公眾號作者【Amber】，一個樹洞，願意做您的傾聽者~」
點擊連結閱讀往期小說和文章：
【小說】
Chapter 4——The Abandoned Rabbit (part one)
Chapter 4——The Abandoned Rabbit (part two)
【兔子】
養兔前vs養兔後——養兔前後的n條區別
見過兔子吐舌頭麼~來看！
【國畫】
美麗的花，可愛的小動物們~
疑是洛川神女作，千嬌萬態破朝霞
【雜文】
一篇公眾號文章的誕生
開學倒計時——一個大學新生開學前、中、後的n天
（以下正文約1500字）
【Chapter 5】 When Prey Meets Prey
Pie flicked up her ears. Could it be Ivy, returning to take her home and to feed to her a bunch of juicy lettuce? She turned and looked around hopefully.
The rustling had stopped. Had she been so desperate for Ivy to come that she had imagined it? How stupid of her! Then Pie saw those eyes: two large round shining yellow eyes that definitely didn’t belong to Ivy…… What was that?!
A primal fear never felt before was jolted awake inside of Pie, and she knew by instinct that, whatever animal on which those eyes grew was a threat to her. She tried to run, but her legs were frozen by fear and numb from sitting still for so long. Oh NO! She thought wildly, her heart about to burst with fear.
And then, without warning, the lamp-like eyes flickered, and vanished. Pie should』ve let out a sigh of relief, except that she instinctively knew that danger was even closer despite the sudden disappearance of those eyes. She held her breath. Then, there came a violent rustling noise, and instinctively Pie sprinted away from the direction where she』d last seen those eyes.
She wasn’t fast enough.
Something sharp caught her back and sank into her skin, Pie could feel deep gashes bursting into existence on her back, but she hardly had any energy to spare for caring about such things. All she wanted to do was to run, to leave this place and this creature that was holding her in such a vice-like grip! But she was getting nowhere, just struggling in the same spot, and getting closer and closer, as if in slow-motion, to the large maw filled with sharp, white canines.
She could distinctly see the animal that held her now. It was a cat-like creature, slightly larger than an ordinary house cat but way fiercer-looking. In the dark night its sleek coat was masked with deep grey, but Pie thought she could see darker spots spattered over its fur. These things Pie remembered only after having escaped form the creature (a lynx, as she later on knew). Right at that moment she was too busy trying to escape.
The lynx dragged Pie closer. She thrashed. It was all that she could do. Then she felt its claws go slack for a fraction of a second as the lynx prepared for the killing bite, and Pie made good use of it. She shot forward, in the same smooth and practiced motion used for so often to get away from Ivy’s grasp. She almost made it, but the lynx was too quick. It struck Pie, hard, and she felt the skin on her neck tear. Something sticky trickled down Pie’s back, making her fur matted and felt cold against her skin. With a rush of fierceness that the pain in her neck had awakened, she was no longer so afraid of her mortal enemy. It seemed that, after coming so close to death, she was able to stare it in the face. So why not give the lynx something to remember her by?
Pie whirled around, fixed the lynx in a glare and made deep snarling noises as a rabbit did when vexed to madness, taking the lynx by surprise. In his entire life, the lynx had never seen a mountain hare that didn’t flee at the sight of him, let alone show open aggression! He paused carefully, deliberately licked the blood of his prey carefully off his paws, and gazed measuringly at the rabbit before him. It was a rabbit, that’s for certain, and a mountain hare at that, though there were somethings strange about it. There was human scent clinging to its fur, and the lynx didn’t like the taste of humans in his mouth. He spat out rabbit blood. The rabbit was either incredibly brave or impossibly stupid. He was giving the rabbit a chance to escape, and it was actually throwing the unprecedented opportunity away!
Pie wasn’t thinking along these lines when she faced the lynx. She has been spoiled greatly by the humans and didn’t yet know the wisdom in flight rather thanfight, especially in situations like this. What she cared about was that, she mustn’t let the lynx get away after bullying her like that. With her memory of her life starting from the pet shop and being raised in a human house while she was growing up, Pie hardly knew that predators like the one she was making angry sounds at was to be feared, and that they kill prey like her for food.
Oh, yes, Pie would』ve certainly ran for dear life, if she only knew that that she did not.
And so, our foolish but brave little rabbit rushed forward at the lynx, who couldn’t believe his luck for the day.
* * *
『Situla! What do you think you’re doing?!』 An angry but frightened voice rang out in her ear, strange in accent, loud because of the vicinity of the speaker, and Pie was abruptly knocked sideways, away from the lynx. Then, before she had time to comprehend what was happening, she was shoved brusquely forward.
『Run! What’s wrong with you? It』ll eat you!』
She ran, pushed forward by a strong hare, the lynx following close behind. They had left the safety of the bushes, and were now running through densely-growing grass that swayed over their heads. Pie couldn’t see the lynx behind them, but she could hear it, leaping nimbly over the turf like a shadow.
It』ll eat you!
The words from the other hare rang in Pie’s ears, like a mantra. To think, she had thought she could tackle the beast, and was actually on the verge of doing that! It was a miracle she was alive, thanks to the hare who had just saved her in time. But how much longer would she stay alive?
『Faster!』 the voice of the unknown hare urged, but Pie was beginning to feel out of breath. Her lungs screamed at her to stop, threatening her with a promise of bursting; her legs too, sent out stabs of pain and warned her that they might give way at any second should she carry this on for any longer; but her brain was oddly clear, and as the lynx closed in with deadly speed, she made her decision.
『Lea——Leave me!』 Pie gasped. She couldn’t make this hare risk his life another time for her. She couldn’t repay that debt.
『No!』 He said shortly, and again without warning, Pie felt herself shoved to one side by him. She tried to regain her balance, but failed. The ground sloped down sharply on the side toward which she was pushed, and down she fell, rolling madly and bouncing over the rough slope. The sharp stones and branches of bushes cut and stung her body, but Pie didn’t feel them. She had at last fainted from dizziness and exhaustion and terror.
* * *
A sea of pulsing orange was before her eyes.
Pie’s eyelids flickered open. Then she closed them again with confusion. Where was she?
A dim, soft light illuminated the earthy den in which Pie was lying; it seemed to be coming from somewhere on her left. But she couldn’t turn her head to look at its source: her entire body felt extremely stiff, and thinking made her head throb nauseatingly.
How did she get here? Why wasn’t she in her little cage in the Princes』 house? And why wasn’t Ivy or any of her humans here beside her when she was feeling so wretched? They should have been beside her.
Pie remembered the time when she was taken outside by Ivy and her dad and her hind-paw was injured by a sharp stone. She had bled feely on that occasion, and Ivy had practically gotten frantic. She had thought the girl was funny to fuss over her, pushing her down onto her side so that she wouldn’t reopen the wound, even when Pie knew she was all right. But now, she had to admit that being fussed over by a human girl had its satisfaction……
And then it all came back to her, in a shock of memories. She remembered being abandoned by Ivy and her father, then nearly chased to death by a not-so-ferocious-looking cat-like beast, and then there was the hare that had pushed her off the slope and had as good as killed her. I』ll find him and let him pay! Thought Pie, her naturally quick temper rising again; she had forgotten, in the light of his last action, that the hare had saved her from the lynx as well.
『Oh, you're awake, my bunny!』 A voice that was oddly accented like that of the male hare but soft and musical at the same time drifted into Pie’s ear; she wrinkled her nose and detected a familiar scent. She had smelled this scent somewhere before, but the she-hare to whom it belonged was a complete stranger to Pie.
(to be continued)