Chapter Four: Spared Lives and Delayed Gratification
"…Maaamaaa!"
It was the shrill cry of Bunnie. She came scampering from her chamber with her stubby arms outreached and open. Dotty bent downward from her chair and picked her child up in her arms. Altering her voice to a soothing coo, Dotty ran she fingers over her daughter's forehead.
The conversation Dotty, Coco and O'Hare were having would have to be saved until later. Bunnie was susceptible and her fragile mind couldn't hear tell of what O'Hare was divulging.
O'Hare was still breathless and panting. His fur was just drying of the water as he got home just as the rainstorm had started. At Bunnie's sudden presence, he tried his best to conceal his bloody paw from the girl.
"What's wrong, Bunnie?" Dotty asked, looking into Bunnie's glossy eyes.
"T-T-Tiffany…" the baby stammered. "She told me Pa and Brother were ated by wolves!"
All three adults frowned. Coco wordlessly stood up, gently laying down her near-woven pair of mittens, and disappeared down the hallway after rustling the tuft of up-sticking fur between Bunnie's ears.
"Grandma is dealing with Tiffany, Bunnie…" Dotty whispered in her ears.
Bunnie ears perked and her sad face was immediately washed over with a devious grin. She knew Tiffany was going to get in so much trouble.
Within seconds Coco marched out from Tiffany's chamber with her paw clamped firmly on her right ear.
"Stop it! Lemme go! What are you doing?!" the adolescent rabbit groaned as she was stood before her mother.
The wrinkles in Coco's face were furrowed and when Tiffany saw this she stopped the charade.
"OK… sor—"
Coco cut her off.
"—What are you doing feeding your impressionable, little sister such lies? You knew she would take you seriously! What did you think would happen telling her that her family was eaten by a pack of wolves?!"
Tiffany popped her hip and rolled her eyes. "I said lynxes."
"What?" Coco snapped, the word rolling from her tongue sharply, the impact of an arrow.
"I didn't say they were eaten by wolves, I said lynxes."
"It-It doesn't matter! Don't you understand that this is nothing to gawk at?!" Coco wiped her eyes with the neck of her shirt.
O'Hare could not believe his eyes. Never in his years of marriage with his wife had he seen her break down into tears, she was such a sturdy woman.
"I'm sorry, Grandm—" Tiffany began, outreaching her paw for a hug.
"Bite your tongue, child!" Coco bawled, steady tears running from her face. "The danger of their lives is REAL! You don't joke about such horrible things! We can't afford for them to die! It would doom this family, don't you understand that?!"
Bunnie was shivering in her mother's arms, her shirt wet with tears.
"Look what you've done…" O'Hare muttered, taking off his hat and running his paws through his hair.
With her hands shielding her face, Coco bolted past Tiffany and down the hallway into her chamber. There was a slow click of her door shutting.
"B-Bunnie, please get off mommy…" Dotty said quietly while standing from her chair, she too was crying.
"Mama, what is wrong, why is everyone crying?!" The littlest rabbit began to cry, succumbing to the grave emotion in the den. Like a potent virus, it brought the cry-count to three. "Is Papa and Brother dead?!"
As Dotty took off down the hallway in a teary mess, Bunnie staggered after her choking back sorrows of her own.
O'Hare buried his face in his paws. "Look what you've done…" he repeated again, except this time Tiffany heard.
All that could be heard now was the tapping of rain droplets and obscure crying from down the hallway. Tiffany adjusted her shirt, guilt chiseled into the lines of her face.
"Tiffany, you do realize this is a serious situation, right? We don't know if your brother and father are alive…" O'Hare said, looking up at his teenage granddaughter and urging her with his eyes to sit.
Tiffany stayed resistant. "YOU might not know if they are alive, but I do," Tiffany said haughtily.
O'Hare cracked a skeptic's smile. "Oh, yes, and how do you know this? How about you enlighten me? Tiffany, please. You owe each one of those rabbits an apology. Your mother is so scared for their lives and your arrogance is only upsetting her further." He hated sounding so dreadful, but it was the only way to pound things into Tiffany's skull; she was just like her father in this aspect.
"She has no reason to be crying! Genji is ALIVE!" Tiffany waved her head and hands in the air.
"I'd like to believe that, we'd all like to believe that."
From the other side of the room, rocks and mud sloshed on the den's bottom. Trailing behind it were the golden-furred ears of Gaston. He dropped to the ground, and without saying a thing, plopped onto the couch completely sapped of breath.
Scrambling in soon behind Gaston was Genji; his pockets bulging with berries and nuts.
O'Hare sat aghast with sheer bliss. Meanwhile, Tiffany stood with her arms crossed and her hip popped.
"Told you!" Tiffany snapped, extending her arms to her brother.
Genji immediately ran to her. The two embraced half-casually.
Tiffany scrunched up her nose, and when Genji pulled away, Tiffany stood with her back pushed away and her arms hung over. "You're dripping wet and you smell as foul as the backside of a bald eagle…" Tiffany smirked. "Go get a wash!"
Genji smiled dumbly at his sister, and then pushed the contents of his pockets onto the table.
Before the rattling of Genji's findings settled, Tiffany burst out.
"Brother, you've gotten so much!"
She nimbly ran her paw over the things to count them.
Gaston leaned over. He and his father shared a solemn, brief hug, but you could tell their love was there. Next, he walked over to Tiffany and opened his arms.
She distorted her expression. "I'm enthralled you're home, Pa… but I am not hugging you until the lake is drained from your sorry hide." Tiffany's voice rang with playfulness. Instead, she kissed her paw and placed it on Gaston's forehead. "Happy you're alright…buuuut—"
"—She knew you were alive!" O'Hare cried, cutting her off quickly.
Tiffany rolled her eyes.
"Coco, Dotty, Bunnie… we have some people here to see you!" O'Hare cried down the hallway.
Bunnie's excited screech could be heard clearly from behind the sealed door of her chamber. "PAAAAAAAAAAA?!"
Tiffany's ears swiveled downward. She clapped her paws on them, clenched her eyes and bit her lip. "Ohhh, why does she have to be so loud all the time?"
The slapping of Bunnie's feet avidly running down the hallway echoed. She burst past Tiffany, O'Hare and Genji, heading straight to her father with her arms opened and her face lit up. Bounding off her hind legs, she leapt into Gaston's arms.
Gaston held his daughter up and let his face settle warmly. "Glad to you see, hunnie."
"Ohhhhhhh, me too, Papa! Tiff told me the wolves gots you out in Morne Forest!" The tiny rabbit burrowed her head in her father's shoulder, sparing no time to tattle. "I know you're smarter then to go in there, though… I was just s-so worried…"
"Suck up," Tiffany scoffed under her breath.
O'Hare heard. "Quiet down, Tiffany. If you're going to get cynical, you can stay in your den for the remainder of the night."
Gaston smirked. "Cool it, gramps, Tiffany's only kidding, right, Tiff?" he said.
Tiffany nodded, smirked back and plunked into an idle chair.
Dotty and Coco soon came down the hallway; both with glistening trails from their eyes down to their cheeks.
"You're alright…" Dotty spoke slowly. She broke off and ran to her husband. With Bunnie squat in between, the two rabbit's embraced.
"MAAAAAAAAA!" Bunnie's muffled cry sounded. "You're sandwhichin' me here!"
"Get down now, Bunnie. We're heading over to Doc's and you need to change your dress before…" Dotty said sternly, raising Bunnie from her father's clutches.
"Buuuuut, Maaa! I wanna wear THIS one to Pippy's!"
"It's filthy and wet from being up with your father. You can't look uncouth when we're visiting, hun, and you know that!"
Bunnie whined a little before realizing it was futile—soon after she stomped into her room. Gaston soon followed his daughter down the hallway and into his chamber to change too, and to inspect the blood on his face. Dotty went in after him, to talk in privacy about what had happened outside.
The rabbits mulled over the findings sprawled across the table. Coco stored them into some jars beside Doc's gift basket.
"That won't be enough…" Coco muttered once Tiffany and Genji exited the room. "We're going to need to get together and hoard what ever is left before snowfall."