Lost and Found

The two siblings made their way through a small copse, and Zenthlay held out her forepaw in front of Balm, causing him to stop. "Shhh…" she hissed to him, "Stay here." The doe pushed her way through some bushes that bordered the edge of the woods, and stealthily hopped out into the open. Ear pricked, and all her senses alert, Zenthlay stared at the farm, that now loomed in front of her. "Balm, Get out here," She whispered to her brother.

Balm sat on tree stump, looking around idly. His vision settled on a tree trunk, and his eyes followed it up as it split into many different branches and a canopy of green leaves. Balm's head was tilted so far back now, that he lost his balance. "A-a-a," he stuttered as he fought to stay upright. Balm's hind leg moved back a hair, and he tumbled to the ground with a yelp.

Zenthlay immediately turned in the direction Balm's scream had come from. "Balm!" she yelled, and leapt through the bushes, ready to heroically save her dense brother from a homba, or perhaps a farm pfeffa.

Squirming around on his back, Balm kicked out his back feet, and righted himself. He grinned at Zenthlay. "What're you doing?" he asked her bashfully.

"What? You? Grrrrrr…" she growled at Balm, as she realized he wasn't in trouble at all. He had caused Zenthlay all that stress for nothing, and she had received some minor scratches from the sharp twigs that protruded from some of the leafy bushes. "Come on Balm, before you hurt yourself again," she said coldly and pushed her way through the bush again, hitting it wildly with her forepaws. She had to take her anger out on something.

Balm trotted along behind Zenthlay, but he was a little too close. "Creeek, THAWK!" A branch that Zenthlay had hit, came swinging back and nailed Balm's face. "Oh Owwwwww!" he squealed and went dashing in front of Zenthlay into the open. He curled up into a ball on the ground, holding a forepaw to his eye, whimpering the entire time.

Zenthlay tossed her forepaws up in anguish as she scampered after Balm. Frith! He was such a baby sometimes. Actually, he was a baby all the time. This was no time to whimper like an injured kit out in the open. He would attract elil. Besides, she had no compassion for him. It was his fault. He was walking too close behind her. Zenthlay reached Balm and batted him on the head with her forepaw. "Get up, now," she hissed at him.

"It hurts…It hurts," he wailed, very much so exaggerating his injury. He took his paw off his eye and slowly got up, looking unhappily at Zenthlay.

"Good, you've decided to stop acting like a kit," Zenthlay nodded in approval to her brother and gave him a little shove forward. "Now get going," she urged him, "It's not wise to have this man creature for long.

Balm took a couple of steps forward cautiously in the direction of the farm, with Zenthlay following close behind him.

Standing on her hind legs, Zenthlay quickly scanned the surrounding area. "Okay, see those concrete things by the house?" she asked him, giving another small shove. "Go put it there, and leave it," she ordered him.

Balm gulped and lowered his head as he hopped in the direction of the house. When he reached the stairs he laid down the ringing object gently. "We got you back home," he spoke to the man creature with a grin, and feeling very proud of himself, he turned back to grin at Zenthlay, waving a paw at her.

Zenthlay didn't move. She stood frozen, in a state of shock. The door to the house opened, and a big, burly man's frame filled the entire door way. "B…..B…B…" she stammered, but couldn't shout out anything, as her throat was parched from fear. Her ears twitched anxiously.

Balm looked at Zenthlay, a confused look passing over his face. What was the matter? He had done everything perfectly fine. Slowly, the dark brown buck turned himself around to see what had Zenthlay in such a state. His eyes widened in terror, as he stared at the man's feet. As if in a trance, his gaze followed the feet, up the legs to a long stick that the man had tightly clenched in his powerful hands. Balm's mouth opened in a silent scream, as the man's hands reached down and scooped him off the ground. He was too terrified to move, let alone try to escape the man's grasp.

The man grinned, and was about to go back inside the house, when he spotted the other rabbit nearby. He raised the gun with one hand, Balm in the other, and fired at Zenthlay. Just by chance, he then looked at the ground where Balm had been, and did a double take. It was his cell phone. He knelt down and picked it up, scratching his head, then he walked inside the house and slammed the door shut, grasping Balm by the scruff of his neck.

The bullet came too fast for Zenthaly to see it coming. It hit her foreleg with an amazing impact, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Birds fluttered around in the forest, and squirrels scampered by with nuts in their mouths. The wind rustled the leaves rather harshly, detaching some of them from their braches. The leaves swirled through the air, and one landed on Zenthlay.

She was in a feverish state, and only twitched slightly when the leaf landed on her. Zenthlay's entire body was covered in a cold sweat, as she lay there, breathing shallowly. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of her, though she had her eyes closed she could still see it. A black shape that rearranged itself until it took the form of a rabbit. A voice came into her mind that seemed to come from all directions. "Zenthlay," it hissed, sounding like the wind rustling through long, tall grass.

Zenthlay felt so very weak, and though the offer was tempting, she wasn't about to give in to death. At least not yet anyways. Slowly the black shadow began to fade, as Zenthlay forced her eyes to open. She groaned, but couldn't move her muscle. Her foreleg felt like a million knives were being stabbed into her at that very moment. Her eyes were only half open, when she felt the vibrations in the ground, of someone walking. The man bent down and picked up the injured Zenthlay by the scruff of her neck. The pain was unbearable, and she lapsed into the world of the unconscious once again.