The following tale contains OCs as well as canon characters. Please don't view if this offends you.

Chapter 1

Snowberry wiggled her nose out of the burrow testing the air for the scent of intruders. Only the sweet smells of green and familiar rabbits reached her nostrils telling the doe that she had nothing to worry about. Her front paws eased out first, then the rest of her white body followed.

"Don't act so shifty," Bigwig bellowed from nearby. He turned her way and the albino could see a few strands of chewed grass bits hanging from his mouth. He had been gorging himself and stopped suddenly. Perhaps he was seeing her timidness as an insult to his command over the sentries.

"I was just being careful," Snowberry replied in a somewhat insulted tone herself. She shook her head forcing her loppy ears to flop about, then return to their rightful position. "There is no harm in being too careful." She hopped close to him, flipping her nose up at him as a show of play.

"Such a doe," the large buck replied gruffly and returned to nibbling at his flay. He wasn't into arguing this morning. Perhaps during the night something had happened? His frazzled posture suggested that he was more then just irritated, he was completely on edge.

Inching towards him, the unsure doe lightly nudged his cheek with her nose. "I'm sorry, you are a great captain of the owsla. I know there is nothing here that will harm us." She spoke with a soft tone that she hoped would comfort his unease even a bit but, it only seemed to make him all the more uneasy. His muscles tensed and he fidgeted a little.

"Yeah yeah," he exclaimed finally, but didn't even lift his head from the patch he was feasting on. Instead, he began to eat even faster turning his back to the burrow which Thethuthannang came hopping out of. Now, Snowberry understood. The doe had a flat stomach. Normally, this would mating season, so all the does with a mates would have been swollen with kittens by now. Thethuthannang was not.

The doe made her way over and touched noses in greeting with Snowberry. Her mate had eaten himself even further away now, not even bothering to mingle. Most males were deterred at a female that could not produce young. And often if a male couldn't have kittens with his doe, it became his natural instinct to move on. Of course, not having a a litter for a season was no big deal but, this was Thethuthannang's third season. Snowberry new that the crowded Efrafa had taken a tole on lots of does causing them to produce late litters. Snowberry herself was sure she would even produce a litter if she had a mate of her own.

"By Frith I swear," Thethuthannang began rubbing her nose on her fore paw. "I don't know what he wants from me." She grumbled. "Efrafa was a horrible place. And I made many other litters there." Her voice was sad and soft. "Hazel says my body may just be going through a hard time."

"Lets hope frith will grant you kittens again," the albino exclaimed in the most sincere voice she could muster. "And this time, it would be with the mate that you have chosen." Her eyes offered some confort to her but not much. Secretly inside, the white doe wanted her friend to be barren. She felt horrible for wishing it and prayed that frith forgive such a horrible doe like she. It was then and there that she promised herself that she would do all she could to help the pair.

"Greetings fellow marly," came a sudden sweet tone. Both does turned to see a red fured rabbit bounding towards them, a belly full of kittens lumbering beneath her. It was Cherrywood. A doe, the other rabbits would consider quite idealistic, matching her mate Blackberry perfectly. She stopped short and touched noses with them. "Did something happen?" She asked after observing the looks on there faces.

"Not at all," Thethuthannang lied and fidgeted happily. Her paws patted the ground rhythmically in a an attempt to show the unwanted arrival that nothing was here for here to worry about. Snowberry guessed it was because she didn't want Cherrywood to catch a wif of the absent litter within her. The doe after all was a bit of a gloat. She didn't quite mean to be, Snowberry had often pondered to herself. She was just happy.

"Maybe better flay would help," the red doe spoke up compassionately. "Or better yet, flayrah."

"Flayrah?" Thethuthannang replied somewhat confused. "How can flayrah help?"

"Well, better food means better bodies and better bodies means better chance for producing kittens. Its all really quite simple."

The two bewildered doe looked at each other for a moment. "It does make sense," Snowberry said at last. "But are we gonna get that king of flayrah?" There was silence for a moment then Cherrywood spoke again.

"Perhaps flayrah lies further out in the field." She lifted her nose to sniff the air.

"Further out huh?" Thethuthannang pronounced somewhat thoughtfully. Snowberry new the thoughts that were brewing in her friends mind. The thoughts of wandering far out away from the safety of the warren and she didn't them one bit. Thethuthannang wouldn't go through with that would she?