Chapter 168: Puffer Rabbit

Chapter 168: 168: Puffer Rabbit

"That is very specific."

"That is why it may work."

Lucard looked at the map again. The western line moved away from Deepwell Spring and passed under an area marked with small roots. There was old writing there too, faded but still readable.

"Rabbit beds," Elowen said after leaning close. "Wild carrots. Dry grass. Soft ground."

"Good."

"You planned this very quickly."

"I saw the useful parts quickly."

She stared at him for a moment. "Is this how you always think?"

"Yes."

"That must be exhausting."

"Not thinking is more dangerous."

They changed direction.

Deepwell Spring remained behind them, hidden beyond ridges and noise. Lucard led Elowen west, away from the gathered people and away from the old man’s senses. He did not want to test the range of that old monster. A few hundred steps were not enough. A single ridge was not enough. They walked for several kilometers, crossing dry stone, thorn fields, and shallow cracks where underground water had once run.

Elowen’s injured shoulder hurt, but she kept going.

Lucard noticed when her steps became uneven. He slowed slightly, but not enough for her to think he was helping. She noticed anyway and said nothing. That silence was better than gratitude.

The land became softer after the third ridge.

Grass appeared in patches. Not green and fresh like Moonwater Hollow, but dry yellow grass with small white seed heads. The soil had tiny holes everywhere. Some were no wider than two fingers. Others were large enough for a small animal to vanish into. A few roots had been bitten cleanly at ground level.

Elowen crouched and touched one mark. "This looks like their place."

Lucard scanned the ground. "Fresh?"

"I think so."

"You think?"

"I read about them. I never hunted them."

"Then say that first."

She gave him an annoyed look. "Fine. I read about them. I never hunted them. But this looks fresh."

Lucard crouched and checked the marks himself. Tiny claw grooves. Soft dug soil. Half-eaten root ends. A faint warm scent inside one tunnel. She was right. Puffer rabbits have been here recently.

Now they needed bait.

The map had marked wild carrots, and the ground soon proved it true. Beyond the dry grass, a small slope held dozens of carrot plants with thin green tops growing between stones. They were not farm carrots. They were shorter, harder, and smelled sharper, but they were still carrots. Some were orange. Some were pale yellow. Some had red veins near the root.

Elowen stared at the patch. "There are so many."

Lucard pulled one from the soil and broke it in half. The smell was strong enough that nearby holes went quiet.

"Good bait," he said.

Elowen watched him gather them quickly. "How many do you need?"

"As many as possible."

"For one rabbit?"

"For the right rabbit."

They worked together after that. Elowen used her good hand and the small knife from her mother’s ring to loosen the soil. Lucard pulled the roots free faster than she could cut. Soon they had a large pile. More than a person would carry normally. Lucard tied them inside a cloth taken from one of the dead Velkhur men and carried the bundle easily.

Elowen looked at the pile. "This is a mountain of carrots."

"Rabbits like carrots."

"I know that. Everyone knows that. But this feels like declaring war on rabbits."

"It is bait. Not war."

"With you, I am not sure there is a difference."

Lucard did not answer.

They moved to a place where several tunnel openings gathered around a flat stone. Lucard chose it because the ground was soft enough for the rabbits to dig, but the stone gave him a stable place to draw a blood circle. It was also far enough from Deepwell Spring that the old man could not sense a small blood lure unless he was far stronger than Lucard expected.

If the old man could sense this from kilometers away, then the spring water was not worth touching yet.

Lucard cut his fingertip.

Elowen saw the blood and became tense. "Will blood not scare it away?"

"Normal blood might."

"And yours?"

"My blood can scare many things."

"That does not sound better."

"It depends how I shape it."

He let three drops fall onto the flat stone. Then he placed the carrots around the blood in a wide circle. His blood did not remain red for long. Under Blood Spell Formation, it thinned, softened, and spread into fine lines through the scent of the carrots. The smell changed slowly. It was still a carrot, but deeper, sweeter, and warmer. To a hungry puffer rabbit, it would smell like a root full of life energy.

Elowen sniffed carefully. "It smells... strange."

"Can you sense the blood?"

"A little."

"Then the rabbit will sense the food first."

"What happens when it comes?"

"I catch it."

"How?"

Lucard looked at the tunnel holes. "Carefully."

"That is not an answer."

"It is enough."

Elowen sat behind a stone at his command. She kept her injured shoulder close to her chest and watched the carrot circle with a doubtful face.

"Do you know how to tame beasts?" she asked.

"No."

Her eyes widened. "No?"

"I know how to control blood."

"That is not the same as taming."

"For the beast, the result may feel similar."

"That is a terrible thing to say."

"It is an accurate thing to say."

She rubbed her forehead with her good hand. "I cannot believe we are hiding from an old master, after chasing a blood coffin, after fighting Velkhur, so we can trap a rabbit with carrots."

Lucard looked at the bait circle. "That is why it is a good plan."

"Because it sounds foolish?"

"Because no one watching the spring will think of it until the water is gone."

Elowen looked at him for a long moment. "You are really going to steal from underneath everyone."

"Yes."

"The old man said he would take ninety percent."

"He can take what reaches his hand."

"And you want to take what never reaches him."

Lucard’s eyes became calm. "Now you understand."

Elowen looked back at the carrot trap. Despite everything, a small spark of excitement appeared under her fear. It was wrong. She knew it was wrong. They were stealing from powerful people with the help of a rabbit that had not even arrived yet. But compared to being dragged back to Stoneford or standing beside a Blood Pit, this strange plan almost felt like an adventure from one of the foolish books she had read as a child.

Then she remembered Lucard was beside her.

That made it less like a children’s adventure and more like a monster teaching a rabbit to steal.

The scent of the blood-lured carrots spread slowly through the holes.

For a while, nothing happened.

Then the nearest tunnel gave a soft sound.

Scratch! Scratch!

Elowen stopped breathing.

Lucard did not move.

Another sound came from a second hole.

Then a third.

Something small sniffed from under the ground.

Lucard’s blood threads waited beneath the dust, thin and silent.

The carrot pile trembled once.

A pair of long white ears slowly rose from the nearest hole.