acrookedpath | [pfsb] it's so FLUFFY

Wei Wuxian glances up at Lan Zhan, his heart so full he cannot help but wriggle with joy.

A pleasure to meet you all! I am Wei Wuxian -- I was much bigger the last time I saw a few of you, he laughs. But Lan Zhan can still carry our basket of food, at least.

That's an unusual name, Saxifrage remarks, coming forward to stretch out his neck and sniff at Wei Wuxian. Do all humans have such odd names?

Many of us do!

He sniffs at Saxifrage in turn. It is so strange to assign emotions to scents, like "curious" and "friendly," but that is, indeed, what he smells. Wait until he tells Lan Zhan about this!

At the inn where I live, we have friends with names as short as Tom or as long as Harrowhark Nonagesimus -- and all manner of ones in between. Ingress, Ciri, Gideon, Gaeta, ah, I know I am forgetting many of them --

Interesting. That comes from El-ahrairah, who's settled down into a bunny loaf and is watching the proceedings with interest. Our names mean things. Do humans just like the sounds?

Bearberry jumps sideways, startled by wind through the grass, and ends up at Lan Wangji's side. He peers up at him, decides he's not a threat, and starts to nibble at the nearest set of greens.

For his part, Wei Wuxian flops onto his side, stretching out all four legs in a long, shallow arc before settling in comfortably.

Sometimes it's only that they like the sounds, I think? I could not tell you what "Harrowhark" or "Gaeta" mean, though perhaps they could, if they're ever transformed as I am. A sliver of laughter underlines his words. But Wuxian means "to be free of envy and aspire to great heights." Wei is my family name.

He peeks up at El-ahrairah.

And what of yours, wangye? What does El-ahrairah mean?

Prince with a Thousand Enemies, he says, sounding amused. Of course you would not know our stories, either.

Rabscuttle makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a snort, only to have El-ahrairah leap from his rest and pounce upon him, tumbling him about in a playful tussle. You should want them told too! You're in most of them, after all.

The other three rabbits appear unfazed by any of this, as Cloudfoot comes to join Bearberry in grazing on the vegetables that are laid out before them. Saxifrage drags a leaf over by Wei Wuxian and crouches down to eat and talk, both.

The prince was named by Lord Frith himself at the creation of the world, he says. It was when Lord Frith blessed all the animals. He gave the blackbird her song, and the salmon its shining sides and high jumps, but he also gave those like the fox and the weasel and the cat sharp teeth and claws and the desire to hunt rabbits, for there were so many of us that he feared we would overcome the world. And when he came to bless the prince, he told him, "El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed." And so we never have been, and never will be.

He picks up his head, ears flicking to alertness, as Saxifrage begins the tale. Slowly, his attention shifts to where El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle tussle in the grass.

Be cunning and full of tricks, he echoes, and they will never catch you. Rabbit bodies are not built for the crooked smile, the laugh that is not quite a laugh. Ah, Saxifrage, perhaps I know the stories after all.

He shakes himself all over, as if scattering the brief melancholy into dust.

Saxifrage leaves off nibbling his leaf to nudge at Wei Wuxian's flank with his nose. (Lan Wangji watches to make sure it is a friendly gesture only, but on seeing that it is, returns his attention to observing all of the rabbits around him.)

I would like to hear human stories too. Do you think you can stay with us tonight? Or come back again, if you can't stay?

He laughs, a little, and scoots closer to Saxifrage. Lan Zhan will worry too much if I stay here without him, he says. And I do not know for certain when this transformation will wear off. What if I changed back to a human inside your burrows? I would be too big to get out!

He noses the other rabbit's side.

But I will tell stories as long as I'm here. And -- can you understand us, when we speak as humans do? Because even if I cannot come back as a rabbit, I will keep visiting as a human.

(Truthfully, it would be great fun to eat an occasional animal cracker and dart into the forest, now that he knows what they do. But it will upset Lan Zhan far too much if Wei Wuxian takes to deliberately cursing himself while he's away.)

No, Saxifrage says, a little sadly. Only the prince and Rabscuttle can. Maybe I can learn from them.

Ah. Wei Wuxian's ears droop, sadly, before he rallies. Well! I will just have to share as many stories as I can before we must leave, then!

He sits back on his haunches.

For a long time, Lan Zhan and I thought El-ahrairah might be Chang'e's rabbit, who lives with her in the moon. Shall I tell you about them? Or perhaps a smaller tale, he says, laughing again, like how Lan Zhan and I first met?

In the moon? Saxifrage exclaims, and --

New stories? Both Bearberry and Cloudfoot sit up abruptly and turn to look at Wei Wuxian. Even El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle stop their tussling and face him.

El-ahrairah stamps on the ground. Gather 'round, he orders. And listen. To Wei Wuxian, he orders, Tell of Chang'e. They will like that one.

Lan Wangji looks briefly alarmed at the way the rabbits form into a semi-circle, looking at Wei Ying, but settles again as they do, chewing on vegetables and curling up beside each other.

Ah, Lan Zhan, it's all right! he says, gently butting his head against Lan Zhan's knee. You have nothing to worry about.

He sits up straighter, the literal center of the rabbits' attention. If he were still a human, he would be beaming.

This is how it was told to me, he begins, when I was very young. Chang'e was a beautiful young woman who worked in the palace of the Jade Emperor in heaven...

Gradually, he spins out the story: Chang'e's banishment to earth with a jade rabbit as her only companion; how she met the hunter Hou Yi, who shot down nine suns from the sky; their ascendancy to king and queen, and Hou Yi's slow corruption as he tasted power yet desired more.

She hated what her husband had become, he says. And when he decided to pursue the ultimate token of power, an elixir of immortality... she saw her chance to return to what she'd once been.

He rubs briefly behind Wei Ying's ears as he presses against him, then lets his hand fall away as he sits up tall, the center of attention. It looks for all the world as though he is teaching them something, or telling them something, but it is in a language he does not himself speak, with sounds he cannot hear.

After a moment's quiet watching, he carefully shifts some of the greens to be nearer the rabbits, so that they do not have to move to reach them.

Meanwhile, as they listen, several of the rabbits gasp, wide-eyed at the tale as it unfolds.

After years of toil, Hou Yi succeeded in his quest. He locked away the elixir -- a single pill in a carved wooden box -- and vowed to swallow it the next morning as dawn broke over his kingdom. But after her husband had fallen asleep, Chang'e stole from her bed; with her jade rabbit leading the way, she crept toward where the elixir was kept, opened the box...

Wei Wuxian flattens himself to the ground, miming a slow creep across the floor.

...and swallowed the pill down!

He swoops back upright.

Immediately she felt a lightness suffuse her as the elixir worked its magic. To her astonishment, her feet left the floor, and she began to drift toward the ceiling. 'Aiyo,' she cried. 'The elixir is too strong!' And that --

He stamps his foot, once.

-- is when Hou Yi slammed into the room!

Bearberry leaps up and hides his face in Cloudfoot's flank when he lands, shivering.

Lan Wangji hesitates, but the desire to soothe and protect is strong. Slowly, he reaches out to reassure the trembling bunny.

Ah, no, he has scared them too badly! Wei Wuxian gentles his voice, the sleek lines of his body softening.

This was not the end of Chang'e -- remember, she still makes her home on the moon, even to this day. But as Hou Yi saw what his wife had done, ah, did it look like her end was upon her! He reached for his bow, prepared to strike her down as he had struck down the nine suns so many years ago. But before he could:

"Stop!" cried Chang'e's rabbit, throwing himself between Chang'e and her furious husband. "Don't hurt her! Can you not see what you have done, to make her wish she could leave you for the heavens? Do you not still love her enough to let her live?"

So many believed Hou Yi's heart had turned to stone with his cruelty. Surely he could never be moved from his thirst for power. But there, deep within, moved by the courage of this little creature... ah, there was a tiny spark of compassion still remaining. Of love.

So he let his hand fall away from his bow. And as the jade rabbit grabbed the hem of Chang'e's robes, Hou Yi watched as they floated through the window and up, up, toward the moon.

Almost as one, the rabbits look up toward the sky, as if they could see their cousin there, then turn back to Wei Wuxian. Bearberry nestled down under Lan Wangji’s hand, reassured.

Very clever, El-ahrairah approves. I should like to figure out to fly to the moon. Did he ever come back?

No, says Wei Wuxian. As he was Chang'e's constant companion in her mortal life, so he is in her immortality. We honor them both during the Moon Festival in autumn.

(Well... Chang'e more than her rabbit, to be fair. But the warren doesn't need to know that.)

Hmmm. El-ahrairah looks up at the sky thoughtfully, and Rabscuttle groans. My prince, do you not have enough to occupy you here at the ends of the worlds, further than any other rabbit has explored?

El-ahrairah twitches a whisker at him, not deigning to answer that, and hops over to join Bearberry, nudging at his shoulder. Lan Wangji raises his hand as the other rabbit stirs, not wanting him to feel restrained, and El-ahrairah looks at Wei Wuxian.

Tell your friend that he's got a very good way about him, for a human. Both of you are welcome to keep visiting here, whatever form you take. As long as you don't come as a fox or a stoat or the like!

Aiyo, we would never be so impolite! Wei Wuxian flops back onto his side. When we visit, we will visit as harmlessly as we can. And I will be sure to tell him you enjoy his company. His eyes dance. He will be very pleased to hear that; he loves rabbits. He looks after a warren near his home, in Cloud Recesses -- that is why he knows how to reassure, and comfort, and which spots to scratch behind your ears.

Does he! El-ahrairah sits up to examine Lan Wangji, who blinks slowly back at him before glancing at Wei Wuxian. The way that the two of you do here, with visits and gifts of food and polite company? I approve of both.

Rabscuttle heaves a put-upon sigh. Yes, yes, you were right, my prince. They weren't the trouble I thought they would be.

I always am.

Wei Wuxian honks with laughter, toppling onto his back.

Does he always scold you like this, wangye? Ah, I know, I would be distrustful of something a hundred times my size as well, even if it brought food!

Lan Wangji smiles - tiny but real - at this sign that Wei Ying is enjoying himself.

El-ahrairah rolls his eyes. All the time.

You need it, my prince.

You sound like Lan Zhan when we were younger, says Wei Wuxian, amused and deeply, deeply fond. He does not truly scold me anymore, but I would get into far more trouble without him nearby.

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