The night passed pretty well; Philza fell asleep in the rocking chair and didn't wake up until almost half the night had gone. He had a crick in his neck and his back was stiff. Phil winced, looking around for Bunny, for the child was no longer in his lap. Instead, he was standing at the window that overlooked Kristin's garden and faced the forest. His ears lay flopped against his back and his arms were crossed on the windowsill.

"Bunnyblade?" Phil whispered. He got up slowly, taking the blanket with him. The boy still did not move, so Phil walked softly over to him and draped the blanket over his small shoulders. Bunny started. "It's alright, mate, it's just me." Phil soothed, petting the child.

Bunny sighed and leaned his head against Phil. He seemed still half-asleep, for his eyelids drooped and he occasionally started sliding downwards before pulling himself back up.

"Did something wake you?" Philza asked, running his fingers through the rabbit-child's thick hair. "Do you want to stay here a while?"

Bunny blinked sleepily. "Phil," he mumbled, "don't go outside. The shadows are smiling."

Philza's breath froze in his lungs. He knelt quickly by Bunnyblade. "What?"

Bunny stretched out a finger, pointing towards the forest. "The shadows, Phil. They're smiling in the trees. Don't go outside." He sniffed. "Once the Firebrother comes, the forest will burn and the shadows will come here instead. They're too close, Phil." His head sagged onto Phil's shoulder and he gave another little sigh.

Phil stared fixedly at the forest. He could see nothing abnormal out there. The trees looked as dense and as dark as ever. Up until now, their thickness had provided the little farm with some feeling of protection. But Bunnyblade's words now gave Philza a chill in his heart. He knew the child had been maltreated in his past; maybe those who'd previously owned him were in pursuit. Maybe they'd come here. Philza looked back down at Bunnyblade, but the boy was asleep again, tiny snores coming from his partially open mouth.

----

In the room she shared with her husband, Kristin woke alone. Philza's place beside her was cold; he hadn't been there in the past few hours, and Kristin wondered if he'd slept there at all. She lay still for a while, letting the early morning sun wake her up, and wondered if her husband had fallen asleep in the living room. Maybe he hadn't wanted to disturb Bunnyblade.

After about twenty minutes of quiet, she sat up, swinging her feet to the floor and into the slippers that she'd put there last night. Their soft woolen insides felt nice on her skin. She got dressed and went out into the living room to wake Phil. Although he would probably already be up; he was generally up before she was.

But Phil wasn't in the living room. Bunny was; curled up in a nest in a patch of sunlight, snoozing away. But Philza was gone. Confused, Kristin went to the front door and stepped outside. Maybe he'd decided to get started on something before she made breakfast.

Her heart gave a tiny thump of relief when she saw her husband standing just beyond her herb garden. He was gazing out at the forest with his axe in his hand. Kristin came to stand beside him. "Phil? What's going on?"

There was a grim expression on the farmer's face that she rarely saw. And when he answered her, his voice was low and tense. "Remember when Bunny said that there were people who abused him? People who hurt him?"

Kristin rested her hand on the back of Phil's neck. "Yes?"

"It seems that those people may be pursuing him. What for, I don't know, but we should be careful all the same." Philza narrowed his eyes at the trees. "Something Bunny said last night made me suspicious. He told me the shadows were smiling and earlier he mentioned a man named Smiles. I don't like it."

Kristin followed her husband's gaze to the woods. They usually looked dark and thick, but in a safe kind of way. Now there was a strange threat in their twisting branches and murky shadows. She held Phil's arm. "We have to keep that child safe."

Philza nodded. "We do. And I don't think it's safe to leave you two on your own for any length of time, not even for ploughing. We'll have to just figure out a way to keep out whatever wants in. In the meantime," he added, turning back towards the house, "let's not leave Bunnyblade by himself. No splitting up the household."

"Agreed." Kristin's mind was already racing over the various weak points in their home and how much food they had stocked away. Whether the threat Phil feared was real or not mattered little to either of them; it was enough that there was danger.

Together they retreated into the house and began planning over breakfast. Kristin cooked up some of the leftovers from last night, with some fruit and more carrots for Bunnyblade, who was just waking up. The rabbit child wandered into the room, rubbing both eyes and glancing around him with some measure of confusion. "Ph-Philza?" He asked. "Did something happen last night?" His ears were flat against his back again and he had wrapped his arms around himself.

The farmer glanced at his wife before deciding what to say. Kristin nodded at him with a soft glance at the boy. Philza turned to Bunny. "Well, mate..." he said slowly, "what do you remember?"

"Uhh..." Bunnyblade began to swivel from side to side, "not...much....Should I?"

Philza took in a breath. "Last night, mate, you told me...you said there was danger coming. That..." he tried to make his words as gentle as possible to avoid frightening the child, "that the shadows...were smiling."

Bunny stood very still. His large red eyes stared in fear at Philza. For a few seconds, he did not seem to be able to move or speak. Then he began to tremble violently. "They're not." He whispered, in a voice filled with terror. "They're not. They're not smiling, they're not."

"Hey." Phil had already hurried over and was carefully holding the boy's furry hands in one of his own and softly petting his forehead. "Hey, it's going to be alright, okay? Kristin and I won't let them touch you. We already have some ideas we can use to keep you safe, okay?" The child continued to shake. Philza swallowed. "Bunny?"

Bunnyblade's eyes gazed fixedly at the opposite wall. All his limbs were stiff and he hardly blinked. His little mouth moved, barely, but hardly more than a squeak was coming out. All at once he turned to Phil and threw both arms around his neck and just stood there, shaking terribly. "Please," he whispered, "please tell me you didn't see the smiles."

Philza picked up the boy and rubbed his back, holding him close. "I never saw any smiles, Bunny. Not a single one. The shadows all looked normal to me." He bent his head and laid his cheek on the top of Bunnyblade's head. The pink, soft hair quivered a bit as the child still trembled.

Bunnyblade didn't say another word. But he didn't have to. The look Kristin and Philza shared was now one of certainty. Someone had hurt this boy, badly, and if they came looking for him, there was no telling what they would do. The farmer walked slowly over and sat down in his rocking chair, still holding Bunny close and petting his back, up and down, his fingers going in little circles on the child's shirt.

Kristin turned back to her work in the kitchen, her brow furrowed with worry. She wasn't very knowledgeable about field work, but she was pretty sure that, with all the food their farm produced, the little family could hold out for a while before running low. Still, she would have to get on salting, canning and drying what foodstuffs could be saved, just in case. And how would they keep out Bunny's pursuers? It wasn't like they had any real defences, just a small fence to keep the livestock from wandering off. The farmwife gave a little sigh that was lost in the frying of the chicken on the stove.

Their breakfast was quiet, with Bunnyblade remaining in Philza's lap as he ate. He seemed to feel safer that way. The boy ate almost nothing but carrots and bread with butter, taking little sips of milk along the way. He seemed awfully shaken and didn't respond when Phil or Kristin attempted to engage him in conversation.

After food had been eaten and Kristin was washing up, Philza took the rabbit child back to the living room, where the nest still lay. He sat down atop the bundle of blankets and pillows, carefully clasping Bunny to himself with one arm and re-arranging the blankets with the other so that the nest was a little more open. The he drew them around himself and just sat there, hugging the small boy to his chest.

Bunnyblade didn't say anything. His large red eyes stared at the window, from which one could see the forest close by the house. It was a long time before he fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~

Kristin took over cuddling Bunny once she was done with dishes and basic clean-up. Meanwhile, her husband went outside to see about what he could do to make their home more inaccessible. He seemed to have a few ideas, for she eventually saw him go to the shed and grab a shovel. Whatever he was planning, Kristin just hoped it would work. His reference to smiling shadows combined with Bunnyblade's current terror made her very nervous.

It seemed a difficult task to help the rabbit child calm down, for he made no response to any of her pets or whispered assurances. He lay in the nest with his back to her, staring across the room, his ears and tail quivering. Every so often his feet would twitch, as if he wanted to stamp the floor, but there was no actual danger nearby; nothing to warn his people about. So he just stayed very still. Eventually Kristin, racking her brains to figure out what else she could try, remembered the word "Crowfather" that Bunnyblade had murmured yesterday, as he watched Philza soar through the roaring heavens. Kristin knelt beside the boy and stroked his hair. "Bunny? Bunny, please tell me something. Who is the Crowfather?"

For a second or two, Bunnyblade just went still, and Kristin didn't know if she'd done something wrong or not. So she kept stroking his hair and pulled a blanket over him to keep him warm. "Who is Crowfather, Bunny?" She asked again, gently.

"He...he's an angel." Bunny's words were hard to hear, because he spoke softly and because his back was still to Kristin. The farmwife lay down and cuddled him close to her, wrapping her arms around him carefully so he wouldn't be afraid.

"An angel?" She repeated. "What does that mean?"

Bunny spoke in a voice that seemed very distant, as though he was concentrating on keeping his mind elsewhere than the memories he'd been experiencing before. "He's the servant of Death. An angel with wings like a crow and with the lifespan of a universe. He flies above the clouds and the crows follow his every command. He chooses who lives and his wife chooses who dies."

Kristin searched her recollection for a myth like this, but came up with nothing. She has never heard of this before. "Who's his wife?"

"Death is." Bunny scratched his nose and continued. "He is both her servant and her husband, just as she is both his servant and his wife. Neither of them dominates the other, they just serve in their own ways, as they can." He sniffed. "The Crowfather is always present in the material world, just as his wife is always present in the afterlife, in the place before your soul fully leaves you."

Kristin scratched gently behind Bunnyblade's ears. "So...are they nice people?"

The boy nodded. "Mhm. They're very nice. They don't like cruelty or bad people. They try to stop them. And the Blood god helps them with that."

"Who's the Blood god?" Kristin asked. Now her curiosity was really roused. She decided Phil would probably like this story.

"He's...he's..." Bunny hesitated. "He's Crowfather's friend. And he's a person with as many years to live as the ages of many planets. He craves violence and dances through battlefields with his sword in his hand and his wolves by his side. His cape is red with the blood of his enemies and his face is that of a wild creature of war."

Kristin blinked. "And he's friends with Crowfather? But he sounds like one of the bad people."

Bunny wriggled a little as he reached up to rub his ears. Kristin took the cue and began running her fingers up and down the edges of each ear. The child sighed and continued. "The Blood god's not bad. He strikes down the bad guys just like Crowfather. He's just more violent. And he...he hears...voices...in his head. Voices that call him to fight. It's really hard to resist them." He fell suddenly silent.

Kristin combed her fingers through his hair and rubbed his ears very carefully. "So...Phil reminds you of Crowfather?"

"Yeah. He flies with the crows like the angel does."

Kristin hummed. "Crowfather. So I guess that makes me Death, huh?"

Bunny nodded. "Yeah."

They lay in silence a while longer before it suddenly occured to Kristin that this was the first time Bunny had ever let her touch him for any length of time. Before he'd either avoided her hand or only allowed a brief interaction before breaking away. Now he just let her pet him. Kristin felt a little happier.

After a few minutes, Bunnyblade began talking again, but less to Kristin and more to himself or to the air. "I had a brother once, you know. He told me about Crowfather and the Blood god. He told me about the Lady of Death and the Crows who served her. When I was captured, I told myself those stories night after night and pretended it was my brother beside me the whole time. Sometimes it almost worked."

A lump formed in Kristin's throat as she listened, sensing there was something dark behind the boy's words that he wasn't yet sharing. She never ceased to pet him, over and over and over again, careful to keep the fur smooth. It was like comforting Phil after the last of their lambs had died; she wasn't sure what to say, so she just held him and comforted as best she could.

"Smiles didn't like the stories," Bunnyblade continued, "but it was Cardman who hated them. He and the Firebrother would listen, sometimes, at the door, to see if I was talking to myself. If I was, they'd come in and they were so loud. They were so angry. Cardman with his white lighted stick in his mouth and the Firebrother all trembling with heat and fury. I stopped telling myself stories after a bit."

A heavy hot feeling filled Kristin's chest; as if there was a burning coal in her heart. She forced her hands to remain gentle as she continuously petted the soft rabbit-fur. "Tell me the stories." She said quietly. "Please." For that minute, she really felt as though she could reach out and smite whoever these people were. Cardman. Smiles. Firebrother. But she was only a small farmwife. The Lady of Death existed only in stories and Kristin had none of her power. But oh, how she wished she did.

For the first time, Bunnyblade turned around in her arms. Red eyes connected with hers. He gazed at her a moment, little teeth biting his lower lip as he thought. "You...want the stories?"

Kristin smiled at him. "Absolutely."

Bunny's eyes narrowed and he scratched his head again. "Okay. But...but I want Phil to hear them too."

"He's outside right now, working on keeping the house safe." Kristin said. "Do you want to go out and tell us both the stories out there?"

Bunny thought another moment. He sat halfway up and looked towards the window. "Um...sure. Let's go."