Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 87: brought to you by bread lessons

Ice ice baby. Preparing for take off. All the beautiful baby bunnies. Harvey wants to kill all the bunnies. OH! And all of Shay's baby rabbits have blue eyes, so even if they weren't smaller and a week younger than Neara's, they're easy to tell apart from hers, which all have brown or black eyes. EYEBALL DIFFERENTIATION!!...I've had a long weekend....

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"She did her duty, rodent prey, now release them!" Harvey's eyes shone bright as he leaned towards Captain, his leopard ears solid and stiff against the soft waves of his mane cascading down his back. His white clothing, so badly damaged by his trek, he'd replaced with sturdy furs he'd sewn himself, although the small size of prey meant his skimpy clothing revealed more of his toned body than he'd initially shown.

"You barely survived yourself; drugged on so much specklewort, only the gods know why your heart didn't stop." Captain growled, his eyes saying he thought it was a wasted effort. "If not for Shay, we would have finished what your ambition started."

"My ambition might just start again, fed by dead bunnies," Harvey snarled. Neara hadn't seen this side of him, and she didn't like it. He was a predator, though, so she supposed it had to come out sometime.

"You're ignoring what I'm saying in favor of your own reason; the pass is solid snow and it's a mystery how you survived. The females would die even in the best of health. Even if that was your plan, we have no specklewort in the Valley and we wouldn't allow you to do it."

The Rabbits behind him grunted in approval and stomped their large feet on the ground, the noise thundering across the Hobbit holes despite their small number.

Harvey's lip curled over his teeth.

"Like I'm stupid enough to believe you don't have any tunnels outside of the canyon you called a snowed-in path. This valley is small enough, I'm sure I can find it myself."

All the bunny's gazes narrowed on Harvey. All their hands were on a knife or spear, Aetius even reaching to the bow on his back.

Shay's hands tightened on the basket with her babies, the white knuckles more visible against the dark of the wood from where she sat in the doorway of Vincent's barrow, still too weak to walk more than a few feet.

"The young have not been weaned yet," said the Captain in a forced, trembling calm. "They'll die if separated from their mothers now. The deal is a litter each and if you do anything to jeopardize that..." He raised his finger and the Rabbits stopped, their eyes filled with hard anger, "one single-striped leopard is nothing we can't deal with."

"Harvey." Shay's small voice pierced through to his soul and he turned, his eyes only softening a little. "It's not worth risking my life just to leave the babies to die; we can wait a few weeks here, can't we? It's not like I can even go anywhere like this..."

He held himself steady for a few moments, then relaxed. "I...if it's what you want..."

"Her 'want' is the only thing keeping you alive." Captain said dismissively. "You should do well to remember that."

The Rabbits faded from around them, although two still clung to the edges, besides Aetius and Vincent.

"Harvey, you shouldn't confront him like that. What if he kills you?" Shay's hand stopped halfway between her and Harvey's hair, like she'd wanted to pat his golden locks and caught herself.

His head inclined towards her as if, subconsciously, he'd invited the motion. "I'd rather die than see you live out your days as their brood mare."

Shay gave a weak, almost sad smile, a hand absentmindedly petting the warm, sleeping bundles just beginning to grow their fur. "Well, hopefully it doesn't come to that. I chose Vincent because I knew he'd help if the bunnies didn't keep their word, though I don't think they'll go against it. Maybe I'm just being hopeful."