It was a rabbit.

A white little rabbit, very much like the one from which Lia had taken out the heart and transplanted into my body. Actually, it was the same rabbit. How I knew I didn’t know. But I knew it was the same rabbit.

The rabbit was smiling at me. The rabbit seemed to want to communicate that it was a friend. No wait, the rabbit was not an ‘it’. It was a ‘he’. Very much like a person.

“Trust me,” the rabbit seemed to speak. No he was actually speaking, for his mouth was moving as the words came. “I am a friend of yours. A friend for a lifetime whether you want me or not.”

And then something happened. A feminine form appeared behind the rabbit. The features of the feminine form became clearer until the feminine form had become Rozy… my wife.

“Rozy!” I cried. I tried to run to her. But I realised I didn’t have legs to run. Heck, I didn’t even have a body to begin with. I was merely consciousness. Consciousness in its purest form.

Or maybe I was just inside my head. In a dream.

Yes, that had to be it. I tried to open my eyes, but try as I might I couldn’t.

“Wait,” said the rabbit. “Do you not want to know who I am?”

“I am inside a dream, aren’t I?” I asked, even though I was sure of that.

“You are inside your head, and yes, you are sleeping,” said the rabbit, “but I wouldn’t say that you are in a dream. You are in an entirely different place inside your mind, which you can access only through sleep, but in this place you are as conscious as when you are awake.”

That didn’t make much sense.

How could I be in such a strange place if I wasn’t dreaming?

“Look, you must trust me,” the rabbit said, almost requesting me.

“Go on, tell me who you are,” I said. Not because I actually wanted to know who the rabbit was. But since I couldn’t get out of my sleep currently I could as well get to know the rabbit. That he was undoubtedly a figment of my imagination didn’t matter.

“I am Xoris,” the rabbit answered, and I could detect a small trace of pride in the rabbit’s voice while mentioning his own name, “I am the same rabbit who was killed by your wives so they could replace your heart with the heart of the rabbit and save you.”

“Okay…” I said with some hesitation, not sure if I should be guilty that the rabbit was dead while I was alive. But wait, if the rabbit’s was dead, how was it presently speaking? “I… I am sorry that you had to die. I didn’t really ask my wives to kill you.”

“No, it’s okay,” the rabbit Xoris answered, “and it was actually a good thing that they killed me. I cannot tell you how glad I am that your wives should kill me, and what more that they should put my heart into you.”

“Why is that so?” I asked. I was now getting truly curious.

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“You see, I was not one born as a rabbit,” Xoris said, “it was because of a curse that I became a rabbit. I was trapped inside the body of the rabbit and there was no way I could leave it. Even killing myself would have not done the job. But when your wives transplanted my heart into you, I was finally free. I could barely believe me own luck! So do tell your wives how thankful I am.”

“Who cursed you?” I asked.

At this question, Xoris acquired a sad face. Meanwhile the form of Rozy behind him had once again turned to the indistinctive feminine form. It was as though Xoris had created Rozy only to get my attention.

“None other than my very own son,” Xoris said.

“Your son had the power to turn people into rabbit?” I asked.

“Yes,” Xoris said and he sounded rather disappointed that I should ask him about how his son should be able to turn him into a rabbit, instead of being surprised of the fact that his own son could do something of the kind to him. “You see, we are a family of sorcerers. I was the one who taught the rabbit spell to my son but never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that he would use such a complicated spell on me. My son wants to become the most powerful sorcerer ever. He is always trying to remove sorcerers that are more powerful than him either by killing them or putting them under a permanent curse. I was more powerful than my son and that was why he turned me into a rabbit.”

That reminded me of what Ramda had said about the sorcerer Mintuk abducting Rozy in order to become the most powerful sorcerer by sacrificing her.

“Yes, what you are thinking is correct,” Xoris said, “The name of my son is Mintuk. He is the same sorcerer that abducted your wife.”

For a moment I remained quiet as I tried to process the new bit of information. Out of all the rabbits that were in the barbaric realm, Lia had to give you the heart of a rabbit that was the father of the very sorcerer that had taken Rozy away from me.

“Did you help him in abducting my wife?” I asked Xoris.

“Of course not!” Xoris said, “My son turned me into a rabbit a long time ago, and since then I have been living in the barbaric realm like any ordinary rabbit. I have no hand in the abduction of your wife. Hell, I would be very happy to teach my son a nice lesson. I will be glad to help you rescue your wife. But for that I will require your help in the first place.”

“My help?” I said.

“Yes,” Xoris said, “whenever you have a particularly strong feeling within yourself, do respond to it. It’s me trying to communicate with you when you are awake. I cannot talk to you when you are awake, so that is the way we must go. You remember the last time when you had a particularly strong feeling to go towards the civilised realm, even though your wives thought it wasn’t a wise decision on your part? That was me. I wanted you to go towards the civilised realms so that whenever you passed through the Sense Screens littered about your way, my son would be alerted of your location and he would think that you are giving up on your quest to rescue your wife and are going back to your kingdom. And when you followed the strong feeling I created in you, you also ended up receiving the new ability to see the Sense Screens for yourself. So the next time you have a particular urge to do something do not ignore it at any costs.”

“How do I know that you are not using me to do things that only benefit you?” I asked.

“Well,” said Xoris, “whether you listen to the urges that I create in your mind when you are awake is entirely up to you. You are always free to rationalise whether doing something will take you a step closer to rescuing your wife from my son. I reckon being able to see the Sense Screens is helping you? Plus, I want to teach my son a lesson. Helping you rescue your wife should do the job. I can certainly not let my son get away with turning his own father into a rabbit, can I? I thought he was a good son, but well… I reckoned I had failed in raising him the right way.” Xoris sighed.

I observed him intently, trying to see if he was just pretending to be sad.

“I request you to trust me,” Xoris said, “at the end of the day, without my heart you are dead. And since my heart is in you there is no way I can leave your mind. We must help each other whether we want to or not. Now, I am sensing that your mind is getting really confused about me. I will allow you to wake up now and think out things. I shall also only create strong urges within you that are somehow related with helping you reach your wife. Any other strong urges would be the creation of your own mind.”

***