word: yare

yare

\ yair \  , adjective;

1. quick; agile; lively.

2. (of a ship) quick to the helm; easily handled or maneuvered.

3. Archaic.  a. ready; prepared. b. nimble; quick.

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                 It was a bright, warm spring day.  The kind that fills the soul with a pleasant, content happiness.  The sun was shining with not a cloud to be seen.  Birds sang as they fluttered around the trees and buildings in the small village.  The sounds of a child laughing filled the streets.  It was immediately followed by frustrated cries and the clatter of steel on stone.

                “Hold still, damn you!”  Lars cried out after missing his target.  The little girl he had been targeting simply bounced around and laughed at him tauntingly. 

                “You know you’re not going to catch it that way, right?”  Caruss said, leaning on one of the nearby buildings.  He hadn’t even tried to help his companion, and had no intention of aiding the fruitless endeavor.  Lars simply stared daggers at the larger man.

                “I can, and I will.”  He said stubbornly.

                “Oh please.  You can’t even catch a regular rabbit.  How do you expect to get this one?” 

                “Yeah, yeah!  You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!”  The girl said, popping in right behind Lars.  He shouted and spun around, swinging one of his swords as he did.  The girl laughed and dashed away long before the blade got to her. 

                The girl was not human.  She was a rabbit that had been the form of a human for some unknown reason.  At first glance, she appeared to be a girl of about seven or eight.  However, when looking closer, it became apparent that she was not.  Her hair was grey with a darker stripe down one side, and her eyes were large and black, and had a large grey spot around one of them.  Her feet and legs were slightly larger than those of a human, and her arms and hands slightly shorter.  When she opened her mouth, one could see that her two front teeth were much more pronounced than normal as well.  The most obvious difference though, was that she had the long ears of her original species instead of those of a human. 

                When she had been changed, the rabbit had became both clever and mischievous, making a great deal of trouble of the people of the village in which she had taken residence.  While she had never actually harmed anyone, she had disrupted daily life enough that the people had asked the trio to capture her so she could be returned to her original form.  The problem was that the speed and agility she had as a rabbit had been magnified greatly upon gaining a human form.   

                The trio had of course come prepared for it.  They had brought in numerous arcane traps and hid them around the town.  The trouble was, the rabbit-girl had a knack for avoiding them.  She had taken to jumping around very close to one of the traps, often getting within a few inches of one.  But, she always managed to avoid it. 

Since the traps weren’t working, Lars had started to try and subdue her in a more forceful method.  But, she was far quicker than him, and agile enough to turn on a dime even while moving at full speed.  It was an effort in futility for him to catch her.  But, he stubbornly persisted, having long since viewed catching her as a matter of pride more than anything.

                “Shut up dam it!”  He shouted at the girl.  She just laughed and dashed off, changing directions seemingly at random.  Lars turned to look at his companions.  Caruss just stood by watching.  Grena seemed to be greatly enjoying the show.  “You know, you two could help me.”

                “But you look like you’re having such a good time.”  Grena said, trying to stifle her laughter.  Lars looked like a vain in his forehead was about to burst.

                “Just do something, would you?”  He said through clenched teeth.

                “Like what?  She’s moving too much to use my capturing spell, and that’s about all I can use without killing her.”

                “Well think of something!”

                “All right, just hold your horses, I’ll put something together.  After all, we wouldn’t want the rabbit to get the better you, now would we?”  She said, not quite managing to suppress a chuckle at his expense.

                Suddenly, the girl dashed in between the two of them, stopping precisely in front of Lars.  The two of them looked at each other for a brief moment before anything happened.  Lars bellowed out of both anger at being mocked, and frustration at his inability to hit her.  He wildly swung both his swords, not caring that he wasn’t supposed to be inflicting any damage on her.  She avoided his blows without any kind of difficulty, moving between the blades with expert precision.  Soon though, she jumped high up into the air, far higher than any human could ever hope to do.  Her large foot lashed out and hit Lars squarely in the chest.  Lars stumbled to the ground from the blow.

                The kick actually had very little power behind it, as the rabbit-girl had very little physical strength.  Not even a normal child would have been really hurt by the blow.  Lars had fallen more out of surprise and the fact that his footwork had been so poor.  He would have gotten up right away, but the rabbit-girl had followed her attack by jumping on top of him.  She was currently bouncing lightly on all fours on top of his chest, giggling furiously.

                “You’re funny, you’re funny.”  She said happily.  Lars looked up at the bouncing rabbit-girl and sneered.  She was not only physically weak, but also much lighter than she looked.  As quickly as he could, he reached out to grab her while she was so close.  But, the girl nimbly jumped away to the side, once again avoiding his grasp.

                Lars sprang up and immediately began resuming the chase.  The girl laughed and taunted him the entire time, always just out of his reach.  Suddenly, the girl jumped back farther away then she had been, and simply stopped.  Lars roared and charged at her head long.

                “No, wait!  Don’t go there!”  Grena called out.  The warning went unheeded as Lars continued barreling down at the girl.  Just before he reached her, he stopped dead.  Tendrils of blue-purple arcane light lanced out of the ground under him and wrapped around his arms and legs, holding him fast.  “That’s where we put one of the traps.”  Grena sighed as she watched Lars get dragged down by the trap intended for the girl.  The girl herself just laughed furiously and bounced in circles around him.

                “Stupid, stupid!”  She taunted.  “I trapped you, I trapped you!  Stupid, stupid!”  She called out gleefully.  Suddenly though, she stopped dead and lifted her small head up.  She started sniffing the air around her.  Just as suddenly as she started, she stopped.  “Fun, fun!  Something fun’s happening!  I’m going to go see!  Bye, bye!  Let’s play later, ok?”  She said before bouncing off towards the outskirts of town. 

                “What was that about?”  Grena asked as she watched the girl leaving.

                “No idea.  Maybe it’s mating season for rabbits or something.”  Caruss said. 

                “I don’t think so.” 

                “Well, you have any better ideas?”

                “Not really.  But whatever it is, I don’t think it’s anything good.”

                “Does it matter?  Right now, she’s gone, so our jobs done.  If anything else happens, someone will get in contact with us.”

                “I suppose so.”

                “Hey, guys?”  Lars said, still tied to the ground.  “As much fun as speculation is, can you get me out of here!?”  He shouted.  Grena sighed and went over to him.  She touched the ground and the bind disappeared.  Lars sprang up and shouted at nobody in particular.

                “Why so mad?  The rabbit’s gone.  You don’t have to worry about her anymore.”  Caruss said dully.  Lars turned to look at him, his eyes burning.

                “Oh, no it’s not.  If we ever see the thing again, I’m going to catch it, skin it and have rabbit stew for dinner.”  He said, his fists trembling.  He turned in the direction the girl had ran off and stormed off after her, not caring about anything else at that moment.

                “Should we remind him that we’re not supposed to be hurting her?”  Grena said.

                “Nah.  Or at least not yet.  Besides, even if we do see it again, I don’t think he’ll be able to catch her, do you?”  Caruss said.  Grena giggled lightly.  “Anyway, we’d better go and make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.”  He said, moving to follow Lars.  Grena nodded and followed her companions without any more words.  Before she moved too far though, she saw something in a nearby shop.  She smiled mischievously.  Before following her companions, she picked up a small stuffed rabbit, left a few coins and then ran off to join the others. 

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So, think I should use the rabbit-girl again?  I think I will.  Not in every story that these three are in, but she might just pop in and out from time to time.  What do you all think?