I wasn't surprised to find myself face-to-face of an ordinary rabbit, stripped of all the half-human features that had made E.B. more expressive (not to mention incredibly attractive). What did surprise me, though, was that I was face-to-face with him, not looking down on the small animal from above. I was lying on the ground belly-first, but even so, that rabbit seemed to be the same size as me! I looked down at myself and immediately saw the problem. My body was still covered in fluffy white fur all over, but I was no longer standing upright. My upper paws, instead of turning back into hands, had become small and stubby, with no opposable thumbs, looking just the same way that my feet already had.
"Uh-oh," the rabbit in front of me said, his whiskers twitching in distress as he sniffed at me. "You've gone full rabbit!" Well, he didn't say anything in English, but I understood the meaning behind those squealing, chittering noises immediately. Thankfully, neither of us had lost the power to communicate. And somehow, when the sounds were translated in my brain, they sounded just like the voice I knew and loved coming from E.B. "What did I do wrong this time? How did this happen?"
And I was pretty sure I knew the answer. "I think... I did this," I squeaked back to him in the same rabbit language that he spoke to me. "During our kiss, I must have cast another spell on myself without realizing it. And I may have, mentally, used the word 'wish' somewhere in there."
"And you did it at exactly the moment when our were-rabbit transformation magic peaks, right before the full moon is over and we go back to normal," he sighed. "Of course. What did you wish for?"
I stepped forward tentatively on my four legs and rubbed the side of my furry body affectionately against his. "For us to stay together," I answered him.
"Awww," he said. "Well, the next couple of weeks might be a little rough for you, but I'm sure we can still fix this. I mean, if you've already gotten this good at using your were-powers, then I bet you can make yourself human again, no problem, as soon as the next full moon comes around. As long as you didn't add something silly in there like 'stay together forever.' Then it would be a lot harder, maybe even impossible, for either of us to undo."
"Oh," I stammered. "Uh... Do you think maybe..."
"You did, didn't you." His nose was now vibrating frantically, but he seemed like he was trying to force himself to stay calm. "I promised I would find a way to fix you, buddy, and I will. I swear. Even if it takes us years and years to..." He stopped, sniffing the air around me a little more deeply. "You don't seem very worried about this."
Huh. Come to think of it, I was remarkably calm about the idea of staying this way permanently. "I guess I'm not... in much of a rush to get back to my old life?"
E.B. looked at me, confused. "But... don't you have other humans that'll be worried about you?"
Oh, right, of course. My friends, my family, my job... Wait a second. My friends? I hardly even had any. All that came to mind were some guys I went to high school with, who maybe occasionally remembered to text me "happy birthday". I didn't have much family to speak of, either, and I heard from them even less. And the idea of never having to go into the office again only sweetened the deal even more.
"To be honest," I said, "the only one who's worried about me is you. And you won't have to worry any more, because now that I've changed all the way, I'm never going to leave you. Never again."
I could tell from his scent that E.B. had gone from hiding his panic to hiding his excitement. "Well," he said cautiously, "in all my years, I've never been this close to a human - or an ex-human - so I don't know how to properly introduce you to this life. But if you really want to stay this way, then you're welcome to come back to the warren with me. The other bunnies will be so happy when they find out that I've finally got a mate who's the right, um, fit for me!"
I smiled and started to hop in the direction he was leaning toward. But he stuck out a paw and stopped me. "But I can't do that unless you're really, truly sure you're ready for this. You've already seen just how tough it can be, living like we do at the bottom of the food chain. Are you prepared to spend the rest of your days foraging for food, getting chased by predators, surviving by the skin of our buck teeth? Are you willing to leave everything from your human life behind?"
I gulped. Being a rabbit so far hadn't bothered me as much as it probably should have. And after the intensity of the adventure I'd just been through, I felt pretty confident about my survival skills. But now I was starting to second-guess myself. I looked up at the trees on the edge of the forest, bathed in the orange light of the rising sun, and saw just how much bigger they were - everything was - now. There might not be much to miss about my old life, but that question from E.B. left my mind racing. Leave everything behind?
"Actually," I said, "I can think of one human thing that we should probably take care of first. But after that, I'm all yours."