Rabbit Online (Rabbit and Girls Book 1)

  Rabbit Online

  By

  A. J. Chaudhury

  Copyright © 2019 Akhoy Jyoti Chaudhury

  All rights reserved

  SPECIAL THANKS

  To Paul, Tom and Anna for help with the editing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to real people or events is entirely coincidental.

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  Before you read…

  English isn’t my native tongue. You might find that I write my sentences in a slightly different way to what you are used to. But I do hope that you like the story and the characters that I have created. A world of magic and adventure awaits you. You are going to come across a human who can turn into a rabbit, sorcerers salivating for power, bamboo trees that lead to the heavens and what not. Have a great ride!

  Chapter 1

  I unzipped my pants groggily, my bladder about to burst.

  I stifled a yawn as I took out my organ and released the urine, immense relaxation taking over my lower stomach.

  Just then the distant howl of some monster reached my ears. The monster was probably a few kilometres away, but nevertheless the howl struck a chord of fear in my heart. My wives, Dani and Lia were sleeping at the clearing that was about a hundred metres from where I was taking my piss. The fire had died and I couldn’t even see the outlines of their bodies.

  Why on earth had I bothered coming so far just to take a piss? It was dark after all, I could have done my business near the clearing itself. That Dani and Lia’s powers were reduced outside the civilised realm only added to the worry. The last thing my father had told me before his death was that I would make a great king but I should be more careful with the small decisions I made.

  “Come on!” I said, wishing the stream of urine would stop sooner. When I was finally done, I quickly zipped my pants and rushed towards the clearing.

  I had only taken a few steps when I heard a rustle in the bushes behind me. I turned towards the bushes, though I could barely see a thing thanks to the moonless night. The next moment there was a whizzing sound and I felt a sharp pain in my neck.

  When I touched my neck, I could feel a dart sticking to it. A notification popped up in my vision, even as weakness took over my limbs.

  You have been hit by a poisoned dart!

  The poison will paralyse your muscles so that you will not be able to have any control over your body. You will also not be able to use any spells you know. You will however be able to see, smell and hear everything.

  The effect of the dart will last for one hour.

  Good luck!

  Good luck?

  The distinct thud of my own body hitting the ground was quite loud to my ears. If I somehow survived whatever was going to happen to me next, then I was guaranteed to have a very sore body once I regained control of my muscles.

  More sounds of movement reached my ears. I saw a number of dark hairy shapes move towards my body. Were they monsters? Were they going to kill me?

  I also saw a human shape. Was the person going to save me? Or was the person with the monsters?

  The monsters were soon all over me. They seemed to have hands much like humans and I realised that the monsters were actually monkeys. They lifted my body and began to take me in a direction opposite to the clearing where Lia and Dani were. The human led the monkeys.

  Panic took over me and my heart hammered. But there was nothing I could do, at least not for an hour. And it was going to be too late by then without a doubt. I was little more than a log of wood, and a hammering heart inside a log of wood wasn’t of much use. So this was the punishment for my carelessness?

  I wanted to cry. I was less worried for me than I was for Dani and Lia.

  The monkeys carried me fast through the forest, and in a matter of minutes I reached a clearing at the centre of which there was a fire. There were at least five men at the clearing and seeing me being brought they looked quite pleased. One even patted the man who had led the monkeys. The light from the fire illuminated the tattooed bare chests of the men. The ears and noses of the men were pierced. Without a doubt they were members of the Lazaki tribe… the same tribe to which my dear wife Rozy belonged.

  I was certain that I was going to die. I was never going to be able to save Rozy. Dani and Lia were ladies of the civilised realm and there was no way they would be able to survive the wilderness without me. I shouldn’t have brought them with me at all. I felt guilty.

  One of the men removed a small pouch from a snake-skin belt he was wearing. From the pouch he took out a gemstone. It sparkled so bright that it almost seemed to outshine the fire. There was something about the gemstone which made me feel queasy. The moment the man had taken out the gemstone from the pouch the temperature in the clearing had dropped.

  The monkeys had placed me on the ground and the man with the gemstone came and sat next to me. His face reeked of evil.

  “Do not worry,” the man said with a smile, his breath foul, “we are not going to kill you.” The man then let out an excited laugh. He bent closer to my ear. “We are going to do something worse to you.”

  The other men began to laugh as well. I was completely at their mercy… and they were not going to be merciful at all. Seeing their villainous laughter I knew whatever they were going to do to me was completely out of a nightmare.

  “See this?” the man with the gemstone said, holding the sparkling object just over my eyes. “This was given to us by the great sorcerer Mintuk (may he always prosper!). With this little stone we are going to take away all your powers. Each and every spell and skill that this world gifted you will be gone. You will be like a… like a mere plant, incapable of doing anything worthy! Let’s see how you steal Rozy away from us then! ”

  He again burst into laughter. Cold fear entered me. I could see the reason why the Lazaki tribesmen were so triumphant. Had they just killed me then they I would have suffered little. But now, I might have to spend my entire life with the knowledge that I had failed to rescue my alpha wife. I would be in mental torment till my last breath.

  I had known that the sorcerer Mintuk was powerful, but I had never in my wildest dream thought him capable of creating an object of dark magic like the gemstone that could completely take away someone’s powers. This felt so unfair… this was cheating! All the years I had spent acquiring my powers would go to waste.

  The Lazaki man placed the gemstone over my heart. The gemstone was so cold that it seemed to burn my skin. I couldn’t open my mouth due to the paralysis, but my soul screamed in pain.

  I was so lost in the torture that I did not know for what length of time the gemstone was over my heart. And then finally a notification appeared in my vision.

  Unfortunately you are down to level zero!

  All the spells and skills that you acquired have been taken away from you!

  The malevolent grin of the Lazaki man was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.

  ***

  Chapter 2

  The air was cool when I opened my eyes. For a moment I expected to find Dania and Lia next to me. But they weren’t. All that had happened to me last night came flying to my mind. The remains of the fire made by the Lazaki men were still there. I sat up and I quickly checked my stats.

  General Information

  Name: Rabbi

  Class: King

  Race: Human

  Sex: Male

  Level: Zero

 
Strength: 5

  Health: 50

  Spells: Nil

  Weapons: Nil

  My heart sank like the last time it had when I had come to know about the abduction of Rozy. All the time I had spent levelling up, acquiring new spells and skills had entirely gone to waste. Tears welled in my eyes and I gritted my teeth.

  I lay back down on the ground unable to face the truth of my situation. I was the only biological child of a king, as such unlike most people I had the ability to acquire different kinds of skills that didn’t pertain to a single class. I had a wide array of skills that included wizardry, healing, mastery of different kinds of weapons and what not. And yet, now I had lost everything! I just couldn’t accept that I was in level zero. I closed my eyes and put my hands over my face, wishing everything was just a dream, a very bad one, and when I opened my eyes again everything would be all right. Perhaps I would find myself back in the castle and my three women, including Rozy, would be with me.

  For a while I stayed so, my hands pressed hard against my face. Then all of a sudden I sat up bold upright.

  Dani and Lia. Were they okay? Or had the Lazaki men and their monkeys gone after them after I had been dealt with?

  I stood up. My body was in aches, but that was the least of my concerns. I felt around my waist for my sword almost instinctively, but it wasn’t there. I had left it in the clearing last night when I had gone to piss.

  “Dani! Lia!” I shouted, hoping against hope that they would somehow hear my voice. How far had the monkeys brought me from them? It had to be a considerable distance.

  I took note of the place I was in and I tried hard to remember the way through which the monkeys had brought me. But I just couldn’t. I felt so helpless. I leaned against a tree to support myself. There was still the sinking feeling in my heart and it was not helping at all to deal with the situation. I did not want to live anymore, just wanted to die and let everything fix itself.

  Come on Rabbi, a voice inside me said, you cannot give up so easily! You are a king!

  But I am not a king in the barbaric realm, a weaker voice protested. I am just a helpless individual at level zero. There is nothing I can do, all is lost.

  Tears began to worm down my cheeks from my eyes. It was the first time that I was actually crying in a long while. Even when Rozy had been abducted I had not shed a tear. I had just vowed that I would rescue her and kill the sorcerer in the most painful way possible. But at that time I had not been at level zero. I still had my skills and spells. Now all hope was lost, even the thought of fighting back was pointless.

  “It’s the little things that you don’t give much thought to that you must be careful about,” my father had said, “You deal well with the big things. You can rule the kingdom with wisdom. But if you ignore the little things they will bite you when you least expect them to and that will be your downfall.”

  Father had been so right! Yet, I had not taken his advice to heart. Perhaps if I had not left Dani and Lia just to empty my bladder all this would not have happened. Perhaps the three of us could have fought off the monkeys. Dani was good with arrows and though her skill had degraded significantly after coming to the barbaric realm, she could still hit a monkey between the eyes at close range. She also possessed a magical quiver that could provide her with an unending number of arrows. And Lia could heal. If the monkeys had shot me with their dart, perhaps she could have used her powers to heal me?

  For a while I sat at the bottom of the tree in complete silence, the tears continuing to worm down my face. I just kept repeating the events from yesterday night over and over in my mind, all the while blaming nobody but myself for everything that had happened.

  And then, all of a sudden a distant shout reached my ears, which pulled me out of my broodings at once.

  “Rabbi!” It just had to be Dani.

  And another.

  “Rabbi!” It had to be Lia.

  And they kept shouting, but all the while their voices became smaller and smaller as though they were moving in a direction away from me. I wiped my eyes. My heart beat rose as I realised that I had received one last chance at life by some fluke of luck. But if I did not act, then it would be taken away from me.

  But strangely I did not want to act.

  If I took action and went after Dani and Lia, then I would have to keep taking action till I rescue Rozy and kill the sorcerer as I had vowed. And it would not end at that. I would have to return to my kingdom and retake the responsibilities of the kingdom that I had left to the care of my younger brother, who had been adopted by my parents a long time ago.

  I realised giving up was far easier than actually pursuing my cause. It was far easier to sit at the base of the tree and weep and keep repeating things in my head and feel miserable then to go searching for Dani and Lia—

  I slapped my face, putting an abrupt stop to the particular line of thought I had been treading. How could I think of such weakness? I slapped my face again and I did it hard enough to taste blood in the inside of my mouth. A notification appeared in my vision saying that I had lost health. I grimaced and wiped my face and stood up. I could barely hear the voices of Dani and Lia now, but they were still there.

  I began to follow their voices. Soon, I had broken into a run.

  “Dani! Lia!” I yelled. “Can you hear me?”

  But there was no response from them. I could hear their voices no more. I came to a halt and closed my eyes. I let all the sounds of the forest come to me. Birds were chirping and small animals were chasing one another and there was a light breeze rustling the leaves… and there were the voices of Dani and Lia shouting my name. Except they were coming from a completely different direction than what I had thought them to be coming from earlier.

  I started moving towards the sound of their voices. I kept my eyes closed, as I found it easier to keep on the correct tract that way. Of course, there were many times when I ran against trees or thick bushes and had to make my way around them.

  Slowly, the sound of Dani and Lia’s voices began to get louder, such that I knew that they could be no more than a hundred metres away from me.

  “Dani, Lia!” I shouted.

  Dani and Lia went silent suddenly.

  “Did you hear that?” I heard the faint voice of Dani say to Lia.

  “I am here!” I cried.

  “We are coming for you!” Dani and Lia said together.

  It was only now that I opened my eyes. I could still not see Dani and Lia, but I could hear some sounds ahead and knew they were approaching me.

  “I am here!” I shouted, moving towards them.

  “We can see you, Rabbi,” Dani said. I moved the branch of a tree from in front of me and the forms of Dani and Lia came as a pleasure to my eyes. A wave of great relief hit me. Perhaps making the effort to come had been worth it, after all. Seeing Dani and Lia was totally worth kicking out the feelings of helplessness from my mind.

  Dani and Lia waved at me, smiling. But abruptly Dani gasped.

  “What?” I said, for she looked quite pale.

  “Do not move, Rabbi! Whatever you do, do not move,” Dani said with a note of great warning. I couldn’t understand her and was about to take a step forward when I realised why Dani looked so scared. There was a snake coiled around the branch of tree just inches away from my left arm. My body went cold as I realised the danger I was in. I recognised the snake well from its green body and red eyes. It was a cabra. My advisors had asked me to be careful about this particular snake before coming to the barbaric realm. It was known to possess a very aggressive nature and its venom could kill a person in the span of minutes.

  The cabra hissed, and it looked pissed off at me for daring to come so close to where it was. I took a step backward, not wanting to anger the cabra more. It was a mistake, for my move was too quick. The movement triggered the snake and even as I watched, the snake’s head shot towards me at lightning speed and the fangs dug into my chest just over my heart.

  The ca
bra’s fangs left my chest the moment they had injected the venom. The snake slithered down to the ground from the branch it had been on and disappeared into some bushes. For a few moments I remained standing as I was. I didn’t even realise when Dani and Lia reached my side. Slowly, dizziness came over me, even as I began to feel like someone had set a fire over my chest.

  Dani and Lia helped me to lie down on the ground. They were saying things to me, but I couldn’t quite understand what they were saying. Their voices sounded like distant echoes that made no sense. Only one thought floated about in my mind, even as I began to lose control over my body. I should have stayed miserable; I should have remained at the spot where the Lazaki men had taken away my powers. I should have never followed Dani and Lia’s voices. It had been a mistake. Taking action had been a mistake. I wouldn’t have been bitten by the cabra otherwise.

  And then suddenly, I seemed to come back to the world. I could hear everything clearly, even though my chest was still on fire and I could barely sense my own body. Lia had her hand over my heart and she was trying hard to heal me. The veins of her forehead had popped out in the effort required and her eyes were bloodshot. Dani was just staring at me with a pale face like she had accepted the fact that I was going to die.

  Lia shook her head, shooting me a look of despair.

  “It’s not working, Dani,” she said, “I don’t think I can heal him.”

  It’s okay, Lia, I tried to say, but my lips felt stiff and my tongue wouldn’t move.

  “But we can’t just give up on him, can we?” Dani said, caressing my face with a shivering hand.

  “Um, let me… let me think,” Lia said. The drowsiness was coming back to me. Was this what dying was like? “Yes, yes, I think there might be a way to save him. Dani, go kill an animal and bring it to me. Go fast!”

  “An animal?” Dani said.

  “Yes, any animal, go!” Lia said, “My powers alone can’t revive him. Go fast!”