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((OOC: Kittens, outskirters and others welcome. This takes place soon after the raid so newly grown kittens would still be newborns in this RP. It wouldn't make sense for them to join.))

During the last couple of days U'tuhlroo had found that being one of the raid survivors gave her more attention than usual around the warren. Unfortunately it mostly came in the form of open jawed stares from kittens, and she really didn't want the attention right now. Had she been an outskirter she might have basked in the glory of returning with flay and hutch rabbits or bragged and preened like she had heard some of the bucks do. But what was the point? There was nothing brave or fantastic about it, and she wished she had never joined the raid at all. Four dead bucks, and quite honestly not much to show for it.

What she wanted most right now was to hang out inside the warren, and try to take her mind off everything else. It wasn't working. The Honeycomb seemed to swarm with youngsters tonight and her ears twitched at every snippet of conversation she overheard about how cool it'd be to go on a raid like the last one. Perhaps she should give them what they thought they wanted. It might even do them some good.

"Anyone want to hear a story about what it's really like out there," she said in her darkest and most mysterious voice, "What it's really like near a human warren..."

ThanLeo had been ready to jump on her brother for a game when she heard U'tuhlroo's invitation for a story. Than often didn't have the attention span for stories--she always seemed to have to go somewhere, even when she had nowhere to be--but this promised to be a story about the raid. Like most of his children, Than took great pride in having Cocklebur as her father. After Bracken-rah, he was the most important rabbit in the warren. On a raid, his rank was elevated; he was the one who decided just HOW Bracken's orders were to be carried out. That had a tendency to make Than even more self-centered than most young rabbits. After all, if her father was important, that meant she was, too, right?

Than crowded in close to her brother, pushing to be closest to the action. "Tell us the story!" she demanded. She rested her head on Azolla's ears, which were soft and comfortable.

The quickly gathering group of kittens and outskirters made U'tuhlroo feel slightly queasy, but she swallowed and hoped that her nerves would settle as she started telling the story. She took a deep breath and settled her eyes on the ears of her audience to avoid eye contact while still looking at them. It felt a bit safer, and less awkward looking than if she had stared at her paws.

"Ever since El-ahrairah wandered the earth the whole world has been our enemy," U'tuhlroo started, picking something familiar to start out with, "But we will never be defeated as long as we remember the gifts Frith gave us to protect us from his other children."

She shifted, starting to feel a bit more comfortable and even dared to look around at the rabbits moving around in the Honeycomb before continuing. It was truly a marvellous place, this hall, and she couldn't help being amazed by the way roots and columns of dirt could hold the ceiling up and keep it from collapsing. Legends said that their skilled ancestors had seen a similar chamber in a foreign warren and later built their own here in Watership Down. Only bigger and better.

"We've been gifted with long ears to better hear our enemies approach," she said, and her gaze travelled to the strange ears of the grey outskirters in front of her. She couldn't help but wonder if they worked as good as regular ears and if they got in the way as much as it looked like they would. "And Frith also gave us strong legs to run from our enemies and dig shelters to hide in. But most important of all he made us cunning enough to give us a chance to outsmart the thousand."

Azolla was almost instantly enthralled as U'tuhlroo began to speak. He hardly even noticed she was nervous. His attention had been drawn briefly to his sister and he nestled closer to her, glad to have her companionship as the older rabbit began what was probably going to be a frightening tale.

"Every marli tells their kittens about the thousand," she continued, trying to sound properly sinister to set the mood for what was to come, "The many winged elil in the sky, just waiting to swoop down on us... the countless fanged and clawed beast out there and even the strange Hrududu. But there are elil you can't run from, and not just because you go tharn."

U'tuhlroo paused, pondering how to continue. She noticed a black outskirter at the far back, Crow, and she gave him a small nod as she met his gaze. She was glad he had made it back in one piece, and not just because he was Althea's son. It was bad enough with the two rabbits that had died so close to her. She didn't know how she would have coped if an outskirter, one in her group, had been harmed.

"I'm going to tell you about the human warren," she finally said, rising up on her haunches, front paws lifted. Wait. What was she supposed to do with her paws? She decided it was better to sit back down. "The human warren and the danger that lurks near it."

ThanLeo flopped onto her side, sighing heavily, at the start of the doe's story. Boo-ring! Like she hadn't spent her entire life listening to why Frith made rabbits different. This was turning into a story for wee kitten, and she didn't want to waste her time with that. She'd rather be up in the sunshine instead of down here in the dank honeycomb. She nudged her brother in the stomach with one powerful hind leg, thinking of asking him to come up with her and maybe play a game of tag.

Fortunately for the storyteller, a few more rabbits had crowded around, making a quiet escape for those in front impossible, and the story started to get interesting. A little. Than's ears, even the floppy one, perked up a bit as U'tuhlroo started to talk about the danger at the human warren.

For the most part he went unnoticed, which suited him just fine. He stood there, still poised as if to leave; not wanting to make the commitment of sitting down to listen. Even when the mostly white buck came from the direction he'd been heading, Crow felt obligated to stay for some reason.

The Thousand? Yes, of course Althea had warned them. And from time to time threatened him with the mention of them. At the time it seemed so silly... just like a game. Let's see how many elil his marli would curse and say she'd rather have given birth to. Let's see how many prayers to Frith she'd make, and how many scary stories she'd tell to try and make him settle. All empty threats. That stuff didn't happen, not in real life. Just in stories.

Stories like what U'tuhlroo was telling now. The one he lived through. His ears lowered now, just hovering above his back. He saw her nod, and closed his mouth as he solemnly dipped his own head. She knew, she understood what it was really like. A story felt so far away, but maybe her's would bring it right into the warren. Maybe she'd make them understand.

So he stayed, if only for a little longer, wanting to see what she'd say, wanting to see how they'd react.

U'tuhlroo tensed up a little bit as a black and white buck entered the honeycomb. No. It only took her a moment to realise that it was a buck she hardly knew but had met occasionally. Weed-something. Didn't they race with those two hyperactive bucks? She forced herself to look around and not stare at just one rabbit like that. Her gaze travelled the other adult rabbits. A pale doe snuggled up among the outskirters. A brown buck at the back of the crowd. He would do just fine to keep her from spacing out like this again.

It hadn't been a very long pause, and for all her audience knew it was just one of those dramatic on-purpose pauses. But it hadn't been pleasant at all to her and she still felt a bit off balance, especially since the crowd had gotten rather large. So she focused at the ears of the buck in the back, making it appear like she met the eyes of her audience as she continued her story.

"I think you all have heard about the good things that can be found near the human warren," she said, softening her voice, "Man keeps plenty of flay around, and we're talking about really-really good flay-rah. I think you might have got a taste recently..."

That was part of the lure, wasn't it? Even U'tuhlroo had to admit that the flay-rah that they had managed to gather was very tasty indeed. Not worth their losses by far, but very, very tasty. Did the young ones who had just heard about the raid understand the cost, and the danger of it all. She was about to clue them in.

"But where there is flay-rah, you'll also find elil," she continued, pausing to let it sink in, "See, Frith made us smart, but that doesn't mean that he made all of the thousand stupid. They know the kind of flay we like."