“Aggie?” Xaxac asked as he shook with nerves, “I… I’m scared. I changed my mind!”

“It’ll be fine, Honey Bunny,” Agalon cupped his face and pulled him into a deep kiss, then went back to work fiddling with the chains.

“It’s gonna be alright, Xac,” Abe promised, but Xaxac saw the fear in his eyes. He knew he was lying in an attempt to comfort him, but what else could he say? He couldn’t defy Agalon.

Xaxac stared at the sky as it tinted orange, watching the sun sink below the horizon.

Xaxac stood on his knees, in his chains, in the middle of the enclosure where the fighters lived, behind the tall, strong fences meant to keep in the strongest humans on the plantation. He was fine. It would be fine. That was strong wood, made of whole trees and several inches thick, not the thin boards their house had been made of, so long ago now. He couldn’t get out. Besides, he was chained up. He couldn’t get out of the chains.

It seemed as if every human on the plantation was there; some had even climbed over the fence to watch, but the fighters were inside the enclosure with them, standing around the perimeter.

Xaxac darted his eyes to the table and saw Alex sitting with his master, the vet who had been so interested in him, Lorsan, Cremia, her parents, and the soldier. He recognized Helen sitting on the opposite bench with a few other humans, and he wished he had at least been able to say to hello to her, but that wasn’t important right now. He had to be focused. He had to be solution oriented.

He wasn’t going to hurt them. He was fine. He was in chains. And this was important. He wasn’t dangerous, he was special, like Agalon had said. He wasn’t a monster, he was a rare prize, like a jewel. And he could do this because rabbits weren’t dangerous, weren’t monsters, they were cute little fuzzy pets; he was a cute little pet.

He wished his heart would slow down. Why wasn’t he drunk? He had drank two bottles of wine before they rode out here! Why the hell wasn’t he drunk?

He could hear every whisper, though no one seemed to think he could.

“Look at me, Honey Bunny,” Agalon smiled, “Everything is going to be alright.”

“Hey,” Lorsan whispered to the other elves, “I want it on record when he mauls all y’all to death, that I was against this. I told his ass it was too soon.”

“You look so cute, Xac!” Alex called, “I love your robe! Peasant chic! You’re killing it! Nobody else could do it!”

Xaxac giggled. Alex was good at that, good at killing tension. He made people happy. It’s what he did, what all pleasure slaves were meant to do. But it wouldn’t sink in, not all the way to his heart. He was fine. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Agalon stood to address the elves, but kept one hand in Xaxac’s hair to scratch at his scalp, “You’re going to see something tonight that has only been spoken of in legends. I have come into a wonderful creature here, a real, living, breathing, shifter! When them moons crest the horizon, you will witness the impossible. You will see, with your own eyes-”

Xaxac let out a scream as the pain rocketed through him, and Agalon moved to the side to clear their view.

Abe glanced to the fence, where his family was gathered by the gate, watching what was about to happen.

It happened so quickly; it is difficult to explain the speed of it, the shock of it, the pain of having a body contort into a completely new form as muscles, bone, flesh, twists in an instant, but that was all it took, and as darkness fell around them, stars twinkled into existence in the void, and the moons, round, cold, and impartial floated into vision in the night sky; the monster existed before them.

The night erupted with sound in a way that is strange to witness. No one person was particularly loud. No screams rang out into the night. It was the kind of sound born from the fear of hundreds of people, all trying to be quiet and failing, the roar of whispers, of gasps, of hands slapped over mouths and children too shocked to cry out so they produce weak, half-formed noises of alarm.

The rabbit’s nose twitched in the night air as the crowd held its breath. The monster tilted its head from side to side, taking in the scene, and drew into itself. The posture made it look small, even though it was much larger than the boy who had been there before, and it began to shake.

“Everybody stay calm,” Agalon advised, “Rabbits are skittish.”

“That’s why this was a great idea, dad,” Lorsan snarled.

Alex had his hands over his mouth, but he had changed position in an instant, had slid into his master’s lap and sat there in his arms with his wide eyes shaking in their sockets.

The vet stood and spoke quietly.

“Kai you… you have to let me look at him. This is a miracle.” He paused, thought about what he had said and looked around nervously before amending, “An abomination. This is some strong devilry.”

Abe took a step back as the vet took a step forward.

The vet took slow, calculated movements, as if he was aware that any new sensation could present a problem.

Agalon made gentle shusshing noises, and kept scratching Xaxac’s scalp, behind his ears like he enjoyed, trying to comfort him.

The chains rattled together as they shook in time with the monster huddled in fear at his feet.

“It’s alright, Honey Bunny,” Agalon said soothingly, “Nobody is gonna hurt you. Everythin is fine.”

Slowly, a sound of rustling began to form, first at a slow tempo, then increasing until it became a thumping. Xaxac was beating one of his legs against the ground.

One who is not familiar with rabbits could be forgiven for believing this was a sign of comfort, a sign of good nature, as this is an action dogs commonly perform to show they are content, that they are enjoying a good scratching on a particularly itchy spot. Far more people keep dogs than rabbits as pets, and are far more familiar with them.

So most of the people in the crowd could not be blamed for drawing conclusions based upon things they did not know.

Most people did not know that this was a sign of distress, meant to vibrate the ground in a certain rhythm, to warn the rest of the warren that danger was near. Most people did not know that a rabbit coiled into a ball was not a cute, fearful thing, because many people think that fear is cute.

But rabbits are prey animals. Rabbits were animals that had evolved the sense to know that danger could always mean death. And like most things, they did not want to die.

A drawn up rabbit is like a coiled spring, and with his head to his chest, Xaxac managed to get the chain that ran there inside his mouth.

And he bit down in time with the shaking of his body. And just like rabbits who will chew through metal wire fences, Xaxac’s sharp, ever-growing teeth gnawed away at the chains until the link snapped.

Then the spring uncoiled and the monster lept forward in a hop propelled by his strong back legs, legs that had always been chained, that had never been freely used and therefore could not be properly judged.

He went right over the vet and landed in front of the table, causing the startled residents to shriek and try to escape, to climb backwards and side to side, so Xaxac shrieked with them, turned direction, and hopped again, moving almost faster than the eye could track toward the gate. Maybe, somewhere deep in his mind, he remembered that this was a way out, or maybe he remembered the people huddled there, but either way he moved quickly.

There were so many people shouting his name, in different intonations, all trying to be heard over each other and the panicked shrieks of the crowd that had abandoned their positions on the fence, turned, and fled wherever they could. Xaxac pressed his ears flat to his head, crouched low, and hopped again, along the side of the fence, trying to get away from the screams.

“Dad, do something!” Lorsan shrieked.

“I’m casting!” Agalon shrieked back, unnecessarily, because every jewel he wore glowed brighter than the moons, “Help me! I can’t catch him! He’s so damn fast!”

“This was a great fucking idea, dad!” Lorsan yelled. “Hey, maybe offer him some dick! He seems to come running for that!”

“Lorry, I swear to god!” Agalon yelled as he tried to track the erratic movements of the creature as it bounced around the enclosure. “Xaxac? Xaxac, come here darlin! I’ve got some spinach for you!”

“We gotta keep him in here!” Abe said, “If he gets out we’ll never catch him!”

“He can’t get out,” Agalon said as if the concept was ridiculous, “Everybody quit talkin to me! I’m tryin to concentrate!”

“We should leave,” Lorsan told the other elves, “Let’s just leave.”

“Don’t open that gate!” Agalon screamed as they moved toward it, “Don’t let him out.”

“He bit you last time!” Lorsan yelled as he jumped, grabbed at the logs with his gloved hands, and pulled himself up, then over, the fence, “I’m out! Y’all do what you want!”

“Xaxac, no!” Agalon yelled as the monster reached the edge of the fence closest to the woods, to the back of the property, twice as thick, and, for just an instant, paused.

Agalon cast for all he was worth, but in the scant time it took it to travel across the enclosure, the monster was gone, leaving only a large hole.

“No!” Agalon yelled as he rushed to the spot he had last seen his slave, “No!” He trailed off in a string of curses, turned to the frightened elves huddled near the fences and screamed, “Well, help me! Get your horses!”

“Holy shit,” the soldier said as he stared at the hole in the ground, “Holy shit.”

He held out a hand, and a ring he wore on it began to glow as the ground before him warped, distorted, and began to take shape. A face appeared there, the image of another man in uniform, and the soldier spoke.

“This is Sergent Ryul Thefir,” he told the dirt, “And we have got ourselves a hell of a problem at the Agalon plantation. Get everybody together and meet me here.”

“What are we doing, sir?” The man in the dirt asked.

“You’re hunting rabbit,” Agalon snapped, “And I need you here yesterday!”