T - Lucca, Lauryn, Nako, Harps, Spidey

[Nathalia]

((A pile of Leverets came to in a heap outside of what might be a Highland Warren a quarter of a mile from them.

Shelby was just leaping to protect his sister from something horrible leaping out of a bush at her when he blacked out and woke up here.

Layla feels as though she may very well have been in a coma for weeks and has no clue where she might be.

Jala can't remember who she is or what she's doing out of her Warren, but her middle feels horribly tight and unpleasant.

Alicia was cooking and went to get some sprouts out of the cupboard...
The cupboard door opened onto this place. After taking a quick peek, she found that the door had vanished behind her, leaving her alone out here with the unconscious bodies.

Dafina is wandering around a mile from them, struggling to follow the Leveret scent she just picked up. Lost, she was dropped out of one of the horrible shadow beasts and ran from them until she ended up here.

Brighid woke among the pile of Leverets, with no clue as to how she got there and seems inconsolable with terror and grief. Where is her Jack? Her home? Her friends? Her middle also feels horribly tight and unpleasant...

Your goal is to find one another, including Dafina eventually, and make your way toward the Highland Warren carefully...it may be a trap.))



~Nathalia

[Nako]

Pain.

Who am I?

The small leveret was awake very suddenly, twisting amongst a pile of bodies and limbs. For one horrific moment, she thought they were -dead- bodies. But no... They were moving, even if it was just slightly. Warm bodies and flesh quivering with every intake of breath.

But who were they? Who was she? She couldn't remember her name, or even where she was from. But she remembered a warren.. and this didn't seem like a warren to her. The warm bodies were.. somewhat soothing. At least until her stomach rumbled and twisted unpleasantly. A paw ran over the fur there; it felt stretched to the brim.

Perhaps she was pregnant?? What a ridiculous thought though, a fear of somehow having become a Doe and with child. Perhaps they'd all be little Lowland freaks.. What a strange thought. Why would she think such a thing? Perhaps instead she was ill, or very full compounded with a furball obstruction. She needed medicine.

Carefully, she began to extricate herself from the various limbs, lifting her head up to look around. Was... that a Warren in the distance? Perhaps it was -her- warren. She really wasn't sure about anything at the moment, but the protection of familiar dirt tunnels seemed most preferred to the disturbing openness that she was currently in.

[Lucca]

What....what was going on? Shelby knew it had been a bad idea to leave the Warren that day. He'd just had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach when his sister had, against the words of their father-Jack, decided to go exploring. Of course, Shelby never thought it was a good idea to stray too far from the Warren, and usually it worked out fine despite his misgivings. But this time...THIS time...it had been bad.

This time, he had been terrifyingly, horribly, right. A thing had suddenly sprang out of the bushes and attacked his sister. Shelby hadn't thought, he hadn't had time to be afraid, even. He'd just instinctively tried to throw himself in its path. For all the good it had done, he might as well not have bothered. After that, he'd known nothing but black. Well, until now...the Leveret groaned, and rolled over...into something warm and fuzzy. His eyes snapped open and he jumped pretty impressively, staring around.

Of course, panic rose in his chest and his heart beat wildly as he realized he was in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar Rabbits, and there was no sign at all of his sister. His ears pressed flat against his head and his breath came in short gasps. He nearly screamed when one of the other Rabbits was moving...she was small and looked like a Leveret, but was also weirdly...swollen. He cleared his throat.

"He-hello? Are we near your Warren?" It was worth a shot.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

She felt the movement of bodies as it rocked her own, and combined with the uncomfortable feeling around her stomach, Brighid finally opened her eyes to an unfamiliar scene.

The Torque Doe looked around, confusion and fear written plainly on her face as she realized she was laying in a pile of Rabbit boddies! Heart leaping into her throat, Brighid moved quickly and with less than graceful attempts finally managed to find all four paws on the ground next to the pile. Once she could breathe again, she noticed that the bodies were actually breathing, and twitching, as though they were in a deep state of sleep.

Some of the anxiety quieted, at least enough for her to take in her surroundings. "Where am I?" she questioned no one softly. Not a single thing in her entire range of vision struck her as familiar. A cold tremor of fear slowly ran its way up her spine until her whole body began to shake.

Brighid turned quickly when she heard small voices, and was almost relieved to see two Leverettes talking to one another - two Rabbits she again did not recognize.

"Where... where am I? Where is my Jack? Did you do this to me?" she cried shrilly. Had these small ones stolen her for another Jack?

Why can't I remember anything?! she thought frantically.

[Nako]

"I... don't know." Jala replied, ears pinning back against her head as she turned her head toward the suddenly conscious leveret. "I can't remember."

Her fur stood on end as a Doe leapt from amongst them, nearly toppling the leveret over with the force of extrication. Her body shuddered, protesting and swollen. Had she not forgotten everything, she might have recognized her mother. But in her present state, all she could see before her was a strange, yet beautiful looking Doe. And a Doe that was horribly frightened. And pregnant, or so she looked. But then again maybe she too was somehow afflicted with this sick bloat.

"M-ma'm, I truly do not know! I cannot remember anything, not even my name." She ducked her head submissively, trying to ignore her own discomfort to find some way to appease this frantic Doe. "Maybe, if we go to that warren... someone could help us? I'm afraid we might be very sick; I think we need medicine."

[Harpsdesire]

The situation had started out very curiously, but quickly taken a turn for the disturbing. Alicia turned around several times, but her vision remained the same: Unconscious rabbits, rolling fields, distant warren. Unconscious rabbits (some now awakening), fields, warren. She began to circle faster as panic set in. No cupboard door in sight, no matter how many times she looked.

Trembling a little, Alicia took a deep breath. This had to be a dream. Fantastical things like going through a cabinet and into a random field simply didn't happen. They certainly didn't happen in The Czar's warren. They especially didn't happen to her. It was a dream, or perhaps she had come down with a fever and was delusional. Perhaps it was not a good sign, how comforting the notion of visions brought on by severe illness was.

The leveret shook herself briskly, attempting to brush off the veil of panic on her mind. She took stock of the situation. It seemed like a nice enough day in her dream world, and besides herself there were three leverets and a Torquehelm Doe. There seemed to be a warren off in the distance. Everyone looked confused. Her hair gleamed pleasingly in the highland sun.

She was still in the Highlands. At least she could be glad her dream hadn't taken her to the Lowlands, or somewhere else repulsive. She watched, let the vision unfold, the sleeping forms begin to wake and talk. She recognized one of them: little Shelby, a leveret serving Heike. Shelby had seemed like the nervous sort on their previous meeting, and the look on his face now didn't challenge that notion. On the other hand, both the lady Doe and the small dark leveret who had also awakened seemed to share his panic.

Alicia herself had fairly well convinced herself that this couldn't possibly be really happening, and was thus comforted by the haze of denial. For the time being, she would be content to allow things to unfold before her, confident in the idea that what was happening wasn't real, so no true harm could come to her.

((Skip me if you need to for the next day or two, I have limited chance to get online. Assume that Alicia watches what's going on, and if the group moves she'll follow.))

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

((I feel so ashamed. I forgot that Jala was Brighid's daughter! I need to go look up her other children, just for my memory. XD)

Brighid listened to the green and black leveret girl in dismay. She didn't have a clue of what was going on either. It seemed as though there were four of them awake now total, and she looked back to the remaining pile to see if any others had woken. Not a one. It was all she could do to keep from wailing her feelings in unintelligible shouts.

The Doe looked back at the dark leveret, scrunching her nose and squinting her eyes in concentration. For a brief, glorious moment the Doe forgot about the current situation and realized that she knew that leveret from somewhere. Then, like a bolt of lightning, it hit her.

"You're my child!" she cried, running over to the little girl and pulling her close. The world seemed to be coming to the strangest of endings, but thank the White Rabbit there was at least one familiar face.

Unfortunately, once the realization had lost its surprising edge, the fear, worry and paranoia began sinking back in, and Brighid began to cry. "What has happened to us? Did my Jack, your Father Jack, throw us out? Are these others here unfortunate unwanteds?"

Brighid pulled Jala tighter against her, almost as if you would a stuffed animal who didn't actually need to breathe.

"Did someone say something about a Warren nearby?" Both horrible fear and hope flitted quickly in her heart. Fear at the prospect of being found and kept by and unknown Jack - as she had grown fond of the Lowlander Jack, even if he was a Lowlander - and never seeing her Warren, friends and other children again. Hope at the thought of a nice enough Jack, or helpful Doe who could tell them where they were and possibly contact her Jack and help her get home. Either way, there was nothing they could do without knowing where they were.

Sniffling away the last few tears, Brighid released her death grip on Jala but still held the girl close. "We should go. There. To that Warren."

[Lucca]

Shelby's ears pressed tightly enough against his head to nearly cripple his hearing. That was not at all the answer he wanted. And as he looked around at the others who were stirring, all of them looked confused with no idea what was going on either. Oh, this was -not good-. His paws went up and he tugged hard on his ears, a bad habit he thought he'd kicked, but this was bringing all his natural nervousness back to the surface. He had no idea where he was, how he had gotten here, who any of these other Rabbits were...

Wait...that was Alicia, wasn't it? "Alicia?" he asked, but trialed off. She had looked at him and recognition flashed in her eyes, but now she'd looked right on past him. And she had a sort of...a sort of dreamy look, like she didn't believe this was really happening. If only Shelby could force the same delusion. He pulled his ears tighter, tears springing to his eyes at the pain.

He blinked as apparently the Doe was related to the Leveret who had woken up first. (He had no idea, of course, that he was also related to said Leveret, given that he didn't know who his real Father was.) But he frowned as she said..."I...I'm not unwanted!" the words were almost a growl, as the statement managed to dredge up an old insecurity. The insecurity that came with being a male Leveret. That came with not seeming to have a natural affinity for any Leveret-like tasks. But he shook his head and looked over uncertainly at what did, indeed, seem to be a Warren in the distance.

Well, some Jack was going to make out well from this. If he wanted some servants and a Doe. He nodded, slowly, and waited for the others to start walking. Once they did, he'd reluctantly let go of his ears and follow in a hop-skip.

[Nako]

Jala made a soft sound, muffled by the strange Doe's fur as she was all but crammed into the swollen Doe's form. Uncomfortable, she gave a feeble attempt at escape, but was unable to in her death grip. The Doe was going on about her being this Doe's… daughter. She wouldn't have known if she was. Instead, she gave a soft nod when she was finally released enough to be allowed to breathe.

She couldn't remember this Doe.. but she didn't want to further the female's hysterics by denying it. Instead, she quietly agreed. "I think that's a good idea."

--

Layla awoke to the sound of talking. Groggy, her feet seemed loathe to move. Where… was she? How long had she been asleep? It literally felt like -forever-.

Unwanted? Her body trembled violently at the thought of it. "M-maybe... we were just stolen?" She finally spoke up, moving shakily toward the group. But that didn't make sense either. There were no leverets who looked 'in charge'.

[Harpsdesire]

Alicia's ears swiveled, turning to each of the others as they spoke. Rather a strange, dream, this. When Shelby spoke to her, she realized that this was not the sort of dream where you watch invisibly, unable to act on the events taking place. That meant that she should probably interact with him, even if it seemed more comfortable to ignore the others for the time being. "Hello, Shelby." She said congenially after a few seconds, blinking at the small plain rabbit through a haze of her own making. "This really is very curious..."

Once she heard the Doe's wail and Shelby's indignant answer, she became even more convinced that this must be some kind of horrible nightmare. There was no way that she would be an unwanted cast-off in any reality, no matter how insane. That was just impossible. At least as impossible as going into a cupboard and ending up in a distant field-- maybe more so!

The Doe in her dream was working her pretty self up to a fever pitch, which was unseemly for a lady, even in an unrealistic dream world, so Alicia quietly hopped over to her. It would be a terrible lapse to let the lovely Torquehelm make herself frantic and ill with worry. She lowered her head submissively before Brighid and said, "If you would forgive my speaking out of turn... I am sure a lady of your beauty and status has not been expelled from the warren, ma'am. This is probably just a... a trick of circumstance... Some kind of... mistake, if you will." She ended rather lamely, as she was not sure how a dream-doe would respond to being told she was a figment of a mere leveret's nocturnal imagination.

It was too bad that even in her dreams she was possessed by an almost pathological desire to serve and please any Doe she saw, even while she longed to be one. At least the protocol of speech and demure body language was familiar, almost comforting. The fact that the rabbits of her 'dream' were acting more and more like independent beings of the waking world surely was not. Alicia somehow sensed without thinking that the delusion of unreality was really the only thing keeping her calm in a situation when mindless panic was really one of the more sensible reactions.