TSROTRATBP Chapter 1

Where I opened my eyes was pitch-black darkness. I pricked my ears up, and heard it—crunch, crunch, the sound of footsteps crushing dry earth.

I stretched a foot out and gave the wall blocking my way ahead a light tap. Through the pad of my paw came a coarse, prickling texture, something woven from straw.

A basket—could it be?

The way my body swayed even when I stayed still—I was fairly sure this was the same kind of basket I'd occasionally been put into before.

Where were they taking me? As if to answer that very question, a gruff, unfamiliar voice rang out at once.

"Bit further on, and we're in black panther territory, aye."

"Let's get this dealt with quick. Say, though—she went through the coming-of-age ceremony and still didn't turn human. Does that make any sense to you?"

"The priest already ruled it a curse handed down by the Beast God. …Still don't sit right with me, though."

Ears sharpened, I could tell within moments that the subject of their conversation was me.

Right. It really was strange. I was a beastman with a mind same as any human's, no mistaking it—so why hadn't I managed to shake off this baby rabbit's form?

Every time my mother looked at me, her face twisted with irritation. Her lovely brow would crumple, and she'd say—

'Why is it you won't turn human. Your brother Kyri became a proper beastman already. Everyone else changes within three years of birth—so why is it you—'

She'd shout it loud enough to sting my ears. Sometimes, unable to hold back her anger, she'd take up a switch. Other times I was simply forbidden from leaving my bedroom.

Not that I could've left even without the punishment. My parents—my mother, and my father too—were ashamed of me from the start.

To begin with, without a maid to open it, I couldn't so much as open my own door by myself.

House Raebien.

Ours was a distinguished noble house in rabbit territory.

My mother, Eivern Raebien, was my father's third wife. It upset her that I, her firstborn, hadn't managed to take human shape quickly.

My younger brother Kyri, thankfully, had succeeded in humanizing before he was even three years old. By then I was already five, and still stuck in the form of a baby rabbit.

Beastmen, on average, take human shape before their third birthday. Why, I wondered.

Everyone found it baffling. I found it just as baffling myself—and the not-knowing was its own kind of suffocating.

Tomorrow, surely. The next day, surely. In a week, surely, something will change. Time flowed on, cruel and mocking every hollow hope.

And so, last month—even after turning eighteen and undergoing the coming-of-age ceremony—my humanization still hadn't come.

My mother, wearing an expression of ill-concealed distaste, had taken me to the temple, and a priest shouted out that it was a curse—his voice booming loud enough to slam my heart against my ribs.

"Say, hasn't this gone too far from the territorial border?"

"Gotta dump her somewhere this deep, or it'll come back to bite us. …Orders were given—she dies by black panther hands, without fail."

"There—pluck that grass over there and bring it back as proof. Poison-weed. Only grows in black panther territory."

Listening to them talk, I understood at once that I'd been abandoned. Somehow, I'd already had a feeling this was coming.

Ever since the visit to the temple, the way my parents looked at me had shifted from irritation to contempt. I'd heard their muttering clear as day, too—that even killing me outright didn't sit easy with them.

"You there, this is a bit too deep, isn't it. Once we cross the border, we're outside the territory's protection."

The man's fretting carried an edge of anxiety, and along with it came a soft thud—the basket touching down.

"Making a fuss over nothing. I'd already meant to set her down about here anyway."

If this was black panther territory, then this had to be the Border Forest, the woodland straddling rabbit and black panther land. A place that would be, without question, crawling with black panthers.

No. Please, don't leave me somewhere like this. I'll try. I'll try to become a proper beastman.

I scrabbled endlessly at the straw, but my feet couldn't even reach the lid. My vision blurred white before my eyes.

"AAAAAAH!"

"Gk—!"

All at once, a scream—loud enough to make my whole body flinch—tore through the air. I stopped my forepaws mid-motion and, on reflex, held my breath.

Every nerve in my body went taut. If this really was black panther territory, then the two beastmen carrying me might well have just been hunted down by black panthers themselves. Should I play dead?

Rattle-clack—the basket began to shake, and then the lid came open. Sudden bright light spilled in, and my eyes shut on their own.

Before I could even register anything, my scruff was seized and I was hoisted into the air.

"A baby rabbit?"

A voice rang out, its timing somehow half a beat off. Clear, yet pleasantly low—a voice good to listen to.

I cracked open my scrunched eyes, and there stood a man of startling beauty.

Silver hair, as if someone had poured out a skein of pure silver thread, right before my face. Charmed for a moment by that brilliance, I let my guard slip—before scrambling to thrash for my life.

Bl-black panther!

The black panther clan. I'd only ever pictured them in my imagination, but the man before me was, without a doubt, one of them.

'Aren't red eyes unsettling?'

'They really are. I saw one of the black panther clan in the city district once, and it gave me such a chill for no reason.'

The maids used to gossip that the black panther clan generally had red eyes.

This man's eyes were a vivid, clear red—and what had flashed between his lips, glinting, had unmistakably been a fang.

Given that this was black panther territory to begin with, the odds were overwhelmingly high that he belonged to the clan.

Let go—let go of me!

Thrashing my forepaws with everything I had, I suddenly went still, a chill running through me. The man's expression had gone utterly blank, and something about that stillness felt far too cold.

I might get eaten.

He stared down at me, frozen solid, and then his eyes curved into crescents as he smiled. Somehow, it looked like a smile of satisfaction.

"Crying?"

Never seen someone cry before? I'd probably been crying since the moment I came to inside that basket.

I wanted to pretend I was fine, but there was something lodged in my throat, thick and choking.

But what he said next made me stop crying instantly.

"Cry more."

Holy shit—this guy's out of his damn mind!