Chapter Text
Halvis could hear the roar of a car outside the house, and she didn’t need to lift her ears to know that that meant Johann was coming to stay. Nevertheless, swivelling the butterscotch coloured ears in question, she listened for the crunch of the man with a red face’s boots on the gravel. Bounding up to her mistress, Halvis gently bumped her nose against the green boots.
“I know, Halvis, sweet, I can hear him too. Looks like you and Johann will get to have another sleepover.”
Her mistress stood, and carefully scooping the rabbit up, she walked to the front door to let him in. Though, it was all pretence. The Red Skull would never step inside for a coffee, no, and this ritual of pretending he might do confused both the rabbits involved.
Johann sat triumphantly upon his master’s shoulder, balancing there as easily as a parrot on a pirate, and Halvis just had to twitch her nose at him in greeting. His long ears fell before him in the way that some humans' hair can, and that earned him another nose twitch. She was excited, and though he’d never admit it, so was Johann. They were finally going to put the theory to the test. They were going to wait until Mistress and Master were gone, and then they were going to try to fly.
Or rather, Johann was going to try to fly. All Halvis had to do was stay on.
But then they could go somewhere! They could see if the grass really was greener on the other side. Though, Johann had told her that was absolute nonsense, that his grass at home was no greener than hers. But she had to take his word for it; she sensed that Mistress didn’t trust the man with the red face, so she never asked to go to Johann’s.
The humans exchanged some words that didn’t make much sense to her, but Johann seemed to pay attention. Snuffling her nose against Mistress’ skin, she hinted that she was bored, and she was placed back on the ground. The bunnies were given free run of the grounds and the mansion, just as long as they paid attention to the boundaries, and didn’t jump in the river without Mistress.
The scary man looked into Johann’s eyes, said something else she didn’t pay attention to, and Johann was popped on the ground next to her. The exchanged nose twitches, and wiggled their ears in a greeting, and the Red Skull left.
They were about to turn and go, but Halvis’ ears twitched, and she heard another car on the driveway. Mistress was happy, which meant it was either one of her men, one of the many men, or it meant Mr Tumnus’ master. She smiled down at Halvis, and that confirmed it. She wouldn’t talk to her in front of the others. For some reason, Halvis and Mistress’ conversations were kept private. Though Tumnus said he’s had one with her. Johann must have come to the same conclusion as to the new guest, because he came up next to her, and they waited.
This white and brown blur rounded the corner out of nowhere, and bounced up to the pair of them. Without waiting on his master, Tumnus hopped further into the mansion, and Johann followed. Halvis went to bump the nice man’s shoes, and then went to follow the boys.
Johann, intent on his goal, was already pushing a small pebble into the middle of their usual spot of grass, and Tumnus was scouting out a suitable plank of wood. They were going to build a ramp to fly off. Halvis went to find Tumnus, and after a quick ear wave, she helped him push the plank towards Johann. He came over to help as well, and soon they had it positioned exactly.
Halvis, going inside quickly to pick up a scarf from the house, dragged it out to the others, and draped it over Johann’s back. She indicated for Tumnus to copy her, and they took some of the scarf in their mouths. Turning to look at the pair, Johann nodded once, and began to hop, flapping his ears as fast as he could. If ever a rabbit could look determined, he looked it now. Halvis and Tumnus tried as hard as they could to keep up with the fierce pace Johann was setting, probably to do with the super-serum that he had been injected with.
The ginger fur on Johann’s body rippled with the forces being exerted on him, but finally, finally… The were going up. He realised he hadn’t really thought he would be able to do this, but lo and behold… They were flying! They were really flying.
Tumnus struggled not to let go of the scarf from just the wonderment. Soaring over the trees, and seeing nothing as far as even bunny eyes can see. He’d have wiggled, only that scared him as well. Didn’t want to dislodge the scarf over Johann’s back… Halvis was just calm. Mistress had taken her on some flights with her before.
Ahh… touching down though… That might be a problem. Taking some initiative, Halvis jerked the scarf off Johann’s back when they were near the ground, and giving Johann a bit more ability to land on his own. She chucked the scarf underneath her and Tumnus, and they were soon safely looking around at their new surroundings. Tumnus bounced up, and sniffed the ground, running in excited little circles.
Of course, Halvis and Johann had to go on an exploration, just to scout out the immediate area. Sniffing the air, Johann seemed to smell something. Trusting his super-dooper nose, she followed the red bunny into the thickets. Tumnus, soon tired of his circles, calmed down enough to think that exploration would be a good thing, too, and so hopped after the pair.
Unfortunately… This intrepid trio were not the only animals out in those woods that day. Hydra had been working on getting a portal between Asgard and this realm up and running, and so far, a couple of creatures had made their way through, into the middle realm. Earth.
One such creature, a hel-cat, vicious and malevolent, known to himself as Einar, had been being trained by the organisation to scout out, and report back. This was a good plan, were it not for the fact that Einar had gone on his first mission, and not returned back, for the drugs used weren’t strong enough to detain it for long enough.
Prowling in the long grasses, he had heard the thumps of three rabbit tails on the ground, and lay in wait. At first they were just little blobs of fur, one caramel, one red, and one white and brown. But soon, the definition came with the sound, and Einar would have smirked, had he not been a cat.
When the bunnies reached a log, Tumnus slowed down. He sensed that something was wrong, and, having no other way to tell them, bit the other two soundly on their tales, alerting them to the danger. It was then that the cat pounced.
Everything was in a flurry, the bunnies dashed for cover, but, seeing the Halvis had been cornered by the beast, Johann bounded out from the cover of the bushes, and waved his ears energetically, distracting Einar.
Tumnus and Halvis, knowing that they must uses this distraction wisely, grabbed their ends of the scarf, and hopped in front of the cat, tripping it up. All three bunnies, now in sync, knowing what they must do, jumped on top of Einar, and Halvis scratched up his back with her claws, very annoyed at the bad kitty. Her name didn’t mean “Weapon of the goddess” for nothing.
Einar hissed, but sensing defeat, shuddered, before standing up. Tumnus and Johann gave him an extra kick of their back legs just as a lesson, and Halvis jumped down. Running off into the forest, Einar wasn’t to know that the camera fixed on his collar by Hydra had recorded the whole thing, and even if he did know, he wouldn’t have understood.
The three bunny friends felt that they had had enough adventures for now, and they all silently agreed that they could come out again more often, now that they knew Johann could in fact, fly. Maybe they would have bigger, grander adventures?
When her mistress returned to Halvis, she, Tumnus and Johann were curled into little fury balls, cuddled against each other. They had found a hot spot on the floor, due to the underfloor heating, and decided to share.
The enchantress and carer of the rabbits, for now at least, smiled down at them. When she had left, Halvis had a moment of triumph…
You’re not the only one that can keep secrets, she thought…