Dogwood was so tired that he could barely stand up. He, Buttercup, and Winters Wrath had been spending a lot of time trying to find out about the fox. It had been a week and a half since the first attack, and since then, the fox had taken eight more rabbits. Dogwood had spent a ton of time patrolling with Poppy, Pimpernel, Corona, Thistle, and Mallow to find out where the fox was at all times, while Buttercup and Winters Wrath led the rest in an attempt to put down the rising rebel forces that wanted to overthrow Cowslip. The fox was sending the warren into total chaos, and Dogwood didn't like it at all. He was glad that he had a couple hours of sleep ahead of him. When he lay down in his burrow, he fell asleep immediately.

Dogwood was awoken with a start by someone shaking him. "What is it," Dogwood said angrily, "it's not time to get up yet, is it?"

"Yes, it is," said Pimpernel, "it's day break, you've been asleep for four hours. It's time to start patrolling again. Come on, we're all waiting for you."

"Who's that, is that you Pimpernel," groaned Dogwood, "what are you doing in my burrow. You're definitely not allowed in here."

"It's not like I had a choice," snarled Pimpernel, "everyone out there thought that it would be nice and funny if I went in to wake you up."

"Are they all out there," said Dogwood, ignoring the remark "is everyone out there?"

"Everyone except for Mallow," said Pimpernel, "he's helping out Buttercup and Winters Wrath today."

"Okay, that's all I need to know," said Dogwood, "tell them that I'll be out in a minute. Now get out of here." Pimpernel took off out of the burrow in a flash. Dogwood walked out of his burrow and went to his patrol. He told them that they should eat something before they left. He himself went out to the middle of the field, and began to eat hungrily. After a few minutes, Dogwood rounded up his patrol again and headed off.

During the patrol, the rabbits walked in some kind of straight line. Corona was up in front, checking to see if he saw the fox, Dogwood and Pimpernel followed to check for any kind of droppings or tracks, and Poppy and Thistle stayed behind to try to catch the fox's scent.

"So far, so good," said Pimpernel wearily as he trudged up a small hill.

"Shut up," snapped Dogwood, "if our little foxy woxy hears us talking, then one of us is done for."

"Not to break the rule, but I think I've got its smell," said Thistle from behind the patrol, "come on over and smell it for yourself."

The whole patrol gathered around where Thistle was, and they could smell the scent of Red Rage very slightly. All the rabbits stood still for a second before Poppy said, "it's nothing to worry about, you can barely smell it."

"How is it nothing to worry about," asked Dogwood, "Winters Wrath told us to report any sight or smell of the fox. I think that this qualifies as smell."

"She's got a point though," said Corona, "this thing has a very strong scent, and here you can barely smell it. It probably was here a few days ago, or more, because there's no tracks around this area. I caught the smell of it a little farther up our route also."

"Yeah, Corona's right," said Pimpernel, "we've got a lot of ground to cover today, so we'd better get going."

Dogwood nodded, and the patrol took of again. Over the next hour, the rabbits caught the slight smell of the fox in some places, but there wasn't much danger.

All of a sudden, a stoat fell out of a tree on top of Pimpernel. He squealed as the stoat went for his neck, but Dogwood kicked it off of Pimpernel, and the whole patrol closed in on it and drove it off.

"That was close," said Pimpernel, "thanks for the help."

Dogwood and the others just nodded, and continued on as always. Nothing else happened, and in another hour, they finished the first of three routes. An hour later, they had completed the second, this time with no sign of the fox at all. It wasn't until they were halfway through the third route that the scent of Red Rage could really be smelled.

"Wow, the smell's really strong around these parts," said Poppy to Thistle, "maybe we should tell Dogwood."

"He probably already knows that we're smelling the fox," said Thistle, "the smell isn't as slight as it was on the first route."

"Umm, not to trouble you all, but I think we have a problem," said Corona from up at the front. The four other rabbits raced to were Corona was, and saw what he was talking about. Around twenty yards in front of him was the fox that they were tracking. Though it wasn't moving very fast, it appeared to be heading towards the warren.

"At least it hasn't noticed us yet," Dogwood whispered out loud, not sure who would answer him.

"It will pretty soon," said Corona, "it seems to have a good sense of smell. We need to think of a plan fast."

"I know one," said Thistle, "run for our lives."

"No, we're not doing that," said Corona, "it'll hear us the second we take off, and it's faster than us, remember."

"Yeah, he's right," said Dogwood, "I think that four of us should move silently away from it while the fifth heads back to the warren."

"That's not a bad idea, but when we head to the warren, we pass right in front of it. It'll probably smell whoever goes," said Pimpernel, "we should circle around it, so it won't catch our smell."

The fox suddenly started sniffing the air. Dogwood said, "that'll take to long. It'll have made it to the warren and made a kill before we even get there. It's probably smelled us already. Let's go with the first plan. Corona, head to the warren, we'll meet you later. Go NOW."

And just like that, Corona began heading back to the warren, and Dogwood and the rest of the patrol began to move away from the fox. Corona went at a slow pace so that the fox wouldn't be alerted. But Red Rage had smelled rabbit, so he sniffed the air. He caught the smell coming from the direction Corona was traveling him. With a bound, Red Rage rushed to Corona. As Red Rage ran, he stepped on some brush, which made a loud crash.

The second Corona heard the loud crash, he knew the fox was after him. Without making a sound, Corona ran as fast as he possibly could, dodging through trees, and going under bushes. It all appeared to be working. The fox seemed to be falling behind. As Corona dove under and out of a bush, he realized that the fox noticed it also. The fox ran faster, and it began gaining on Corona.

Corona was a very fast rabbit, and he was one of the fastest rabbits in the warren. Though rabbits such as fellow Owsla member Poppy were faster, Corona had an innate talent for being able to get around and put obstacles in the way of pursuers. Unfortunately, Corona was trying to get away from a fox that had the same talents.

'Dear Frith, I'm in for it now,' thought Corona to himself as he dodged a tree, 'if I had known this thing was so fast, then I wouldn't have agreed to this plan.' Corona entered a small clearing and ran as fast as he could straight across it. He entered the other side of the clearing through a bush, making a loud crash. Within three seconds, an ominous crash from the same bush told him that Red Rage was right behind. Corona suddenly realized that he was nearer to the warren than he thought. He just had another 400 yards to go. Unfortunately, Red Rage was right behind him. The large fox was also gaining on him.

Corona managed to throw Red Rage of a little bit by jumping over a small fern, and then dodging an oak tree, but Red Rage got back on track and copied Corona's every move and eventually began gaining on him.

Corona suddenly found that he was less than fifteen yards away from the warren. He then put his head down and ran as fast as he could through the trees and onto the silflay field.

"FOX," screamed Corona, "FOX alert. Get to your burrows immediately. IMMEDIATELY." The rabbits out on the field wasted no time in running towards their burrows. In less than ten seconds, the field was clear.

Corona smiled as he headed towards the burrows. He knew that he had done his job right and that he would be rewarded. He knew that Red Rage was right behind him even though he hadn't heard the crash of brush. He ran as fast as he could towards the burrows. He was no more than four yards away from the burrows, when a dark shadow suddenly appeared over Corona. Red Rage had sprung in a last effort to catch the running rabbit.

The shadow frightened Corona, and he stopped abruptly as the fox sailed overhead. Corona tried to run around the fox after it sailed over him, but Red Rage recovered from the missed spring immediately and blocked Corona's route to the burrows. Corona ran to the left and to right, hoping to trick the fox, but Red Rage matched him every move.

Corona knew that his situation didn't look good. The only escape path was back to the wood, and Corona knew that the fox would catch him if he ran there. Suddenly, Corona had an idea. He took two steps backwards, and the fox didn't move at all. Red Rage clearly expected Corona to take off back to the wood. Suddenly Corona charged forward. Corona then sprang in the air as high as he possibly could. Red Rage, who wasn't expecting that, attempted to jump up and catch Corona in mid air, but he had waited to long. Corona sailed over the fox, and landed firmly. Within an instant, he was in a burrow. He had escaped Red Rage.

Corona happily stared up at the three rabbits that were already in the burrow. All of a sudden, Red Rage stuck his head into the entrance and said to Corona, "you were lucky." Then, the vicious fox was gone.