Post by The Jenn on Jun 5, 2009 23:52:59 GMT -5
Title: Hoppity Hop
Characters: Winnie, mentions of Acanthia and Dorian
Word Count: 1408
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Hop.
He was freaking out.
Hop.
He didn't know what to do.
Hop-hop.
He... didn't even seem to be a 'he' anymore.
Winnie stopped and gulped in a breath of cool air, trying to force himself - herself, and wasn't that terrifying enough - to calm down. Behind hi-her, the lights from the Capital could still be seen in the distance. Ahead of her was nothing but a field and a hard-packed path, wide enough for at least two carts to move alongside one another.
She probably shouldn't be traveling on the main path right now. Anyone who passed by would stop and stare, and then start asking uncomfortable questions. 'What in all the hells are you?' 'Where's your rank and suit?' 'What's with those ears?' These were all things that she had wondered in rapid succession the first time she passed a puddle with a large enough surface to provide a reflection. Her colors were all the same, but everything else had changed. The way her very bones sat felt different.
And that wasn't even getting into the matter of the bizarre, entirely-female genitalia. Was she some sort of mutant now, fully a woman rather than a castrated male hermaphrodite? Could such things happen? One heard stories, of course, tales of violently sex-crazed perverts who were only one gender or the other, without the opposite to balance them out. Such stories usually ended messily for everyone involved. Was that what had happened to her? But then, why change everything else about her besides her region?
Eating that bloody heart had been a bad idea. The butcher had been so kind, though, to offer it up to her master - former master - as a 'treat for the pretty little pet'. Even if she'd wanted to, she wouldn't have been able to refuse after Acanthia accepted the gift. It had tasted deliciously odd, something exotic in the flavor that she hadn't been able to place.
A day and a half later, her spine felt as though it was on fire and she woke up to a searing pain in her entire body. She'd slipped out of her collar with a neck that felt oddly smaller, a head that could wriggle its way free, and ears that dragged painfully on the leather as it pulled away. Then she'd left the house, dazed and in pain. She still wasn't sure why. She'd felt like she couldn't stop moving or the pain would only get worse. And then that Corvie had found her, visiting from her home region... thought the weird, homeless little Ace would make an amusing test subject...
Whatever had been in that syringe, she hoped that it was never used on another living being. It burned like liquid fire coursing through her veins and she couldn't stop screaming at first. Her insides felt like they were being rearranged.
And apparently that had been the case. She was even smaller now than she had been before, small enough to slip out of the restraints used by the Corvie, who hadn't expected her to shrink overnight like washed cotton and escape into the night. She'd been lucky for the cover of darkness and her small size. The city was never truly asleep, but it was dozing as she made her way quickly out of its bounds.
Now she had no idea where she was wandering. She couldn't have guessed at the direction or where the path ended, or what other paths sprang up out of it. She just knew, somewhere deep down, that everything was gone. She could never show her face to anyone again. She was an outcast, and not like she'd been before. And to think that she had complained about being a delicately built male Yarrow Ace with more than half a brain! Now she had no rank. She had lost her identity! It hadn't been much, and she had often cursed it, but it was all she had in the grand scheme of things. Whatever may have happened to her, whatever degrading acts committed by those with more power, she had still been a Card.
For the love of all, what did that make her now?
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Walking... she didn't know how long she'd been walking. Her paws throbbed and ached, unused to this abuse. She had been a house pet! What did she know about surviving off the land?
Several days ago, she'd left the path in a blind panic when she heard the telling rumble of a cart's wheels not far off. She didn't know where she was or how far she had walked, only that she ached everywhere and her stomach felt tight with a combination of hunger and fear.
A few late-ripening berries hadn't been enough to sustain her and she'd made her way towards a grassy field in hopes of finding... something else to eat. Bugs? The thought revolted her, but her stomach had informed her loudly and painfully that it didn't care. After only a moment of searching, she'd heard a rustling in the brush and ducked down where she was, crouched and trembling with her eyes squeezed shut.
Who or what could possibly be out here besides her? The question begged an answer, and her mind happily provided several that made her shiver. It could be a feral bandersnatch. Or maybe bandits, though this seemed too exposed for what she'd heard of them. Who was she kidding... she had no idea what it could be. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't good for her.
She didn't want to be eaten...
Eyes still squeezed shut, too scared to open them and face her death, the first thing she heard was a voice. "Oy, it's another bun. A Yarrow! She looks pretty young. Here now, are you alright? Can you move?" An experimental limb poked cautiously at her long tail and she whimpered, hunching a little. Slowly, she cracked one eye and inched her head to the side. When she saw a Josiggy shaped like this new body she'd grown, without a rank and with a curious, worried expression on their face, she slowly lowered her head to the ground and sighed. Then she passed out from a combination of shock and exhaustion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The small band of roaming Leverets had been kind to her. There had been food and clean water, a place to rest her head without fear of predators. They didn't know what she was timidly babbling on about, Aces and Cards and hearts - though they assumed she meant the suit rather than the organ. As soon as she mentioned leaving her master, though, their expressions suddenly became knowing and they nodded with the sage expressions of people who had 'been there and done that'.
And then they had sold her to a Jack Rabbit. She'd nearly fainted again and would have, but for the fact that she wasn't exhausted the second go-around and didn't have as much of an excuse. They'd apologized to her before making the deal, telling her she just didn't seem to 'click' with the group and that she was far too pretty a thing to be wandering alone. They would sell her to someone with a proper warren, they said. She hadn't known what they meant, except that they were Rabbits and a Jack was a Rabbit - as opposed to a Card, which had been her initial logical assumption, having been owned by a Jack before. And apparently she was a Rabbit too.
Now the ridiculously tall biped with the enormous hair and the terrifying fanged skull on his arm owned her, leaving the Leverets who'd found her a good sight richer. "Decorative mutations," the Josiggy who'd initially found her explained with the voice of a merchant. "The Jacks don't want anything threatening, see, they want ornamental. Looks better to the other Jacks, like a vase on the mantle or silver cutlery. Papery lil' wings and a long tail? And a mane as a Lev? Keep your head down and do as you're told. They'll treat you alright. You might even make Doe someday, if someone takes a fancy."
She still didn't understand that last bit, and the way it was explained in such a way that she didn't know if she wanted to. All she knew was that she was property again, Rabbit property, and she still didn't know what she was going to do. Whatever her new master told her, she supposed. Maybe when she had a chance to calm down and think, she'd be able to make sense of it all. She doubted it.
Hop.
Characters: Winnie, mentions of Acanthia and Dorian
Word Count: 1408
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hop.
He was freaking out.
Hop.
He didn't know what to do.
Hop-hop.
He... didn't even seem to be a 'he' anymore.
Winnie stopped and gulped in a breath of cool air, trying to force himself - herself, and wasn't that terrifying enough - to calm down. Behind hi-her, the lights from the Capital could still be seen in the distance. Ahead of her was nothing but a field and a hard-packed path, wide enough for at least two carts to move alongside one another.
She probably shouldn't be traveling on the main path right now. Anyone who passed by would stop and stare, and then start asking uncomfortable questions. 'What in all the hells are you?' 'Where's your rank and suit?' 'What's with those ears?' These were all things that she had wondered in rapid succession the first time she passed a puddle with a large enough surface to provide a reflection. Her colors were all the same, but everything else had changed. The way her very bones sat felt different.
And that wasn't even getting into the matter of the bizarre, entirely-female genitalia. Was she some sort of mutant now, fully a woman rather than a castrated male hermaphrodite? Could such things happen? One heard stories, of course, tales of violently sex-crazed perverts who were only one gender or the other, without the opposite to balance them out. Such stories usually ended messily for everyone involved. Was that what had happened to her? But then, why change everything else about her besides her region?
Eating that bloody heart had been a bad idea. The butcher had been so kind, though, to offer it up to her master - former master - as a 'treat for the pretty little pet'. Even if she'd wanted to, she wouldn't have been able to refuse after Acanthia accepted the gift. It had tasted deliciously odd, something exotic in the flavor that she hadn't been able to place.
A day and a half later, her spine felt as though it was on fire and she woke up to a searing pain in her entire body. She'd slipped out of her collar with a neck that felt oddly smaller, a head that could wriggle its way free, and ears that dragged painfully on the leather as it pulled away. Then she'd left the house, dazed and in pain. She still wasn't sure why. She'd felt like she couldn't stop moving or the pain would only get worse. And then that Corvie had found her, visiting from her home region... thought the weird, homeless little Ace would make an amusing test subject...
Whatever had been in that syringe, she hoped that it was never used on another living being. It burned like liquid fire coursing through her veins and she couldn't stop screaming at first. Her insides felt like they were being rearranged.
And apparently that had been the case. She was even smaller now than she had been before, small enough to slip out of the restraints used by the Corvie, who hadn't expected her to shrink overnight like washed cotton and escape into the night. She'd been lucky for the cover of darkness and her small size. The city was never truly asleep, but it was dozing as she made her way quickly out of its bounds.
Now she had no idea where she was wandering. She couldn't have guessed at the direction or where the path ended, or what other paths sprang up out of it. She just knew, somewhere deep down, that everything was gone. She could never show her face to anyone again. She was an outcast, and not like she'd been before. And to think that she had complained about being a delicately built male Yarrow Ace with more than half a brain! Now she had no rank. She had lost her identity! It hadn't been much, and she had often cursed it, but it was all she had in the grand scheme of things. Whatever may have happened to her, whatever degrading acts committed by those with more power, she had still been a Card.
For the love of all, what did that make her now?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Walking... she didn't know how long she'd been walking. Her paws throbbed and ached, unused to this abuse. She had been a house pet! What did she know about surviving off the land?
Several days ago, she'd left the path in a blind panic when she heard the telling rumble of a cart's wheels not far off. She didn't know where she was or how far she had walked, only that she ached everywhere and her stomach felt tight with a combination of hunger and fear.
A few late-ripening berries hadn't been enough to sustain her and she'd made her way towards a grassy field in hopes of finding... something else to eat. Bugs? The thought revolted her, but her stomach had informed her loudly and painfully that it didn't care. After only a moment of searching, she'd heard a rustling in the brush and ducked down where she was, crouched and trembling with her eyes squeezed shut.
Who or what could possibly be out here besides her? The question begged an answer, and her mind happily provided several that made her shiver. It could be a feral bandersnatch. Or maybe bandits, though this seemed too exposed for what she'd heard of them. Who was she kidding... she had no idea what it could be. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't good for her.
She didn't want to be eaten...
Eyes still squeezed shut, too scared to open them and face her death, the first thing she heard was a voice. "Oy, it's another bun. A Yarrow! She looks pretty young. Here now, are you alright? Can you move?" An experimental limb poked cautiously at her long tail and she whimpered, hunching a little. Slowly, she cracked one eye and inched her head to the side. When she saw a Josiggy shaped like this new body she'd grown, without a rank and with a curious, worried expression on their face, she slowly lowered her head to the ground and sighed. Then she passed out from a combination of shock and exhaustion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The small band of roaming Leverets had been kind to her. There had been food and clean water, a place to rest her head without fear of predators. They didn't know what she was timidly babbling on about, Aces and Cards and hearts - though they assumed she meant the suit rather than the organ. As soon as she mentioned leaving her master, though, their expressions suddenly became knowing and they nodded with the sage expressions of people who had 'been there and done that'.
And then they had sold her to a Jack Rabbit. She'd nearly fainted again and would have, but for the fact that she wasn't exhausted the second go-around and didn't have as much of an excuse. They'd apologized to her before making the deal, telling her she just didn't seem to 'click' with the group and that she was far too pretty a thing to be wandering alone. They would sell her to someone with a proper warren, they said. She hadn't known what they meant, except that they were Rabbits and a Jack was a Rabbit - as opposed to a Card, which had been her initial logical assumption, having been owned by a Jack before. And apparently she was a Rabbit too.
Now the ridiculously tall biped with the enormous hair and the terrifying fanged skull on his arm owned her, leaving the Leverets who'd found her a good sight richer. "Decorative mutations," the Josiggy who'd initially found her explained with the voice of a merchant. "The Jacks don't want anything threatening, see, they want ornamental. Looks better to the other Jacks, like a vase on the mantle or silver cutlery. Papery lil' wings and a long tail? And a mane as a Lev? Keep your head down and do as you're told. They'll treat you alright. You might even make Doe someday, if someone takes a fancy."
She still didn't understand that last bit, and the way it was explained in such a way that she didn't know if she wanted to. All she knew was that she was property again, Rabbit property, and she still didn't know what she was going to do. Whatever her new master told her, she supposed. Maybe when she had a chance to calm down and think, she'd be able to make sense of it all. She doubted it.
Hop.
