The talons sunk deeply in my flesh. The System told me "you are fucked" in its monotonic way.
> Eagle attacked with Swoop & Grab. You took 20 HP of damage. You are bleeding.
There went two-thirds of my health. And another point. Playing dead would result in becoming actually dead. So I decided to fight back. I had a claw holding my ribcage and pinning one of my paws, the other was around my belly. I looked down and found myself about a hundred meters above the forest canopy. A fall from this height might be my doom, but the eagle is coming down with me. I kicked around until I could grab the eagle's leg with mine and latch on.
The eagle squeezed me, digging the talons deeper. My ribs cracked under the pressure.
> You lost 5 HP.
Great. I'm a goner. I turned my head around and sank my teeth on the eagle's leg. My style was pecking a lot of times to try my luck at a crit, so that's what I did. On the third bite, I hit a joint. The degenerated dinosaur's leg came undone. My body dangled and I kept my front paws tugged, fearing that removing the talons would only exacerbate the bleeding.
My captor cried in pain. I lost another HP from bleeding, leaving me with two. I twisted and flexed my abs to bring my body up. This just in! A nine in Strength meant I was probably the strongest rabbit in the world. So I threw caution to the wind along with the eagle's talons and bit the other leg. The eagle was diving, cawing, and trying to peck me. My perks and skills meant it failed miserably. I reached with a paw and touched the only spot in the whole underneath of the huge bird that was not leg or feathers. To a bunny two months old, most things were huge.
Dodging another series of desperate pecks, I bit and climbed the leg. The eagle had released my belly but that didn't matter right now. I was the one holding her, not the other way around. We were going down but this bird would never fly again. Or walk. I bit again and found the drumstick articulation. I had no idea of avian anatomy so I was going with Colonel Saunders' notation. Critical. My vorpal teeth severed the leg and I dangled with my paw stuck to the bird's skin. The added weight at its caudal part caused the bird to lose balance and we plummeted.
My second-to-last HP went away as I climbed on the eagle's back. There I clung a paw on each wing and made the bird my personal glider. With a cry, we crashed into the canopy and I heard the bird's wing snap. Then again, again. I was almost fainting but I had enough rage in the tank to bite the base of the bird's neck.
> You killed level 21 Eagle. You gained 44,100 Exp (4,410 Base x 10,000 x 0.0001 x 10 Size Bonus).
Fuck you, eagle. You weren't worth even a quarter farmer. Cursing my dead enemy, I bled my last HP and fainted.
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I recovered my senses and felt very thirsty. Blinking the spiderwebs of sleep away, I looked around and panicked. I knew very well where I was, having spent most of my time alive inside one of these. A human habitation. A hut made of twigs, just like the second piglet's. Patches of mud made a poor job of trying to keep the wind out. No wolves in sight though. Or piglets.
I also found out I was wet. There was some sort of shell around me, and there was something putting pressure on my back. I looked around until my eyes met those of a human. An old lady, her sun-baked skin, a mosaic of wrinkles that had wrinkles.
She was rubbing me with some rag. After the initial surprise, I readied myself for a fight but she... dropped on her knees and exulted. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the word for what she was doing right now was exultation. I looked around and found no immediate danger. So I took my sweet time to examine my surroundings. I was in a sort of... altar.
That was as weird as it could be. I also broke a thin rabbit-shaped shell that was all around me. Another mystery. The door to the hut was thrown open, and an old man entered. Our eyes met and a flash of green light coursed over those orbs. I knew that guy!
Graybeard. But he was old. Weak. And old. How did he...
Stupid rabbit. There's only one way people get old. Well, maybe more because of magic. Like some sort of banshee that steals years with a scream. Or evil liches... yeah. But Graybeard's brand of old seemed the natural one. I glared back and flattened my ears against my back. I bared my teeth.
And the old man knelt before me next to the wrinkle lady. He wasn't too far behind in the wrinkle department.
The wrinkle couple shouted more praise my way. The old lady got tired of resting on her knees and she stood up. With a grandmotherly smile, she cupped her hands and approached me. She was cooing with a sweet soft voice.
Yeah, I'd be damned if I jumped in those hands. I might be a badass murder-bunny but without my mobility, I was just as vulnerable as any forest critter. So I wiggled my butt and jumped on the ground. I looked up at the couple of old people staring at me and strutted to the door.
No, I didn't walk out. I just peeked. I saw some sort of tribal village, with twig-and-straw-with-a-dash-of-mud houses and a lot of half-naked people going on with their day. But what got me appalled was to see children running around. Playing with rabbits of all pets.
Wrinkle lady knelt next to me and waved a berry my way. I took it in my paws and bit. I wasn't afraid of eating the berry, I was immune to poisoning and my Wild Sense told me it was safe for rabbits. It was sweet and had a scent I didn't recognize. The grandma cooed again and pointed out. I rolled my eyes and I saw one thing underneath the altar. Daaamn.
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The clay tablet Wyxnos gave me to write on. The clay was dry and the tablet had some serious signs of age. It was chipped on the edges. Grandma Wrinkles cooed again, clapped her hands, and pointed at the tablet, excited. I looked closely and saw a tuft of white fur sticking out of the clay.
I jumped back on the altar and licked a pool of water. Then I gazed at Grandma Wrinkles with puppy eyes. She made an "a-ha!" sound and fetched a bowl with water. I greedily drank.
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So, long story short, when I fainted in the forest, my Cyst Hibernation skill triggered, covering me in a hardened shell. It saved my life but the shell wouldn't break until the proper conditions for my reanimation passed. A hunter found me in the forest and brought me back to the village. A few years passed with me lost there. During this time, the village elders reflected on the incident and decided it was divine punishment because they killed the rabbits. Since then, they worshipped the rabbits and even tamed some. Domesticated even. From how much Graybeard has aged, I think at least a couple decades passed.
The deaths I caused were written off as divine punishment for killing too many rabbits. It seemed the village lost a whole field to locusts - don't ask, I'm winging a lot here - and they were desperate for food.
Humans and rabbits are living in harmony. I searched the whole village and found not a single rabbit pelt. In fact, the village folk was delighted to have me in their houses. But the worship rubbed me the wrong way. And I bet the deities of this world were pissed at me for stealing their faithful. The village worshipped Edtar, Goddess of the Hunt before I was found. But not anymore.
This religious streak is doomed to fail. You see, one just doesn't make food a sacred animal. The cow in India is a sacred animal because ancient India would be doomed without the bovines for hard labor. Don't quote me on that. (Author's Footnote: Meaning MC's opinion might be - probably is - wrong. Consider this your only warning.)
The lure of a quiet and peaceful life was too strong. But should I live among humans? What about all the rabbits here. They weren't my kin. I could tell by their scent. None of them were sentient either. Dozens of generations separated us.
I was confused. My body was a rabbit, my soul was a human. My short tenure as an invertebrate became a sort of a dream now. What should I do? Had death, for me, lost its meaning? No. I still feared death. It would be too easy to give up in the eagle's clutches.
But the prospect of future lives changes the game. Whatever effort I put in now, shall pay back many times over my next lives. Whichever creature I might become. That settles it. I'm going to grind some Skills and levels.
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The villagers made a nest for me. A basket with soft straws haphazardly woven in the bottom. The hut where "my altar" was it belonged to Grandma Wrinkles, the village chief. After a few days to recover my strength - the ordeal of spending two decades in a cyst healing did a number on my body and my fat reserves - I set out to explore and learn about the village.
My fellow rabbits were very curious about my presence. They came, sniffed, and went on with their day once the curiosity was sated. Fickle little things, they were. My first goal was to learn their language. It sounded crude and with little inflection, but I might be biased.
I went to Grandma's hut and squeaked until she followed me. During my visitations, I found a girl that had bruises on her arms compatible with what I saw in a CSI show as "defense wounds". She had tanned olive skin and pitch-black hair. Not too tall or too short, she was anorexic-thin. Not that she had an eating disorder if you didn't consider a lack of proper food an eating disorder. More like a social problem. I pointed at the girl sitting on the floor and squeaked in what I considered was a possessive tone. Grandma nodded and barked something at the girl. The girl flinched. I jumped and bopped Grandma's nose with my rear paw. Then I stood with my back to the girl and growled. Or squealed very threateningly. I bared my teeth and lowered my ears.
When I finally paid some attention, Grandma Wrinkles was on her butt. Scared. I sat on my haunches and scoffed. Then I looked at the girl and climbed her nudging her and rubbing my back on her chin. Still trembling, the girl hugged me. I purred.
Meanwhile, Granny was prostrating herself and pleading. I jumped from the girl's embrace and walked next to her. Crawling between her face and the packed earth floor, I licked her nose. Grandma shouted her joy, which brought some villagers to watch. She stood up and barked orders, pointing at me and the girl. With my rabbit-sight of three-forty degrees, I saw the girl smile and relax. Good. Priestess obtained.
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The girl was dressed in the best homespun clothes the village had to offer, washed, and brought to Grandma Wrinkles' hut. She knelt before my basket beside Granny and offered a prayer. Awkward! After that, she offered her hands. I jumped on and she brought me outside. The pride she exhaled was marvelous. The looks of envy from some villagers weren't. So, when I saw one of the young hunters appear from behind a hut and confront her, I knew I had to impose my will.
They exchanged some words and I saw the girl flinch. She was afraid of the guy but the hunter knew better than to try to harm either me or her. Some villagers were keeping a quiet eye on the situation. Finally, the young adult stomped out. I saw the girl sniffle and stifle her tears. Using my clinging powers, I crawled up and played with her earlobe with my nose, letting my whiskers tickle her. She giggled and cooed, picking me up and bringing me before her eyes.
Priestess's smile was warm and made me feel fuzzy. She'd obviously suffered a lot and worse, I knew that young hunter liked her. Been there, done that. I heard that one problem with people was that they judged others using themselves as a measure. When you try to predict someone's behavior, you are actually trying to figure out what you would do if you were them. Which seldom worked out.
On a whim, I jumped from her grasp and used my Double Jump skill to tap from wall to wall and get on the huts' roof. I dashed and found the guy kicking a rock as he walked out of the village. I jumped from the roof and dashed the short distance to him. Just before I reached the hunter, I jumped and kicked the small of his back. To my surprise, he too was pushed forward and fell spread-eagle on the ground.
> You gained the Kicking (common) Skill.
He turned around, roaring his anger at the world, and looked around. When he saw nobody next to him, his gaze went for the village. With my head slightly at an angle, I could see people running to the commotion, and Priestess was out of her mind. Angry at being ignored, I growled and squeaked at him. My heckles were raised and my ears flat along my shoulders. I bared my teeth.
When he saw me, the young Hunter spewed a chain of expletives. "Ocrumptor! Migrandee at misurdon wilmon, graneoman! Finiecked ed gonable procrumptor! Migrandee misurdon!"
Yeah. Up yours too, dude.
He tried to kick me. I jumped to the side and dashed forward, bringing me to his back. I kicked against a rock and changed my momentum, getting a good angle to kick at his knee from behind. He was driven down and I climbed on his leather vest. I must say, that perk to latch onto any surface is really great.
There I bit his back after chewing a hole in the vest. He screamed and tried as he might, there was no way he could hit me on his back, not when I could see him telegraph his moves and had free range of movement on his back.
The other villagers were shouting at him. Some were waving weapons. The guy was beyond any attempt at parley. I bit hard and he started to bleed. I bit again and felt a rib crack. Which led me to pause and think. Just how strong was I, compared to a normal person?
That moment of distraction made me unaware that the kid had a bit more gray mass between the ears than I assumed. He removed his vest and tossed it away. I was trapped in the leathers, and before I could extricate me from the trap, I saw a shadow cover the vest and the distinctive sound of metal piercing flesh.