Down The Rabbit Hole

Eric's hair, Scylla, reached for the pelt but he easily held it out of reach due to its short length.

"You can have it when we get out of here." Eric said, trying to comfort it as he put the pelt in his inventory. Scylla threw itself in his face as vengeance.

Once that was done, he studied the horn. It was sharp at the tip and could easily stab through his skin but was rounded and thus no good for slashing.

"Let's find the place with the least activity." he told Scylla. The symbiote immediately spread itself, giving Eric a look as if there was static in his hair. It then tilted itself slightly to the right to point out the way.

With weapon in hand and pelt in inventory, Eric headed towards the direction Scylla had pointed out.

As he walked, Eric noticed that the grass was getting taller. It went from mid-shin high to waist high.

"Are you sure this place is safe? So much grass could hide signs of life." Scylla would have scoffed at its host's lack of trust if it could but for now, It could only lead its host to 'safety'.

He was grumbling to Scylla as he walked when he fell down a hole. Eric gasped at the unexpected drop which lasted all of a few seconds before he landed and rolled away from his landing point.

"Next time you decide to lead me down a hole, tell me at the very least." he could tell from the wave of satisfaction that Scylla had planned this. And he could take a guess that this was because of the pelt.

The hole he had fallen into led into a trio of tunnels. From one of the tunnels came the sound of what seemed to be a plague of rats squeaking as loudly as possible.

The young man had just made up his mind to avoid that tunnel when Scylla pointed out that very one.

"You're trying to get me killed, aren't you? If this is about the pelt, I'll give it to you. I really will." Scylla was a bit miffed that it's host thought so little of it but then, it realised it's host was joking. It sent Eric the best translation of why it had chosen that tunnel.

"Oh. So the animals in the other places are stronger." Scylla might have wiggled in pride if it didn't have to stay focused on the task at hand.

"Alright, let's see if I can't deal with some rats." Eric mumbled as he strode into the tunnel while folding his pyjamas' sleeves above his elbow. If he couldn't take on the rats, he'd only have the pain of rebirth to deal with. If he didn't have to deal with being reborn, that was also good.

The tunnel opened into a large chamber, and in this chamber, a few horned rabbits were taking care of their young. It was the squeaking of these young rabbits that tricked him into thinking that there were rats at the end of the tunnel.

"Maybe we shouldn't leap into the midst of rabbits with pointy stabby horns." The man suggested. He didn't have time to think before he heard something coming at him from his entry point.

With a colony of rabbits before him and an unknown, possibly a rabbit or rabbits, behind him, Eric quickly decided to meet the newcomer as far from the nest as possible.

Just as he had thought, it was a group of rabbits. The leading rabbit looked bloated while the rest might have been trying out for giant rodent modelling.

When they saw him, the rabbits grew dazed and he took advantage of that moment of shock to guide his weapon into the largest rabbit's back. It squealed in pain before disappearing in a burst of light to leave some loot.

The 3 surviving rabbits charged at Eric with killing intent. The tunnel was large enough to have a pair of large rabbits moving side by side however it wasn't space enough for any complex manoeuvres.

Eric had to let himself take a hit or 2 before he could stab the rabbits to death. By then, the noise had reached the nest, thus he swept his gains into his inventory and prepared to test another thing. If things in his inventory, at the moment of death would join him in rebirth.

Despite having the test in mind, Eric wouldn't let himself die if he could help it. He fled out the hole he had dropped into with a fluffle of rabbits out for his head.

He stood at the mouth of the tunnel and began grabbing the rabbits mid-hop to stab them. He made sure to block the hole with one rabbit until it was dead.

The strategy worked until one of the rabbits suddenly changed directions and rammed into his chest.

Eric gasped as he woke up. He stayed still to await the pain that usually came with each rebirth but it was not forthcoming.

When he looked towards the clock, he was shocked to find that it was nearly quarter past 12.

"Isn't it supposed to be 10?" he thought to himself. After checking to find his loot in the inventory, Eric left his room for the guest room on the first floor. He had gotten a lot of things from the rabbits and he wanted to see which of them were useful for the upcoming events.

With the lights on, Eric took out one of each item, except the meat, to study. Some, like the horn, pelt and meat, he knew he could use however there were teeth, 3 fist sized rocks that were milky with the faint outline of something floating in it, rabbit foot necklaces and red stones that looked like the crystals that grew in espers and zombies.

The stone was easy enough to check, he would have to draw a rune and use the stone to power it. That was the only steady use the crystals had for normal people.

Scylla couldn't absorb the energy in it unless he could and the last time he had tried had been unpleasant to say the least. Instead, he preferred to use hair food and the odd insect to increase Scylla's length while letting it take on properties of odds and ends.

All he could tell about the necklace was that the rabbit foot on it seemed to be real. Maybe it had to do with rabbit's foot being believed to be an item that granted good luck.

There were 2 of them so maybe he could convince Desmond to be his guinea pig. Or ...he could get real guinea pigs and mice to test it.

"I'll place it on the pillow." Eric whispered when Scylla started fussing about the pelt. After that, it was a simple matter of sneaking into his bed once more.

Once he placed one of the pelts on his pillow, he closed his eyes and fell into a nightmare filled sleep.