childhood memories - nyx

A tiny bun barreled through away from Murmur’s hands, his speed so fast as he crunched his small body in on itself that he looked like a blur of black and yellow fur. Some of his downy soft coat flew away in strands from his body as he rolled away from Murmur, desperate for an epic escape.

Nyx felt rather cool that he’d managed to get away from Murmur. Murmur was much bigger than him, with very large arms, so the fact that he’d dashed away from him was Nyx’s biggest triumph to date in his months of life.

He didn’t know that Murmur had very willingly let him “escape”, given that he could’ve easily scooped him up at any time, but Nyx was none the wiser and bursting with arrogance.

“Get away from me, dummy!” Nyx barked (though, it was much more like an adorable cry) out in his small voice practically popped out of the ball-like form his body had assumed as he dashed away from Murmur and into a stretch. He flexed his stubby bunny arms and mounted himself on his short bunny legs, opening his mouth to brandish a single tooth. “And watch where you’re going, too! You’re so dumb.”

The other baby bun stuck out their tongue at Nyx. “You ran into me! You’re the dumb one and clumsy,” they insisted, much to Nyx’s anger.

Nyx raised a little paw and smacked them, albeit not very hard—though he felt very strongly, so the sentiment was there—and dashed off the other way again before they could respond, towards where Murmur kept the food for him and all the other buns he was taking care of.

But mostly him.

Murmur sometimes stroked a large finger along the top of Nyx’s as he talked, mostly to himself, about how Nyx would certainly become a very greedy bun when his horns came in. 

“You like food a little too much,” Murmur had said, though clear affection was always in his voice. “Not that that’s uncommon. Your horns are going to be long and pointed towards the sky. That’s what they look like when you’ve got greed in you.”

Nyx didn’t care much for Murmur and thought it was annoying when he talked to himself, especially when he insisted on holding Nyx in his hands while he did it. Nyx would sometimes bite Murmur if Murmur put his finger anywhere near his mouth. Nyx had done it since he was even younger, before his teeth even came in, but Murmur didn’t seem to mind.

The food Murmur kept was mostly milk, but recently, the babies had been able to eat soft carrots and other vegetables as their teeth grew in. Nyx didn’t care about that stuff, though. It was boring and didn’t taste as good as what he really cared about: sweets.

That’s what Nyx wanted to find. Murmur rarely ever gave the buns any sweets, saying that they were just treats, and that they had to eat their veggies to grow up stronger.

(Nyx would just steal the other bun’s food, in that case, even if they cried.)

When Nyx arrived at the feeding room where Murmur kept their food, all in bottles and jars, he stood up on his haunches, pink nose twitching in the air as he sniffed around. He could smell something particularly delicious, maybe cookies, but they were too high up, and he didn’t think he could reach with his very tiny bunny body.

Nyx hopped over to where the cabinet was and pawed, smacked, bit, and kicked at the piece of furniture where he could smell the cookies in, but he couldn’t get them down.

Nyx let out a very small growl and butted his head into the furniture. It didn’t even wiggle or budge. 

“There you are,” a voice came: Murmur’s voice, gentle as always. Nyx had been so preoccupied that he didn’t even hear Murmur come in. “You’re not going to get to them like that. Those are snacks for everybody.”

Nyx was furious, feeling the flames of Hell itself spark in his very empty tummy.

“I hate this! I want them! They’re mine!” Nyx said, biting at Murmur’s ankles, even as Murmur simply continued to smile.