Agalon did not go to train the fighters on the day the moons would be full. Xaxac knew that this was an act of kindness, of love, that Agalon believed it would make him less nervous if they spent the day together. But it actually had the opposite effect.
Xaxac was a monster, and no amount of cuddling, sex, or verbal confirmations of affection were going to change that simple fact.
Lorsan joined them after dinner, sitting in the armchair while he watched his father weave chains around Xaxac with intense curiosity. The doors to the hall and bedroom had been closed and locked, but still Xac trembled and tried his best not to cry.
“It needs to be a little bit lose,” he said, “On account of-”
There was a knock at the door.
“Master,” Lee’s voice rang out, “I’ve found the field hand you requested.”
“What?” Xac asked.
“Good!” Agalon shouted, “Bring him in! I don’t think I’m doin this right… and we ain’t got a lotta time!”
There was a rattling of a key turning in the lock, then Lee stepped inside to hold open the door-
For Abe.
He was the cleanest Xac had ever seen him, in freshly laundered clothes, hair that had been greased so that he could force it to lie down, shoes that were tattered, but had just been polished, and a face… he was missing his beard, and Xac hated it. It made his face look completely different. He looked at once younger and more tired, looked less like his father.
He stood awkwardly in the doorway, turning his hat in his hands, staring at Xac, Xac sitting on his knees on the floor of the sitting room, beautifully made up, dressed in finery-
In chains.
“Daddy?” Xaxac asked. In his current state, and seeing Abe looking so different, it was a question of genuine curiosity. He wasn’t actually sure of anything, as agitated as he was, and this development didn’t make logical sense.
“I was told you handled this creature before,” Agalon said, stood, and added, “Where the hell have you been? I put out an order this mornin!”
“Master, if I was to be so bold,” Lee answered after glancing at Abe and taking in the fear on his face, “It is difficult to track down a single fieldslave. Fortunately, the cook, Abigale, knew of him, but still he wouldn’t in no state to enter the house, Nancy would’ve-”
“Nancy’s startin shit again!?” Agalon asked, with very real anger, and Xac cowered in his chains, “Whatever, that’s a problem for tomorrow, we ain’t got time to unpack all that. What’s your name?”
“Abraham, Master,” Abe said, staring at Xac.
“Alright, good. Abe, get over here and show me how to do this. Xac says if he ain’t chained up he’ll tear everything all to hell.” Agalon ordered, “Hurry, we’re runnin out of time.”
Lee took Abe’s hat from him, and Abe walked quickly across the room, threw his arms around Xac, and pulled him into the kind of hug a father would give his son, whom he had not seen nor heard from in nearly a month, only to find him kneeling in chains on a night where he was about to be overcome by an ailment.
Xac leaned into him and stopped trying not to cry.
“You’re doin good,” Abe whispered, “Everythin’s gonna be alright. Daddy’s here.”
He turned to Agalon and said, “We gotta get these chains off so we can get his clothes off. He’ll tear that fancy outfit up when he shifts. He gets mighty big, a lot bigger than he is now.”
“Move quickly,” Agalon turned and looked out the window over the writing desk, where the sun was moving behind the trees.
“He’s a good boy,” Abe said as he unwound chains, “He just gets real scared, as the rabbit. Y’all send somebody down to the kitchen to get some greens. You’ll need um to calm him down. I think it makes him real hungry, shiftin.”
“I wake up so tired, too,” Xac whispered as he stood to kick off his shoes and undress.
Abe wondered why Xac hadn’t told them he would destroy his clothes, why he hadn’t told them more, told them everything, but he was in no position to judge. He had no idea what the boy had been through, and tried his best to put all other thoughts out of his mind. Who knew when they would see each other again?
“You lookin good, boy,” He said instead, as quietly as he could, “Healthy. Was worried they wouldn’t know how to feed you.”
“They’ve been real good to me,” Xac said, but his body was trembling and his voice shook.
“You’re doin good,” Abe repeated, “Everything is gonna be alright. Let’s get these chains on ya. Nothin bad is gonna happen. Daddy’s here. You ain’t gonna break nothin. You ain’t gonna hurt nobody. You’re fine. It ain’t nothin you ain’t done before.”
Xac nodded, lowered himself to his knees, and tried not to think about what his father must think of his nudity in front of all these people.
“You heard him, Lee!” Agalon said as if he felt he should not have to say it, “Get some lettuce or spinach or somethin up from the kitchen!”
“Yes, master,” Lee said, and went out into the hall closing the door behind him.
“He bulks up real big,” Abe said, “So give the chains some slack or he’ll break right through um. He can get out of um if he wants to, I think it just…”
“It makes me feel better,” Xac said.
“Everything-” Abe began, but Agalon cut him off as he approached, bent, and cupped Xac’s face.
“Everythin’s gonna be alright, darlin,” Agalon promised, “This is excitin, not scary.”
Abe scowled at the gaul Agalon had to tell another person how to feel, to try to make them think that they didn’t know their own emotions, hadn’t lived in their own head long enough to understand what they felt much better than any knife-eared outsider. He wondered, briefly, if he could simply take Xac and run. He had seen the road when he had been in the house, through the front facing windows. Maybe they could follow it all the way to the sea; there was a sea somewhere; goods were shipped in from the sea. Maybe he could take his son and with luck and determination they could get that far. They’d have to stop in the kitchen for the girls-
That was a stupid thought, and it passed almost instantly. Not only was it impossible because they would get caught and be sent into town for punishment if they weren’t outright killed, but in a few minutes Xaxac would be a monster and much too fast to catch or ever find again if he took off.
And then there was the fact that Xaxac was staring up at Agalon as if he believed him, as if he really was comforted by him. Abe couldn’t really process that information, only knew that he didn’t like it.
“Anyway,” Abe said, “You wanna leave some give in these or they’ll snap right off. About this much.” He was going to say, ‘pay attention’ because Agalon seemed to be staring into Xac’s eyes rather than looking at the chains, but he thought better of this as well.
“Daddy, he’s talkin to you,” Lorsan said in annoyance.
“I’m listening,” Agalon snapped.
There was another knock at the door, followed by Lee’s voice.
“Your spinach, Master,” he said.
“Come on in!” Agalon called, “Put it on the table.”
Abe’s eyes grew wide as Lee walked into the room, carrying a tray that was piled at least a foot high with deep, dark greens. Where the hell were they getting that much food? At one time? Were they actually eating everything up here that they grew? It wouldn’t bein shipped out?
Xac doubled over into himself, but Abe was still kneeling next to him, so he leaned into him and shrieked. Abe moved to wrap his arms around him out of instinct, but Agalon put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him away, forced him to his feet, pulled him a respectable distance from the monster.
“Lock the door!” Agalon said calmly, without moving his eyes from Xac, “Lee, lock the door! In or out but lock the door!”
Lee elected to stay in.
He wanted to see this.
Lorsan also jumped to his feet and moved to stand next to and a little behind his father. If Xac had been in his right mind, he would have made note of this stance, of this gesture. Lorsan, for the first time since Xac had met him, looked like a son- hiding behind his father for protection from the monster.
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It was so fast.
It was obvious that they had all expected it to take longer, but it didn’t, and there was nothing to be done for it. It was over in an instant, and the first rays of moonlight shone through the windows as the rabbit kept screaming.
Abe struggled so fiercely and Agalon was so distracted by the beautiful creature that he wasn’t trying particularly hard to hold him, so Abe took off at a sprint toward Xaxac, knelt, and took the creature by the shoulders.
“Xacy boy,” he said, staring into those huge brown eyes, set too far apart on his head, “It’s daddy. It’s ok! You’re safe! Everything is alright! You’re good! You’re ok! You’re fine!”
“He’s gonna break them chains,” Lorsan grabbed at his father’s cape, “He’s gonna bust outta them! They ain’t gonna hold!”
“He’s so cute!” Agalon clasped his hands over his heart and said again, “Darlin, you’re adorable! He really looks like a rabbit! Look how long and soft his fur is!”
He shrugged Lorsan off and moved slowly, carefully, toward Xac.
“He gets real skittish,” Abe warned, “Might not wanna-”
“Oh Honey Bunny,” Agalon whispered, almost as if he was in awe of what he was seeing, “You’re so cute! I love it! I told you I would love it!”
He laid a hand gently on Xac’s head and began to stroke as if he was petting an animal.
“Don’t do that,” Abe warned, “He’s scared to death. He ain’t never been in here before.”
“Hush,” Agalon said in a voice that left no room for argument as he slid his hand up one of Xac’s long ears.
Rabbits were known for their speed.
Agalon did not know where the pain came from, because he hadn’t seen him move. He didn’t even feel it at first, only the pressure, but he looked down, saw the blood seeping from his upper arm, saw Xac’s strangely shaped face clamped down around it, and thought, Where are his teeth?
Then he felt them. They were buried so deeply in his arm, just above the elbow, that if Xac moved his head backward without letting go he would take the meat of his arm with him, down to the bone.
“Lorry, get daddy’s staff,” Agalon said calmly as scenes that no one else in the room could see flashed before his eyes of fire raining from the sky, ash falling like snow, voices raised in shouting, the sickening smell of burning flesh and sulfer, all mixed with real rain falling as the ground under them shook and fell and the water rose and how was he still dehydrated how was he- it was so hot and so cold and he had to attend to the injured because there wasn’t enough time to attend to everyone, that was a problem for the future, right now they had to focus on survival, and that bright, blinding green light from the man ten feet tall with armor that moved as if it was alive-
“Here!” Lorsan said in a panic.
Agalon tried to blink reality back into his brain, looked down at Xac and said, calmly, “You have to let go of me, Honey Bunny. Nobody is going to hurt you. Everything is going to be alright.” Then, more quickly, to Lorsan, “When he pulls away, hold my arm in place. I need some bandages, get your daddy some bandages.”
Lorsan nodded and was gone, but by the time he had returned empty-handed, Xac still had his teeth firmly buried in the wound.
“Xac,” Abe stood, walked behind Xaxac and took his face in both hands, “Quit. Quit this. I ain’t gonna have you actin a fool and shit. You know how to act. Open your mouth.” His voice changed in a way that cannot be described unless one has heard it, changed in a way only a parent can articulate, when he spoke one final word. “Now!”
Xac opened his mouth pulled away, and screamed again as Agalon hissed in pain.
“I got it, I got it, I got it,” Lorsan said as he shoved the chunk of meat back up against his father’s flesh, applying pressure, “God damn, down to the bone, I told you, you useless old dumbass, I fuckin told you! We gotta get outta this room!”
“Hush!” Agalon said, and the staff in his hand began to glow as he began to chant something inaudibly, moving his lips in a rhythm and fighting past the pain to do it. After whatever spell he had worked had done its job he reached up with his good hand and ripped the fabric of his undershirt away to display the flesh. His skin had knitted back together, but there were scars.
“Wrap it, please!” Agalon hissed, “Are you a medic or not? What am I paying that goddamn school for?”
“Where’s-”
“In my desk with the alcohol you stole!” Agalon snapped, took a deep breath, then added in him measured, calm voice, “In the drawer, with the other first aid shit, hon. Move fast, if you could.”
Xaxac had been twitching his head back and forth in a strange way while all this was going on, and had eventually knocked himself sideways onto the rug, where he rubbed his face against it, likely in an attempt to get the blood off. He had to get the awful taste out of his mouth, and began to nibble at the rug, biting off huge chunks of it with his teeth.
“Xac!” Abe shouted.
“Fuck the rug,” Lorsan snapped, “Like… we can all agree fuck the rug, right?”
“Rugs can be replaced,” Agalon agreed, as Lorsan unwound the long strip of bandages and began wrapping them around the wound. “Let’s all stop shouting! We’re scaring him! And nobody else touch him! Lesson learned. He’s scared to death of new folks anyway! I shouldn’t’a let all y’all in here! Shoulda been just me and him.”
“You got any water?” Abe asked as Xac managed to push himself up on his knees and began to cough, “He’s thirsty.”
“I have wine,” Agalon said, moving each of the fingers on his right hand to make sure they still worked. “Look at that, Lorry. I still got it. Physician, heal thyself.”
“That’s fuckin great dad, meanwhile there’s a monster wiggling on the floor,” Lorry snapped.
“Stop bein so goddamn negative!” Agalon demanded, “Get him a drink.”
“He’s gonna get outta them chains-” Lorsan said as he darted around the sofa and picked a bottle of wine up off the coffee table.
“Stop it!” Agalon demanded again, “And give me that.”
“That thing’s gonna kill you,” Lorsan warned.
“He ain’t never killed nobody!” Abe begged, “I swear! He’s just scared to death! Rabbits are real skittish!”
“Hey Honey Bunny,” Agalon said softly, lovingly, “Look what I’ve got! Do you want a drink?”
Xac sat up on his haunches and both his ears shot straight up. He titled his face forward a little and began to sniff the air. Slowly his ears lowered from their more alert position, and he finally locked eyes with Agalon.
“There we go, darlin,” Agalon smiled in an attempt to look as friendly as possible and spun the corkscrew, “Do you want a drink? You’ve eat up half my rug; that can’t be good for you. Here. I’m gonna move real slow like, alright?”
He took one slow step, then another, until he was upon the creature.
Xaxac stared up at him, tilting his strange head back and forth, sniffing the air, then leaned forward for the bottle. Abe wasn’t particularly sure how well that was going to work; any time he had given Xac any kind of liquid in that form he gave it in a bowl; but he was proven wrong to have had those doubts, because it worked very well.
Xaxac drank greedily from the bottle of wine as Agalon slowly tipped it.
“Anybody else think this is a horrible fucking plan?” Lorsan asked, “Like do we need the monster to be drunk? Why are we doin this? I just wanna go on record sayin I am against this as much as somebody can be against a thing while bein too scared to actually do anything about it.”
“Lorry, hush,” Agalon ordered, “Look at him! He loves it! Isn’t it adorable? Loves it when he’s human too… startin to think that boy can outdrink me.”
Abe tensed at this information, which had been said as if it were cute or funny, but he said nothing. He’d probably drink too, if he had to do the things he suspected Xaxac did.
“There you go, darlin,” Agalon pulled the bottle away and held it behind him for someone to take, so Lee stepped forward and took it, shook it, and realized it was empty.
“Give me the plate,” Agalon ordered, so Lee moved to the table, sat down the empty bottle, and moved, cautiously, with the tray containing the plate of spinach. As soon as it was in Agalon’s hand he retreated to the relative safety of the area by the door, still holding the tray as if he thought, in the event of an attack, he could use it as a sort of shield.
Xac’s eyes were blown wide, and he twitched considerably less, as if the alcohol was having some sort of effect on him. He may not have been full blown drunk, even though he had consumed the entire bottle, but he was also much larger, much weightier- he would have towered over Agalon had he been able to stand up.
Agalon set the plate on the desk and picked up a handful of leaves, selected one, and held it out toward Xaxac. Xac stared up at him, sniffed the air, then leaned forward and carefully, delicately, took the leaf from his hand and nibbled it quickly until it disappeared. Agalon’s smile grew wider as he repeated this motion, and Abe glanced over at Lee, who was staring at the whole scene in disbelief.
“That’s much better, ain’t it, Honey Bunny?” Agalon asked, apparently delighted with himself, Xac, and everything around them, “A shifter. A real shifter! He looks so much like a rabbit! We’ll have to figure out how to handle it, but look at him! Doesn’t he look like a rabbit?”
“Not really,” Lorsan climbed onto the sofa to peer over the back, “He still looks real human. He’s got hands. And his eyes are freakin me out. Is he even like… can he think? Can he hear us?”
“He don’t never remember it in the morning,” Abe said.
“So he really is just… a mindless animal monster thing,” Lorry said, “Super… super don’t want that thing in my house… this is gonna end real bad. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I’m against it.”
“Lorry hush!” Agalon shusshed him, “Nothing is going to happen. Xaxac is still in there, ain’t ya, darlin? I’d know my little Honey Bunny anywhere.”
He reached for the plate and picked up another handful of spinach.
“Half your arm’d be missin if we hadn’t acted quick,” Lorsan said, “That thing is strong as hell. And he bit fast. I didn’t see it! One second he was looking ahead and the next he was on top of you. I don’t trust that shit.”
“He scares easy,” Agalon said in a soft, soothing voice, “I shouldn’t’ve tried to touch him. He’s calmed down now though, ain’t you, Honey Bunny?”
“Best thing to do,” Abe said, “Is knock him out. Ain’t… Master? Ain’t you magic? Can’t you knock him out?”
“I could,” Agalon said, “And I probably will once the night wears on, but right now I need everybody to hush. I want silence. I want him to be comfortable. Ain’t nothin gonna hurt you, Honey Bunny.”
“We’re all gonna die,” Lorsan said.
“You a hungry boy, ain’t you?” Agalon asked as he grabbed another handful.
Xaxac, for his part, finally seemed as if he was rather content. He had given up the twitching, and his eyes no longer darted across the room. Agalon was sure, somewhere behind those giant eyes, he saw the boy he had taken into his home.
He went through the entire plate of spinach, and Agalon mourned its loss. It was, he considered, very much like the feeling of having a wild animal eat out of your hand. It was something that very few people, likely no other person, had ever done.
“Do you feel better now, darlin?” He asked, “Can I pet you this time?”
“Dad I swear to good god above,” Lorsan said and hunkered lower below the back of the sofa until only his eyes peered over it.
Agalon laid his hand gently on Xaxac’s head, between his long ears, and held it there, motionless for a moment. Then he began to scratch at the base of his right eat, which Xaxac seemed to immensely enjoy, and he began thumping his right leg.
“That’s so cute!” Agalon proclaimed, and if it hadn’t been so terrifying it perhaps would have been. “Lee, run downstairs, and if the cook’s already left send somebody after her. Make him some cornbread.”
“Yes master,” Lee said, and did not try to hide how happy he was to have an excuse to get out of the room.