The Trouble With Slaying

The Trouble with Curses

I slowly came to and decided I would much rather stay in bed. If only the sun wasn't in my eyes. And there wasn't something irritating my nose. I shifted a little to find some shade and lifted my hand to scrub over my nose.

My nose stopped wiggling while I scrubbed over it and then resumed.

Wait. What?!

My eyes flew open and I reached up to pat my face. It didn't feel right. I got a good look at my hand and let out a piercing scream when I realized I had paws instead of hands. Even the scream wasn't mine. I was pretty sure my throat couldn't make a note that high. I scrambled to my feet.

Tried anyways.

I flailed until I worked out that I was bound to four legs, though I could balance on my hindquarters while my fore paws searched myself. Rounded head, long ears, mass quantities of whiskers, wiggling nose. I glanced down at myself and overbalanced to fall flat on my face.

This is just great! You've gotta be kidding me!

I righted myself once more and stayed on all fours this time to look back at my bunchy body and powerful hind legs. The fluffy tail on my butt was just insult to injury.

I'm a rabbit! That stupid bitch turned me into a rabbit!

I struggled to calm down and think. Remember. Lissi had been with me. She knew the witch had cast a spell on me, though I had panicked and run while she was stabbing the womans eyes out. I gave a full body shiver at that gruesome memory. She would know I was alive at any rate, though she probably wouldn't know where I had gone.

Where was I anyways? I looked around and realized I had no idea where I was. I had to get back to the others. Or the bus at the very least. Then I could work out how to tell them what had happened and they could find a nice witch to turn me back. I lifted my paws to hold my head, ears flopping down over my back as I pictured that conversation.

Liam was never going to let me live this down. He'd probably die laughing. Which wasn't a horrible thought. Regardless, I needed a direction, and sitting here moping wasn't going to help me. I straightened up on my hind legs, wobbling a little as I found my balance and raised my ears.

Was this what it was like to have heightened senses? My ears and nose were telling me all sorts of things. Most of it I could make no sense of but I knew what cars smelled like. I knew the scent of asphalt and the sound of traffic. Once I found a road and some road signs, I would have a direction.

My ears swiveled back and forth, and I did my best to ignore the weird feeling of my nose wiggling. I thought I caught the rush of traffic and aimed that way. It took me a bit to work out the hopping thing, and I had a couple wipe outs as I underestimated the strength of my hind legs, but I soon had the hang of it and was bounding through the brush.

This was actually rather fun!

I skidded to a halt and searched when I caught a scent. The scent of danger. I had thought too soon. The scent of canine had me sprinting away, looking for a burrow or any small space to hide in. I didn't know if I could outrun a dog.

Dogs! Plural! Multiple!

I panicked and put on as much speed as I could as the dogs began to bay and a gun fired. Dirt sprayed up inches from me and I instinctively swerved away from it. I blindly skittered out of the brush and onto a street. Tires squealed as the driver tried to avoid me. The car went rushing over me and I rushed on, realizing the dogs had stopped before also running into the street and I had a moment to take the lead.

I remembered something about losing a trail in running water when I tumbled off the side of the road and landed in the ditch, flowing with rain and swamp water. It smelled disgusting with all the oils and chemicals that had washed off the road, but it would do. I aimed upstream and took off again, resisting the urge to hunker down and hide when I went through a drainage tunnel. It was too short to keep the dogs from reaching me and if they cornered me I was done for.