The Last Rabbit Prince

The Battle and The Betrayal

To say Korn is furious is an understatement. He had the man who brought him the news beheaded on the spot. Now all the servants draw lots to see who will dare enter the throne room. Even the slightest infraction was likely to lead to a beating. Several servants and guards had already ran away, helped by relatives in nearby villages and now the palace was being locked down like a prison to keep more from leaving.

It wasn't even his son being captured that had Korn in a rage. It was the loss of the best general and strategist in his army.

Everything suddenly felt like it was falling apart, and it was all because of that rabbit brat. Korn has already determined when he catches the whelp, he won't call for the executioners, he will squeeze the life out of him with his own hands.

It had been a good plan, the perfect plan really. Destroy the royal family and while the country was still in shock establish an iron rule that everyone would be too afraid to oppose.

How had one child escaping the slaughter caused so many problems? For that matter how had the prince even escaped? At first Korn had assumed that he hadn't been in the palace that night. There had been rumors that he had been found unharmed in the rubble, but Korn had always assumed that was just to build the prince up to seem greater than what he was.

Now he wonders if there isn't at least some truth to the rumors.

Korn has many questions. Could the boy have some unique powers? How had his men been killed and Stop and Gun captured? How many people will follow the prince and his people now that he has won this small victory?

He calls for his head palace guard.

"Sire?" The man asks nervously.

"Bring me every sender in the palace and the village. I want this so-called Rabbit prince found now." Korn says.

Tawin paces the room trying to decide what to do. He and Gun had always kept his sending abilities a secret from everyone, even the king. Gun hadn't wanted anyone to know about Tawin's abilities because to reveal them would be to reveal his secret of how he had risen to power so easily.

Now Gun had gone and gotten himself captured and it was up to Tawin to find him. He could send his animal to find his lover, it wouldn't be hard because of the bond they shared. The problem is how to convey that information to the king without giving away his secret. Tawin isn't naive. Just because he and Gun are mates doesn't mean Gun truly cares for him. It's only Tawin's usefulness that Gun cares for.

In the end he decides to begin by finding Gun, then he can pass that information along to another sender and swear them to secrecy. He knows just the one too, once she has passed on the information, Tawin would of course kill her. That was the only way to truly ensure she would keep his secret permanently.

Gun smiles when he sees the rat poke its head into the cell. He would recognize that spirit animal anywhere. If nothing else Tawin is clever and he knows not to reveal their secret, so if he is seeing this rat, it means his little lover has a plan. Gun beckons the rat close and whispers in its ears.

Rain can't help but notice how solemn everyone is when he walks into the meeting room. They have just won a major victory shouldn't they be celebrating?

"What's going on?" Rain asks.

"There is a large group of soldiers near here. Too close to be a coincidence." P'Chai says.

"Do you think they have somehow discovered our location? But they have been searching for the village for years, why would they find it now?" Rain asks.

P'Pakin says, "We just received word from the palace that Korn has every sender he can searching for this village."

"All it takes is one sender giving the right instruction to their animal." P'Phayu says. "We never knew the danger before, but now that we do it's amazing, they never found us out. Probably due to them depending more on human scouts than senders."