Drip. Drip. Drip.

  Wil clenched his eyelids shut firmly. His aching, heavy-feeling body was telling him he hadn't gotten enough rest. He was currently off-duty, so it wasn't like he was required to check in for a daily briefing. He might as well sleep in.

  Drip. Drip. Drip.

  A lump nuzzled up against his stomach. He appreciated the affection of his fuzzy friends, but he was feeling quite hot and sticky. Perhaps he had forgotten to change from his day clothes before he had expired. Speaking of which, whatever he was sleeping on was rather rough, but as tired as he was, he wasn't too keen on moving.

  Drip. Drip. Drip.

  Had he really left the faucet running? It hadn't developed a leak, had it? He lived alone, away from the bustling epicenters of business and commerce, and though he wouldn't consider himself at all adept at home repair projects, he would rather not bring workers or others into his home, for more reason than just the security risk.

Drip. An earthen scent filled his nostrils as he inhaled.

  His eyes snapped open, his eyes darting wildly about the darkness as he resisted the urge to get up and move. He was leaning back against an earthen wall behind him.

  Tendrils of light shone through from tiny openings in a ceiling of dirt that appeared to be quite low. Roots and stones jutted out from the walls and ceiling. The floor and walls were smoothed down from regular movement within the sloped passage. A sliver of light shone in the distance. Daylight, perhaps?

  Closing his eyes briefely, he calmed himself and breathed slowly, deeply, and silently as he sorted through information in his head. His memories from the previous days fell into place and replaced his disorientation.

  He had trekked across an enormous expanse of plains before he had likely lost his consciousness due to what he believed was dehydration. He did not remember passing out, but there was a blank in his memory before he suddenly found himself submerged. He remembered struggling to land before he had lost consciousness once more, leading up to the present.

  Wil opened his eyes. From what he could see, he appeared to be deep within some kind of burrow. It was wider than it was tall, perhaps four times his own width and likely tall enough for him to comfortably crawl through on his hands and knees. He had no recollection of finding the space on his own, neither did he imagine he would willingly choose to enter such a passage. Crawling through ventilation systems was one thing, but forcing your way through an opening in the ground was beyond foolish, considering the slightest mistake could result in the tunnel collapsing, and being buried alive was a terrifying way to go.

  If he hadn't entered the passage himself, then it was likely he had been moved here by someone, or something else. He couldn't imagine a human dragging and adult this far into this kind of underground system, leading him to conclude he may have been dragged by an animal, perhaps a wild dog, or a wolf. It could've been a type of large cat as well, but as he had no idea where he was geographically, he could do naught but guess. Regardless of the perpetrator, Wil figured there couldn't have been any other reason to have dragged him here than to be used as a source of food; to be eaten.

  With that possible outcome in mind, Wil focused his senses. He could hear droplets of water falling into another liquid body further toward the back of the passage. A musty, damp smell hung in the air, the burrow being too deep for a breeze to move the air this far back. His clothes stuck to his skin with an uncomfortable clamminess, and he assumed the smell could be from his unclean and improperly dried clothing. Due to their confidential nature, he couldn't simply discard them without assuring that they could not be found or obtained by another party, or in other terms, destroying them, which would be a challenging feat without modern technology. Cleaning them without modern technology would be quite the hassle as well.

  Something moved beside him at waist level. Very slowly, being careful to not move anything but his neck, he craned his head down toward the lower portions of his body. A mass of black fur pressed up against him, covering most of his chest and everything below it. As his mind continued to shake itself awake, he became more aware of his surroundings. He could hear the sound of breathing. In fact, from the way the sounds trailed on and on, he believed it to be the sounds of multiple bodies breathing. His eyes trailed a thin pillar of light penetrating the root-covered ceiling that beamed down beside him, coming to rest on a bundle of black fur that rose and fell time and again. It seemed he was pinned down not by one, but by numerous bodies of creatures. A body twitched and mildly thrashed about by his legs. Numerous solid, bone-like protrusions poked out all across the sea of fur.

  In a way, it would have been more simple had it been a single body covering him. He could've simply slid his body out from underneath at a severely slow rate, but with their being multiple beasts, the slight movement of one of them would affect several others and could jerk them awake. Nevertheless, he needed to free himself. Being eaten alive was certainly not one of the ways he preferred to go down. If the space he was in had not been so narrow, he could have just thrown them off and made a run for it before they had a chance to fully wake. Within such an enclosed space, with him being forced to remain on his hands and knees, he'd be overtaken long before he reached the exit. If he at least had a lighter, he could have started a fire which would have surely sent them fleeing the passage, yet he had been stripped of everything but the clothes on his back. His situation was steadily growing more and more unfavorable. Even with his martial skills and talents, he was matched poorly with his environment. He was far more suited toward civilization and dealing with other people than with facing wild animals in the wilderness. If it was even simply just a few beasts he was confident he could come out on top, especially if he had any kind of weapon, but with these numbers, in these close quarters he stood little chance.

  It seemed that no amount of cunning or ingenuity would be getting him out of this one. Seeing as that was the case, Wil decided that he wasn't going down without a fight.

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  A red eye snapped open in front of him. Wil froze and held his breath, attempting to not alarm or provoke the creature. Every muscle in his body was tense and ready to make a final stand against the odds. No attack came. Instead, nothing happened at all. The red eye continued to gaze at him. It seemed as if it had some kind of luminescence, considering how they seemed to shine regardless of the darkness. After a few minutes, the eye floated up as a small, floppy-eared head popped out from the furry black mass. Two antler-like horns stuck out from atop its head.

  Jackalope!

  The animal shook its whole body, rousing its sleep-heavy muscles and joints, its antlers clacking against those of another and resulting in angry chirping coming from the pile, which in turn erupted into a cacophony of chirps as more horned heads popped up.

  Wil's thoughts flashed back to the moment when he and the jackalope had briefly exchanged blows, then pictured a scene with dozens of the animals hurling themselves toward him. In a non life-threatening situation, he imagined all those flying kicks would make for good practice, but the reality was that these were live, clawing, biting, irrational animals. He wasn't so much of a combat freak that he'd throw himself into danger for no purpose.

  More and more of the jackalopes rose up. Wil counted the pairs of antlers but lost track at around fifty as they continued to shake and squirm around, and as they detached themselves from his body and milled about, Wil prepared to take action as his limbs were freed.

  Suddenly, all the rabbits froze. Their ears all perked up at once. Straight up from their originally floppy state. Wil had never seen rabbits do anything quite like it. Then, all at once, they charged out toward the exit, pouring out like a wave of black as the burrow was filled with energetic chirps.

  Just like that the burrow was empty. Wil remained still, mystified by what had just occured. It was hard to believe they would leave him be, especially as one had made eye contact with him. After a brief deliberation, he decided that if they had ignored him then, they may not turn hostile or aggressive if he left the burrow. He considered waiting until maybe they had left the vicinity, but there was no guarantee they wouldn't return and block his way out of the burrow once more.

  Before making his way to the exit, he took a quick glance around the burrow. It seemed that in the direction of his feet, the burrow continued further in. He could hear a constant drip of water coming from that direction, but he had no reason to investigate.

  Crawling toward the light, the chirping squeaks became audible once more as he neared the opening. His body tensed as he envisioned them all surrounding the entrance, waiting for him. He hoped that the reason for their odd behavior was that they were not overly aggressive. They were still rabbits, right?

  As he emerged from the burrow, sunlight threatened to blind him as his eyes adjusted to daylight. Monstrous, towering trees loomed over the world below, sporadically placed at suspiciously similar intervals. Even the smallest trees were wider around than a modest family home. Like skyscrapers of wood, the gigantic monoliths pierced high up into the air, giant branches jutting out every which way around their upper reaches, forming complex webs of growth from which lances of sunlight beamed down into the thick, frivolous grasses and overgrowth.

  Rising to his feet as quickly as he was able, Wil cautiously scanned the area he had found himself in. He was standing in a clearing, the grasses and unobscured dirt was trampled and pounded flat into the ground by the constant passing of countless beasts over a long period of time. A gnarled stump rested atop the burrow, only rising for about 5 feet before its upper body had been torn off in some violent manner as evident by the uneven split of the wood which had resulted in numerous jagged protrusions rising from the wooden effigy.

  The animals were all milling about the burrow, spread out in groups chirping and squeaking at one another in what appeared to be a social manner, hopping about in small circles, stretching their legs and backs. They seemed to be paying him little mind as they bustled around.

  Wil carefully scanned the ground around the den. He couldn't find any bones, bloodstains, or viscera, and the area had a clean, natural odor that lacked the lingering scent of blood. At the very least, they didn't seem to be predators. However, an animal didn't need to be a predator to be dangerous.

  Suddenly, two rabbits leapt towards each other, clashing together in a violent flurry of rapid kicks, each impact resounding with a powerful thump. Wil stood still and watched as they used their momentum and the force of their blows to propel themselves both apart from each other, as well as continuing on with their attack, using the opponent's body as a springboard to whip themselves around for another kick. From the ground, they pushed against the earth with one leg, launching themselves through the air with their other leg straight out before them.

  Wil found that to be mildly puzzling. Unless their legs were much more powerful than they seemed, he didn't see how they could exert that much force without a connection to the ground in order to anchor them. He chuckled inwardly. Kung-Fu bunnies. Now this had to be a dream.

  And yet, he could not let down his guard. In the minuscule chance that was not the case, carelessness would be fatal.

  The animals continued to trade blows for a few minutes more. The rest of the creatures continued to mill about, a few even kicking at each other in a manner which Wil could only describe as playful. Eventually, one of the jackalopes slipped through the other's guard, its foot twisting into its opponent's side before flipping backwards in a bizarrely graceful maneuver. The unlucky recipient of the kick let out a pained squeak as it was launched down into the crowd with a chorus of squeaks as several of its comrades were bulled over and knocked down. Animals shook dirt off themselves as one of the creatures hopped around in a small circle in some sort of victory lap. The loser of the little duel sulked, its long ears drooping low. The victor suddenly turned its gaze on Wil.