Meet Leehan:

[Warning: strong language; a lot of cursing for a little bunny!]

Leehan’s ears (upper wings?) flickered at the sound of a bird jumping in the branches nearby. Sunlight filtered through the blanket of tree leaves, splashing the grounds of the forest with yellow spots. The temperature was cool, but it’d warm up as the day advanced, for sure. A beautiful morning, per definition.

Leehan was in a mood, though. His stash of carrots had ended a couple of days ago and he was forced to go outside to get some food. And he was more of the kind to stay in bed until late morning, but no, his stomach rumbled in an uncomfortable way.

The butterfly on his face fluttered slightly at the cold. “She” wanted something sweet, she wanted to lick flowers, the morning was beautiful, she was telling Leehan.

Leehan completely disregarded her, and primped his whiskers (or at least, the colorful wing area that had replaced his whiskers) with his left paw.

Well, fuck, the butterfly said.

Well, fuck YOU, Leehan thought too. How annoying, being stuck with that empty-headed insect. Yes, he looked rad as shit now, but at what cost? He hadn’t had his mind for himself since, since -well, [that day], and Leehan was hardly the patient type, to begin with.

To not dwell on problems without solution, he started trotting down the forest path, leaving his burrow in search of some food, Preferably bitter! he thought, asserting dominance. He could fucking feel the butterfly rolling her eyes.

Well, not everything was bad. On the occasions he crossed paths with other critters, all of them admired his brilliant fur, his multicolored face, so bright it might as well be fluorescent. And he took good pride in that! He couldn’t get tired of the attention. Mates should be raining over him this spring.

Wouldn’t you like something more meaningful, tho, the butterfly commented sardonically.

Like what? Leehan scoffed as he hopped conceitedly. Nah, this is enough. I’m alive, I’m beautiful, what else could I want?

I’m not me, a very deep and unknown part of Leehan’s brain said.

The thought froze him on the spot for a second. It had not been the butterfly. It had been him. A part of him that he never thought would speak again. And as if it was not bad enough, another thought crossed his mind:

I still feel the same.

Well, god-fucking-shit. Leehan had to stop his walk and take a seat to deal with this one. The forest stream was just before his eyes, and the clear waters followed his course lazily, sparkling with reflections of the sunlight every now and then.

It was hard to deal with all of this.

Leehan had done his best to ignore it and carry on with his life, but yeah, he had been at a snout-distance from death, if not actually dead for a whole minute. And then he awoke having that thing on his face. And the hunger still persisted. And his body was still small and slender, he had not become any stronger or bigger, his coat had changed colors but it was still a short and scant coat that couldn’t shield him from much cold. And it was… just a lot to deal with, somedays.

The butterfly speaking was not making it any easier.

Calm down, you are okay. Everything is okay now, we should just go get some food! It’s a nice day, let’s just enjoy life!

I wish you could just leave me alone, Leehan said in response.

He sat like that for a while, disarmed, looking at the sparks in the water, at the bushes and plants being fondled by a gentle breeze that made their leaves dance.

The little stream’s course made a turn to the right, Leehan could see the curve from where he was sitting. The grass moved on his peripheral vision, and he turned to see an opossum walking out of the vegetation towards the water. Another opossum walked right behind the first. They both scanned the area for threats, with the typical patience an opossum has, then turned to the stream to drink.

Leehan observed they seemed pretty content with each other. They took turns raising their heads to watch the area. Their rat tails swayed slowly, like some sort of sync signal. One of them spotted him, their little black eyes pausing at the unusual colorful creature, but they must have deemed him not risky because they got back to their business.

The first opossum finished their drink and slowly turned around to go back to the bushes. They touched their companion with their little pink hand, surely a motion to signal their exit. Both left soon after.

Leehan sort of scolded himself for wasting his time looking at such ugly and dumb neighbors, but he didn’t really cared about his standards right now. Something about the pair had obviously caught his attention, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what.

He heard the butterfly laugh softly on the back of his mind, as his snout (her former body) twitched.

He really wished he could get her to shut up.

The breeze made nearby leaves tingle in quite an harmonic sound. And as if it was carrying inspiration on its soft current, suddenly an idea lit up Leehan’s mind.

Maybe if he talked to someone else he could get the butterfly to shut up. Or at least having something else to concentrate on would make it easier to ignore her, right?

Uugghh, others. If Leehan could choose, he would not develop relationships with anyone, (other than being the object of their admiral), but he was rather desperate at this point.

The butterfly was making a background noise, it sounded as if she was singing. Sighing resignedly, he approached the waters and lowered his muzzle to drink.

At least anyone Leehan could talk to was ought to be more interesting than that insect.