The Rabbit's Habits

Weariness.

It is a relentless weight, a creeping beast that slowly engulfed every inch of vitality if they were ever given the chance to prowl near.

It is a ghostly echo, a suffocating presence that distorts reality into a hazy, uncertain mirage.

In its grip, the simplest tasks become herculean challenges, and the world transforms into an unforgiving labyrinth of lethargy. The once-familiar landscape of life now feels like an alien realm, where time slows to a crawl, and each step is a laborious, Sisyphean endeavor.

Until his eyes yawned to gaze at the ceiling, a brown ceiling, possibly made out of wood and other material that he wasn't familiar with. The room he was in was also quite small.

"... Where am I?" He looked around, realizing that he was laying on top of a wooden makeshift bed. "Why am I naked?"

All of the wounds that he had before were gone untraced, as if that fight never happened in the first place.

He used the rough cotton sheet to cover up his bottom part. As he got up from the bed, he could feel all the soreness that he accumulated from the slumber, but there was one prominent thing that he noticed.

His waist and thigh were the most sore out of all his body parts.

Struggling to stand up, he crawled funny to reach the door.

"T-this must be some sort of a joke…"

When he managed to open the door, a serene scenery of ever stretching meadow of grass was bestowed upon him. The humble wind blew over his face, alongside the smell of morning dew.

He looked to the north. There was another building, albeit still in the construction state. The materials that it encompassed appear to be random too, as if the architect just chucked whatever they could find.

There were also a couple of marked land, possibly chosen for future projects.

And on the east, where the building he was in currently facing, there was a singular traditional well with a wall of stacked rocks like one would expect. Looking there closely, he could notice a pair of stalks behind the well.

It closely resembles a pair of rabbit ears, albeit a little bit more inorganic with the yellow veins pattern on the inner part.

And then there were two pairs, jolted in excitement as if they sensed something, before they peeked out their heads.

There were two adorable children with bunny ears attached to their heads like some kind of rabbit beastman of fantasy setting, wearing rather baggy gray clothing and pants. The two of them looked as surprised as Nagan who couldn't believe what he was seeing.

And then suddenly three, four, eight, and twelve rabbit beastmen appeared inside his vision! They all began to encroach on Nagan's location, like an adorable storm that was approaching.

One thing that could be discerned at that moment was how all of them possessed the same blackish hair color as Nagan, even down to the level of saturation. Unlike Nagan's brown eyes however, all of them possessed a pair of glinting red pupils.

While they were coming towards him, Nagan noticed another eight rabbit-eared children that joined the fluffy masses. At this point, he didn't know whether he should die out of cuteness, or pledge his whole life to protect them at all cost.

He was too overwhelmed at this point though, rendering him unable to take any further action.

"The Patriarch is awake!"

"The Patriarch appeared to be healthy."

"The Patriarch looked funny."

"Someone calls the Queen!"

"How to call the Queen?"

"Thumper don't know how to."

"So is Willow."

"Maybe Fernleaf knows, she is smart."

"Fernleaf is stupid, she can't count her own fingers."

"That's called a sarcastic remark."

"I'm not stupid!"

"I'm hungry."

"Hi, hungry. I'm Pippin."

"Urgh. Fernleaf, I'm hungry."

"You're Clover, not hungry."

"I'm the first one to take this standing spot, Karasaki!"

"No! This patch of grass greets the sole of my feet before it rustles with yours!"

It was an absolute chaotic fluff seeing the rabbits shenanigans with one another. One of them was pulling the ear of the other one. One of them was so absentminded, drools began to fall from her mouth, and some of them were just playfully fighting with one another, while some were fighting without the playful part.

They all seemed to be speaking the same language as Nagan. Though. He didn't want to question how and why, lest he wanted an even more headache than the ache on his waist.

"Uhm." Not allowing the cuteness of the rabbits to corrupt him any further, Nagan decided to take action. "Can any of you tell me where I am? What is this place, and who are you children?"

All of the rabbits halted what they were doing and began to gaze at Nagan with deadpan.

"We're Usalians."

"The name of our race! Or so what the Queen said."

"The Patriarch is always of different species, but we inherited your bloodline."

"You're within the Queen's territory, the Unnamed Kingdom!"

"It's called that because it doesn't have a name yet."

"Why is it called a Kingdom if it's owned by the Queen?"

"Because the Queen only owns it, the Patriarch is the one who will manage it."

"Won't it be called Patriarchdom, then?"

"A King and a Patriarch are synonymous, or so the Queen said."

"Liar! The Queen never said that!"

"That's because you're dead asleep when the Queen is talking!"

"You want a piece of me?? Then come here and get it!"

"For someone who was just born a second later, you sure are acting tough!"

"All bark and no wood, the two of you are going down!"

"Oy oy! Quit yellin'! It's time for stabbin'!"

""Brawl! Brawl! Brawl! Brawl! Brawl!""

"I'm hungry."

"Hi, hungry. I'm Pippin."

Nagan couldn't help but worry as he wryly laughed at the cacophony unfolding in front of him.

Also, what with the deal of him being referred to as the Patriarch? And what does it mean for them to possess his bloodline?

Nagan wasn't dumb enough to ignore all of that, but he couldn't help but to be put in disbelief due how absurd it all was.

Then again, he fought those hounds with ten eyes and buff humanoid cyclops. He vividly remembered them! It should be easier to accept these newfound facts than to explain those fights of his to someone else.

Suddenly, the whirring of space could be heard vividly as a black portal-like apparition appeared behind the commotion of rabbits, putting their shenanigans into a halt. The portal stretched in strictly horizontal and vertical direction except to the bottom, creating an eerie triangulated edge of rift in space, akin to a four-cornered star without the fourth bottom stalk.

The expansion stopped, before the inside of the portal shone with a prismic theater of stars.

A humanoid silhouette emerged from the portal.