Chapter 9:
The Hunting Begins

Zenthlay awoke with a start, and the first thing she saw was two huge blue eyes and long, slender whiskers. She squealed and tried to kick her way free, but the pfeffa held her down fast. Zenthlay really hadn't heard what she had said to wake her up with, but she knew the situation was dire. "Wha- What's going on?" Zenthlay asked the pfeffa, her voice shaking with fear.

Frost only winked coldly at Zenthlay and pulled the rabbit up, just out of her slumber. Then she moved a couple of steps back from the doe to reveal the armies of vermin that lay just outside her burrow door. "I dare you, try to esssscape," she hissed at her, prowling up to the rabbit, and batting at one of her ears. She wished that they could torment and starve this doe, or at least something she could do herself, but she had orders and was set on following them. Frost knew she didn't want to turn out like Rasendel, at least that much was clear.

Zenthlay could only stare in horror and amazement at the swarms of elil that were only a couple of paces away from her. She couldn't imagine ever seeing so many of them all at once. And it was kind of strange that they were all living together in one warren. Wasn't that what rabbits were supposed to do, elil were the ones that lived out silf and alone by themselves most of the time. "P-please," she trembled with fear, thinking about what they would possibly do to her. Her eyes flickered over every different kind of animal, a new sense of dread falling heavy in her heart. Escape looked impossible.

Icarus, the black lab, had run down into a separate burrow in which they had all the necessary food stored for the winter. He had grabbed as many strawberries as he could in his mouth, and trying not to squish too many of them with his pearly whites, he trotted with them to where the mob had originated. Icarus pushed his way through the crowd, receiving a few paw shakes and crude comments, but finally entered into the burrow, and sat beside Frost. "Here da berries," he panted, his long pink tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.

Three mean looking rats emerged from the crowd into the burrow and began to rub the berries on Zenthlay, who was basically frozen solid from a state of shock. She was almost completely tharn. Zenthlay knew that there was no hope in trying to run through the 'millions' of elil that were all too close to her for her liking. Rabbits need some place to hid, and have to be able to run away from danger, or else they definitely don't cope very well. Zenthlay was finding this out in a hard way.

"Hold still," one of the rats, a grey one, antagonized Zenthlay, even though she wasn't moving a muscle. They all rubbed the berries on the doe until she was completely covered in red juice, and looked like a deformed homba. Either that or a really large strawberry. One of the rats licked his lips as he thought of sinking his teeth into the rabbit berry.

"That's enough!" the man called out from the crowds, which parted for him as he made his way through. "No delayin'," he said to the rats, who were still rubbing berry juice on Zenthlay, even though she was completely covered in it. Two different animals that were in the burrow grabbed Zenthlay by the forearms, which caused her to stand on her hind legs, or else she would totally lose balance and fall to the ground. Her ears were twitching anxiously, and her entire body was almost refusing to move. But the vermin made sure that she kept going. The two creatures, along with the crowds pushed her to the burrow exit. Then they shoved her outside and watched from there. None of them, not even the man was brave enough to stand up to the creatures that roamed the hills outside.

Zenthlay breathed a sigh of relief as they let her go; at least that is what she thought they were doing anyways. She couldn't think of any other reason why she would be out silf. She was only starting to calm down when a screaming rat was shoved outside behind her. "NOOOOOO!" it screamed, and tried to run down into the warren again, only to be shoved back out. It tumbled to the ground and then sat there, moping and letting out wails that caused Zenthlay to pale.

"What? What's the matter?" the young doe asked the black rat, as she hopped up to the distressed creature. She was getting extremely irritated with the rat's wails, which caused her stomach to flop every time she heard them. If it was possible, this rat was even more annoying than Balm!

Rasendel took deep, shuddering breaths. "THEY'RE...C-COMING TO A K-K- KILL US!" she screamed at Zenthlay, harsh tears flowing down her face. The black rat grabbed at some of Zenthlay's fur in her anguish and began to pull at it with all her might. "WE'RE A G-GONNA D-DIE!!! She screamed.

"HEY!" Zenthlay yelled at the rat, and cuffed her in the head. "Let go of my fur you flea-ridden beast! And stop that excessive wailing, it's giving me a Frith-forsaken headache!" she growled at the rat.

"B-B-B-" Rasendel began to stammer only to be cut off by Zenthlay.

"OKAY! Listen to me, you stupid rat. Nothing's coming for us. They let us go, so we're free to leave. So keep your wits about you or you will die, because I'll personally kill you myself," Zenthlay hissed angrily at the rat and then turned to leave. As Zenthlay faced the other direction, a shadow covered the ground in front of her, slowly getting larger by the minute. The doe gulped and looked back at the rat, whose entire body was shaking, and was beginning to salivate with fear. Slowly, her vision followed the shadow upwards where she first saw two huge furry paws, brandished with gigantic claws. Zenthlay gasped as she realized what the terrifyingly large creature was. It was a rabbit! Not just any rabbit though, its buck teeth weren't flat like any other wild rabbits, they were pointed, and tinted a reddish colour. This looked queerly like blood. Zenthlay shivered as the gigantic rabbit loomed over them. At first it didn't do much, just sat there watching them. Which was really nerve- wracking as the rabbit was about the size of a hrududu. Zenthlay looked over at Rasendel. Even though she was an annoying rat, she still wouldn't purposely want something to happen to her. It kind of reminded her of her relationship that she had with Balm. Zenthlay figured that Rasendel was just scared, and if she had the same amount of self-discipline as the black rat, then she would have been acting the exact same way. "Now!" she yelled at Rasendel, hoping to catch the rabbit off guard, Zenthlay dashed to the left of the monstrous rabbit.

A cruel smile passed the rabbit's face. "You can't escape," the clear, cold voice seemed to cut through Zenthlay and Rasendel's minds. And then the rabbit put down its forepaws right in front of the two escapees, blocking any hope of their flight.

Zenthlay tottered a little as the voice resounded in her mind again, "Try running," it said, as it dug its massive claws into the dirt, causing gashes in the ground. She recoiled in fear, and held her paws to her temples as the voice echoed through her mind over and over again with an amazing intensity. Zenthlay managed to look over at the rat, who was sitting fairly close by and was rocking back and forth, looking as if it would have a heart-attack at any minute. She took a deep breath, and then ran over to the rat. The monster rabbit didn't try to stop her, it just sat there, merely staring at then with a slight bit of interest. It yawned, showing its massive teeth.

"Shut up, and listen to me. You want to live?" Zenthlay asked Rasendel harshly, knowing that it was the only thing that would get through the tharn rat's mind quickest.

Rasendel nodded feebly, her teeth chattering together as she could not stop staring at the large rabbit. It was too horrible..

"Okay," Zenthlay said sharply, taking on the role of getting them both out safely. The young agouti-coloured rabbit surveyed the scene and then nodded to Rasendel, just deciding on their course of action, since the rat was obviously too out of it to have any impact on what they were going to do. Zenthlay realized her thoughts were a little cruel, but if the rat was killed, at least that would give her more time to get away from the rabbit. "See now rat, we're going to run through the rabbit's legs. Hopefully it won't be able to react quickly enough. One can never be too sure though," she said.

"O-o-okay," Rasendel trembled, as her hind leg began to twitch anxiously. "I-I'll run as a f-fast as a I c-can," she stammered, still staring at the large rabbit that seemed to be silently waiting for them to finish their conversation.

As Zenthlay looked back up at the large rabbit, trying to determine the exact spot she was going to run for, the monster sat down on its haunches, blocking any route of escape through its legs. "Hah!" A triumphant voice split into Zenthlay's mind, who could tell that Rasendel had also heard it as the rat beside her began to wail again.

"G-get out of mmmy a h-h-head!" Rasendel yelled in outrage as she beat her head with her paw, causing her eyes to flood with tears.

"You stupid creatures!" the rabbit that was the same size as a hrududu, or maybe even larger bellowed into their heads. "No wonder you were so easy to wipe off the face of this earth," it stood up and then grinned savagely, showing long rows of pointed teeth.

Zenthlay and Rasendel both shuddered, and crouched on the ground, trying to endure the rabbit's extremely loud communications.

The big rabbit cleared its throat, causing the ground to shake. It began to move towards the two unlikely companions, and although it was quite large, it looked to have amazing agility.

As soon as the rabbit was almost touching them, Zenthlay poked Rasendel quickly and then dashed off to the right of the devilish creature. She sprinted at her top speed, with the black rat on her tail. The large rabbit wasn't so oblivious to their flight though, and it immediately hopped over to block their path. But Zenthlay and Rasendel already had enough leeway, they were able to escape from the rabbit paws that came crashing down beside them, at times very close to squishing them. With a rush of air, another paw came down beside Zenthlay, brushing just past her ear. She withdrew a deep breath and then bolted for a tree hollow. Another paw crashed down beside Rasendel as they both dove into the hollow of the gigantic tree.

Sides heaving with great breaths, Zenthlay and Rasendel dragged themselves to the back of the large tree hollow and then lay there in a heap, trying to recover from both the fright of the rabbit and the horrifying chase that it had ensued. After a couple of minutes, Zenthlay gathered up the courage to look back at the entrance to the hollow.

"AHHHH!!" She screamed, as a large, unblinking eye peered into the hollow, staring right at Zenthlay. The doe's breath caught in her throat, and she backed up against the hollow wall. "What.do..you.want?" she gasped, fearful that the monstrous rabbit would somehow be able to get into the protective hollow, even though the rabbit was obviously quite too big to fit through it.

The big eye blinked once, and the brown colour appeared to swirl around a little. "What do I want?" the voice asked, and the ones listening could tell that it was laced with a sense of great hostility. "You really want to know what I want?" it then laughed, which caused Zenthlay and Rasendel to cringe. The laugh was quite unbearable and harsh, cutting through their minds like a sharp sword. The rabbit continued to force his voice into their minds, with a terrifying power. "It's quite simple. I want to kill you, and all your friends," he said, without the trace of sympathy in his voice. Then the eye blinked once more and the brown colours in his eye stopped swirling together. He got up, and the eye disappeared from sight and he walked away from the hollow and over the hills in the distance.

Zenthlay let out a sigh of relief, and she was finally able to look at Rasendel to see what kind of a state the rat was in. Rasendel was a trembling mess, tears streaked her rough black fur, and she was hunched up against the wall in horror. Zenthlay looked at the rat in disgust. "Get out," she told her in a stern voice, her mouth drawn in a tight line.

"W-what?" the rat looked up at Zenthlay, her whiskers twitching as her nose sniffed the still air in the hollow. "No.no.please a let me a stay with a you, nnnice bunnny" Rasendel pleaded, collapsing to her knees in front of Zenthlay. She began to wail again. "PLEASE!!! If you donnn't they'll get me!!" she squealed, her eyes glazing over. Rasendel began to look around inside the tree frantically. "There will be more coming. I.just k-know it!" the black rat began to scream at Zenthlay, and them slumped down onto the ground, her whole body quaking as she sobbed.

The young brown doe brought her forepaws and grabbed her own ears and then pulled them down so she wouldn't be able to hear the rat's horrible ranting. But Rasendel didn't stop, and after quite a while, Zenthlay let go of her ears. She bustled over to the black rat's side, and placed her paw on her shoulder. A shudder went through Zenthlay as remembered what Rasendel was. A rat. Rabbits usually didn't assosicate with rats unless they got in fights with them, and this was just against everything that Zenthlay had ever stood for. Zenthlay cringed when Rasendel let out a particularly high-pitched scream that gave Zenthlay goose bumps.

"All right, all right, enough all ready," Zenthlay said sharply to Rasendel.

Rasendel looked up at Zenthlay hopefully, "Do-does that a mean that a you let me a go with you?" she pleaded, as she shook herself.

"You've left me no choice," Zenthlay snapped at Rasendel, who recoiled under Zenthlay's attack. She would just have to take the rat under her wing for now, no matter how much she was opposed to it. "Now if you don't do whatever I tell you to, then you're gone," Zenthlay told Rasendel, making it very clear what her expectations were. Zenthlay gave Rasendel a nasty stare for a moment, and then nodded to her, seeing she understood. "Now, tell me right now all you know about that large rabbit, and what exactly is going on?"

Rasendel shuddered as she took a deep breath and stretched out her hind leg, and then arched her back. "Okay, I don't know much compared to others, but I will tell you all that I know about them-"

"Them??!! Zenthlay interrupted, staring at Rasendel. "Well just how many are there?" She asked, her impatience really showing.

Rasendel withheld a growl as Zenthlay interrupted her rudely like that. "Please don't do that again," she said, looking quite scared. Maybe afraid that Zenthlay was going to abandon her for that comment or even give her some physical abuse. Zenthlay just narrowed her eyes at Rasendel. "Right," Rasendel continued, as she sat down in front of Zenthlay. "That was quite obviously a rabbit," the rat stopped to look at Zenthlay. "But obviously, you know that since you're a rabbit too. So then, why are you so small, and what were you doing in our warren?" she asked.

Zenthlay raised her eyebrows. "I don't know, you tell me," she snapped at Rasendel. "And you're not supposed to be asking questions, so go on and get ahead with what you were telling me," the doe demanded.

"Okay..sorry," Rasendel stammered, and continued her story. "Well, ever since I've been alive, we've lived in that warren, all those different animals, together as one. You see, that's the last of our numbers. The rabbits have overpopulated the world so much, that we were forced to retreat to that last safe refuge. "My.well.marli as you would call her." Rasendel stopped for a moment as she caught Zenthlay's look of surprise. "And yes I know Lapine, all of us do, since those rabbits talk to us a lot." Rasendel began to groom her fur, and when she caught an evil look from Zenthlay, only then did she continue. "Well anyways, my marli told me that once long ago, us elil used to rule the world, and rabbits were only on the bottom, always being afraid and living in fear. Well, I'm not sure what happened, but one day there was this huge uprising, and well, they defeated us and began to rule out silf. Marli said that our offspring got smaller since they would be able to hide easier, while the rabbit's got larger, since they ruled the above-ground and ate so much. Parli once told me that the rabbits used to eat grass.but that was a long time ago, now..." Rasendel stopped and sniffed.

"Get on with it!" Zenthlay growled at Rasendel, not caring about her obvious show of emotion. That was the rat's problem, not hers.

"My marli and parli were fed to them, okay??!!" Rasendel quickly blurted out, and then looked at the ground, as a tear ran down her face. "That's what they do, feed the rabbits sacrifices and they said if we did that then they would leave the rest of us safe." Rasendel shook her head sadly. "But that's not really what happens. Eventually we had to stop going up silf because anyone that went out there would get eaten. Horrible really." The rat shuddered. Then something horrible dawned on her, "See that's what's going to happen to us..we're rabbit food," she said, and slouched down on the ground.

Seeing as Rasendel didn't have much more to say, or at least that she wasn't feeling up to revealing any more information, Zenthlay found this sufficient for now. "Okay, get your rest, tomorrow, we're going to go see if we can find those rabbits," she said smiling slyly.