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Heartwyrm had scoured the blood runnels of her dining room table till they gleamed in the cold light of day. Not that the cold light of day ever reached her burrow, but if it had, it would have made those blood runnels gleam. She dusted, straightened, and had even considered rearranging the furniture ("Should I dig a larger sleeping hollow? Naw...") by the time the knock sounded at the door. She glanced at her clock. 5:49. He was early!
She went to the door, smoothed her pelt with her paws one last time, and then pressed the actuator button to open the door. It slid open with a slight hiss of its well oiled tracks. "Hello, Hanni--oh, Papa Kralk, uh, what a surprise to see you!"
The wyrmbunny smiled and off in the distance Heartwyrm could hear the screams of his latest inamorato. "Hello my dear, hello!" He fairly beamed. "I thought I would stop by and see how you were doing...Oh, my, you've been very well groomed, my dear. Did Mara help you? And the place looks stunning, I love what you did with your dinning table... I can see myself in it...Did you enlarge your sleeping hollow, my dear?"
"No! I mean, no, Papa Kralk, and yes, Mara stopped by earlier, and she helped me groom. Papa Kralk, um, I'm expecting company..."
"Oh, yes, dear, I know. I just wanted to tell you how happy I am that you two he are getting along so well." He grinned, and again the distant scream sounded. "Ah, yes, I was also on my way to the kitchen for the knife sharper. I dulled my flensing blade earlier. I do hate a clumsy job a dull blade makes. Give Hannibal my greetings..."
Just then Hannibal appeared at the open doorway, carrying a covered container in his paws. He beamed at the sight of Heartwyrm, and then his kindly face fell at the sight of Dr. Kralk. "Oh, Dr. Kralk, I didn't know you would be joining us. I only brought enough for two," he said apologetically.
"Hannibal, my good chap, I was just leaving. By any chance, did you bring a knife sharpener with you?"
Hannibal visage lifted into his typical happy smile. "I wouldn't be without a spare, Dr. Kralk, sir--I do hate the messy flensing job a dull blade does. Here!" He handed the device to the doctor.
The doctor accepted it. "I thought you might, dear boy. Your love of sharp knives and fire has become the stuff of legends in the Family."
Hannibal bowed his head humbly. "You flatter me, sir."
"Why, just the other day I was saying to ...oh, forgive me, I must go and attend to my latest love." He smiled, and the scream sounded again. "So sensitive, isn't he? I love that in a buck!"
"Papa Kralk, I'll be playing down by Waste Outlet #3 later tonight," Heartwyrm said. "Stop by after you finish your dinner!"
He nodded and then presed the actuator button, and the door slid home with a hiss. He hopped to the doorway and waved his farewells to the two wyrmbunnies.
Heartwyrm turned to Hannibal, only to find his spot empty. Frowning, she looked about, until her sensitive ears picked up the sound of Hannibal's voice singing softly from the kitchen. "Food, glo-o-o-orious food..." Abruptly the singing stopped. "Please stay still," he intoned. "It will be *so* much easier for the both of us if you do." <WHACK!> "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"
Heartwyrm's mouth drooled at the prospect of the meal ahead.
Heartwyrm's paws drifted over the antenna and the Theremin sang like a prisoner of the Inquistion. A slight movement of her claw made the note tremble and with a slow gentle movement she let the note slide down the scale until it reached subsonic levels. Her other paw hovered over the horizontal volumebar bringing the song to its cresendo then outward until the music faded to inaudiblity. She sat for a moment, composed and at peace in the calm the music brought to her. The sudden sound of applause from the bushes and brambles around Waste Outlet #3 awoke her from her revere. And from the not too distant farm came the sounds of cow lowing; the cool night air transmitting their appreciation over the distance.
Hannibal nudged her gently. "That was wonderful."
Heartwyrm looked embarrassed at the attention from the other wyrmbunnies. "I didn't know this was becoming such a popular spot."
"How could it not be?" Hannibal said with a wave of his paw. "Rich sunsets, rainbow waters, the soft murmur of the apple trees..."
The cool air brought another voice from the farm. "Knock it off! You broke my bedroom window!"
Heartwyrm covered her face with a paw while Hannibal gently comforted her. "There, there. It was an accident. Besides, he probably needs new windows anyway. Come, let's have some dessert."
Like many of Hannibal's meals which started with something hot and spicy it ended with something light. "How do you like the fruit dish, Heartwyrm?" he asked.
"It's very good, thank you," she said. They put the dishes back in Hannibal's ever present food carrier and lay down to watch the meteor shower. "In human cultures," Heartwyrm said, "Meteors and comets were often signs of war, death and destruction."
"Then we're going to have a very good year," he said softly as he looked skyward. "Very good."
Heartwyrm stirred restlessly. "You said you were going to tell me about your transformation dreams."
"Shhhh," he said and turned to her. "I was waiting for just the right moment. Just watch the signs in the skys while I whisper in your ear..."
Hannibal came close and whispered in Heartwyrm's ear. It made her shiver with excitement.
"I was blessed by dreams and visions even before my transformation," he began, "they safely guided me here and to the arms of my new family. But they were just phantoms, a mere shadow of what came..."
"I still remember the joy I felt as Mara and Dr. Kralk lovingly strapped me to the table. The injection was like a kiss and then... then the room swirled and went away... far away."
"I stood upon a tall hill, overlooking a valley of green. Just below me romped some little bunnies. Oh, they were kits and they were ky00t... they were adorable... they were disgusting. I moved towards them and they taunted me. They surrounded me - called me 'freak', 'mad' and 'ugly'. They 'fluffed' and 'poofled' at me," he snarled, "and when I was unmoved by their childish antics they warbled for their parents because the ugly bunny was scaring them."
"Did you scare them?" Heartwyrm asked breathlessly.
"Not for long. It only took a moment to kill them. But then the devilbunnies boiled out of their holes like the rats that they are," he continued. "I bolted down a hole and found myself in the strangest place... a place filled with machines that clanked and groaned. Mara thinks I might have heard the autoclave starting up... but it was hot, dripping with water and steam everywhere. Deep within I came upon a box with the words 'Use Me' written large upon it. It was a flame thrower and I turned it against the hordes of bunnies streaming towards me." He paused. "Words cannot describe the way they died," he whispered, "How beautifully they burned, how gracefully they writhed and how sweet was the smell of their flesh roasting..."
Heartwyrm started to salivate. Hannibal passed her a napkin before continuing.
"It gets vague after that, but I remember the fighting, the flames, the screaming. I found myself in huge kitchen. There were row after row of gas stoves and all of them had their burners on full. It was a glorious fire. The ovens banged opened and closed like mouths and they were shouting 'I'm hungry! Feed me! Feed me!' On the table were row after row of Ginsu knives. The bunnies burst in singing the that horrid theme song from that insipid children's show... mercifully, I forget which one. Knives in hand, I chopped, diced, and minced the attacking enemy, throwing their remains into the waiting ovens. I was covered in their hot, sticky blood." He panted at the memory. "It was wonderful."
"Then I found myself outside again. I was at a barbecue. Strange... there were humans there, and I knew them... but I didn't recognize them. Then things got confused again. But I remember coming out of the hole and gazing down on the valley again. By Inle! The devilbunnies covered the ground like locusts... a great seething sea of ky00t. I screamed something... something I don't remember... and the sky exploded. I felt the flash rip the flesh off me... but all the bunnies melted, leaving a pile of smoldering bones. The sky was dark and a voice called out... 'Eat, and you shall live.' I ran to the steaming crater filled with bones, and found the marrow was hot and delicious."
He stretched and moved away from her ear. "There's more... much more..." he said, "but I can't wrap my mind around it. There was singing, roaring voices... garbled images... but only the fire and knives I remember."
Heartwyrm listened to Hannibal whisper his dreams of fire and knives into her ear and shivered at the images that blossomed before her mind's eye. The rolling, grassy hills, the agonized deaths of kits and adult buns, the flames as they burned brilliantly, all flashed like fish as they leaped into the pool of her memory.
She found herself in euphoria over the words of his dreams, her mouth salivating at the thought of hordes of buns being flamed and then eaten by the voracious ovens. The visions continued to dance before her imagination after he had pulled away, whispering the ending.
"There's more...much more..." he'd said, "but I cannot wrap my mind around it. There was singing, roaring voices... garbled images... but only the fire and knives I remember."
She realized that she was pressing a napkin to her mouth, and didn't know where it had come from. She blushed to her eartips again, embarrassed by her lack of salivary control. "I'm so sorry, but your story sounded so delicious, and I just can't keep it back behind my teeth. I think it's a holdover from my human days, but it embarrasses me so..."
Ever the gentle-wyrmbuck, Hannibal paw-waved it away, and *grinched* his forgiveness. He handed her another napkin when it became obvious that hers would absorb no more.
They sat in companionable silence as the meteor showers played out above them. Finally, Heartwyrm turned to her new friend. "I think I could write a symphony based on your dreams. I'd like to call it 'Dreams of Fire and Knives'. Would you mind?"
Hannibal turned to her in pleased astonishment. "Why... not at all."
"And I want you to sing the lead part, and we can have the choir in it, and I'll talk to the other members of D.O.O.M. about staging it..." she continued enthusastically.
"There are far better singers than me," he protested weakly. "But to sing of my dreams... " he looked heavenward in silent thought. "Do you really think you could? I would LOVE to sing of my dreams that all the world might hear them."
She nodded, and pressed the napkin to her mouth again at the thought of the words she would write for the aria he would sing.
The two wyrmbuns stayed up late that night, talking softly between them, until even all the others had left and the sun lightened the sky to the east.
FINIS
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AUTHORS' NOTES:
JennyM speaks:
"When Edie suggested a collaboration, I was taken a little by surprise. It was nice to have someone to write with although our styles are very different. The Mega-Collab with the Halloween Party was both fun and a lot of work, but in many ways it was just a knock-off. This would be a different sort of challenge since it delved deeper into the characters of Hannibal and Heartwyrm. Once again, I have to thank Kylinn for the final editing and important story tidy-uping."
Edie speaks:
"I'd like to thank Andrew for allowing me to include Dr. "Papa" Kralk in my section of the story. Andrew, you Dah Main Mahn, dood! ^5!
Also, to Jenny, thanks for sharing Hannibal's Dreams of Fire and Knives. It was a shivery delight to work with you!"
JennyM
Got Moxie(tm)?
Edie
AKA The Ambitious Wench
NaNoWriMo: 50,000 words in one month. Can you hack it?
Originally published on alt.devilbunnies December 8-13, 2002.