"Do you yield, Rosebush?"

"Y-y-es, Sir Ma'am." The brown rabbit cowered in fear under the white one's paws. "I-I yield."

"Good." The white rabbit took her paws off of Rosebush's chest. "Or else I might have had to claw your throat open." Rosebush got up and dusted his fur off.

"You really shouldn't do that, Daisy-mar." A silvery buck remarked.

"Quiet, Cabbage,unless you'd like to take his place." She sat up on her hind legs and groomed her right ear. "Why are you even here? I told you to stay in my burrow!"

"There's another rabbit coming over the hill, Sir Ma'am. A strange one."

"Nonsense. Probably you, with your head always in the clouds, never saw this one before."

"It's entirely possible, Sir Ma'am, but I still thought I should tell-"

"Maybe he won't even come here. We are rather out of the way for someone to send a scout to. Maybe some of last year's kittens got away from my attention."

"He's too big, a good few months too old."

"Let me see this one, then. Out of my way!" Chiefess Daisy-mar, or the Chiefess, as she was known, hopped up the hill past Cabbage to look for the stranger. She spied a young rabbit making his way through the grass. He was about a year old, a buck. She waited for him long enough to see that he was clearly headed towards her. He ran over close to her and sat on his hind legs.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, but know you where the Chief Rabbit is?" Cabbage laughed silently behind Daisy-mar's back.

"Yes, you're looking at her." Daisy-mar spoke as though having female Chief Rabbits was the norm, rather than the exception.

"Pardon me, Ma'am?" the stranger asked, looking confused.

"Sir Ma'am," Cabbage whispered loudly. The Chiefess heard him.

"When I require your assistance, Cabbage, I will ask for it. Now," she said, turning back to the stranger. "Who are you? And where are you from?"

"Name's Oak, Ma- Sir Ma'am. I'm from another warren. Watership Down. Heard of it, have you?"

"The name's slightly familar." More than slightly, she thought to herself. "What is the nature of your business?"

"Oh, I was sent out looking for things- you know, anything I thought strange- and I came upon this place. What is the name of your warren?"

"Applegrass." Daisy-mar chewed on some clover in front of her. "So you thought us strange, did you?"

"Only because I thought it funny we hadn't met before, being only 4 hours away from each other."

"Who is your Chief Rabbit?"

Oak laughed. "He's my father. Everyone thinks highly of him. His name's Hazel."

"Mmm hmm. Do you?"

"Of course. I'd be a hrakali not to."

"Well, we have nothing to say now, do we? I suppose you'd better go. And Cabbage, if you clean the grass out of your ears, you might go with him."

At this Cabbage perked up. "Sir Ma'am? Really?"

"Really. But speak to me for a minute."

They hopped away over to Daisy-mar's burrow. Cabbage spoke up. "What do you want?"

"Engage this Oak in conversation. Get him to tell you a little about himself, his warren, his father. Then report to me what he says. If you do, I shall show you where I left some carrots."

"Carrots?" Cabbage hopped around and ran over to Oak, then turned around to the Chiefess. "I'll do as you say."

"Good. Be gone and do it."

Cabbage hopped off with Oak. "The Chiefess hardly ever lets me go anywhere alone. This is a golden day for me."

"What position have you?"

"I'm the Chiefess's aide. Picked me out of the litter, as the best for the job. That's what she says when she's in a good mood. When she's not, she tells me she knew I'd be stupid and do what she says without question."

Oak scratched his ear, then ran to catch up with Cabbage, who was already at the top of the next hill when he did. "What's it like having a female Chief Rabbit?"

"You mean, what's it like compared to a buck Chief?" Cabbage asked. Oak nodded. "Well, I can't say. She's been Chiefess since before I was born, last summer."

"That long?"

"Yes, and I'd say it's rather funny how it happened. 3 years ago, for some strange reason, all the kittens born were does. We call it the Year of the Doe. Anyway, the Chiefess-she was just Daisy then- was one of those kittens. She grew up just like a normal doe, until she was a year old. The old Chief Rabbit, Lichen, noticed that our Owsla was getting sparse, not to mention old, and so he passed a motion to teach the does how to fight. Most of them balked at the idea, but all gave in, unwillingly. Only Daisy really put her heart into it. She told me that she suspects it was just an easy way to get rid of the doe surplus and start over.You know, have them killed off by foxes until there were none left. Wanted to drive them all tharn.

"Then, Lichen died, and the Owsla by now was decrepit, except for Daisy and a 2 year old named Flame. Because the warren was pretty much divided-the bucks and older rabbits preferred Flame, the youths and does wanted Daisy- they had a fight. Big exhibition, too. But Flame was no match for Daisy. She cuffed him all over the place. Poor Flame only got in a few nips, and one small cuff. Then, finally, she bit him hard, in his left haunch. He ran away from her, screaming, not because of the pain, but the humiliation. Daisy ran after him a bit, and then stopped. There was a fox running up ahead, and it saw Flame, hopping lop-sided, and it ran up and bit his neck." Cabbage's eyes were glowing with emotion. "That was the end of him. Daisy claimed the title, and thus became the Chiefess. Daisy for her name, and "mar" for marli."

"Why do you call her 'Sir Ma'am'?"

"'Sir' because she is the leader, and 'Ma'am' so nobody will forget that she's a doe. Although, I must say, it's quite easy to forget even then, because her manner is so like a buck."

"Is she always as strict as she looks?" And Oak told him about Efrafa, and General Woundwort.

"Oh, Frith, she isn't that bad. She just looks it. Say, if I ever come for a real visit to your warren, I should like to meet that Bigwig fellow. I bet he's gotten into tons of jolly scraps, more than I could imagine. And a story for each one!"

"I thought you were coming to visit us."

"Oh, no, Oak, she actually sent me to tell her what you said."

Oak looked confused. "Whatever for?"

Cabbage's excited face turned upset. "What a hrakali I am, now! The Chiefess told me to report to her everything you said. She chose me because I don't look like a spy, and now I see it's with good reason I don't! Hrakali!"

Oak seemed amused with this. "Well, that's a shame. But I don't think it matters this way or that. I didn't tell you anything important." He paused. "Tell you what. Why don't we continue this journey in silence? That is, I won't say a word more, but you can talk all you want. Then when you get back, tell your Chiefess that I was very uncooperative and refused to say a word. It won't improve what she thinks of me, but at least you'll be sort of honest."

"You'd do that? Truly? Oh, thank you, Oak. Thank you. Maybe I will come someday, to visit you. It's so nice to have neighbours. Do you know, I thought we were quite alone out here."

They continued the rest of the journey mostly in silence, with the occasional "I found a bit of clover, here."

Cabbage stepped on a sharp rock and limped a little for some of the way, and then they crossed the hill.

There were several rabbits, silflaying outside burrows. A large brown one sat by a tunnel, sitting up on his hind legs, sniffing the air.

"That's my father," said Oak.

"That's Hazel? He looks rather old."

"He is. All of them are, the ones who started this place."

"Have you been here long?"

"Since kittenhood for me. It's getting obvious that if we don't keep the stories, Sandleford and Hazel's bunch will be forgotten."

"Sandleford?"

"Father's old warren, the one he and the others left."

"Why?"

"Oh, his brother had a vision. Fiver, name is. Quite the legend we've had of him around. Many's the time he's saved us all. Even me."

"How did that happen?"

"I was just out of the burrow, barely weaned. I was enjoying some vetch, when suddenly, something swoops down and grabs me away. I'm dead scared, and I scream, but then I see it's Fiver. Got me by the scruff of my neck, he did, and I didn't know what was going on. He told me and the others he had a bad feeling about me. Well, that night, I turned real sick, and the Black Rabbit nearly had me many times. Seems somebody had spilled some gas there, and I had nibbled on a leaf with some of it. If Fiver hadn't pulled me away, you'd be talking to nobody on this hill."

"We don't have anybody like that back home, or, if we do, they're shut up because everyone thinks they're loco."

Bigwig was on the hill, going after a smaller rabbit. Strangely enough, the little one seemed to be beating him.

"Who's that there?"

"That's Bigwig."

Cabbage couldn't believe it. "Some great fighter! Why is he losing?"

Oak laughed again. It seemed it didn't take much to make him laugh. "That's Comfrey, my sister. She's just playing with him. She's quite taken with him. In fact, I'd almost say she has a crush on him."

The two had not noticed the sky change amongst their idle conversation. It had grown rather dark. A bolt of lightning streaked across it like a charging army. Then the thunder roared.

"What a noise! I didn't even see the clouds until now. They're quite dark. I do hope I get home in time before it rains."

"Nonsense. Why should you go out at all? Stay here, with us."

"But the Chiefess-"

"If she has even a scrap of sense, she'll guess that you didn't want to go home in such weather. Besides, you being so valuable to her, and me- yes, we shall be friends- it's likely she won't begrudge you for looking out for yourself. Come, I'll introduce you to the others."

Cabbage followed Oak down the hill. Most of the other rabbits had already gone in, but Hazel sat by the mouth of a large burrow, waiting for Oak to come back. They ran up to him.

"Who's this now you've found? I don't remember him."

"This is Cabbage. I found another warren a ways away. Isn't it funny we didn't know of each other?"

Hazel stared at the newcomer. "Has it a name?"

"It's called Applegrass, Sir." Cabbage spoke up.

Hazel looked at Cabbage, as if trying to remember if he'd seen him before.

"He's going to stay with us, Father. At least for tonight. Then he'll go back home tomorrow."

"Yes, very good of you, Oak," Hazel said. "Come on in."

They were only a few inches into the tunnel when the rain began to fall.

Note: Hrakali is a new term I coined from Lapine, literally "dung-head"- meaning idiot, fool, dunce