I still don't own Monster Rancher. Sorry.
Well, this would be the fifth and final part of Hare's Secret. Hopefully you've enjoyed the story up to this point. As I've said before, it really helps if you've read the other sections of the story before reading this, or you will have no clue what's going on.
I may do some sort of sequel story to this, because I really like working with this plot line. It depends on what I feel like doing with it, I guess. Anyway, please be sure to review this and tell me whether or not you liked the story. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Genki stared up into the night sky, his eyes drawn to the stars. At least this night it was clear outside, and he could see the stars glittering far above them. Nearby, Holly was coaxing the fire into full blaze, and the sparks leaped into the air, as if trying to become stars themselves.
Mocchi sighed, snuggling up against Genki's side, and the boy draped one arm around the pink monster. He looked down at his little monster and smiled, remembering how brave he had been earlier. His smile faded, and he gazed around at the others, reminded of just how close they had come to defeat.
Suezo was curled up next to Holly, trying to help her with the fire. His back had been bandaged up, a reminder of how badly he had been injured during the fight. He hadn't strayed far from Holly's side after that.
Tiger of the Wind was on the edge of the group, as always. His back was turned to everybody else in the clearing, and he stared out at the dark forest with glittering golden eyes. He had only allowed Holly to bandage his leg, which had been fried during the battle, and only after arguing with the others about how serious it was.
Golem was sitting some distance from the fire, carefully cradling something in his massive arms. Genki knew that the rock monster was looking after Hare, who had fainted right after the fight had ended...
Shaking his head, Genki turned back to the fire, its flames reminding him of what had happened earlier. He kept wondering just what was going on lately. First Tiger had gone paranoid on them, and Hare had run away from them, apparently because of what the blue wolf had said. From that point on the entire day had been like a dream, and Genki had gone through in a sort of daze, half convinced that everything that was happening was some sort of nightmare.
A soft noise caught his attention, and Genki turned to see that Golem had moved. Everyone else turned to watch as he walked over to the group and sat down. Hare slowly crawled out of the rock monster's hands and stepped into the light of the campfire, looking around slowly at the others.
"I guess I owe you guys some sort of explanation," he said, his voice almost a whisper as he sat down across from Genki. His face looked tight and drawn, and he seemed to be close to tears. He smiled wistfully, adding, "I wish that I could tell you this was just another one of my tricks, but..." He faltered.
Genki couldn't take it any longer. "Hare, what's going on? Why were those baddies after you? And why did you run away from us? And what...what happened during the fight?" His questions trailed off, leaving an awkward silence.
"Never heard the saying, 'One thing at a time,' huh, Genki?" Hare quipped, smiling slightly. "But it's alright. I'll try to explain everything."
Hare took a shuddering breath, then began his story.
"I'm certain you guys overheard what the golem said to me when he attacked this morning. Yes, I do know about the last of the Big Bad Four...about Naga." Hare shuddered, his eyes darkening. "You have to believe me when I say that there has never been a more cruel monster unlocked. I don't think that even Moo himself could be as evil as Naga is. At least Moo fights because that's all he's ever really known how to do. But Naga fights for pure enjoyment. He enjoys death..."
Hare shivered again, clutching his kerchief tightly for a moment, and Golem gently reached down and brushed the rabbit's fur with his massive hand. Hare turned and smiled up at the other monster for a moment, then turned back to the others and continued.
"When I was very little...no older than Mocchi is, really...Naga attacked my village." Hare stared into the fire, holding back tears as he said in a bare whisper, "He just appeared one night and started destroying everything. He had his troops set all the buildings set ablaze, and murdered the people and monsters as they fled. He didn't spare anything."
Holly reached over to Suezo and gently wrapped her arms around him, her eyes distant, and even Genki could tell that they were thinking about the destruction of their own home. Mocchi pressed against his own side and looked up at him for reassurance.
"The only reason that I survived was because my parents forced me to hide in a shelter they had been working on," Hare went on, slowly. "They had been hearing rumors of Moo's revival, and had been building a hiding place under the house. But they'd barely started on it...it was just a small hole in the ground, covered by some rocks. They...told me to stay in there until one of them came back for me..."
His voice trailed off again, and he took a shuddering breath before he managed, "But neither of them came back. I waited in that stupid hole for them, believing that one of them would come for me soon. I could hear...all sort of horrible things above where I was hiding. All the screaming...after a while, it finally died out. I was terrified, and I couldn't take hiding any longer. I had to find out what had happened."
The fire sent shadows dancing across Hare's face. Genki realized that he was leaning forward to catch the soft words.
"When I climbed out of that hole, I saw Hell," Hare said bluntly. "The entire village had been burned down...I was standing in the ruins of my own house. Everything was gone: all the flowers and grass, and all the buildings were just gone. The trees looked like black skeletons, reaching toward a blood-red sky...And everyone was dead. I...I saw their bodies scattered in the streets...the people and monsters I lived with...I saw their charred bodies and lost discs everywhere. He killed everyone..."
"That's when I saw him," Hare continued, his voice suddenly icy. "Naga was there, standing in the center of the village, in what had been the town square. And he was laughing...he was laughing! When he destroyed the town...and murdering all those monsters and people...he was enjoying himself! He..." Hare burst into tears, unable to continue.
Golem stroked the rabbit's fur again with an infinitely gentle touch. Hare sobbed for a moment, then managed to regain control.
"When I saw that...when I saw that he was having a good time while destroying everything I'd ever known...I snapped. There's no other way to put it. I knew that he was to blame for what had happened to my home, and I wanted him dead. I'd never wanted to see anything hurt before, but I wanted this monster to die. I needed to make him pay for what he'd done."
"So I attacked him," Hare went on, looking back up at the others as he spoke. "I just leaped at him and punched him in that ugly face of his. I knew I was going to die, but I went ahead and attacked him anyway. I just didn't care anymore. All that mattered was making him pay..."
"Whoa..." Suezo let out the breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding. He stared at Hare. "But...wouldn't you be..."
Hare laughed, but it was a rueful, mocking laugh, one that seemed strange coming from the normally cheerful rabbit. Not that he bore much resemblance to the Hare they all knew, staring into the flames with such a resigned look on his face.
"No, as you can see, he didn't kill me," he muttered, "though I wish he had. He just picked me up by the back of my neck and looked at me strange for a moment. I guess he hadn't expected any survivors, and especially not some runty little monster child angry enough to attack him. He stared at me, and then started laughing again, that same horrible laugh. He said, 'Well now, what's this we have here? Some little rabbit who escaped the flames and attacks the warrior?' He laughed again, and asked, 'What's your name, little rabbit?' I tried to kick him again, and he just held me away from his body and laughed again. I wanted to kill him for laughing."
" 'Well, you have spunk, don't you?' he asked. 'That's good for you, little one, and a very good quality in a weak child.' He held me away from his body, laughing as I tried to hit him, then added, 'I think I'll keep you around for a while. You amuse me.' And then he pinned me down and had some of his henchmen make a cage, and they took me away."
"Did he..." Holly began.
"No, he didn't have Moo turn me into a baddie," Hare answered her question. "Naga didn't view me as any sort of threat or as a fighter: I was just some little child that amused him. He treated me like some sort of toy. He had a chain and collar fashioned for me, and whenever he wanted to have some fun with me, he just yanked on the chain and pulled me along. Mostly he enjoyed just laughing at me; he thought it was funny how I tried to resist him and kept trying to hurt him. Sometimes he had me fetch things for him, little things like maps or drinks, always keeping hold of that chain."
"Oh, he didn't let me get away with everything," Hare continued. "If I stepped too far out of line, he was always ready to beat me up. One time I slipped a sleeping potion I'd managed to scrape together from a few herbs into his wine. He figured out what I'd done, somehow, and fooled me into believing that he'd taken it. He grabbed me that night just as I was sneaking by him. Beat me within an inch of my life that time. I suppose I was lucky, in a way," he added, bitterly. "He could have killed me whenever he wanted, but he always kept me alive, although sometimes just barely. Guess my attempts to get free just amused him too much."
"But you escaped somehow, is that it?" Holly asked.
"Uh huh." Hare shivered and drew closer to the fire. "You see, Naga's not as loyal to Moo as he acts. He pretends fealty, but is actually planning to murder Moo and take over leading the baddies." He paused as Holly gasped softly, then went on with his story. "So Naga is always looking for a way to overthrow his power. He even considered looking for the phoenix once, but decided he didn't want to risk being caught. So instead, he tried looking into other promising methods. And he found one, too."
"What?" Genki wondered aloud.
"He found the Phoenix's Tear," Hare replied, and reached up to his kerchief. He undid the knot and let the red fabric fall to the ground, and Genki and the others stared in amazement. Hung on a simple cord around the rabbit's neck was a crystal that shone a faint red. In the light of the campfire, it shimmered with an almost prismatic effect, showing shades of faintest blue through the soft red glow.
Holly absently gripped her Magic Stone. The crystal looked a little like her own, but was smaller and had more of a tear shape to it. Plus there was the fact that this pendant continued to glow faintly, as if it had a life of its own, while the Magic Stone only glowed while she was using it.
"That's...the Phoenix's Tear, I take it?" Suezo said more than asked, mesmerized by the crystal.
"Yes," Hare confirmed, playing idly with the cord, "this is the Phoenix's Tear. According to the legends my parents told me, this is a crystallized tear shed by the Phoenix in her grief over the bloodshed Moo caused all those years ago. When its powers are used properly, the bearer can use any sort of monster attack, even ones they couldn't normally learn. It also helps monsters that are near it learn their own attacks faster, and increases the strength of the ones they already know. The one who controls its power can even use magic unlike any that any type of monster can use...but there's a problem."
"What?" Genki blurted.
"Most monsters have no control over the Phoenix's Tear or its powers. Only a few rare individuals can use it, and thankfully Naga isn't one of them. I remember how hard he tried to command it the night he found it, without any luck whatsoever. He finally gave up and threw it down, then went to sleep in a rage."
"But you can use it, can't you?" Genki said, staring at Hare as if seeing him for the first time.
Hare nodded. "I don't know how...I'm not sure what makes me able to use it, when Naga can't...I just can. At any rate, after he fell asleep, I decided to see the crystal for myself. I'm not certain why...I guess I just wanted to see the thing that Naga was getting so enraged over. I picked it up from the floor, and suddenly it flared into bright red light. It nearly blinded me, but I saw Naga wake up and stare at me, with the strangest look on his face. He wasn't upset or scared...triumph."
"Huh?" Genki stared at him.
"Triumph. That's what I saw. He saw that I could use the Phoenix's Tear, and he was ecstatic." Hare trembled with the thought. "He knew he could control me, so he probably figured that he would control the Tear's powers through me. He reached out for me, and I remember wishing that I were somewhere far away from his reach. Then the Tear flashed even brighter, and he just vanished. I suppose I triggered a Teleport, just like a Suezo does," he added with a faint grin over at Suezo.
Despite the tension in the clearing, Genki laughed at that, and Holly giggled quietly. Suezo just rolled his eye.
"So you took the Tear and escaped from Naga," Golem said solemnly.
Hare nodded again, looking up at the rock monster. "I had no idea what had happened or where I was," he continued, "just that I had apparently gotten my wish. I was ecstatic for a while, but then I realized that I was lost, alone, and was probably going to be hunted down by Naga and his soldiers. I didn't want to go back, so I started traveling. I didn't know where I was or where I was headed, I just knew that I couldn't let myself be captured again."
He played with his pendant while he added, "After a while, I started to understand more of the Tear's abilities. Since my having it causes it to glow, I decided to hide it by wearing it around my neck like this and hiding it under my kerchief. That way, I thought I wouldn't be so easy to spot. And I figured out another way to disguise who I was..."
His voice trailed off, and he glanced at the others carefully, hesitating. They looked stunned enough as it was with his story; could he really tell them the whole truth?
Go on, it's not like it matters now anyway. Might as well tell them everything.
Taking a deep breath, Hare looked around at his friends one last time and went on.
"There's one other thing that the Phoenix's Tear can do," he said. "The bearer can use it to...alter his or her own appearance. I decided that the best way to throw Naga's troops off my trail was to make myself look like an adult, instead of only being a child...a 'little rabbit'. I used...am using...the Tear to make myself appear to be much older than I really am."
He looked back into the flames of the campfire to avoid the stares of the others. He could especially feel Tiger's golden eyes burning into him. He felt tears come to his eyes and stubbornly held them back, not wanting to break down.
"You mean...you're a..." Suezo stammered.
Hare looked up at him, meeting his gaze almost defiantly. "I'm a kid, yes," he replied, struggling not to cry. "I thought that if I looked older, that others would respect me more. You have no idea what it was like for me at first, after I escaped from Naga. Nobody ever paid any attention to me or let me do anything, just blew me off completely because I was a child, just a silly kid with no real worth to anybody. But once I became an adult, so to speak, they gave me a little more respect. They even let me enter a tournament for the first time in my life. You have no idea how that made me feel, to know that they saw me as strong enough to fight for once!"
"A tournament?" Holly asked, suddenly realizing what Hare was referring to.
"That's where I met up with you guys, as I'm sure you'll remember," Hare confirmed, glancing over at Tiger as if expecting some sort of comment. When none came, he sighed and continued, "I really am sorry about how I treated you guys back then. I wanted to win no matter what, and then afterwards I started feeling really cocky, like my becoming an adult had made me invincible or something. Then, after I tricked you guys and Tiger caught up with me, I thought I was going to die. But...he saved my life. He could have killed me, but he saved me instead. Then, when you said you were going after the Phoenix...I don't know. I just felt like I had to go with you."
"Why?" Holly asked gently.
"I just had to. When I saw how determined you guys were...I just felt that I needed to go with you. I thought that I might be able to help out...both with my plans and the Phoenix's Tear."
"Then why didn't you tell us all this before?" Holly asked. Hare looked over at her, and she could see how close he was to tears.
"Because I knew you'd never believe me," he answered. "I wanted to, at first...but then I thought that if you knew about who I really was...that I was just a little kid, and a fugitive from one of Moo's generals...then you'd tell me to leave. I didn't want to get turned away...so I just kept it hidden. I kind of figured that it wouldn't matter anyway...I thought that Naga would never be able to find me. After all, how could he possible think that the weak little rabbit that got away from him might be traveling with a bunch of rebels?"
Even Genki fell silent at that, and Hare started fidgeting with his pendant again, avoiding the eyes of the others.
"So now you know," he said quietly. "I thought...I hoped that I was done with Naga forever, but I know now that I was wrong. Naga will never rest until I've been recaptured and brought back to him."
"What will happen if you're caught?" Genki asked, almost against his will.
Hare stared back into the flames. "I'll become his slave...his 'little rabbit' once more."
A silence fell over the clearing, and Genki struggled to sort out everything Hare had told them. The rabbit had always been a little unpredictable, but this -this was impossible. Emotions clashed in his heart. Sorrow that Hare had felt such pain. Anger at Naga for continuing to haunt him and dog his footsteps. Fear that the rabbit might be attacked again at any moment. But most of all, he was extremely confused. Was everything that he knew about Hare before a complete lie? Had everything been an act, an illusion kept up by the rabbit to hide from Naga?
Hare got to his feet, his jaw set, a deep sorrow in his eyes. "I'm sorry about lying to you for so long. I...I understand if you want me to leave..." He turned to gather his things.
"Hare, don't-" Holly started to protest, half-rising, but Hare avoided her pleading gaze.
"Hare, we don't want you to leave," Genki said firmly, standing. Hare did look at him, although not straight in the eyes. "Listen to me, Hare: I don't want you to go, and neither do any of the others."
"I know one monster who won't be upset to see me go," Hare muttered, glancing at Tiger. The blue-furred wolf didn't bother to answer that, staring into the forest as if expecting an enemy to appear.
"Hare, stop," Genki repeated, stepping past the fire and seizing the rabbit's shoulders, forcing Hare to look him straight in the eyes. "I don't care about what happened to you before; you're my friend now, and nothing will ever change that. Nothing."
Hare hesitated, then looked back up at Genki with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"There's no need for illusions anymore," Genki told him, releasing his shoulders and stepping back. He glanced at the others. "Right, guys?"
"Right," Holly affirmed with a nod and a grin. Suezo mirrored her smile with a grin of his own. Golem nodded silent approval, while Mocchi echoed Genki: "No need-chi!"
Hare looked at the others and smiled, a little sadly. He gripped the crystal firmly with one paw, and for a moment his form shimmered and changed. When the light dimmed, the group was staring at a much younger-looking rabbit, which didn't appear to be much older than Mocchi. He looked around at his friends, a little timidly and uncertain.
Mocchi walked up to Hare, his face a mask of curiosity. The rabbit was about the same size as him now, and the pink monster looked straight into his eyes. "Is that you-chi?" he asked.
Hare nodded mutely, still clutching at the crystal. Mocchi stared at him a moment longer, then his face broke into a grin.
"You're about my age, aren't you?" he trilled excitedly. "This'll be fun!"
Hare smiled at that, and glanced around at the others, who all seemed to be taking this better than he had hoped for. His smile slowly grew wider, and he actually started laughing, caught up by Mocchi's enthusiasm. Golem handed him his kerchief, and he tied it back around his neck, letting its folds cover the Phoenix's Tear once more. Then Mocchi grabbed his paws and started dancing around with him, and the rabbit gave in to the pink monster's excitement, and kept laughing.
* * *
The crescent moon had risen well above the treetops, but Genki remained awake. The boy gazed around the clearing at his friends again, seeing their sleeping forms easily by the light of the flickering campfire.
Mocchi was curled up against his side again, a familiar presence. The little pink monster's face showed his contentment, and Genki smiled down at his friend, leaning into him.
Holly and Suezo had fallen asleep leaning against one another. Holly's head rested on Suezo's leg, and the eyeball monster leaned protectively over her. There was no sign of the injuries he had suffered earlier from the fight, thanks to Holly's medical skills.
Genki's gaze drifted to Golem and Hare. The rock monster had lifted the little rabbit off the ground after he had fallen asleep. The rabbit had to have been exhausted from all that had happened that day. Genki shook his head in disbelief: it would definitely take a while for them to adjust to everything that had been revealed. Still, Genki believed that everything would work out eventually.
"Still awake, kid?"
Genki turned to look at Tiger, who was watching him with those dark golden eyes. The blue-furred wolf's gaze shifted over to the sleeping Hare, then back to Genki.
"Wondering what you're going to do about him now, huh?" he asked.
"What are you talking about, Tiger?" Genki laughed, winking at the blue wolf. "You already know what we're going to do tomorrow: we're going to keep looking for the Phoenix, just like we always do."
"Oh?" Tiger's voice sounded faintly mocking to Genki. "You know we'll have to go after Naga sooner or later. What happens then?"
Genki hesitated, and gazed back at Hare. After a while, he turned back to Tiger and opened his mouth to answer, only to see that the blue wolf seemed to have fallen asleep. "Tiger...?"
No answer came. Genki stared back into the flickering campfire for a long while, as the night gathered around him. An image seemed to appear in the flames, of a slithering reptilian with glowing yellow eyes hovering over the ruins of a village. He shuddered.
"I'll never let Naga hurt you again, Hare," he whispered to the sleeping rabbit. "Never."
Tiger of the Wind watched the boy through narrowed eyes, tiny golden slits that caught and reflected the firelight.
Well, this would be the fifth and final part of Hare's Secret. Hopefully you've enjoyed the story up to this point. As I've said before, it really helps if you've read the other sections of the story before reading this, or you will have no clue what's going on.
I may do some sort of sequel story to this, because I really like working with this plot line. It depends on what I feel like doing with it, I guess. Anyway, please be sure to review this and tell me whether or not you liked the story. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Genki stared up into the night sky, his eyes drawn to the stars. At least this night it was clear outside, and he could see the stars glittering far above them. Nearby, Holly was coaxing the fire into full blaze, and the sparks leaped into the air, as if trying to become stars themselves.
Mocchi sighed, snuggling up against Genki's side, and the boy draped one arm around the pink monster. He looked down at his little monster and smiled, remembering how brave he had been earlier. His smile faded, and he gazed around at the others, reminded of just how close they had come to defeat.
Suezo was curled up next to Holly, trying to help her with the fire. His back had been bandaged up, a reminder of how badly he had been injured during the fight. He hadn't strayed far from Holly's side after that.
Tiger of the Wind was on the edge of the group, as always. His back was turned to everybody else in the clearing, and he stared out at the dark forest with glittering golden eyes. He had only allowed Holly to bandage his leg, which had been fried during the battle, and only after arguing with the others about how serious it was.
Golem was sitting some distance from the fire, carefully cradling something in his massive arms. Genki knew that the rock monster was looking after Hare, who had fainted right after the fight had ended...
Shaking his head, Genki turned back to the fire, its flames reminding him of what had happened earlier. He kept wondering just what was going on lately. First Tiger had gone paranoid on them, and Hare had run away from them, apparently because of what the blue wolf had said. From that point on the entire day had been like a dream, and Genki had gone through in a sort of daze, half convinced that everything that was happening was some sort of nightmare.
A soft noise caught his attention, and Genki turned to see that Golem had moved. Everyone else turned to watch as he walked over to the group and sat down. Hare slowly crawled out of the rock monster's hands and stepped into the light of the campfire, looking around slowly at the others.
"I guess I owe you guys some sort of explanation," he said, his voice almost a whisper as he sat down across from Genki. His face looked tight and drawn, and he seemed to be close to tears. He smiled wistfully, adding, "I wish that I could tell you this was just another one of my tricks, but..." He faltered.
Genki couldn't take it any longer. "Hare, what's going on? Why were those baddies after you? And why did you run away from us? And what...what happened during the fight?" His questions trailed off, leaving an awkward silence.
"Never heard the saying, 'One thing at a time,' huh, Genki?" Hare quipped, smiling slightly. "But it's alright. I'll try to explain everything."
Hare took a shuddering breath, then began his story.
"I'm certain you guys overheard what the golem said to me when he attacked this morning. Yes, I do know about the last of the Big Bad Four...about Naga." Hare shuddered, his eyes darkening. "You have to believe me when I say that there has never been a more cruel monster unlocked. I don't think that even Moo himself could be as evil as Naga is. At least Moo fights because that's all he's ever really known how to do. But Naga fights for pure enjoyment. He enjoys death..."
Hare shivered again, clutching his kerchief tightly for a moment, and Golem gently reached down and brushed the rabbit's fur with his massive hand. Hare turned and smiled up at the other monster for a moment, then turned back to the others and continued.
"When I was very little...no older than Mocchi is, really...Naga attacked my village." Hare stared into the fire, holding back tears as he said in a bare whisper, "He just appeared one night and started destroying everything. He had his troops set all the buildings set ablaze, and murdered the people and monsters as they fled. He didn't spare anything."
Holly reached over to Suezo and gently wrapped her arms around him, her eyes distant, and even Genki could tell that they were thinking about the destruction of their own home. Mocchi pressed against his own side and looked up at him for reassurance.
"The only reason that I survived was because my parents forced me to hide in a shelter they had been working on," Hare went on, slowly. "They had been hearing rumors of Moo's revival, and had been building a hiding place under the house. But they'd barely started on it...it was just a small hole in the ground, covered by some rocks. They...told me to stay in there until one of them came back for me..."
His voice trailed off again, and he took a shuddering breath before he managed, "But neither of them came back. I waited in that stupid hole for them, believing that one of them would come for me soon. I could hear...all sort of horrible things above where I was hiding. All the screaming...after a while, it finally died out. I was terrified, and I couldn't take hiding any longer. I had to find out what had happened."
The fire sent shadows dancing across Hare's face. Genki realized that he was leaning forward to catch the soft words.
"When I climbed out of that hole, I saw Hell," Hare said bluntly. "The entire village had been burned down...I was standing in the ruins of my own house. Everything was gone: all the flowers and grass, and all the buildings were just gone. The trees looked like black skeletons, reaching toward a blood-red sky...And everyone was dead. I...I saw their bodies scattered in the streets...the people and monsters I lived with...I saw their charred bodies and lost discs everywhere. He killed everyone..."
"That's when I saw him," Hare continued, his voice suddenly icy. "Naga was there, standing in the center of the village, in what had been the town square. And he was laughing...he was laughing! When he destroyed the town...and murdering all those monsters and people...he was enjoying himself! He..." Hare burst into tears, unable to continue.
Golem stroked the rabbit's fur again with an infinitely gentle touch. Hare sobbed for a moment, then managed to regain control.
"When I saw that...when I saw that he was having a good time while destroying everything I'd ever known...I snapped. There's no other way to put it. I knew that he was to blame for what had happened to my home, and I wanted him dead. I'd never wanted to see anything hurt before, but I wanted this monster to die. I needed to make him pay for what he'd done."
"So I attacked him," Hare went on, looking back up at the others as he spoke. "I just leaped at him and punched him in that ugly face of his. I knew I was going to die, but I went ahead and attacked him anyway. I just didn't care anymore. All that mattered was making him pay..."
"Whoa..." Suezo let out the breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding. He stared at Hare. "But...wouldn't you be..."
Hare laughed, but it was a rueful, mocking laugh, one that seemed strange coming from the normally cheerful rabbit. Not that he bore much resemblance to the Hare they all knew, staring into the flames with such a resigned look on his face.
"No, as you can see, he didn't kill me," he muttered, "though I wish he had. He just picked me up by the back of my neck and looked at me strange for a moment. I guess he hadn't expected any survivors, and especially not some runty little monster child angry enough to attack him. He stared at me, and then started laughing again, that same horrible laugh. He said, 'Well now, what's this we have here? Some little rabbit who escaped the flames and attacks the warrior?' He laughed again, and asked, 'What's your name, little rabbit?' I tried to kick him again, and he just held me away from his body and laughed again. I wanted to kill him for laughing."
" 'Well, you have spunk, don't you?' he asked. 'That's good for you, little one, and a very good quality in a weak child.' He held me away from his body, laughing as I tried to hit him, then added, 'I think I'll keep you around for a while. You amuse me.' And then he pinned me down and had some of his henchmen make a cage, and they took me away."
"Did he..." Holly began.
"No, he didn't have Moo turn me into a baddie," Hare answered her question. "Naga didn't view me as any sort of threat or as a fighter: I was just some little child that amused him. He treated me like some sort of toy. He had a chain and collar fashioned for me, and whenever he wanted to have some fun with me, he just yanked on the chain and pulled me along. Mostly he enjoyed just laughing at me; he thought it was funny how I tried to resist him and kept trying to hurt him. Sometimes he had me fetch things for him, little things like maps or drinks, always keeping hold of that chain."
"Oh, he didn't let me get away with everything," Hare continued. "If I stepped too far out of line, he was always ready to beat me up. One time I slipped a sleeping potion I'd managed to scrape together from a few herbs into his wine. He figured out what I'd done, somehow, and fooled me into believing that he'd taken it. He grabbed me that night just as I was sneaking by him. Beat me within an inch of my life that time. I suppose I was lucky, in a way," he added, bitterly. "He could have killed me whenever he wanted, but he always kept me alive, although sometimes just barely. Guess my attempts to get free just amused him too much."
"But you escaped somehow, is that it?" Holly asked.
"Uh huh." Hare shivered and drew closer to the fire. "You see, Naga's not as loyal to Moo as he acts. He pretends fealty, but is actually planning to murder Moo and take over leading the baddies." He paused as Holly gasped softly, then went on with his story. "So Naga is always looking for a way to overthrow his power. He even considered looking for the phoenix once, but decided he didn't want to risk being caught. So instead, he tried looking into other promising methods. And he found one, too."
"What?" Genki wondered aloud.
"He found the Phoenix's Tear," Hare replied, and reached up to his kerchief. He undid the knot and let the red fabric fall to the ground, and Genki and the others stared in amazement. Hung on a simple cord around the rabbit's neck was a crystal that shone a faint red. In the light of the campfire, it shimmered with an almost prismatic effect, showing shades of faintest blue through the soft red glow.
Holly absently gripped her Magic Stone. The crystal looked a little like her own, but was smaller and had more of a tear shape to it. Plus there was the fact that this pendant continued to glow faintly, as if it had a life of its own, while the Magic Stone only glowed while she was using it.
"That's...the Phoenix's Tear, I take it?" Suezo said more than asked, mesmerized by the crystal.
"Yes," Hare confirmed, playing idly with the cord, "this is the Phoenix's Tear. According to the legends my parents told me, this is a crystallized tear shed by the Phoenix in her grief over the bloodshed Moo caused all those years ago. When its powers are used properly, the bearer can use any sort of monster attack, even ones they couldn't normally learn. It also helps monsters that are near it learn their own attacks faster, and increases the strength of the ones they already know. The one who controls its power can even use magic unlike any that any type of monster can use...but there's a problem."
"What?" Genki blurted.
"Most monsters have no control over the Phoenix's Tear or its powers. Only a few rare individuals can use it, and thankfully Naga isn't one of them. I remember how hard he tried to command it the night he found it, without any luck whatsoever. He finally gave up and threw it down, then went to sleep in a rage."
"But you can use it, can't you?" Genki said, staring at Hare as if seeing him for the first time.
Hare nodded. "I don't know how...I'm not sure what makes me able to use it, when Naga can't...I just can. At any rate, after he fell asleep, I decided to see the crystal for myself. I'm not certain why...I guess I just wanted to see the thing that Naga was getting so enraged over. I picked it up from the floor, and suddenly it flared into bright red light. It nearly blinded me, but I saw Naga wake up and stare at me, with the strangest look on his face. He wasn't upset or scared...triumph."
"Huh?" Genki stared at him.
"Triumph. That's what I saw. He saw that I could use the Phoenix's Tear, and he was ecstatic." Hare trembled with the thought. "He knew he could control me, so he probably figured that he would control the Tear's powers through me. He reached out for me, and I remember wishing that I were somewhere far away from his reach. Then the Tear flashed even brighter, and he just vanished. I suppose I triggered a Teleport, just like a Suezo does," he added with a faint grin over at Suezo.
Despite the tension in the clearing, Genki laughed at that, and Holly giggled quietly. Suezo just rolled his eye.
"So you took the Tear and escaped from Naga," Golem said solemnly.
Hare nodded again, looking up at the rock monster. "I had no idea what had happened or where I was," he continued, "just that I had apparently gotten my wish. I was ecstatic for a while, but then I realized that I was lost, alone, and was probably going to be hunted down by Naga and his soldiers. I didn't want to go back, so I started traveling. I didn't know where I was or where I was headed, I just knew that I couldn't let myself be captured again."
He played with his pendant while he added, "After a while, I started to understand more of the Tear's abilities. Since my having it causes it to glow, I decided to hide it by wearing it around my neck like this and hiding it under my kerchief. That way, I thought I wouldn't be so easy to spot. And I figured out another way to disguise who I was..."
His voice trailed off, and he glanced at the others carefully, hesitating. They looked stunned enough as it was with his story; could he really tell them the whole truth?
Go on, it's not like it matters now anyway. Might as well tell them everything.
Taking a deep breath, Hare looked around at his friends one last time and went on.
"There's one other thing that the Phoenix's Tear can do," he said. "The bearer can use it to...alter his or her own appearance. I decided that the best way to throw Naga's troops off my trail was to make myself look like an adult, instead of only being a child...a 'little rabbit'. I used...am using...the Tear to make myself appear to be much older than I really am."
He looked back into the flames of the campfire to avoid the stares of the others. He could especially feel Tiger's golden eyes burning into him. He felt tears come to his eyes and stubbornly held them back, not wanting to break down.
"You mean...you're a..." Suezo stammered.
Hare looked up at him, meeting his gaze almost defiantly. "I'm a kid, yes," he replied, struggling not to cry. "I thought that if I looked older, that others would respect me more. You have no idea what it was like for me at first, after I escaped from Naga. Nobody ever paid any attention to me or let me do anything, just blew me off completely because I was a child, just a silly kid with no real worth to anybody. But once I became an adult, so to speak, they gave me a little more respect. They even let me enter a tournament for the first time in my life. You have no idea how that made me feel, to know that they saw me as strong enough to fight for once!"
"A tournament?" Holly asked, suddenly realizing what Hare was referring to.
"That's where I met up with you guys, as I'm sure you'll remember," Hare confirmed, glancing over at Tiger as if expecting some sort of comment. When none came, he sighed and continued, "I really am sorry about how I treated you guys back then. I wanted to win no matter what, and then afterwards I started feeling really cocky, like my becoming an adult had made me invincible or something. Then, after I tricked you guys and Tiger caught up with me, I thought I was going to die. But...he saved my life. He could have killed me, but he saved me instead. Then, when you said you were going after the Phoenix...I don't know. I just felt like I had to go with you."
"Why?" Holly asked gently.
"I just had to. When I saw how determined you guys were...I just felt that I needed to go with you. I thought that I might be able to help out...both with my plans and the Phoenix's Tear."
"Then why didn't you tell us all this before?" Holly asked. Hare looked over at her, and she could see how close he was to tears.
"Because I knew you'd never believe me," he answered. "I wanted to, at first...but then I thought that if you knew about who I really was...that I was just a little kid, and a fugitive from one of Moo's generals...then you'd tell me to leave. I didn't want to get turned away...so I just kept it hidden. I kind of figured that it wouldn't matter anyway...I thought that Naga would never be able to find me. After all, how could he possible think that the weak little rabbit that got away from him might be traveling with a bunch of rebels?"
Even Genki fell silent at that, and Hare started fidgeting with his pendant again, avoiding the eyes of the others.
"So now you know," he said quietly. "I thought...I hoped that I was done with Naga forever, but I know now that I was wrong. Naga will never rest until I've been recaptured and brought back to him."
"What will happen if you're caught?" Genki asked, almost against his will.
Hare stared back into the flames. "I'll become his slave...his 'little rabbit' once more."
A silence fell over the clearing, and Genki struggled to sort out everything Hare had told them. The rabbit had always been a little unpredictable, but this -this was impossible. Emotions clashed in his heart. Sorrow that Hare had felt such pain. Anger at Naga for continuing to haunt him and dog his footsteps. Fear that the rabbit might be attacked again at any moment. But most of all, he was extremely confused. Was everything that he knew about Hare before a complete lie? Had everything been an act, an illusion kept up by the rabbit to hide from Naga?
Hare got to his feet, his jaw set, a deep sorrow in his eyes. "I'm sorry about lying to you for so long. I...I understand if you want me to leave..." He turned to gather his things.
"Hare, don't-" Holly started to protest, half-rising, but Hare avoided her pleading gaze.
"Hare, we don't want you to leave," Genki said firmly, standing. Hare did look at him, although not straight in the eyes. "Listen to me, Hare: I don't want you to go, and neither do any of the others."
"I know one monster who won't be upset to see me go," Hare muttered, glancing at Tiger. The blue-furred wolf didn't bother to answer that, staring into the forest as if expecting an enemy to appear.
"Hare, stop," Genki repeated, stepping past the fire and seizing the rabbit's shoulders, forcing Hare to look him straight in the eyes. "I don't care about what happened to you before; you're my friend now, and nothing will ever change that. Nothing."
Hare hesitated, then looked back up at Genki with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"There's no need for illusions anymore," Genki told him, releasing his shoulders and stepping back. He glanced at the others. "Right, guys?"
"Right," Holly affirmed with a nod and a grin. Suezo mirrored her smile with a grin of his own. Golem nodded silent approval, while Mocchi echoed Genki: "No need-chi!"
Hare looked at the others and smiled, a little sadly. He gripped the crystal firmly with one paw, and for a moment his form shimmered and changed. When the light dimmed, the group was staring at a much younger-looking rabbit, which didn't appear to be much older than Mocchi. He looked around at his friends, a little timidly and uncertain.
Mocchi walked up to Hare, his face a mask of curiosity. The rabbit was about the same size as him now, and the pink monster looked straight into his eyes. "Is that you-chi?" he asked.
Hare nodded mutely, still clutching at the crystal. Mocchi stared at him a moment longer, then his face broke into a grin.
"You're about my age, aren't you?" he trilled excitedly. "This'll be fun!"
Hare smiled at that, and glanced around at the others, who all seemed to be taking this better than he had hoped for. His smile slowly grew wider, and he actually started laughing, caught up by Mocchi's enthusiasm. Golem handed him his kerchief, and he tied it back around his neck, letting its folds cover the Phoenix's Tear once more. Then Mocchi grabbed his paws and started dancing around with him, and the rabbit gave in to the pink monster's excitement, and kept laughing.
* * *
The crescent moon had risen well above the treetops, but Genki remained awake. The boy gazed around the clearing at his friends again, seeing their sleeping forms easily by the light of the flickering campfire.
Mocchi was curled up against his side again, a familiar presence. The little pink monster's face showed his contentment, and Genki smiled down at his friend, leaning into him.
Holly and Suezo had fallen asleep leaning against one another. Holly's head rested on Suezo's leg, and the eyeball monster leaned protectively over her. There was no sign of the injuries he had suffered earlier from the fight, thanks to Holly's medical skills.
Genki's gaze drifted to Golem and Hare. The rock monster had lifted the little rabbit off the ground after he had fallen asleep. The rabbit had to have been exhausted from all that had happened that day. Genki shook his head in disbelief: it would definitely take a while for them to adjust to everything that had been revealed. Still, Genki believed that everything would work out eventually.
"Still awake, kid?"
Genki turned to look at Tiger, who was watching him with those dark golden eyes. The blue-furred wolf's gaze shifted over to the sleeping Hare, then back to Genki.
"Wondering what you're going to do about him now, huh?" he asked.
"What are you talking about, Tiger?" Genki laughed, winking at the blue wolf. "You already know what we're going to do tomorrow: we're going to keep looking for the Phoenix, just like we always do."
"Oh?" Tiger's voice sounded faintly mocking to Genki. "You know we'll have to go after Naga sooner or later. What happens then?"
Genki hesitated, and gazed back at Hare. After a while, he turned back to Tiger and opened his mouth to answer, only to see that the blue wolf seemed to have fallen asleep. "Tiger...?"
No answer came. Genki stared back into the flickering campfire for a long while, as the night gathered around him. An image seemed to appear in the flames, of a slithering reptilian with glowing yellow eyes hovering over the ruins of a village. He shuddered.
"I'll never let Naga hurt you again, Hare," he whispered to the sleeping rabbit. "Never."
Tiger of the Wind watched the boy through narrowed eyes, tiny golden slits that caught and reflected the firelight.