It's dark. My body feels light as if I am floating in air. My limbs are numb. I didn't bother to move them.
Am I dead?
Feels like I'm dead.
Being dead feels really comfortable though...
......
......
Amidst the darkness, a strange sensation appears at my side.
I disregard it. It's too troublesome to check. Being dead feels nice and I didn't want to ruin it.
......
The sensation returns, my senses begin to react. It feels like something is nudging me. The lightweight feeling turns heavy. A dull ache spreads throughout my body, as if piles of sand had been dumped on top of me, crushing me under its pressure.
I'm... not dead? Well, it was a nice feeling while it lasted. I don't remember how long it's been since I last rested. Feels like its been forever.
The nudging at my side continues. There's definitely something pushing me.
"grmph..."
Slowly, I open my eyes. I'm still on the forest floor, laying front flat in the same spot from when I passed out. The dead body of the carnivorous plant still lay at my right, its leaves are black and brown with decay. In front of me is a blurry stack of bright colored objects.
I blink. My vision sharpens. The objects take on a more recognizable shape.
Are those...fruits? Why is there a stack of fruits in front of me?
I feel the nudging sensation at my side again. I turn to look behind me. The weight on my body is insane, simply moving my neck feels like a chore.
Peeking over my left shoulder, I see a small mass of fur. It's the horned rabbit, the same one from before. It's gently prodding my ribs with its paws. Was this rabbit the one who brought the fruits?
The horned rabbit catches my gaze. For a second I thought it looked relieved, though it might have been my imagination.
"Pefu"
The rabbit stops pushing my sides and walks to the fruit pile. It uses its nose to nudge a fruit towards me. So the horned rabbit was responsible for the fruits. But why?
Well, either way, I'm thankful.
When I woke up, my stomach only felt empty. There was no concern for food and the pain had disappeared. But seeing the fruits caused my hunger to crash in full force.
I gather my strength and attempt to prop myself up. I fight against the weight of my body before ultimately collapsing. I really have no energy left to use. The simple act of trying has left me panting from exhaustion.
The rabbit, seeing my struggle, lowers its head towards the fruit pile. Using its paws, the rabbit picks a fruit from the top of the pile and rolls it nicely between the gaps of its horns. With the fruit resting on top of its head, the rabbit turns towards me with its neck tilted slightly down.
"Pefu"
Oh, I see what the rabbit is doing. I couldn't lift my head off the ground, so I open my mouth as wide as I can. The horned rabbit tilts its head forward and the fruit slides from its horns. When I feel the cold feeling of the fruit touch my tongue, I chomp down.
Oh my god.
Immediately after I bit, my mouth exploded with flavor. The fruit is incredibly succulent, its juices overflowing from my lips. It's delicately sweet, strong enough that its taste shines like a spotlight, yet weak enough that it doesn't overwhelm me. I could almost melt in it. The texture is hard yet also soft, each bite sliced cleanly and effortlessly, similar to an apple. For the first time, ever since I woke up in this forest, I felt as if I was in heaven. Were these tears coming from my eyes?
Still wallowing in its delicious aftertaste, I quickly open my mouth, signaling the horned rabbit for another.
"Ga!"
"Pefu"
The rabbit turns and rolls another fruit on top of its horns.
The horned rabbit continues to spoon-feed me for another hour. Each time the rabbit picks a fruit, my mouth would already be open, happily chomping the moment I feel the fruit touch my tongue.
The pile holds an exquisite variety of fruits I've never seen before, each holding their own distinct flavor and texture. And each is as delectable as the last. There was a purple fruit that had a shape similar to a miniature pineapple. It was sweet and acidic in taste, like an orange. Another was a yellow-blue fruit that looked like a hybrid of a banana and a dragon fruit. It had a soft, plain, yet luscious flavor, reminding me of the strawberries I used to eat from the local farmers market.
Eventually, the fruit pile is no more. I bask in the afterglow of the feast, completely full and satisfied. The rabbit sits in front of me, part of its fur is wet due to the juices that were accidentally splattered in my eagerness to eat.
I feel completely revitalized. My body still aches and the heaviness is still there, but it was at a tolerable degree. This time it took much less effort to sit up. The horned rabbit is cleaning itself as it sweeps loose leaves and excess dirt off its fur.
I'm in debt to this rabbit, if it weren't for the fruits it brought, I don't think I would have survived. Though, I'm still confused as to why it had decided to save me. I mean, I did almost kill it. Twice.
After grooming itself, the horned rabbit makes its way to me. At first, I thought that it was also going to clean me, but then it stuck its nose near one of the cuts on my arm and licks it.
Ah, that stings.
I move my arm away from the rabbit as I thought that the rabbit may have mistaken my blood for fruit juice, but the rabbit follows my arm and continues to lick the wound.
"Ga?"
Horned rabbit, what are you doing? Was it actually just interested in licking my blood? That's really disturbing. Well, it still saved my life, I just have to put up with this.
As the rabbit licks at my wound, the pain strangely subsides. When the rabbit stopped, I bring my arm up to inspect the injury.
Huh? My wound on my arm is completely healed. I could see where the scales were nicked but the flesh underneath was fine. Could the horned rabbit's saliva be restorative?
A sharp sting tells me the horned rabbit has moved to my next injury. Sure enough, when it finished, the wound is gone.
I sit there, occasionally flinching as the horned rabbit tends to my remaining injuries. Once it was done, all my minor cuts and bruises looked like they never existed. While my more serious injuries, such as the gash on my right leg and the cleave across my chest, healed just enough that they closed over. The flesh is still tender and feels as if it could be easily torn, but that's to be expected.
The horned rabbit's maw drips with my blood as if it has been feasting on my flesh. Even when I knew that the rabbit only did so to heal me, it's still a disturbing sight. Still, I'm grateful for what the rabbit has done. It explains how it has always seemed uninjured, despite the incident with the thorn bush and the carnivorous plant.
I reach for the rabbit, half-expecting it to run away. I'm glad when it stayed and let me stroke its back. This is the only way I could think of to thank the rabbit.
"Pefu~"
I still don't understand why the horned rabbit took such a liking to me, but it's useless to question it. Only the rabbit knows.
We sit there on the grass resting while I pet the rabbit. I'm sure the horned rabbit must be tired searching for the fruits, I know I am. I should try to ask later on where it found them, though I don't know how I'll do that.
After some time passes, I decide that I should get moving soon. It's already past midday and I'm getting tired of sitting around. I lightly tap the rabbit who is resting on my thigh, indicating that it is time for me to go.
The horned rabbit hops off as I stand. Patting the dirt from my body, I look around to where I should head next. If I remember correctly, the river should be somewhere nearby. If I can retrace my steps I should be able to find it.
I wait to see if the rabbit wanted to come with, but it is busy scratching its ear with its hind legs trying to get rid of a bad itch. I had hoped that the rabbit would accompany me, but I guess this is the extent of its help. I will always be grateful, horned rabbit.
As I move towards the direction where I suspect the river is located, there is a soft tapping noise behind me. My spirit lifts when I look back. Following close near my tail is the horned rabbit.
"Pefu"
"Gau"
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
It took a while, but we finally found the river.
We had to move carefully to keep from being seen by other predators. Although the rabbit has healed me, my body's still sore and weak from the constant fighting, and I don't think horned rabbit is too keen on combat. Getting into another fight is something I want to avoid.
At the moment, we both smell like rotting corpses. The plant's fluids are nasty and the feeling of its substance still clings to my body like an itch you can't reach. I can't imagine how much worse it must be for the horned rabbit. I have scales so it easily dries off, but the poor thing has fur. Some of the fluids were probably absorbed and still haven't evaporated yet. Because of this, we gladly dive into the river with a splash.
Swimming to the center, I duck underneath the surface and let myself be enveloped in the cool, refreshing water, allowing the flow to clean the dirt and grime off of me. When I can't hold my breath for any longer, I float back up for air.
I hold my head above the water and watch as the rabbit rolls around in the shallows. It couldn't wade too deep as the current might sweep it away. The rabbit rubs itself against the rocks to scrub off whatever filth that is stuck in its coat. I'm surprised just how dirty the rabbit is. The water around it turned black which made a large disgusting trail down the river.
After we finish cleaning ourselves, we leave the river to soak in the sun. I feel completely new, as if an invisible weight that clung to my body has lifted. Can't say the same for the rabbit though, it's fur is so waterlogged that it has to drag itself to move. I doubt it can even see since its matted down fur completely covers its eyes. If I were to strap a stick on its back it could easily pass as a walking mop.
The rabbit shakes its body to dry itself, turning into a violent, blurry mess and scattering water droplets everywhere. When it stops, its fur automatically puffs up immensely.
I stifle a smile. The rabbit has become a giant ball of fur -- a ball rabbit. Its entire head is hidden underneath the fluff so all I can see is its horns sticking out. I'm kinda tempted to pick it up, but I would rather not ruin its look.
The ball rabbit's puffy fur begins to slowly subside, transforming back into a regular horned rabbit. It looks at me as if nothing had happened.
"Pefu"
Once we were dry, we follow the river upstream. I look around as we walk. There isn't anything specific I was looking for, any hopes of finding a town or a road have completely vanished. Instead, I spent the time exploring and inspecting in detail. There was a lot of things I haven't noticed before, mainly because I was more preoccupied with finding a source of food.
I found that leech infested trees were a lot more common than I had thought. The black leeches could be seen in trees with the yellow crystal-like substance. Apparently, those were the black leeches eggs. I'm guessing they're an ambush-type predator where they would drop down whenever an unsuspecting animal crossed under them.
While walking, there was something that has been bothering me for a while. The horned rabbit was able to find such a huge pile of fruits, so I figured that maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. But I've been searching intently for a while now, yet I didn't spot a single one of those delicious fruits from before.
Just how did it find the fruits? I'm going to try to ask it, hopefully the rabbit understands my intent. The horned rabbit stops and tilts its head when it noticed I stopped moving.
"Pefu?"
I bring a claw up and point at my open mouth in an attempt to convey the appearance of me being hungry. Please don't misunderstand.
"...pefu?"
The horned rabbit tilts its head a bit more before realizing something and running away.
Regret hit me as I thought I had scared the rabbit, but then the rabbit stops in front of a bitter bush and looks at me before prodding the leaves with its nose.
"Pefu"
I mimic horned rabbit's confusion by tilting my head. Was it trying to feed me the bitter leaves? Horned rabbit, I'm glad you understood my intent but this is not what I meant.
"Ga"
I shake my head and point at my mouth again. Please don't think I'm asking you to spoon-feed me.
The horned rabbit switch looks between me and the leaves and continues to push at the bush with its horns. Now that I think about it, our first meeting was when I was eating the bitter bush. Maybe it thought that the bitter leaves were my favorite considering how feverishly I ate it.
The horned rabbit stomps the ground, upset that I wasn't listening.
"Pefu!"
I'm sorry rabbit, but I'm not going to eat those leaves again. I'll just keep looking on my own.
As I turn to leave, the rabbit uses its horns to push the bitter bush apart. It disappears within the leaves as it plows towards the center. Just what is the rabbit doing?
When the rabbit came out of the bush, resting between its horns is a large bright red fruit.
My jaw dropped.
I dash to the nearest bitter bush immediately. Using my claws, I tear at the leaves and shred the bush apart. Sure enough, sitting amidst the center of the branches is a large, plump, orange fruit.
I can't believe it. I've spent hours running around this forest, practically starving to death, looking for these things. I was convinced that this forest was completely barren of any form of fruits, yet this entire time they have always been around me, inside the one plant I hated the most.
Bitter bushes.
Had I looked in the center of the bitter bush the first time, I could have avoided all the suffering I went through. I wanted to cry.
I bite into the fruit, using its deliciousness as comfort. Horned rabbit walks up behind me with half of the red fruit dangling from its mouth
"Pefu"