Brimit had been stationed as a guard for nearly three Seasons now and he had grown quite accustomed to the rigors of the job. He was used to getting up early in the morning well before the sun did and standing in place all day to watch as the mini harvesters went about their business at the nearby grove of berries. In that time he had been called upon a couple of times to deal with various things showing up that the harvesters could not deal with.
Every harvester would carry the small sharpened harvesting sticks with them and that was enough to handle most threats. Every once in a while there would be something come up that was beyond the scope of what a harvester was meant to deal with. That was where he and the other guard on duty came in.
When a wild bore started tearing through the berry bushes and was threatening the harvesters he and his fellow guard were the ones that killed the boar. When Talon Hawks and scaled bats would swoop in to try and carry off one of the women of the village he and his fellow guard were the ones that would skewer them and bring them down. From time to time the two of them would even be called over by one of the harvesters, usually a young girl who was new to the job, to kill a snake or something of the like.
However, on this day they saw something different. As Brimit stood guard next to the entrance to the Warren he couldn’t help his sense of boredom no guard could help that. What was the life of a guard if not boredom? The two of them would rise early and stand in the same spot or sometimes sit but only if they knew that nobody was forthcoming from within the warren. At the end of the day, they would go home only to start the whole thing over the next day.
That was the reason that he found himself almost nodding off as usual while standing next to the entrance to the warren. What he was not prepared to see on this day was someone short and scaly but with a furry bushy tail of red sticking out behind them casually walking over the top of the bushes through mid-air. This being absolutely exuded confidence as they casually walked right towards the two guards so much so that Brimit almost missed their approach. The calm confident way that they casually walked through the air spoke of their complete disregard for the natural way of things. As though this person had done this many many times before and didn’t give this air before them a second thought.
Brimit finally noticed the approach of the being and gently elbowed Ganek before pointing at the one that was approaching them. He could see the other guard who was a few seasons his senior stiffen up noticeably at the approach of this unknown being. Neither of them was sure what to make of this creature but as it slowly walked closer Brimit was finally able to make out a few more details. Apparently, the glossy black of its head and chest seemed to be armor of some kind covering its reddish fur. He noticed that its arms and legs as well as its large bushy tail sticking out behind it were all the same reddish orange fur.
Brimit wasn’t sure what to do about the approaching being, so, he looked to his senior guard but the man looked just as clueless and curious as he himself. Brimit knew that Ganek was a fairly slow and patient type of person but that mostly came from the fact that he wasn’t very bright and didn’t have much initiative to do anything.
Not having much of anything to do the one thing the two of them had done quite often was talk at length. That’s how Brimit knew that Ganek was placed here because he didn’t have the initiative and drive to take on his family business and his younger brother beat him out. For a guard the ability to be patient and not think very much was probably a blessing, the lack of that simplicity and patience had certainly gotten to Brimit a few times.
All of that was the reason why he suddenly realized that if anyone was going to do anything about the being that was approaching them it would have to be himself. Stealing his resolve Brimit Stepped forward and called to the being in front of them that was just now touching feet to the ground. “Halt! Stand there and state your name and your business.”
Brimit was very careful not to level his spear at the strange being that was walking towards them. The being did not seem to be hostile currently and he wanted it to keep that way. He figured that if they had been intent on attacking they might have made a much quicker approach. His suspicions and cautions were validated a moment later whenever the strange being stopped in front of them at a dozen paces.
Then, to Brimit’s surprise, the voice of a young girl came from the being in front of him. The voice was high and rather uncertain which was confusing coming from a being with such obvious power. “He-hello. I’m sorry if I startled you. I was just making my way through the forest when I spotted your village. Would it be okay if I entered?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Aiko timidly approached the guards standing near the entrance to the mounds and when one of them stepped forward she almost flinched but held herself back. If she was honest with herself, she almost wanted to run back through the bushes and go hide in a tree and perhaps just walk around the outside of this village and avoid it entirely. However, she held herself back from that and had approached already so she might as well see this through.
When she approached them she couldn’t help the quiver in her voice as she addressed the two guards but in a strange twist of fate, it seemed to go in her favor as the one that had approached her loosened up a little bit at her words and her tone. The guards looked at each other briefly but the next moment the one that had stepped forward squatted down slightly and began talking in soothing tones to her.
He was calm and collected and seemed like he didn’t want to startle her as he asked about her intentions and her destination to which she could only reply that she didn’t know either. Aiko told the guard that she was headed to the right of the rising sun and that was as much as she knew. That, this, was the directions given to her by the goddess. The guard looked a little bit taken aback By her words at the mention of the goddess but he took it in stride.
He got up and had a quick chat with the other guard telling him that he was going to show her into the council and would be back. When he turned back to her he seemed to hesitate a bit but finally came to a decision and offered her his hand. Aiko was equally as hesitant to take his hand but decided that it might be for the best since she could already tell that she wouldn’t be able to see as well once she got inside of the hole.
As it turned out the trip to meet with the council was not as big of a deal as it was implied to be. The trip there was rather interesting though. The rabbit warren town was very strange to Aiko but it was also very interesting. Around every corner with some sight or some smell that was very homey and yet utterly alien at the same time. The people that were bustling about were for the most part just going about their daily lives.
Some of the people Aiko could see were moving about doing mundane tasks that she knew very well from seeing them performed regularly in the Elven village. Some of these tasks included cutting firewood, cooking, Cleaning, sewing and making clothes, creating cookware or utensils, and many other various tasks involving wood or clay.
There was a single main thoroughfare running along the length of the Warren that she had been brought through. The moment that Aiko got a little bit farther into the Warren she was immensely glad that the guard had offered her his hand. She couldn’t count the number of times that she had been jostled and bumped.
Most of the people that would run into her didn’t seem to notice her at first and most of them would jump or flinch once they noticed her appearance. It seemed to her that most of them Didn’t pay a lot of attention to the guard and simply assumed that she was another child being led around by a parent or guardian.
There were in fact a lot of children being led around this way through the Warren. In fact, once Aiko sought back on this she realized that the elves had only had a few children in the entire village while these people seemed to have numerous children running about everywhere with only some of them being attended to by adults.
It was also very dark within the warren just as she was expecting however it wasn’t as dark as she thought it would be. The main thoroughfare branched off into dozens of smaller routes that snaked back into the ground in every direction along its length and all along the main thoroughfare there were also holes burrowed between these snaking winding paths. When she looked into these holes she could tell that many of them were homes but still others seemed to be some sort of workplace.
The whole of the village was lit up mostly by holes that extended through the ceiling of the Warren. Each of these holes was in turn covered by a reed mat or grate that would let in a lot of light but wouldn’t let in much Else. Many of the homes branching off to the sides had these greats letting in additional light and all of the branching paths off to the side had them as well.
Additionally, some of the homes and workplaces sported some means of cooking fire or other lighting. Though the ambience was rather dim the overall effect was still pretty warm and welcoming. Aiko figured that a large portion of this had to do with the overwhelming feeling of life and vitality in this bustling place.
After walking past what Aiko estimated to be probably a dozen intersections the guard turned sharply to the left and entered What appeared to be another thoroughfare that crossed the first. It didn’t take very long for this one to end abruptly at a large circular chamber. In the middle of this chamber sitting on a mat made of grass and reeds were a few of these people.
Aiko didn’t want to presume but in her own mind, she had already associated their appearance with that of rabbits, and nothing that they had shown her since had done anything to disprove that association. She knew herself to be some variant of a squirrel. She had seen many of the small mammals scurrying about in the trees around her and she knew that her mannerisms were very much akin to them. Now she had seen these people and couldn’t help but associate them with the small, long-eared animals that burrowed all over the forest.
She did kind of wonder though why it was that she was not much larger than a regular squirrel while these people seem to be three or four times the size of a regular rabbit. She also began wondering idly what the origin of an elf was if they even had one.