Shadowy Snippets: Easter Eve
(you can all thank @lmelodie for this sneak peak lmao. Blossom in armour is everything to me, and here's why >:)
The earth was cool and hard underneath her paws. Wind rushing through her fur, she sprinted on all fours, the evergreens towering above her, shading the park completely.
Blossom ran up on a rock, the split waterfall rushing down behind her. The sun peeked out over the clouds, just grazing the tops of the trees. The blue below her sparkled as the light tried its best to break through the foliage. Straightening up, she took a deep breath in. Holding it, she admired the scenery as she exhaled, popping up onto her back legs, front paws sitting just above her hind.
Lieutenant! Checking in!
Blossom’s nose twitched, a smile blooming to life on her muzzle.
General! Things are going swell over here! Squads 72 and 86 have reached the Kettle, she thought back, adjusting her belts as several of her siblings ran past her, jumping over one another. They laughed and bonked into one another, immediately tackling each other after impact, splashes abound.
The Easter Buns were a very rowdy type of magianimal.
And they got. Stuff. DONE!
Excellent! I’ve got Squad 94 with me. We’re just wrapping up here. 58 and 14 should be on route to you.
Aye aye, General! Blossom thought back.
Behind her, another bun hopped from stone to stone, scampering up the rock Blossom stood perched on. He stopped beside her, popping up on his hind and saluting.
“Lieutenant!”
She stretched her flank, eyeing the bun. “Major."
“Squads 73 and 87 are enroute. Squads 1 through 12 have begun to head back to the Burrow.”
Blossom’s ear twitched. “Right on schedule. Good!”
“Ahead, actually!”
“Even BETTER!” Feral grin in place, Blossom shook her brother excitedly. “Look at us GO!" She dropped him, the Major somehow managing to stay upright. "How’d the littlest squad do?”
“Amazing!” The Major hopped up beside her, sitting comfortably on his hindquarters. “They were lickity split! They’ve got promise, Lieutenant.”
“Hmm. We have challengers, I see.”
“Well, good thing your place is already cemented.”
“And yours.”
The Major laughed, scratching his side with his bottom right paw. “You know you’ll have to initiate combat again when it’s your turn.”
“Oh, please. I’d be THE Bunny. I’d do what I want! And anyway, we work well together! I wouldn’t wanna ruin that right away. Hey! Davy! Watch out for Pols, would ya?”
“Yeah! Ya almost squashed my ears!”
“Sorry General! Sorry Pauline,” Davy grinned, landing beside the bun and giving her a noggie.
She laughed loudly and grabbed his flank, somehow managing to lift him up and over her head, body slamming him in the process with a little splash.
“Haha! Nice one, Pols!” Blossom pushed herself up, standing as tall as she could. “You see that guys? That’s the kinda spirit that gets things DONE! EASTER BUNS!”
“EASTER BUNS!”
They all whooped in agreement as the Bunnies rushed about, heading to the base of the park to begin the journey home. Blossom grinned, sitting back down beside her brother and looking up at the darkening sky.
Hold up...darkening?
Well that wasn’t quite right, she thought, her grin fast becoming a frown.
“Uh, Lieutenant?”
“Major?”
“Is it just me, or is it getting darker?”
Blossom stiffened. The sun had almost hit the tops of the trees. It should have risen by now, Blossom knew that. All the Buns knew that. All thirty-five thousand of them knew that!
And all thirty-five thousand of them were beginning to notice, too.
Below the two commanders, the older buns were doing the unthinkable: settling down.
The rowdiness and roughhousing slowed to a stop, the littler buns only beginning to notice when the elder ones pushed the younger ones behind them. Sticking out their paws they stood straight, looking around carefully. Older siblings on alert, the younger ones stood down, keeping close to their elders.
“You're right, Skip. Something’s...something's up."
She hopped across the stream to the next rock, the waterfall rushing behind her. Her brother followed, alert. Their ears twitched; their eyes darted around.
“Lieutenant?” one of the squad leaders closest to her asked. “Should we tuck in?”
Blossom hopped to another rock, glancing about frantically now as the sounds of the wildlife disappeared, the roar of the waterfall behind them now sounding very, very angry.
“Aye, Sergeant." Cupping her paws around her maw, Blossom shouted.
"EVERYONE! TUCK IN!”
“You heard the Lieutenant!" Skip seconded. "Tuck in!”
Immediately, all of the bunnies gathered into their groups, bundling up nice and close and puffing up their fur. Their back legs were ready—whether to fight or flee, though, Blossom wasn’t sure yet. She couldn't be sure until the thing that crested the horizon, coming into their line of sight, got closer.
It was downstream. It seemed to be some kind of...blob. Some kind of big, blob of darkness. It seemed small at first. But that's because it was far. As it got closer, it got bigger. And bigger. And bigger.
It was single-highhandedly blotting out the light. Everything around it grew dark as it drifted down towards them, growing larger and larger with each passing second.
Well, that was no problem for them! They could puff up too!
“Everyone, get behind me!” Blossom yelled. Somersaulting off her perch, she landed in front of the fluffle. Standing on her hind legs, she stretched her front paws out in front of them as the mass of brown buns moved behind her, readying for action.
Beside her, the Major stood up straighter, too, stretching out his paws as well.
“Aww, thanks Skip.”
“No sweat,” he replied, as the dark mass got closer and closer to them. It seemed to fly. It looked like it was made of something…viscous, almost; the darkness tumbled over itself, as though it was made of a bunch of smaller darkness that weaved in and out of one another.
Finally, the thing reached them. It rose up, higher and higher, looking every bit like a giant ocean wave except for the fact that it was most definitely not water, Blossom was realizing. No sirree! It was one hundred percent darkness. She couldn’t see any shapes or forms or anything. Just one big, giant, void-like ball of darkness.
It stopped, hovering in place. Dissonant whispers tickled the ears of the buns. The younger ones bent their ears over their faces in an effort to block out the whispers.
“Can it, would ya?” Blossom yelled. “You’re interrupting official Easter business, pal. And you don’t want to mess with Easter business! I mean it!”
The whispers paused, the silence brief before popping. Cackling. Cracking. Laughing, Blossom realized. The void was laughing. It was laughing at them.
The rude-ity! Blossom thought. The auDAUcity!
Everything okay over there, kiddo?
Ah, poop. She had thought out loud.
Peachy keen! She replied, gulping. Her throat was suddenly very dry, and her every instinct was yelling RUN! FLEE! HIDE!
But she stood her ground. She couldn’t show weakness! Not to her troops!
The laughter grew louder. Pinpoints of glowing lights began to appear all over the wave, in all sorts of bright, harsh colours. Lots of red, Blossom noticed. And they were all over the thing. It was almost as if...
“Holy moly! The darkness has eyes!”
Major Skip was, regrettably, right. The tiny pinpricks of light were eyes.
Blossom figured now that she had been spot on when she guessed that there were little darkness bits all flying over top of one another. And now, now they were peering down at the bunnies with a look in their horrible glowing depths that she had seen many a time before whenever predators got too close.
Blossom?
Everything’s fine, Chief! She thought back, finally. We’ve just got a couple of bullies on our tails right now. We got this!
The silence was very, very brief.
I just placed the last basket. We’ll be right there, hang tight Blossom!
Okay, she replied quietly and, taking a deep breath, shouted once again at the giant wave of darkness.
“Alright, I tried asking nicely once!”
You call that nicely?
Blossom jumped; the voice seemed to come from everywhere all at once.
“Who said that! Show yourself!” Blossom yelled, stomping her foot. A stick flew up; she grabbed it in her hand. It wasn’t as pointy as she’d like, but it’d do for now. She’d grab the Big Ones if she needed to. She had the fastest draw time of all her siblings!
There was new laughter now. It sounded sweet. It sounded wrong. It was like a musical chime, but the chime was off. Maybe it was an octave too high. Maybe too low? The weird, echoey vibe to it sent shivers through her furs.
The wave began to swirl. A bright blue light seemed to appear, glowing, within the dark. It drifted to the top, whirling amongst the darkness as the laughter continued. It burst through to the surface; a bright blue ball that twirled, and twirled, until POOF! It glowed even brighter and took the vague shape of a very scary looking blue lady.
She looked like she was made of energy. There was no other way to explain it. Blue energy drifted above and around her head, looking kinda like hair. She had a face, also blue; her eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, all of her facial features were made of energy too. Slightly darker. She was curvy. Or at least, Blossom thought she was by humanoid standards. Behind her big energy hair, a bit lower down where her hind would be if she were a Bunny, Blossom could see something flicking back and forth—almost like a tail. A long tail, with a pointy end.
"Nicely." She scoffed. "Sounded more like a demand."
Blossom pushed back. So did the Fluffle. They all blinked up at the entity, ears twitching, tails shaking, furs on end.
What the heck was this lady?
"Hello. Bunnies. Where is he?"
"Where's who?"
"Where is the Easter Bunny?"
Her voice was smooth. But there was an edge to it. A sharp little edge. This lady had a mean streak.
Blossom glared. She crossed her paws. "Who's askin'?"
“Yeah!”
“Tell ‘em, Lieutenant!”
“Who’s asking?”
“I’m asking.” The blue lady grinned. A very pointy grin, Blossom realized. Yucky.
She stood her ground. Around her, her siblings began to do the same.
“Why do you wanna know?”
“Because he and I have a little excursion to go on, and I won't be taking no for an answer.” Her fist lit up blue, and her eyes narrowed. “I am not afraid of a gaggle of little rodents, and nor are my shadowy friends.”
The shadows hissed in agreement; some of them seemed to lick their lips. They didn’t even have lips! HOW did they have TONGUES?!
"So, let me see if I'm following," Blossom said, squinting up at the lady. "You're here to kitnap the Easter Bunny?"
The lady blinked. She laughed quietly, her mouth staying shut as she did. "You pick up on things fast, don't you?"
"Well I'm not Legate Easter for nothin', you know!"
The lady looked pleased. "I do now."
"You haven't answered my question, lady!"
"No! I haven't. Such a silly question..." the lady floated up, doing a loop, her eyes never once leaving the bunnies. "Am I here to kidnap the Easter Bunny? Hmm." She righted herself, blue energy drifting behind her before merging with her form once more. She tapped her chin. "Hmm...basically yes. Yes, I am."
It was silent for a moment. The shadows hissed; bunny ears flicked and noses twitched. The stick in Blossom’s hand fell. The woman grinned, the shadows shifting faster.
But the fluffle was faster.
Blossom raised her fist in the air. "BUNNIES!"
They all whipped around, looking at her with big, big eyes.
She brought her fist down. "WEAPONS!"
A little less than thirty thousand bunnies suddenly looked very, very excited, their little voices filling the air in a mighty battle cry.
"WEAPONS!"
Thwips and shinks and cracks and thunks rang out as these small, poof balls of fur pulled out all manner of weaponry. Sharp sticks were brandished, slingshots grabbed and stones in hand. The older rabbits pulled out bats and all manner of sharp objects—one of them even had a dagger that looked like a sword in their tiny little paws.
Blossom held what looked to be two sticks in her hands. She flicked them out and they extended; the batons were colourful and splattered with paint. They were a pastel nightmare, which suited Blossom just fine because so. Was. She.
The blue lady pulled back. She blinked.
"Well...this was unexpected."
The shadowy mass behind her hissed in excitement. They began to flicker, growing restless.
"Oh, I know, pets. I know! You have all been locked away for eons, longing to spread darkness the way you once did, making due with nightmares and little scares for so, so long...what fun this will be!"
The lady smirked, those sharp, dagger-like teeth glinting once more. She lifted her hand, pointing a sharp finger at the Fluffle.
"Sick 'em."
And the shadows swarmed, beelining for the Fluffle as the Fluffle lunged, the first wave of projectiles launching ahead of them.
The Easter Battle had begun.