FanStory.com - Echo's Mission Part 2by davisr (Rhonda)

Background
Years after a fire took her parents lives and devastated her home, Echo worked at a small town newspaper. She was rescued from danger by her old friend, Theo, who took her to a new life in his world.

End of last chapter:

"Neptune!" Echo called out as the rabbit drew closer, "Mary, this is one of Hannah's babies."

"What does he want?" she asked.

"I don't know," Echo said. She stooped down to touch the chattering animal. "I don't speak rabbit."

"Me neither," Mary said.

Neptune raised up on his haunches, his legs crossed in front of him, and chattered even louder.

"What is it?" Echo asked. "What are you trying to tell me?"

Neptune looked her right in the eyes and then let out a piercing scream. Echo fell back on her bottom in surprise.

She touched the rabbit on its head. "Is it Hannah?" she asked.

Neptune leaped straight up in the air and turned around facing away from Echo. He looked back over his enormously fuzzy shoulder, seeming to plead for her to follow.

"I think he wants me to go with him," Echo said.

"I think so, too," Mary agreed. "Echo, it has begun."

"What has?"

"Your mission," she answered. "Why you came here. I'm too old to go with you as I did with Diantha long ago, and we don't have time to find anyone else. You'll have to follow the rabbit on your own and seek your destiny. Good luck, child."

Echo froze for a moment in indecision. What was she to do? She was a mere orphan, standing in the shadow of gods. What difference could she possibly make?

And then the rabbit screamed again. This was little Hannah's rabbit. The sweet little girl with a grown-up mind. Theo's baby sister.

"Come on Neptune, at least you aren't a horse."

New Chapter:

Echo followed Neptune with great care and questionable agility. She ran behind him when the terrain was smooth, picked her way carefully across rocky areas, and even crawled by his side through underbrush. The rabbit was patient with her inability to cover ground efficiently and would stop and wait when she fell behind.

Echo was glad for the sweater she wore as it helped protect against the winter chill... the winter chill! It suddenly dawned on her that the weather had grown cold. What had Hannah said to her about it always being mild in Concorde Valley?

King Phoebus and Queen Diantha were captives on Mount Olympus with the other gods. Did their absence remove the magic that protected this valley?

She had something new to contemplate as she traveled cross-country after the paunchy bunny.

At one point, Echo flopped to the ground. "Neptune, please stop. If I don't rest a minute, you're going to have to send help for me."

Neptune returned to Echo and rested bloody paws on her leg. She looked down and stroked his head. This was no wild, field rabbit. Neptune was a pampered pet, one of Hannah's 12 closest babies. In spite of who he was named after, this gentle rabbit was no warrior.

"I'm sorry, buddy. You're hurting as bad as me, probably worse."

He looked at her with what appeared to be a mixture of sympathy and anxiety.

Echo understood what she probably never had before about sacrifice. It made what Theo had done for her when he fought Specters make more sense. He was a hero, yes, but he didn't fight the enemy for glory. He did it because he loved her. Had she really been so selfish she'd focused only on her own anguish? Was this a character flaw? No more, she decided.

Echo stood up and shook off discomfort and apathy. "Come on little buddy. I'll run with you until my feet are bloody." Neptune seemed to nod as he turned and faced the path again.

Before long, they were forced to pick their way through very thick undergrowth, a task much easier for the cinnamon-colored rabbit, than Echo. They made very little progress, which seemed to make Neptune more nervous than ever.

"Wait," she called out. "I'm going to the trees. I can travel quicker there than on ground. Just don't lose me, okay?"

Neptune actually nodded and got a new light in his brown eyes. Echo smiled back, an expression she assumed he understood, then found a low lying branch to leap into a tree.

Still tender, but choosing to ignore it, Echo moved quicker through the trees than she had on ground.

She lacked the gentle grace of the Concordians as she leapt from branch to branch, but she did it with an ease that would have surprised her own people. She laughed when she thought about what her old office nemesis, Sara Beth, would say if she could see her now.

How she longed for Theo's comforting presence to tell her what to do and to let her know that everything was going to be okay. But he wasn't there and she had to do it alone.

About the time Echo was reaching exhaustion, the woods ended at the base of one of the mountains that framed Concorde Valley. She sighed with relief when Neptune trotted to her tree and reared up on its trunk. She slipped down to him.

"What is it, boy?" she asked.

He chattered a response, which she wished she could understand.

"You'll have to show me," she said. She gestured with her arms like he was deaf rather than speaking a foreign language.

Neptune made eye contact, then turned and headed towards the mountain. Echo followed. She had gone her whole life without ever communicating with an animal, besides giving orders to her cat, and now she was doing it with relative ease. It was so simple, why hadn't she known it possible? She guessed either the animals were different in Concorde Valley, or she had, in some elemental way, changed.

They didn't have to go far before they arrived at the entrance of a cave. There in front of it, was a variety of agitated forest animals, the greatest population of which was rabbits. Echo had never seen so many diverse creatures in one spot in her life.

"What's going on?" she asked the odd crowd, not sure what answer she thought she was going to get.

"They are waiting on your instructions." A ginger-haired youth emerged from the cave.

"Phillip!" Echo exclaimed. She grabbed Theo's youngest brother with both hands and pulled him into a hug. "What's happening?"

"I don't really know," Phillip said. His bright red hair and freckles showed up distinctly in the morning light, as did the blush from her embrace. "I was in the garden practicing archery when Saturn came running up to me."

"The god or the rabbit?"

Phillip smiled in spite of their situation. "The rabbit. He grabbed my pants leg and started pulling on me. I followed behind him thinking Hannah was playing a game, but before I knew it, I was here."

"Wow, do you speak rabbit?"

"Passably."

"Can you talk to any of the other animals here?"

"I understand a little deer, as their language is so similar to horse."

"Which you speak?"

Phillip nodded. "We all do."

Echo returned the nod. The question had been rhetorical. "Have these deer told you anything?"

"They said a squirrel watched Hannah following a strange woman through the forest. The woman was singing an alluring song and Hannah followed her with a peculiar look on her face. You see, animals communicate almost as much by body language as they do sounds, so they noticed her behavior distinctly.

"The deer said the squirrel followed them here to this tunnel where Hannah seemed to come out of the trance-like state. She tried to run away, but two other women appeared from the cave and carried her inside. The animals could hear her crying out for help. Well, one thing led to another, and Hannah's babies were notified. Neptune went looking for you and Saturn for me."

"Why didn't they go get Theo? He would be much better at this than me."

"He's gone to the valley beside us, called Carack. They used to be our enemies long ago, but are friends now. They were once ruled by Hades, and so Theo's trying to see if there are any old priests around who could find a way to defeat him."

"That's smart."

"That's what Rebecca said when he came by late last night. Oh, and he said to tell you, hi, when we saw you, and that he loves you."

"He said that?"

"Actually, no, but Rebecca said he should have," Phillip said. "He did say to look out for you and keep you safe."

"Which we aren't going to do."

"Not if we go in that cave after Hannah."

"Which we will."

"I plan to."

Echo took a deep breath and leaned against the cave entrance. "I still don't know why I was sent for. I would think anyone in your family would be more qualified to help than me."

Phillip shrugged. "You're the one spoken of in the Prophecy and the animals know it."

"Seriously? The animals know and I don't?"

Phillip looked her straight in the eyes in a manner Echo was starting to recognize as either a family trait or an Immortal thing.

"I think you do."

Echo glanced away. By now, she guessed she did. There had been enough hints for anyone, especially a woman trained to look for hidden meanings, to be able to interpret.

"Okay, we don't have time to argue the matter," Echo said. "What do you suggest? Should we send for more help, or go after her ourselves?"

"I'm afraid we don't have time to get anyone else. Most of the warriors are off preparing for battle. Rebecca needs to stay with the kids, Adam's gone with Hermes on some quest or other, and I'm the oldest boy at home. No one besides our family speaks rabbit."

"Then I guess it's just you and me."

"And all these animals. What do you think we should do with them?"

"Leave them here," Echo said. "I have a feeling we'll need to sneak up on whoever is holding Hannah."

Phillip nodded agreement. "Except, I think we should take Hannah's babies. Rabbits are relatively quiet and might help once we find her."

"That's fine, but only the main twelve, please."

Phillip nodded and knelt next to Neptune. There was an exchange of chattering noises and then Phillip stood.

"He says he'll tell the others. It'll only take a few minutes. He's a pretty good speaker of other languages."

"Good thing for us."

"Yeah, it never hurts to have a translator." Phillip chuckled, his hazel eyes smiling with him. "Oh, and he said to tell you that you did a good job of following him here and that he thinks you're pretty."

"Well, tell him thanks for being a good leader and I think he's, I don't know, what's a good compliment for a bunny?"

"You can tell him he has a beautiful coat. Rabbits are very proud of their fur."

"Fine, tell him that for me, please. He really does have a unique coloring."

"It's not far from the color of my mother's hair," Phillip said. "I wish mine was more cinnamon than fire red."

"Why? I think you're quite handsome just like you are.

Phillip's face turned as bright a shade of red as his hair. It was obvious he thought Echo was pretty, too.

Neptune suddenly reappeared in front of them with eleven rabbit companions, each looking ready to go on a Hannah hunt. Echo thought the dichotomy strange. These beasts were cute and fuzzy, the picture of charm, but bore a fierceness in their eyes that would have frozen an eagle in flight.

Echo decided there was much about the animal world she didn't know. She also had a feeling she would soon be schooled on the subject.

Neptune scampered in front of everyone and headed into the dark tunnel. Phillip grabbed a torch he had lit earlier and followed behind. Echo went next and then the rest of the rabbits.

Echo glanced over her shoulder to make sure the other animals weren't following. To her surprise, she saw a bluish-gray cat with a smooth streamlined body rushing after the group. Sunny had joined the party. Sunny, who was supposed to be waiting at Mary's. Oh well, she was glad he had disobeyed.

"Sunny," she called, "get up here with me."

Sunny complied, easily gaining a lead on the rabbits, which were forced to go slower than they wanted. It wasn't long before he was loping calmly beside his owner as though it was a normal thing for the two of them to chase their way down a cold, dark tunnel in winter. He looked over at her and made a mewing sound that seemed almost human.

Echo looked at her cat dubiously. "Don't tell me they're teaching you to talk."

Sunny made a snarling sound and looked forward. Humans could be so arrogant. Just wait until later when she wanted him to speak. He would pretend he had no idea what she was trying to say. In fact, he thought he would do that now.

"Don't pout," Echo said. "We've got to save Hannah."

Sunny grunted back, but looked like his mood had improved just a bit. He was glad to be close to Echo again, and he sure wanted to rescue Hannah. After all, she could speak cat language.

Taking a deep breath for courage, Echo picked up her pace to close the distance between her and Phillip.

There she was in the middle of a rescue line, in the middle of a dream... a dream. She suddenly remembered her dream of the night before. She had been underground and cold. There had been a man, tall, broad and chillingly handsome. He said he knew her and that she knew him.

"Phillip, wait," she called out. "I think I know who's holding Hannah."