Macster - The Missing Links

He collapsed on a bed of straw, groaning. He looked awful. "I need a hot rabbit to stroke, to comfort me."

Virginia raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"A long-eared rabbit is best," Wolf panted, sweating. "Now!"

Virginia fled.

By the time she had managed to track down a rabbit in one of Fidelity's hutches and bring it back to the barn, full night had fallen and the moon had risen, its pale bleached sphere swollen to its greatest extent. The light shone through a small high window in the hayloft and bathed Wolf's clammy face as he lunged and grabbed the rabbit from her, clutching it to his chest as if it gave him life.

Virginia crouched beside him and put her hand on his forehead. "You're running a terrible temperature..."

Wolf didn't seem to hear her, he was too busy stroking the rabbit with firm, heavy motions as he gazed down at its twitching nose. "They look so innocent, don't they? But they're not." Virginia stared at him uncomfortably. "Provocative, teasing little fluffballs. Just look at their beady little eyes. She knows exactly what she's doing...don't ya?"

Virginia tended to his forehead again, wiping the sweat away. "You're really hot..."

Judging by the way the table groaned under the weight of the various platters, meals at the Baa-Bar were very filling--but Virginia had already discovered that on her own. She was having the most fantastic meal of her life.

She and her father hadn't ordered, not really. They'd just been waiting for the Judge as Barbara Peep had instructed them to do. But Barbara Peep had brought them food--the most incredible food Virginia had ever eaten.

"These potatoes..." she mumbled through an enormous mouthful.

"Did you try the squash?" Tony asked, his voice muffled.

"It's incredible," she agreed. The food was plain: potatoes, lamb, squash, and cider, yet it tasted more delicious than anything she'd ever had before.

Barbara Peep returned to the table bearing another huge platter of food. She set it down on the table, which creaked again, already laden to near capacity. "There's some more lovely vegetables for you."

"Keep it coming," her father said eagerly. He lifted a mug of cider and continued, "This cider...I don't even like cider, and I've had five pints!" That was too much in Viriginia's opinion, but she couldn't blame him. It all tasted so good.

"That cider comes from young Colin Peep's apples," Barbara supplied proudly. "And the lamb was reared by my brother, Larry Peep." She nodded toward a table in a far corner of the bar, well-lit and raucous, where a rowdy group of farmers, young and old alike, partook of the same bounty as they did. "Everything you're eating comes from us Peeps. Best farming family in all the Nine Kingdoms, if I say it meself." Her eyes twinkled merrily.

The Peeps grew the food, and they all seemed quite proud of it. Virginia finally understood why the older women were so heavy and everyone had such a healthy glow. They ate better here than most people in the fancy restaurants in Manhattan. She almost didn't believe it.

Almost.

She'd seen too many strange things already to discount any of them.

"Well you go right ahead and say it," her father was saying with sincere respect. "What is your secret?"

For a brief second Virginia thought she saw a flicker of distrust and wariness cross the matron's face, but it was gone before she could properly focus. Barbara smiled amiably and shrugged. "Oh, I suppose we're just...good farmers." She moved off back to the bar.

Virginia was about to make a comment on that vague answer when she was distracted by Wolf's entrance into the pub. He burst in the door and appeared behind her, startling her when he grabbed her shoulders. "Start without me, why don't ya?" He chuckled and hurried to another seat at the table, not paying attention to her stare as he scraped the chair back and sat down with a flourish.

Everyone else in the bar was staring at him too.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" she asked incredulously.

"Bed?" he cried. "I'm bounding with energy! I feel full of life!" He snatched a rack of lamb from a platter and began devouring it like a sheering machine, heedless of the stares. The nearby farming couple sat speechless, then slowly lifted their newspaper to cover their faces. Whispers began and soft muttering.

Virginia didn't understand it. He'd seemed so sick and feverish, and yet he had left the barn anyway and joined them. And now he was eating like an absolute pig. She knew her own cycle caused mood swings, but this...

Thoughts of the barn reminded her of something that made her stomach feel a little queasy. "Where's the rabbit?"

"What rabbit's that?" Wolf replied innocently as he grabbed another chop. His plate already had more bones on it than Virginia and her father combined--and they'd been in the bar much longer than he had.

She leveled her gaze at him, voice cold. "The one I gave you...to cuddle."

"Goodness me!" Wolf raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly, as if he knew a secret. "I think she must have hopped away."

Somehow she did not believe that answer. For the first time since the beanstalk forest, Virginia wanted to run away from him again, and began to worry what he would do next.

At that moment Barbara Peep chose to reappear, apparently having noticed Wolf's appetite like everyone else and deciding it merited another helping of food. "You've got an appetite like a wolf, you have," she observed humorously.

Wolf looked up with a feral glint in his eyes and snarled, snapping at the manageress. Virginia froze and held her breath.

But Barbara only laughed again and made a disapproving face before turning back to them. "By the way, folks, Judge's just walked in if you want to talk to him."

Thank God. Finally having an excuse to get away from Wolf and his strange behavior, Virginia added her thanks to her father's and rose, hurrying to the table before the fireplace that Barbara indicated.