I held the blue crystal tightly in my hand, staring down at the rabbit. My faithful—if utterly useless—accomplice regarded completely blind to the life-converting occasion about to unfold.
"Alright, bunny," I said, kneeling down to get on eye degree with it. "This stone is supposed to liberate your hidden powers. You do have hidden powers, right?"
The rabbit twitched its nose and regarded up at me blankly. I sighed.
"Well, whether you do or don't, we are about to find out." I lifted the crystal over the rabbit's head, feeling its smooth glow pulse in my hand. "Here is going not anything."
As I added the crystal down to touch the rabbit's fur, it abruptly shattered into portions, releasing a blinding flash of blue light. I stumbled back, protective my eyes as the mild engulfed the bunny.
"What the—?!" I yelped, half-looking ahead to the rabbit to convert right into a towering beast or a few effective magical entity.
When the light faded, I slowly decreased my arm, blinking hastily to clear my imaginative and prescient. I stared on the spot wherein the rabbit were, waiting for some thing… surprising.
But as a substitute…
"It's still a rabbit."
There it turned into, hopping around in circles, looking precisely similar to earlier than. Same soft white fur, same tiny ears, same expressionless face. I rubbed my eyes and squinted. Maybe I'd ignored something?
"Hey, bunny," I stated slowly, waving my hand in front of its face. "Did you feel something? Some new strength? Magic powers?"
The rabbit definitely stared at me, absolutely unfazed.
"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned, slumping to the ground. "Fifty gold… for a dud."
Tatsuo's phrases echoed in my thoughts. "This stone will liberate your familiar's hidden powers!" What a scam. I should've regarded higher than to believe a man with a feathered hat and a wagon complete of half-baked items.
"Great. Just first rate," I muttered. "Now I'm down fifty gold, and I've got a magic bunny with zero magic."
As if in response, the rabbit nudged my foot with its nostril, hopping in circles once more. It appeared… greater energetic than traditional? Or perhaps that become simply wishful wondering on my part.
"Guess I'll take you back to the hotel," I sighed, status up. "Maybe Tatsuo is lengthy long past by using now, or I'd provide him a bit of my mind."
I trudged returned via the village, the rabbit thankfully hopping alongside me. As I walked, I noticed a few villagers looking me interestingly. It wasn't till one in all them gasped that I found out they were not looking at me—they were searching on the bunny.
"What in the world is that?!" a villager exclaimed, pointing at my toes.
I glanced down. To my surprise, the rabbit wasn't just hopping anymore—it turned into floating! The bunny's little paws hovered several inches above the floor, and it bobbed up and down within the air like some type of balloon.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I stepped lower back in wonder. "Since while are you able to do that?!"
The rabbit blinked innocently at me, as if it had no concept what became going on. It persevered to drift, evenly drifting around me in a small circle.
"Okay… perhaps this wasn't a complete rip-off after all," I muttered, watching the spectacle. "You're… flying. I guess it is some thing."
One of the villagers—a center-elderly woman carrying a basket of veggies—walked up cautiously, eyes huge. "Is that… is that your familiar?" she asked, her voice tinged with each fear and awe.
"Uh, yeah," I said, looking to sound nonchalant no matter the truth that I had no idea what was going on. "It just… learned to fly."
The lady gasped. "A flying familiar! That's awesome!"
Soon, a small crowd had collected round, they all marveling at my floating rabbit. Some of them whispered to every other in amazement, even as others simply stared with huge eyes. It appeared like I'd by chance come to be the center of interest, some thing I changed into no longer used to.
"Yeah, it is… quite notable," I said, scratching the lower back of my head awkwardly. "I educated it myself."
Not totally authentic, but hey, I wasn't going to break the instant. If this bizarre flying rabbit gave me a chunk of road cred in the village, I'd take it.
Suddenly, a booming voice reduce via the group. "Out of the way! Let me see!"
The villagers parted, revealing none other than Yamamoto, the grumpy vintage man I'd delivered potatoes to earlier. His eyes have been almost bulging out of his head as he stared on the floating bunny.
"That… it's your familiar?!" Yamamoto barked, pointing on the rabbit. "You?!"
I nodded, seeking to hold a immediately face. "Yup. That's my familiar. Pretty cool, huh?"
Yamamoto's face turned red with fury. "You're telling me that this lazy potato-shipping boy has a flying familiar, and I do not even have a canine that listens to me?! This is ridiculous!"
"Hey, it's not my fault," I stated defensively. "It just kind of… occurred."
The vintage guy grumbled something below his breath and stormed off, leaving the rest of the villagers still staring in awe. I ought to feel the weight in their admiration, their whispered praises, and the developing feel of importance that came with it.
Maybe this wasn't so terrible after all. Sure, the rabbit changed into floating, but that changed into a step up from simply hopping round uselessly. Maybe there was greater to its powers that I hadn't visible yet.
I bent down and regarded the rabbit in the eyes. "Alright, listen up, bunny. You've got flying down. Now, can you do something… extra staggering? Like, I don't know, shoot lasers from your eyes or some thing?"
The rabbit simply stared at me, its expression blank as ever.
"Yeah, I failed to assume so," I sighed.
Still, the villagers appeared convinced that I had some sort of effective acquainted. And in the event that they believed that, maybe I ought to use it to my benefit. I wasn't precisely in a role to pass up possibilities, mainly now that I turned into down fifty gold.
"Okay, bunny," I muttered beneath my breath. "I'm going to want you to flow round like a seasoned for a bit even as longer. Let's milk this for all it is worth."
The rabbit, blissfully blind to my scheming, persevered to hover in the air, arising and down like a carefree balloon. I may want to simplest wish that whatever powers it had unlocked, they had be useful after I wished them.
Because understanding my good fortune, I'd in all likelihood be jogging into some other catastrophe quicker in preference to later.