*BOOM*

A loud bang could be heard from outside. Each of us jumped up in shock.

"You are waiting here!"

Dad warned us and left the den.

*BOOM*

A second loud bang could be heard. I could not suppress my curiosity and broke away from Si and left the chamber. I just poked my head out of the burrow and tried to see something.

Where did dad go? I thought he would take a look outside to see if everything was fine...

I could see two billows of smoke rising into the sky. Since Dad wasn't there, I decided to venture further out. I approached the plume of smoke that was closer to our burrow.

The smoke rose from the direction of the meadow. As I stuck my head between the last tall grass, I found many dead wolves scattered on the ground. It looked like they were in the middle of the explosion. None of them had a chance to survived.

Dad and Mom weren't in sight because the billow of smoke blocked my view. I could see just 100 meters before the smoke took my sight.

"And what happened?"

Si threw herself at me from behind and was just as surprised as I was what had happened here.

“Si!? Did you follow me?"

"Yup."

Nonchalant and carefree, she answered me immediately. I shook my head because I just couldn't understand her.

"Look!"

Some shadows became visible in the smoke. They were two shadows that had a humanoid shape. I could hear their voices, but I didn't know what language it was. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I could make out Myrani's voice, but the other was also a female voice, so that it couldn't be Vond. Another shadow appeared slightly behind them, a smaller creature.

That shadow would suit dad!

"Si, let's go back to the burrow."

Si and I turned around as fast as we could and wanted to disappear into the burrow. We didn't get to it because as we were about to start running, a figure appeared in front of us.

“What do we have here? Two young horned rabbits."

I recognized the voice. It was the voice that spoke to Myrani just a moment ago. As I looked up at the body, my eyes widened. Mom was in her hands. Her fur was smeared with blood.

"Mom..."

The woman leaned down and looked at us.

“You are her children. You are cute."

This woman had something that reminded me of Myrani, but she looked a lot more like a human. Unlike Myrani, this woman had hair, even if it was green, and she had no greenish skin. Her skin was only slightly tan. She had, however, a strange painting or tattoo on her body. It looked like a climbing plant was growing all over her body.

“Don't worry. Your mother is alive. She will survive. Although it will take her some time to recover."

"Milady Crete!"

Myrani came running from behind, followed by Dad. When he recognized Si and me, he stopped for a moment.

"What are you doing out here!?"

Dad's angry voice rumbled down on us.

"W-we were worried."

I stammered in a low voice.

"I didn't want to wait."

Ignorant as ever, Si replied thoughtlessly.

"Nana, Kuro, you don't have to be so upset!?"

Crete surprisingly lectured Dad. Dad didn't know how to react, so he fell silent.

"You, little one, come closer."

Crete pointed at me and waved me over with her index finger.

What does she want from me?

She leaned down and looked at me. Nobody said anything, and a strange atmosphere developed.

"Ha!? Well, little one, the gods are kind to you."

She turned away from me and looked to Myrani.

"Has her skills already been determined?"

Myrani shook her head at Crete's question.

“Ok, do this, please. I will take care of the remaining wolves in the next few days."

She nodded at Crete's request.

"Very well!"

Crete put Mom down next to the burrow and disappeared into the distance.

"I am sorry! There is too much responsibility on Crete's shoulders."

Myrani bowed and apologized.

"Dad?"

Fi stuck her head out of the burrow. When she saw Mom lying next to the entrance and Dad and us next to it, she came out too. Fe and Se followed behind her, and only Ef couldn't be seen.

 

=== The next morning.

 

Together we moved Mom into the burrow and set up shifts so that one of us was always awake and able to take care of Mom. My shift was the last until dawn, which had just ended because the others were waking up.

After some discussion and hesitation, Dad stayed in the cave with Mom. Instead, he sent us outside to visit Myrani without him and Mom.

"Welcome."

Myrani greeted us with a bright smile on her face. In contrast, Vond stayed covered in the crown of the tree.

"Do you know what skills are?"

"Mother only mentioned them roughly."

Myrani nodded at Ef's answer.

“Well, I'll start at the beginning then. Every living being born in our world is born with two gifts. These gifts are so-called abilities. Each ability is of equal value, but some are better suited to combat than others. For that, others are better off in other ways.

It is essential that everyone is born with two abilities and that these are usually inherited from your parents. In rare cases, the powers are inherited from ancestors who are further back, such as the grandparents.

There are cases where someone was given more than two skills, but these are very rare!

But these skills are not absolute! I am demonstrating it to you. My skills are plants and protection."

With a short arm, an enormous number of daisies sprouted from the ground.

“I grew these flowers with my ability. But take a look."

With a snap of her finger, a small flame appeared over her index finger.

“Just because my abilities are plants and protection doesn't mean that I can learn fire too! It's just harder and harder. But with short lifetimes, the rocky road to learning a non-ability is just too difficult."

She lit the blossoms she made with magic with her flame. The flowers burned down within seconds and what remained was a black circle of ash with a few symbols in it. It all reminded me of a summoning circle or something like that.

“Ok, I want you to introduce yourself one after the other and then enter the circle. When the magic worked, flashy runes over your head reveal your attributes. However, you will know despite everything, even if you can't read what they mean. Who would like to start?"

Fi, the oldest, hopped into the circle first.

"I'm Fi, the oldest of us."

Myrani nodded, but she didn't look happy. After all, Fi had ignored what she just said... introduce you to one another and then enter the circle.

"Now, hold still!"

The circle around Fi lit up, and after the glow changed from red to white, several golden runes appeared above her.

"Let's see. Fi, you have the abilities enhance body and light rays. Light rays are a weakened version of Light, lacking some options, but not at a disadvantage for combat. Enhance body is a common skill among rabbit races. You can use it to improve your physical abilities such as speed, sense of smell, or even hearing. So the next one can, please."

Fe answered.

"I am Fe."

He hopped to the center of the circle, and Myrani began.

“You have fire twice. That means your skills will be twice as strong with the same effort. This is something special, so be happy. "

Se was the third to answer.

"I am Se."

He hopped in the circle and waited for the skills.

"You have fire and enhance body."

Next up was Si, but she didn't want to get off me, so Ef went before her.

"I'm Ef."

Ef stood on the circle. When the circle should have changed from red to white, it suddenly turned green.

"Look at... you got enhance body and as it appears, thunder. You must have inherited Sturm from one of your grandparents."

It was Si's turn, and there were no excuses. She went a little unwillingly into the circle.

"Hmmm... you have fire and light rays, congratulations."

Now it's my turn…

My heart was beating wildly. I was excited and had both positive and negative emotions. What if I had no ability!?

"Come on, little one."

Myrani waved me over. I approached the circle.

"I'm called En."

I stood in the middle and started Myrani without much fuss. Images flashed in my head, one of which was a sea of ​​flames. Another showed me the emptiness of darkness. Another picture appeared. It showed me something that reminded me of bubbles. There were lots of bubbles of different sizes and colors.

"Please, what!?"

Myrani's voice grew loud, and I immediately looked up at her.

"Vond!?"

She called for Vond, who immediately jumped down to see what had happened.

"Look at this!"

She pointed to the runes above my head, two of three rows glowing gold, but the last one was pitch black.

"Fire and darkness, two well-known skills, but this core eater... What is that supposed to be?"

Vond shrugged.

“I don't know. This ability says nothing to me. It would be best if you talked to Crete about it. I’ll contact Toth."

Myrani nodded.

“Well, little one. You heard what we said, but we don't know what core eater can do ourselves."

"I'll find out soon."

I was satisfied that I had skills at all. We thanked Myrani and returned to the burrow. We wanted to know how Mom was doing.