Note: All questions posted up in reviews will be answered on the Authors Note page otherwise known as Chapter 5. Please read and review. Enjoy the longest chapter I have so far on Snowfoot, Flash, Splotch, and Horace. ************************************************************************

Horace, Splotch, and Snowfoot were lazily sitting out on the warm sunny grass and eating every piece of grass they could get to. They hadn't eaten for a couple of days, so they were very hungry. Flash, the leader of the group, had accidentally lost his sense of direction, so the whole group turned out hrair miles away from the warren. Snowfoot said that they should jut give up the search and continue wandering, but the other three said that they should just ask another harmless animal for directions. Flash had seen a couple of hares, so he went up to ask them where the warren was.
"I wonder how Flash is doing with those hares," Horace said as he stretched himself across the warm grass.
"Obviously fine," said Splotch tiredly, "Flash will probably get what we want out of those animals, and by the way they almost are like rabbits. Only difference is that they don't sleep underground, and their bigger, of course."
"You know, my mother told me that there were hares back in my home country," Snowfoot said, "the coyotes and lynxes were constantly after them too." Horace and Splotch had traveled with Snowfoot long enough to know what the two of the most ferocious predators of another area were. Even though Snowfoot had been in the wild for only two days, his mother had always told Snowfoot and his brothers and sisters all about what happened out in the snowy hills of the Yukon as she lay dying. Snowfoot had never forgotten any of it either.
"I haven't heard much about the hares around here though," said Horace. "Maybe they aren't two friendly to the rabbits around here."
"Oh hares are always friendly to rabbits," said Snowfoot, "the only way to get one mad at you would be to trick it or attack it."
"Now why would you want to do that," said Splotch. Splotch was actually right when he said that Flash was getting what they wanted out of the hares.
"You mean you're actually going to the warren of shining wires?" said the young female hare, rather astounded. "Hares, rabbits, yonas, elil, and even rats avoid that place. Supposedly every animal that goes in there gets killed in a very strange way, pretty scary huh?"
"No, no," said the older male hare, "The reason all rabbits avoid that place is because it's covered in snares. Foxes and all other elil avoid it because the farmer shoots them if they come in."
"So you mean that me and my friends have been traveling all along to a first rate death hole?" Flash groaned.
"Not necessarily," said another female hare as she emerged from a nearby thicket, "I heard from a yona that things are different now."
"How's it different," said Flash.
"The reason that the warren is different is that the snares are gone," said the female hare.
"Okay, why didn't one of you tell me in the first place," said Flash.
"I had no idea that it changed, but Cauliflower never lies to any animal, so I'd trust her," said the male hare, "anyways, the warren is in that direction," said the hare, motioning east. "Just head in that direction and you'll come to a forest. Go strait through the forest, and you'll most definitely find it."
"Have you been there?" said Flash eagerly.
"I've been to the outskirts a couple times," said the male hare, "anyways we'd better get going, I heard there's a homba near by." With that, the three hares left, and Flash headed back to his friends to tell them the news.

Flash thought about what the hares had said as he went back to Horace, Snowfoot, and Splotch. Different thoughts kept on passing through Flash's mind. 'The warren was once a humongous death hole.' 'Why didn't that stupid mouse tell Splotch that.' 'So it somehow changed, I guess we can go there then.' I can't tell Horace and Splotch, they will think of it as unsafe.' 'If it has changed, then I won't tell Splotch, Snowfoot, or Horace about it's origin. Not one of them will want to go.' So Flash decided that he wouldn't tell his friends about the warren's history.
When Splotch, Horace, and Snowfoot asked him how it went with the hares, Flash told them that he managed to get the directions to the warren out of the hares. So they all headed off to the east to find the warren.

************************************************************************ 2 days later

"Kind of a 'wild' looking forest, huh Splotch," Flash said to his guinea pig companion as they looked at the huge forest they were going to attempt to cross. "I'd say that it'd take a while to get through."
"I think you're right," said Splotch, "but we're up to it, don't you think, Snowfoot's just about dying to go into it." That was true, Snowfoot always loved venturing into unknown places, playing with death, and just having fun in the face of danger. True, rabbits like Snowfoot almost always died early, but snowshoe rabbits like Snowfoot didn't belong in 'the land of few elil,' as Snowfoot called the England wilderness. "Yes, Snowfoot should try calming down a little bit," said Flash, "but speaking of the forest, we'd better get through it before nightfall. It's almost ni-Frith." So Flash and Splotch ran back to where Horace and Snowfoot were feeding on some grass to tell them that it was time to go.

The minute the travelers entered the forest, they knew that they had a dangerous journey ahead of them. The trees were packed so close together, that Frith could hardly be seen. They could hear the sounds of all types of animals: birds, crickets, small animals, and elil all over the forest. Snowfoot was overjoyed.
"Wow, we finally get to have an adventure on this whole boring journey," said Snowfoot eagerly as they entered into the forest.
"What do you call fighting through that pack of cats, a simple patrol," said Splotch. He wasn't in tune to having a 55% chance of death put over his head just by stepping into a forest.
Snowfoot glared at Splotch. "Just because I don't like running and hiding from danger like a little field mouse doesn't mean that you have to be halfway down my throat about it."
"Snowfoot, just because we aren't in Alaska doesn't mean that there aren't any dangers out here," said Splotch calmly, not at all offended by Snowfoot's remark. "Besides, how long were you in Alaska for, two days? You probably didn't even see the inside of your burrow before the man put you in the cage and saved your litter's life. This area is your home now like it is with me, Flash, and Horace."
"My mom told me what all my species of rabbit had to do to stay alive back in my home country," said Snowfoot. "Our elil were a lot bigger, faster, and more vicious then any of the elil out here. And even if this is my home now, all my family generations have had their home out in the other world. I might not be able to fight foxes, but I sure as Frith can fight off all the other elil here."
Snowfoot and Splotch, a couple yards behind the other two continued bickering and fighting, almost losing sight of their companions who were leading the way a couple times.
"It's seems that there isn't too much elil life in this forest," said Flash as he sniffed at some of the smells in the forest.
"I dunno," said Horace, "I think a lot of the animals here are watching us, though." Just then a hedgehog scampered out of a bramble bush and looked curiously at the rabbits. Horace took no time in asking it, "are there any stoats, weasels, or foxes in this forest. We're trying to go through it, but we don't know what predators await us."
"I don't know," said the yona, "I haven't lived here very long, you see. I know for sure that there aren't any hombil in this forest, but I don't know about stoats and weasels."
By that time, Splotch and Snowfoot had caught up to them and asked them what they were doing.
"We're asking this yona here about whether or not there are any dangerous elil in this forest," said Horace, who was the smartest and wisest of the bunch. Flash meanwhile, had gone back to talking with the hedgehog.
"Okay," Flash said, "but what about other elil?"
"Other than some kestrels and a couple owls, I haven't seen any dangerous predators that would pose much of a threat to rabbits like yourselves, but like I said, I haven't lived here very long," said the hedgehog, "but my mother has lived here in this forest all her life, she might know if there's any dangers ahead for you. I'll go get her for you." So without even asking the four travelers if they wanted to talk to his mom, the young hedgehog ran to and up a nearby tree to get his mother for them. It wasn't long before he and his mother came out to the rabbits.
"Wow, a guinea pig," said the female hedgehog when she laid her eyes on Splotch. "I thought you guys only lived in hutches. I never expected to see one of you out here, of all places."
"Well, I've gone places where many of my kind has never gone before," said Splotch, "anyways, are there any dangerous elil around these parts? Your son told me that there are no hombil in this forest, but he says he's not sure about stoats and weasels."
"Bramble's right when he says that there aren't any foxes living in this forest. I've seen a couple just passing through, though. There are no weasels either. In all my life I haven't seen any. The ones that you should keep an eye out for are owls, stoats, cats, and kestrels."
At this, Flash said, "So there's stoats and cats in this forest."
"Very few," said the female hedgehog, "The only stoats in this forest live primarily in the trees in the middle of the forest, not where we are right now." "It's the same with the cats," she continued, "the cat's that live in here are those that have ran away from farms at young ages and grown up in this forest. They stick around the same places as the stoats." "You aren't traveling to the middle are you?" said the female hedgehog.
"Yes, we are," said Flash, "we need to travel through this forest in order to get to the warren we're traveling to. How do we get around all the predators there?"
"There aren't many predators there," said the female hedgehog, "there aren't many elil in this forest, but if they attack you, may Frith be with your souls." With that, the middle aged female hedgehog took off back to the tree she was in."
"I'll follow close behind you to make sure that nothing attacks you," said Bramble, "but now I need a little bit of sleep." Bramble to took off to a tree and scampered up it to get a little bit of sleep. The four travelers took off again, but this time all but Snowfoot had a heavy heart.
"Why would Frith be with our souls if a cat or stoat attacked us?" asked Snowfoot to Flash, "we've fought stoats and cats before, and none of them posed much of a threat to us."
"Maybe there's something different about the ones here," said Flash, "they might hunt in packs or they might be a little bit more vicious then other stoats and cats?"
"I think you're right when you said that they hunt in packs," said Splotch tiredly.
The four travelers continued for some time in silence before they reached the center of the forest. Finally, Horace said, "so here's the dreaded center. It doesn't seem like there's too much about. I can't here too much except for a slight breeze. Hold on one second. Where's Snowfoot." The two rabbits and the guinea pig realized that Snowfoot, who was lagging behind, was not with them anymore. They searched for Snowfoot for a while, but he seemed to be long gone.
"Damn it," said Flash, "it looks like we'll just have to leave him. We can't stay in the same place for very long."
"I guess you're right," said Horace, "there's no finding him now. I suppose something picked him off. Either that or he just got lost." The three remaining travelers continued on for some time wearily and half- heartedly after the loss of their friend until Splotch suddenly stopped.
"What the..," Splotch sputtered, "that's not any breeze Horace, that's the sound of many approaching footsteps!" Indeed it was. During their mournful walking, neither Flash, Horace, nor Splotch had picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. By the time Splotch realized that they were being followed, it was all too late to run away.
"It might just be Bramble," Flash thought to himself, "he said he'd follow close behind us, but this sounds like many footsteps." The whole world turned over, when Flash, Horace, and Splotch were surrounded on all sides by nine stoats, seven male, and two female. Upon a nearby rock stood the largest stoat of the bunch and clearly the leader.
"Dinner is served," yelled out the lead stoat, "get them boys, it's time for the two rabbits and this rat to die." All of the stoats were either medium sized or large, and the pack of ten could easily take down the pack of three, even with Flash, who had always known how to fight very well. Flash thought that even with the large Snowfoot or Bramble the yona that the chance of survival against the large group of fight hungry stoats was utterly hopeless. All the stoats were about to charge, when all of a sudden a loud yell came from behind a small shrub. "No, it's time or you to die." All three travelers were then shocked to see the large figure of Snowfoot come flying over the bramble bush and landing on the lead stoat from above. From there, Snowfoot proceeded in cuffing, clawing, and biting the lead stoat as fast as he could, leaving the poor stoat little chance to fight back. Flash looked around him and saw Splotch running up to attempt to head butt a stoat that was running to the small boulder to help his leader. He also saw Horace doing the best he could in a futile attempt to fight off three attacking stoats. He was also glad that Snowfoot had found them. Maybe Bramble would also find them and help them fight off the stoat horde. Flash spun around and turned to face his opposition, the remaining stoats, in what was obviously his last battle.