Anthos/Wester [Talcen/Mousen][Done]

[Talcen]

Anthos hopped into the strange burrow and looked around. Seeing that no one was there he smiled happily and made himself comfortable. Leaning back against the wall he pulled out a book he had reading and opened. He read silently and appreciated the peace and quiet that he normally had trouble finding in this odd place. A soft breeze wafted through the place and he twitched his ear slightly. He then heared someone else approach but decided not to bother moving.

[Mousen Heath]

To put it quite simply, Wester was bored out of his mind. It was a tediously average kind of day and the scarf-wearing jackalope was quite sick of it. As he hopped, he muttered under his breath no doubt cursing something or other. Jalopy had an obligation apparently, he couldn't understand why he'd want to spend time with that god-awful brother of his. Charleston and Jalopy had an ongoing feud that seemed to have been going for years, to be quite honest, Wester couldn't understand what had even gone on in the first place. Not that Jalopy seemed willing to tell him anything...

Ah. Looking around, Wester couldn't quite recall where he was. After awhile, burrows began to look all the same. Darn it.

(( Fail. x3))

[Talcen]

Anthos looked up and saw a jackalope with a scarf appear from one of the tunnels. "Hello," he said a bit softly. The jackalop seemed like a decent enough person to talk to. "I haven't seen you before. Do you live here?" Truth be told Anthos hasn't seen much of the population and knew none of them. He was a bit antisocial to tell the truth and did not often try to talk to others. He feared they would find him odd and ostricize him.

[Mousen Heath]

"I live in Bjorn, it's up north, no where near here." He replied gruffly. "I'm a little lost to tell you the truth. All these darn burrows look the same to me. In Bjorn most of the burrows are decorated with something, whether it be berries or shells collected from near Svanhildr. It's supposed to be something to ward off evil or something. I don't honestly put much faith in all of that stuff, but it helps make sure you can tell them apart." Wester shrugged.

[Talcen]

"Hmm I haven't been there yet. I've mostly stayed close to here, where ever here is. I'm afraid I can't help you find your way." He smiled a bit and set his book down. "Anyway I'm Anthos. And you would be?" He held out his paw as he was acustomed to shaking hands when first meeting someone. He hoped it wasn't an odd gesture here as he didn't want to scare off this jackalope. It would beneficial to have at least one friend here.

[Mousen Heath]

"Hrm... From the looks of things, I'd probably say it was somewhere near Logmarr forest. Perhaps near Brandr? Still, knowing the exact area would be good." The jackalope chewed his lip a little as he looked around. Just green trees that were starting to fade with the season and blue sky, nothing to give any real inclination of exactly where they were. "Wester." He answered simply, shaking the other jackalope's paw.

[Talcen]

"It's nice to meet you Wester. Were you trying to go somewhere in particular when you got lost?" Not having been in Aris long Anthos still did not know where everything was. He didn't even know the name of the country to tell the truth. He hoped he could help Wester, even if just a little bit. He liked to be useful and hated to just sit around and do nothing.

[Mousen Heath]

"Actually, I was trying to find a friend of mine. Well, more than a friend. His name is Jalopy... The thing is, he keeps vanishing on me. And I know it sounds really crazy, but I can't shake the feeling that he's up to something really dangerous. It's bugging me. I know it's kind of silly, but there you go." He shrugged. "I worry too much."

[Talcen]

"I can help you go look for him. I have nothing better to do now." He smiled and hopped closer to Wester. "Do you remember where you last saw him? Maybe we can find him if retrace his steps." It seemed like a good idea to Anthos, so hopefully Wester would see the logic behind it.

[Mousen Heath]

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Wester replied, gruffly, looking away from Anthos. He was always to awkward around other jackalope, it was kind of funny, really. "Well, I lost sight of him about twenty minutes ago before I got lost in this place. He didn't know I was following him, he was running and muttering something about being late. He does that alot."

[Talcen]

"Like the white rabbit," Anthos muttered to himself. "Well let's go look for his tracks if it just that recent. We should be able to find him." Anthos hopped down the tunnels from the direction he had heard Wester come from originally. "Come on." He took Wester's paw and drug him forward.

[Mousen Heath]

"The what?" Wester asked, just catching what Anthos said. "Jalopy's a white jackalope, but I don't see how that changes things!" The scarf wearing jackalope explained as the dark furred one drug him forward. "Personal space, have you heard of it?" He said grumpily after a moment, shaking his paw loose. After a moment, his expression softened a little and he continued to follow Anthos.

[Talcen]

"It's a story from where I come from. There's a white rabbit in it that is always running off somewhere screaming 'I'm late'." Anthos stopped for a moment and noticed foot prints on the ground. "These must his." He then began to hurry down the tunnel that foot prints went off in.

[Mousen Heath]

"Huh. That's odd. I bet your rabbit doesn't wear a waistcoat though, right?" Oh, how wrong he was. "I think he's off doing something... dangerous. You know when you get that weird feeling and you just know? It's like that. He keeps mentioning something about tea, someone who wears hats and an aures named Alice. While it all sounds innocent, I get the feeling he's not telling me something." At the footprints, Wester just nodded and followed suit.

[Talcen]

Anthos laughed quietly to himself at what Wester said. "It's exactly like the book I read, except in the book Alice is a human." He caught himself before he said just like me. The last time he had told someone here that he was really human they called him crazy and ran off. "If it's anything like the story then he may be in trouble. Let's hurry."

[Mousen Heath]

"Why? What happens in the story?" Wester asked, suddenly looking a little worried. "I mean, there's alot of coincidences here. What else is in that book?" He racked his brains in an attempt to recall anything else that Jalopy might have said. "Hm. His brother is a brown jackalope, quite violent apparently. Does that fit in anywhere?"

[Talcen]

"Well there's this Queen who is cruel and keeps ordering for people to be beheaded and an insane cat who can disappear and reappear at will. There's also a gryphon who helps the character Alice. Uh...the white rabbit though doesn't do much but lead Alice down the rabbit hole to Wonderland and send messages for the Queen. He kind of just leads Alice around Wonderland." He patted Wester's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. "There's several versions though of the book and I've only read one. I've heard that one version is very violent and dangerous which is why I'm a bit worried for him." They continued hurring down the hole until they arrived at the end of the tunnel.

[Mousen Heath]

"A red queen?!" Wester asked, incredulous. "Good spirits, we have to find him. It just doesn't seem to make any sense, why would be be in this... story of yours? I don't get it." The buck bit his lip worriedly, picking up speed slightly as he couldn't see hide nor hare of Jalopy. "The one you just said isn't the violent and dangerous one? There's someone who beheads people!" He moaned, nervously.

[Talcen]

"Yes but it's pretend beheading!" Anthos ran after him and looked out at the now slightly more open space. He heard voices in the distance and ran faster to catch up to Wester. "I think I hear him, or them really! It's coming from that wooded area over there!" He pointed to a nearby woods and chanegd direction towards it.

[Mousen Heath]

"A pretend beheading?" Wester echoed. "Like, 'oh, well, the queen doesn't want to see blood, so we'll just poison you instead and pretend to cut you're head off, it's tradition, you know'." The more nervous he got, the more irritable he seemed to become. At the sound of voices, Wester's ears picked up and he ran a little faster. "I hope it's him." He said quietly after a moment.

[Talcen]

"Not like that! Like a child plays pretend!" Anthos understood Wester's worries but there was no reason to get pissy with him. He hadn't done anything wrong. Anthos forced himself to pick up speed so that he could keep up with Wester. ""They don't sound upset so I doubt anythging bad is happening! Just slow down a bit!"

[Mousen Heath]

Wester's bad mood relented slightly and he just huffed at Anthos' words, instead of giving him a snarky reply. "Fine." He said after a moment, matching the other jackalope's pace, his tone softening ever so slightly. This had been going on for so long now, Jalopy disappearing without a word he honestly didn't even know what to thing anymore. Well, atleast the voices didn't seem to be getting any further away, they would be there in a moment or two.

[Talcen]

They continued until they came into a small clearing and Anthos glanced around for the source of the voices. He spotted what looked like a table that was set up for tea time and wondered why one would have a table out in the middle of the woods. Spotting a jackalope sitting at the table he looked over at Wester. "Is that him?" He also noticed a Aures sitting there as well and he assumed it was Alice.

[Mousen Heath]

(Brown Text = March hare/Charleston | Blue Text = Alice | Dark Red Text = Jalopy/white rabbit | Olive Text = Ivor Hat / Mad Hatter )

"The Black King is weak right now. If we try to strike... Well, we could be in with a chance of over powering him."
"Who said anything about fighting for the Red Queen?!"
"We have to pick aside, Alice. We can't hide any longer."
"The White Queen still has followers, Charleston."
"The White Queen is dead. To follow her is suicide."
"I'd rather commit suicide than betray her, not that you'd ever know anything about loyalty. You've abandoned everyone who's ever put trust in you, and I fully expect you to do the same thing again."
"Enough! Jalopy, Charleston, quit that. We're not fighting for the Red Queen, and nor are we declaring our loyalty to a corpse of all things."

As Wester heard their conversation unfold, he got more and more confused. Looks like the violent version of Anthos' story had been closer to the truth. Whatever was going on, somehow his mate was mixed up in it all. "Yes, that's him." He whispered. "Shh, I need to know what's going on, don't let them hear you."

[Talcen]

"Alright," he whispered back and hid where he could not be seen by the group of jackalopes and the aures. Yes things were sounding much like the more violent version of the well beloved tale. It was almost like the new movie version that had come out not too long ago. He listened to Jalopy talk about loyalty and he could relate to it. Anthos was bitterly loyal and would even die for those he was loyal too. It was a shame that it seemed the others were not so keen on Jalopy's decision to remain loyal. Hopefully the others would not try to hurt him because of it. If they did he' be there to stop them. After all he did not like seeing others get hurt if it was not necessary.

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