Jane, for the first time in weeks, had a dream.
The world around him had grown several times in size, and the canopy of the trees was high enough to be mistaken for a sky. Brushing past the blades of grass which reached up to his waist, and knocking aside leaves which were larger than his head, he ran through the strange landscape of autumn. He was familiar with the situation, and yet at the same time unfamiliar with it. He sought to question his situation, but at the same time possessed a mind which could not question, and moved solely on instinct. Like this, he ran, jumped, and ate, in a desperate bid for his survival.
The life of a small creature like him would not last long, however. Soon enough, his left leg stopped responding as it should've, having been ensnared in a trap. A sharp line of pain felt like it would slice his leg right in two, but he still struggled to free himself from the metal teeth. Soon, his struggling tore the flesh and skin of his leg, revealing bits of the crushed bone underneath. Like this, throwing away everything just for the possibility of survival, he maimed himself further. However, just as the final bit of tissue was about to give way, he noticed something in the corner of his eye.
A tall creature, standing on two legs, was slowly approaching him. By his waist, a short knife was in it's sheath, ready to be drawn at any moment. In the fear and desperation which Jane felt, he had a clear thought.
'Ah... I'm going to become someone's dinner.'
He struggled a bit more, before slumping down and accepting his fate. Blood flowed out from his leg, making him feel like a pierced balloon. The creature approached him, and grabbed the scruff of his neck. Then, the creature took out the knife by it's waist, and pressed it against his fur. It exerted a little strength, and then, all possibility of survival was robbed from Jane's body. The last thing he saw was the freckled face of the boy, it's dirtied blonde hair, and the faint expression of grief it wore.
---
As Jane woke up, the oily smell of rabbit stew assaulted his nose, and irritated his stomach. Despite the heaviness assaulting his body, the hunger was too much to overcome, and so he dragged himself out of bed. Dressing himself lazily, he mustered up the courage to approach the day.
The harsh morning light left hardly a single shadow in the kitchen, and so the traces of an animal being broken down were brightly visible. The bones, now stripped of their meat, were in the stew, but a single broken leg still sat around on the counter— his brother argued it would be dangerous after breaking into fragments— painting a comically gruesome scene in contrast to the general tranquility of the kitchen. At the table, his brother sat, eating his stew from a wooden bowl with an absent expression.
His brother was always thinking about something. Even when there was nothing to think about, that guy would come up with entirely new problems to muse over. Now, Jane could likely guess what his brother was thinking about, just from the tantalizing smell filling the room.
'He must be thinking about how well he cooked today.'
The pot on the stove was still simmering softly, and so Jane grabbed his own bowl and spoon, and ladled a healthy amount for himself. Soaking his mouth in the soup and spices, it really helped take away the weight of everything in his life. Especially after he had to hunt yesterday. The ground stained with the bloody vitality of the rabbit, and it's eyes which were filled with resignation, crossed his mind. With that, he took another spoonful of the soup into his mouth, and washed the memories down with it.
Jane particularly liked the carrots, although he wished they could be a little crispier and fresher. Perhaps the rabbit from his dream was rubbing off on him a little. It really was a large and incomprehensible dream, one that would not be washed away by a lifetime's worth of stew. The rabbit tasted a carrot for the first time on the side of a road, where it had likely fallen out of a carriage or basket. Indentations from a wheel formed a neat line across the road, which then carved their way into the carrot and splattered it's flesh for nearly a whole meter. Other than the crushed part, the carrot was more or less pristine, and it's orange allure found it's way into the depths of the rabbit's heart. It did not know why, but there was an undeniable longing in it's heart. It really wanted to eat that carrot.
From that point on, the rabbit would loiter around the same road, hoping with all it's heart to find more carrots and- indeed, it did. However, placed so close to human civilization, there was no chance of it's life lasting much longer. Indeed, not too long after, it fell into the fateful trap which led to it's death.
Jane was a little shaken up about the memories from his dream. While he didn't really care too much about the rabbit's culinary preferences or the fact that it died— all creatures would die someday, after all— the boy which killed the rabbit in the end felt uncannily familiar.
In his reminiscence, Jane forgot to wield his spoon properly, and a rather large amount of soup escaped onto the table. Tsking loudly, he reached for a towel to clean the mess up with. Before he did so, however, he took a quick glance at the spill. Within it, he saw his own reflection. It was a freckled face, with slightly dirty-looking blonde hair, and an annoyed expression.
'Oh, so it was me, then?'