‘Maybe we could go find the fluffle?’ Yuno offered, for the third time that day. She had been trying to distract Yanus, to direct her into a more constructive direction, a very obvious ploy that Yanus did not appreciate. She still wanted to be angry, wasn’t yet done with her rage. ‘Fine!’ she finally said in exacerbation, just to stop her daughter from bringing it up. The child was relentless. She had originally planned to wait until Yuno was gone to begin assembling her followers, but she had grown to be an impatient woman.
They found a small burrow in a nearby grove, a place filled with Yanus’ favorite white clover. Yuno must have been considerably worried about her mother, as she didn’t complain about it at all. ‘My people,’ Yanus said grandly, appearing suddenly in their midst. The rabbits scattered, bolting down their rabbit holes. Yanus cackled. Soon they would not have to fear anything.
‘Yanus?’ a young doe asked, peering out from a hole, ‘Yanus! Is that you? What happened to you?’ she asked, her voice low and fearful as she peered wide eyed at Yuno. ‘I have ascended to godhood,’ Yanus returned, puffing her chest and raising her head high, ‘I have returned to keep our people safe.’ A low murmur broke out, ‘gods have failed us,’ an older rabbit spoke up, rebuking the idea. ‘I am not like him. I am a rabbit foremost, and a god second.’ Yanus said firmly, looking the elder strait in the eye with resolve, more cognate than she had been in a long time, this moment a pivot that she could not mishandle. The elder paused for a moment, sitting up right and twitching her nose as if to sniff out the truth. Apparently finding what she wanted she sat back.
‘How will you protect us, as a rabbit?’ Another rabbit asked. Instead of answering, Yanus ported, entering the void once again to appear inside of a bush, ripping it to shreds with her reentry into space. The rabbits gasped, ‘I will not hesitate to do what must be done, to protect our people from any threat. And I will take no acolytes. You, my followers, will be my only children. Yuno shifted uncertainty, her ears quivering, perhaps second guessing her decision to redirect Yanus’ attention after her mother’s violent display and fanatic words.
‘Now, worship me!’ Yanus howled, inciting the rabbits. They paused in a shocked moment before cheering, working themselves into a frenzy. Yanus twirled, ‘come to me! Dance for me, my people!’ she called, her eyes full of her visions of the future, where the rabbits whirled around her, a writhing hurricane encircling her. They hopped in celebration, in reverence, round and round, faster and faster, just like her vision, over laying with it in her eyes as she watched them through her moribund eyelids. She could feel the power filling her, godly ichor running hot, pouring through her veins. This was what she had wanted, this was what she deserved. She was now a god in the truest sense, with her own followers, her own power. What did it matter if Tva never acknowledged his fault, his followers were hers now. What did it matter if Yuno was there, she would be gone soon enough. For Yanus, her godhood had begun.
End
