Rise of the Guardians

Lucky Rabbit

Chapter Three: Lucky Spot

She was dreaming, caught in a beautiful vision. She saw her home, a magnificent looking cat scratcher with many windows and a two-door front entrance. It was lively and full of noise, between meows and thumping. She giggled to herself in her sleep, still sprawled out.

"How long does she sleep for?" Bunny should've been kicking himself for even watching her sleep. But she just seemed so damn relaxed, he vainly wished he could do that. All a rabbit could do is partially sleep, after all, you never know where your hunter would be.

Even though he was six feet tall. Ever since he was young, and he was told horrific stories about those that hunted rabbits, he'd always been a little unsure of other various creatures.

A cat being one of them. And he had one that seemed to have a crush on him. He didn't know exactly what to do. She literally shut down when he turned her down. He didn't think she was told negative things all that often.

He toed her. "Come on, wake up already!"

She giggled loudly. "Oh, E! The children are precious!"

He slapped his face. "I really hope she's not dreaming about me."

His nose twitched, catching the high signs of arousal. He growled loudly and then began thumping his leg in clear irritation.

"Wakey wakey, kitten! Get your ass up now!"

He was impressed by how high she jumped when startled and grinned as she landed on all fours, looking absolutely stunned.

"Good, you're awake. Go home."

"I have to make my home!" She rubbed at her eyes. "How long was I asleep?"

"A long time."

Her stomach grumbled. "Got any more carrots?"

He blinked and looked to where the empty bowl laid. "You actually ate it."

"It was delicious."

He stared her down skeptically.

"Okay, not the best thing in the world but well.. Since -you- made it, it was all the more better."

He gritted his teeth. "I'll just skip that."

He then scratched his ear with his back foot, confused. "You have to make your home?"

"Uh huh! We call them Cat Havens. You find a pocket of space and make your niche in the other realm."

"Ah, I see. How'd your kind get from Japan to here?"

"Boat!"

She stretched leisurely as her ear cocked suddenly. She heard the soft scurrying as she blinked slowly. "You have mice."

"I'm aware of that. They're drawn to the eggs…"

He watched her lung away from him and closed his eyes at the heavy crunch. "Well, that can help control the population."

"Oh, look! Another one!" There was another crunch.

"Don't you at least cook them?"

"What?" She looked over her shoulder in surprise, sucking up the tail. "It ruins the taste!"

He winced as she went on the hunt. He hid himself out of necessity before she found him easily.

"You have a lot of mouse holes around here. You're not very clean."

"I'm sorry, but I don't really have any problems with the mice."

"They eat your eggs."

"I'm… well.. Yes, that they do… oh, get nicked!"

She looked at him, utterly confused.

"Go away!"

"You don't want me to help you out with the mice?"

"Aren't you full yet?"

"You didn't say anything about the carrots."

He paused. "Get lost!"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Can I come back?"

"Augh! You're making me argo, mate!"

"Stop talking like that!"

"It's Australian! I happen to be an Aussie, mate and I'll talk however I want!"

"Fine. Can I come back?"

He threw up his arms with suppressed anger. "If I say yes, will you leave now?"

"Yes!"

"I really shouldn't be encouraging this but -FINE- you can come back."

He was thrown onto the ground by a rather hard hug from coming from such a tiny humanoid creature.

"Thank you! Time to find me a niche! Before Mom finds me and keeps reading that stupid list!"

She disappeared into a rabbit hole as Bunny staggered to a sitting position.

She was laughing as she hopped out of the hole and back into Burgess. She thought a moment and then ran off to find Jack.

She found him looking into the lake thoughtfully. It wasn't as iced over as he wanted but as Spring had officially arrived, he couldn't make it snow anymore. So he was opting to eventually rest for a while before going somewhere cold and fun.

"Yooohooo! Hey, Jackie!"

"Jackie? Jackie?! It's Jack, Jack Frost!"

Faustine snorted. "Fine, whatever, Jack Frost." She added pointedly. "Look, can I stay here?"

"This is my pond."

She rolled her eyes at the possessive boy holding his staff menacingly.

"Not here, doofus. Look, do you have anyone who brings you good luck?"

"I bring my own luck."

"To humans! To hu-mans!"

She paused. "And other things too but I usually work with humans."

"I noticed. I'm not sure if there are any of you around. I doubt is as I've lived here for like centuries."

"But you said you saw statues."

"I did. And that's it. Nothing like.." Jack waved at her.

She was captivated by the ties on his shirt when he moved.

"Ummm… Hello?"

She was carefully batting at the ties before turning red. "Sorry. Knee jerk reaction."

She beamed at him. "So can I make my home here?"

"Sure, why not…" He reached out for her as she jumped high. "Hey, wait, how are you.."

She landed and then tapped on her bell. "Lucky, Lucky Cat!" She called out gleefully as a portal opened up. She peeked into it and saw the white space of nothing. "Crap, I really have to make it all from scratch."

She remembered her dream and the vision of her perfect cat scratcher. She thought hard and saw the outlines form in the whiteness. The outline stretched to form into a yard with wild grass and flowers.

"I'll have a home in a few days.." She blinked at him. "Do you have anywhere warm where I could stay for a while?"

He shook his head. "Sorry. I tend to keep things cold. Remember, Frost?"

"Oh, that's all right. I'll just stay with E."

"E?"

"Easter Bunny!" She called out as she left. "He said I could come back!"

"Did he now?"

She had to study her new surroundings. She knew she wasn't going to stay forever here but she needed a solid location to create her Cat Haven. But for the time being, in order to keep herself lucky, she needed to spread it around. There wasn't much to do, it was a small town but she coped.

She spent her day out and about, learning and giving luck as she saw fit. She crashed at Bunny's Warren and tried to stay out of his way. He was doing a lot of resting, having spent months and months planning out Easter. He now had a few months of peace and quiet and she was polite enough to leave him be.

Most of the time.

There were the few times where she peeked in on him. She tried to be friendly and she left him presents in the forms of woven bands of leaves, grass, and flowers. She really wanted to leave him some mouse bits but she had a sneaky feeling that he probably wouldn't like that.

She was out and about in Bergess when she caught a putrid smell. She frowned as it reminded her of something but she wasn't quite sure.

"Fi, fie, fo, fum.. I smell the blood of a itty bitty kitten.."

The ground shook under the decayed colored, massive foot. Its nails were overgrown, torn, and filthy, which matched everything else about the troll. Its loincloth reached nearly to the ground and yet, sadly didn't cover its entire rear. It was three times as bulky as the Easter Bunny, a thousand times worse smelling, and all the more frightening to someone who only heard legends about the various trolls in the world.

"Umm… are you a garden troll?"

He smirked, half of his teeth gone and the rest painted green and moldy. His head was almost bald save for the various uneven, bleached white strands of hair.

He leaned over her with a glint in his beady, black eyes.

"Geez… what's with my luck? Is it because I finally got my wish? Wait! Is it Friday the 13th?"

She looked frazzled. "I haven't spent anytime near a calender! Oh, please don't be…"

The foot came barreling down. "Friday the 13th!" She ran on all fours, running fast as she looked for a place to hide.

There was a bitter wind that sped up next to her as ice formed and zoomed her past the trees into the deepening forest. Jack landed as he looked warily out.

"Was that a troll?" He asked softly. "I've been seeing them lately around here. Not the good kind, either."

"Oh, it reeked so badly," Faustine collapsed onto her back, gagging. "It was so big too! So frightening!"

"Well, they don't have a good nose so if you just avoid them, and it shouldn't be too hard, you'll be fine. Is your home almost done?"

She blinked and then tapped her bell. "Lucky, Lucky Cat!" The portal swirled open as she peeked in. The cat scratcher was nearly solid save for the bottom part though in the next day or so, she could start living in the cat scratcher.

"Wow.. That looks like fun." Jack was impressed. "It's so big. Hoping for a big family."

Faustine remembered the now often viewed dream. "I… I wish.. But it's not going to happen."

"You're really hard up on Bunny, aren't you? What in the world is it about him that makes you so crazy? I mean, come on, he's a hard ass, bitchy, full of himself guy."

"But.. But don't you ever watch him when he's not aware? How loving he is with the children, never playing favorites and treating them equally. How he smiles at them… it's such a beautiful look.." Her gaze turned dreamy. "I just wish that for one moment, I could be the recipient of that look. To feel that warmth and love.."

"You're a cat."

"There have been other interspecies coupling, you know. The Griffin for example? Or the Hippogriff? Or the Sphinx? Also, what about the Chimera?!"

"All right, all right. I just wasn't all that sure it'd, well, work out."

"It would! We'd have beautiful children."

Jack sighed as he tapped the staff to the ground in contemplation. "Well, you have to get his attention first."

Faustine stretched her hind legs. "You'll help me get his attention?"

"Sure, why not. You seem honest in your feelings. I know how it feels to be ignored and it's not fun nor fair."

"He kind of already knows I like him."

Jack smiled awkwardly. "Yea, you don't really hide it."

"I do too!"

"He's mentioned your.." Now Jack turned uncomfortable. "Well, your scent."

"What about my… ooohh, crap." She dropped down to rest on her heels. "Umm… let's skip that for now."

"Great because I can't help you with that anyways."

"Hey, wait, he talks to you about me?"

"He does. He doesn't know how to deal with you because apparently, you can't take no for an answer."

"I can too! I just don't like it!"

Jack stared her down.

"Well, I… I'm a cat! We don't do 'no'! We just wait until we get our way."

"Yea, that's what I thought." Jack pointed his staff at her. "All right, here's how it's going to go down. I'm going to keep talking about him and I'll talk all about the good that you've been doing. That's been impressing him. You gotta do something big that'll stand out! That'll touch the whole town!"

Faustine blinked. "After my home is built, right? I'm using up a lot of my luck on it."

"Yea, sure, it'll be a while for me to butter up the bunny."

"Great!"

The two shook hands on it.

"And you have to realize, that this might not work," Jack added warningly.

"My Dad spent three hundred years courting my Mom. It'll work out, I'm sure of it!"

Jack sighed. "If you insist."