Lance sighed, then Courage began to undress. Everyone began to wipe blood all over him with their bleeding hands, Courage gagged. When they were done he stood in his underwear, or rather a pair of panties recently collected from Gonks hut. Reilly folded his clothes and put them in her bag. Courage held his sword, and put his goblin whistle in his mouth. Lance stood with the Fire pit poker in his hands. Its weight felt better in his now level 6 arms. Bam went Full Howl and gave a nod in his maned wolf form. Reilly tied a rope from her waist to Lance's. Bam's ears began to flick left and right listening for sounds of wild life. He took a few steps forward onto a small game trail, one of many, that wired outwards into the deep forest. Bam stopped and sniffed around, he lifted a paw and pointed down a trail. Lance and Reilly began to jog onto the path. Courage gave them a little head start then began to jog behind them. After getting a bit deeper into the woods Courage began to scream loudly, feigning painful wailing and whimpering. Bam following behind him barked the best he could. He had no way to speak in his wolf form, at least he didn't quite understand how to fully articulate things, but barking came naturally. Every once in a while Courage would blow the whistle once letting Lance and Reilly know nothing had happened. They went on like this through the woods for almost five minutes before the first encounter of wildlife. Just when Courage slowed his jog to catch his breath a rabbit darted from the bushes out onto the small game trail. The rabbit was brown and larger than normal, roughly the size of a medium dog. It stopped and stared with its beady black eyes at Courage.

  “ Aww a bunnyyyy! Hey Bam check this out!” Courage said, stepping slowly toward the rabbit.

  Bam came to a stop a little behind Courage and sniffed the air. He began to bark and snarl at Courage as if to warn him.

  “ What?” Courage said, turning his back to look at Bam.

  Just as he did, the rabbit stood on its hind legs and dashed at him, its front paws flexed out with sharp curved knife-like claws, its mouth opened, a grin full of sharp fangs. It was low in its stride and would occasionally push off the ground with a front paw for balance but it sped up very quickly. Courage heard the quick thumping on the soil, his heart pounded with a spike of adrenaline, Bam charged forward and leapt at him. Courage felt Bam slam into his chest, at that same moment the rabbit had leapt as well, claws outstretched towards Courage’s neck, it missed narrowly leaving a small cut along his jawline. Courage fell backwards to his butt. Bam slammed onto the ground next to him, the rabbit landed and turned around looking at the pair. Courage sat up quickly and looked at Bam, Long gashes ran from his cheek down the side of his pelt to just past his ribcage. Courage put the whistle around his neck into his mouth and gave it a quick three blows. The whistle was made of a small bird's head, its skull hollow and tampered with a small reed. The sound it made was high pitched like that of a life guards whistle, but whatever bead that bounced within was dense and made it sound rattly.

  “ Bam Thanks, BEHIND ME!” Courage stepped forward pointing his blade at the rabbit. The rabbit grinned wide and licked at its bloody claws. A moment later its dark beady eyes tinted blood red and it shivered.

  “ Psychic Cage!” Courage yelled out, an ethereal cage began to form around the rabbit. Before it could form completely the rabbit darted out and around a tree, out of sight. The bush it ran into shook. And then another from behind them shook, the blur of the rabbit would occasionally flash as it circled around them quickly.

  “ Bam its too fast, Go up with screech, I fucked up this was a bad idea.” Courage said his head quickly turning from bush to bush in anticipation of this killer rabbit. Bam retorted with a defiant bark, not returning to his human form. The distant steps of Lance and Reilly could be faintly heard over the rustle of bushes.

  “ SCREECH! Beast Bond!” Courage looked up. Screech was dangling from a branch above. His right eye bloomed black. He closed his eyes as his sight became entwined with the perception of Screech. Screech had small beady eyes but his ears could pick up more than just sound. The texture and shape of objects became perceived as if touching them, the sound bouncing from the bushes gave just a glimpse of what lied within. Courage could hear his surroundings as well as see from the eyes of Screech. He had a hard time using both of theirs simultaneously, but he was working on it. For now he chose to listen with Screeches hearing, it felt odd, the vibrations tickled as he heard them, while looking out of his left eye.

  The bushes rustled from directions that didn't make sense, Left then right, behind, then back forward. It was as if the rabbit was fast enough to circle them without being seen. Courage’s ears picked up on something, he hadn't noticed, the patter of feet had disappeared. The bushes shook and as he looked into them he could see nothing. He got lower to the ground, Scratching, Scraping…

  “ Its not attacking….. Its…. A TRAP! BAM JUMP!” Courage yelled out stabbing out his sword towards the ground. From the dirt below the claws of the rabbit jumped up at the underbelly of Bam stabbing into his sides, the dirt below him began to collapse like a tunnel. Bam caught off guard, yelped and jumped up, which made the rabbit appear just above the dirt briefly. Courage swung out to the side attempting to chop at the rabbit. It let go and dropped back into its tunnel. Bam fell over on his side, writhing and slowly turned back into his human form. He panted heavy breaths, his belly just under his ribs and his neck down his side had large gashes that bled slowly. He sat up and leaning on a tree. He put his back against it and spit blood on the ground in front of him. He gave Courage a nod and put his hands up.

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  “ Wild Paw” Bam whispered and his hands and feet stretched and contorted into furry claws. He waited for any change in the dirt. “ Courage! If you get hurt like me run, I still have one more form, But i can't control it.”

  “ Shh let me listen.” Courage said, putting the whistle on his necklace back to his lips. He gave it a quick blow every couple seconds. He had closed his eyes slowly stepping in a circle in the dirt.

  With his back to the tree Bam could see small sections of the dirt shift, it was almost negligible, but worth noting. He noticed that it wasn't moving any dirt near the trees. “ Courage, move to the trees!”

  Just as Bam yelled out, the rabbit leapt through the dirt slashing at Courage's backside, kicked off his back into the hole it came from, simultaneously pushing Courage forward to his knees. The dirt shifted more, Reilly and Lance ran up to the edge of this dirt patch. Bam yelled out to them to stop. Courage stood up quickly as he did another hole in the ground popped open and the rabbit came from the side kicking him over. Courage grunted in frustration and pain, a lot of blood trickling down from his gashes, more appearing on his side. He went to stand up pushing off the dirt, but two paws popped up and grabbed his blade yanking it under out of his grasp.

  “ YOU DAMN RABBIT! GET UP HERE!” Courage yelled out standing up quickly.

  Bam nodded, Reilly and Lance standing to the side of the dirt arena between these trees both wore faces of confusion. From the angle they were standing they couldn't see what was happening. It almost looked like Courage was in a drunken stupor trying to stand. They did however notice the blood running down from both of Bam and Courage’s wounds. Reilly quickly cast Bliss. Courage began to watch the dirt more intensely. He spun on his spot like he was practicing sumo positions, quick hops looking in different directions, arm and nub open wide. The rabbit leapt at his backside, Courage heard the dirt fall into the hole it just created.

  “ Psychic cage!” Courage’s purple electrical crackling hand touched his own head. Screech cried out in tandem with Courage and a Cage began to form around him. Just as the rabbit leapt in to catch him off guard the cage formed. This was the fastest Courage had been able to make it appear, it was also the largest cage, one big enough for him. Being within its touch Courage felt his head throb at his own yelp and Screeches piercing wail echoed and bounced within his head. The rabbit within the cage was slashing its paws at the cage trying to burrow. The throbbing subsided and Courage opened his eyes.

  “ Bond- Release! As for you! You’re mine!”

  The rabbit turned around unable to dig out of the cage looking at Courage, It opened its mouth wide and gave a scratchy growl, it began to hop madly around the cage off the walls cutting into Courage with quick slashes. It accelerated quickly to the point that he had no choice but to stand there getting pushed and cut repeatedly. Reilly was casting Bliss after Bliss. He put up his hand telling her no. The rabbit had become a blur, it came to a quick stop clamping down its claws and mouth on Courage’s neck. Blood sprayed out. Courage fell to a knee.

  “ Shame.. I love bunnies.. I declare you. Unatameable.” Courage placed his hand on the rabbits back. The cage around him shrank until it closed in over the rabbit, the wounds he had accrued from the encounter within the cage turned into purple crackling electricity, and faded as if they weren't real. The electricity flew off his body like magnets to the rabbit, it seemed like the disappearing wounds still hurt him and he looked faint but they quickly became faded scars. The rabbit convulsed and shook in the cage that was more like a net now around its form. Courage continued to pet its back as all the wounds it had given, had been given back in a series of zaps, to which it died. Courage’s hand kept petting its back, his hand passing through the cage like it was mist. Courage shed a tear and the cage fell away. He held the large bunny in his arms. He set it down and began to look for his sword in the dirt.

  “ Bam what happened?” Reilly called out. Bam shrugged his shoulders.

  “ I had never encountered this creature. We were on the plan and I thought maybe a bear or something would come running out but then it was the rabbit, it looked cute and stuff for a second but as soon as i got a whiff of it, i smelled blood and it attacked, we tried to call for you guys, it messed me up then kind of trapped him in this little bouncing hole dirt thing and then you guys came” Bam said stepping closer holding his side.

  Reilly was gripping her wand tightly. “ Sigh* Well at least we are here now. Look, I don't know if this plan is gonna work if we have more of those things to fight. Look at you guys, i mean”

  “ I'm FINE.” Courage interjected. “ Did we not handle it? I whistled to let you know, not for help. Bam and I just have a couple scratches. Here Lance, fresh meat. Take what you need but let me bury what's left. Also check it out.” He said pointing to a bush nearby. It was covered in small cherry sized berries.

  Lance looked over at the bush surprised, he went over and gave the bush a once over. A lot of the berries had been plucked or eaten by bugs. Overall the bush had plenty left to take in various stages of ripening. The bush was small but overgrown and unwieldy. Lance got low to look at its main stalk. “ Hmm i could definitely just take the whole thing. I just don't know if these are poisonous or not.”