Henry and Panne: Lightning Storms

What animals lack in human-like intelligence can vary amongst each species. Birds and wyverns are given wings to fly, fish are given gills and fins to live properly underwater, and turtles are given shells to protect themselves from natural predators. Rabbits have ultra-sensitive hearing thanks to their large ears. And as is with each animal, they have a somewhat sixth sense that lets them know when something bad is about to happen.

But what happens when a rabbit-human senses disaster?

Once everyone had settled down from the loss of Lady Emmeryn, Henry tried his best to get Panne familiar with humans.

"Why should I trust them?" Panne would repeat. "Now that they are peace times, they will find new enemies to threaten and slaughter."

"Yeah, people suck like that," Henry sighed. "But at least Chrom made sure to handle the slave problem Plegia's been having. That oughta count for something! Right, Ted?"

The raven cawed in response.

"I guess you could say he's fighting for the right caws!"

Henry cackled at his pun while Panne groaned at the boy's play on words, as it felt more like an assault on words.

"You make no sense to me." The Taguel muttered into her arms.

"You're right! I'm not an apothecary!"

Panne grabbed Henry by his famous purple collar.

"WILL YOU STOP IT WITH THE ANNOYING JOKES?!"

"Aw c'mon, I'm just trying to cheer you up!"

"'Cheer me up'!? My entire clan has been slaughtered by manspawn like you while I was forced into doing their labor, and you think 'cheering me up' will forgive all of this?!"

"Nope! But I know what you've been through."

"I highly doubt that. You have not faced the prejudice of being a beast."

"That's up more on Anne's alley, but I have been called a freak a lot back when I was younger. Mostly by Tharja."

"You do not realize how harsh the word is. You have not lost like I have! We are nothing alike!"

Henry's smile disappeared when Panne mentioned the word "lost". He grabbed Panne's wrists and forced himself out of her grasp.

"I was raised by wolves, you know," Henry began. "My human folks abandoned me when I was a baby, probably because they didn't want to have a blind kid or something. Pretty much everyone in the pack wanted nothing to do with me, since I couldn't really hunt and my nose or ears weren't as strong as they were now. Once my wolf mom died, all I had was my older brother, Arco. But then some human kid killed him and the pack abandoned me."

Panne remained silent for a moment.

"Then why do you still trust the manspawn when they have caused you so much harm?"

Henry smiled once again.

"I met the right kind of people, of course! Sure, Tharja has some gripes with me messing up her spells here and there, but she and her folks let me stay with them and even taught me magic!"

"And the Fellblood?"

"Oh, Anne? She's probably the only one who likes my jokes. She kinda acts like another mom for me, since she won't allow me to do a bunch of killing. It's for a good reason, yeah, but it's hard to shake off those urges, y'know?"

"She also faces an identity crisis."

"Aw yeah, Grima's been tormenting her ever since she was like nine or something. It was kind of like what I went through when I started acting more human. All in all, she's actually pretty nice when you're not scared of her."

"Taguel are not beasts that are easily frightened."

As Panne uttered that, her ears perked up. Ted ruffled his feathers and Henry tilted his head slightly, cupping his left ear with his hand.

"Ooh boy, I hear a storm coming up," Henry said. "Sounds like a real doozy."

"You can sense it, too?" Panne gasped.

"Well yeah, being blind made me perk up my other senses. Being raised by wolves and having dark magic also helps with that just in case."

"We must find shelter!"

"Panne, we're already in the horse stables. I think we're good."

The first clap of thunder could be heard. Panne stiffened in response.

"Hey, you okay?" Henry asked.

Ted cawed at a rapid pace, causing the poor bird to hide in Henry's cloak.

In the blink of an eye, everything was white. Then, with another blink, the white disappeared. Lightning.

Panne responded by crouching down and holding her hands up to her ears, shaking while she was at it.

"You're scared of storms? Wow, I didn't think-"

Before Henry could finish his observation, Panne bolted up and once again grabbed him by the collar.

"Taguel are not fearful! They are feared!"

Another thunderclap. This time, it seemed to make the stable shake in place. Many of the horses whinnied and clopped their hooves to the ground. Panne let go of Henry's collar and instead grabbed him from his back, embracing him as if he were a sort of human shield.

"You know it's okay to be scared," Henry chuckled as he looked at the frightened rabbit person.

"I am not scared!" Panne groaned, pushing Henry away.

Lightning struck again. Panne reverted to her true rabbit form thanks to her purple Beaststone. Now, rabbit Taguel are actually the size of regular bears, so the horses freaked out even more than they regularly would. It was almost to the point where they would kick down their tiny doors just so they could find someplace quiet. Panne, however, curled herself up with her paws once again covering her ears.

"So that's what you look like…" Henry muttered under his breath.

She was mostly covered in brown, short fur, but her face, the tips of her ears, and her paws were not. Instead, those parts were white. Panne's magenta "armor" expanded to fit her bigger form. She even had golden rings around the midsection of her ears.

Panne braced herself for the thunder, to which it was once again stable shaking.

Henry knelt down beside the gigantic rabbit, putting her head on top of his legs. He then proceeded to stroke the fur on her neck delicately.

Panne squirmed away.

Lightning struck once more. Panne turned back into her semi-human form.

"It's going to strike me, I just know it!" She shrieked.

Henry chuckled, which caused Panne to glare at him.

"You just remind me of Anne, is all. She gets scared over everything. But I'm here if you need someone to calm you down."

This human was weird, Panne knew that for sure. He said he hated humans, yet his best friends and other comrades in arms were humans. He lived such a terrible life, yet he wears a ridiculous smile on his face and cracks jokes any chance he can. He was blind, yet he could "see". How could he function?

Thunder.

This time, Henry pulled out a spell book and drew a circle in the ground. Reciting the incantation, both he and Panne were engulfed in a purple sphere. Everything was silent, and there were no signs of sudden brightness anywhere.

"This is a force field spell. It usually lasts for a couple of minutes, so you can fall asleep or something until it deteriorates. I'll keep you company if you're still scared."

Panne seemed to have no other sane option, so that was exactly what she decided to do. Henry, being the kind of person he was, cuddled with her by wrapping his right arm around her waist and holding one of her hands with his left.

"You're gonna be just fine," Henry said gently.

Ending Commentary: Fun fact! I recently went through this experience myself, except Henry was my mom in this case… Hey don't judge me…