Rescue
This is another Moxie Bunn story. In this story, Moxie rescues a kitty and deals out fer particular brand of justice.
The cow had just stepped off the train when she felt the first fly bite her. She swatted it away with her tail, annoyed but unconcerned, and belched, rubbing her belly as she felt her feline prey struggling within her. The cat had looked at her as prey, but Violet hadn’t had any trouble disabusing her of that idea. The cat’s calico friend may have gotten away, but that didn’t matter. No one would even be able to see the queen as she stewed in Violet’s enormous rumen.
Another fly bit Violet’s ass and then a third. She grunted in annoyance as she swatted them away. Damn bugs. That was when she noticed the little cluster of bunnies dancing around her hooves as she tromped down the sidewalk. She regarded the tiny herbivores with mild amusement.
“You need something from me, cuties?”
Another fly bit her, and this time she saw the tranquilizer dart and the rabbit holding the miniature crossbow.
“What the fuck?!” She bellowed. “What are you...?”
She took another heavy step, stomping toward her attacker, but her movement was sluggish, and the rabbit easily darted out of the way. Three more darts hit her. She tried to take another step but fell onto her hands and knees.
“Fucking Tartarus! Why are you...?”
Three more darts hit her, and she hit the cement in a drugged stupor.
** *
“Alright, she’s out! Switch to the shrinking serum,” Moxie called to fer bunny cohort as
the cow hit the ground.
Half a dozen rabbits rapidly loaded their miniature crossbows with the shrinking bolts
and began to fire them into the prone bovine. The cow began to shrink, the process picking up speed as more and more bolts of the serum took effect.
“Slower, we don’t want to have to cut her open,” Moxie instructed.
The bovine’s belly swelled as she shrunk, her body tightening around her enormous rumen. She belched, and a little cud came up with the heady fumes. Moxie watched the cow’s stomach worriedly, fiddling with the folding knife in fer jacket pocket. A kick from inside the cow’s rumen filled fyn with a mixture of relief and anxiety. The cat was still alive, but for how long? If they didn’t get her out soon, she would drown in the cow’s rumen fluid. The cow belched again, and this time it was followed with a fountain of yellowish juice. Heat and the sour-sweet scent of fermentation filled the air as the rumen fluid gushed out of the bovine. Suddenly, a bedraggled mass of black fur and cud erupted from the cow’s mouth. The cat coughed and gasped before letting out a yowl of distress.
** *
Sophie heard the cow bellow and felt her body hit the ground, and a tiny amount of
hope flashed through her. She couldn’t believe what had happened when the cow had eaten her, and thrash and yell as she might, no one seemed to be able to hear her. She might really be going to die in here! The noxious fumes above the vat of fermenting rumen contents threatened to make her pass out.
But then, something had happened outside. The cow bellowed, and a wave of hot, putrid juice crashed over Sophie’s head at her captor struck the ground. Maybe the cow had merely tripped, but maybe Meredith had gone for help. Someone might be trying to save her! She fought her way back above the fluid and shouted and kicked. Someone had to hear her, to know she was in here!
Suddenly, the air cap blasted up the cow’s esophagus in a raucous belch, and the fluid flooded in over Sophie’s head. She kicked desperately, trying to hold her last breath of the heady fumes. She couldn’t die now, not if someone was out there! However, there hadn’t been much oxygen in that breath to start with! Sophie’s lungs ached for air. She couldn’t hold it! The air burst out of her jaws and the foul, sickly-sweet fluid poured in! The cow’s rumen contracted powerfully, and Sophie felt herself slammed against the firm wall of flesh by the sudden rush of fluid. Fluid streamed past her up the cow’s esophagus as she started to go limp, blackness
creeping over her mind. Another powerful push, and the opening widened just enough to catch the cat in the current. Sophie was swept up the tube with the fermenting hay.
Sophie burst out into the light of the chilly morning, landing hard on rough pavement in a puddle of the stinking fluid. She coughed up a gout of the disgusting juice, gasped the fresh, cool air and, yowled. Help! Someone please! An instant later, someone was there. Delicate, furry fingers wiped the fluid and plant matter away from her eyes and nose.
“Shh, it’s okay, kitty. You’re safe,” a voice soothed.
Sophie blinked away the yellow liquid and stared up at the little black rabbit crouched beside her head. The prey wore a short, purple dress and a cropped, denim jacket. A pin on fer jacket read fei/fyn/fer. The bunny smiled, showing off fer big incisors as Sophie stared up in surprise.
“You...you’re the one who saved me?” Sophie asked in disbelief. Where was Meredith? Who was this rabbit?
“Me and my friends. I heard you were in trouble,” the rabbit replied in a soothing tone. “You’re safe now, kitty. That nasty cow won’t hurt you anymore.”
Sophie glanced back nervously, not knowing what to expect, and was flabbergasted to see the cow shrinking smaller and smaller by the second! She was barely Sophie’s size now! A cottontail stuck the cow with a syringe full of something, and she seemed to shrink even faster!
Sophie turned back to the black rabbit, “What did you do? Why? Who are you?”
The rabbit grinned, “I’m Moxie! As for why, you could say I have a special appreciation for kitties. I won’t allow anyone to harm them on my watch!”
“But, but you’re a prey!” Sophie rejoined. “Why would you...I’m a predator!”
The rabbit gave Sophie an indulgent smile and petted her head like she was a kitten, “I know you’ve been quite a naughty kitty. I’ve heard about your exploits. It’s not right to go around scarfing people down, and I hope you’ll think twice about it after what happened today. But even if you won’t, I wouldn’t let a kitty come to harm when I can stop it. We were lucky we were nearby and got here quickly.”
“I, uh, thank you,” Sophie replied uncomfortably.
This was totally weird, and she didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t understand why the rabbit had helped her, but it didn’t make sense to argue with the person who had saved her
life!
“If you like, we’ll escort you back to your dorm, but it would mean a lot to me if you’d
come have lunch at my house,” the rabbit said hopefully.
The rabbit held out a hand and helped Sophie to her feet. Sophie looked down
awkwardly at the little prey, who only came to her shoulder. She’d definitely eaten several people at least as big as this diminutive prey, but now the bunny was inviting her to lunch? Does fei really want me to eat fyn or something? Sophie pushed aside the thought. She wasn’t so uncouth as to eat the person who had saved her life, not unless they asked her to.
“I’d, uh, kind of like to take a bath before I eat,” Sophie replied.
“Of course! You can get cleaned up, and I’ll fix us lunch!” Moxie piped cheerfully. “What do you say?”
Sophie smiled a little, “Okay, since you saved my life. No funny business though...”
“We’ll just get you into the shower and have lunch,” the rabbit agreed. “You’re too young for me anyway. I just want to chat.”
The rabbit stepped past Sophie and crouched to pick up the tiny cow, who was now roughly the size of a marble, and stuff her into fer pocket.
Fei turned to smile at Sophie sunnily, “Come on, kitty!”
Sophie followed the rabbit to a modest, one-story house about a mile from where they’d started. Fei led her inside and directed her toward the bathroom.
“Take your time, and I’ll have lunch ready when you get out,” Moxie instructed cheerfully.
Sophie felt a little uncomfortable about using the strange rabbit’s shower, but the bathroom was clean and tidy and surprisingly just her size. Sophie noticed the footstool in front
of the sink and wondered why the rabbit didn’t live in a house more suited to fer stature. However, she was more concerned with getting the cow’s disgusting rumen contents out of her fur than wondering about the intricacies of the housing market. Sophie took her time soaking under the hot streams and kneading the rosemary-scented shampoo into her fur. Normally, she didn’t enjoy getting wet, but she wasn’t going to lick this nastiness out of her fur.
When she was clean and had dried her fur with a soft, lavender towel and blow dryer, Sophie shyly poked her head out of the bathroom. She crept past the bedroom and down a short flight of stairs to the dining room, which looked out the back of the house onto a wooden deck with a grill. Moxie wasn’t using the grill on this chilly Autumn day, and fer voice turned Sophie’s head toward the kitchen.
“Lunch is ready! Have a seat, kitty!”
Sophie carefully sat at one of the wooden chairs, and a couple minutes later, the rabbit hopped into the dining room and set a bowl and plate in front of her. The plate had a thick piece of white bread, still warm and smelling sweet, and the bowl contained a thick, brown stew with carrots and potatoes.
“Beef stew,” Moxie stated. “And I just made the bread this morning.” “B-beef?” Sophie asked nervously.
“Lab-grown of course,” Moxie replied.
“What about...what happened...?”
“She’s fine,” the rabbit replied briskly. “If she’d eaten you unprovoked, then I would have scarfed her down myself, but she’s still in one piece.”
Sophie didn’t inquire further about the terrible cow. She hoped she’d never see the bovine again.
They chit-chatted as they ate, the rabbit eating a little bread and a big salad and none of the stew. Of course, fei’s a herbivore. Sophie wondered aloud whether the rabbit had gone to the store just for her, but Moxie explained that she had other feline friends who often visited. Maybe that explains the size of things too, Sophie supposed. With questions related to food out of the way, Moxie asked her about how school was going and what her plans were after, polite conversation she’d had with plenty of adults, and Sophie began to feel more at ease. This rabbit was a little weird to have saved her like fei’d done, but fei was basically a normal person.
Moxie took the dishes to the sink when they were finished, and Sophie stood to follow. “I can wash up if you want,” she offered.
Moxie gave her a kind smile, “That’s okay. You should get back to campus and let your
friend know you’re alright. I’ll take care of cleaning up. But I would like to give you a present before you leave.”
The rabbit set down the dishes and hopped out to the living room, and Sophie blushed. A present? She should be giving the rabbit something to thank fyn! Sophie stepped back out into the dining room, and the rabbit returned and set a little, glass terrarium on the table.
“This is for you,” Moxie stated. “As a reminder. Eating people isn’t right, and I don’t appreciate it when someone eats one of my friends.”
Sophie peered into the terrarium nervously: it had a grassy bottom, and on the grass was the tiny cow! The minute bovine stared out of the enclosure fearfully.
“Take good care of her,” Moxie instructed firmly. “And remember.”
“I-I will! Thank you!” Sophie stammered.
She carefully picked up the terrarium.
“Good kitty,” the rabbit said contentedly. “Stop by any time. I always appreciate a visit
from one of my kitties.”
Sophie nodded embarrassedly, “Thank you again. See you.”
Moxie followed her to the door and waved as she headed down the sidewalk with her
new pet.
Meredith jumped up in shock as Sophie stepped into their shared dorm room half an
hour later.
“What?! I thought...how did...? You’re alive!” The calico cried in relief, dashing across the room and hugging Sophie tight. “How did you get away?!”
“I was rescued,” Sophie stated. “Some rabbits, it’s, uh, a long story.” “Rabbits?” Meredith asked in confusion.
“Rabbits,” Sophie repeated.
She crossed the room and set the terrarium on the windowsill. “What’s that?” Meredith meowed curiously.
“A reminder,” Sophie answered. “I, um, I don’t think we should eat prey anymore, Meredith.”
“Huh? But what about being the ‘big preds on campus’?”
“I don’t want to be known as a psycho who eats people. What’s the point of going to college if that’s your ambition? We should think about our futures instead.”
“I guess,” Meredith allowed reluctantly. “But then, how are we going to get hot guys interested in us?”
Sophie glanced at the pretty calico, “I wouldn’t worry about that.”
“Still, it sounded like fun,” Meredith protested. “You really want to let one bad experience stop you from being a predator?”
“I almost ended up as a cow’s snack, so yes.”
Meredith sighed, “Fine. If you aren’t going to do it, then it doesn’t sound all that fun. Are you going to tell me what’s in that? Did you buy a pet beetle?” The calico stepped up behind her and bent down to peer into the terrarium. She gasped, “Is that?! How did...?”
“Rabbits,” Sophie answered solemnly. “Fucking rabbits.”