Mibbet was bored to tears, and it showed. But she was also doing her very best not to commit the crime of regicide on her dear cousin. Elvira did not do sitting idle well, and had produced from somewhere on her person a red rubber ball. She was filling the time by bouncing the ball off the carriage ceiling, the carriage wall, and then catching it on the rebound.

Tup tup THUD, Tup tup Thud, Tup tup THUD, then every once in a while just as Mibbet and Rosalind had learned to tune it out she would miss a catch and change the pattern. Tup tup dat dat dat. Followed by muffled cursing and the count starting back at Tup tup THUD, one.

Mibbet was wondering how long a very convincing necromantic construct would go undiscovered, and how hard it would be to find a necromancer skilled enough and convince them it was okay, when they heard the baying of a herd of carnivore jackalopes.

“Oh thank the gods” Mibbet muttered to herself as she drew Choppy and everybody went to action stations.

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The Jackalope in this particular warren were larger than the average (a steady stream of travellers who weren’t so good at guard duty, alongside a few thieves who didn’t like evidence saw to that.) They had done this countless times before (of course given that bunnies antlered or otherwise are not exactly producing the best mathematicians kind of made it clear that wasn’t saying a lot though.) Yet they had never ever failed with this tactic. Make the meat nervous, run around for a bit, then pretend to give up and run. Then when the meat relaxes and lets down it’s guard they would pounce. First off the decoys, there were plenty in the warren annoying enough to send in first as a distraction. Especially given that they had recently taken over another warren.

It took a little while and some nippy encouragement, but before too long they were off on the attack. They would attack until a few had fallen then break and run. Easy peasy. Or at least it was supposed to be, but out of the whole warren they sent out none managed to escape, and to add insult to injury there was the smell of fresh cooked rabbit.

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Rascal was having an absolute field day. They liked the taste of bunny and the spiky bits on the top of these ones were extra crunchy. The humans had of course killed a few too, but they weren’t even eating them because they might have eaten other people. Honestly humans were picky about the strangest things, it wasn’t like they had eaten cat or something actually important, yet the humans were all bent out of shape over it.

Oh well more for Rascal, though the fact their chase was occasionally interrupted by a swinging choppy thing or the long stick with the weird eyes meant less work for them and more prey. Really it was win win.

Rascal carefully heated up another piece with their fire. They had never seen a bunny get mad before, but these ones were so grouchy about it. It beat them why they were like that though. They were bunnies, that meant there were lots of them, heck you turn your back for a bit there would probably be even more. That was the best bit about rabbits. They were good fast food.

Sure enough another batch approached, and this time Alba lumbered out of the carriage. It seems it was feeding time.

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That cat had to die, they had roasted so many and were lying there grooming themselves between bites. The leader of the Jackalopes was tough as nails, with only one ear, they had somehow managed to take down a wolf. Compared to that what was a kitt....... OK kitties didn’t normally breathe flames. They also didn’t usually work with humans (or other cats, dogs, dragons, constructs, or.......... well anything really............... WHOAH was that an owl or a bear? Or had an owl and a bear loved each other very much? What was that abomination. Maybe they had miscalculated their plan here. Fall back. They gave a commanding squeak as the last three Jackalopes beat a hasty retreat. Not expecting a skinny human in ill fitting packaging to deliver themselves to the warren not five minutes later, had it followed their trail? Obviously this fool wished to die, and one ear was more than happy to grant the request.

From the depths of the warren they called forth the others who had remained behind, as Jackalopes swarmed forth from the warren. They had been here quite a while, so one thing they were definitely confident in was their numbers.

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Errol saw the Jackalopes charging from their warrens. He was a kid who grew up on a farm, and always felt bad about the food there. He preferred to go toe to toe with his prey, and what he saw before him was not an army of predators. It was enough fabric to make shoes and gloves for his siblings, all of them.

The bone in his hands was now properly weighted to swing right, and tonight it would earn the name. He waded into the middle of the fight, hardly seeming to notice the eerie glow from the armour he was wearing. But just because he didn’t notice it didn’t mean it wasn’t happening. His gear may be obsolete as far as regular armour goes, but great grandpa and the others hadn’t skimped. This was Aura masters gear, and when his mum had said he would grow into it they didn’t just mean size wise. This gear had plenty of room for growth.

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After a couple of hours of waiting Errol finally returned, looking a little worse for wear, but nothing too serious. A few nibbles here and there, nothing he couldn’t handle. Then once he returned it was time to finish this leg of the trip. Rattropolis awaited.