Chapter nineteen: 

    Connecting the dots 

    With my arms wrapped around me in the increasing cold I stared at the ground as we walked, my mind was swarming with ideas and anxiety.    

    I looked to my side and saw Zeke, who was still carrying Ella in his arms. He casted me a worried glance, I gave a thumbs up to say that I was okay, then he put his eyes back on the trail looking a little doubtful.

    I turned my gaze in front of me seeing the Jackolope in front, still hopping along. I started wondering if this was a good idea, if we should have even followed it in the first place. 

    Now that we left our spot with the campfire, it seemed like we were just walking in complete darkness as the trees grew thicker and less light from the sun could get through.            

     I did not like the eerie feeling that was crawling up my skin. I tried to keep the Jackalope in my vision as I felt my eyelids slowly getting heavy. I

yawned. 

    I felt very tired after being in the forest all day. I wished that I was in bed sleeping. 

My thoughts went back to the rabbit; are we just following this Jackolope straight into a trap? Are we actually going to get help? 

    “We’re almost there.” The rabbit said. 

    “Where exactly are we going?” I asked.

    “The Burrow, of course,” he answered. I didn’t think I was hearing it right. Burrow? Can we fit in such a tiny place? 

    Now that I thought about it, I wondered how it was so light out without the campfire and the sun. . . it was almost as if the light was around the Jackalope, it was surrounding the little bunny like an aura. 

    After a while of traveling the rabbit finally said, “We’re here.” 

    I sighed, grateful that we were done walking because my legs were tired. In fact, I thought I was so worn out and weary that I could have passed out where I was. 

    “Follow me.” it said, looking back at the two of us. I watched as the

Jackalope jumped down a hole and disappeared from sight the next moment. 

    I saw a hole that looked human sized, I looked down it and saw that it was pitch dark. I breathed out and noticed that the air had gotten colder. I looked at Zeke. 

    “Should we go down there?” I asked him. 

    “What do you think?” he asked. 

    “Well, I can’t see anything down there, so, I don’t know where it will lead.” 

    “Well, the Jackalope said it can heal Ella, and we need help. So, let’s go down there. Plus, they said they didn’t mean any harm, and we need help. If we refuse, what can we do for Ella?” he pointed out. 

    I looked at Ella and gazed at her as she slept. I could hear her breathing, and it sounded like it had gotten worse from earlier. I sighed, then looked at Zeke again. 

    “Okay. Let’s go,” I nodded in agreement. 

    Zeke jumped down. I took a deep breath to calm down my

nervousness, then jumped down the hole, following him. 

    I appeared on the other side as I got shot out and fell to the ground. Standing up, the blood rushed to my head and started to ache. I looked around. 

    “You okay?” Zeke asked, looking at me. 

    “Yeah, I just didn’t expect that.” I said. A smile broke across the Flare’s face as he beamed at me, he chuckled. 

    “Hey, at least we didn’t die, right? Wonderful.” he said, laughing as he did. I just smiled, thinking that the forest was finally getting to him.    

    I then looked around and took in my surroundings. I gasped, amazed at where we were.  

    We had ended up in what looked like an underground forest village.

     It had a big tree in the middle. The branches were long and crooked sprawling out as far as they could in the huge space filled with glowing fireflies. 

    The grass looked very green, the most green that I have ever seen with

many flowers sprouting from it. It was dark but I could still see clearly somehow, I spotted some ponds where fire flyers seemed to be drinking from. A bright yellow and blue flower next to my foot caught my attention. 

    “Are we ready to go yet? Or do you need another minute?” a voice asked. I looked over and saw the Jackalope standing beside me. 

    “Lead the way,” I said simply. The bunny nodded, then hopped along as we followed it once more. I trailed behind with Zeke, my mind marveling on how pretty this place was. 

    I noticed that the walls around the place seemed to be made of dirt, not stone, making me wonder what this place actually was. 

    We followed behind the rabbit until we reached the tree. Hopping through an opening of the tree the rabbit entered. We walked in and I immediately saw another Jackalope. 

    “You’re here!” It said. I looked around the tree and saw that it was bigger than the outside.

      “Come, sit, sit.” the Jackalope said, gesturing to some stumps. I went

to sit on the stump, as Zeke sat on the other one placing Ella on the ground next to him. 

    “Everyone! They’re here!” The two Jackalopes yelled. The next moment, a swarm of Jackalopes rushed in, all sat and stared at us, their eyes big with curiosity and the room filled with the sound of chatter, rapid talking and faint music I didn't even know from where. 

    “Real humans!” one shouted happily. “Oh, how long it’s been since we set eyes on one!” 

    The tree was filled with cheer as the rabbit spoke. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw them all. They reminded me of little bunnies, they all looked adorable. 

    “Quiet!” one hollered over the others, as they turned around in one hop facing the others. When they didn’t quiet down, the Jackalope suddenly turned into a big badger with antlers.

     I had so many questions.

    The floor fell silent as the badger went back to a Jackalope. I blinked and realized that I wasn’t making it up. It was now a rabbit with antlers. 

    “I’m sorry for that.” it said as it turned back to look at us with another hop.        

    “What are you?” I asked the only question on my mind right now.

    “We’re spirits!” One answered loudly. 

    “What do you exactly mean?” I questioned. 

    “Protectors of the forest, of course!” 

    “Yeah!” 

    “Animal spirits!” 

    Chatter began to fill the room again, all of them sounding excited. 

The one that told them to be quiet before thumped their foot on the ground and they became quiet once again. 

    “We’ll explain more later, we have more pressing matters to get to.”

    “Now, we can heal your friend, Ella, on one condition.” they offered. 

    “What is it?” Zeke asked curiously. 

    “Please help us get our forest back!” the rabbit cried out loud. The others pleaded too. 

    “What do you mean?” I asked, thinking of the wolves. Do they want us

to fight those!? I started to worry for Ella and what would happen if I said no. 

    “You've seen the wolves right?” the rabbit asked.

    “We can't fight those, we barely lived last time! Is there something else we can do?” I asked.

    “No no, human you misunderstood, we're not asking you to fight the wolves. We want you to get our protector back, then the wolves will leave our part of the forest.” the rabbit said.

    “Protector?” I echoed.

    “What was the protector of your forest?” Zeke asked.

    “A dragon of course!” a rabbit in the back shouted, hopping up to see us from above the crowd. 

    “Horns!”

    “Big wings!”

    “Sleepy!”

    “Treasures!”

    “Scary!”

    “Kind!”

    “Big! Really big!” The rabbits started to shout jumping up and down.

The rabbit in front narrowed its eyes not even looking at the crowd and thumped their foot loudly in one quick movement. The rabbits fell silent, some looking embarrassed.

    “Our protector was a great silver forest dragon. He guarded our part of the spirit forest so that the different spirits would remain balanced. But someone came into our forest a few years ago and killed them! This isn't the first time this has happened, you humans love killing dragons. We can bring him back, but we need their core and a few pieces of them so they can be restored. All you need to do is find the remains and bring them back.” the rabbit explained.

    “How are we supposed to do that?” I asked.

    “Exactly how many years has it been?” Zeke asked.

    “It's been seven years since they died, the human took the entire body with them using soldiers, wild horses and magic.”

    “How did they kill it?” I asked.

    “Him,” the rabbit corrected, “they killed him using magic weapons and illusions, foul play.” 

    “How do you know the core wasn’t destroyed?” I asked.

    “We share a link that makes us certain, their core is still alive but is bound by some sort of tainted chains.” 

    “Chains?” 

    “Dark magic, the human has resurrected the corpse of the dragon disregarding the dragon's core and using it as a power source instead of consciousness.”

    “How do we get it back?” I asked.

    “You take it by force,” the rabbit said, “if the core is destroyed there will be nothing binding his soul to this world.” 

    “So how do we kill the dragon?”

    “That thing is an abomination, not a true dragon, merely a puppet. You can kill it by removing the core from the body.”

    “So we have to fight a dragon and a dark wizard?” Zeke asked.

    “We only care about the dragon, if you find the wizard you may have to

kill him if he is hostile but if you don't kill them we don't particularly care much.”

    “We can't fight a dragon! We barely survived the wolves!” I said. I was worried.

    “Don't worry humans, we will help you, and we never did say it had to be right now, but the sooner the better.” the rabbit said, looking at me. 

    “So, if we say yes, you will help us kill the dragon, and heal Ella. What if we say no?” I asked.    

    “If you say you don't want to then you don't have to, but without us your friend will die. The materials to make the cure are not easy to come by, we will not use them without some form of payment. Unless you wish to become our protectors and fight off the invading hordes of monsters for the rest of your lives like the dragon.” The rabbit said.    

    I looked at Zeke. he stared at me.                

    “You guarantee you will help us?” I asked.

    “Of course! We do not lie! We are proud jackalopes of the spirit forest! We guide the lost, shelter the weary, and see many noble souls through

these woods.” The rabbit said.  

    “Okay then. I’ll agree to help you.” I said.

    “Orchid!” Zeke casted me a look of anger and concern. 

    “What else are we going to do?” I asked him.

    “Still! You shouldn't just agree like that!” he said.

    “But you want Ella to be healed too, right? What else are we going to do?” I asked. Zeke sighed then fell silent, obviously still a bit frustrated. 

    “Very well, we’ll help your friend.” The bunny nodded. The next moment they brought a–what was I think was supposed to be a stretcher - Zeke put Ella on it, and they took her away. I watched as she disappeared as they took her away and through a hall. 

    “Now, you must be tired, it’s been a full day. We’ll show where you’ll be resting, please follow me.” One rabbit said. I started following, Zeke trailing closely behind. 

    I sighed heavily. The rabbit led us to a room that had two beds and a table, nothing else. 

    “We’ll see you after you rest up, we’ll explain more then.” 

    I looked at Zeke who remained silent. I crossed my arms and said, “have something to say?” 

    “Orchid, you shouldn’t do that,” he said firmly. I stared at him. 

    “What do you mean?” 

    “I mean, you shouldn’t have accepted their request.” 

    “Why not?” 

    “Well, you should have thought about it more, and at least should have talked to me before accepting their request blindly!” he said angrily, his voice raising. 

    “Well, I’m sorry, okay! I wasn’t thinking about it, my mind was on Ella!” I said defensively, my voice raising as well. 

    “You always seem to do this,” he said, calming down, not looking at me. 

    “Look, Zeke, Ella is not doing well. Well, sh-she’s dying, so I accepted, and whatever they’ll say, we’ll do. At least she’s going to get better. It’s true I wasn’t thinking, but you have to understand, I’ve lost everyone in my life. I can’t bare to lose her too.” I said slowly. 

    I felt my tears coming so I pushed them away. Zeke’s blue eyes showed sadness. 

    “Okay. I understand. I’m sorry that I got defensive. I’m just worried, and if we’re not able to deliver, then they might kill us or something. I was trying to protect us.” Zeke explained. 

    “I understand.” I nodded. 

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    It had been a few hours of rest when Zeke and I exited the room. 

We found the rabbit again fairly quickly after walking down a lit hallway. 

    “Hey, you’re awake.” The rabbit said. I nodded. We went to sit on the stumps again and I asked, 

    “How's Ella?” 

    “Good now. We gave her the medicine. If she came in any later, she would have died. She’s just resting now, should be awake in a bit.” 

    I let out my pent-up breath, my heart racing like crazy. I looked at Zeke, feeling a big smile on my face. Hope actually washed up in my body which I haven’t felt in a while. 

    I was so happy that I wanted to do something like sing or just hug the rabbits for helping, but I didn’t want to hurt them so I decided not to. 

    “So, how exactly will you help us?” Zeke asked the rabbit. 

     My heart was thumping so hard that it was the only thing I could feel. 

    “First things first. Training.” 

    “Huh?” I asked, refocusing my vision as it seemed to get blurrier. 

    “Training. You think you can just go in there and get rid of the man who killed and took out our forest guardian!? Of course not! You will need proper training!” the rabbit said. 

    “What kind of training?” 

    “Well, whatever weapon suits you, of course.” 

    “We have a wooden sword,” I said helpfully. 

    “No, no, no. A wooden sword will simply not do. Maybe for training, yes, but for actual fighting? No. We’ll get you proper swords to use.” 

    “I think Ella would want a bow,” I said, remembering how she loved the bow she used last, also remembering she wasn’t very good with the sword. 

    “That’s fine. There is a training area to use. It’s proper. You sit here, and I’ll go check up on your friend.” the rabbit said, then hopped away. 

    I looked around the hallowed tree. I noticed many things on the walls. I got to my feet and walked over to the wooden wall. 

    “Where are you going?” Zeke questioned, I ignored him. I saw–all around the room–tapestries that were hung on the walls. I touched the cloth and felt it in my hand. It felt soft.

    I looked at the ground and saw one like it had fallen. I picked it up gently and looked at it. I saw words that were on it. 

    “Oh yes, that one. Didn’t put it up,” a voice mumbled. I looked over and saw a different Jackalope. They looked old to me. Then I wondered if they could even get old and die. 

    “Do you want help putting it up?” I asked nicely.

    “No, I got it,” the rabbit said. I wondered how they would do that. It just floated out of my hands and got put on the wall. 

    I looked up at the tapestry, and examined it. I gasped as the inside of my mouth got dry. My whole body went numb as my bloodstream felt ice