Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 33: brought to you by bunnies

Rambo and Randy, bunnies against the world, square off against the City before almost starting a riot and ending the treaty between the woefully out-manned Bunny Clan and the City of Beasts. But, verily, burnt leaves of sexiness are powerful. I'd rather eat Randy!

Once all the females were painted and sent to gather around the raised stage, the males were ushered to the sides. Shay and Neara found themselves in a rare-male free moment and the smell of estrogen refreshed the soul.

"I keep looking at this baggy and thinking of the abortion juice," said Shay.

"Yeah. We should...probably not..." said Neara.

"Not like we need it."

Just then, a roar broke over the crowded space, calling for silence as the Ape King stood once more.

"Now, for the most important part," said the Ape King. "We welcome in the priests of fertility. As the year before, they shall step forward to the female of their choice to petition for marriage, and any who manage to give birth to a female of a priest shall be given an emerald, a bowl of clear crystals, and an extra bag of seeds for the rest of their lives."

Shay and Neara exchanged glances. As they did so, a very young female whispered to her friend behind them.

"What's so important about a fertility priest's female?"

"Don't you know? Rabbit beastmen females go through heat three times a year rather than one."

"No way! I've never even heard of a female rabbit."

"One hasn't been born in over a hundred sun cycles."

From the far end of the crowd, a melodic shout called out, followed by a loud rattle of some sort of percussion instrument.

Neara and Shay straightened, doing their best to see through the crowd of heads and shoulders. But even as the standing males parted, Shay didn't see anything until a pair of tall, fuzzy rabbit ears broke over the crowd of women.

Short!

Sure enough, the males which marched in--marched in perfect time, like finely drilled soldiers--were a complete two heads shorter than all the other beastmen about them. The tallest of them could reach Shay's chin, not counting the ears, all of which stood straight up in perfect soldiers' attention. They looked even shorter close up.

The next thing she noticed was their weapons. Up until then, Shay had never seen a beastmen, male or female, holding any kind of weapon. The men seemed to think their claws, teeth, and fists weapons enough. The rabbit beastmen, on the other hand, all held spears taller than themselves with quivers and bows on their backs and three blades, of varying lengths, hung on their hips. Their chests were even crisscrossed with bandoliers of round, unidentifiable objects.

Thirdly, every rabbit was ripped. Rambo ripped. While most of the beastmen she had seen had been muscular, sure, the rabbits had taken muscle to an almost terrifying level equal to Winston.

The front rabbit, dressed in a scarlet cotton kilt, marched his soldiers to the stage, where he stepped to the side, bushy tail tall and alert, and knocked the butt of his spear to the stone floor. He had a heavily lined face from days in the sun. Scars slashed across his arms and legs. He looked positively grizzly.

"Align!" he barked.

The fourteen cadet rabbits fell into lines of seven. Each line faced away from each other, giving the audience of waiting females their stern faces--several of which had boyish charms which clashed with the bulging necks and shoulders they sat upon.