A rabbit. It was all Rozy could dream all the time she was half-conscious and being healed by Lia. And then after an entire day of healing, Rozy finally opened her eyes.

She saw Lia, Rabbi’s healer wife. Lia looked very pale, but she was smiling. Rozy couldn’t be thankful enough to her. The giant rabbit—if it indeed had existed for real and had not been a part of her imagination— might have saved Rozy, but she would be quite dead without Lia’s healing powers.

Then there was Dani, the archer wife. She was also smiling, but there was a trace of concern on the edge of her smile. The same trace of concern was also on the smile of Lia, but Rabbi had failed to recognise it because of Lia’s exhausted look, which was a side-effect of healing someone.

Then there was a third pretty girl. She looked at Rozy with a mixture of unease and thankfulness and concern. Who was she? Could she be a… new wife of Rabbi? If she was, then Rozy was disappointed with Rabbi. How could he go about acquiring new wives when Rozy had been suffering so much under the sorcerer all because of the birthmark she had on her body?

There was a fourth person near Rozy. This one was a man. He was considerably slim and his body colour was rather pink. He had long hair and beard. The man was staring at Rozy and the expression of concern was strongest on his face. Slowly, Rozy pushed herself up to a sitting position.

“Oh, Rozy,” Dani said. She and Lia hugged Rozy tight.

“Where is Rabbi?” Rozy asked, slowly breaking the hug.

Instead, Dani gestured at the pink man.

“This is Ian,” and then she gestured at the girl, “And this is Slia... We met her in the forest. Rabbi married her.”

So Rozy had been right. Slia was indeed a new wife of Rabbi.

“But where is Rabbi?” Rozy asked.

It was the man, Ian, who responded, not Dani or Lia.

“He turned into a monster rabbit, saved you from the Lazaki and the sorcerer, and then something happened to him and he ran away south.”

“What?” Rozy said. She recalled the rabbit vividly. That had been Rabbi? So it was Rabbi who had saved her?

“But why did he go away south?” Rozy asked. That sounded like a very odd behaviour. Rabbi wouldn’t go anywhere without waiting for her to recover after rescuing her with so much effort, would he?

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“It might not have been his wish,” Ian said, “he was in a lot of visible distress. He had told me earlier that he was hosting a sorcerer by the name of Xoris in his mind. That sorcerer had tricked me earlier. I do not doubt much that Xoris forced Rabbi to go south. He was also probably behind Rabbi’s distress.”

Rabbi hosting a sorcerer? None of it made any sense. Lia took her turn to explain. She told Rozy that Rabbi had nearly died some days ago and she had had to put the heart of a rabbit in him in order to save him. However the rabbit had apparently been a sorcerer called Xoris, who also happened to be the father of Mintuk, the very same who had abducted Rozy. When Lia put Xoris’s heart in Rabbi’s body, Xoris’s consciousness entered Rabbi. However Lia, Dani and Slia had themselves come to know about Xoris residing in Rabbi through Ian. Rabbi had never told them about Xoris himself.

The sudden influx of information was hard for Rozy to digest. At the same time, one thing was clear: Rabbi had had to go through some tough situations in order to save her and now he was the one in danger and she needed to save him at all costs.

The Lazaki mountain was a handful of kilometres away from their current spot. Dani and Lia had carried Rozy all the way from the mountain, probably to keep away from the Lazaki. Rabbi, in his monster rabbit form, must have covered a very great distance and was undoubtedly very far away from them south.

“We must get to Rabbi,” Rozy said.

“At any cost,” Slia, the new wife said. Rozy observed her. If Dani and Lia had accepted her as a wife of Rabbi, then Rozy guessed she must be a good person who loved Rabbi.

“But the question is… how?” Rozy said.

“The best we can do is keep moving south,” said Lia, “with the hope that we would eventually come across Rabbi.”

Hope. Rozy wasn’t particularly fond of that word.

“What if something happens to him before we reach him?” Rozy said, and she didn’t try to hide the anxiety in her voice.

“Well, we can hope that the Creator would be merciful,” Ian said.

Another “hope”.

Then a twinkle seemed to come to Ian’s eyes. He lifted a finger.

“And if it makes you feel more hopeful, I can make a quest revolving around rescuing Rabbi,” Ian said, “There will be two main benefits of that. First the quest will grow independent of me and eventually start to offer rewards for completing side quests. Also, since the quest involves saving Rabbi, it should lessen the chances of anything bad happening to him.”

Rozy raised a brow, not quite understanding Ian.

“You can create quests?” she asked. “How?”

Ian smiled.

“Well, I possess knowledge that nobody else has access too,” he said and then he grimaced, “Too bad I had more knowledge but lost it thanks to the evil Xoris. So, shall I create the quest?”

“Do it,” Rozy said, glancing at the other three wives, who also seemed to want the same. Rozy was prepared to try and do anything to save Rabbi.

The next moment a message popped up in Rozy’s vision.

New quest available!

Save your husband, Rabbi.

Would you like to accept this quest?

Yes/No

Rewards: Unknown

As Rozy selected the ‘yes’ option, she vowed to herself that she was going to save Rabbi no matter what.