𝓕𝓸𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓽-𝓜𝓮-𝓝𝓸𝓽 (Varian x Reader)

Bonus Chapter 5- Dandelion

Surprise!!
Enjoy this specially curated bonus chapter! (I'm not entirely happy with my writing here bc action scenes are NOT my strong suit, but I have school and oh well)

In the fields just beyond a small village with dirt roads, the sun peeked over the trees. The grass, long and unkept as nature intended, was dappled with small droplets of dew that were easily transferred to fur without popping. Songbirds had begun greeting each other in the morning light, singing tunes clearer than the church bells in town. They occasionally swooped down into the grass, plucking seeds and insects from the ground before taking off into the sky once again. It was a symphony as old as time, etched in stone by Mother Nature herself.

It was all she'd ever known. To the small rabbit tucked away in a burrow, there was nothing more to be found. But that didn't stop her from wondering.

That particular morning was cloudless. The glaring gold of the sun had softened somewhat, but the heat in the air was intensifying. The little rabbit and her six siblings sat patiently in their burrow, waiting for their mother to return. She only visited twice a day to feed them, when the sun and the moon shared the sky. Otherwise, they were left on their own, tucked away from the world deep within the moist earth. It was the best way to hide from predators. Who could hurt them if they didn't know of their existence?

The kits were unaware of it, but that morning would play out differently. Every day, the burrow grew more cramped; they hadn't a clue that they were growing into a life different from what they knew. When their mother returned, she guided them from the burrow for the first time in their lives. One of the bunnies, with creamy red fur and floppy ears, scampered ahead of her mother. She stumbled over her long ears but didn't stop until her nose felt the fresh air of the meadow. Her body stiffened as the sunlight poured onto her and she blinked back the rays. Hesitant white feet raised her to the sky, and she sniffed the air. Her nose twitched as she breathed in the spring air. It was sweet and clean, like the sprout of a flower not yet unfurled.

Her siblings joined her a moment later and mimicked her actions. Once they felt somewhat accustomed to the new air, they turned their attention to their mother, looking for further instruction. She was the only familiarity they had.

The morning drifted by with the breeze, and their mother showed them how to forage for clovers and dandelions, warning them of what to avoid. The ground beneath the red bunny's paws was damp, causing her white-tipped toes to turn brown as she travelled. The sun had almost peaked in the blue sky when one of her siblings, a scruffy brown rabbit, playfully nudged her. Her eyes narrowed at him, accepting the challenge. Her tail, though tiny, wagged as she bounced toward her brother.He took off like a shot, zipping through the grass to escape her. She followed, quickly gaining on him and kicking up dirt behind her. Within moments, she had passed him, taking the lead in their chase. The red bunny's paws felt a strong sense of pride at her victory, so she quickened her pace.

Eventually, her floppy ears could no longer hear her brother hopping behind her, and she slowed, satisfied in the knowledge that she had beaten him. She triumphantly bounced into the air, creating a little victory dance only possible for a bunny to enact. After a moment, something felt peculiar. Her head jerked around in quick movements. Where had her brother gone? Shouldn't he have been here by now?

The same fear she felt when a storm approached settled over her. Her nose twitched. Standing on her hind legs, the kit tried to gauge where she was, but her head barely poked above the seemingly endless field of grass. Maybe she could retrace her steps? But which way had she come from? The ground was too diluted with grass, so much so that she couldn't find her own footprints. Her tiny heart pounded in her chest.

To make a situation already petrifying for a young rabbit worse, an echoing screech sounded through the skies. Her black eyes widened as a hawk soared overhead, at least four times her size. Its talons glistened in the sunlight, sharper than anything she had ever seen. Fear pumped through her veins. She hardly thought it through before she took off running through the meadow, unsure of what she was even looking for. Shelter, her mother, even the damp and crowded burrow would do. Anything but ending up as lunch for that monster of a creature was sufficient.