After a full afternoon of training—although it seemed more like a beating—Rabbit had been taken back to a room by a man in a blue suit with silver trimming. When he craned his neck up at the sound of his door opening and closing he saw the same blue suit standing before him.

“Guh,” Rabbit whimpered. He had been trained so bad by the terrible General Marker that pain ached through his body like his muscles had been pulverised a little. Rabbit rolled back over in his bed, but an orderly voice caught his attention.

“Master Rabbit,”

It was weird to be called master. Perhaps the young boy was confused about the situation.

“I am to be your wake-up call. We have much to do this morning.”

Rabbit huffed and swung his feet out of bed, a task that redoubled his muscle pain, but once he was up he was able to look around the room which was a serious improvement from the dungeon. To start the bed was woven of a wonderful material, a night stand and mirror was placed beside his bed, a dresser which the boy was currently opening sat on the other side of the room, and a window just above his bed had a view of the wall around the building, but if you looked close enough you could see tops of city buildings as well.

“It’s such a shame that you only have the one tunic.” The boy said thoughtfully pulling the tunic from its hanger. “Well let’s get you dressed anyway. General Marker has demanded your presence at breakfast today and I’m sure it will be better to do so with all haste.”

Rabbit studied the dirty blonde hair and plump body type of the boy who currently wrestled to get the tunic fitting nicely on Rabbit while he sat.

“Okay,” Rabbit said, pushing himself out of bed.

“Yes. May I help you walk, sir?”

“Uh, sure,”

The boy lifted Rabbit’s arm and placed it over of his shoulder. The assistant smiled inwardly as they opened the bedroom door and began walking through the corridor with Rabbit.

“I am to be your assistant for life. My name is Aaron. I do hope we can get along, sir.”

Rabbit limped along with his assistant as support. Once again he thought of Worchester’s final words to him. Fame and fortune are within your grasp.

Though the beatings from Mark made Rabbit feel weak, there had been another gift waiting around the corner. This assistant for life who would help Rabbit along in this urban medieval city, made Rabbit feel like he was on par with Doctor Worchester, who had an assistant in Evan that would obey and help with whatever Worchester wanted. Though he was still unsure about the details, Rabbit was sure this was the beginning of what he wanted.

As they walked Rabbit begin to smell the mixture of poached eggs and cooked vegetables. With a wrinkle of his Rabbit nose, Rabbit could lead the way without Aaron’s guidance, and in fact, his step quickened until they reached the double doors where the smell was strongest.

Aaron pushed upon the left hand door and the two walked into a dining hall meant to serve a couple hundred people. Three large tables were set vertically in front of the door, and one table was set horizontally at the end of those tables. At the horizontal table General Marker sat beside a man with white and gold robes, a walking stick, and a tall hat that matched his robes.

While Rabbit and Aaron moved through the vertical tables, the white and gold man stood and moved around the horizontal table where he waited and stood expectantly for the two to arrive. The moment that Rabbit was within hand shaking reach the man held out his hand and greeted Rabbit like a good acquaintance.

“Great to meet you, Rabbit, yes.” The man had Rabbit’s hand clasped in his and he bent down to kiss the furry fingers. “I have a request of you.”

A request, most people simply told Rabbit they wanted something from him. To have this fellow ask Rabbit a request that he could potentially refuse was odd, so Rabbit asked, “Who are you?”

“My name is Archbishop Caines. I’d like you to make an appearance outside of the church today, so we can show the people of Fieldon a sane were-beast.”

During the entire trip Rabbit had wondered why they needed him now of all times, and asked, “I’ve been wondering about that. Why exactly do we need to show the people a sane were-beast?”

Caines sighed and said, “Honestly, there has been a war going on. The West has been slowly gaining territory in large thanks to the use of were-beasts. These indomitable warriors’ ferocity becomes unstoppable in the face of an enemy army. The were-beasts continue fighting with wounds deep enough to kill four men. They willingly take the charge in the army, they scale walls to defeat archers, and they ruthlessly pillage. However, if the were-beast doesn’t have a strong cause, he is likely to run away and live his own life. The true believers in this country have been used in gaining this much territory, and the East has many people fighting against us for love of their government. We need to raise morale.”

Rabbit was still sore from the beating yesterday and didn’t care enough about this land to give up his day to try to raise morale, but still he said, so he asked, “What if I refuse?”

General Marker’s stern voice interrupted, “Then it’s more training today.”

“Now, now, general, you should go easy on the lad.” The archbishop said, “Have a seat and eat with us, Rabbit.”

The archbishop walked around to his side of the table, sat down and ate. Rabbit knew that he didn’t want to go back to training, but what if he liked training? Then the archbishop wouldn’t have what he wanted for the day. Archbishop Caines must have seriously meant to have given him freedom of choice in the matter.

They ate in silence while Rabbit continued to think. He didn’t want to be an inspiration to the people of Fieldon, especially since he would have to lie to them. He thought back to his friends at Castle Bestia with grief.

As Rabbit thought of his friends Caines said, “We can also promise the release of your fellow beast-men once we win the war.”

Rabbit paused.

“Once we have control over the world there will be no need to keep the beast-men captive. You’ll be free.”

When they finished their meal, the archbishop wiped his hands on a napkin and asked Rabbit, “Will you meet with the people or not?”

"I will."