Rustling leaves and a darkish sky. It could be seen as a normal day, finding leaves and various herbs to bring back. Its ears perked up, biting into the juicy substance of something it found in a pile of growth at the base of a tree. A gust of wind made the little creature look up at the sun setting below the skyline.
The rabbit soon continued to bite into the juicy substance for sustenance, unaware of the shadow on the tree behind it. Casting that shadow was a monster. Humane only in the way its limbs seemed to connect; it had no face, and its body's surface looked like a grotesque and warping mix of liquid, shards, and bark. The "skin" was both solid and flowing, yet still looked like a confused mixture of texture and flesh.
The monster had no constant features; they twisted in weird and warping ways, its fleshy nature nauseating if observed too closely. Despite all this, its subtle movements were inaudible as it
lurked on a branch above the small rabbit.
A few seconds later, the tree's leaves rustled, the branch snapping off with the tree shaking back and forth. The monster no longer standing on the tree.
Less than a second before the death would have claimed the rabbit. The rabbit's ears trembled as she sensed something wrong. Despite the monster's inhuman speed and its silent leap, she could feel the ground tremble even before the tree felt the monster leaping off.
Her instincts told her to run.
The rabbit was quick to react, and her well-trained feet weren't for show, as she managed to narrowly escape death and leap forward with full force. Unfortunately, the monster wasn't far behind; an eerie, almost imperceptible expression appeared on its featureless face. The "smile" sent shivers down the rabbit's spine as she ran for her life.
A land of brown rivers and shards twisted, symbols growing and glowing along its surface. Magic flowed through the ground as a fog of skin appeared in the air. Blood and tendons of cells everywhere, transforming... The monster's arm transformed into a blade, which sharpened and warped as it charged towards the rabbit. She had to leap to evade the deadly swipes, her life only hanging on by a thin thread. The monster's "smile"—as hard to notice as it was—only grew wider as it continued to pursue the rabbit. Was this just a game for it?
The game soon ended as the monster seemed to feel playtime was over, as it was now leaping and swinging toward the rabbit with way greater speed and accuracy than before. The rabbit, however, showed that she too had a card up her sleeve as her form was enveloped in a warm and radiant energy, transforming her speed to a new level. The radiating light illuminated the nearby trees, causing all the shadows to give way for her as she finally started to outpace the monster.
The monster's smile, however, only became more visible with the added highlight. If the rabbit had looked back, she would have been able to see the bone-crushing appearance of its blade. She would have been able to see the monster bending down closer to the ground as its legs warped to look even more grotesque than before. With light crackling and a fleshy mess, its legs looked like they were about to explode and like its bones were breaking.
Only a few moments later, the faint, lingering light around the rabbit dimly lit up its impaled form, blood flowing down the monster's arm as it stood above her. The monster then pulled his arm out of the young rabbit's corpse, its furless body falling limply into the light residue of whatever energy she had summoned before.
This "rabbit" didn't have a fluffy tail or any front paws. It never did. In the end, it too looked a bit like a monster.
The shapeshifting killer now looked at the dead "rabbit" disappointedly, its posture now giving off the emotion of confusion or dismay. It decided to use its senses, and to its pleasant surprise, it found a hole. A sinister smile once again penetrated the illusion of its featureless face.
It had found the "rabbits" home.
The monster's eyes stared into the ground as if it could see all the life crawling inside their nest, and its form changed once again...
A few minutes later, a sinister and wrathful smoke embraced the trees, covered the grass, and held all the area's previous lives' corpses hostage. All the rabbit-like creatures were dead; only the agent responsible for the destruction was still alive. Its form was unmoving, causing turbulence in the deadly smoke lingering in the air. The smoke scarred the trees with death, the leaves having lost their colour, and their bark tinted grey along their outlines.
The humanoid shadow, still unmoving, slowly became more visible in the dispersing smoke. Regaining its composure, the monster spoke to itself, "Mmm, I should soon reach the village," and started to walk, pushing the death-filled air forward with each of its steps.
It kept walking, away from the now-lifeless hole and the trail of death and destruction.
No longer harbouring any life, a small part of the forest bore witness to a haunting silence.