Disclaimer: I do not own Watership Down

After watching the old animated movie and then the animated CGI movie I decided to try a Watership Down fanfiction. I hope this first chapter isn't too weird.

Rabbits don't know about the Doppler effect. What Frith gives for the wilderness, the unmentioned moon god takes from the forest. The same could be said about homes: one lives happily, while the other is starving. So Frith be praised, today was a day to rejoice.

The owsla left a few hours before, leaving five bucks and five does all alone with nine kittens.

A sepia brown buck of eight pounds, with light brown eyes and black fur all the way from his nose to his forehead, was reflecting on his life. The Black Rabbit came last night and took his father away. One moment he was getting his father a carrot, and when he came back his father was gone.

The sable rabbit senior was dead, having died a better death than being slaughtered by a fox or a dog. The senior rabbit had helped distract a wolf that was chasing his owsla, saving a dozen lives. He was highly respected, and his son became disregarded as a soldier in the eyes of the bucks and does.

The young sable rabbit's name was Ebony Jr. The "Ebony" name came from the nose shared by many sables. His favourite food was cabbage, his favourite poetry was "Eight Nights to the Four Rivers". He had limited combat experience; most of it consisted of getting through the puff of fur to kick an angora buck.

Even though the same number of bucks and does were nesting, two mates were lying down nuzzling their wet noses together. Their names were Vesta and Blue. When a buck and a doe mate, they either stay together forever, or they stay together to raise a family. Ebony twitched his nose, smelling out the doe with the most attractive scent.

Suddenly, another buck rammed into Ebony with his nose against his chest, protected by his feet. The buck was a argente rabbit, a light grey-coated buck with lots of pink bulging out of his red eyes and round ears. Ebony wondered why Hop Foo had done that, other than being a self-proclaimed seer.

"There are few seers in a burrow, but that doesn't mean you can hit me like a cat grabbing me." Ebony said. "Did you have a mental breakdown?"

"Ebony, you and only you can help me!" Hop Foo screamed. "I've seen the cost of being here. We have to find the owsla quickly!"

"What? We are here to protect the kits. We can't just leave the burrow: it's desertion."

"Ebony, think about all the predators that could slaughter us if we lose our owsla. You can't just stay here and not do anything to help." Hop Foo stared into Ebony's eyes only to see the eyes of a Quaker with a black nose just shaking with the aroma of a doe. Hop Foo charged away. "Ebony, your father would be very disappointed in you."

Hop Foo didn't even bother asking the other bucks, or even the does, if they would help; instead, he left.

Ebony found two attractive does talking. There was Dawnrose, a Britannia Petite doe, with two big flaps of skin coming out her back, green eyes, and white coat that looked like snow. Her friend Maggie was a Cinnamon Rabbit. Her coat was bright brown in the front and black like Ebony's nose in the rear. Her eyes were big, bulgy and black, and her ears were like a human woman's fingers. Ebony cleared his throat to get the two does' attention.

"Hello, Dawnrose. I just want you to know I found apples under a tree and would be willing to share them with you...if you come with me to nibble on them," Ebony said, sighing in relief after he had finished.

"You are asking if I would like to go somewhere with you, Ebony?" Dawnrose asked. "I'll need some time to think about it."

Ebony didn't wait for her answer. He wanted to roll around in the cornfield at the bottom of the biggest hill their warren was on. Having all that rough corn would feel good against his coat, and he would be hard to find.

The sound of a bird pulling out a worm and bees buzzing towards the flowers made Ebony's perky ears soften just a little, until the most devastating moment to ever happen in the warren. Hop Foo could be heard running back, panting in his breath. He heard multiple feet stomping on the ground and a deep growl behind him.

Ebony's fears were bona fide, and even worse than he imagined. Two wolves were chasing the fast and self-proclaimed seer Hop Foo, or Hop Fool to be more accurate. The bucks in the warren also noticed the wolves and commanded the does to take the kittens far away. Ebony, not a warrior but still willing to die to protect the does and younglings, scrambled out of the corn field and dashed towards Hop Foo.

One of the wolves saw the four most courageous bucks anyone could ever ask for. Their plan: rush towards the wolves in a circle, try to distract them with their teeth on the legs, so their anger would make it hard for them to decide who to bite. They were tricked: a lone buck, whose name was Redder due to his red coat, was bitten by a wolf.

Ebony didn't stop, even though blood and crying was the only endearment the wolf was giving to Redder. Another buck – Napkin – nibbled on one of the wolf's hind legs. That small nibble hurt like a bee stung its butt. The wolf changed directions and chased Napkin.

Ebony planned to save Napkin with a bite on the leg. However, when he got closer to the wolf, it was still as a statue gnawing on Napkin's fuzzy tail.

Ebony didn't think about whether Napkin was finished; he chewed on the toe of the wolf. His pernicious nibble was all for the greater good of the warren. Even though he hopped over Napkin he still hoped he was fine, the black-faced rabbit was not chased by one, but two wolves; the one who was gnawing on Redder had ripped off the front paws off the red-furred rabbit's corpse.

Ebony didn't look back. Worrying about his tail being caught would just make it harder to outrun the very fast, and much bigger, wolves. Frith still blessed them to be the greatest elil rabbits have. By some miracle, Ebony reached a cliff and jumped off...only to land on a smaller cliff of protruding rocks. He was perched safely below the wolves.

The wolves stared down at Ebony for several heartbeats, before turning away.

"I'm alive!" he thought to himself. He quickly checked himself over; he had not sustained any major injuries, only a few scratches here and there. However, he was covered in Redder's blood.

The screams that came from across the cliff told him that the warren had met a gruesome end. He broke down in tears, "I'm sorry I let all of you down! It should've been me!"

His ears dropped and he lowered his head; tears started streaming from his face, his sobs almost being drowned out by the cries of rabbits being devoured. The silence afterwards was even worse.

Suddenly a wave of energy overpowered his sorrow.

"Self-pity won't do anything!" he said to himself, "I'm going to survive! I'm not going to die that easily! The Thousand may have taken my friends, but they'll never take me!"

He stared at the woods ahead. He knew that a perilous journey was going to take place, but he simply laughed. They could break his bones, but they could never break his spirit.

He took one hop towards the woods and stopped; the forest was much more intimidating than it was a few seconds ago. He half-questioned whether he should head back and feed himself to the wolves.

"No." His survival instincts were more powerful.

He took one more step into the forest. "Maybe this isn't so bad after all."

He took another and then another, and soon he found himself making progress towards a goal he himself could not understand, but knew was right.