Lottie's first inclination was to take off to the left, but then Idun squeezed her hand and tugged, so they went right, because there was no way she was going anywhere without her new friend. They were in this together! But the abrupt change of direction at the last minute had her stumbling to get her feet to turn the right way. For a moment she was afraid her gracelessness would pull Idun down with her, and she'd have doomed them both in the name of solidarity, but she managed to keep up and they both made it out of the way of the flaming-sparkling-death-stick.
She had barely a moment to get her breath back from the wild dash to safety when Idun was yelling. There was what? They lit what? Ah what?!?! Lottie got no answers out of the Norse goddess, nor was she given time to sort them out for herself, because in the next heartbeat Idun was dashing into the field. The field that was on fire! Why was she doing that?
Oh! Field mice! Lottie looked at the ground to see that little things were trying to make their own bid for freedom. A chipmunk streaked past her ankle at the speed of light, his little stripes a blur with the speed in the firelight. Oh! Firelight! Field mice! Rescue! Philotes ran after Idun, her skirts still fisted in her hands.
“Here! Scoop them up! Put them in my skirt!” she offered as she drew close. “We can save more that way. Oh no, what have we done? What have we done? We need water. Is there water nearby? I don't remember! I don't know if there's a stream or a pond or... it doesn't matter! There's no time! Oh no!”
Even as she fretted, she adjusted her grip on her skirt to make a pocket of the fabric she could hold with one hand. With the other, she began scooping up small and furry things that came within reach. Not that they seemed particularly happy about the rescue operation, but most of them couldn't seem to figure out how to escape the folds of her kirtle. But as she reached down again, Philotes realized that what she'd scooped up was significantly larger than a mouse or a chipmunk or a squirrel. It was bigger. It had long ears. It's nose twitched.
Lottie froze, staring at the rabbit, that she was absolutely certain was staring back at her with malicious intent. It knew. It knew that she had set the field ablaze and it was blaming her. It was plotting. It was going to get even. The goddess paled slightly and swallowed hard. Then with a shaking hand, she put the rabbit in her skirt with the rest of the other creatures. Evil or not, it deserved to be saved.
She took a step and wobbled. Now was not the time to faint because of bunnies. Now was not the time to faint!
“Oh look,” she said in a dazed sort of way. “There's a whole family of bunnies. And they're fuzzy around the edges. Everything is fuzzy around the edges. Isn't that odd.”