Daku and the meerkat didn't like the smell of the carrot, or maybe they didn't like the way she was eating it—like a creature starved for days. They just couldn't stand it.
They walked toward the door, their conversation low and indifferent, leaving Linda alone with her feast.
Linda, meanwhile, kept eating as best as she could.
Her teeth were tiny, barely able to bite into the massive carrot, and each small nibble took seconds to chew. It wasn't elegant; it wasn't fast. It was messy, greedy even. But she didn't care.
She looked at the carrot that was barely supported by her paws. Not even a quarter of it had disappeared, yet she could already feel her stomach filling.
Her eyes flicked to where Daku and the meerkat had gone, their voices fading as they moved toward the door. They weren't paying attention to her at all.
Her gaze drifted to the darker part of the room where Daku had gotten the carrot. Her mind buzzed with ideas.
If she could get her hands on more of them, she could sell these to rabbits. Beast-rabbits didn't even know they needed them to grow. She could get those carrots, make something out of them, sell them.
Her little mind was teeming with possibilities.
Quietly, she hopped, clutching a mole of carrot, moving deeper into the shadowy space where Daku had gotten the three carrots from.
The room was dark, but not completely.
Her eyes adjusted, and she began to notice drawings and inscriptions on the walls of the room too.
One in particular made her stop. It was a depiction of a rabbit beastwoman giving birth to a rabbit beastling. But her eyes went straight to the defect—the flower-like scar on the baby rabbit's butt.
Linda's heart clenched.
The mother rabbit in the drawing had noticed the deformity and that made her abandon the baby, and left.
Around the tiny, defective rabbit were foxes, circling but not touching her. They seemed aware of her, but they did not attack. It was a strange, almost sacred scene, like a baby born into danger yet untouched.
She froze.
Her rabbit body trembled.
She had never felt such heartbreak in a while. The memory of abandonment clawed at her.
Even in this animal form, her chest tightened, and tears pricked at her eyes.
Her mind drifted to her past life in the the human world. She thought of her own mother who would never have abandoned her, who had loved her dearly, or so she thought.
Yet her human mother had left her and her father for a richer man when Linda was just nine, forcing her to live with her grandfather until she got into college. The wound had never fully healed.
Even now, as a rabbit in this beast world, her heart echoed that old pain.
Her mother in this beast world too had abandoned her, but just too early.
Her eyes watered uncontrollably, her body shaking. For the first time in this new life, she truly understood the loneliness and sorrow of being left behind.
It was then, Daku had come into the room. He looked like he was going to scold her, but the moment he saw her tears, he froze. He didn't know what to do.
Daku wasn't a cold person. He wasn't an angry person, he was just neutrally distant.
Daku had been born very dark, different from the other beast-rabbits in the Burrow Tribe. Because of this, he had always stood out, drawing attention wherever he went. It was almost like he was royalty.
The drawings on the wall reflected this—he was adorned with jewels, showing the way he was treasured, not as much as women are treasured, but in a way that made him unique.
He had everything: strength, size, intelligence, and attention.
He had grown bigger and taller than his peers. He was smart enough to have learned to talk before his peers too. His human form was striking—dark, tanned skin, strong muscles, and an imposing presence.
Unlike most beast men, he didn't mind transforming into his beast form. Others were embarrassed by theirs, feeling it was shameful. But Daku? In his rabbit form, he felt freedom. It was a reprieve, a moment away from all the attention.
That was why he and Bemu, the meerkat, were here in the burrow. No one else came—others stayed away in their human forms.
But now, his mate—this small white rabbit—was before him.
He drew her close without thinking.
She was so tiny she couldn't even reach his knee. He had to bend low just one of his huge paws could reach down to stroke her fur and rub her gently.
The little rabbit cried in silence, unable to even whimper. She couldn't speak, couldn't make a sound, but Daku felt her sorrow as if it were his own.
He held her tighter. He didn't know what to say.
For the first time in his life, Daku felt pity for someone.
All his life, he had never felt pity. He had never felt sorry. He had never even said thank you. Everything had always been given to him.
He believed no one deserved pity—because he was born special and others were born normal. If someone wanted his pity, they had to be born special like him. Others were born normal; they could never understand him, so why should they be pitied?
But this little rabbit… she was special.
He had never even once pitied Bemu, the meerkat who was closest to him. And yet, here he was, feeling something new, something he hadn't allowed himself to feel before.
Bemu, watching from afar, couldn't help but smile. His over excitement had shifted into satisfaction.
Finally, his friend, Daku, had found someone he could relate to. Someone different, someone unique, someone who could understand him and be understood in return.
Then—**POP!.**
There was a pop sound.
Bemu's had shifted back into his human form with his knees held up and his hands stretched out. His face was hidden beneath a wild mane of red human hair as he bowed.
The angle made it impossible to see his face; his neck stretched toward the ceiling.
His human form was a little too big to be seated comfortably in the burrow mansion.
He was completely and disturbingly naked. His skin was pale.
Linda froze, amazed. She had never seen stark naked man in real life.
That stinky, talkative meerkat… he had popped into a naked Adonis!
Linda blushed.
Daku noticed her stare and immediately stepped in front of her, blocking her view.
"Bemu! Aren't you a good friend, transforming to your human form even before I do?"
Then Bemu's voice rang out, deep and manly, far from the small, sharp sounds he made as a meerkat. "Brother… Brother Daku, you know we do not control these things."