[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]

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.

[lightamidchaos]

You could ask the captain, El-ahrairah suggests. He knows human tricks. He even cheated death itself, they say.

Rabscuttle rolls his eyes. Oh not again.

[acrookedpath]

Oh? asks Wei Wuxian.

He has gone still again, save the idle twitch of his nose.

[lightamidchaos]

So they say, El-ahrairah repeats. Sensing the possibility of another story in the offing, the other rabbits have settled down with their food.

He arrived in the lake with his great black ship, which had sunk and taken him with it. Somehow he found a way out of the lake, he and the ship both, back to his world, and from the seas of the dead back to those of the living.

[acrookedpath]

I have heard stories of a River that carries the souls of the dead, says Wei Wuxian, slowly, and have met a human who insists the same river connects to the lake by the inn. I wonder if that is how he managed it.

His scuffs a paw against the side of his nose.

There are ways for the dead to return, but not the same as they were when they lived.

[lightamidchaos]

If any would know, it would be the Black Rabbit of Inle, he says. He is the lord of the dead among rabbits.

[acrookedpath]

Ah.

I see. He tucks his paws beneath himself, forming a loaf with Lan Zhan's hand still resting on his back. One ear flicks: a wry, lapine smile. No wonder you were surprised I did not know who that was! We do have lords of the dead among humans, though I've never spoken to them personally, and we do not call them the Black Rabbit of Inle.

[lightamidchaos]

I have. But it was no easy journey.

I should say not, Rabscuttle snorts.

[acrookedpath]

No journey involving a lord of the dead ever is. Some of them can guard the souls in their care very jealously, from what I've heard, and do not appreciate the interference of the living.

The sparkle in his eye, and the amusement to his voice, is as much an invitation for El-ahrairah to tell his own story as any other.

[lightamidchaos]

It was after that business with Darzin's lettuces, El-ahrairah says, thoughtfully. The younger rabbits are practically holding their breath, and on seeing this, Rabscuttle sighs and settles into a flat position to listen, his ears laid back against his head and looking almost guilty.

He was angry, to be certain, but what was worse is that he was vindictive. Some of his soldiers took Rabscuttle prisoner - don't look like that, it was an honest mistake, he tells him. They mistreated him sorely, and once we were able to manage his escape, Darzin swore to see me and my people destroyed once and for all.

[acrookedpath]

Delicately, Wei Wuxian selects a carrot from the offerings in Lan Zhan's lap and sets to gnawing. He pauses at the mention of Rabscuttle's imprisonment; shoots the other rabbit a look of concern.

Next to him, Saxifrage settles close and grabs a carrot of his own.

[lightamidchaos]

Rabscuttle heaves a sigh. He tells me not to blame myself, he says. That if it wasn't this it would have been something else. But I still think if I hadn't been so stupid as to get caught by the guards--

--then someone else would have, or something would have happened, or who knows. Darzin wasn't going to give up without a fight, that much was obvious, El-ahrairah snaps at him, before telling the rest of them, And a fight is exactly what he sought out. He brought his army and penned us up in our warren so that we could barely snatch a mouthful or two of grass to keep us alive without being shot at.

Something about his gaze indicates he's seeing another place, another time, as he says, So I swore that I would go and bargain with the Black Rabbit of Inle to save my people.

[acrookedpath]

He has seen that look before, on hundreds of cultivators. Knows he has worn it himself too many times to count.

Perhaps Wei Wuxian is wearing it now, as he thinks of the Burial Mounds again -- not a new clan scrabbling in the dirt, but falling, falling, only cushioned from certain death by the cloud of angry ghosts rising to meet him.

Quietly, he says, If there is any time to bargain with death, it is a time such as that.

[lightamidchaos]

Exactly what I thought, El-ahrairah tells him, as Cloudfoot and Bearberry hunker closer together, near the shelter of Lan Wangji's other leg.

You don't know the Black Rabbit, you said before, so you have to understand - he's a rabbit, but he's more than that. He's darkness and fear and --

El-ahrairah stops there and looks very closely at Wei Wuxian. Or maybe you do know, I see, he says, and leaves it at that. Anyway, Rabscuttle and I set out together, for I figured I'd need his help to bring back whatever it was that the Black Rabbit could grant to save the others. The journey was ... well. He turns to look at Rabscuttle, and the two exchange a silent glance that carries unspeakable volumes. I don't know how long it took, or where exactly we went as we traveled into the dark, and through it, and beyond. But eventually we reached his warren. All of stone, you know, solid stone that he'd dug with his own claws. And he was waiting, quiet as snow and smelling like clean bone, with fur darker than yours and red eyes that glowed in the dark without giving any light.

He shakes his fur all over and says, simply, He wouldn't accept my life in trade. So I thought if I could win a game or a bargain with him, I could get him to do so as the stakes.

[acrookedpath]

When El-ahrairah pauses the tale to scrutinize Wei Wuxian, he only twitches his nose, once, in silent reply. It does not surprise him to be seen clearly; he only hopes it will not frighten the others.

More than they are already frightened by the description of the Black Rabbit's warren, anyway. Saxifrage trembles a little where he leans against him. Gently, Wei Wuxian presses closer, as if to huddle against the cold, and continues listening in silence.

[lightamidchaos]

I lost the first two games, he says, simply. The stakes for the first were my tail and whiskers, and my ears for the second. He took them all - not to be cruel, you understand, but because that was the price I'd chosen to risk. I--

I begged him to give over, Rabscuttle interrupts, and El-ahrairah turns to look at him, saying nothing. I scavenged for food for us to eat during those days in that cold and barren place, and I found clematis and burdock leaves and willow for makeshift replacements for what he'd lost, and I pleaded with him to give up, but he would not.

[acrookedpath]

Ah, as if he did not already see so much of himself and Lan Zhan in El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle.

The carrot Wei Wuxian had been nibbling lies untouched. He breathes out a long, sad sigh, and not all of his leaning against Saxifrage is for the other rabbit's comfort now.

You still have your ears, and your tail and whiskers, he says, still quiet. So there must be a good ending to the affair.

[lightamidchaos]

El-ahrairah noses comfortingly against Rabscuttle's side, then turns to Wei Wuxian and chuckles. There was, but not as you may think. For I had none of them when I went wandering the stone warren and came across the pits where all the diseases that kill rabbits were kept. The Black Rabbit's Owsla of ghosts told me, when I asked, which was which. I threw myself into the pit of the white blindness, for surely, I thought, such a plague which even elil fear would serve to bring down King Darzin and his army entire, could I but reach them in time after being infected. Only the Black Rabbit came upon me first, as I staggered back on my way.

Bearberry makes a high choked sound. Alarmed, Lan Wangji attempts to soothe him, wild rabbit or no, and remains still to reassure him when the little brown rabbit huddles down under his fingers.

To make it quick, El-ahrairah says, I did not know how the white blindness was spread. It is carried by the fleas in rabbits' ears, and without ears I could have no fleas. When the Black Rabbit told me this I lost all hope, I admit, and fell to the ground before him. Then he said the words I will never forget:

‘El-ahrairah, this is a cold warren: a bad place for the living and no place at all for warm hearts and brave spirits. You are a nuisance to me. Go home. I myself will save your people. Do not have the impertinence to ask me when. There is no time here. They are already saved.'

And they were, Saxifrage pipes up. Or so I have always heard it?

They were, Rabscuttle says, quietly. The Black Rabbit's own army fell upon King Darzin and his people and scattered them to the four winds. They were long gone and even almost forgotten by the time we returned, months upon months later.

And that's when I got these ears, El-ahrairah says, cheerfully. Lord Frith himself brought them, and the whiskers and tail, after hearing of the whole affair.

[acrookedpath]

The whiplash of El-ahrairah's cheer yanks Wei Wuxian into a brief sputter of laughter, like the nervy chuckle of one who has just missed getting crushed by a boulder. They are very fine ears, is all he can think to say at first.

Rabbits cannot weep like humans. Perhaps it is better that way, for if he could cry, he would hardly be able to say anything at all.

After nudging Saxifrage in the side -- a companionable reassurance he'll be right back -- Wei Wuxian scoots off of Lan Zhan's lap to approach El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle.

I am sorry, he murmurs, that you suffered so in pursuit of nothing but a home and safety for your people. That it was necessary to face death itself in order to find a measure of peace.