“Bu zl tbfu, lbh'er fb phgr!”

The one in the tree was the girl from the hunter pair that she had seen tracking her slime’s trail the previous day. She was crouching on one of the thicker branches and staring at her with a wide smile. Normally, she would consider a smiling human a good thing, but being one of the primary food sources of said smiling human, it made her blood run cold instead.

Elise used {Dart} to get as far away as she could while the girl jumped out of the tree and ran after her, calling something out. She couldn’t understand the words, but the tone made her pause. She wasn’t calling for assistance, or trying to get the attention of another human; she was calling to Elise, and waving at her. Elise didn’t trust the human, but if she was friendly, it would be better to establish a relationship than panic and run away. And if it turned out that the girl really did just want to eat her, well, Elise had already established that she was faster, so she could just run away again.

The girl stopped twenty feet away, noticing that Elise was tensing her legs to run away again.

“Njj, qba'g or fpnerq. V nva'g tbaan uheg ln.”

Elise had no idea what she was saying, but her tone sounded calm and soothing. The girl crouched down, and when she brushed her hair away to keep it out of her face, Elise noticed that her ear was pointed. That instantly improved her opinion of the girl by a good twenty percent. If she was an elf, that meant she was close to nature, and much less likely to hurt Elise. It wasn’t a guarantee, since she didn’t know anything about that world, but the girl passed the eye test for being a benevolent being so far.

She inspected the girl as well, just to make sure she was actually a girl and not a disguised {Bunny-Muncher} or something ridiculous like that. As it turned out, {Inspect} did not show species for humanoid creatures. Or maybe her {Inspect} was just too low-leveled.

[Apprentice Mana Dancer lvl 12]

“Jurer qvq lbh pbzr sebz, phgvr? V arire fnj n enoovg yvxr lbh orsber.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a carrot and held it out. “Urer, jnaan fanpx?”

Why did she have a carrot in her pocket? Elise wondered.

Elise didn’t move, but she was interested in the carrot. She had always liked them as a human, and was excited to see what they tasted like as a rabbit. She was also starting to trust the girl a bit more. Kind of. Part of her also wondered if she had that carrot in her pocket so she could try to lure in rabbits to make stew out of. She wanted to deride that part of her for being irrational, but she also knew that excess paranoia was better than none in a situation such as hers.

The girl set the carrot down in the grass and backed up another twenty feet away before crouching down again and smiling at Elise. Elise tentatively made her way over to the carrot, keeping her eyes on the girl the whole time to watch for sudden movements. She sniffed the carrot to make sure it wasn’t laced with poison, not that she’d know what that smelled like, and then took a small bite. It was incredible. Just as good, if not better than grass.

Seeing that Elise was enjoying the carrot, the girl started to creep forward, and Elise decided to let her. Her gut said she could trust the elven girl, and her eyes hadn’t seen anything to prove the opposite.

Elise continued to nibble on the carrot while the girl reached over to gently stroke her back. Elise did not protest. She trusted the girl, so now she needed the girl to trust her. If she could make it inside the cabin, she would be set, at least for the short term. Food, shelter, and a guarantee of no monsters in the vicinity. It would give her a lot more breathing room to figure out what she wanted to do with her new life. And besides that, being pet felt nice.

"Ubj ner lbh fb phgr?!” the girl crooned. “V pbhyq jngpu lbh rng sbe ubhef!"

She reached over to pick Elise up and put her in her lap. She was also kind enough to grab the rest of the carrot from the ground so that Elise could grab it with her paws and keep munching while the girl held her. Elise used her excellent peripheral vision to keep a wary eye on her surroundings, but she let herself relax a bit. If this girl felt safe, there would be nothing that could hurt her.

When she finished her carrot, the girl crooned over her for a few more minutes before standing up with Elise still in her arms and half-running toward the cabin. Elise could tell that she was excited, but also didn’t want to frighten or hurt Elise, so she was trying to be both fast and gentle. She was doing a rather poor job of it, but Elise appreciated the effort at least.

The interior of the cabin was cozy and decorated with a pleasant assortment of wood and leather furniture and flowers. The girl skipped past the kitchen and into a sitting room with two couches, one of which held a blonde adult woman reading a book.

“Zbzzl, ybbx jung V sbhaq!” said the girl.

The woman peered at her over the book without saying a word, then sat up straight. When she did, Elise realized that the girl was actually just a half-elf. The mother’s ears were much longer, and her face was much more slim and regal, like Elise thought an elf’s should be. The girl’s looked far too human. The two shared the same bright green eyes and the same slender build though.

[Mana Dancer lvl ???]

“Fbcuvr, jung qvq V fnl nobhg oevatvat navznyf vagb gur ubhfr?” said the mother.

“Ohg, Zbzzl, ybbx ubj phgr fur vf!” replied the daughter. “Pna jr cyrnfr xrrc ure?”

“Qb lbh erzrzore jung unccrarq ynfg gvzr lbh oebhtug na navzny vagb gur ubhfr?”

“Fur'f qvssrerag! Fur'f fb avpr naq pnyz! V cebzvfr fur jba'g pnhfr nal ceboyrzf! Frr?”

The girl set Elise on the ground. Elise couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but she got the gist of the conversation. The daughter wanted to keep her, and her mom said no, so the daughter was trying to prove her wrong.

Elise knew what she had to do.

She hopped over to the mother and nuzzled against her leg. The elf woman looked down with pursed lips and Elise looked back up, trying to act as cute as she could until the woman finally relented and scratched under her chin.

“Nfx lbhe sngure,” she said.

The girl cheered and scooped Elise back up to run out of the room.

“Vs gung guvat znxrf n zrff, lbh'yy or gur bar pyrnavat vg hc!” called the mother.

“Bxnl!”

Elise then received a house tour. There was the kitchen by the entrance and the sitting room next to it, and then a dining room in the same public area with a hallway leading further back. The house had three bedrooms, one master and two smaller ones. One was clearly the girl’s since that was the only one that Elise got to actually go inside and explore, while the others she only got to peer into from the door. There was also a bathroom but Elise wasn’t allowed to go in there either, so her curiosity about how a fantasy bathroom would work remained unsated.

In the cabin’s backyard there was a sizable garden full of mostly dirt and a few sprouts. Here, Elise squirmed out of the girl’s arms and ran to the nearest sprouts.

“Jnvg! Ab, lbh pna'g rng gung!”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As soon as she was within range, she cast her new spell {Sudden Growth}, causing the nearest sprouts to triple in height, and new leaves and branches to appear. She had convinced the daughter and the mother, so her position was probably safe, but just in case the rabbit-hunter himself came back and denied her, or decided to eat her, she wanted to cement her place as a useful animal to keep around.

The girl picked Elise up while staring down at the magically enhanced plants while Elise heard footsteps coming from the house. The older woman appeared from the back door with an angry expression on her face.

“Fbcuvr, qvq lbhe arj crg whfg-”

She stopped when she saw the plants, then her eyes narrowed while she looked at Elise.

It was then that Elise realized she had made a mistake. In her haste to prove herself harmless and helpful, she had also proven that she was far more intelligent than an ordinary rabbit had any right to be. In a world where things like Demon Rabbits and Rabbit Enchantresses existed, it was foolish of her to act so suspiciously.

“Yrg zr frr gung enoovg,” said the mother, holding her hand out.

The girl seemed to sense the mood and hugged Elise tighter to her chest.

“Zbzzl, fur’f n tbbq enoovg. Fur znqr gur cynagf tebj,” she said.

“V xabj, fjrrgvr, V whfg jnag gb gnxr n ybbx ng ure,” replied the mother, beckoning the girl over. “Oevat ure bire urer.”

“Cebzvfr lbh’er abg tbaan uheg ure?”

“V cebzvfr.”

The girl trudged over to her mother and handed Elise over. The elf woman picked Elise up under her front legs and held her out in front so she could make eye contact. Elise shuddered as she felt a wave of mana pass through her. The woman’s eyebrows raised, then lowered again, and for a moment, her face was blank, and there was no reaction. Elise could feel her heart rate skyrocketing as the tension built and she was filled with dread.

“Guvf vf n tbbq enoovg,” said the woman, handing Elise back. “Znxr fher lbh gnxr rkpryyrag pner bs ure.”

“V jvyy!”

The woman returned inside, leaving Elise wondering what had just happened. What spell had she cast? Why did she just let her go? It was definitely better than being kicked out or killed for being dangerous, so she wasn’t complaining, but not knowing what had happened or why was making her anxious.

Her questions remained unanswered though. She spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the girl, and testing out her skills. Using {Sudden Growth} in the garden had cost 10 of her now 43 mana points, but she had already recovered one of them by the time the mother had gone back inside, and it didn’t take long for the rest to return. She thought that seemed a little fast, but that could also have just been because of how pitifully small her mana pool was. {Sudden Growth} wasn’t even that powerful or useful of a spell, and it had cost nearly a quarter of her total supply.

She wanted to test {Magic Missile} and {Suggestion} too, but being so unsure of her position in the house, she wanted to seem as harmless as possible, so she refrained from showing off her offensive spells.

She did allow herself to experiment with {Prehensile Vines} though, and she was glad she did. The spell caused two vines to sprout from the ground in front of her that she could control as she willed. It wasn’t quite like having arms again, but it was much better than before. She could pick things up without also tasting them now, and she could even detach them from the ground and transfer them to her body, though they started decaying quickly if she did that. Another downside was that she could only make them last about a minute, even rooted before her mana ran out and she couldn’t control them any more.

This spell amused the girl greatly when she saw Elise picking up sticks and rocks. She doubled over with laughter, and tried to shake the rabbit’s vine hand. Elise tried to oblige, but by the time the vine reached the hand, she was out of mana, so all she could do was graze the girl’s fingers before the spell failed. The girl tried to convince Elise to do it again– or at least that’s what it seemed like– but with no mana, and no way to communicate that, Elise just stared blankly until she gave up.

After that, the girl asked Elise a question that she couldn’t understand and before she would have had time to respond even as a human, she was once again in the girl’s arms and on her way to a new part of the property. This time, it was a small creek running alongside the house full of slow, clear water and small, silver fish.

The girl put Elise down and made a motion telling her to stay, then stripped off her shoes and socks and waded into the water until it was up to her knees. She shivered a bit, but kept her wide smile as she stared Elise in the eyes and started moving her arms. It looked like a Tai Chi kata, but as Elise watched, she also sensed the mana moving, and soon, there was a snake made of water floating above the creek, moving alongside the girl’s hand as she carried on with her dance.

The snake was strong and vivid for the first minute, but after that, its form started to waver as the girl’s concentration failed. Her smile was gone, and her face was scrunched with effort, but another minute later, the snake failed entirely, splashing back down into the water as she made a disappointed trudge back to the shore.

Elise thought the performance was wonderful though, and made sure to do everything she could to let the girl know it. She couldn’t give her a hug, or tell her how much she enjoyed it, but she could nuzzle up against her and– as weird as it felt– lick her hand. She wasn’t sure how that last gesture would go over, since she didn’t know if real rabbits even did that, but the girl giggled, so Elise considered her mission a success.

Soon after, Elise heard footsteps, and seeing her perk up, the girl followed her gaze toward the front of the house where the hunter man was walking down the path toward the front door.

“Qnqql!” exclaimed the girl.

She picked Elise up and took off running to meet him without even putting her shoes back on. When she got near to him, she shifted Elise to one arm, then took a flying leap into her father’s arms. The bearded man caught her deftly, taking care to make sure Elise didn’t get crushed in between. He laughed and kissed her on the forehead, then looked down at Elise. As she had expected, the girl was only a half-elf; his ears were round.

[Steward of Nature, lvl ???]

[Inspect has leveled up! Lvl 17 -> 18]

“Lbh'er jrg,” he said. “Naq lbh unir n ebqrag fghpx gb lbhe nez.”

The girl looked shocked.

“Fur'f abg n ebqrag!” she exclaimed. “Fur'f n enoovg! V jnf fubjvat ure zl jngre qnapr!”

“V thrff jr'er univat enoovg fgrj sbe qvaare gbavtug gura,” said the man with a smile.

The girl peeled herself away and backed up, hugging Elise protectively.

“Ab, lbh pna'g rng ure!”

“Ohg fur ybbxf qryvpvbhf.” He licked his lips and laughed.

“Ab!”

The door opened behind them and the mother walked out. She went to her husband, who bent over to give her a peck on the lips as they embraced.

“Rjj!” said the girl.

“Jrypbzr onpx, qrne,” said the woman.

"V zvffrq lbh,” he replied. "Vg ybbxf yvxr bhe qnhtugre unf sbhaq urefrys nabgure arj crg."

“Vg'f n tbbq enoovg,” said the woman before kissing him again. “V guvax jr fubhyq yrg ure xrrc vg.”

“Ernyyl?” exclaimed the girl

“Ner lbh fher?” asked the man.

“Lrf. Jr pna gnyx zber yngre. Sbe abj, yrgf trg vafvqr. Qvaare’f jnvgva’.”

The elf waved her arm and warm wind swirled around them and the water was siphoned from their clothes and fur. She turned and walked inside, and the rest followed.

Dinner that night for the humanoids was some kind of brown stew that smelled like meat and herbs. Intellectually, Elise thought it smelled delicious, but internally, she was repulsed. Her new herbivorous instincts didn’t much like the smell of cooked meat. Especially when the odds that the meat was one of the rabbits the man had hunted were as high as they were.

Dinner for her was a small plate of assorted greens. She recognized lettuce and kale, but there were three other kinds of leaves that she wasn’t sure of. They were all delicious. She ate on the floor, which she didn’t like, but she was an animal, so expecting a seat at the table would have been odd. She listened in on their conversation while she ate, and though she still didn’t understand a word, she thought she had a rough guess at what the girl’s name was now. It sounded almost like ‘Sophie’, but the -ph sound was closer to a -v than a normal -ph would be. Elise mentally filed her as Sophie to make things easy, but if- no when she was able to speak, she would make sure to pronounce it properly.

After dinner, they sat around the table and talked for a little while longer before they went to their respective bedrooms for what Elise assumed to be the rest of the night. Sophie didn’t go to sleep immediately, instead choosing to stay up reading a book at her desk by the light of a magic lantern, but Elise was wiped out, so she curled up on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly. Some time later, Sophie put out the light and joined her in bed, curling up into a fetal position wrapped around Elise.

Elise realized as she lay there that at some point, the father must have accepted that she was staying there. She had tried to pay attention for if the conversation would turn to her, hoping that even if she didn’t know the words, she would at least be able to sense the attention on her, but it had never happened. It seemed that he had just gone along with it as soon as he got back home.

She didn’t have the mental capacity to think any deeper than that though, as she was drifting off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning, they were awoken by a pounding on the door and a voice shouting from the other side.