=== Flower meadow, POV Nameless MC

 

A little time had passed since my mother, and I left the burrow. So far, my siblings and I lived on mother's milk. But that should change from here on because I could listen to my parents how they explained where I could find food and drink. Unlike me, my brothers and sisters didn't understand everything our parents said, so our parents had to show them what they meant.

Mother and father started to hop. Even the laziest of my siblings didn't want to be left behind and followed. After around 100 meters, a stream appeared between the grasses. The creek wasn't incredibly deep if I had to guess it was just 10 to 20 cm, which meant that even I couldn't drown in it.

Father leaned over the stream and began to drink from it. I followed his example and did the same. Slowly the others also realized what father wanted to show with it and also followed his example.

When my father stopped, my siblings did the same. I had already stopped in advance because I wasn't thirsty and did it more out of curiosity. But instead, I looked at my reflection in the water. I saw my mostly black fur, the only exception was my forehead, around the horn and the ears, because that part was fiery red. My horn was tiny and had a yellow-gold hue. What surprised me was that my sibling's horns were more brown. Our parent's horns were utterly different. However, our mother's curved horn was silver-gray, and our father's horn was shaped like a Y and shone in white. Father's horn reminded me of ivory, which worried me a little whether his horn was also a reason to be hunted.

Our parents turned away and hopped back towards the burrow. We didn't stop at the den, but passed the entrance and reached the taller grass's end maybe 20 meters away. Here where the tall grass ended, was a free and open meadow. I could certainly see a few hundreds of meters, and I noticed a few things. I could see an unbelievable number of rabbit families on the meadow. This place was like a colony consisting only of rabbits. Another thing was that large trees were standing on the edge of the field, probably the entire meadow was just a huge clearing in the middle of the forest. The last thing was the single tree in the center of the meadow.

I watched how the rabbits avoided the tree and walked widely around it. That surprised me and made me inquire.

"Tree?"

I could say single words, but I was unable to speak in full sentences for some reason. Mother looked down at me and then at the tree.

"Are you talking about the guardian tree?"

"Guardian? Tree?"

Ticked off, I repeated what my mother said. Her gaze turned from the tree back to me.

"This tree protects us from foreign dangers... This tree is the reason for our peaceful and quiet life."

She answered my question, but Mother's answer was lyrical. How should a tree protect us? How should a tree protect something in general?

In the meantime, while I was talking with my mother, the first of my siblings started to run over the meadow. Others lay down to doze off. Father laid down at the edge of the field while mother and I walked further into the meadow. We relaxed near my playing siblings.

I didn't know what to do and lay down to relax, but...

Wah! Hey, not again!?

My brother or sister, who previously threw itself on me, came to us and buried me under itself. I knew it was the same rabbit because each of my brothers and sisters had a different pattern.

"Go!?"

I squeaked that it should go off me, but it ignored me.

"Go!?"

I tried again, but again to no avail. I gave up. There was no move to get it down, so I decided to close my eyes and try to sleep.

 

=== Flowers meadow, Unknown Forest

 

I slowly opened my eyes. Mother and my siblings were dozing next to me. My sibling, who previously lay on top of me, was now next to me. It had probably fallen off while sleeping.

I looked around... nobody noticed that I was awake, so I didn't want to disturb the others. I crept away quietly because my curiosity about the tree had not died. I wanted to know the purpose and what was behind it. It almost sounded like magic.

I hopped in the direction of the tree and passed various families of rabbits. In addition to rabbits with a horn on their foreheads, there were also normal rabbits. Some rabbits had elongated tails, and another's group of rabbits had a fin and gills on their necks. It was a strange sight at first.

I was almost up to the tree when a voice came from the side.

"Stop! Little one, what do you think you're doing!?"

A giant grumpy rabbit got in my way. His black fur reminded me of my father, but it wasn't him. I was about to answer when a delicate voice came from behind the rabbit.

"Let it through, Mr. Rabbit."

The grumpy rabbit gave way to me, and the origin of the voice was revealed to me. A human-like child with green skin and a yellow blooming flower on its head instead of hair stood directly in front of the tree. The figure of the creature matched that of a girl of 10 to 12 years old.

"Come, little one."

It waved me to itself.

"Who?"

I asked in my broken language. She answered with a smile and stroked my ears.

“I'm Myrani¹She is an alternative version of the Dryade Nymira of the original story. (Chapter 24) Their names are anagrams to each other. Nymira = Myrani, a lesser dryad. Together with Vond, I protect this place."

At first, I thought that she was referring to the tree. But I noticed that a second person was leaning against the tree. The other person looked like a boy the same age as Myrani. His body was mostly dark brown to light brown, and there were notches on the skin that was reminiscent of wood. On his head, branches grow upwards and backward, and sometimes there are leaves or flowers on the branches.

"Myri, why are you dealing with the rabbits again?"

His tone was slightly annoyed, which made me wonder. Myrani lifted me and took me in her embrace.

“Isn't it just too cute! I want to keep it."

She pressed her face to my back fur and moved her face slightly back and forth.

"Hihihi!"

This tickled me, and I couldn't help but giggle. She started laughing at my reaction and put me down again.

“You are cute, little one. Do you already have a name?"

I shook my head. In response, she made a slightly sadder face and caressed me gently.

"I hope we could talk again after you got your name."

She looked up.

"You should go. Your family is already looking for you."

!?

I turned around. Mother was not even ten meters away, waiting. I couldn't read her facial expressions, but I assumed she was angry. I approached slowly.

"Ma..."

I spoke to her carefully.

"Come over."

Her voice was emotionless. When we were a little further away, she stopped.

“How could you just disappear, kid!? Waaah!"

My mother's voice was weak, and she started crying. I had never seen a rabbit crying. It was an incredibly cute and incredibly sad sight at the same time. She lunged at me and buried my body under her, except for my head.

“D-do you know what worries you caused us! Your sister freaked out when you were gone."

"Sis?"

"Yes, your sister."

Mother had to talk about my sibling, which always buried me under itself. She let go of me, and we hopped to the others.

Mother suppressed her tears when we reached the rest of the family, and then we returned to the den together. Father said nothing to me, and neither did the other siblings say anything.

It wasn't until we were in the burrow that the game started all over again. My sister buried me under her and restricted my movements. I tried to throw her off at first, but...

Nothing is working...