Prologue:

Several days had passed since the bobstone guess, the day that Woundwort was defeated, the great leader of Efrafa had never been found by Captain Bigwig's patrol around the down. The rest of the warren had been busy in helping the defeated Efrafan's that had managed to survive the dog attack to settle into the warren as well as clearing out the dead bodies that still laid out on the ground.

Hazel has informed the warren right away that the cleanup would have to be done right away. Bigwig had made sure that those rabbits that were placed with forenamed duty would be able to hide away the dead rabbits so that the down wouldn't attract too many elil.

Blueberry was sitting up looking about the down as he heard Hawkbit mutter from below him as soil came out from the hole that he was digging. Eventually a pair of brown long ears came out as Hawkbit looked at Blueberry with a slight frown. "So, tell me..." Hawkbit shook his head, sending specks of dirt to fall off the top of his head. "Why I am doing the digging and why you are sitting nice and pretty up there?"

Blueberry had become to like Hawkbit in the short time since he had become friends with the buck. The first time around he wasn't exactly welcome in this warren but a few chosen words from both Hazel and Bigwig had sorted out any problems between the Down rabbits and Efrafan rabbits. Smiling down at the buck, he shook his head with a slight wiggle of his left ear. "Oh, well if you're not happy in staying down there, then why not come up here and stand guard over a dead rabbit where it will attract elil. I'm sure you can say hello to a Hawk or a homba..." Pausing for a moment, Blueberry began to move. "Actually, I think it's time to swap, don't you?"

Hawkbit blocked the path into the hole and shook his head. "Oh I am onto your game." The buck lifting a paw and swatting Blueberry on the nose. "You want to get inside and be safe, well I ain't having it." Turning around, he headed back down below. "I be fine down here, thank you very much." The sound of digging continued as Blueberry looked about again, speaking quietly. "Just one thing, hurry up will you."

The only reply that Blueberry got was a face full of dirt, of which the buck snorted and shook his head, moving out of the way from the firing line that Hawkbit was sending dirt out from under the ground. A muffled voice came from down below. "Why can't the does do this?"

Looking down at the hole from where the voice came, Blueberry replied back as he watched more dirt fly out of the hole. "You know why, they're busy fixing the inside of the warren itself. That's going to take a while mind you, considering the damage."

Hawkbit's came back out of the hole again with a snort. "Well, you lot did make that mess, if I remember correctly." He looked at Blueberry and frowned for a moment, shaking his head. "Sorry, your friend here did at least." Looking to where the dead Efrafan was lying on the ground.

Sighing slightly, Blueberry shook his head. "He wasn't my friend." Taking another look at the rabbit lying there, Blueberry didn't really knew who he was. The dead Efrafan was from another mark for one than what he was in at Efrafa. Hawkbit coming out of the hole fully brought Blueberry back from his thoughts. "Erm, what are you doing?"

Hawkbit was moving around the dead rabbit muttering to himself again. "What does it look like." Blueberry watched as Hawkbit tried to move the rabbit and stopped, looking back up again. "Well, the hole is ready, do I have to do everything here?"

Grinning slightly, Blueberry moved to help Hawkbit push the rabbit down into the hole, of which it slid down quite easily. While they were slowly pushing earth in to fill up the hole, Blueberry turned to look at him. "Hawkbit, are you always this grumpy?"

While Blueberry continued to push earth into the hole, Hawkbit had stopped and was looking at Blueberry now as he replied back. "Grumpy? Who's grumpy?" Looking behind him, Hawkbit remembered that he had stopped working and carried on again as Blueberry replied. "You of course. You're not happy unless you're moaning about something."

"Oh that..." Hawkbit said as he stopped and looked about the place, standing on his hind legs, sniffing the air. "It's just everything you know, ever since Fiver had this vision, we've been moving about here and there. All we seemed to have done is find trouble and more trouble, more than what a warren normally faces mind or should face really."

Finishing up, Blueberry began to hit at the ground with his hind leg to flatten out the soft earth while looking about at the others who had bolted up to hear what he was doing. Blinking, Blueberry stopped as he moved away from the small mould with Hawkbit at his side, replying back after length. "We face what we have to face, you know that. This is what was supposed to happen, I think anyways..."

Hawkbit nodded his head. "I suppose..." He went silent for a bit as they past a few others working or silflaying outside of the warren. "Er, Blueberry, we are friends right? I mean, you were Efrafan and all but we are friends?"

Blueberry smiled. "Hawkbit, for the hrair'th time. Yes I am your friend and I ain't sure if I really was a Efrafan to be honest. It was just a warren that me and my friends found. If anything, man should be blamed for all of this, they keep on poking their noses into our business and taking over the world." Coming to a stop at the edge of the down, the buck looked out over the fields that lay out below them both as Hawkbit sat down beside him. "I sometimes wonder why Frith hasn't done something about man like he did against our kind when we were taking over the world."

Hawkbit didn't reply at first but turned to look at the others further up on the hill working away. He turned his head back again and replied softly. "We don't always know how Frith works, we just have to trust him that's all."

It was then that Carbi came up from behind them both, slowing down while panting. "Hello, I've just been talking to Fiver, he's a bit weird isn't he?" Blueberry gave Carbi a slight frown but he heard Hawkbit laugh a bit which made Blueberry relax.

"Oh, Fiver, he takes a bit of getting used to but he's quite fine." Hawkbit said back, before giving one of his ears a scratch with his large rear foot paw. Carbi nodded his head back at Hawkbit. "I know and it's okay, we're on good terms."

During this conversation, Blueberry had once again turned around to face the world that lay out in front of him. One of his ears twitched slightly as gentle breeze washed over the down. Carbi who was listening to Hawkbit tell of a time where Fiver had scared his old warren to nearly being all tharn, ignored him and turned to face Blueberry, hopping over to where he was. Hawkbit noticing this, stopped talking and hopped forwards as well.

Carbi turned his head to face Blueberry, seeing the larger buck's head at the side and spoke gently. "Blueberry, what's wrong?" Hawkbit had come up alongside Blueberry on the opposite side to where Carbi was and nodded his head. "Come on, something is on your mind." Spoken after seeing Blueberry shake his head.

Still looking out to where the world lay out before him, Blueberry's nose twitched slightly as he replied back to them both. "I was wondering how our friends were doing Carbi. If they're safe like we are now." Blueberry turned his head around slightly to look at where Carbi was and saw that the smaller buck was now thinking the same. "Also wondering if we ever see them again." Hawkbit remained silent, he had images of friends that he had at Sandleford warren as all three now looked out over the down and beyond as far as they could see.

Part 1 - Darkclaw Warren

Chapter 21 - The Aftermath of Separation.

As Blueberry's words had drifted away in the wind over the down, Bracken-Rah, Birch and Captain Halgrass were still in the young buck's mind. As to where they were or how they were, Blueberry, Carbi and Hawkbit didn't know, none of the rabbits in Watership Down or Efrafa knew but the three rabbits knew. Their tale starts just as they ended up being split up at the river...

***

Bracken-Rah came out from the water first, feeling Birch right behind him, his teeth biting down on the bucks tail. Wincing a bit, the larger buck pulled up from the water, digging his front paws into the bank as slowly he hurled himself up from the river. Spluttering behind him was Birch who had now let go of Bracken-Rah's tail and began to pull himself up on the bank himself.

Further down the river, Captain Halgrass was resting on his belly, the lower half of his body was still within the cold water as the buck held tight to some grass, claws digging into the wet soil as he spluttered, coughing up some water which fell to the ground.

Bracken-Rah turned to face Birch with a frown. "Do you always have to bite down on a chief rabbit's tail like that?" The buck falling to his side before bending his body around to lick at his small tail with his tongue, soothing it. Birch looked down to the ground. "Sorry, I lost my footing, didn't want to end up being swept down with that current."

Pausing briefly in his grooming, Bracken-Rah snorted slightly. "Well, be careful next time, it's bad enough that we are being chased by elil than have our own kind taking a bite out of us."

Birch sighed, nodding his head. "Sorry, Chief." The buck stood up and looked about before speaking again. "Has anyone seen Blueberry, Carbi and the others?" He hopped about and slowly made his way down to where the river bank edge was again and looked into the river once again. "You don't think?"

Captain Halgrass had got up from his resting place and was beside Birch now as he bent his head down to look at the water flowing past his nose before lifting his head back up again. "I don't know, we must've got split up or they've ended up coming up along the bank someplace else from where we are." Captain Halgrass turned to look up and down the river and frowned as that didn't bring any results. He gave up on that and turned to face Bracken-Rah who had stopped grooming his tail and was looking at them both. "What do you think, sir?"

Bracken-Rah didn't reply at first but he slowly got up and looked about. "We have to find someplace dry and warm otherwise we're going to catch a cold or worse." The buck shook himself, sending sprays of water droplets into the air as the other two followed his lead before they stood with fur sticking out.

Captain Halgrass looked at Birch and smiled at the look of him before nodding his head back at Bracken-Rah. "Okay, then I suggest we head this way out of the way of the river for a bit, we can come back here and begin our search." The buck paused for a moment and gave a slight frown. "Now don't think I am evil or anything but if we can't find anything within a day or two then we have to face the fact that we may never find our friends again and we have to then find a place to live." The buck stood up again and sniffed the air. "I don't like to be out in the open for too long, what with elil and all, our main priority is to find another warren."

Getting up, all three rabbits slowly hopped away from the sound of running water as Captain Halgrass took the lead with Bracken-Rah in the middle and finally Birch led from the rear, the buck looking behind him all the time in case anything was following them. It was Birch that gave a sneeze someway off as they were carefully crossing a field full of cows, lazily grazing away at the grass.

The other two waited as Birch paused for a moment to rub at his nose with his two front paws and muttered. "Come on, there has to be some shelter around here." The buck got up onto his hind legs and looked about again. "This is ridiculous, who would want to get rid of cover?"

Bracken-Rah stood up himself but backed away as a large black nose came down to meet him and snorted in his face, bowling over backwards the buck scrambled to his feet and took off a bit for a few places and stopped again with the others right beside him. The cow that had lowered down her head, moo'ed and started to eat at the grass where Bracken-Rah was standing.

Taking deep breaths, it took Bracken-Rah a few moments to recover and answer Birch's question. "Who knows why man wants to get rid of everything? They have their own means for this sort of thing." Sniffing the air again he gave a sudden. "Doesn't help that those animals have the smell of man on them either. Stupid dumb cows."

Captain Halgrass chuckled as he looked at the cows moving about slowly in the field, munching away on the grass. "Oh come on, they're harmless as long as you keep out of their way. It's the cats and dogs that I am worried about."

Birch added a few words of his own. "Not to mention homba, stoats, eagles..." The buck looked into the air as he thumped the ground hard a few times bringing his two other companions to attention. Ducking down to the ground low, the other two followed suit as Birch muttered quietly. "Kestrel I think..."

Captain Halgrass looked up into the sky and frowned as he saw something hovering in the sky a short distance away. "I don't think it's seen us but we have to get cover before it does." Moving his head back to ground level again he nodded his head. "Right, close formation, run and stop under a cow. Got it?"

All three kept still as Bracken-Rah looked up into sky. "I think it's looking the other way." This was all that Captain Halgrass needed to know. "Okay, everyone move now!" All three rabbits ran over across the field quickly as they heard a loud cry in the air as Halgrass shouted again. "Don't look up, just keep moving!"

Coming to a stop under the first cow, the three rabbits panted heavily as Captain Halgrass peaked out from just behind the rear left leg of the cow and stared upwards to the sky where the kestrel was flying about before hovering again in the air. Ducking back again he turned to face the other two. "Okay, we be okay if we can reach that hedge and hide out there for the time being. Well, until dark comes at least."

Bracken-Rah shook his head. "Well, while we're standing here talking this cow is starting to move away from where we want to go, so if you don't mind, I would like to get a move on." Seeing Captain Halgrass nod his head, he turned to face Birch. "Right, ready?"

Once again the three rabbits came hurtling out from the cover of the cow which in turn sent the call again from up above. Captain Halgrass gave a look and he shouted quickly. "Split up!" Continuing onwards alone, Captain Halgrass had left both Birch to head to the left and Bracken-Rah to head right from where he was heading.

The kestrel started to beat it's wings before lining itself up for the drop, both wings curled into it's body tightly as the bird began to rapidly descent downwards in the path of where Captain Halgrass was running. The wind whistled around the bird as it saw Captain Halgrass getting larger and larger within it's gaze.

Birch had made it to where another cow was and came to a halt underneath it. Turning around quickly he saw Captain Halgrass running fast towards another cow with the kestreal now opening it's wings to slow down its descent. Birch held his breath as he saw Captain Halgrass run right past the cow.

Unable to stop, the kestrel slammed into the side of the cow which mooed loudly, running away, the side of it's body cut from the beak and claws, dripping with blood as the bird fell to the ground unconscious with a broken beak. Birch slowly came out of his hiding place and looked to where Captain Halgrass was sitting and nodded for them to follow him.

After both Birch and Bracken-Rah had made it to the hedge, all three of them were panting and shaking a little. Bracken-Rah looked at Captain Halgrass with a smile. "Please don't tell me that you planned that?"

Birch turned to look at Captain Halgrass as he smiled back. "I be lying if I said I did plan it but considering what happened, I have to say things turned out better than I would've hoped for." Captain Halgrass began to lie down and rolled about in the dry ground, getting his fur dry as he possible could.

It didn't take long for Birch and Bracken-Rah to follow suit as they dried themselves off as best as they could from the damp fur and laid down, facing away from each other so that they could look out and cover the view from outside of the hedge and within. None of them spoke for a while, relaxing after their ordeals as each one came to their thoughts.

Frith was slowly starting to go downwards ending another day as Bracken-Rah and Birch were sleeping leaving just Captain Halgrass awake and alert to any danger. He kept very still watching as he saw two men enter the field but didn't move.

Birch and Bracken-Rah slowly awoke to the smell of man as they looked out towards the field the cows were in. Bracken-Rah spoke very quietly, he knew that man couldn't understand him but the threat made him whisper anyways. "What are they doing?"

Captain Halgrass replied back with a low voice himself. "I think they are herding them out of the field, I've seen this before on many trips with the owsla, they don't keep cows out during the night, I think they go indoors for what reason I don't know."

Birch nodded his head. "We never found out why they do it." Adding to what Captain Halgrass had said. "I think Captain Sando tried a few times but he never managed to get near enough in safety to see what man was actually up to."

Bracken-Rah nodded his head. "Ah yes, I remember that night. I believe we were interrupted by pffefa." Looking out, he watched as the cows slowly left the field by the open gate and shook his head. "I can't understand why some animals have decided to be slaves to man." Slowly, Bracken-Rah got up and stretched. "Well, we can't stay here.." He stopped talking and looked as he saw a rat slowly walk past confidently as though the rabbits weren't a threat to it. "Better make that now..."

All of them slowly backed away as they turned around. Rabbits and rats sometimes didn't get on, mostly with rabbits getting the brunt of rats attacking them in numbers. Captain Halgrass kept an eye on where the rat was seen as they left the safety of the hedge and turned around again to face Bracken-Rah. "It's okay, I think it was only one of them but just to be sure we're not on one of their runs we best get going."

Long dark shadows were formed on the golden orange glow of Frith as the evening continued, the light slowly fading away as the three rabbits made their way across the next field. Eventually they came acroos a field that wasn't part of farm land and they slowed down even further, Frith had fallen from view, only the haze above the horizon was giving away his presence but that was slowly fading away as well.

Eventually all three came to a stop by a tree and rested again for a moment. Captain Halgrass was looking out for any movement in the field as Birch yawned slightly which Bracken-Rah ignored, moving his attention to where Captain Halgrass was sitting. "So we should start moving back towards the river again? See if we can't find anything from our friends."

Captain Halgrass and Birch nodded their heads as they slowly got up again and looked about the field once more. A faint sound of an owl in the distance hooting in the air to signal that it was awake and about to go hunting during the night, made all three of them on their guard for the rest of the night. Moving slowly, they kept quiet as they made their way back towards the faint sound of running water that filled their ears, getting louder as they slowly got closer.

Captain Halgrass came to a stop just by a barbed wire fence, held up by wooden stakes several feet apart as he looked to where the short field was that sloped downwards during the river itself. Carefully he moved forwards, ducking his body below the wire as he crawled under it and sniffed the air.

Bracken-Rah and Birch followed slowly under the fence as each of them finally got to the other side and looked about the field. Birch stood up and sniffed again, the smell of running water hit his nose, water lily and sweet grass, richer than usual from the wet soft ground near the river. "So which way do we go?"

Bracken-Rah came up to the edge of the bank and looked one way and then the other and sniffed the air briefly. A small fish jumped up out of the water and landed with a small splash, quickly being followed by a small trail of bubbles under the water. Hopping back to where Birch and Captain Halgrass is, Bracken-Rah smiled as he replied back. "We go this way." Nodding his head in a direction, that unknown to them would lead them away from Blueberry and Carbi.

Nightfall continued on as the three bucks continued on their way along the bank, looking for any signs of rabbit that may have climbed up along the bank. At first they were very optimistic about their task but as the hours crept in, they were starting to feel for the worse for their friends.

Coming so a stop near a tree that had grown near to the edge of the river, large roots hanging off from the edge and into the water itelf, Bracken-Rah came to a stop and looked about. "Okay, we shall rest here for the night. Let's make sure that there isn't anything about though."

Birch moved over to look at the roots that were hanging off from the edge of the bank, the rabbit placing his paws on the wooden root and looking over, staring into the river for any signs of life. With his nose twitching from time to time, he gave the root a sniff here and there, moving about slowly until he hopped away from it and gave a nod of his head.

Captain Halgrass was about the field, sniffing out for any signs of elil or other dangers. Hopping about the ground, he came to a stop in several places, sniffing the ground before taking a look about the place. At the same time, his long ears twitched and turned around to catch any sound that would alert him to danger.

Around the other side of the tree, Bracken-Rah had found something, a hole within the tree that had rotten away from countless seasons that were unbeknown to rabbits. Carefully edging his head in he sniffed and came back out again, his body tensing up to run away if anything dangerous was inside. Carefully, Bracken-Rah slowly edged forwards again as he poked his head back into the hole and sniffed. Giving a slight pause he pulled his head out and saw Birch's head poking around the corner of the trunk and spoke. "Come here and tell me if it's safe. I've checked but can't tell."

Birch who was younger than Bracken-Rah came over and sniffed at the edge of the wood to the hole and paused for a moment and sniffed again, hopping into the hole and looking about. "Nothing is in here." Came a voice from within the hole as Birch's head popped out from within the tree. "I think a otter used to use this but it's not been used in a while. I think we should be safe for tonight at least."

Birch was about to answer but he saw Captain Halgrass come running up to them and backed into the tree but sure that the Captain was happy. Coming to a stop, Halgrass gave his report to Bracken-Rah. "Nothing bad in this field, only the faint smell of otter but nothing else. I think we should be safe here for tonight at least if we.."

Bracken-Rah nodded his head and cut in. "If we keep someone up to keep guard, then yes we can stay here the night." Looking about, the buck yawned slightly. "Question is, who is going on the first watch?"

Birch nodded his head. "I go first, you need your rest sirs." Hopping out of the tree, Birch made himself a place to sit down in the grass and looked back at the other two. "I wake one of you up when I can't stay up anymore." Both older rabbits nodded their heads at Birch as Captain Halgrass looked at the younger buck. "Okay, wake me up later, I'll take the next watch." After that, both turned to head inside, leaving Birch outside as he turned to look at the river.

What rabbits mean later could mean anything since they can't tell any time so Birch stayed alert and kept watch for as long as he thought that he could do the job without damaging his owsla reputation.

Eventually Birch slipped into the tree and nudged Captain Halgrass awake as he looked at him. "Sir, it's time for your watch." Seeing the older buck get up and stretch, he nodded slipping out, leaving Birch to find a place to settle down and soon he found himself lying asleep just like his Chief on the other side of the temporary home.