The central lounge of the Heavensway Warren twinkled with starlight as Vix took care hanging the last glimmering ornament. Since the branches were already laden with tinsel and glowbauble fruits, he decided to hook it onto one of the loops of ivy twining around the great Solstice tree's trunk, where there was still plenty of hanging space. In Vix's opinion, it looked quite pretty next to the purple ivy flowers.
As he took a step back, he felt a big, silly smile spreading across his face, and his ears perked up to their fullest height. He loved this time of year.
The tree's branches swept down in thick, lustrous green waves. It was beautifully bushy, the perfect picture of a Rose Valley Solstice tree. Aside from the bald spot in the back, but that was fine, nobody could see that. The glowbaubles--a lucky find from long ago, carefully packed away and reused year after year--glimmered and blinked from within the foliage, bright tropical fish hiding within dark coral reefs. Nearby angel chimes filled the hall with soft, gentle music as their candles burned down toward stubs.
He put his hands on his hips and admired his handiwork, gazing up with unregulated delight at a tree that, at twelve feet tall, stood about three times his height. The Solstice tree was always the best part of winter lockdown, a reminder of the colors and lights that would lie in wait when the winter chills and spring heatcycles were safely behind them.
"G'night, Vix." Vix jumped slightly as he felt a hand swat his rear. He spun to see another buck en route to the exit giving him a faint smile. "Hey, good job not messing it up for once!"
Vix felt his ears flattening. His cheeks went hot. "Um... thanks, Heff. I think?."
Heff's smile turned into an unmistakable smirk just before he turned away, rabbit ears playfully flicking outward. "Hey, any day Vix manages to complete an upperworld errand without leading twenty does in heat back into the Warren, we call it a win."
Vix suppressed the urge to stomp his foot. "It was... only
five
does," he mumbled. His cheeks burned hotter as Heff's only answer was a teasing flick of the tail.
He turned back to the source of Heff's rare praise. Despite his embarrassment, he couldn't help his satisfied smile returning, long ears perking right back up.
It was a gorgeous tree, truly. The thick ivy actually sort of complemented it, made it seem even more luscious and full than it was. Strictly, the tree scout was supposed to strip any extra plants off--just in case--but in this case, those little flowers had just been a little too charming to tear out. Nobody seemed to mind, anyways.
The angel chimes' magic would preserve the tree all winter long, and when it began to fade, their scouts would bring back potted flowers to replace its eerie wonder with the brightness of spring.
The room was empty now. It was just him and the tree. Vix supposed he ought to be getting to bed, but... well, maybe a few moments more.
He clasped his hands behind his back and breathed in deep of the sweet pine scents. Pride glowed in his chest. Heff was right about one thing--this
was
a win for Vix. He'd found the perfect tree, and everyone knew it. Maybe now the other bucks would start giving him more responsibilities, would start to trust his abilities again. And he'd do well on those, and then they'd trust him more, and maybe eventually...
... well, maybe eventually the Equinox Incident would start to fade from people's minds, and he could move on.
Of course, even thinking about the Equinox Incident made him flush hot. Those five bunnygirls effortlessly dismantling the Warren's entire defense force with one waft of their breeding pheromones, strutting right past the guards' twitching, moaning, helplessly masturbating forms to have their way with their pick of the Warren's bucks, or to toy with the guards themselves...
He was so distracted by trying to ignore how his cock was starting to twitch, he almost didn't notice the faint movement from within the tree's foliage.
When he did, he stopped short and stared into the rustling branches.
At first, he assumed he'd accidentally let some sort of animal in. Oh, gods, he hoped it wasn't a fox. It was
so
embarrassing when the prey instincts kicked in for normal animals and the whole Warren had to spend a week in panic trying to shoo the poor creature out and everything smelled of predatorscent for weeks after and everyone blamed Vix for it and--
--but then he spotted the source of the movement.
Vix blinked.
It was one of the little purple ivy flowers, one that hadn't bloomed yet. He realized he didn't recognize the type of flowers exactly, meaning it was probably an invasive ivy, not native to the forest.
Well... all the better he'd ripped it out of the ground, right?
Except that it was definitely moving.
And it seemed... larger than it had a minute ago. It was almost the size of a mouse now. Had it always been that big?
He squinted at it, then shrugged and turned back to his work. He had to get the floor swept before he could go to sleep, and he was truly exhausted after a hard day's work. It was probably just some sort of minor carnivorous ivy looking for flies.
A few minutes went by in silence. Silence save for the rhythmic chimes of the candle bells and the rustle of the broom's bristles. Vix was determined to do a good job on this last task of the day. Getting to do the cleanup was his reward for the tree retrieval, a recognition that he'd done a good enough job to be trusted with another. That was what the other bucks had assured him, at least.
As he was approaching the end and ready to retrieve the dustpan, Vix thought he heard a giggle.
It was sweet and musical, almost indistinguishable from the angel chimes. And yet it also sounded awfully...
... feminine.
Vix spun around, raising the broom defensively. His heart was pounding.
Stop. Stop panicking. Remember the breathing. Small, steady breaths. Careful breaths. Tasting the air.
There was no one there, anyways. It was just him and the tree.
And the ivy.
And that flower bud, which was now the size of his head, heavy enough that it had sunk down to settle upon the floor of the warren's central hall.
"Um." Vix swallowed. Now, that. That was definitely... at least a
little
concerning, right?
He advanced cautiously towards the flower, heart fluttering. Slowly, he reached out a hand towards the massive flower bud...
Then he stopped.
What am I doing? This is clearly magic. Like, obviously. It's probably some sort of enchanted flower, or... or dryad, even.
That didn't slow his heartrate any.
You need to be careful. You need to be smart. The whole Warren could be counting on you here.
He poked it with the end of the broom.
The flower pulsed slightly at the touch. It seemed to swell a little. Nothing else happened.
Vix relaxed, but only slightly. Okay. So it wasn't... aggressive, at least. It was just a weird flower. Still, he really should tell someone.
He turned towards the doorway. Yes, something like this certainly needed to be reported at once. He'd just go and wake up Heff or Pad and tell them that he'd fucked up again and brought in some dangerous magic flower that could compromise the whole warren.
His ears drooped.
He'd done it right as they were finishing winter lockdown, too. That meant they'd be basically trapped with the thing all winter if they didn't immediately cancel the closure, unlock and reopen one of the hatches, and arrange for the flower to be taken back out and returned to its proper place. They'd have to send some unlucky buck to handle the disposal.
Probably the idiot who'd brought it in here to begin with.
Vix bit his lip.
Maybe... maybe he could tell Disti. Disti was always nice to everyone. She might not even yell at him. And as a gatekeeper, she actually had a key, which would make all of this much easier. She could get one of the back doors open and help him just... well, toss it out into the upperworld. No harm done.
But that would mean looking like an idiot in front of Disti. And he got so shy around her sometimes he could barely even manage words.
Gods, this was embarrassing.
You're being an idiot,
he scolded himself.
Immediately defaulting to ask a girl for help? Typical buckbrain. I'll just... I'll just deal with this myself.
He swallowed, eyes darting back to the purple flower bud as it pulsed and expanded another inch.
As... as soon as I finish sweeping, obviously!
He hastened to retrieve the dustpan, keeping his gaze carefully off of the flower and putting it as far out of his mind as it could go. He'd worry about it when he was finished with this. It was fine.
It was all... perfectly fine.
Those, um, angel chimes were certainly being loud, he thought, bending down to carefully gather up the dust, pine needles and broken glass from that one ornament Fyl had dropped earlier. He brought the dustpan over to the disposal, opened the chute, poured the mess down, and snapped the chute shut.
Something gave his butt a pinch.
Vix squeaked and spun around so fast he nearly fell on his butt.
The flower bud hadn't just grown to a massive size. People-sized.
Human
-sized.
The flower had blossomed.
And there was a girl inside.
Vix's breath caught.
The lady in the ivy flower had pale green skin that shimmered like grass after the first frost. She had dark violet hair that swirled up in a cute vintage bouffant, its languid, twisting whorls holding little gold and silver glitter-stars that twinkled from within. Her pale orange eyes were large, but deeply veiled beneath thick lashes and dark-dusted lids. She was... absurdly pretty. Maybe the prettiest girl Vix had ever seen.
The only thing this girl was 'wearing' was the flower itself, which rose up snugly to just
barely
conceal her massive chest. The flower's violet hue almost matched her hair, yet couldn't quite match the intensity, the... depth. With the glitter, her hair was like a twilight of faint blinking stars.
Vix stared up at her, and he could feel his cheeks reddening, his ears pinned flat against his head.
Bucks were... short. Vix only bumped four and a half feet on his tiptoes, and that only if you counted the ears. This girl wasn't that tall by human standards, but compared to him...
Not to mention the curves. He was trying very hard not to mention the curves, not to even
think
about the curves.
This girl had the kind of decadent curves that most does could only dream of. Curves most bucks tried desperately
not
to. Her breasts visibly
squished
against the confines of the blossom, and through he couldn't really see the swell of her hips, he could see the part of the pitcher-like ivy flower that pushed outward as if struggling to contain it
