Hare Beware

The mist hung heavy in the passage leading from the bio-forge, the mixture of humidity and organic smells clinging to every surface, rising from the flood of amniotic fluid that bubbled and churned over the smooth floor. The rabbit plodded out, delirious from the physical and mental agony of transformation. Every cell of his body remade in the bio-organic pod, now open and steaming behind him, his mind opened up to the collective intelligence of the Order that he has now joined, as well as the bizarre entity that connected them all. It was the sort of experience to drive lesser creatures mad, but the rabbit had fit the profile, and the investment proved to be successful.

He could feel the warm fluid surging around his feet and ankles, squelching with each heavy step, the rubbery pads of his soles feeling the smooth floor with a freshness of reactivated nerve endings. His body felt strange, having fur no longer, but smooth and rubbery skin that wrinkled about his joints with each movement. The odd carapace about his torso, with its exposed ribcage, was a bizarre detail, but consistent with the morphology of these beings who had taken him in. His senses blazed to life, tall ears listening, gleaming eyes seeing in spectra that were unknown to him before. Oddly, there was still that fringe of hair that hung over his eyes, yet it wasn't properly hair, but some leathery growths, flat and heavy, the memory of those ever-present bangs. How odd. He looked at his hands as he advanced away from his place of rebirth, the bright red fluid beading up and rolling off of his sleek skin. It was amazing what he had become, the promise of a new life ahead. Even at the expense of leaving his old life behind forever.

"To think I hesitated", he breathed...