No sign. No warning.
The usually clear night sky had stars missing. Dark clouds hide the moon that used to hang above, as if giving an ominous omen.
Sounds of footsteps, closer to marching approached the quiet grassland hidden in a valley. Grunts, howls of tamed beasts shaking the ground and mountainous path they walk.
Stenches of blood found their way to the hidden sanctuary.
From a distant land came these bipedal savages, riding four legged reptilian beasts that could climb and move across the difficult terrain with ease. Driven by lust and greed, their disgusting voices reached the once serene quiet valley.
"Oh Luminus! This place… this valley!"
A man in plain light silvery armor had his jaw dropped open, muttering to himself in disbelief. He looked at the Atmospheric Mana Detector on his hand, seeing the hand kept twisting to the very extreme right, exceeding even the scales.
He urged the beast he rode; coming down the mountainous path down to reach the flatter ground where blue grass grew.
His eyes warry, looking at the flat grassland in case of danger. After seconds, he put his guard down. He quickly got off the reptile beast and picked a handful of the grass, trying to ascertain its nature. He tore a small piece of the grass, and from the leather bag hanging on the beast he took a small vial filled with a transparent liquid. He opened the vial, and put the sample into it. With a shake, the transparent liquid began to glow in bluish light. And then it became brighter, to a point the man's eyes were unable to open his eyes. In seconds, the bright light dimmed, as if the magical elements from the sample finally ran out.
The man's hands shook from sheer excitement.
"Oh Luminus! This… all these grasses…! They are filled with mana! What kind of treasure land…!?"
The man gulped his saliva, his eyes widening more seeing the vast land of treasure. His expression calmed down after seconds of calming down. He picked up an artifact from his bag, a kind of telescope that let him see farther and through the dark. He looked around through its lenses, wary of danger and predators. But as far as he saw this grassland, it was too peaceful. He noticed the small birds on the smaller tree nearby, sleeping peacefully. His scope observed the few critters he saw. And he was attracted to a particular animal, casually sleeping out in the open.
A rabbit? So big??
Through the telescope, he spied on one particular rabbit with white fur, basking outside. Its white fur seemed to have the same sheen like the blue grasses below.
More and more humans riding beasts came down as well, seeing that the person leading them first wasn't in any danger after minutes of observation.
"This is crazy…" One of them muttered.
The leader of the Exploration team picked up the grass and put it into his mouth, chewing it without much thought.
"Thrice… no… even more potent than cultivated magic grass." The man commented through experience.
"Maintain a low presence. This place is far too rich. Beast of S class degree is likely living here."
The whole group's excitement quickly smashed hearing the possibility of such fearsome magical best existing here. Their eyes became wary, their body tensing.
The leader assembled a magical device, taking parts from the large bag on the tamed beast back. As soon as the device assembled, it was activated. Pulses of mana spread from the device, covering a kilometer radius around them.
"AM density is too high… the reading keeps fluctuating. Tsk, useless…" The man frowned, then took a deep breath and made his decision.
"All of you will stay here to continue exploration. Record everything and report at a temporary camp at the same time each day. Do not leave your post until the next order."
The group reluctantly accepted the order. They knew they were here to test the depth of this place, to assess the danger. The Vice Captain was appointed to become the leader, while the Captain left them on their own device to report their findings.
The intruders present were felt by all manner of creatures in the valley.
Even Shou.
***
"Hey, those heart-shaped leaves… aren't those…!"
Shou was basking under moonlight like other Moon Rabbits, in a sleeping posture. But noises disturbed him. The noises that sounded familiar.
Too familiar.
Shou opened his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows. His ears standing straight, his extraordinary hearings picking up the sounds like faint whispers.
But at this time, Shou couldn't feel curious, instead, his heart almost skipping a beat. He could hear words that resembled humans.
Fear instinctively crept up his back.
A year being a rabbit made him understood. The life here was prey that had no predator.
But now the worst of them all, appeared. There was no way a human being here was any good.
Despite the fear in his heart, he took the courage to find the source of the noises. Under cover of the faintly glowing grasses at night, he carefully moved silently, finally seeing a group made of 3 humans hundreds of meters away. Each of them was wearing silver armor.
Humans… They are really humans.
Seeing there were only three of them, Shou felt a little relieved it wasn't too many.
Please leave quickly…
Shou assumed they were just some hunters or adventurers, maybe. He could see light from the campfire lit up by the group. They would probably hunt some animals here.
Shou turned around and quickly headed to his home, quickly warning his mother, his siblings and all his kin to hide in the burrow especially during the day. Even as an ex-human, he couldn't see his own kin eaten. If it's other animals, he wouldn't care as much. Just not them.
Thankfully the rabbits could understand. All of them dug deeper into their burrows, and hid deeper away from the surface. Even at night, they only appeared to bask under moonlight for a few hours at most.
Shou acted as a scout at night, keeping constant watch of their movements from hundred meters of distance. Even his own burrow had turned into complicated tunnels where he could observe and escape fast.
The group of men keep walking around during the day, even entering the Moon Rabbits territory. Thankfully everyone was hidden deep under their burrows, and the men couldn't reach for them. And they only hunt during the day, and don't move much at night.
It was such a horrifying feeling, feeling each of their steps vibrating across the ground and hearing their voices right above. Thankfully they left after an hour.
Shou sighed a breath of relief sensing they left. As long as their kin stay near their own burrow, which now turned into a complex tunnel system, nothing should happen to them, he thought.
A week passed, the humans were walking around restlessly during the day throughout the entire grassland. Shou didn't dare to observe too closely, afraid for his own life.
But one day, he noticed all of them were gone entirely.
He used the deep tunnel he made to approach the empty camp site at night. Carefully investigating. He couldn't see anything of importance other than the remainder of burnt campfire, and the scent of grilled meat around. The night passed, and even when day came the group of men didn't come back.
Sigh. Finally…they left…
Shou looked around, observing his home.
Logically… this place is surrounded by mountains, at such high altitude too. They wouldn't bring back other humans just to hunt… it was too steep and dangerous just to reach here…
Shou consoled himself. This logic made sense. Just for meat they wouldn't stupidly climb the mountain paths that should take hours to reach the top here.
But despite his own consolation, he felt uneasy.
A few days passed since the humans were gone.
Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months.
The tranquility was restored to the grassland. Shou completely forgot about the humans, thinking they wouldn't come back.
But on this day, as the sun rose, the ground seemed to tremble. Roars and howls of beasts accompanied the sound.
Shou was awakened from the vibration surrounding him. Not just him, but all creatures in the grassland.
Anxiety filled him as he came out of his burrow. His eyes contracted violently seeing humans, each riding a giant beast below them all stood at the sides of the mountains.
He inhaled sharply, his heart beating fast.
So…so many… what… why are they here…
He felt like losing his breath as he turned to look ahead, to his left, to his right, and his behind. The group of humans were as if encircling this grassland.
As if planning to not let any lives escape.
And then, a shrill scream was heard. A flightless bird was shot by an arrow, blood splattered on the blue grasses.
And then, hundreds of humans moved at the same time!
HIDE!
Shou shouted in hare-tongue, his kins reacted instantly, panic spread to all creatures, each of them hid or ran. The birds changed their flight and escaped the valley. The rabbits returned to their burrows, hiding in the deepest parts possible.
Mana filled the air, magic shattered the ground, uprooting all life that their eyes set sight on. Through Earth magic, a soldier uprooted every inch of grass he passed. Not just him, tens of them moved together like Apocalypse to life.
Every step the human soldiers passed turned the lush grassland into dull barren earth.
"Moon grass! So much Moon Grass!"
"Hahaha! We are rich!"
Their screams of excitement were contrasted with the screams of despair from the smaller animals around them.
Shou was hiding deep in the burrow, fear froze his entire body. His eyes closing, his heart praying for all this to end.
Please… please leave…
Remembering his kin, his mother, his siblings, despite the fear in him he tried to move through the tunnel to find them.
But as he was about to reach his mother's burrow, the earth around him was shaking. As if the ground was overturning.
And it did.
W-what's going on!
Shou look in shock seeing the ground as if moved by invincible force. The ground above him was shaking and moving by itself.
Just then, all of a sudden, the ground above him split open. The sun hit his eyes, and what he saw next was… a human, their ugly smile looking at them like they were prey.
Shou took a sharp breath in, fear made him froze, in his eyes the man stretched his arm, and in a matter of a second, a rabbit was already clutched in his hand.
NO! MOM!
The female rabbit let out a shrill scream, her body pulsing with light as she kicked him over and over with her feet.
"Wow! What a cute bunny!" The man laughed.
And just then, one by one, more rabbits rushed out of their burrow and rushed to save their kin. Each trying to bite into the man's body, each releasing pulses of light from their fur as if trying to intimidate. But it only made the man excited even more.
"Hahaha! Oh my God! Aether element?!" The man waved his hand, more of his men came forward with nets and arrows.
NO! STOP! DON'T!
Shou didn't know what to do. Tears blurring his vision. His screams were unheard as he saw his mother and his kin taken away.
'Run…' A faint voice reached his mind, as his eyes looked again, he saw his mother's eyes looking at him.
'Run… Survive.'
Shou couldn't know whether it was his imagination, or his mother really spoke through his mind. But heeding to the voice, sounded almost begging, Shou could only turn his body away and run into the tunnel below.
Tears soaking his cheeks as he kept running along the deep tunnels he had made.
He escaped the valley, the tunnel ended right at the mountain side a kilometer away from the grassland in sight.
He watched from the sideline as the grasses were upturned, the plants uprooted, all life running for their life or struggling to fight against the men in armors, wielding staves and magic.
No…
Shou felt weak. If he was standing he would have fallen. He sat on the ground, filled with guilt, despair, and sadness.
The hours passed with excruciating pain. Watching everything, his own home overturned. Animals captured in cages, loaded onto the backs of giant four legged beasts.
He felt hollow.
As he watched his world burn, one of the soldiers, only hundred of meters away, noticed.
Shou felt his scalp tingled, his eyes locking to his side. Their eyes met. And in Shou's eyes, the man smiled with ugly teeth.
I see you!
Shou felt his heart stop once more. He turned back to his tunnel and got into it. He kept digging, digging and digging.
He just wanted to run.
Run away from this hell.
It felt like hours passed.
He didn't know.
His feet and paws hurt from the constant digging.
At one point he just stopped.
Beneath the ground, he could only cry silently… hoping this was all a nightmare.
…
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