Loud cheering sounds could be heard from Cowslips warren. There was a good reason for it. Thirty-two rabbits were gathered around in a circle and watching the first two graduates of the Owsla training in a vicious practice fight.

Mallow charged his opponent in a successful head bash, but when he went for a cuff, his opponent jumped out of the way. Though Mallow was more powerful than any other rabbit in the Owsla except for Dogwood, Winters Wrath, and Buttercup, Corona was much faster and better at dodging attacks. As the crowd watched, the other two graduates, Pimpernel and Walnut, patrolled the area and made sure that no elil attacked the large crowd. Winters Wrath, Cowslip, and Silverweed were all sitting front of the fight so they didn't have to stand up on both legs to see. Buttercup and Dogwood were circling the fight to make sure that it didn't get out of hand.

Corona leaped out at Mallow, and scratched him twice across the face. He then jumped back away from a vicious cuff by Mallow. Corona circled around Mallow and came in for another quick attack. But this time Mallow was ready. When Corona tried to bite him, Mallow leaped forward and knocked Corona off balance. When Corona lost his speed and stumbled, Mallow body slammed him over and pinned him down. The match suddenly became a power duel, with Mallow kicking, cuffing, and scratching Corona as hard as he could. Corona, unable to free his legs, shook his body from side to side and eventually managed to get both of his back legs free. Corona then planted both of his legs into Mallow's stomach, and sent him flying off of him. By that time, though, Corona was very tired and hurt from the vicious attacks by Mallow when he had him pinned. Mallow came charging in again, but this time, Corona had no strength to jump out of the way. Instead, Corona smacked one of his back legs into Mallow's face in an attempt to stop his charge. It didn't work. Mallow charged right threw the kick and sent Corona flying into the crowd with a hard body slam. Mallow then sprang up into the air in an attempt to land hard on Corona, ultimately winning the fight for himself. Corona knew that Mallow would do this, so he quickly rolled himself up and out of the way just in time, just as Mallow came crashing down. The dive didn't hurt Mallow at all, but the circled around each other for a few seconds until Corona, this time, charged up to Mallow and began to scratch him as hard as he could. Mallow reared back in pain, and attempted two cuffs on Corona, but the fast rabbit dodged both. Mallow then charged Corona to attempt a head butt, but Corona sprang about a foot in the air and jumped clear over Mallow. Corona didn't land all that cleanly, but he didn't expect Mallow to manage to turn around and charge him again in a time span of two seconds. As he turned around, Mallows head butt came full into his face. Corona was sent flying into Cowslip and Silverweed. This time, Corona didn't get up, and Mallow was credited with yet another win.

After Ivy had helped Corona get to his feet, Mallow came up to his long time friend and told him that they had guard duty. The two training graduates then set off to patrol the outskirts of the crowd, making sure that no elil were about.

Back where the crowd was gathered, Walnut and Pimpernel had just started their practice fight. Mallow and Corona, though, were unaware of a large fox watching them through the trees, planning to make a kill at the warren another day.

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

At around the same time Horace, Flash, Splotch, and Snowfoot ran into Bramble the hedgehog, Buttercup was taking some of the Owsla out on a training patrol. With her were Ivy, Thistle, Hawkweed, and Poppy; the four rabbits that still needed to pass training. Hawkweed and Poppy were almost finished with training, but Ivy and Thistle kept on messing up at most things. Patrols in particular were one of those 'things.'

"Come on, Ivy, we haven't been traveling for that long," said Buttercup rather anxiously to Ivy, who was slowing down the rest of the group.

"Yeah, Ivy," sneered Thistle, "are you to fat to run any more than two feet?"

"I would run hrair miles without stopping just to get you back for that," snapped Ivy to Thistle. "I'd also run hrair miles to see you fight off a butterfly." The two rabbits had always been enemies ever since they were very young. It had all started when Ivy started making fun of Thistle for his weak body, and Thistle making fun of Ivy for his fat body.

"Would you two just stop arguing," screamed Buttercup, "I've had enough with you guys long before we've started this patrol. Don't make me tell Winters Wrath to throw you both out of the Owsla."

"Now that I think about it, it doesn't sound like a bad thing," Hawkweed grumbled as he ran up to the front with Buttercup.

"Shut up," snapped Thistle, "just because you're Winters Wrath's mate doesn't mean that you have more power than any of us."

"Well, I sure as Frith have more power than you Thistle," Hawkweed retorted, "Ivy's right when he says that Silverweed was a fool for picking you, hey Buttercup, why did Silverweed choose Ivy and Thistle to be part of our Owsla."

"I don't know," Buttercup said flatly, " but you also asked me the same question about Corona and Pimpernel, and now look, they're two of the smartest and most powerful rabbits in the warren."

"I really wonder how Pimpernel made it so far," said Poppy, "after all, didn't he kill Vervain?"

"That was one of the other rabbits he was traveling with, and if he did, then he is destined to rise up very high in the Owsla. Vervain was no weakling. He took part in the patrols with Winters Wrath, Dogwood, and me," said Buttercup, quickly coming to the defense of her best patroller. "Oh, and by the way the first thing I told you all about patrols is that you can't talk on them because you'll alert the elil. So no more groaning, and no more talking. That means you Ivy."

The rabbits traveled in silence for several more minutes until a loud crash came without warning from a nearby tree. A large weasel landed smack in the middle of the feuding patrol. Buttercup, Ivy, Hawkweed, and Poppy had all scattered when they saw the weasel falling, but Thistle, who was awed by the sight, had been tackled.

Buttercup and the rest of her patrol could only watch as the weasel toyed with poor Thistle like a cat does with a captured mouse right before it kills it. Buttercup knew that when the weasel got bored of toying with Thistle that it would kill the poor rabbit rather quickly. Buttercup had seen the same thing happen to one of her sisters when she was out on an early patrol with Winters Wrath. Buttercup, her remaining brothers and sisters, and Dogwood, Vervain, and Vines yearned to do something, but they were too small and too afraid to stop the weasel from killing her sister very slowly and painfully. Buttercup swore that the same thing wouldn't happen to Thistle.

"Not even fighting, eh rabbit," the weasel laughed horrifically, "I don't blame you, you're dead meat no matter what you do." With that, the weasel bit deeply into both of Thistles left legs. Blood began to poor out, and Thistle squealed in agony.

The weasel wasn't torturing Thistle because he wanted to take out some of his anger on another poor creature. In fact, the weasel was in a good mood after fighting off another weasel to get a female weasel as a mate. The weasel was basically looking for a little fun.

"Oh, those wounds aren't that bad," snarled the weasel. "Oh, let me rephrase it, those wounds aren't as bad as the ones you're going to have." The weasel then scratched Thistle on the cheek, again making the poor creature cry out in agony. The weasel laughed menacingly, but before it could do anything else, it's ears picked up a sound coming from the left. As the weasel turned, he saw Buttercup charging him as fast as she could. Before he could turn to knock his opponent away, Buttercup ran straight into him, and sent him stumbling. Before he could regain his balance, Buttercup jumped on top of the weasel and started kicking and scratching him for all she was worth.

"Thistle, Hawkweed, everyone, run. I'll hold him off," Buttercup screamed at her companions. Thistle, not needing any more persuasion, took off as fast as he could with two bleeding legs, knowing he wouldn't get far. The others were hesitant. "I'm not letting Buttercup die like that," said Poppy loudly to her companions.

"Don't worry," said Ivy, "as soon as he gets Buttercup off of him, he'll just go for Thistle. He's not going to put up with a fighting rabbit when he could get one that goes down without a fight"

"Same goes for Thistle," shrieked Poppy to Ivy. "Hold on, I've got a plan."

Thistle at the moment was stumbling through the trees in the forest. He had not realized how far into it they were. He, like Ivy, knew that the second Buttercup was off of him, the weasel would follow the trail of blood that Thistle was leaving and come after him. Thistle decided that it was best to throw off the weasel by taking twists and turns. He never knew that in doing that that he would go farther from the warren then he ever had in his life.

The weasel had just about finished off Buttercup before she stopped trying to attack him. He was thinking now that he might just settle for this rabbit that was nearly dead rather than going after the injured one that had taken off into the forest.

He was about to make a decision, when Ivy and Hawkweed charged into him from opposite sides. He was not expecting this from the other rabbits with their leader defeated, so he was spun around and fell to the floor. The weasel angrily picked himself up, and went for Ivy, but was tackled by Hawkweed before he could do so. Hawkweed attempted to pin him, but the strong weasel kicked him off of his stomach, and turned to face the charging Ivy. The weasel returned Ivy's charge, and the two slammed into each other. Ivy put a cuff across the weasel's face right before the weasel bit him deeply in the left shoulder. Before making another move on Ivy, the weasel turned to his left, to face a charge from Hawkweed. Hawkweed, who was faster than Ivy, managed to slam his head into the weasel before it could attack. Hawkweed then proceeded to scratch and kick the weasel, before it lashed out at him a tore open a few deep wounds. Ivy, despite his wound, attempted to kick the weasel with his back legs, but the weasel jumped back and the kick missed. While Ivy was still on his front legs, the weasel charged in, and tore up Ivy's stomach partially. Ivy squealed and fell to the ground, unable to attack anymore due to pain. The weasel then spun around and knocked Hawkweed, who had tried to jump on him, a few feet across to the left. The weasel then charged Hawkweed, and bit him deeply in the haunch. Hawkweed struggled around on the floor, but wasn't able to get up. Buttercup, who was badly wounded, tried to get up, but decided against it.

Just as the weasel made its choice in which of the three injured rabbits it wanted, it chose Ivy, a scuffling sound was heard, and Poppy emerged from a bush with Mallow and Pimpernel, the only Owsla members she could find. Poppy had ran as fast as she could back to the warren and had found Mallow and Pimpernel on silflay together and told them to come with her. Meanwhile, Hawkweed and Ivy fought the weasel.

Not wanting another fight, the weasel took off, following the bloody trail left by Thistle.

By the time the weasel left the injured Hawkweed, Buttercup, and Ivy, Thistle had traveled very deep into the forest surrounding the warren. Problem was, he was leaving behind a bloody trail, so all the weasel had to do was follow the blood. Thistle was not only in danger from the weasel, but other elil were soon to find him very soon.

Thistle stifled a groan as he dragged himself through a small gap of trees. It was plain obvious that he was clearly lost and that help would not be coming.

'The least I can do is avoid that weasel,' Thistle thought to himself, remembering the torture treatment that the weasel had tried to put him through.

Though no elil came for a while, Thistle suddenly heard the sound of approaching footsteps. When Thistle turned to see what type of elil would take away his pain, he let out a squeal. It was the same weasel. Going by the small cuts it had on its face, Thistle guessed that Buttercup had put up one hell o a fight. He also knew that when the weasel caught up to him that he would have his mind tortured out of him to amuse away the small pains the weasel had taken to fight off Buttercup, and catch up to him as he ran in the wrong direction.

"I've got you now, you slimy little piece of ooze," the weasel snarled happily, "Come on, I promise not to torture you that much if you don't make this hard for me."

Thistle began to run as fast as he could with his injured legs. He knew that he couldn't out run the weasel in his injured state, but he could try to trick it into losing track of where he was.

Thistle tried every trick in the book that came to his mind. He tried lying on the ground silently to see if the camouflage of his brown coat against the ground would hide him. He tried hiding behind trees and in bushes. He even jumped in a mud puddle to see if he could hide in it. Even though the blood flow from his legs had ceased greatly, some still came out and gave him away every time.

Just as Thistle was about to give up hope, he heard the sounds of a fast rushing river. He ran as fast as he could to the river. The weasel was not far behind him, looking for a good opportunity to jump on him. After a few minutes of slow running and limping, Thistle made it to the river.

The river ran very fast. Thistle thought that there would be no way to cross it or swim in it. He then saw several blocks of wood floating down.

'If I can get on one of those, I might not drown,' thought Thistle. He then saw the weasel rushing him from behind. With a deep breath, Thistle jumped in.

*********

Winters Wrath, Mallow, Corona, and Walnut all followed the trail of blood as fast as they could, hoping that they would be able to find Thistle in time.

The second that Poppy had informed them that Mallow and Pimpernel were with the injured Hawkweed, Ivy, and Buttercup, and that Thistle was running wounded with a weasel hot on his tail; she found Corona and Walnut and taken off immediately. When they came to the site where the battle had taken place, Mallow had left Pimpernel to guard the injured rabbits, and had run off with them.

"I hope we're not to late," Walnut yelled to his companions as he struggled to keep up.

"I think we are," said Corona, "that weasel was moving pretty fast, wasn't it. Anyway, we can spare Thistle more than we can spare others."

"That doesn't mean that we can just let him die a horrible death by the weasels, you moron," Winters Wrath shrieked at Corona as she bounded over a bush, "stop being such a fool and learn the rule that we never leave an injured rabbit, whether we can spare him or not, behind to die a horrible death. All of you got that." Every rabbit in the rescue party agreed.

Winters Wrath and the three others ran as fast as they could, following the bloody trail. For a long time, Winters Wrath had been able to follow something and run fast for a long time. The process was new to the others, and they had trouble keeping up.

Even though one and a half months of training every day from ni-Frith to sundown had helped them become just about regular Owsla soldiers, they still had problems doing things the way Cowslip had once called wrong.

*************

Thistle had just managed to grab the second to last log in the chain of floating logs. He was now getting carried along at a very high speed by the rushing river. The weasel had made the mistake of jumping in after him, and was now struggling to stay above water since he had not managed to grab a log. Thistle knew that a waterfall would soon come, and that was what he was waiting for. Thistle hoped to jump off the log right before he went down the waterfall and land in some soft bush.

The weasel had no idea that Thistle was planning on doing that. He at the moment was doing his best to stay above water and keep an eye on Thistle while at the same time trying to breathe.

The chance finally came when Thistle saw a huge waterfall coming up. Thistle scrabbled a little but farther up the log and pressed his legs against the side. Extending them all at same time, Thistle went flying off the log and into some bramble bushes on the other side of the river. The weasel fell down the waterfall and landed with a sickening thud on the grass and mud below.

As Thistle looked down the slope, he saw the weasel pull itself up and swim across the now calm water to the other side of the bank far below.

"I'll get you back for this, you stupid rabbit, I swear I will," screamed the injured weasel from far below. Then, It took off into the forest.

Thistle just smiled. The water had stopped the blood flow from his legs, and he was glad that he had actually outsmarted another creature.

After a while, Winters Wrath and her patrol came up to him, and together they began their long journey back to the home warren. The journey was made safely, and every rabbit in the warren, including the injured Ivy, Perloo, and the other tormentors that Thistle had in the warren, were all surprised and glad to see Thistle alive and well.

Thistle and Poppy, due to their smart thinking and planning, were graduated from training immediately. As Cowslip wanted, Poppy became the messenger. Only Ivy and Hawkweed were left to pass. Though the Shining Wire warren's future looked bright, dark clouds were soon to come their way. Meanwhile, the story of Horace, Flash, Splotch, and Snowfoot was just beginning.

Note: This story is going to be at least 20 chapters long, so don't think that the end is near any time soon.