Chapter Five

A hand shook me gently from my slumber. The fur cutlet I used as a mattress tickled my cheek as I came into consciousness. “Do you want to go play with the rabbits in the southern clearing?” Gale’s disembodied voice asked from somewhere above me. Opening my eyes, I was met by the brown bear fur that brushed against my skin with every breath I took.

            Pushing up off the cutlet, I looked around and spotted my twin hovering cross-legged in the middle of the floor, completely dressed and ready to go see the rabbits. Pushing the other cutlet off of me, I walked toward my dress. Stretching my arms over my head, I let out a loud yawn and picked up the silky fabric.

            The old nightdress Ambrosia got me nearly half a century ago whispered against the floor. Cold air nipped at my skin through the tinning, and in some places threadbare, cotton. I slipped out of it and into the silken dress I wore every day. It was less worn than my nightdress, but just as breezy. If I were human the cold that hit me would have bothered me. As it was, it just lowered my temperature to a more comfortable one.

            We walked out of my room hand in hand without any kind of dialogue. My mind was on the bunnies. The little ones were old enough to play with now. The thought excited me so much that I forgot to watch where I was going and clipped someone with my shoulder as we passed. Looking back, I called, “I’m sorry.” Alexon turned and looked at me, his eyes just as guarded as they were the day before. It was almost like the person I looked at the stars with last night was just a figment of my imagination.

            Opening my mouth, I thought about inviting him to come play with us, but decided against it when an image of him stomping through and scaring off the bunnies popped into my head. I waited a long time for them to get big enough to play with and didn’t particularly want him to frighten them with his animosity.

            “What’s the hurry?” he grunted, his eyes dropping down to where my hand was intertwined with Gale’s.

            Turning his head as he continued to drag me in the direction of his bright blue boogie board, he said, “There are some rabbits in the southern clearing that River’s been dying to play with since they were born. They’re big enough now.” Alexon made no comments on the subject.

            Feeling rude now that Gale mentioned it to him, I asked, “Would you like to come?”

            “I’d hate to spoil your romance,” he replied in a tone I didn’t understand.

            Gale leaned close to my ear, whispering, “That was sarcasm.”

            I nodded, knowing what that meant but, “What is romance?” I called to Alexon. He turned and looked at me like I suddenly grew an extra head or something. Shaking his head, he walked away, that silver device he was speaking into last night clutched tightly in his grasp.

            Gale pulled me onto the little board behind him and called up a wind that could nearly rival the tornadoes and hurricanes he played with in his spare time. We zipped through trees, weaving in and out at a pace that would have dislodged us from the board if it weren’t for the wind that pushed at our backs to keep us upright. My fingers clutched onto the front of his jacket while I buried my face in his back, eyes closing tightly to keep the wind from stinging them as we flew.

            Moments later, we were coming to a stop, gliding smoothly to the ground. Smiling I remembered the earlier days when he would go tumbling over the ground and smack his face into the dirt with enough impact to dissolve him into thin air, literally. He’d come a long way since then…we all had.

            We walked over to the bunnies. They didn’t seem bothered by our presence as we situated ourselves among them. The smallest bunny, a little grey ball of fluff with ears that stood tall, bounced over to me cautiously, his little nose twitching. Staying perfectly still, I waited for him to get close before reaching out my hand and stroking it through his soft fur.

            The sound of something crumpling gained my attention and I looked over in time to see Gale offering me a handful of carrot slices. Holding my hands out with my palms up like a cup, I let him dump them out. They thumped against my skin lightly. When I first started learning, it would have been enough to knock me into my element. Back then I spent a lot of time as a puddle.

            Some days I still did, but now it was out of choice.

            Setting the carrots in my lap, I held one out to the little grey bunny. He nibbled at it daintily while I stroked his fur.

            “What did you talk about with the new guardian last night?” Gale wondered, looking at me curiously as he held out a new carrot to his own rabbit.

            Grinning, I responded, “He was telling me about the human world.” I told Gale the most fascinating parts before averting my attention back to the bunny in my lap.

            Gale let out a sigh, rustling the leaves in the trees gently. “Do you really hate it here so much?”

            His question caught me off guard. Turning to look at him, I caught sight of the angered expression on his face. I almost whispered, “I was just curious, Gale.”

            His face lost its edge at the sound of my voice. He opened his arms and pulled me against his chest, dropping a kiss on top of my head. We sat like that for a while, me feeding one of the rabbits a carrot occasionally.

            “Me too,” he finally admitted, stroking his fingers through my hair. It made a sound like the wind chimes that Ambrosia put outside the cabin when the rains came in and hit them.

            Closing my eyes, I didn’t intend to fall asleep, but the world around me became distant before fading away completely.

 

#

         

A crunching noise woke me up. My eyes opened slowly, a pair of black boots filling my vision. Under my head was something that wasn’t quite hard or soft and lying on my stomach was the little grey bunny that I was feeding when we first got here. Sitting up from Gale‘s leg, I rubbed my hands over my eyes to wake myself up.

            “Come back to the cabin,” a deep voice demanded before crunching met my ears again and I was alone with my brother and a sleeping rabbit.

            “I guess we should go,” I mumbled, turning to smile apologetically at my brother. He grinned back and shook his head.

            “No way,” he argued, looking up in the sky. Following his gaze, I realized it wasn’t even time for lunch, let alone time to go in.

            Arching a brow, I asked curiously, “Then what do you want to do?”

            “Hide and seek?” he questioned, a mischievous grin taking over his face.

            “No changing forms, it’s cheating,” I warned. He held out his hand in a silent deal. We shook and then I took off, shouting for him to count and hoping that my hair wouldn’t give me away like it usually did.