Chapter 10

This Is the Real World Now

"A riddle?" Phoenix echoes. "You want us to solve a fucking riddle?"

Arcane ducks his head. He still hasn't blinked even once, and it's creeping me out. I've been watching him closely, and he hasn't closed his eyes.

"Yes," Arcane replies, "a riddle of sorts."

"Why not just heal Ky? You help my brother, and we say our goodbyes and we'll just leave you here to spend eternity never seeing another soul forever. You can get back to your lonely little life and forget we ever came."

"I can never forget."

"Yeah, yeah, you killed Freedom. But Ky said you can help him, so help my brother. He's the one who never turned his back on you. He never doubted you existed for a second."

"I appreciate that."

"Are you going to tell us the riddle?" Brook asks.

Arcane sits down and paws at a loose rock on the ground. "Very well. I suppose, though, that it's less of a riddle."

Phoenix stomps in a circle around Ky's body.

"What do we have to do?" Grey asks.

Arcane stares off to the side. One of the rabbits that I've seen hops across the ground. Its fur is still so colorful, and it has so many eyes. Unlike Arcane, the rabbit does blink. All of its eyes close at different times, and each eye looks at all of us. I take a step back under the attention, flicking my tail and lifting my wings in case I need to run.

"You have to catch Lepus."

"Lepus?" Alex echoes.

Phoenix sighs and grumbles. "It's the name of the rabbit constellation. Ky said you had it. And you do, don'cha? Right there on your muzzle. So we catch you a bunny, and you bring back Ky?"

"If one of you catches Lepus, I will think about helping your brother. Tell me when you think you can catch Lepus. Do that, and I'll think about it."

Arcane stands back up and leaves. He's giant, but he somehow manages to disappear out of sight.

Phoenix spins around "Astra, catch Lepus. Apparently Arcane doesn't know about your speed. This'll be over quick."

I nod.

All around me, there are rabbits with rainbow fur, two antennae, and too many eyes to count. They hop around, sniffing the ground and nibbling on whatever plants they can find. I watch them and try to find the weakest one, the rabbit that will be the easiest to catch. As soon as I've found my target, I bounce on my toes a few times and then bolt.

I flap my wings as I dig my hind toes into the ground to push myself past the sound barrier. The rabbits scatter immediately, which is my first sign something is different. In the Field, it always took at least few moments, if the mice ever noticed and reacted at all. But I bunch up all my limbs and then take another stride, stretching out as much as I can to go as fast as possible. I keep my gaze locked onto one rabbit, the one I've chosen. When it darts to the side, I swing my tail out for balance and use my hind legs to turn in the new direction. I never look away from the rabbit, no matter where it turns. It can't escape, not when I can outrun it.

I can't run for long, but I can run fast.

Every time the rabbit changes direction, I follow close behind, ears pinned as I draw in big breaths of air. I can feel my heart racing, and I know soon I'll have to stop. The second thing I notice is that the rabbits run as fast as me. The one I chase doesn't slow. The mice in the Field could never go as fast as I can.

The rabbit runs straight ahead, and I take the opportunity to push myself faster than I've ever gone before. I don't have much more time before I'll be forced to stop, and I want to catch the rabbit. I squint against the wind. My muscles burn and stretch with the movement and speed. I haven't run this fast, but it feels right. Like a part of me I'm just now discovering. I feel the air rush through my fur and the steady patter of my feet, the pattern of my paws hitting the ground in the same order every time.

Stolen novel; please report.

When the rabbit turns, it's natural to lean and adjust to keep my balance, to use my wings and tail to steady myself.

But then the rabbit disappears down a burrow that I'm certain wasn't there before. I dig my claws into the rock to spin in a circle and figure out where the rabbit went. When I do so, though, my legs rotate out from beneath me and I skid across the rough ground, tumbling in a roll. The rock beneath me scratches my paw pads and tugs painfully at my fur and feathers. I come to a stop on my side and lay there for several moments, sides heaving as pain and numbness twist through my limbs, sharp prickles and the swirling, fuzzy feeling of nothing. My toes twitch as the exhaustion hits me like a blow now that I'm no longer moving.

"Dang it!" I complain, echoing words I once heard Brook use, then add in one I've heard Phoenix use lots. "Fuck!"

I stay down, panting as heat curls in my insides. My muscles burn and spasm, and my paws hurt. I open my mouth wider to try to cool down.

Brook noses my head. I hadn't heard her approach.

"S-so... so-. F-fast," I manage to say, rolling to my stomach in a clumsy movement.

"It seems so."

"Whoah, Astra, was that rabbit faster than you?" Alex asks. She jogs up to me.

It looks so awkward, a human running. Four legs is faster, and so much easier. I distantly wonder how Alex doesn't fall over.

Grey shifts into his bird form behind Alex and stretches out a wing to cast shade over me. I nod in response, trying to say thank you but I'm panting too hard.

My vision blurs as I watch a few of the Lepus rabbits cross by us. Their forms warp and split, and I blink several times until each rabbit returns to one again. The thousand beady eyes of the Lepus rabbits stare at me and blink every so often.

I'm so tired. I lay my head on my foreleg.

"Are you alright?" Brook asks. "What can I do?"

I shrug.

"We can stay here for a while," Brook says.

We eventually walk back to Phoenix. Brook carries me on her back after Alex had lifted me up. I doze on the short trip back, but wake again when my stepmother stops. Exhaustion pulls at me and Dreamland feels so tempting, but I stay awake.

"So apparently the rabbit can't be caught with pure speed," Phoenix mutters, "'cuz otherwise you'd have a rabbit in your jaws right now."

"Unfortunately, I don't think it will be that easy," Brook replies. I push myself up onto my forelegs and stretch out a hind leg to keep my balance. I flick my tail as I listen.

"Duh, who'da thunk such a thing. Maybe I can just force him to surrender and heal Ky."

Grey grows visibly uncomfortable. "Phoenix," he says carefully, "I don't think that will work in the way you're hoping."

"Says the one who never wants to take a life. Grow up, Grey. This is the real world now. You're gonna have to kill when you're going up against someone like the cream puff. And Ky ain't staying gone. So if I have to hash it out with a Midnight Wolf, so be it. I ain't afraid. You don't want to see it, no one's forcing you to stay."

"I think what my brother's trying to say is that Arcane is a Midnight Wolf," Alex says. "I don't know as much as Ky does about them, but they're powerful. From what I understand, Arcane could heal anyone so long as Lucius hadn't claimed them yet, no matter how extensive the injuries. That's a lot of power."

"So what? Ky can't stay gone. If I have to challenge a Midnight Wolf, I will. No one can scare me. I'm not a kid anymore."

Phoenix scowls and glares when Brook widens her eyes and lifts her head. He flashes his teeth, and I frown, looking between the two of them. Phoenix stiffens, and Brook relaxes, swishing her tail and taking a few steps away. Her hooves are loud on the rock of Ragdon Volcano.

I watch both of them from Brook's back. What just happened? I don't understand.

"Let's make sure it doesn't come to that, then. How about that?" Brook asks.

"Fine, but I'm not waiting around. How are we going to catch a rabbit if we don't go straight to the source? How will we catch Lepus if we can't outrun a damn rabbit?"

"Set a trap?" Alex offers. "Somehow corner the bunny, and then bring it to Arcane."

"It..." I shift on Brook's back and take a deep breath. "Lepus went... a hole appeared. It wasn't th-there before."

"It made its own den. It's like you, Brook. It can make portals to other places."

Brook doesn't respond. She draws her ears back, then swivels them as she listens all around. She rocks her weight on her legs.

"I don't think so," Grey says. "I don't think Lepus made a portal."

"How else did it disappear? I'm assuming Astra's not a liar."

"I'm assuming the same as well. All I'm saying is that I don't think Lepus disappeared from a portal."

"Wait, hold up," Alex says. She fiddles with the pewter pendant around her neck. "How else would Lepus disappear? Do the bunnies have illusions or something?"

"Arcane has constellations all over his body. I'm pretty sure I saw the Lepus constellation among those. If he uses Aquarius to heal, I'd guess that he can also use Lepus. I don't know if the rabbit constellation holds any powers, but I'd also guess that he can summon those rabbits and control them."

"So Arcane decides what the rabbits do," Brook says, voice trailing off.

Grey nods. "I think so."

I turn on Brook's back and watch the rainbow rabbits hop around. Their noses quiver, and I try to mimic the movement, wrinkling my own nose.

Arcane's voice rings through my head, echoing what he'd told us: If one of you catches Lepus, I will think about helping your brother. Tell me when you think you can catch Lepus. Do that, and I'll think about it.

I tilt my head to the side. A breeze blows by, stirring my fur and ruffing the feathers on my wings. The antennae on the rabbits wave in the wind, and they all narrow their many eyes.

But when I make the connections, I leap off Brook's back. I tremble again, but this time it's from excitement, not exhaustion.

"I know it!" I exclaim.

"You know what?" Alex asks.

"I can catch the rabbit. I know how." I grin and then bolt, spreading my wings and angling them as I sprint off before anyone can reply and tell me to stop.

I don't break the speed of sound. I'm too tired for that. But it doesn't matter, because Arcane can't be far.

I know I can catch Lepus, so now all I have to do is find the Midnight Wolf and tell him.