The ragtag band of rabbits continued on their journey for the high hills, crossing meadows, passing fields of crops or grazing cows and horses along the way (Lily said a polite hello to the cows and horses), squeezing under a wooden fence to cross another meadow, until their feet began to ache as their bodies cried out for rest and food.

"Does anyone know where we're going?" asked Silver.

"Hazel does, I'm sure," Violet replied, confidently.

"They need to rest, Hazel," Bigwig said. "And they are hungry too."

At that moment, Hazel paused and looked out to a great field of tall bean plants that crowded together like corn stalks where a few bees and butterflies hung about. "There's something up ahead."

"A warm friendly burrow perhaps?" guessed Bluebell.

"No, not a burrow, a field," Hazel replied. "A great field of scented plants that will cover us until we're rested. And the beans will be good to eat."

"You're beginning to sound like a chief, Hazel," complimented Blackberry.

"Hazel-rah sounds like a good name," Lily said.

"Hazel-rah!" laughed Bigwig. "That'll be the day I call him chief, that will."

Lily would have made a clever retort, but she grew so tired that she didn't say anything. The rest of the band were exhausted from their travels, so they piled up separately underneath the bean stalks, providing them good shelter and shade. Some of them stayed awake to eat the beans from the stalks.

"It's so peaceful here," Fiver sighed, feeling a sense of relaxation overtake him.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," Hawkbit stated, glancing up at the sky warily. "The next disaster can't be far off." Then he closed his eyes to rest.

Nobody cared about any disaster happening soon because they were too sleepy to care. Lily nibbled on a few of the beans growing on the stalks, then noticed Pipkin hopping toward a bean leaf to sniff it and then going to the next one.

"You want to try a bean?" she asked, kindly.

"In a minute," Pipkin told her, "I just want to explore for a while." He spotted a ladybug crawling on a leaf.

Lily smiled at the young buck's curiosity as he longed to explore new places or things that are different from the world he grew up in, or had never seen while growing up in Sandleford. She remembered her own curiosity when she was a young doe, growing up on the farm or taken on Henry's family outings had been a new experience for her, having never seen things a rabbit has never seen in his or her life.

"You should rest, Pipkin, we have a long way to go," Hazel yawned as he spoke to the young kitten.

"I will, I just wanted to look around a little," responded Pipkin, as he then chased after a ladybug.

"Don't go too far," Hazel warned.

"I won't." Pipkin noticed a toad and decided to playfully chase after it instead.

Watching the young buck pursuit the toad brought an amused chuckle out of Bigwig, saying, "Aww, boundless energy of youth."

"I'll keep an eye on him," Lily suggested, and without any objections she trailed after the little buck.

As the curious little Pipkin continued his pursuit of the toad, Lily caught up to him and prevented him from going any further beyond the fence when he got closer to the fence. Just then, they heard a strange voice mumbling. They looked up and there stood a seagull resting on the fence post.

"It's a seagull!" exclaimed Lily. "I don't know if they are friendly or not."

Though being the friendly and kind-hearted young buck he is, Pipkin approached the gull to say, "Hello."

"Aaaaahhhh!" the gull squawked and nearly fell off the fence post. He glared at the doe and the young kitten as he spoke with an unfamiliar accent, "You crazy?! Why you sneak up on Kehaar for?!"

"I'm sorry," Pipkin apologized. "You're a gull, aren't you?"

"Yah!" The gull, called Kehaar, responded, "Gull, from big water."

"What's a big water?" Pipkin lowered his eyebrows in confusion.

"I believe he means the ocean or the sea," explained Lily.

"Yah, what your mother said," Kehaar confirmed. "Water forever. Full of fish. You know where big water go?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Kehaar." Lily shook her head, then realized how the seagull referred her to as a relation to the young kitten close to her. "And second, I'm not his mother. I'm his friend."

"Are you lost then?" asked Pipkin.

"Lost... hungry... want fish..."

"I wish I could help." Pipkin frowned in disappointment, but then his face lit up when he seemed to recognize the gull. "I saw you flying earlier. It must be wonderful to fly! If I could see these high hills when flying, then we can find our home."

"Would you happen to fly up and see if you can find these high hills, Mr. Kehaar?" Lily asked, politely.

"Don't know if I could fine these high hills. You both lost too, huh?" said Kehaar, for a moment wondering, "like me... like Hanya."

"Hanya's another gull then?" figured Pipkin.

"Nah! Mouse," Kehaar explained. "She say 'if you got no home, make home where you are.' Pfft! She nice, but confusing."

Before Lily or Pipkin could ask another question, they heard a familiar buck calling out for them and they turned their heads around in the direction of where the voice came from.

"Pipkin! Lily! Where are you?" shouted Hawkbit.

The seagull cocked his head, staring at the bean stalks. "Who is that?" he asked.

"It's Hawkbit," Lily told him, then remembered how she didn't introduce themselves to the seagull, and neither did Pipkin. She didn't want to be rude in front of a gull before leaving without introducing themselves. "My name is Lily, and this is Pipkin."

"I suppose we should get back now," said Pipkin. "It was nice meeting you, Kehaar."

"Humph! Be nicer if you had fish,' Kehaar grumbled, though nevertheless was sad to see the two rabbits go.

"Say hello to this Hanya for us, please," Lily added, before she and Pipkin turned and headed back to the group. However, they noticed Violet wandering over to the fence with her nose in the air. Puzzled, Lily and Pipkin started to follow her.

As the seagull watched the two rabbits depart, Kehaar sighed sadly, "Ohh, everybody lost. Nobody got a home." Flapping his wings, the seagull took to the skies.

"Violet, what are you doing?" asked Lily, catching up to her friend.

"I can smell violets!" the purple colored doe replied. "They smell and taste delicious. Mother said I was born with fur just like the flower itself. That's why I was named after the violet flower." A small patch of purple flowers were growing just outside the wooden fence in the meadow a short distance, much to Violet's delight. She hopped over to the violet patch and started to eat them.

"Mmm, I think I'll have some too!" Pipkin licked his lips hungrily and started to hop over to eat some of the violets.

But then, Lily became very increasingly alert as she heard the sound of wings. It sounded like Kehaar's wings, except larger and fiercer. She caught Pipkin by the ear to prevent him from leaving the field.

"Ow! What did you do that for?" the young buck was angered at having his ear pulled, but then he noticing the doe was shaking in terror and grew concerned. "Lily, what's wrong?"

Then Lily spotted the shadow of a hawk circling the sky as it turned to make a dive on the unsuspecting Violet. The ginger doe became paralyzed to react or do anything. Pipkin wondered why she had gone tharn while trying to get an answer out of her, but Lily was too shaken to respond. The young buck realized that Lily's behavior was telling him that elil was close by.

It all happened so fast in the blink of an eye. Without any time to warn Violet, the hawk extended its sharp talons out and there came a bloodcurdling squeak. The spot where Violet once stood amongst the disheveled flowers was now empty, leaving nothing except a few drifting feathers and some drops of blood.

Lily and Pipkin were extremely traumatized by what they just witnessed. Violet's death cry had alerted the other rabbits to awaken from their slumber or interrupted their meal of beans as they came rushing over to their paralyzed friends.

"What happened?!" Hazel demanded, his voice filled with anxiety.

Pipkin's voice trembled as he tried to find the right words, until he spoke tearfully, "Violet's gone."

The rabbits softly gasped, as they couldn't believe that one of their members had been taken by elil. It was a serious blow to their hearts. They lowered their heads in mourning. Blackberry placed a paw on Lily's shoulder to make sure if she was alright, but the physical contact broke Lily out of her paralyzed state and she burst into tears. She buried her paws in her face, crying hysterically. The death of Violet had an emotional affect on her. Lily had just gotten to know Violet, but fate had been cruel to her by robbing her of a dear friend.

"I'm sorry, lass." Bigwig comforted her softly.

"You told me not to go tharn, but I did! I could've saved her!" Lily looked up at him with her furry cheeks wet by tears. "It's all my fault!" Then she reached over and gave him a hug in need for solace.

Feeling her do this, Bigwig was unsure about it at first, but then he frowned sadly as he gave her a little squeeze. They remained like this for a few moments, whilst he joined the rabbits' prayer for the loss of a friend.

"My heart has joined a thousand today... for my friend has stopped running..."

Pipkin began to cry as he buried his face in Blackberry's chest as the doe offered him comfort by stroking the fur on his head, as if a mother was consoling a child after a painful loss.

"Come on, we can't stay here." Hazel solemnly left the field as everybody followed in silence.

Lily and Bigwig released from their hug as they both caught up with the band.


The group remained silent and somber as they continued on their journey. The clouds became dark and gray, as if nature itself was in mourning with them. Rain began to pour out from the skies and the rabbits got soaking wet. Their paws covered in mud as they crawled under a wired fence. Hazel got a cut on his back when he felt a sharp prick from the wire, and his blood stain left on the prick.

Bluebell collapsed, exhausted. Hazel urgently encouraged him to keep moving due to elil often hunting at night. Shortly after crawling under the wired fence, they came to a ditch where Fiver paused. He turned his head to gaze at a tall tree surrounded by smaller trees on a high hill, it was so far away that it could take days to get there. Lightning struck the top, but the trees weren't destroyed nor set on fire.

"Fiver, what is it?" Hazel looked back to see his brother had froze.

"There, that's where we're going!" Fiver declared, as if he felt Frith had sent a message to send them the destination of where they needed to go. "That down. That's our home."

For a brief moment, Hazel seemed questionable of his level of trust toward his little brother. "We head for the down!" he announced at last, as he instantly followed his brother down the path.

The rest of the rabbits were uncertain over Fiver's idea and looked ready to express doubts regarding Fiver's sanity, until Lily boldly ushered them to go onward. So they decided to keep pressing on. Lily glanced over her shoulder to see Bigwig was shaking his head disapprovingly, his tension building up but he kept it locked inside of him for now, before he caught up with them.

The rain started to cease, at least for now. However, the other rabbits grew exhausted from their long walk in the ditch as they climbed up a steep hill, and grew wetter and muddier by the second due to the rain and muddy path. Some of them complained the need for sleep, others were not only tired but frightened.

"Where are we going to sleep?" asked Hawkbit. "There will be more elil out soon. It's too late to dig for scrapes."

"There! We'll rest there!" Hazel gazed at an abandoned church in ruins surrounded by a small graveyard behind a damaged stone wall. "It'll give us enough coverage from elil."

"We can't rest there! It's a Man place!" objected Bigwig, standing protectively in front of Lily and Pipkin.

"There are no men in there, I don't smell any man at all," Lily assured, passing the surprised lion headed rabbit to go forth in the abandoned chapel.

Cautiously, the rabbits entered the chapel and Hazel sniffed the air to make sure it was safe. It was, so he gestured the others to come in. The chapel had no pews, lots of broken glass windows, no roof, although plenty of debris that fell from what used to be a roof. An old sign hung half loose at the entrance and it could still be read as Lily found out, NEWTON CHURCH.

Everyone settled down under a large chunk of debris and immediately fell asleep. Lily was forced to sleep behind Bigwig cause he wanted her by his side at all times, especially Pipkin. This was his way of ensuring their safety. Silver and Bigwig stayed a little off distance from the others to stay on guard that no elil was around.

It had been a few hours when the rain had stopped and the rabbits had taken shelter in the ruins of the church for the night,. Everyone was dozing quietly, until Fiver started to mutter and gasp in his sleep. Bigwig and Silver whirled their heads around, annoyed. Suddenly, Bigwig's ears pricked up.

"Shhh!" hushed Bigwig.

Fiver's eyes snapped open, alarmed. "Bigwig! I thought-"

"Quiet!" Bigwig growled, trying to settle him down. "Something's here." His ears twitched when he heard something was approaching them.

"Maybe it's the Black Rabbit of Inle."

"Nonsense, there's no such thing."

A hideous squeak captured their attention and, in that instant, a large black rat had grabbed Bigwig by the ear. His pained cries echoed in the chapel like thunder. This awoke the other rabbits, startled and alert. Bigwig swung his head to shake the rat off his ear and send him flying into an old statue. The impact knocked the statue down and it fell with a crash. This drew the attention of a white owl flying nearby. It noticed the rats and the rabbits inside the chapel, fighting amongst each other as Dandelion kicked a rat into a wall. The owl's dark eyes glared dangerously when it changed direction, swooped down and caught one unlucky rat so far. It nearly caught Fiver, who scurried under the debris for safety with the others. Lily swiped at a rat which tried to go after Pipkin, though Hazel and Blackberry took care of the rest so far.

Suddenly there came a vicious cawing sound. It seemed to frighten the rats as they scurried off to hide. As for the owl, it didn't want any part of whatever else is coming either as it flew away with the dead rat in its claws for a late night snack.

"Now, what?!" grunted Bigwig, rubbing his ear from where he had been bitten.

Everyone looked up as another pair of wings sounded off, though they sounded quite smaller than the owl. Nobody saw movement at first, until Lily pointed out with her paw at the shape of a huge black crow lurking above them in front of the broken glass.

"Corvil! A reckoning of them!" Bigwig exclaimed.

"Don't you mean a crow?" Lily suggested, and the lion maned rabbit shook his head at her so-called ignorance.

The crow glided downward and landed on another pile of debris. It wasn't alone as it was joined by a large group of crows, they came surrounding the area and the worried rabbits, unsure of how to react. It proved obvious to why the rats and the owl evacuated. This abandoned chapel was owned by the flock of crows, making it their territory.

"Let me try talking to them." Hazel attempted to speak with the leader of the crows.

"Talk to them?! Hazel, no!" Bigwig knew it was absurd to communicate with an elil.

"Look Hazel, when I lived on the farm, the crows proved to be quite a problem as they ransacked fields and... you're not listening to me, are you?" Lily grumbled, failing to make Hazel see reason instead of trying to knock sense into him not speaking to these troublesome crows.

"He never listens," Bigwig sighed, agreeing with her.

"Umm..." Hazel 's timid voice stuttered, "we understand that this might be your home." The lead crow titled its head sideways with a caw as the rabbit spoke, "We are only here because we've got nowhere to go-"

The lead crow suddenly charged at Hazel and started to violently peck at him, while the rest of the flock charged at the other rabbits. The group tried bravely to defend themselves from the crows with every strength and courage they've got. Most of the rabbits kicked them with their strong hind legs or swatted at them with their paws, claws extended. But it made the crows more aggressive that some of them began to bite the rabbits. Two crows tried to drag little Pipkin out as the young buck cried out. With a roar, Lily cuffed the two crows with a harsh swipe of her paws. Though one of them tried to pull at her ears, until Bigwig viciously grabbed it by the tail with his mouth and flung it across the floor.

"Someone should draw them away, give the rest of us a chance," Bigwig suggested, hastily as he fought against a crow.

"Are you mad?! You'll never outrun a corvil!" Hawkbit exclaimed, thinking the idea was insane.

"I'll go!" Dandelion volunteered with a determined look in his eyes and, in a flash, he raced out of their hiding spot that drew the crows' attention toward him.

"He's serious!" Bluebell gasped.

Using the debris as leverage, Dandelion leapt from one to another as he dodged and maneuvered his pursuers to reach an opening in the wall to get out. Everyone left their hiding spot as they climbed to a high broken window to get a view of watching worriedly as the entire flock of crows pursued their friend.

"That is one fast rabbit," awed Blackberry.

Dandelion dashed across the graveyard, faster than any rabbit no one had ever seen. He raced under a fallen log, where a crow banged himself up against it. Thinking fast, the blonde buck lead them to the stone hedge where he slipped through a hole and another crow crashed his body upon contact. The rest of the flock flew over the hedge, refusing to give up the chase.

"He's got them distracted, let's go!" Hazel ordered as they evacuated the chapel.

Circling the chapel's burial ground, one of the members of the flock caught sight of the runaway rabbit and maneuvered his flight position closer to his prey. Dandelion noticed this, so he picked up speed. The crow almost got his claws on him, but the buck's quick thinking lead him to a crash landing.

As the rabbits made their escape from another broken window, they stared at Dandelion's speed in amazement, never expecting him to be this fast. They noticed one crow, the leader of the flock, gaining altitude to swoop down and swiftly snatch up Dandelion in his claws, carrying him up in the air.

"There he is! No, Dandelion! Put him down!" cried Hawkbit, horrified.

The reminisce of Violet's death flashed through Lily's eyes. She turned away, not baring to witness another friend lost to elil, until she felt movement rush past her, seeing Bigwig do something no rabbit had ever done. The lion buck made a sharp turn and raced after the crow, who had taken away Dandelion. The rabbits had taken notice of what he was doing, shouting for him to come back, but it fell on deaf ears.

Another crow wanted a piece of the prey, flying in and colliding right up against the leader. The crow squawked and let go of a screaming Dandelion as he fell to the solid earth, though he wasn't hurt. The ground's impact of his fall didn't kill him, but Dandelion knew he had to get out there as soon as possible before the crows could get him.

The blonde buck hurriedly climbed up upon one of the stone tombs, then used a rows of tombs close to gain faster ground and for a staircase to reach the black iron fence. Lucky for him, he was slender enough to slip through the thin bars. The crow smashed himself against the fence, cawing in a rage.

"Run, Dandelion!" shouted Hawkbit, as he and the other rabbits leapt out of the window.

There was too many crows and the runaway found himself surrounded. Dandelion was close to exhaustion, so he scrambled under a pair of fallen gravestones piled on one another for cover. The crows surrounded them as the blonde furred rabbit remained hidden, looking quite helpless in such a deadly situation. The leader of the crows landed in front of him as his caw sounded like wicked laughter now that it was all over for Dandelion.

All of a sudden, a familiar battle cry came out of nowhere. Bigwig pounced and rolled over the lead crow with a harsh throw, slightly breaking the bones of that malicious black bird. "One step closer and I'll pull your tail feathers out, and stuff them down your throat, you embleer corvil!" he threatened.

But the lead crow stood his ground and charged at the lion maned rabbit. The two enemies battled fiercely in combat. Bigwig managed to find the strength to keep fighting, remembering his comrade hiding under the gravestones, determined to win the fight. He pinned the crow to the ground with his strong arms, holding the black bird's beak to the side to expose an opening, and reached down to sink his teeth into the crow's throat.

Thunder crashed, and the crow died instantly. The group stared, shocked. Lily's eyes enlarged, horrified at what Bigwig had done. Dandelion had turned away when it happened. The rest of the crows retreated after witnessing the death of their leader.

"Is everyone okay?" Blackberry concerned as she came rushing over, joined by the rest of the group.

"Remind me never to outrun crows again," Dandelion sighed, crawling out of his hiding spot.

"Don't ever do that again!" Hawkbit cuffed him on the back of the head while scolding him, though nevertheless he was quite happy to have him back.

Lily was visibly shaken by Bigwig's killing a crow in cold blood. How could a rabbit be so bloodthirsty? Especially one so strong and protective as Bigwig. As Bigwig approached her, she scooted further back. The blood stained on his mouth and teeth from his kill. He didn't look like a rabbit at all in her eyes, but a savage lion hell bent on killing whatever elil that stood in his way.

Bigwig had looked back to see she was still staring fearfully at him, noticing how traumatized she was as Lily shivered from watching his murder. "Lily, are you alright?" he asked, softly.

"You just killed it... I mean..." Lily's voice stuttered, as she couldn't get it out of her head, probably for all times.

"I only did what I must. It's what we do to stay alive," Bigwig spoke before reaching a paw out for her, but the idea of being touched by him made Lily panic as she bolted away to stay by Dandelion's side, whom was quite relieved to have made it and given a huge embrace by a relieved Lily, it made the blonde buck blush like mad.

Bigwig sighed, dejected. Then looking at his reflection in a small rain puddle, the blood still on his lips and his mane stuck out like Medusa's snakes, he immediately realized why she was afraid of him because not only did he kill an elil, but he did it in the act of monstrosity. Lily viewed him as a monster. It wretched Bigwig's heart that she had to see him like this. But he knew that he did what he had to do to save her. He wanted her to understand.

Then his eyes fell upon Hazel as he comforted the frightened doe. That was it. It was all Hazel's fault. Hazel brought them to this Frith-forsaken place, endangered their lives, and nearly cost the lives of two more rabbits. All because of Fiver's stupid visions and dreams. Eyes hardened like the soul behind them, Bigwig had enough of those outskirter brothers and their foolish idiocy.


Long after the rabbits had left the ruins of the church, the rain poured harder than ever. Once again, Mother Nature symbolizing tension and a feud was about to happen within the group. Morning is just around the corner, but no one could know it unless the rain stopped.

"What's happening back home, I wonder?" Pipkin sighed, thinking about his old home in Sandleford. "Think, when we lived in our own burrows? Dry, soft, warm bodies of mother snuggling with their young ones to keep them happy. Ah-choo!" he sneezed.

"Look, Hazel, we can't go on like this," Dandelion complained, though slightly shaken from the incident with the crows.

"It keeps getting worse and worse the further we go," Silver reminded him, thinking back to all of their near death encounters with elil in the past few days. His red eyes narrowed at him. "Where are we going? Other than these so called high lonely hills?"

"It won't be much longer, then we can all rest." Hazel tried to calm everyone down, but no one was having any of it.

"How MUCH longer?" Silver interrogated.

"We should never have left Sandleford," added Hawkbit.

"Suppose Fiver is all wrong?" Blackberry was starting to doubt to have doubts as well.

"We want to go back to Sandleford and find out!" exclaimed Bluebell.

"Go back?" Hazel was incredulous. "After all we've been through?"

"And probably get killed for wounding Captain Holly and escaping the Owsla?!" Bigwig scolded, aware of what could happen if they returned to Sandleford. "Talk sense for Frith's sake!"

"We must go on until we reach the high hills!" Fiver protested, standing his ground.

But Silver came toward Fiver in a threatening manner, a dark scorning frown on his face that would've made Bigwig proud. "I don't believe you know where we're going. This down of yours probably doesn't exist, you mole-snouted, muckraking..."

"QUIET!" Bigwig exploded, and all eyes landed on him. "Alright, day's breaking, we should stop."

"No, we keep moving," Hazel refused, stubbornly. "Just until we found another safe haven from elil, than we rest."

It was by now that Bigwig had quite enough. "Are you giving me an order, Hazel?" he started questioning the rabbit's authority and his brother's validity vision. "Because I didn't realize anyone had made you Chief Rabbit!" Lily gawked at the lion maned buck in fear as he vented his frustration at the brothers and blamed them for all their troubles, "After all, it was me who helped us escape Sandleford! Blackberry, who rescued us at the stream! Oh, and Dandelion, who saved us from your stupid mistake with the birds! We followed you here, because you promised us a better life, Hazel, a BETTER LIFE!"

Hazel did not lose his temper like Bigwig did, so he calmly sighed as he tried to assured the lion buck, "Things will improve when we reach the down."

"Yes, yes! The down." Bigwig guffawed, haughtily. "The place we're heading for no reason other than Fiver had a feeling about it!"

"All right, how about we calm down, everyone!" Lily interrupted, trying to be the reasonable member among the group. "They're right, Hazel. We need to rest. Mostly everyone here is exhausted and afraid. We'll continue on after we're all rested. And hopefully, we can discuss this in the morning."

Hazel noticed the others looking completely exhausted, especially Pipkin. He thought over what Lily told him and understood her point.

Refusing to go any further, Bigwig started attempting to dig himself a scrape on the bank next to him. "Now, I'll dig myself a scrap for the night. Is that okay? Not because I want to rest, but because this is where I'm staying!"

The others began to join him soon after, much to the dismay of Hazel and Fiver. They were losing the faith and trust of their companions.

Sighing, Lily started digging but remained further away from Bigwig as she decided to dig a scrape for herself and the two brothers. Despite agreeing that everyone needs to rest, she began to dislike the lion buck's confrontational aggression. "Bigwig, don't you think you're being a little hard on Hazel and Fiver?" she asked.

"HARD?! Look at us, we're digging in the rain like does. How am I hard?!" Bigwig questioned, still angry.

"I understand that we're all exhausted, however it doesn't mean that we should put the blame on Hazel and Fiver."

"A mistake that nearly got you killed!"

Lily tried to make a retort, but she closed her mouth when nothing came out. He was right. But she never blamed Hazel and Fiver for it. "Yes, but... after seeing Dandelion nearly taken... It's just that... Violet..."

Then, Bigwig had a brief moment of silence. At first, he assumed she feared him for his gruesome killing, but when she mentioned Violet's death, that brought a twinge of sadness for him. He made sure nobody was listening as he whispered, "I never meant to threaten you in the wrong way, Lily. I just want what's best for everyone in our group... especially you..." but his serious mode resumed as he added harshly, "But from now on, you are not leaving my side. You will stay away from Hazel and Fiver. You will stay with me at all times! Do I make myself clear?"

His dark tone and his gleaming eyes made her shiver, especially after witnessing the death of the crow by Bigwig's doing. Warned to remain at his side and never to communicate with the two brothers felt like being confined in a cage and forbidden to leave. He expected her to answer, so she gave a silent nod with no other choice. The lion buck had finished the muddy burrow, and the others crawled inside to huddle together and sleep. But there is no room for Hazel and Fiver, at least Lily had dug them an extra scrape for the brothers to sleep in for the night.

Hazel and Fiver remained at the entrance of their own scrape. Lily wanted to climb out and sleep by them, but she felt a larger paw clutch her petite paw. Bigwig scorned in her direction. He didn't want her to have anything to do with the two brothers. He wanted her in his sight at all times, even if he had to use force to make her understand. Sighing, Lily began to see more of Bigwig's coldness than she realized. This behavior was starting to get on her nerves, but she was terribly afraid of him. How could she tell him that she didn't approve of his controlling, bossy attitude.

The rain started to slow down as it continued throughout the night. Everyone had dozed off to a peaceful slumber. Their adventures in the abandoned chapel forgotten. Hazel and Fiver remained awake for a while. Lily had one eye open as she overheard Hazel losing his sense of confidence as a result of Bigwig's frustrations and everyone else beginning to doubt him.

"Bigwig is right. I'm not a leader," Hazel groaned in his depressed inadequacy as leader. "I'm not strong like him, not smart like Blackberry, not fast like Dandelion, and I don't have jokes to tell to lift everyone's spirits like Bluebell. Or visions to keep us from harm like you." He had no special abilities like the others as far as he was concerned, to the point of costing the life of Violet and almost losing Dandelion's life that night.

"You've lead us this far and none of us are dead," Fiver softly comforted his elder brother. "I know we lost Violet, but we didn't know what would happen. No one is to blame for her death. Dandelion is still alive, and so are we. Isn't that a miracle itself?"

"It's blind luck is what is," Hazel replied, listening to the thunder roll by. "We could use another dose or that right now." And then, he fell asleep right beside his brother.

Gazing at them sorrowfully, Lily wondered how she could help Hazel and Fiver, whilst trying to keep peace amongst the rabbits, especially for Bigwig. She hoped the answer will come tomorrow, whatever it may be. Her eyelids grew heavy as she closed them and fell asleep.