[pfsb] it's so FLUFFY

[acrookedpath]

In Wei Wuxian's defense, it isn't as if he forgot one should never eat free food unless it came from Madam Bar or the waitrats. It's simply that after nearly a year where he has -- only on occasion, mind you! -- accepted food and drink from strangers with no ill effects, he may have let his guard slip. Just a little.

Besides, he was so absorbed in his work that for all he knew, a waitrat had deposited the little bowl of animal-shaped desserts on his table. It wouldn't have been the first time he failed to notice one of them trying to get his attention.

So when he absently picked up a cracker to nibble on it as he worked through a particularly thorny set of talisman calculations --

Well.

The little black rabbit that now sits on the table, a red ribbon looped around one ear, just wants it emphatically known that this was not his fault.

Comments

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian's nose wrinkles at the description of the marshes. It sounds like the Burial Mounds; worse, even, for how it is a true prison rather than merely a home carved from an unforgiving place. He glances to El-ahrairah in his easy sprawl, ears twinkling under the dappled forest light, and twitches his whiskers in the smallest smile.

It is difficult not to feel a kinship with clever creatures who scrabble at the edges of the world.

Quite the challenge, and quite the reward to match! he says, pleased.

[lightamidchaos]

Indeed and it was! Saxifrage agrees. But treachery was at hand, because Yona the hedgehog had been snooping nearby, searching out slugs and snails, and overheard the bargain. He fled immediately to King Darzin to warn him, hoping to secure rewards for himself.

Bearberry snorts his opinion of that.

When El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle arrived at the garden to examine it and make a plan, they found that the guards had been doubled, and that every gardener and weeder was closely examined to make sure they were known. Frustrated, they retreated to the marshes, where Prince Rainbow taunted them with their lack of lettuce. But El-ahrairah told him, bold as anything, "Not to worry. I am having them delivered. There will be too many to carry."

They planned a day and a night in secret, and then the next night Rabscuttle went secretly to the field where the palace's children played during the day and dug a scrape. He disguised himself and hid in it until morning, when the children came out, then joined their games and played with them until it was time to return to the palace. The guards tried to question him, but the king's son himself ordered that he be let alone. In that way Rabscuttle made his way into the palace and hid in the storerooms, where he spoiled the king's food - especially the lettuces - so that everything the king and his people ate made them sick!

All the rabbits look at Rabscuttle, who is looking rather smug.

[acrookedpath]

So does Wei Wuxian, who immediately bursts into laughter when he sees Rabscuttle's expression.

That is clever! he says.

[lightamidchaos]

We thought so, says El-ahrairah, amused.

Rabscuttle wasn't discovered, Saxifrage continues, and after five days he slipped out undetected, leaving everyone in the palace sick behind him. Then it was the prince's turn. He disguised himself with berry juice and plants and all sorts of clever tricks, and presented himself to the king's guards as a physician sent by Prince Rainbow himself.

King Darzin saw him immediately, only to be horrified when El-ahrairah diagnosed him with an illness caused by eating his cherished lettuces, which had been infected by the dreaded Lousepedoodle. The prince was even able to prove it by having the guards collect a prisoner to try the poisoned food - because the prisoner was Rabscuttle, appearing like an everyday rabbit, who gave a very convincing performance of being poisoned.

It was at this point that Yona the hedgehog returned with the news that the rabbits were preparing for an invasion of the garden, and when he heard it King Darzin laughed aloud. 'I have thought of a trick worth two of that!' he exclaimed, and gave orders for a thousand lettuces to be delivered to the marshes of Kelfazin, where all the rabbits would eat them and be poisoned. El-ahrairah, in his guise of physician, approved of the king's cleverness, and took his leave.

And so it was that evening, when Prince Rainbow came to patrol, that he found that El-ahrairah had indeed succeeded with his trick, and all the rabbits were feasting on King Darzin's lettuces. He kept his word in turn, setting them free, and from that day to this, no power on earth can keep a rabbit out of a garden.

[acrookedpath]

"Louspedoodle" is such a ridiculous name for an illness that Wei Wuxian has to stifle another round of laughter against Lan Zhan's arm, lest he interrupt the story. What a fool, to fall for a trick like that! But that is the way of the most arrogant, he thinks: they believe themselves untouchable.

I have always wondered how rabbits sneak so easily into our fields, he laughs. And now I know! What a well-earned talent!

[lightamidchaos]

El-ahrairah visibly preens at this, and Rabscuttle can't help but look a little pleased himself.

It is one of my favorites of the stories, Saxifrage agrees. I would always ask Dandelion to tell it.

I wish I could have met Dandelion, Cloudfoot pipes up.

[acrookedpath]

Was he a great storyteller? asks Wei Wuxian.

Moving as little as possible beneath Lan Zhan's hand, he stretches to snag a lettuce leaf, then retreats back into Lan Zhan's lap to nibble on it.

[lightamidchaos]

With his free hand, Lan Wangji picks up two more lettuce leaves, one of bok choy, and a small carrot, and arranges them on his robes for Wei Ying to have when he wants. (There is no scarcity of choices among what he has brought; it is enough to feed ten rabbits, or more.)

One of the greatest! Saxifrage declares, excited. He hops closer to peer up at Wei Ying, rearing back and placing a paw on Lan Wangji's knee. And he was one of the original band who escaped the disaster and made the long journey with Hazel-rah and Fiver and the rest, and defeated Efrafa, and all of it!

[acrookedpath]

He was? Wei Wuxian's nose twitches rapidly, animated by Saxifrage's enthusiasm. That sounds like another story worth hearing, if you aren't too parched from the first!

[lightamidchaos]

Oh - if you're sure? I wouldn't want to bore anyone--

El-ahrairah stretches out on his side on the ground and twitches a starlit ear at them. I enjoy that story, he observes, mildly. Bearberry squeaks agreement and hops over closer to Wei Wuxian, hunching down over a selection of vegetables.

Saxifrage considers, and hops up on to Lan Wangji's knee, where he can see everyone, and nudges his nose against Wei Wuxian's side. Do you want to hear of the escape? Or tales of the journey? Or of General Woundwort and the Efrafans? Or--

[acrookedpath]

Ah, so many to choose from! Wei Wuxian sounds absolutely delighted by his good fortune. Start at the beginning. What disaster did they escape?

He grabs a stalk of bok choy and munches away.

[lightamidchaos]

Saxifrage stands up, balancing easily on Lan Wangji's knee, and looks around at the others before beginning, It was long and long ago, in a place far and far from here, across great distances to a warren called Sandleford. Now that warren was strong and rich, teeming with rabbits, led by a redoubtable Chief Rabbit named for the rowan tree, Threarah. And in that warren were several young bucks and among them two named Hazel and Fiver.

He describes the bond between the two, Hazel's protectiveness for his younger brother, and Fiver's unique gift of sight beyond this world, of visions that foretold things no normal rabbit could see. He tells the spellbound rabbits how Fiver had seen a great horror to come upon the warren, a horror so vast that the only way to survive was to leave.

But the Chief Rabbit wouldn't listen, Saxifrage says, mournfully. And so Hazel and Fiver chose to leave instead, and to take all who would come with them.

Faithfully, he names each of the members of the brave band, and tells of the scuffle as they depart, with Bigwig among them unexpectedly at the last.

They set off across the fields and through the woods to a place unlike that any rabbit had ever known, a place seen only in Fiver's dreams; a high, far place, rising up and up into the sky, where they would build a new warren. And on that journey they had many, many adventures...

[acrookedpath]

Many indeed, as Saxifrage spins out the story. There is a river to be forded; a creature that hunts them through the forest (Saxifrage does not specify what, exactly, it is -- Wei Wuxian has the rueful suspicion it might be a dog, and that his new rabbit friend is sparing them all the panic of before); great beasts called hrududil that Wei Wuxian thinks might be the cars of London Above, from the way they are described. He finds himself hypnotized by the telling, so swept up in the tale that he can practically feel the rush of the river beneath his paws and smell the gouts of smoke belched by the hrududil.

When the band of rabbits reaches the oddly conspicuous, empty warren of Cowslip, the fur stands up all along Wei Wuxian's back.

[lightamidchaos]

Ah, that warren! Saxifrage shudders. Poison, insidious in everything, sneaking through the air and the walls and the spirits of the rabbits who lived there, walking the burrows - the empty, empty burrows. They told no stories of the Prince of Rabbits there, no - only strange shapes of stone pushed into the walls, words without meaning spoken like song… for everything was wrong. Everything.

From there, he explains in chillingly simple words the traps and snares hidden in the grasses and runs around the warren; how the rabbits who lived there had accepted their own harvesting; and how close they came to losing those among their number, were it not for Fiver’s warnings and Blackberry’s cleverness.

After that, nothing could separate them. Nothing could shake their trust in Hazel-rah, and in Fiver. And soon after, they came to the place they were looking for, high and clear and free, but our story does not end there. For it was after they arrived and built the new home, the home where I grew up, that they learned what had happened to Sandleford.

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian was already shivering slightly at the story of Cowslip's warren -- a guardian who is not a guardian at all, a people willing to look the other way simply because they were not killed this time, gnaws at some primal fear deep in his gut. And at this --

He turns his face into the warmth of Lan Zhan's palm, as if to hide.

Rabbits shot. Tunnels gassed. Lands plowed up to make way for a settlement of humans. His emotions have always been so big that his human body can barely hold them all, and in a rabbit body, with a human mind -- ah, it is much worse.

(And if he thinks of cultivators storming the Burial Mounds, tearing up every shred of life Wei Wuxian had tried to sow in his brief year among the rot...

Well. He cannot be blamed for that.)

[lightamidchaos]

“Wei Ying,” he murmurs, curving his fingers protectively around him. “Do you wish me to take you from here?”

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian shakes his head. It is only a story -- a tragic one, yes, but that is not enough of a reason to leave. Especially with Lan Zhan so close, anchoring him to reality.

He keeps his face buried in Lan Zhan's hand a little longer. Breathes in the sandalwood scent of him; the swirl of worry and love that mingles alongside.

At last, with a gentle lick of Lan Zhan's palm, he turns his face back to Saxifrage, keeping himself curled small under his zhiji's touch.

[lightamidchaos]

“Very well,” he says, softly, and keeps him sheltered close as Saxifrage continues.

…all the rabbits of Watership Down were horrified at the tale Holly told, and marveled at Fiver’s foresight and Hazel-Ray’s wisdom and leadership in bringing them safely away. And there on the down they made their home, soon to be joined by others, including a white bird from the distant sea — but that is another tale.

[acrookedpath]

I am glad they found a new home, says Wei Wuxian, softly. Did it thrive, in time? If others came to join them?

[lightamidchaos]

It did! It still does, Saxifrage beams, and El-ahrairah sits up.

A fine place. I have visited myself. In disguise, of course, he adds, as Saxifrage whirls to stare at him in shock.

[acrookedpath]

Have you?

Wei Wuxian's ears swivel forward, and he eases out a centimeter or two from beneath Lan Zhan's hand.

Before you came to this forest, or do you come and go as you please?

[lightamidchaos]

Both, El-ahrairah tells them, smugly.

[acrookedpath]

He cannot help but snicker at the pride in El-ahrairah's voice.

If only I could learn your tricks from you! he says. I cannot stray very far from the inn where I live, not without another's help.

[lightamidchaos]

El-ahrairah considers him. I don't know if I could teach you, without you being a rabbit in more than this magic.

[acrookedpath]

He heaves a sigh. Mournful: I thought that might be so. Ah well. Perhaps one day I will discover some new tricks of my own, that let me travel beyond the bounds of the inn and the forest.