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 Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:39 am
 The hefty buck, called Cowslip, was nestled deep beneath the roots of the aging tree that stood proud and tall over Watership Down. Rain fell heavily, banging the moist earth above the warren, and generally producing a sleepy feeling on the white and black spotted rabbit.
Of course an overwhelming feeling of boredom often came the rains, as being confined to the warren brought little entertainment and minuscule excitement.
Unless...
Unless they were to make their own excitement.
His spotted ears flicked slightly as he settled on his paws and went to find what might be an audience. He was rather tired of spending the rainy evening alone, and even more tired of not having another buck to clown around with, so he would certainly make some of his own entertainment. The buck had a wild imagination, partially fueled by his wanderings from the farm and from spending so much time on the farm, in the first place.
The old farm cat often sat near the hutch that held Cowslip and his siblings, despite any protests, because of how much interest the spotted rabbit showed in what was beyond their simple spot in life. The tabby would tell stories of hunting beyond the barn, of the wild rabbits he saw, and the foxes, and the deer, and any other creature he saw wandering about on the outskirts of the human territory. While he moved through the warren tunnels, he was thinking of these stories, running each and every one through his mind, as well as considering the stories of his own that he had created while traveling to Watership Down. There must be something entertaining to tell, and in fact, he had several.
Which one should he choose for this particular evening?
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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:41 am
 U'tuhlroo was making her way down towards her favourite hollow after a refreshing but short silflay in the rain. She was cold, wet and in a hurry so she didn't notice the black and white buck until it was too late to avoid him.
She had never really trusted the "human" rabbits that joined the warren from time to time. Sure, many of the rabbits in the warren had ancestors that had once lived like that. And for all she knew she might have a grandparent or great grandparent from a human warren... But... She didn't like to think about that. It wasn't natural and she didn't like it.
And this fellow, he was even worse. Both because he had arrived so recently and because of his obnoxious colour. Even the most short sighted elil could probably spot him from across a wide field, and in her not so humble opinion he endangered the warren just by existing. Well, at least he was inside now and not outside attracting unwanted attention.
To make a long story short she normally stayed far away from hutch-rabbits, and that was why it was so very irritating to space out and accidentally get close to one. It was tempting to turn around and take another route, but she didn't want this buck to think that he intimidated her. She wasn't afraid of this overgrown softy. Better then to continue on as if she had intended to approach him in the first place.
"Hello there Spotty," she drawled, lazily moving closer. She sniffed, but he didn't reek of human any longer. She wasn't sure if she should be thankful or angry because he smelled like one of them now.
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Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:02 am
He generally made it a point to keep from letting the wild rabbits from getting underneath his splotchy black and white fur, and U'tulroo was no exception.
He hardly ever spoke to her, mostly because she avoided him. She seemed to dislike him, and that much he could understand. He wasn't from this warren, after all, and reeked of the stench of the barn for quite some time before he began to smell more like his wild cousins. And because she made a point to avoid he and other hutch rabbits, he never bothered to try and speak with her.
Wasn't it a surprise when the rain drenched doe stopped before him and spoke!
At first he thought she might of been mistaken in approaching him, though for the life of him, he couldn't imagine how she could of mistaken him for another rabbit. Sure, the scent of humans was gone, but his pelt was still rather recognizable. At her name for him, Spotty, it was obvious that she did intend to speak with him, after all. Why, on earth, would she want to do that?
"Good t'see you, U'tuhlroo." He replied disarmingly with a nod.
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 2:01 pm
Great, and now he was talking to her too... An awkward silence followed as U'tuhlroo groomed some water from her fur before deciding what to say. She made a point to show him that she could groom her own fur, and that he wasn't even important enough to be allowed to help her. Still, she couldn't help studying him now when she had ventured this close. He was a big one, this spotty fellow, and she found herself wondering if it was from sitting in a hutch eating flayrah all day long before coming here or if there was strength in those paws too.
"Did the humans give you flayrah to eat every day?" she asked, just to say something. From the way some of the other rabbits talked when coming back from a raid she had got the impression that human warrens were filled with carrots and lettuce and other nice flay.
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Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:43 pm
"Not every day, no." He replied as he watched her clean her fur of the droplets of water it had gathered as she had fed outside, in such poor weather.
He sat back on his haunches and groomed his spotted ear as he considered her question, which brought back a flood of memories from the barn that he had, at one time, called home. Oh, the flay had been delicious and they had recieved it often, but there seemed to be what one would call "too much of a good thing." Eating carrots and lettuce was nice, but he had certainly grown bored of his hutch life and he enjoyed the challenges that wild life brought with it, even if the food wasn't grand or given to him in a bowl.
"We did get it now and again, some really nice carrots. But where is the fun in being fed, instead of living like a true rabbit?" He inqured, but more rhetorically.
"We also had to deal with the human kittens. Grubby little things. Tell you what. Never delt with one before, have you?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:32 am
Carrots. She sure wouldn't trade Watership Down for carrots, but it was a delicious treat indeed. She wouldn't mind if a buck treated her to some flayrah to show his appreciation, but to be fed every day? Hmm... Perhaps not. She would miss silflay and the struggle to find the most tender leafs before everyone else.
"I most certainly haven't", she huffed, "I usually don't socialise with elil and their kittens."
To be completely honest U'tuhlroo could barely picture a human kitten. Humans all seemed so big and scary in the stories, and like the rest of the thousand they stank to the high heavens so she had never been close to one. But all animals were small at the start, right? So of course there had to be human kittens around, even if she had never given it a thought. She tried to look uninterested but her curiosity was betrayed by her twitching nose and soon she could not stop herself from asking another question.
"Why would elil keep a rabbit in their warren," she blurted out, "to eat you later or what?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:26 am
"Not like a had a choice, you know." His voice had grown slightly flat as he spoke, but he quickly regained his chipper disposition, despite the doe's obvious dislike of both he and what he had been at one time.
While U'tuhlroo could hardly picture a human kitten, he could remember them all too well and held such a grudge against them that he bristled visibly as he recalled the memories of the grubby, rough children that enjoyed "playing" with rabbits.
"Honestly, I don't know that even the Great Frith-rah even knows why such elil do that. None of the rabbits I shared a hutch with ever vanished, so I doubt we were for eating. They are Elil, though, so it wouldn't surprise me if we would of been, eventually. Their kittens messed with us often, though."
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:04 am
"I suppose you didn't," U'tuhlroo admitted gruffly. She had obviously never even seen a human warren, but from the stories she understood that they were very big. The human does must spend a lot of time digging to create such big structures. Some even said their warrens were located above ground somehow, but that couldn't be right.
"It's weird..." she said, just to say something. She shuddered at the thought of being captured or eaten by the thousand. "Did they let you out from the warren to silflay at least? And how did they stop you from leaving? They must have a mean Owsla if even the kittens were bad..."
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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:27 am
"Sometimes a few of us would be taken out at a time." He replied as he blinked his big, silver eyes and tilted his head to one side. The fact that U'tuhlroo seemed to take interest in his past seemed quite strange to him, especially as seeing as she never showed any interest in speaking with him before.
Ah well, it certainly beat sitting in one's burrow, alone, during such weather.
"Most of the other rabbits were too afraid to try and run. Some just didn't want to, since we were fed so well and whatnot. Most of us were born there, so we didn't really know any different. When they took us out on the grass, there was some dinky little mini-fence thing, like what they keep around their flayrah to keep wild rabbits out. The owsla was pretty frightening there, too, but we didn't see them all that much, unless they brought us food."
The spotty buck scratched nonchalantly at an itch behind one ear, which had been bothering him as he spoke.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:42 pm
U'tuhlroo had trouble wrapping her mind around the things Cowslip told her, but it didn't stop her from wriggling her nose with interest. What he took for granted was so very far from her ordinary warren life and for a short moment she wondered if their warren was equally foreign to him. But she quickly dismissed the thought.
"I would have tried," she said, sounding more certain than she was. Then he lost her again, talking about somethings to protect flayrah. Had he been one of the warren bucks she might have lied and pretended to have participated in a raid just to seem more important, but for some reason she felt no need to impress this buck.
"I've never been on a raid," she admitted, "So I guess I wouldn't know how they protect their flayrah. Seems silly not to eat it once you find it."
She had a distinct memory of finding the most delicious patch of dandelions as an outskirter, and she had tried to make it last as long as possible, only to have it found by Owsla the next day.
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 6:59 am
"I'm sure you would have." He replied as he groomed a paw and peered at the spunky doe. The others were so much more complacent than the wild rabbits. Most thought they would meet their ends as soon as they left the hutch, and that most likely would of been true.
"It is odd, but they do many odd things, truth be told. They're hard to understand, sometimes. Delicious stuff, so it was strange getting used to not having it around just any old time. I've certainly grown to like finding my own food, though." He chuckled softly as he went from cleaning his paws to his ears.
Her thoughts earlier, on he finding their warren foreign, couldn't of been farther from the truth. He'd been settling in nicely as of late and understood most aspects of the warren, but the evening he had arrived he had been completely befuddled by the entire prospect of living in the warren, instead of in a hutch.
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 7:38 am
U'tuhlroo had started to feel slightly more relaxed around the big buck. He didn't seem aggressive at all and proved to offer quite adequate company. And as long as they stayed underground it didn't matter if he was a walking, talking 'eat me'-sign. Besides, it might come in handy to know a thing or two about humans. So it wasn't just her being curious, it was one of those 'know your enemy' situations, she told herself.
"Oh, you can find good flay around here too if you know where to look," she said and sprawled out on the floor of the burrow in a very relaxed pose. "I know some of the bucks are thinking that the only way to get flayrah is to raid the farm, but that's just because they're too lazy to search in other places than the most obvious ones."
She watched him as she spoke and there was a challenge in her eyes. Did he know where to find the tastiest flay without risking his hide near a human warren?
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Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 3:34 pm
He tilted his head to the side as she took on a more relaxed position. He hadn't expected for her to actually chat with him for any length of time. Besides, he was fairly sure she didn't like him very much. He had gotten that impression every time he had seen her, before.
"You can, but it takes some practice and getting used to, if you've never done it before. I'm getting better. I wouldn't want to go back to the farm, raid or no, honestly. Nothing much there but Elil, even if there is available flayrah." He commented, but he couldn't help but to see the challenge that glinted in her eyes. His competitive spirit wanted to rise and meet her own.
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Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 2:18 am
Cowslip might never become a proper wild rabbit in U'tuhlroo's eyes, but she appreciated that he seemed to have learnt that human warrens were nothing but trouble. There might be hope for him yet!
"Good for you," she said, and actually meant it, "I don't know what it is about farms and raiding that attracts foolish young bucks, but there has to be something. Some bucks I have known seemed to have a hard time telling the difference between being brave and being stupid.
She was starting to get worked up over another of her pet peeves; rabbits that behaved like morons and endangered themselves and the warren in the process. Sure, it was part of being an outskirter to test the boundaries and live life on the edge. And sure, she hadn't always been the most rational creature alive when she was younger... But she despised grown rabbits that didn't seem to grow out of performing dangerous stunts.
"I suppose you were spared," she said dryly, "Living with humans and all. But when you grow up in a large warren you are bound to meet outskirters who think they are immortal and who seem to be willing to do anything as long as it's dangerous. And then they're surprised when they are not invited to the Owsla... Those that survive that is."
She sighed, suddenly remembering a few of her good friends that had stopped running when they were all just a band of rowdy outskirters. Some because of stupidity and some because of bad luck. It only took one elil, and one wrong move.
"Why get killed raiding for carrots when there's perfectly fine cow parley to dig up if you know where to find it?" she asked, and there was a hint of sadness in her voice, "That's what I want to know."
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 10:42 pm
"Perhaps it's the unknown, but you'd think one would rather live another day in safety, rather than taking unnecessary risks that could harm the future of the warren. At least that seems what it should be like, to me. I'll admit, I am still learning. It might take seasons for me to fully understand all about the warren, but I want to do what I can."
He rambled quietly as he glanced towards his paws. The doe seemed rather down, which was understandable considering the direction their conversation was going, but he was unsure of just what to do about it. Things were so different here, away from the other hutch rabbits.
"Never hurts to tell others such things. Perhaps, with any luck, the next generation will learn and take note of that, eh?"
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