Disclaimer – I do not own anything in the Watership down franchise and any plot lines, characters, dialog you recognise belongs to Richard Adams and Alltime Entertainment and Decode Entertainment.

Thank you to Chipster-roo for reviewing – I'm sorry about the mistake, I have now fixed it, thank you for spotting it. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.

And thank you to Chipster-roo and TAY BARTLETT for adding me to their favourites/follows.

Chapter 4 – The tree tops

Morning dawned over the down. The birds were singing, the crickets were chirping and the sun shined bright and it promised to be a peaceful day. The rabbits started to emerge to silflay. Skylar and Selene were the last to come up from the burrows. "Nice of you to join us, we were up at before the sunrise to go on patrol" Hawkbit grumbled. Dandelion chuckled and said "Hawkbit is not much of a morning lover"

Skylar yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before saying "yeah me too, I can tell where you are coming from with being a non-morning lover, Hawkbit" Fiver who had come over to join them laughed and said "it's best to leave Hawkbit alone for a while, especially as Bigwig was not very polite when waking us all up this morning." Skylar cringed and said "I hope he does not try to wake me up that early, or I may demonstrate that flying kick in a way Bigwig won't like"

Selene chuckled and said "it took me a while to wake you up that first morning, I thought only an earthquake would have woken you that morning" suddenly Dandelion said "ears up chaps looks like Primrose is not happy" Primrose and Hazel looked to be in a deep conversation. "I wonder what is going on" Selene wondered out loud. "well it looks like we are about to find out" Fiver said as Hazel and Primrose made their way over

"Primrose wants to return to Redstone and I said I would take her home" all rabbits present looked shocked, as they had all assumed that Primrose was very happy to stay at Watership down. "Are you leaving now Hazel?" Fiver asked "yes Fiver, we are leaving now so we can get their before night fall" Fiver suddenly started to moan and chant "Redstone is empty and dead, it only exists inside your head"

Skylar and Selene looked shocked at what had just happened and Fiver looked very upset "I'm sorry Primrose, I don't mean to see these things" Primrose exclaimed "no! Redstone is still there, it has to be! I won't listen to what you have to say, you are very mean to say these things" moments later Hazel and Primrose left the down to go to Redstone, leaving Bigwig in charge while they were away.

Fiver looked very distraught "Redstone kept Primrose alive and happy while in Efrafa and I just stole it away" Skylar said "what was that about Fiver?" Fiver looked sad and said "I have visions, but others think I am mad, wrong or to blame" he cried. Skylar looked at him and said "it was not your fault, some just don't like the messenger, just relax for a while okay?"

Fiver nodded and sat by Skylar and Selene. Skylar then said "Selene why don't you tell us about your life? That is if you want to" Selene looked at both rabbits looking at her intently and said "okay it's only fair, as I have not really told you anything about my life, I will start with my first memory and carry on from there."

Fiver and Skylar nodded so Selene continued "when I was born it was a very wet spring, I remember the rain drops dripping from the leaves and the water running down the bark of the tree, I remember asking lots of questions about the world and my mom answered them as well as she could, she said when I was born I was as pale as the full moon that was shining so she called me Selene. According to our elders, I was the most talkative out of our dray, I had no siblings so I would join other families to play, but the elders said that family groups don't mix too much they just live in the same area, even though I often saw all of the young playing together, so I was often very lonely and I would have to play by myself."

Selene paused to catch her breath and then carried on "I would often climb to the highest tree tops to look over the woods and fields imagining exploring them, sometimes my mom would join me and we would play games like eye spy and tag. We were lonely but happy, the other dray members would often ignore us, at first I did not know why, but as I got older I realised why, it was because my mom did not have a mate, but had me, it was a bad thing and they avoided us because they thought my mom would influence their young to do bad things and I was included in the boycott, one day I was sat high in the tree tops waiting for my mom to join me when I heard someone coming up the tree, it was acorn, one of the elders of our dray."

Selene paused to blink back tears "he told me that my mom was dead, a weasel had got her. The dray then left the area immediately, and when I tried to go with them the elders said there was no possible way they could allow a motherless, fatherless kit like me making their group look bad and potentially making their young become unruly." Selene sat still for a moment and then spoke again "I know my mom did not get 'caught' by a weasel, I believe she was tricked into being caught or killed off by the elders because she was always lecturing me about elil and how to stay safe, she would not have done something stupid as she was so very careful, I know the elders of the dray did not like us and they really disliked my mother a lot they really wanted us to leave but we would not leave, so I now believe they had something to do with my mom's death"

Selene looked to her companions that now included Blackavar, and Clover, they looked at her with shining eyes, damp with tears. "I travelled by myself for days until I met Skylar, we then travelled together for a bit and then we met you guys, I feel that even though I am different to all of you, you have made me feel like I have a family, something my dray could never do." Everyone awed and Skylar hugged Selene and said "you can be my sister if you like, I always wanted a sister" Selene smiled through her tears and whispered "I would like that very much, thank you, sis" everyone looked over the down, and Dandelion and Hawkbit joined them.

Fiver suddenly tensed and started to chant "revenge is in his heart, the killer comes back, hate and revenge drive his attack" Fiver looked very distraught as Hawkbit grumbled "oh great more trouble on the way" Bigwig come over having hear Fivers vision "what's this about a killer, Fiver?" Fiver looked troubled and said "that weasel we fought in the spring he is coming back!"

Bigwig took charge and said "right let's get hopping, we need food, traps dug and set, and every side entrance filled in by sun down, Blackavar, Clover, Skylar and Selene could you start to fetch food for storage, Dandelion and Hawkbit I want you to fill in all side entrances, Fiver come with me to set up some traps in the warren with Blackberry" Blackavar and Clover moved off to start gathering food. Hawkbit started to grumble "this is all your fault Fiver, you are a curse on this warren!" Fiver gasped and Skylar spun round and snapped at Hawkbit "it's not Fivers fault, you should be grateful he had given us a heads up so we can prepare"

Hawkbit grumbled to himself and ran off with Dandelion to do what Bigwig said to do, Fiver looked at Skylar with gratitude in his eyes but said "Hawkbit right I'm a curse I need to leave" and before anyone could stop him he bolted off down the hill. Selene said to Skylar "go find Bigwig and tell him what happened, I will start to gather food with the others" she then took off to catch up to Blackavar and Clover.

Skylar ran off to find Bigwig. She found him by the warren entrance talking to Pipkin and Blackberry, Pipkin ran off to do whatever Bigwig told him to do. "Bigwig can I please talk to you?" Bigwig turned round and said "of course Skylar what's wrong?" Skylar paused for a second not wanting to get Hawkbit in trouble but Fiver was in danger "Hawkbit said some mean stuff to Fiver and he ran off down the hill and he has not come back" Bigwig growled and said "I'm going to have a word with Hawkbit, don't worry I'll find Fiver, could you help Blackberry in the burrows please?" Skylar nodded and disappeared into the warren hoping everything would be ok.