Chapter Text
Once there was a Wolf. The Wolf had spent a long time roaming the forests and meadows of the lands it called home, but for as far back as it could remember, the Rabbit had been there.
Once there was a Rabbit. The Rabbit had never gone anywhere without the Wolf. They had never even met, because that would have meant there was a time when they didn’t know each other. The Wolf had always been there.
They were both strange animals, as far as anyone and anything that saw them thought. The Wolf was solitary whereas the other wolves formed packs. It was unusually smart and didn’t conform to the standards of wild or civilized areas. There was also the matter of the Rabbit. It neither moved nor acted like a rabbit, instead growling and imitating the characteristics of the Wolf. The only creature it accepted was the Wolf, who it would cuddle up to at every opportunity.
It was an unlikely friendship, especially considering the nature of their positions in the ecosystem. The natural order of the world dictates that rabbit is prey and wolf is predator, but this wasn’t the case with these two.
The Wolf didn’t want to eat the Rabbit. He thought about it sometimes, and looked at the Rabbit and tried very hard to think about eating her, especially on those days when hunting was bad and hunger panged in his stomach. The Rabbit didn’t eat much. Or eat at all. The Wolf ate when it could. It didn’t eat the Rabbit.
The Wolf wandered all over the world with the Rabbit. She couldn’t move as fast as him, so she would clamber up on the Wolf’s back, clinging to the scruff of fur around his neck as he raced through forests and meadows. Oftentimes, when the Wolf got into scrapes with other animals, the Rabbit would try to defend him, prowling and making strange noises like attempts at growls.
On one notable adventure, the Wolf made friends with a Bear. It was a strange bear, but not yet as strange as the Wolf and the Rabbit. The Rabbit liked the Bear, and at first, the Wolf was afraid the Rabbit would go away on adventures with the Bear, and leave the Wolf all alone. She had never liked a creature other than the Wolf before.
The Rabbit didn’t leave though. No matter how much the Rabbit liked the Bear, she never left the Wolf’s side. She never went to ride on the Bear’s back. She stayed with the Wolf.
The villagers saw the Bear and the Wolf with the Rabbit and formed stories around them. The villagers thought the Wolf was Cursed. They thought the Rabbit was Trapped. They thought the Bear was Kindly. Parts of that were true. The Bear was looking for his own friend, but neither the Wolf nor the Rabbit were that creature. It was inevitable that they ended up splitting ways, even if it was the villagers that caused it to happen.
Another time, the Wolf made friends with a not-person. He knew it was a not-person because all the real-persons had not-creatures with them. The not-creatures were not like the Wolf and the Rabbit. They spoke in people's sounds and didn’t interact with the other creatures of the forest.
This not-person didn’t have a not-creature. She was alone, like the Wolf and the Rabbit, so after much lingering, and debating, and growling (on the Rabbit’s part), they decided to help her out.
The not-person seemed to understand the Wolf, but he tried to hide the Rabbit from her all the same. He knew the extent of cruelty that humans could have, and had witnessed it in their escape from the villagers after being separated from the Bear. No matter how kind she was, giving them a bed, letting them go wherever they pleased, neither the Wolf nor the Rabbit fully trusted her.
Despite being quite a ways away from the nearest village, he and the Rabbit had heard whispers of people in the woods. They had seen the Wolf sometimes, but their main focus was on the not-person. They didn’t like her. They thought she was Cursed. The Wolf didn’t like the word Cursed. It reminded him of his time near civilization with the Bear. Eventually, the villagers attacked, destroying the home of the not-person, and the unlikely pair were forced to leave their second friend as well.
And so, the Wolf wandered, Rabbit by his side. They never lingered anywhere long, and relied upon food found by the Wolf, for no matter how hard the Wolf’s instincts fought, he wouldn’t, couldn’t hurt the Rabbit. They never sought shelter from other wolf packs. The wolves didn’t like the Wolf and would try to eat the Rabbit. They were not normal creatures. Not like the wolves.
Sometimes, the Wolf would feel as though he were trapped, curling into himself and looking longingly at villages as though they had something he was looking for. Those times felt like he was waking up from a haze, and returning to his normal state felt forced, and unnatural, like returning to the fog.
Sometimes, the Rabbit would growl at him like a wolf, trying to communicate with the Wolf even though they had a mutual understanding and didn’t need natural noises to communicate with each other. The Wolf didn’t know what noises Rabbits made, but he would growl back at her playfully when she did this.
After a long time of wandering in the wilderness, the Wolf and the Rabbit found a village. It was a big village, with a fortress on a mountain and dark gashes marring the land and buildings around it. At first, they stayed far away, just observing. Something was odd about this village. It was dead, absent of Humans and their not-creatures. After weeks of no movement from the place, they decided to go in and explore.
The dark gashes they had seen were soot and ash, burned wood, and charred stone from the remains of a faded fire from long ago. The only thing alive in the village were wild cats, taking over the warm spots in worn out houses. The Wolf didn’t like the cats. One of the first ones they came across had hissed at the Wolf and swiped at the Rabbit. The Rabbit had growled at it, which made the calico puff up in confusion and walk away suspiciously. The Wolf was happy to avoid the cats from then on. He didn’t like it when creatures tried to hurt the Rabbit.
They stayed in the village for a while, claiming it as their land, halfway between normal and wild, like them. Unfortunately, the peaceful solitude they had cultivated was shattered when a person came in. They didn’t walk, but flew, with a strange, monkey-like creature clinging to them. They took over the land, making loud noises at night and wandering all over the village during the day. The Wolf stayed on the outskirts of the village after that, grumpy that their territory had been taken from them. It started raining not long after. The Wolf and the Rabbit huddled in a cave, wishing they were able to stay in one of the warm wooden houses in the village. It was one of those times when the world felt clearer. They never expected a Star to walk in.