“We can’t go with you today either?” Dani asked. I shook my head.

“No, it’s just way to risky with the four of us going out,” I said. “I might take you along tomorrow when we go to the temple that I have seen as I will need you. But today, I will go alone.”

“Come back alive,” Lia said with a small grimace.

“I will,” I said.

I left the cave shortly after the last monkeys carrying the cages had disappeared into the forest. I went after them, careful to keep a good distance from them. I followed them through the forest. They walked about two kilometres away from the Lazaki mountain. There was the occasional time when I would lose their track due to the thick jungle. But every time that happened I would climb a tree and find them again.

And then the monkeys finally reached their destination.

What I saw there made my jaw drop.

There was a great tree and at the bottom of the tree there was a giant banana of gold. There were quite a few monkeys lying near the banana as though in a drugged state, with one or both of their hands touching the banana.

The Lazaki slaves had put down the cages and they were simply picking one drugged monkey after the other, tying their hands and feet with ropes and then throwing them into the cages. It was an astonishing sight for sure. I kept watching as every now and then a new monkey would come into the scene from a different place lured by the banana and go to eat it only to fall into a drugged state within minutes of touching the banana.

I suspected Mintuk had a hand in creating the banana.

And then, I felt a slight weight on my shoulder. So lost was I in watching the monkeys being lured by the banana that I ignored the light weight, thinking it to be a leaf or perhaps a twig. And then the weight was removed, and then placed on my shoulder again.

I turned to have a look and barely bit back a cry when I saw that it was a monkey, placing his hands on my shoulder, sitting on the branch of a tree. The monkey had a spear in one hand and I knew without a doubt that this was one of the Lazaki slaves.

But the monkey’s gaze was fixed on the banana in the distance, as though he wanted to eat it. I reckoned even though the monkey had been enslaved, he was still drawn to the banana being a monkey at the end of the day. And this was having a calming effect on him which was probably why he hadn’t stuck his spear into my back yet. The other monkeys that were tying up the new monkeys also seemed very relaxed but they were careful not to touch the banana themselves. Probably it was the command of the Lazaki.

My heart—or rather Xoris’s heart— hammered in my chest. I was afraid to do anything that might bring the monkey near me out of the calm state. I reckoned I would have to slowly move away from there. There were way too many monkeys nearby and it would not be possible for me to deal with all of them at once.

I took a soft step away from the monkey, whose gaze was still fixed on the banana. And then another step. A twig cracked underneath my foot.

The monkey immediately turned to look at me. I swallowed. The monkey’s eyes went wide and he began to howl, alerting the other monkeys near the banana. Instinct took over me and I broke into a run. The monkey threw his spear at me and it sailed by next to my ear.

I put all the energy that I had into moving my legs. There was a lot of howling behind me and I knew that the monkeys were giving me a chase as spears landed all around me, thankfully missing me every time.

Suddenly it dawned on me that even if I ran fast, I couldn’t afford to go back to the cave. If the monkeys saw me then Dani, Lia and Slia would also be put into danger. I gritted my teeth and switched direction such that I was now running away from the cave.

And then, all of a sudden I received a new notification.

Congratulations!

Your tree of determination has matured!

You receive a new spell: Rabbit

By using this spell you can assume the form of a rabbit for certain durations of time, depending on the mana that you have.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I read the fading notification again and again. It was one weird spell for sure. But could it save me from the monkeys? As long as they didn’t see me transforming into a rabbit, they shouldn’t get suspicious even if they saw me in my rabbit form, right?

I cast a glance at the monkeys. They were all about fifty metres behind me. I fell on my knees behind a large bush and then activated the Rabbit spell. The moment I did so that my body shrank in size, fur grew on my hands and legs and face. My ears elongated and the shape of my head changed and whiskers shot out from beneath my nose. My clothes magically disappeared and so did my sword.

And I was a rabbit!

I waited at the spot, going deeper into the bush to conceal myself. I didn’t want the monkeys to see me even though I was no longer a human. They might decide that they want to eat rabbit meat tonight.

A handful of seconds later, the monkeys that had been pursuing me reached the spot. All of them looked this way and that to find out in which direction I had gone. And then one large monkey, perhaps the leader, pointed in a particular direction and let out a howl and then he pointed back towards the place where the giant banana was and let out another howl. Half of the monkeys went in the first direction in pursuit of me, while the rest went back to the giant banana.

I finally allowed myself to breathe peacefully. I noticed that my mana bar was slowly falling and I knew that it would only be for some time that I could maintain my rabbit form. I was about to move out of the bush when I sensed a movement a few metres away in another bush. I saw pointed ears and a triangular face and canines.

It was a fox. Great!

The fox dashed towards me and I dashed away from the bush in the direction of the Lazaki mountain. While I could run much faster as a rabbit despite my tiny legs, the fox was fast as well, and it was very cunning. More than once the fox showed up directly in front of me when I had been thinking that it was behind me and I had to immediately change direction to avoid its jaws.

In a few minutes I found myself racing away from the forest towards the cave at the foot of the mountain, the determined fox still after me. I dashed inside the cave and almost ran against Lia, who let out a gasp at seeing me in my rabbit form. Of course she didn’t recognise me.

“Dani, where is your bow and arrows?” she said to Dani who was sitting further inside the cave and was talking with Slia. “It’s been a long time since we ate meat and a rabbit has willingly run to us!”

Dani was quick and she immediately lodged an arrow into her bow. It was at that very moment that the fox also entered the cave. I quickly deactivated my rabbit spell. Dani let go of her arrow as I was growing in size, and losing fur and whiskers.

The arrow hit my arm, right below the place where I had earlier been injured by the monkeys in the village of Collosi while protecting Slia. I let out a grunt, feeling sad for the unlucky arm. Dani, Lia and Slia all shrieked together. I put my finger to my lips and hissed, pleading them to shut up even as tears of pain welled in my eyes. The frightened fox immediately dashed out and was never seen again. The poor animal had expected a feast and all it had got was the horrifying sight of a rabbit transforming into a man.

***

“We’ll have to be more careful today,” I said. “The monkeys probably told their masters yesterday about seeing me near the giant banana.”

“Maybe Slia can stay back?” Lia said, “She hasn’t been in dangerous situations before, plus the Lazaki might send more monkeys to the banana today to look out for you so there will be more eyes which might catch us.”

I ignored Lia, even though she was not very wrong. I hadn’t talked to her the entirety of yesterday after returning from my misadventure and I hadn’t talked to her today morning either. It was rare for me to ever get pissed with my wives, but I just couldn’t ignore the fact that she had nearly gotten me killed by Dani yesterday and had plans of eating me. I didn’t blame Dani much as she did more thinking with her arrows than she did with her mind, but Lia should have known that there was every possibility that her husband might acquire the ability to turn into a rabbit especially after she had herself put the heart of a rabbit inside him.

“You are a woman, not a girl,” I said to Slia, “you can make your own decision.”

“I will go,” Slia said with an uncertain look at Lia. “I mean, I understand that it will be dangerous but I would like to be out there with you three and help in any way possible.”

“Then that’s decided,” I said. “Slia has made her decision and nobody needs to make decisions for her.” I didn’t look towards Lia as I said this.

“Look, I am sorry,” Lia said to me and there was a shiver in her voice like she was about to cry. And then she moved some distance away from the three of us.

“Why are you still angry with her?” Dani asked. “I was the one who shot the arrow at you. She was the one who healed you.”

“It’s not about that,” I said.

“It is about that,” Slia said, looking at me with pleading eyes as if she wanted me to say sorry to Lia.

I gritted my teeth. Had I gone too far? I heard the sound of Lia sniffling. I began to feel bad. Lia was not someone who cried easily. After Rozy had been abducted Lia had more or less taken the position as my alpha wife. She could keep her mind straight in dangerous situations. I pursed my lips, while Dani and Slia stared at me waiting for what I was going to do next. We were definitely not going on our quest to destroy the banana without resolving this particular issue. I sighed, deciding to bite down my pride and to right my ways. I went to Lia, her back turned to me. I embraced her from behind. She tried to shake me off but I held on to her.

“Look, I am sorry,” I said, “I was being rude.”

Lia didn’t say anything. I moved my hand up to her face and began to wipe her teary cheeks.

“Would you forgive me? Please?” I asked.

Slowly she nodded.

“Now turn and give me a smile,” I said, slowly turning her body to face me. She kept looking down. I grasped her face with my hand, making her to look at me.

“Let’s destroy that banana,” she said.

***