Before dawn sent her radiance across the mountains, Trina was there.
She did not have to wait long, for quickly the gray rabbit and her companions approached her from within a tall building.
“Beautiful isn’t it. The sunrise, I mean.” The gray rabbit said, casting an eye at the glowing horizon.
“Yes, it is.” Trina said softly.
“It is a tradition of many races to define the start of the day before sunrise.”
“Yes, of many it is. Why do you bring up this?” Trina forced a small smile “I am sure that all present here know that.”
“Indeed.” The gray rabbit had an odd sheen in her eyes and sharpness to her face. “But it is most common to the T’zori.”
The words sank in for a moment in the silence.
“You are a T’zori, are you not?”
“And what if I am?” The animal instinct to flee was rising in Trina. In the pit of her stomach she felt a growing dread.
The dread in her stomach worsened. She wanted to flee. She wanted to hide. She wished she had seen it before it was too late.
One of the red rabbits stepped forward. “You will be coming with us now.”
“I don’t think so.” Her voice cracked slightly as she turned to flee.
Instantly the gray rabbit lashed out her arm and grabbed Trina’s arm in a vise-like grip. She jerked Trina towards her, and grabbed her neck in the same harsh grip.
As she gasped and tried to pull at her fingers, the gray rabbit jerked her forward and into her face. “I am in charge. I call the shots.”
She forced herself to look away, to try to free herself, to put out the fire burning in her lungs. Her eyes darted to the arm of her captor, but what she saw made her gasp.
“The markings…”
They were a word.
“Protect me.” she mouthed as a silent, airless prayer to her deity.
The word was AKELDAMA.


The gray rabbit released her grip once the T’zori became unconscious. She turned away as the girl slumped to the ground. Immediately two of her companions ran to pick up the girl.
Another one captured.
Another one to die.
Lifting her eyes upward, she blinked away the burn of tears from her eyes and forced herself to feel no pity. She let out a soft sigh as she watched them drag the seemingly lifeless body towards the nearby city, and she followed them noiselessly.