Ears perked up, the pale rabbit straightened his stance “T-Thank you for your co-operation. N-Now follow me” While he had gone back to his shaky professional stance, his voice was raised – I suppose I actually did do something to his hearing, but that’s his own fault for having such large and unbelievably realistic bunny ears. Stepping back a little, I wiped the grass clippings off my overalls and pulled up my socks “Alright Buttons lead the way”.

Don’t get me wrong; I didn’t particularly want to go. This was all very surreal, confusing, and overall fictional-sounding – but when you’re like me and you grow up on an isolated farm with no friends but your own brother and nothing to do but to play cards and chase chickens, being solicited by a real-life furry at the request of foreign royalty is the kind of fairy-tale adventure that makes you inquisitive, to say the least. Plus I felt like I owed the poor beefy bunny boy for unloading an unholy scream right into his unprepared eardrum.

The guy seemed kind of hesitant to lead the way as if he wasn’t really used to being in charge – not that I found that surprising. He seemed extremely anxious and claimed to be a mere messenger boy, so I doubt some anxiety-ridden guy like him could take charge of anything. As I walked behind him, there was an obvious awkward silence between us, and I know that I wasn’t the only one who noticed it, but like hell I was going to suffer because of it. “So… where is it that you’re taking me?”

“Ah, I-I will be taking you t-to the queens castle – it is j-just a small j-journey, shan’t take very long without d-distractions. Th-the fall down the b-burrow lingers a little, but it i-is much shorter than i-it seems.” He looked back at me as he spoke, but his with his voice going back to its normal soft self, I had to jog in order to catch up and walk beside him just to hear.

“Hang on – burrow? What’s a burrow?” I had been under the impression that I was going to get into some kind of royal car, but I do remember him saying that he had arrived in my yard.

“Yes, a b-burrow – a-a kind of large hole t-t-that particular animals’ u-use to live in. It is over b-by the large apple tree” He turned his head to look at me as we spoke, but he seemed to avoid direct eye contact.

“You mean that old rabbit hole?” My feet stopped. Rabbit hole… White rabbit…. This was starting to sound familiar, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. The boy fiddled with his fingers as he stopped in front of me “I suppose that is what y-you could ca-call it that, b-but I prefer burrow…”

I rose my eyebrows slightly at his pickiness “But it’s a hole, init?”

“Well… yes…”

“And do you live in it?”

He blinked, unsure as to the direction I was going to “… t-technically, I live in wh-what is p-past it, but yes”

I raised my arms in a somewhat cocky manner “Well then that’s a rabbit hole.” There was a possibility that he didn’t like it being referred to as a rabbit hole because he was a rabbit and therefore maybe found it somewhat offensive, but in that moment I didn’t even think of the possibility. Like with my petty arguments with my brother, all feelings are ignored in order to obtain victory no matter how small and useless.

For a second, those red eyes of his appeared somewhat fiery - as if he deeply wanted to argue but he simply didn’t have the courage or the right words. This poor guy, I couldn’t imagine living with the kind of personality that prevented me from picking a pathetically unnecessary fight with a complete stranger – doing that is my livelihood. With a cough into his glove to clear his throat, he motioned with his ears, urging me to continue walking.

We reached the hole fairly quickly, but I found that I was still fairly hesitant about the whole unusual situation. I didn’t even want to step over the yellow tape mum had wrapped around surrounding poles to prevent us kids from fall in – however, it seemed that my friendly visitor had already broken that tape. It’s not like the tape has never been broken, though; the tatted plastic was full of small tears and knots. Squatting before the dirt entrance, I investigated the scene while the rabbit stood behind me.

“Ah—I’m sorry that I b-broke it. I w-w-was not expecting it t-to be there a-and I k-kind of tripped o-over it…” As the flustered rabbit apologised, I tied the two broken halves back together to make yet another knot in the tape way past its prime “Don’t sweat it, fluffy” I had looked up at him with a mildly forced yet understanding smile, but my nickname caused him to bear a badly concealed grimace. Guess he didn’t like being called Fluffy, which is understandable, but I had nothing else to work with – I mean, he never even introduced himself like I had first expected him to.

“You know, if you don’t like any of my pet names, you can speak up” His response was his seemingly preferred awkward silence, so I stood back up to try and drop a more obvious hint. With my hands together, they moved to emphasise my words “What is your name, Bunny Boy?”

Again, I was greeted with that silence. He glanced around and bit his lip, avoiding looking at me altogether. Crossing my arms, I stood up on the nearest rock so I could look down at him – my own special attempt to look intimidating in even the smallest way “Okay, fine. By that way, new conditions; I’m not going in that hole until you answer my questions” I was finally met with a response.

“B-but- ah—you promised you would c-come!” I turned my nose up at him, acting like the bratty child that I am. “I changed my mind”

He looked distressed, stammering to the point of incomprehension as his gloved hands made vague gestures. I got off my rock and sat my ass down onto the grass, refusing to co-operate until he did what I wanted.

Honestly, he gave up surprisingly quickly “I—aah… okay. I w-will answer three o-of your questions, bu-but please keep in m-m-mind that I do not know all a-answers” With a triumphant smirk, I patted the grass next to me. It’s time to make sense of this mess I got myself into.

Almost as soon as his cotton tail touched the dirt, I found myself berating him for the second time since we met “What’s your name? Because if you don’t give me one, you’re going to have to deal with the nicknames”

“Eugh” the face he pulled spoke volume of his hatred towards my loving nicknames, and I couldn’t help but laugh slightly. Hands refusing to touch the dirt, he instead placed them neatly in his lap.

“Well, you s-see… I am just a servant of the Red Palace”

“…uh-huh… and?” He seemed confused as to why I was questioning this.

“Ah—servants are not given names. I have an iden-identification number – 26.11.18.65 – but is it not n-necessary to call m-me that”

I furrowed my brow, almost disturbed by the information. “Why aren’t the servants’ given names?” I paused before adding more “And that doesn’t count as another question. I’m just working off the first question” With a huff and obvious displeasure of my question within a question, he worked on preparing his answer.

“Servants are… raised to be s-servants. O-Once we reach a c-certain age, we are taken from o-our families and put t-to work, and then-then we are sent back h-home after we o-outgrow our u-uses. Parents do not g-give us names be-because we won’t be needing th-them.”

I felt my chest tighten “And you’re… okay with that?”

For a second, his eyes glanced at mine and I knew the answer – but he felt the need to defend himself “It is okay. As a servant I am tr-treated well and there are pl-plenty of us so it i-isn’t completely lonely” There was a moment where I wanted to tell him that a full house and decent treatment didn’t necessarily lead to happiness, but I felt as if I didn’t know him well enough to go down that path. I sighed, not really knowing what to do at that point – he didn’t have a name, nor did he enjoy the ones I gave him, but I have to refer to him as something. As if picking up on my displeasure, he spoke up again “The… the other rabbits call me White b-because I look different from th-them… you can call me that, i-if you wish” it may be simple and makes me feel like I’m teasing him for his albinism, but it was going to have to do. Kinda wish he’d just told me that to begin with.

“Alright White, with that out of the way, time for question number two—“ I was about to ask what I was being summoned for, but then I remembered asking that in our last lightning round only to be told that he didn’t know, so I had to come up with another question.

“How… do you know that I’m the one you’re looking for?”