A rustling sound came from the distance. Flash ran up to were the sound came from and found that it was only a hedgehog. When he saw that no elil were around, Flash ran back to where his friends were standing.

Flash had been a hutch rabbit for about a year of his life. He had lived a great life inside a rather large hutch that he shared with a guinea pig. When Flash was 11 months old, though, his old master died and the old mans son did not want to keep Flash anymore.

So Flash and his guinea pig companion, Splotch, were set loose in a little meadow in front of a forest. Flash and Splotch had wandered through forests, meadows, and even through a couple rivers. During the first part of their journey, no elil came to them because they smelled of man. The problems happened later when the smell started to where off. Stoats, weasels, and even an old cat attacked them. All of these were killed by Flash, who was and always been a "rabbit out of hill" and could fight anything that went after him. Later on a rabbit named Snowfoot joined them.

Snowfoot was a large snowshoe rabbit. His mother had lived in Alaska. Two days after Snowfoot and his five bothers and sisters were born, though, three coyotes mortally injured his mother. When a kind man saw the injured rabbit crawling back to her hole, the man picked up the rabbit and her litter and put them in a hutch. Even though Snowfoot's mother did die, she survived long enough to nurse her kittens up to the time they could eat greens. Of Snowfoot's six brothers and sisters, only one was set loose back into the Alaskan wilderness. The man kept four of the rabbits as pets, but gave Snowfoot to his tree-hugger nephew in England. The man's nephew thought that it was wrong to leave animals cooped up in cages, so he set the ten-month-old snowshoe rabbit loose in the English wilderness. From there, Snowfoot wandered the land, looking for any salvation. Since Alaskan rabbits, even though Snowfoot only was in the wilderness there for two days, are bigger than the England rabbits. Because of his size, Snowfoot easily fought and killed or drove off any stoat or weasel that attacked him. As for foxes, Snowfoot could usually hide from them, but once or twice he had to run from them when they sniffed him out. Eventually, Snowfoot ran into Flash and Splotch and decided to help them find a place to settle down permanently. Another traveling hutch rabbit that went by his man given name, Horace, eventually joined the trio.

Flash ran back to where his friends were standing. "Just a yona," Flash said to Horace, who had heard the noise. "Well we might as well continue then," Horace said. "I heard from a mouse that there was a warren nearby. He said that it was over there." "I don't know if we should trust that creature," Splotch said calmly, "I heard that they aren't the smartest things in the world." "Nevertheless we have no choice but to trust him," Flash said, "We've been traveling for hrair days. We've killed a bunch of these so-called elil, but something's bound to get one of us sometime." "You know what I say," Snowfoot said, we should just stop this wandering thing and settle down right he- "I don't think that would work at all, Splotch cut in. "Yeah, keep in mind that we have no does with us Snowfoot," said Horace, "so its settled, he continued. We go westward to find that warren that the mouse was talking about." Snowfoot reluctantly agreed, and the rabbits headed off westward to the Shining Wire warren.