Miles To Go Before I Sleep

At War Part 1

At War Part I

...

How had it come to this, Jack wondered as he dove behind a tree for cover, barely managing to dodge the paint bomb thrown in his direction. A simple visit to the warren had somehow blown into a game of cat and mouse between him and Bunny (although he wasn't entirely sure who was who), and all because he'd accidentally knocked the female Pooka into the dye river. And it had been an accident. It had. That didn't mean he hadn't enjoyed it, though.

Looking up, Jack quickly judged the distance between himself and the tree's lowest branch before jumping and hauling himself up without the wind's aid. If he was going to stand a chance against the hyper-speed, overgrown rabbit and her enhanced senses, he needed to be clever; and getting behind his assailant without being noticed was definitely the way to go.

Jack could see Bunny stalking towards the tree he was in through a gap in the leaves. She had one boomerang in hand, the other paw hovering over her egg bombs, ready to let one fly at the shortest notice. Jack nimbly darted to another branch, making almost no noise at all.

"Alright, Frostbite, I know you're there," Bunny said with a conversational tone that didn't match her (dye-splattered) expression. "Why not make things easy and just come out?"

Yeah, not likely, Jack silently snorted, clearing the distance between his branch and one on the next tree with ease. He halted as soon as he was balanced, looking back at the Easter Bunny to ensure he hadn't been found out. But Bunny was still focused on the other tree. Smirking to himself, he continued to move around the clearing.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," the rabbit continued, oblivious that Jack was now almost directly behind him.

Or, we could do it my way, Jack gave a wry smile, a snowball forming in his hand. In one fluid movement, he pulled back his arm and threw the icy projectile with alarming accuracy, where it smacked dead into the back of Bunny's head. Jack fought to keep himself from laughing as Bunny froze (pun not intended... or was it?), ears swivelling around in Jack's general direction.

Raising one paw, she wiped the lingering snowflakes from her fur. "Oh, it is on." And she promptly disappeared down a tunnel.

Jack blinked at the sudden development, twisting his head in all directions to try and catch a glimpse of Bunny, but as the minutes ticked by and he saw neither hide nor hair of the Pooka, he was forced to conclude that the rabbit was gone.

Normally, one would be relieved that their assailant had vanished. This was not the case for Jack. Bunny, he knew, would never give up without a fight. And she never backed down from a challenge. Jack would have to be on high alert for quite a while.

...

...

Jack could tell the exact moment their game turned from one of cat and mouse to a full-scale war. It was precisely the exact moment when he jumped down from a tree by his lake and ended up falling into a hole. And then had a trip wire go off, releasing a bucket of dye that had been concealed in the branches to fall on his head.

"You want to play, Cottontail?" Jack asked, wiping the ink from his face. "We can play. But I don't think you're going to like the game."

Too bad Bunny wasn't there to see the slightly evil expression slowly forming on his face, he thought. Maybe she would quit while she was ahead. As it was she would just have to endure or outsmart every plot Jack could come up with. And he had a lot.