It was early morning as Emmia crouched low behind one of the bushes where the rope was rigged. She had just rolled herself in some fresh grass to mask her scent.
Her palms felt sweaty as she gripped the other rope tightly. She waited until one of the rabbits was in between the rocks and the bushes.
Taking a rock that she had prepared beforehand, she threw it as best as she could towards the rocks.
While observing, Emmia found that the rabbits were spooked by foreign sounds such as talking or running. After they were spooked, they ran as fast as possible, and to achieve their top speeds they ran in a straight line.
The rock hit the other rocks and a cling sound echoed out. The rabbit spooked, started running...right towards the bushes. Not sensing anything wrong, it ran right through the middle of the bushes....and tripped on the rope.
While the rope wasn't sturdy, it served its purpose by tripping the rabbit. Falling to the ground, the rabbit was stunned.
Reacting as fast as she could, Emmia scrambled towards the rabbit, her heart beating erratically.
A few seconds later Emmia was on the rabbit and used to rope to tie its legs. Fumbling slightly, she made a knot that she had seen from the workers in the production district.
Praying the knot would hold, Emmia backed away slightly. The rabbit struggled heavily, trying to get up, but without the freedom of its legs, the rabbit just continued to struggle on the ground.
Emmia collapsed, her little heart beating rapidly from the stress which had come from making her plan. She truly didn't want to kill the rabbit. So she thought of a way out. Finally, she realised that her grandpa only wanted them to capture the rabbit.
"Good job Mia," Julian said warmly.
Emmia jerked her head and found that Julian and Icarth had walked over to her. Getting up, she hugged her grandpa tightly.
"I did it! I caught a rabbit!" She exclaimed with relief. While she was making observations, she was acutely aware that her brother had already caught his rabbit and more at that point. The stress had started to get to her, and now that she was done, she felt free.
"Well then what do you want to do with the rabbit?" Julian asked fully knowing what she would choose.
Emmia bit her lips. Her brother had killed every rabbit he had caught. She felt as if she too had to kill the rabbit. But looking at it struggling on the ground, she knew that she didn't have the heart to.
So she turned to Julian and asked timidly, "grandpa can....can we let it go?"
"Of course," Julian smiled. "The objective was to capture the rabbits, so it's perfectly fine to let it go."
"Yaay!" Emmia cheered up. Running to the rabbit's side, she undid the knot and hugged it before letting it go.
The confused rabbit hopped away, thankful that it got to live another day.
The trio ate their lunch, a hearty meal of rabbit stew. The rabbit meat was provided by Icarth from the poor rabbits that he hunted each time while the vegetables were provided from Julian's 'secret garden'.
"Alright, Mia, Ica, I have some work to do as well, I'll be back in a few hours ok?" Julian told them.
"Can we come?" Mia asked, fidgeting slightly. Ica leaned in as well.
"Maybe another time," Julian chuckled. Mia and Ica were disappointed, but they understood that their grandpa would come back.
"Okay, bye grandpa! Have a safe trip!" Emmia exclaimed.
"Bye gramps," Ica waved goodbye as well and laid down, completely back to his usual lazy self.
Julian laughed slightly at the differing reactions and then tapped into his soul link.
'Nova, send me to the academy, I'll be meeting with Morin.' Julian said.
'Are you sure you want to meet him?' Nova asked with a concerned tone.
'It's fine. I'll have to face him eventually.' Julian sighed. 'Besides, I'll have to discuss the weird actions of those ba******.'
'Alright then, what about Ica and Mia?' Nova asked.
'Don't worry, I've created a safety system here. They are safer here than traveling with me where they might get attacked,' Julian reassured.
Julian wasn't slacking off during the week he spent overseeing Emmia and Icarth. While he may not be as powerful as Nova, he could do some neat things over time. He had built a spatial lock over the whole area during the week. It made sure to hide the whole area from the outside. And even if something was powerful enough to break it, the spatial lock was coded so that it teleported its inhabitants somewhere far away. At that point, Julian and Nova would be alerted and would return as fast as they could. And that was very fast.
'Alright then, I'll start transporting you then,' Nova agreed upon hearing that Ica and Mia would be safe. He then accessed his soul link to get Julian's coordinates. Channeling universal energy, he sent Julian into the spatial layers and then set a course toward the Nova academy.
Waving goodbye, the twins watched as their grandpa disappeared into the spatial layers.
"So what do you want to do Ica?" Emmia asked.
"Sleep," Ica mumbled.
"Aw, you're no fun," Emmia pouted slightly and decided she would go play with the rabbits.
---
"What is the progress on the search?" A familiar grating voice sounded out in the same desolate area.
"Negative results so far," a low-pitched voice rang out. "All of us are still searching over the planet."
"Have the supreme made any moves?" The leader voice asked.
"No, they have not moved from their respective domains," a muffled voice answered.
Before the grating voice could ask more questions, a garbled voice rang out, "I have found the watchdog."
"Is it a decoy?" The leader asked for confirmation.
"No, it appears to be the real one. It teleported from this remote location and is now traveling to the Defender supreme's domain."
"Send one of us to check the area that it was last at." The leader voice commanded.
----
As Julian moved through the spatial layers he felt his bad feeling get worse. This feeling had been bothering him since he adopted Ica and Mia. A nagging suspicion that was creeping up on him. With all his heart, he prayed that it wasn't true.