Jenny woke up to a pounding headache she recognized all too well. It was the same when she had a day free from work, when she slept half the day and didn’t drink enough water, when she wanted nothing other than to curl beneath the sheets and sleep the day away. A cold breeze brushed past her face. Jenny shivered. Had she forgotten to close the windows again?

“Jeenny.” A squeaky, high-pitched sound called her name.

Jenny didn’t want to wake up. She was tired, and her whole body ached. It was almost as bad as the training days in her childhood.

“Wakee uap.”

The voice called again, and Jenny opened her eyes.

White soft fur, black rings around red eyes, a twitching nose, and almost transparent whiskers. Behind the rabbit, the bright blue sky. “Hi, Biscuit,” Jenny whispered.

The rabbit hopped closer, humid and cool nose touching Jenny’s cheek. “Yuu, guud?”

Jenny didn’t answer. Memories from the past days crawled back into her mind: the escape, fall, dungeon, worms, battles, the many injuries she suffered, the magic book, the bloody key, and the cursed dagger. A groan escaped when she tried to sit down. Everything hurt.

“Uhm.”

Jenny gritted her teeth. Pain was a construct of the mind. She could ignore it. Moving only one arm, Jenny pushed herself up. She took deep breaths, ignoring the stinging agony on her shoulder, legs, and sides.

Biscuit looked on, her nose twitching fast. The rabbit looked at the alcove and trees around them and then at Jenny again. Biscuit tilted her head and hopped on Jenny’s lap. “Heal, no agik, spear, yuu.”

Jenny heard the jumbled words and understood what Biscuit meant. After using heal, the rabbit wouldn’t have any magic left, so it would fall to Jenny to protect them. Jenny considered just for a few moments before she nodded.

Biscuit chanting started soon after and the rabbit settled down.

A hand moved to the critter’s ears, and Jenny took her time doling out scritches. She had much to ask her pet, but the language barrier was still problematic.

“We eed to taak.” Came Biscuit's soft voice.

For a moment, Jenny couldn’t make sense of things. She had never heard those words before but she still understood them, even if Biscuit’s pronunciation was horrible. The magic dream and the choice she made came to her mind again. Biscuit had spoken in that same language.

“How?” The blonde asked back.

Biscuit stared at Jenny in silence. Had she asked something she shouldn’t? Why was Biscuit staring?

Still staring Jenny down, the rabbit spoke with gravitas, the squeaky voice deep. “Agik.”

Jenny blinked. What? Biscuit’s tittering sounded soon after. Had her pet… played a prank on her? A smile tugged at Jenny’s lip, and she pinched one of Biscuit’s ears. The rabbit tittered louder.

The pain started to fade, the burning in her sides abating. Jenny knew the healing would still take a few hours, but she already felt much better. “Was it the magic dream?” She asked in the same strange language.

“Chek skill, status.” Biscuit instructed.

Jenny did as her pet said. On skills, she didn’t see anything different, but under language in advanced skills, there was a new entry: Old Aetheri.

“You also have this Old Aetheri skill?”

Biscuit nodded.

There was so much she wanted to ask, but maybe it was best to start from the beginning. “What are you?” She didn’t think the rabbit would answer, but that at least would inform her next choices.

“Was a uman, now am a abbit.”

Jenny’s fingers stopped, and Biscuit huffed in protest. Biscuit was a human? How? Why? She had never heard of anything like it. Not even myths spoke about humans living again as rabbits. “How?”

“Died uman, born abbit,” said Biscuit, “tell yuu moor later, wen sape ange.”

That took Jenny a bit more to puzzle out. Died human, born a rabbit. It made sense that Biscuit wanted a regular human mouth to explain that one. Jenny was curious and afraid. All Mother’s warnings about magic, and here she was, dealing with a cursed rabbit sorceress and trying to learn magic herself.

Jenny steeled herself for a question that weighed on her mind for a while. “What is this contract?”

“Istake.”

…What? Saving her life was a mistake? But why? Jenny remembered Biscuit tried to cast regenerate, and only when it failed did the girl use the contract magic.

“Oh,” Biscuit exclaimed before Jenny’s mind got even more confused. “Price istake,” the rabbit enunciated, slow and precise, “wanted to save yuu, but price was a istake.” The rabbit repeated again.

Jenny’s fingers started moving once more, searching the spots Biscuit liked. Jenny took a deep breath to calm down, and the rabbit started thumping. A small smile cracked on the blonde’s face. It always amused her, the rabbit’s reactions. Jenny had a lot more to ask, but only one more question couldn’t wait.

“Who is Ferdinand, and how do you know him?”

The thumping stopped, and the rabbit jerked. She looked up, staring at Jenny with wide eyes. Biscuit didn’t respond, just staring and breathing heavily.

“Hate him.” Biscuit's intense voice came. “Knew him efore died.”

Jenny wasn’t an expert in rabbit tells, but even she knew Biscuit didn’t want to talk about this, maybe when she changed into that girl again. Both fell silent for a long while. Biscuit kept the magic flowing, and Jenny kept up her ministrations.

Now that she was out of the dungeon, Jenny knew her priorities. She didn’t know what Biscuit wanted to do, but she had better inform the rabbit of her plans, even more so because Jenny wanted Biscuit’s help.

“I want to go back to Thornfield,” she started. “I need to send a letter to Gizelda, tell her the truth about what happened. Her father died, and her brother blamed me for it.” Jenny fell silent for a long time, and Biscuit said nothing. “The baron was more like my father than my own,” Jenny admitted. “He even offered to adopt me.”

The rabbit nuzzled against Jenny’s hand. The gesture was comforting.

“I need to send that letter, and I want to know what happened and why he was killed.” Jenny started again after a while. “Gregory, that’s the baron’s son. I think he’s in cahoots with Ferdinand.” Jenny needed to put her mind in order lest she confuse her pet even more. She started again.

“I want to return, but I need your magic to help me enter the town. By now, the church and the militia are probably looking for me. I also want to pay Gregory a visit. With your magic, with Dominate, I can learn why he wanted his father dead, and why he blamed me for it.”

FatElf

After this chapter, I changed things a bit, when there's a lot of convo. Most of those are from Yuki's pov, so I don't need to mangle the language for a misguided sense of logic.

 

Thank you for reading, next chapter tomorrow.