What Humans Fear Most

"Grrrr…I'm going…to eat you…"

"Come on, Mira! You actually need to wake up!"

I throw the sheets of my own bed to the floor and shake the bare shoulder of the young girl with her face in my spare pillow.

"I really have to go soon, so please wake up!"

"Noa is noisy…"

After a lot of pestering, Mira finally sits up and leans against the wall. She rubs her still mostly closed eyes after a long yawn.

"The sun isn't out…"

"Yeah, 7 in the morning will do that."

"Why are we up so early…"

The rabbit watches me move quickly across the room and stuff the last remaining textbooks into my backpack. I sling what is effectively a sack of bricks onto my back with a grunt.

"I have to go to school. I'll be back sometime in the afternoon. I left you lunch in the fridge."

"Huh, you're going somewhere!?"

Mira leaps up and follows me to the door on unsteady feet.

"OW!"

Her leg knocks into the side of the couch and sends her body flying into the carpet. Meanwhile, a large paper bag I had placed on the cushion earlier falls onto its side.

"Please don't burn down the house while I'm gone…"

Both Mira and this uneasiness trail behind me even as I put on my shoes. Nobody is allowed to feel safe this morning as Mira also shuffles around me restlessly.

"Can I go with you?"

"Of course not. You have to camp here until I come back."

"B-But it will be boring by myself!"

"Don't worry, I have more than enough for you to do."

I point past her towards the fallen paper bag. Its contents remain hidden until Mira walks over and peeks inside.

"Consider it a gift of sorts."

"A gift!?"

Her blue eyes widen and glow as she attempts to pick up the bag. Unfortunately for her, the items inside combine to form an immovable object. No matter how hard she tries, Mira is unable to bring my 'gift' into her arms.

"Heavy…"

"Take them out one at a time. You only need to see one to get the point."

The rabbit reaches one hand into the bag and excitedly pulls out one of the items inside.

"Let's see…a book?"

Coming in at a solid 150 pages of pure knowledge, Mira is greeted by a large booklet with a plain cover. She doesn't find images of fantastical lands, the victims of a dramatic romance, or even a simple hero trying his best to save the world. No, she receives the tried and true, the ever reliable, the unmatched in any structure. The glorious triangle.

"Geometry, the Planes of Our World? That's a strange name for a story."

Mira opens the book and her curiosity quickly turns to that of disdain. Even as somebody who isn't human, she contains an innate distaste for academic textbooks. This isn't a trait unique to us, every animal knows to run for their life at the sight of detailed mathematics.

"I-I see! I'll make sure to look at it tomorrow!"

She attempts to quietly slip the cursed item back into the bag, but the time to undo her mistake has long passed. Once I arrive beside her, the sound of tearing paper seals her fate. Half a dozen textbooks now lay spread out over the cushions.

"You have to start school tomorrow, so you need to at least review the basics. Otherwise, you'll be completely lost."

"D-Do I have to? These look hard…"

"Unfortunately, yes. I need you to go through the first few chapters of each book before the end of the day."

I slam a pencil and eraser onto the couch. It doesn't make much of a thud, but the impact is enough to spook the young rabbit.

"Eeek!"

Mira leaps behind the arm of the couch and stares at the books with fear. One of these days, she had to learn human fears. It may seem soon, but we might as well start with the greatest of them all. Not death, but studying.

"The one you just had was for maths. That purple one is for literature and the one below it is biology. History is…where did I put that one again?"

The rabbit continues to look upon the uninteresting covers like predators a single move away from hunting her down. Even my movements around the couch were enough to spook her back under the bed. Mira must be in a state where her survival instincts are in control.

I can hear her constant shuffling in the darkness while I search around my desk for the missing text.

"Mira, have you seen the other textbook?"

Not that I expected her to answer, but saying the question aloud usually helps in retracing my steps.

"If I recall, I was reading it late one night before bed…"

"EEEK!"

A loud thud succeeds the ear splitting shriek and the small creature throws herself out from under the bed. I can see a small bump on her head as Mira hides behind me, shielding herself from both of our major pieces of furniture.

"There's another one! Another one of those things!"

"Things…you mean textbooks?"

Mira backs safely into the kitchen while I crawl under the boards supporting my mattress. Sure enough, the long worn world history textbook is sleeping peacefully against the wall. With all of the pieces in place, I drag the frightened rabbit to my desk along with her new friends for the day.

I have to hold Mira's shoulders down as she sits in the chair or it feels like she'll leap and retreat back to the bed.

"Just read them without thinking too hard, then try to do the practice problems at the end of the chapters."

"So many pages…"

I can see her eyes spinning and joining fear as the only things visible on her face.

With my arm, I brush all except for one of the books off to the corner and leave Mira with nothing but paper, pencil, and a single textbook. She doesn't seem pleased by any metric, but at least she shouldn't feel surrounded.

"Here, I recommend literature first. That one will get you nice and warmed up with actual stories. Just alternate between them after each chapter."

After a glance at the clock, I quickly turn to the introduction and point to the start of the paragraph. My finger passes by some old pencil scribblings that seem to catch Mira's eye.

"Did Noa write in this?"

"Oh yeah, I guess I did. All of these books were mine in the past. I mostly only wrote in the margins, so just ignore them."

The rabbit stares at the slightly messy handwriting, flipping pages and confirming similar writing on subsequent ones.

"So Noa also had to do this…"

"The pains of being a student. Sorry you have to go through it as well…"

"But…"

After a few moments, Mira finally takes her eyes off of the pages and looks up at me. Her small hands ball into fists and her brows arch in an uneasy but still present determination.

"If Noa did it, then I should try it too!"

"Haha! That's the spirit!"

I meet her gaze and the two of us grin. My drowsiness delays my reaction, but my heart rate eventually starts rising from staring at her barely concealed upper body. It's too early in the morning for me to be getting all excited.

With Mira now focusing on the work in front of her, I adjust the straps of my backpack and head to the door for the final time of the morning. Seemingly sensing my growing distance, the rabbit almost leaps out of her chair.

"N-Noa is still going!?"

"Don't worry, I'll be back later. Eat when you're hungry and don't leave the room."

"W-Wait! Noa!"

The door closes behind me before the rabbit can arrive to stop me. With a quick motion, I turn the key and the door is sealed shut. The door shakes and the knob turns frantically, but the wooden wall does not free the trapped soul. It was lucky that I never got around to teaching her about how locks worked.

"Noa! Noaaa!"

"Sorry, Mira. This is for your own good."

I try to drown out the muffled wailing as I depart for school like any other day.