Lucky Rabbit

Predictably, Thaniel pulled away from her, eyes wide as he stared from Pandy to the disturbed soil that was all that remained of Ms. Wellington’s impromptu tomb. The Tarroot seemed satisfied with its meal, and the few roots that were still visible lay quiescent.

“What…happened?” Thaniel whispered, tears pouring down his face. “I saw Bunny biting her – your? – hand, and then-” He bit his lip, shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs.

Pandy sat up, feeling rather shaky herself, only realising just how naked she was when the breeze touched places no breeze had ever touched before. Her cheeks flushed, and her arms rose protectively as she made something akin to a squeaking noise. Thaniel didn’t seem to notice, but he was six, and still caught up in what had just happened.

“I…you…,” Pandy stumbled to a halt. This wasn’t the first time she’d spoken since coming to this world, but the sound of it was strange, higher-pitched than her own, and a little bit nasal. Her hands rose, touching the curve of her jaw, the shape of her nose, eyes, and lips, finding none of it familiar, other than the sensation of her fingers on her skin. Tears welled into her eyes, and in a moment she was crying as hard as Thaniel.

This seemed to shock the little boy out of his own tears, however, and he glanced around, then shrugged awkwardly out of his uniform jacket. Like the little gentleman he mostly was, he draped this over her, and used a sleeve to dab awkwardly at her face. Once or twice he opened his mouth as if to speak, before finally saying, “Are you my Bunny?”

Pandy’s tears stopped, and her mouth fell open. How had he possibly come to that conclusion? In the midst of thrashing roots and flying dirt, there was no way he’d been able to see her change, at least not clearly, and yet he’d still figured it out. Wordlessly, she nodded, and this time it was Thaniel who flung his arms around her, burying his very wet face in the crook of her shoulder.

“I thought you were dead!” he wailed, and Pandy ignored the flood of messages informing her that she was rapidly regaining the Corruption Points she’d just spent. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him, tentatively at first, and then so tightly that he squeaked and pulled away a bit.

“How did you know?” she finally managed to ask, and Thaniel rubbed his eyes with the sleeve of his formerly white shirt.

Lifting a finger, he pointed at the mound of upturned earth. “Ms. Wellington had clothes on, an’ you don’t. And she was mean, but you’re not. And you kinda smell like Bunny’s fur.” His nose wrinkled, and that was it. The logic of a child who still believed in six impossible things before breakfast. Though breakfast was long past, and here he was, still believing.

“Your father-” she started, then stopped as Thaniel flinched. Reaching out, she took his hand, and he looked up, though he couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “Your father wanted you to be happy,” she told him, certain that it was true. “He did something he shouldn’t have, but when he did, he got my…my spirit. And I’ve been Bunny ever since.”

Thaniel tugged at his hand. “You prolly hate me,” he mumbled. “I treated you like a pet, even though I knew you were…somethin’ else. I thought-” His poor lip was swollen from being bitten so many times, but he chomped on it again anyway.

Pandy let his hand go, rather than trying to force him to stay, though her own felt cold without those little fingers. “I don’t hate you at all. I thought,” she swallowed and forced herself to continue, “you’d hate me because I pretended to be something I’m not. Exactly.”

The little boy shook his head fiercely. “Uh uh. You were my first friend. But are you,” again, his eyes flicked from Pandy to the moist, dark earth, “gonna leave? Now that you’re a person?”

She probably should. Now that she was a human, she should probably go, and find a way to watch over Thaniel from afar. Maybe she could get a job in the kitchen at Falconet? But what if she wasn’t there when the god’s power kicked in and tried to kill Thaniel again? Obviously, she couldn’t count on the teachers and staff at the school to keep Thaniel safe, since one of them had just tried to abduct and do who-knew-what with him. Not to mention the fact that they’d hired a Shadow in the first place. Clearly, their vetting process needed work.

“Do I have to?” she asked. “I think when the spell ends, I’ll just go back to being Bunny. I mean, I’m still me, but I’ll be me inside Bunny, not me inside Ms. Wellington. Which is…really weird and kind of creepy.”

Thaniel nodded agreement to this, then asked, “If it’s just a spell, how long will it last?”

Pandy blinked. “That’s a good question.” In Gacha Love, the description of Shifting Faces said it lasted eight hours, which was more than was needed for any of the cut-scenes triggered by using it. So you used the spell, selected the cut-scene you wanted to see, paid for it with Stamina – of course – then rinse and repeat.

Her eyes rolled as she tried to see if there were any notifications lurking at the edges of her vision. Something like a count-down, maybe? There was nothing there, however, so she said, “Stats,” and the familiar screen partially obscured Thaniel’s puzzled expression. Oh yes, she would have to remember not to speak System commands out loud.

Name: Pandy

Race: Human? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: 0/1

Mana: 19/19

Stats▾

Strength: 13 Intelligence: 12 Agility: 15 Pain Tolerance: 1Skills▾

Hop: Lv.15 (30/55) Bite: Lv. 19 (21/91) Scratch: Lv. 11 (2/19) Minor Heal: Lv. 19 (35/91) Wings of Glory: Lv. 1 Verdant Surge: Lv. 1 Vita Herbalis: Lv. 1 Shifting Faces: Lv. 1     00:42:11Boons▴▾

Ismara’s Blessing IMark of KerosCorruption Points: 27

A few things jumped out at her there, but the most important at the moment was the red number forty-two. “Forty-two minutes,” she gasped aloud. That definitely was not eight hours. In fact, she suspected it had started at one hour. One hour was…not very long.

Pandy attempted to stand, only to topple over again immediately. Her balance was all wrong, and she could only see in front of her, which was practically useless. Without four feet and eyes on the sides of her head, she felt like she was going to fall over. Thaniel wiggled in so her right forearm rested on his shoulder, and that was better, almost like having three paws at least, but it was still hard, especially since she was clutching his jacket to her front.

“We need to get back to the others,” Pandy said urgently. “I can heal them.”

Thaniel’s face lit up. “You can? Isidor got burned really bad, and Ellie still hadn’t woken up. But I saw Bunny- I mean, I saw you run off, and I chased you.” He looked down. “I probably shouldn’t have, huh? Pirate Pete wouldn’t have left his friends behind.”

“He wouldn’t have let First Mate Scrubs run off after Really Evil Pirate Drake alone, either,” Pandy reminded him, and the boy’s face lit up in a smile.

“That’s right! And if I’m Pirate Pete…”

“I must be Scrubs,” Pandy said, laughing just a little. How she had gone from a rabbit to a human to a monkey in the space of ten minutes, she didn’t know, but this was better than seeing Thaniel so sad. Besides, at least monkeys had opposable thumbs.

The two of them set off through the woods, with Pandy cringing as rocks poked her bare feet, and twigs scratched her oddly sensitive skin. Honestly, she would have been better off as a rabbit, but she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to change back, and even though this still wasn’t her body, at least it was human. At least it was if you counted a no-good, lying, fraudulent faking faker as a human being.

Pandy wasn’t sure if Ms. Wellington or Thaniel had left such a wide swath of crushed plants and broken branches behind them, but at least it made it fairly easy to follow the trail. It still took far too long to reach the clearing, and by the time the sound of the small stream reached them, Thaniel looked exhausted, and there were barely ten minutes left before Pandy’s spell ended.

They stumbled together through the last few bushes, and only as they were about to reenter the clearing did Pandy remember that she was naked except for a very small coat, and that she had the face of a villain. Fortunately, Thaniel remembered at the same time she did, and came to a halt, blocking Pandy from going any further. Staring up at her, he whispered, “How are we gonna explain?”

Pandy clutched the small, rather abused coat to her chest and shook her head. “I don’t think we can. They’ll just see-” She swept her hand down her – or rather, Ms. Wellington’s – body in explanation, and Thaniel looked crestfallen, but nodded.

“I’m going to have to change back,” Pandy said, feeling deep reluctance to give up even this semblance of humanity.

Thaniel nodded again, then, to Pandy’s complete surprise, launched himself at her. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around him, whispering, “It’ll be all right. I promise.” That was a terrible, and probably false, promise to make, but she couldn’t hold it in. She found herself patting the quivering little back almost as awkwardly as Lian, and wondered if this was why he was so bad at comforting his little brother. Did he feel like he was lying every time he tried to reassure the younger boy?

She gently moved Thaniel back a bit before thinking, She didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t the abrupt swelling of everything around her followed by complete darkness. For a moment, she thought she’d been expelled back out into the ether, or wherever she’d been in when she first arrived here, but then she realized Thaniel’s jacket had simply fallen around her, blocking the light.

“Bunny!” Thaniel cried, and the darkness lifted as he pulled back the coat covering her, revealing the boy’s frightened face. This must have finally been enough to draw the attention of the children in the clearing, because a moment later Isidor and Abbington pushed their way through the underbrush, with Isidor still holding his tortoise like a hard-shelled homing missile ready for deployment.

Thaniel scooped Pandy up, leaving the torn and filthy coat behind. Holding her close, he asked, “Are you all right?” She nodded, and Thaniel’s shoulders drooped even as Isidor took a step back and Abbington’s mouth fell open.

“Did’tnod?” Abbington asked, looking at the other children.

Geraldine had joined them by now, limping slowly as she put most of her weight on Brook, who walked at her side. “I think she did,” Geraldine agreed, and Miss Cupcakes, who was perched on Brook’s rump, rolled her eyes.

Pandy wiggled around, stretching her nose out toward the girl, and Thaniel, as if remembering why they had returned with such haste, thrust the rabbit out until her nose touched Geraldine’s arm. Pandy thought.

Casting of Minor Heal successful. Sixty-four uses remain before next level.

Healed Geraldine for 9 HP.

Geraldine gasped, setting her foot tentatively on the ground. “My ankle doesn’t hurt any more!” To prove it, she hopped up and down in place a few times, a grin spreading across her face.

Now Pandy leaned toward Isidor, and when Thaniel moved her over to the boy, she healed him as well. He took two heals, the second of which made her tail fall off, but it was well worth it when she saw the relief spreading across his face as the blisters faded from his exposed skin. And, bonus, she got two more uses of Minor Heal to recover her own LF, which returned her tail and made her wish she could see exactly what was happening to her rear end.

“What’s going on?” Isidor asked, staring down at his unblemished arm. The remains of his shirt still clung there, burned and wet, but otherwise no one would have guessed he’d ever been injured.

Thaniel hesitated, and Pandy realized that they’d been in such a hurry that they hadn’t come up with an explanation for Pandy’s strange behavior. Thaniel, being Thaniel, simply said, “Bunny is a magic rabbit.”

Geraldine, who had spent many hours with Thaniel and Pandy, having tea and playing pirates – sometimes simultaneously – just blinked, then nodded, as if magical rabbits were the most natural thing in the world. Abbington looked surprised, but not exactly disbelieving, more thoughtful. Only Isidor continued to look suspicious, but he stepped back, rubbing his chest with the hand that wasn’t clutching his turtle torpedo.

“Can she wake up Elean…Ellie?” he asked. None of the others seemed to catch the slip, but Pandy looked at him sharply. The princess had been going by Ellie since arriving at school, so why had Isidor, who met her here, almost called her Eleanor?

Thaniel looked down at Pandy. “Can you?”

Pandy shrugged, which was something rabbit bodies weren’t meant to do, and probably looked more than a little odd. Thaniel just put her down, though, and she hopped over to the sleeping princess. Someone – presumably Isidor – had moved her away from the creek and removed her jacket, folding it beneath her head as a sort of pillow. The girl looked very peaceful, smiling slightly, as if having a pleasant dream. Lord Winston lay next to her, jowls spread over her shoulder.

Pandy nosed Eleanor, thinking, Nothing happened, so she added, Thaniel was close, and technically Eleanor had been mentioned in Gacha Love, so she should count anyway, but maybe it needed CP for some reason?

Four children, a rabbit, a cat, a dog, a capybara, and a tortoise all watched as the small chest rose and fell. Eleanor sighed, snorted, then rolled over, eyes still firmly closed, head now resting on her beleaguered-looking basset hound.

Pandy shook her head. Technically, the princess wasn’t injured, so Minor Heal couldn’t do anything for her. She would simply have to wake up in her own time. Unfortunately, the children had no good way to get her back to school, and the sun was beginning to set. Class must be long over, and surely someone would be looking for them by now?

Isidor looked around. “Abbington, can Brook carry her?”

Abbington hesitated, then shook his head. “Nath’tstrong. Toofar.”

The tall boy sighed, then said, “I’ll go back for help. You all stay here.”

Thaniel, Geraldine, and Abbington all looked like they’d like to argue, but Thaniel was the first to speak. “I’ll come with you. It’s too dang’rous to go alone.”

The other two nodded agreement, and Isidor grimaced, but nodded. “Fine, but we need to go while there’s still light.” He held up his tortoise. “Tempest can provide light, but it’s tiring.”

Thaniel grinned. “You haveta tell me all about Tempest. Is she magic, too?” Almost absently, he picked up his school bag, which he had dropped near where he and Ms. Wellington had been standing when Pandy bit the woman. As he did so, the bag opened, allowing its contents to spill across the ground. All, that is, except for the first book of Wayward Pirate Pete, which was snatched from the air by a clawed hand.

“There you are,” Professor Beeswick said as he finished stepping through the portal that had appeared right next to the tumbling library book. His silvery eyes swept around the clearing, settling on Eleanor, who had her arms wrapped around Winston, and was snoring softly. “And where, pray tell, is your advisor?”