---

In the middle of a small meadow, exact location unknown

Hazel and his group, accompanied now by two squirrels whom everyone seemed to like besides Bigwig, had been following an broken trail from the rabbits of the warren. There hadn't been any more rainfall since the heavy downpour the previous morning, yet the scent was still growing weaker with every step, a fact they could all sense. All apart from Quizzle and Rutzy, who seemed too preoccupied dashing around to notice much else.

It was Campion spoke first, "The trail... it's fading."

"It could just be with the rain, but it could mean we're getting closer. Stands to reason ol' Woundwort would ensure tracks were covered more the further he gets from Watership Down. He doesn't want to be found," continued Bigwig.

"Of course he would. Woundwort is clever and thinks of things like that," added Vervain. Bigwig turned and growled at the slightest hint Vervain still thought highly of the General.

"I... I'm just saying," squeaked Vervain. Bigwig grumbled and looked away. Hazel seemed to be the only one who'd noticed that for all Vervain still sounded like he approved of the General, there was a shiver of hatred whenever the name was mentioned.

Bigwig sighed. "Which way do we go now though?"

"I don't know!" replied Hazel, joining Bigwig and Campion in sniffing the grass, even though he could already guess he wasn't going to find anything.

"He one hard bunny to find ya," started Kehaar, before trying to lift his wing, "If only wing better I find him no time,"

"It wouldn't be so bad if Woundwort kept going in the same direction, but he keeps changing so often," sighed Hazel.

"He's a warrior. Making himself hard to follow is in his blood," said Campion, before turning to Vervain, "That's why you were never any good as an Owsla officer. A kitten could have tracked you down in the time it takes for morning silflay! Just our luck though! Any other rabbit as clumsy as that would have fallen to a homba long ago, but you manage to stay alive!"

"Change is good, isn't it Rutzy!" squeaked Quizzle, causing Bigwig to groan quietly. He thought it had been a surprisingly long time since the two squirrels has spoken. They were still sitting on Hazel, although Bigwig still couldn't fathom what was wrong with walking along the ground like everyone else, a comment which had earlier resulted in Hannah jumping on his paw.

"It is! Not much fun always being the same, is it Quizzle?"

"No, it isn't much fun!"

"Not at all!" finished Rutzy, as they both shook their heads. Bigwig didn't respond, as he'd long since decided it wasn't worth it.

"I say we go this way, and see if we can pick anything up. We'll mark the spot, so we can work back to here if we're wrong," he said, trying to salvage something of the original conversation. He walked off without waiting for approval.

Meanwhile, Inside New Hyfran Warren

Hawkbit grumbled to himself as he dug away at the walls, clearly bored out of his skull. He didn't even have Dandelion to talk to now, the storyteller having been moved to work in a separate section of the warren. Despite trying to keep himself amused by kicking a small pebble, and talking mockingly to it as though it were Woundwort, insulting the General just wasn't as much fun without someone else to laugh with him. He scanned the area for the nearest rabbit he could get to without catching the attention of the guards. The first rabbit he noticed was Clover who, despite having a voice that grated on his ears, was always good for a chat. He silently moved across and began digging at the wall next to her.

"Are you as bored with all this digging as I am?" he asked.

"Oh no Hawkbit. There's nothing I love more than digging for the General," she replied, rolling her eyes. Hawkbit grumbled to himself. Sarcasm was supposed to be his skill.

"I'm loving it too. Still, there's much more fun ahead. When we finish this place, he'll probably have us out gathering silflay for him all day long. Oh, the excitement is really too much. Too much!"

Clover grinned a little.

Hawkbit looked around at the guards again and sighed, "We'll never escape now, you know!"

She snorted at that. "That's what you think, Hawkbit!"

"Look at it! There are guards everywhere. Even El-ahrairah couldn't run through that lot and get away," replied Hawkbit.

"Not everyone comes up with such poorly thought out and impulsive escape plans," added Harebell. It seemed a small group of all the Watership does were ganging up on him all of a sudden. The only exception seemed to be Honeysuckle, who wasn't to be seen with them. Woundwort had deliberately seperated those who had tried to escape in order to minimise the chance of a repeat.

"Hey, we'd have escaped if it weren't for man!" he said.

"No you wouldn't. Woundwort was right behind you, and would have caught up in next to no time," replied Harebell.

Hawkbit snorted. "Well at least some of us are trying to think of something. If it were left up to you lot, we'd all be dead within a season!"

Blackberry stepped out from an alcove where she was digging, surprising Hawkbit, and growled at him angrily.

"Now that Campion's gone, I may as well be dead, but I'm still bothering to come up with a sensible plan to get us out of here. If you want to complain about that, then deal with me," she snarled, advancing towards him. Hawkbit stepped back slowly. He wasn't used to seeing Blackberry angry, so decided it was wise not to test what she was capable of.

"Please Blackberry, calm down. You'll attract the guards," whispered Clover, holding her back.

"I... I'm sorry! It's just this place getting to me! I... I'm sure you're doing all you can," stuttered Hawkbit. Blackberry disappeared back to digging. Hawkbit paused for a few seconds waiting for someone else to speak, before finally continuing.

"Well, is someone going to tell me what your plan is then?"

Harebell looked around to see if anyone was watching, before nodding at Hawkbit to come forward. Hawkbit peered cautiously round the edge, only to find Blackberry was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is she?" he whispered almost silently.

Harebell pushed her paw softly through one of the walls, before quickly covering it up.

"It's hollow?" asked Hawkbit.

"Yes, Blackberry's in there. A few of us sensible does started building a tunnel into the design for this place. It's taken a lot of work to keep it concealed, although we can now build up and take down the wall in the time it takes a guard to cross the Bland Chamber,"

'Bland Chamber!' thought Hawkbit to himself. 'Why didn't I think of that?'

"How does she breath?" he continued.

Clover pointed at what appeared to be a mousehole in the fake wall.

"It'll take some time to finish, but once we do it should bring us up in the cover of the woodland," finished Harebell. Hawkbit shuffled on the spot. He had to admit their ability at concealing things was much better than his.

"I don't think it'll work," he lied, "But do keep me informed. I'd best get off before old Woundwort notices,"

Hawkbit moved back towards his assigned position on the digging squad. No sooner had he done so than a guard came up to him.

"Oi!" he started.

"er...er... sir?" stuttered Hawkbit innocently.

"'ave you seen that brown rabbit, Fiver?" continued the guard.

"He was outside. Why?"

"General Woundwort wants 'im! Not that it's any o' your business! Get back to digging," replied the guard, turning to leave. Hawkbit pulled a face behind him, making Honeysuckle giggle from where she was at the far corner of the grand chamber. The officer just growled at her as he passed, unaware of what he'd missed.

*************

At the edge of a field of long grass

"I think we should go back," said Campion.

The rabbits had been heading in approximately the same direction for a while now, but had picked up no more sign of lapine life. Hazel wanted to agree with Campion, but Bigwig seemed convinced they would find something. Knowing Bigwig as he did though, there was still a fairly good chance that conviction solely came down to blinkered stubborness about accepting he'd chosen the wrong direction. Hazel turned from Campion to speak to say something to Bigwig, only to notice the captain sniffing the ground with great interest.

"Have you found something?"

"It's not elil is it!" squeaked Vervain, "Not that I'd be afaid even if it was, but we wouldn't want to scare the little ones!" He indicated towards the squirrels.

"Watch it ugly face. Us little ones could stand up to more than you," growled Hannah, catching Vervain off guard by jumping off Kehaar and hanging from Vervain's whiskers. Vervain squeaked, as Bigwig continued to talk.

"There are rabbit tracks here alright. They smell familiar, but..." started Bigwig, before pausing to sniff again.

"What?" asked Hazel.

"This can't be them. There's only one rabbit," he continued.

"Do you know who?" asked Campion.

Bigwig sniffed again, before turning to Hazel.

"It smells like..." he started, before being interrupted.

"Shh!" shouted another rabbit, springing from cover nearby. He had light brown fur, broken only by the red stain from a nasty wound on his shoulder and, with the exception of Vervain and the squirrels, they all recognised him instantly.

"Wintercress!" finished Bigwig.

"Hide!" gasped Wintercress, looking back over his shoulder as he neared them. Without any hesitation, Vervain bolted for the cover of the nearest bush.

"From who?!" asked Hazel, crouching down in the grass with the rest of them. Quizzle stood upright on the top of Hazel's head and looked about.

"Who are you hiding from? There isn't anyone there!"

"There isn't!" added Rutzy, despite the fact she couldn't even see.

Wintercress looked back before cautiously standing up.

"I must've lost them. Thank Frith!" he said.

"Lost who?" asked Hazel.

"The hares!"

"Hares?" interrupted Bigwig.

"A mad bunch of idiots back that way. I asked them if they'd seen you anywhere, and they attacked me. I was lucky to get away," finished Wintercress.

"We know them," muttered Bigwig.

"We do?" asked Rutzy.

"No we don't," replied Quizzle.

"She's right, we don't!"

Wintercress wavered on the spot, as the two squirrels continued talking.

"I don't understand it. What are you doing all the way out here in the first place?" asked Hazel, propping up the buck.

"I came to find you," started Wintercress, "I originally came to see if we could get some help from you, but when I got to the warren, the whole place was in ruins. What happened?"

"Woundwort attacked. He destroyed everything," sighed Hazel.

"I thought you said he was dead!"

"We thought he was," finished Bigwig.

"He looked a nasty rabbit him," started Quizzle.

"Yes, he was Quizzle!" continued Rutzy.

"He was! Not at all like you. You're all nice rabbits."

"Friendly too!"

"You are!"

"Yes, you are," finished Rutzy

"I had to come out and find you, just to see if everything was okay," said Wintercress, looking weak.

"Let's get you somewhere safe where you can rest, then you can tell us all about your problem," finished Hazel, nodding to Bigwig to help him. Bigwig was clearly huffed at being expected to help another rabbit when they had little spare time themselves, but did as he was asked.

*************

Late morning

Everyone sat patiently as Wintercress began to talk. With Hazel and Bigwig lieing next to him to keep him warm, the injured rabbit had dozed off for most of the morning, during which time Campion had gone to cover some of Wintercress' tracks. No signs of their old friends the hares had been found, much to their relief.

"So, did you manage to get the warren running smoothly. We were going to send out a party to ask, but then all this happened with Woundwort," said Hazel.

"Oh yes, Hazel. With the help you gave us, we'd managed to bring life back to the warren. The does settled in nicely. It took a little while for them to get used to not being under the orders of anyone, having been in the old Efrafa so long, but once they did they were really happy. We even had our first litter not long ago," started Wintercress happily.

"It sounds like everything's working out well for you my old son. What happened then?" asked Bigwig. He still remembered what an expert at spinning heart-rending tales this rabbit could be, so he was bracing himself for the worst.

"About three moonrises ago, someone new showed up. A young lone badger, with the most vicious teeth you ever saw. It just crept up one night. Nettle didn't stand a chance," Wintercress continued, sniffing at that point. Nettle, as they all knew, was one of the does from the former Efrafa. She was a light cream rabbit, who'd always seemed to have her head in the clouds. Bigwig had remarked to Campion back then that she wouldn't last a season out of Efrafa where elil could hunt, but she'd still insisted on going now that she had freedom. Campion sighed as he wished he'd listened to Bigwig now.

"Well, once he got the idea there was easy prey to be had, he didn't leave the area. We've been holed up underground for most of the time since. It's lucky we had some flayrah underground already, but it's fast running out," he paused again, looking from Hazel to Bigwig as he suspected what the Owsla captain was going to suggest.

"We tried ambushing him all at once, but he's just too strong. We were lucky to get away alive,"

"Sounds awful," said Hazel.

"I... I'm not scared of badgers," added Vervain.

"Why don't you tell that to the one behind you then?" said Campion. He smiled as Vervain instinctively squeaked and bolted, despite there being nothing there.

"Which was why I came looking for you. You know the answer to any problem," continued Wintercress looking at Hazel hopefully, "I only just managed to get away, with the others managing to distract him. I hope they got back safely," Wintercress sighed, and looked down miserably. "It was then I found Watership Down abandoned and... well, you know the rest I think,"

"Hazel's right, it does sound awful," started Rutzy.

"Awful, yes it does!" continued Quizzle.

"Never met any badgers, have we?"

"No, we haven't!"

"We haven't, but we've heard from out friends about them. Nasty brutes. Not like nice rabbits,"

Both of them nodded. Wintercress looked up, blinked at the squirrels and whispered, "Do they always talk like this?"

"Always!" replied Bigwig.

*************

Woundwort's burrow, New Hyfran

Woundwort mumbled to himself as he lay alone in the darkness, half sleeping. Someone had to be conspiring against him. Everyone had to be conspiring against him. No-one would stop him this t... he snapped awake as he heard someone enter softly. He already knew who it was, although still couldn't decide why he thought there was any chance of this working.

"Why have you called me here Woundwort?" said Fiver calmly. Strangely he had no fear of the General at that point in time, most probably because he could sense the large black rabbit actually feared something bigger himself.

"You?" started Woundwort, before taking a long pause and looking away.

"You're the seer from Watership Down, aren't you? You can see the future," started Woundwort.

"I see things other rabbits don't, but then you know that already," said Fiver.

"No doubt you saw the invasion of Watership Down coming... but you could do nothing to stop it,"

"You never asked if I could change the future, only if I could see it," continued Fiver, sounding almost bored. Woundwort turned around abruptly to face him.

"Can you see what the future holds for this warren?" he growled.

"I see no future, only a past," replied Fiver.

Woundwort growled and moved close to him, however Fiver didn't flinch.

"Liar! You know more than you let on," he snarled.

"I don't control what I know. Even if I did, what makes you think I'd tell you?" asked Fiver.

"Your fear of me!" growled Woundwort.

"I don't fear you Woundwort," replied Fiver.

"You should fear me! I am General Woundwort. You must fear me!"

"Why should I fear what fears himself?"

Woundwort seemed to ponder that for a second, before continuing, "Gah, get out. I knew this was a waste of my time!"

Without uttering another word, Fiver turned to leave. Although he still hated Woundwort with a passion for killing Hazel, he also knew that the revenge was not his appointed task.

"Wait!" said Woundwort, as Fiver neared the entrance, "Just one more thing..."

Fiver turned back to him.

"How are you at reading the messages of dreams?" he asked.

"All I know is that they symbolise the bringing together of the future and the past," Fiver replied, before leaving the room. Woundwort just watched silently. He couldn't decide whether Fiver really knew anything, but even if he did, he knew no way of ever finding out such information. In this case, brute force was not going to work.

*************

Midday, in a lush green field

All the rabbits were silflaying under the bright rays of Frith, with Wintercress looking back up to full strength now as he munched. Hazel had suggested it would be of benefit to them all, as they hadn't eaten for a while, however it was clear from the expression on his face he was using it as time to think rather than eat. Eventually he spoke up, causing Vervain to almost choke on a mouthful of grass from the sudden shock.

"We'll help your warren Wintercress,"

"No. I couldn't ask you to do that Hazel. You have to save your own warren. We'll just have to find another way," replied Wintercress, as Bigwig looked on even more astounded by what Hazel was saying.

"If we go quickly now, I think we could be back there by nightfall. We're not going to lose too much time," said Hazel. Bigwig looked back in shock briefly.

"I...I..." started Wintercress.

"Then that's decided!" interrupted Hazel, as Bigwig pulled him off to one side with the others. He knew Hazel was acting irrationally again.

"I know Wintercress is a friend, and normally we'd jump at the chance to help, but we're not really in a good position ourselves here. We can't afford to lose any time, not even another day," said Bigwig quietly to him.

"We can't just abandon him when his warren needs us though," replied Hazel.

"Why not?" asked Vervain, joining in uninvited.

"Because nobody else is a backclawing coward like you. Now shut up!" snarled Campion.

Hazel paused for a moment to think.

"Well, what about if we split up. I'll go back with him, whilst the rest of you continue,"

"Y... you wouldn't leave me with those two rabbits! T...they'd kill me!" Vervain squeaked at Hazel.

"And you wouldn't leave me with him and those two squirrels," whispered Bigwig, not bothered about Vervain hearing, but not wanting to upset Quizzle and Rutzy again.

"What other choice do we have?" continued Hazel.

"Even if you do go back, what do you expect to do? One extra rabbit against a badger isn't going to make any difference. It's madness!" pointed out Bigwig.

"I don't plan for there to just be me. We're going to pay a visit to an old friend. Remember Bark? What better way to fight a badger than with a badger, and I'm sure she'd be willing to help us,"

"We already have two groups separated and lost, and now you want to make it three. It's bad Owlsa practice," replied Bigwig.

"It's good Owsla practice to get all the backup you can. Bark would also be a brilliant help for us if we're going to have to fight Woundwort again. I could bring her back with me to join us,"

Bigwig sighed and still didn't look entirely convinced, although his expression had weakened somewhat. There was some of Hazel's usual sensible logic shining through there.

"We know where this place is now, so we should be able to find our way back here in no time. As long as you don't cover all your tracks, we'll be able to catch up," said Hazel.

Bigwig sighed again. He still didn't think Hazel's decision was right, but he had to admit Bark would make a huge difference to their efforts, "Fine, fine. But you just watch yourself!"

Campion smiled placing his paw tightly on Vervain's shoulder, "And don't worry, we'll take care of Vervain!" Vervain squeaked.

With a final nod, Wintercress started to move off followed shortly by Hazel and Bigwig. Hazel stopped briefly and turned to the grey rabbit.

"Oh and Bigwig, as much as you two don't like Vervain, just behave yourselves. He hasn't put a paw wrong yet!" Hazel whispered to him, before leaving the captain with the others to follow Wintercress.

"Yet Hazel, yet!" muttered Bigwig after him. In his heart, he still expected it was only a matter of time before Vervain reverted to his old treacherous ways. If he did then the two of them wouldn't hesitate to send him to the Black Rabbit, regardless of any orders from Hazel.