The sun's rays trickled between thick lush tree branches, illuminating every detail of the wood. Frith shone brightly as he cast his warm fingertips down to the forest floor. The light wove its way through the dew-kissed grass, before peering between the withered gaps in a hollow log. 

 Inside the log was a rabbit, curled up, with her nose just barely poking out in the open. She was as white as snow, which made her stand out amongst the earthen tones of the forest. Across one eye was a dark gray patch, and a patch on her flank in the shame of a crescent moon. She bore a nasty scar on her cheek, as if a homba had dragged its claws through her flesh, but the worst of her scars, was a large one upon her chest that travelled up to her shoulder. A large patch of bald skin, mangled, and deformed. 

Above the doe, the chitter of squirrels filled the air a pair of the little vermin jumped across the boughs, calling at one another in chipper taunts and laughs. One of the squirrels stopped and looked to the forest floor, seeing the doe asleep in the log. 

"Long-ear? Here?" he chuckled in his high-pitched chipper tone, "Long-ear don't belong here!" he rhymed. 

The doe's nose twitched some, but other than that she remained asleep, her flanks rising and falling in gentle sighs. The squirrel chittered as he let an acorn fall, it bonked the poor doe on the head and she let out a yelp, her paw covering her head. 

"What in Frith?" she asked, lifting her head, her brown eyes found the squirrels and her expression fell, "Oy! Can a rabbit get some sleep, eh?" she asked, annoyed. 

"Where's your warren, Long-ear?" the other squirrel chirped, "No Long-ear belongs here! elil will get you, it will!" he giggled. 

The doe, who went by the name of Moonlight, sighed tiredly  and lowered her head again, ignoring the squirrels warnings. Elil were always around -- everywhere, and all the time. It was a constant. Her long ears dropped back to her spine as she closed her brown eyes again, trying to get some form of sleep. 

Bonk! 

Moonlight winced as yet another acorn struck her snout. 

"Run, run, Long-ear! Danger is very near!" the first squirrel chattered in warning. 

Moonlight lifted her head, before her long ears flickered. She shifted, the stretched skin of her scar pulling with pain -- no more than a reminder of what she had lost on that horrible day.  

Moonlight lifted her sensitive nose to the air and sniffed, so many scents hit her at once, and hit her hard. But no scent of elil. At least, nothing recent enough to trigger alarm. No owls, no hombas, no lendrils. Nothing. Moonlight hunkered her legs beneath her and  took one gentle hop out into the open, the cool grass gentle against her weary paws. 

Moonlight turned her gaze up to the squirrels, "There is no elil here." she said, "Now, get on, would ya? I got better things to do then to get at it with squirrels." she began hopping into the bracken. 

El-ahrairah, lend me your cunning . . . Moonlight thought desperately as she weaved in and out of the bushes. Moonlight jumped onto a log and sat back on her haunches, sniffing the air again. The scent was weak, stale, but there. Familiar but distant. Like trying to remember a dream. 

The female rabbit sighed as she continued her journey. Moonlight moved with grace and agility through the wood, her paws kicking up the slightest amount of dirt and grime.

Moonlight soon came to a break in the trees and she was hit with the sun's rays full on. The female white and silver rabbit gasped as she closed her eyes against the harshness of Frith's gaze. When her brown orbs adjusted, Moonlight looked out across the valley and gasped as a smile spread across her face. 

Across the down, through fields and up a steep, majestic hill, stood a huge ash tree all on it's own. 

"Watership Down . . ." Moonlight panted as her ears perked forward. "Finally . . ." 

Her legs -- once weary and shaking from exhaustion -- found new strength as she sprinted down the slope, hoping over all manner of obstacles with a new-found vigor. Her blood ran hot in her veins as she tore through the long grass without a care in the world. 

Moonlight darted back and forth, running in a zigzag, her lungs expanding to take in the crisp air as she sprinted across the down. Moonlight turned her brown eyes up, seeing a bird fly overhead. She came to a screeching halt and flattened herself in the grass, watching as the bird circled overhead. 

The shadow of the bird passed over the cowering rabbit as her form shivered against the grass. Moonlight stared up with an unwavering eye, before she heaved a sigh of relief, hearing the bird call, 

"Only a gull. . . " she murmured, hearing the awkward cry of the gull, rather than the noble screech of a hawk. 

Moonlight watched as the gull moved off, before she resumed her sprint, ears flopping as she ran. Her breathing was hard as she darted through the grass. Moonlight's senses dulled as her vision zeroed in on the beginning of that tall hill on the far side of the down. 

She didn't notice the scent of a strong buck in her nose. 

She didn't hear the panting of another rabbit.

Moonlight jumped over a rock, but was hit hard in the shoulder. Moonlight let our a yelp as she fell, and rolled across the grass. Moonlight grunted as she opened her brown eyes and lifted her head, "Frith n' Inlé?" she mumbled weakly. She blinked and looked up, seeing the blurry image of a buck rabbit standing over her. 

"You working for Woundwort?" a male voice spoke. 

Moonlight blinked back the sun and looked to see an old friend standing over her. She gasped, met with a scruffy, gray buck with white underbelly and stern gaze. 

"Ha. . . Hawkbit?"