Baiyu hopped down the the small tunnel as quickly as his little bunny feet would carry him. His heart and mind pounded and everything was blurry. When he came to an opening he stumbled over himself trying to stop. Before him was a small cavern filled with various kinds of greenery and a tranquil pool in the middle. Overhead was a hole in the ceiling through which the moon reflected in the still waters. On either side of the cave were large openings through which Baiyu could see little of interest at the moment.

Flitting throughout the cave Baiyu could see smoky creatures milling about the air. Baiyu was about to cautiously step out into the cavern when a huge lumbering shadow emerged from the passageway to the right. It dwarfed the monsters who had killed Baiyu's parents easily and it looked like it could crush even the blue and gold monster with but a single paw. Baiyu retreated farther back into the hole in which he hid, resisting the urge to squeak in fear of the giant beast finding him as the blue and gold one had.

Safe and deeper in the hole Baiyu collapsed, tired from all of the fear and danger which surrounded him. his head ached but exhaustion was dragging him down into its embrace.

As he fell asleep he noticed a faint blue light on the inside of his right leg.

_

Baiyu was choking on smoke. Adrenaline flooded through him and Baiyu leapt to his feet to find one of the smoky creatures milling about the air around him. The creature fled from Baiyu as he awoke and Baiyu realized he felt drained and physically tired, even though he had just slept. Baiyu hauled his body to his feet and realized something odd. His mind felt sharp. He was noticing things he hadn't before and his mind was rushing to make connections he simply hadn't been able to do before. He had thought that he had retreated deep into the cave because he couldn't see the pool anymore, but as he hopped forward he realized he had barely gone ten feet inside.

Baiyu could also hear a great and terrifying rumbling sound that froze Baiyu in his tracks. Deeper in the cave Baiyu could hear the sound coming from the passageway to the right. Baiyu made the connection in his brain that the big beast had come from that direction and so it must be the beast itself and he felt proud and smart for realizing this. He couldn't see the beast from his hole, but he could see pretty flowers with deep red petals that reminded him of blood. Baiyu didn't like that, but that sprouted from their stalks were deep green and oh so inviting.

Nibbling on the leaf Baiyu felt that same intoxicating energy seep into his body like he had when he ate the piece of log his mother had given him. Ignoring the pang of loss and sadness that the memory brought Baiyu focused on eating the much more delicious than a log plant in front of him. As he ate he realized that the energy sinking into his body felt different than the energy from the log had. Now that he had a comparison, Baiyu realized the energy from the log was still there and it felt grainy and more solid than the new energy did. No, energies. One of them was clear and flowed through his body like cool water; where the other was hot, sticky and metallic.

But then Baiyu's attention is drawn to a new problem, he had eaten all the leaves of the plant, but when he tried to bite down on the stem he found it too hard for his teeth to sink into. No matter how he nibbled or bit the tantalizing green stem remained unmarred by his best efforts.

Stolen novel; please report.

Eventually Baiyu's thirst got the better of him and he went to the pool. It smelled good, just like the log had. Baiyu's mood took another hit. Doing his best to ignore it he eagerly drunk the water and tasted... nothing. Well not nothing exactly, the water was cool and refreshing with a very odd tang to it, but there was none of that deeply intoxicating energy. Baiyu felt betrayed and glared at the pool. He was upset to find the pool glaring at him right back with rude sapphire eyes and a ugly little furry nose. Angry, he batted his paws at the pool and defeated the rude thing.

Then Baiyu heard a strange musical noise and saw there was a strange creature peaking its head out of the pool. She, and for some reason Baiyu knew it was a she, had a face much like the monsters that had attacked Baiyu's family except her skin was blue and here eyes were a hypnotic mix of red and black. More importantly however, was the fact that something about her seemed comforting to Baiyu. Then her mouth widened and she attacked him!

A small jet of water hit Baiyu in the face and sent him tumbling head over heels as she laughed even harder.

Terrified, he ran back to his hole. He had thought she was nice! But she attacked him! His tiny heart raced and raced before his brain began to realize something. He wasn't hurt. She had done him no real harm... But he still didn't like her anymore.

Not being completely out of energy thanks to the tasty food he had eaten, Baiyu decided the he was going to explore the left passageway. He didn't want to mess with the right passageway with the giant beast sleeping there and the rude blue thing would probably attack him again if he went near the pool so the choice was easy.

The left passage was plain and boring. It was made of rough stone and dirt. The dirt hade huge footprints from the beast in it and little bits of fur and scales littered the ground here and there. But as Baiyu hopped down the passage he heard something coming around a corner up ahead of him. He heard the sound of something dragging itself across stone and something about it registered with Baiyu as a threat. Alarmed he retreated farther down the tunnel as a strange scaled beast rounded the corner.

It was small, smaller than Baiyu, but it sported wicked fangs as it opened its mouth and hissed at Baiyu. Yet, it did not charge. It seemed unwilling to go near the cave Baiyu had come from. It must be afraid of the great beast. Baiyu himself would rather avoid the sleeping beast than charge the hissing thing.

Unfortunately when he returned the beast was not sleeping. He could hear it walk around in the right cavern as Baiyu did his best to sneak through the plants to his hiding place. In the end the beast did not go into the central cavern but that did nothing to lessen the anxiety and tension the little kit felt as he crept his way to his hiding place.

Once he made it and slipped inside he made sure to go deeper into the tunnel this time before he allowed the excitement of the day to catch up to him.

But sleep was no comfort for all the nightmares that plagued him.