Summary: Tammy's childhood

Stories That Must Be Read Before Reading This One-Shot: chapter 12 of Music of Love or you won't know who this character is

…

My eyes opened for the first time and I saw the beautiful face of a silver rabbit. I was lying in her arms. This must have been my mother. I let out a squeak to tell her that I was hungry. She gave me a smile and fed me with her milk.

After this, she put me down on the ground. Seeing as my sight had not completely developed yet, everything was a colourful blob. I crawled as far as I could, before I bumped into something. It hurt my nose and I almost cried, but my curiosity as to what this object was overpowered my need to express my distress. I sniffed at the hard object. It was cold and scratchy and a weird colour.

"That's a plant pot," laughed a beautiful voice. My mother's voice.

"Plapo," I squeaked out, trying to pronounce the word as my mother had.

"Very close," my mother giggled.

I turned round and headed back in the direction I thought my mother was in, but then I bumped into something else. I leapt back a bit in fright, swiping at it with my tiny paw. My mother laughed again. "That's a wall."

"Wa?"

I felt hands pick me up and cradle me. I snuggled into my mother's soft and warm arms, not wanting her to let me go. She began stroking my ears. "We live in a den in Danville Forest," my mother told me. "Your father's out at the moment but he'll be back soon. He saw you when you were born but he hasn't properly met you yet."

"Momma," I said.

"That's right, I'm your momma." My vision still had not come into focus properly but I could tell that my mother was smiling. "My name is Jackie but you just call me Mother or Mom or Mommy."

"Momma!" I shrieked.

"Or Momma," laughed my mother.

At that moment, I heard a male voice call, "Jackie, I'm back. Where are you?"

"In the living room," Mother called back.

I turned my head, my vision almost perfect now. I saw a male white rabbit come through the entrance to the wooden den, looking rather disgruntled. "I'm going to kill that platypus agent one day."

"Hon, please can we not use the K word in front of Tammy?" Mother said reproachfully.

Father approached me and stroked my head, making me giggle. I looked up at him with my wide eyes, causing him to give a smile. "You're cute. Well, of course you are: you have your mother's genes."

Mother giggled. "Stop it Dennis. Look, she has your eyes."

"Yes she does." Father tickled me under my chin, to my delight. "But she has your everything else."

"Apart from your fur colour."

"Indeed."

The focus was not on me anymore so I waved my paws and gave an indignant squeal. "Momma!"

"How about you give Tammy her first bath?" Mother suggested.

Father smiled. "Okay."

…

I ran on the grass, feeling its softness beneath my feet, and jumped as high as I could, catching the Frisbee.

"Too low!" I teased, landing back on the ground and throwing the disk to my mother. "Throw it higher next time!"

"You know, for a one-year-old, you can jump really high." Mom leapt up and caught the Frisbee.

"I'm one and a half," I grinned.

She threw it back to me and I caught it. This time, however, I didn't throw it to her. I stopped and looked down at the ground.

"Mom, why did Dad leave us?"

Mom paused, a sad look settling on her face. "I didn't believe his one ambition in life was right. Difference of opinion, that's all."

"So…it wasn't because of me?"

Mom looked sharply up at me, shocked. "Of course not, sweetie! Why would you think it was because of you?"

"I heard you two arguing the day before he left," I replied, avoiding looking at my mother. "I heard you tell Dad that he was going to ruin me. He said he wanted to toughen me up and make sure I could defend myself."

"Honey…I didn't want you to hear that." Mom came over to me and put her arms around me. "He wanted to train you in fighting skills and turn you into something you're not."

"Why would that be such a bad thing?"

"Because you're energetic, full of life, sweet, innocent, and kind. If Dennis had been allowed to train you, he would have knocked all five of those qualities out of you. As your mother, I couldn't let that happen."

"But…Dad's good, isn't he?"

Mom hesitated and pulled away. She put her paws on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. "Tammy, I know you don't want to hear this, but…your father isn't good. He's very bad. He was always nice to me but he hates a lot of good people and the life goal of his that I mentioned is to kill an OWCA agent who is just doing his job. He's not a nice rabbit, Tam. It's better for both of us that he stays away."

"Okay," I replied, feeling tears come into my eyes.

Mom suddenly stood up straight, her nose twitching. "Do you smell something?"

I sniffed but I had been crying and my nose was blocked up. "No," I answered honestly.

Mom frowned and concentrated hard, her nose wiggling backwards and forwards. It would have been amusing to watch had my mother's worried tone not scared me so much.

"Fire…!" whispered Mom.

Then a crackling sound reached my ears. "Mom?" I cried in terror.

Orange flames suddenly appeared out of nowhere, consuming the trees around our den.

"Tammy, run!"

I immediately turned tail and ran through the trees, Mom right behind me. The orange flames appeared in front of us too, causing us to stop. We found ourselves surrounded by a circle of fire.

Mom picked me up. "Be safe, Tammy."

"Wh-what?"

Mom then threw me right over the wall of fire. I landed hard on the other side, injuring my foot. I hobbled as close to the fire as I could, searching for my mother. "Mom! MOM!"

"Go, Tammy! GO! Remember, sweetie: stay strong! I love you!"

The fire suddenly jerked, scaring me. With one last despairing look back at my mother, I limped as fast as I could away from her. Tears were running down my cheeks, both from losing my mother and the stinging smoke. My lungs were feeling heavy and I knew I wouldn't have the energy to make it much further.

I didn't notice that I had made it outside the forest until I saw buildings in the distance. I hobbled as far as I could away from the burning trees before I collapsed, the pain in my foot contributing to the dizziness I felt from smoke inhalation. Before I realised what was happening, blackness had overwhelmed me.

…

I opened my eyes and saw the beautiful silver face of my mother, just like when I had opened my eyes for the first time. "I must be dead," I croaked, my throat feeling dry and painful.

"You're not dead," said a male voice. "You're safe in OWCA headquarters."

MY vision came into focus, and the face of my mother was replaced by the face of a teal platypus.

"You're a survivor of the Danville Forest Fire," the platypus continued. "So far, you're the only one we've found."

"My mother died," I croaked. "She was in there." I struggled to sit up. "Are you an OWCA agent?"

"Yes. My name is Perry the Platypus."

"D-do you know a rabbit named Dennis?"

Perry's whole demeanour changed. He seemed harder and colder. "Yes. He's one of my worst enemies."

"He's also…my father…"

Perry stared at me. "That explains the fur colour."

"I know he's done some horrible things, though I don't know exactly what. I'm not like him. I was raised mainly by my mother, who's really kind and caring. Now I have nowhere to go except to my father, but I will never join him. He's a bad rabbit."

Perry frowned and looked down at the ground. "If you're willing, I can train you to become an OWCA agent. It's hard work but you get to be adopted by a family and sent on regular missions."

I nodded hurriedly. "Yes. I want to join OWCA."

So I did.

…

*cries* poor Tammy :(