Sandpaw never did get to know what the discussion of the trainees was like the next day, for instead he found himself in a special kind of peril.

“Move it you caterpillar!” The large brown bunny said, her voice tough but sultry. She wore a jacket, though she had the sleeves draped on her shoulders. It was a weird sight, and a weirder one when she actually moved, since she often lowered herself to move on all fours rather than the human walking of Elder Benjamin.

It wasn’t easy, but Sandpaw did as he was told, running over an area that the older bunny had set up. It was an obstacle course, which elicited odd daydreams of humans running over rubber circles and climbing walls. Most of his training, on the other hand, was entirely in dug rows and pieces of dry thornbush that would stab through his foot if he stepped wrong.

Running, jumping, and occasionally standing still were all required and his heart raced as he listened to the larger bunny. “That’s it, you can stop and cry later you little cottontail. This is serious training!” He didn’t know why she was being so harsh. Did Elder Benjamin put her up to this because of his last attempt? Or was she just this harsh.

After five hours she finally let him rest, panting, in front of her. She had her paws crossed, and he could see her face from under her weird hat. She was chewing a clover, and he was so thankful he could just stop for a little bit. “Alright, I think I have your mesure.” She said, pushing his face up with one of her feet so that he was forced to look at her.

“W-wah?” He said, trying his best to say anything he could but his intelligence was drained by the same exhaustion that racked the rest of his body and mind.

“I understand you. You want to do this and I think you can, so I will be taking you with me.” She let him drop, his cheering yays muffled by the grass and dirt. “But you have to listen to every word I say. If you don’t, you could easily get us both killed, got it?”

“Yes ma’am.” He said, rolling over so that he could actually speak without doing so into the ground. There she was, a beautiful rabbit with soft fur and taught mussels. He could see her above him, and her fur was so soft but thin he just ended up staring at her.

“Whatcha looking at, kit?” She asked, a soft giggle in the undertone of her voice.

“Your mussels. You are so strong!” He said honestly, though he felt a blush creep up his face regardless.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

“Oh you little pervert.” She giggled more. “Go take a nap, we’ll be leaving at first light tomorrow.” She pushed him away with her foot, pushing his head and making him roll down the hill. After a few minutes he got up and crawled into a hole and did as he was instructed, sleeping perfectly well.

The next morning Sandpaw and the older bunny left. She still hadn’t told him her name, and honestly he was starting to get embarrassed by that. He wasn’t sure what to say anymore. It was odd. They left through the meadow, sneaking towards the human town, which was strange to him.

The meadow was large. It was about four times as big as the Warren was, though without all the underground passages and tunnels. Most days there were human children who were training, but never this early in the day. The grass was still wet with dew.

“Listen, kit, we’re going to hop over the hill and go through the gutter. You won’t like it, but it’s going to be the safest way to get through the town, underground. Got it?” He nodded, following her directions exactly.

When they got to the top of the hill Sandpaw looked at the building, it was a small one story tall wooden building. It was large enough to hold four, five rooms tops. A part of his memory twinged again, which was starting to happen more often than not, and he realized it must be a schoolhouse. Where children were taught and the like.

Beside the schoolhouse was a road. The road wasn’t paved like the roads he’d seen in the woods, instead this was a gravel road that led right to the schoolhouse and not any farther. The pair of rabbits began by hopping into the ditch beside the road, their paws getting wet in the water down in the ditch as they crawled and hopped into the town.

As they moved farther more buildings sprung up and the trees became less and less prevalent. It really was a town here, a kind of human warren! “Keep your voice down if you have questions, ok?” His mentor hissed, to which he nodded simply. He was planning on keeping his questions to himself until after they got to their destination. “This is about to get a bunch worse.”

Of course, she was right. The ditch turned into a gutter, where there was no longer dirt to soak up the water and the water came up to their knees. But that was nothing compared to shortly after, as the bu ildings became close and tightly nit, and the road turned into a cobblestone paved road, when the gutter started to have a metal grate above it. Now the pair were walking through the gutter, with their chests dipped in the filthy water.

This was harsh, but it was safe. Nothing really eventful happened as they crossed the whole town. Sandpaw couldn’t even see the buildings,w hich he was really interested by, from down there. Instead they just popped out of the other side. There he found that there was one place that was worse, it seemed this little town had plumbing and their waste was being collected in this direction. It stank to his little nose.

“Alright, we’ll be going this way!” His guide said. “But first, we need to go take a bath. Right now, we’ll set off the hounds just trying to move forward!” He nodded once more, ready to be clean.