander to the nights in the wilderness that they had spent together and to how safe and warm she felt in the arms of a creature she should fear. She tried to push them away, but the night she left him had filled her with a sadness she couldn't describe.
She wanted him to go with her, wherever she went, she wanted him.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the flap of her tent being lifted and the entrance of a tall red mammal. The presence of the fox filled her with glee and she went to him and embraced him quickly. He seemed shocked at first, but he quickly returned the hold with one of his own.
"Why did you wish to see me?"
He asked it softly, almost leadingly, never letting his embrace loosen. He knew, she could feel it, he knew why and he just wanted her to say it. But could she, was she truly ready?
"I wanted you to keep your promise. I wanted you to come back to me."
Wild kneeled so he now stood equal with her, holding her head carefully in his paws.
"Well, here I am. What would you have me do?"
Hops looked into his sharp, slitted, green eyes. Eyes that should strike fear into her very soul, but only filled her with warmth. She saw into his soul, his spirit, and she saw herself. She was frightened of what was to be, but as her father had said, it was not wise to tempt the fates.
"Kiss me."
And so he did, without a single thought.
Wild left the tent, his gut ablaze in feeling. He was relieved and happy, but he was also terrified. What he had done could not be undone and he could be marked for death if he ever found another fox.
He walked back to his tent deep in thought. To use a rabbit in a carnal way was not unheard of this much was true, but to make one a mate. To let one mark you, he had never heard of such a thing. Was he willing to do this? As he passed the tents of the rabbits and hares he saw a few look at him in shock. They could smell her on him, they could smell rabbit on this fox. Whether they knew the truth or thought he had eaten one of them, he did not know, nor did he plan on asking.
He made his way back to his tent and sat on the bed, his head in his paws. Reaching down to his waist, he plucked the flower from its pouch, holding it up he examined it more closely. A single pink flower that meant so much, with this flower he now held he could change forever. It had marked him as her choice, and if he was to accept he was to wear it on his armor until the day they were made one.
He sighed heavily as the weight of the tiny flower seemed to pull his arm to the floor.
"Heavy isn't it?"
The voice took him by surprise and he shot his gaze up towards the opening in the tent. There stood the Rah and father of the bunny that had given him the flower. In the storm that was Wild's mind he had not even noticed the old rabbit enter, he went to stand but the rabbit waved him down.
"It weighs heavy on us all when we are chosen. I did not sleep for a week when my first mate chose me."
The rabbit walked in a slow and thoughtful gait around the tent, the gait one acquires after many long years. He turned to Wild with a fatherly smile.
"You are afraid, and that is good. It is good to be afraid, such a thing as this is not widely heard of. But it is not the first. Many years ago, far too long for many to remember, a lion mated with a gazelle and for a short time there was peace and unity between their clans."
Wild looked again at the flower in his paw, it's soft petals seemed to beckon him.
"I have no clan, no family, I would bring you no peace."
"But you would bring us strength. A rabbit clan with a fox in their midst is a powerful clan, and feared a respected by its neighbors," the old rabbit's voice took on a sorrowful tone, "And with the destruction of peace, I'm afraid we will need all the fear we can get."
"What of the Hekana," Wild asked suddenly. The elderly rabbit turned to him with a smirk that held no joy.
"What are we to do of them? We are merely rabbits, they stand as tall as lions and kill all in their path. They will create their chaos and disappear, as they always have."
Wild stood and walked over to the leader of the rabbit clan, kneeling down, he placed a paw on his shoulder. The rabbit looked up in shock at the gesture, but the look in the fox's eyes silenced him. A look of concern and determination.
"If you wish peace, then let us make peace. Let me help you make a better world," looking down at the flower again, "For her."
The rabbit placed his paw on top of Wild's, he nodded and reached for the front of Wild's brow.
"With this touch, I remove the stain your ancestors left upon my kind and wish the same of you. I ask you as a child of the Great Spirit to accept me as your brother."
Wild reached and placed his paw on the old mammal's forehead.
"With this touch, I remove the stain your ancestors left upon my kind and accept the same from you. As a child of the Great Spirit, I accept you as my brother."
That night Wild again stood in his armor, watching the sun set and waiting. They would move again, towards the safety of the great meadows, through the wilderness. He knew the perils that awaited them and thought of what he had asked of the Rah, of peace. They would try it soon, but not tonight, tonight the must be the vanguard. The clan was to leave and they must guard it.
Wild looked at his copper-tipped spear as it glistened sharply in the setting light, to his studded armor, the likes of which he had never seen before. He would need it all very soon.
The sun was setting upon them and darkness was swallowing the land. It moved with the swiftness of an arrow through the sky, striking all as it cut its way through. The peace had been shattered and now all that remained was chaos and war, death would follow them wherever they went and they must fight it off. There was no dawn in sight as the sun retreated behind the mountains, no dawn for them. But Wild held with a piece of the sun, it shone so bright that Wild could see for leagues ahead and his fear melted to hope. For hanging securely to his armor hung a single pink flower.