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 – the flying kick is quickly becoming her signature move, I'm glad you like the idea of a doe in the owsla, I was not sure if it had been done before, as I could find no mention of a doe ever joining the owsla. Hope you enjoy the new chapter

Thank you TAY BARTLETT for reviewing, I'm glad you are enjoying the story, hope you like the new chapter.

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

Chapter 6 – A test for two

"Absolutely not" fumed Hazel. "There is no way I am letting a doe in the owsla!" Bigwig looked shocked at Hazel's outburst "Hazel you are the one who has all of these new ideas, this is a new idea" Bigwig argued back.

Hazel then countered "Bigwig do you honestly want a doe to look after? She won't be able to fight as well as a buck!" Bigwig growled "yes I want her and Selene in my owsla, I think with enough training they would make a great team, and Skylar could make a great Captain of owsla someday!"

Hazel looked surprised and said "now that is definitely where I draw the line, there is no way she would ever make a Captain of owsla, I won't allow it!" Bigwig stood up and looked at Hazel and shouted "I'm the Captain of owsla and I decide who joins! She will join my owsla, she is observing today and I will train her to be the best, not many has the raw talent she does" further down the hill Fiver, Skylar and Selene could hear Bigwig and Hazel arguing "oh dear, if I knew how much trouble this was going to cause I would have just observed the training from a distance"

Fiver looked at Skylar and said "you have a right to serve in the owsla, Hazel doesn't want to see a doe hurt though, but if you were to prove yourself to him he may be more open to the idea of you joining. I would like you to join, I think you could be better than Bigwig." Selene laughed "don't let Bigwig hear you say that" Bigwig suddenly appeared "well I think she could be better than me if she was trained properly and really tried hard, she has already shown skill with no training at all, except for observing the Efrafan owsla, now we have training to do so let's get at it."

Down at the training area Hawkbit, Dandelion, Strawberry, Pipkin and Blackavar were waiting. When Skylar and Selene joined, followed by Fiver and Bigwig they all looked shocked. Hawkbit was the first to speak up "um Bigwig what are Skylar and Selene doing here?" Bigwig answered "they are observing the training sessions, and they will then join the owsla." Everyone nodded and started to follow Bigwigs instructions.

As Skylar and Selene were observing, Skylar noticed that Fiver was being beaten in the combat because he was unbalanced on legs while going on the defence, which is why he was beaten by Hawkbit. Bigwig" Skylar called. Bigwig hopped over and asked what was wrong. Skylar explained "Fiver is being beaten because he is unsteady and unbalanced on his back legs when he goes on the defence, it makes it easier for Hawkbit to knock him over"

Bigwig looked thoughtful and shouted "Fiver watch your legs, hold your balance lower" Fiver followed Bigwigs direction and managed to knock Hawkbit over and pin him. "Well done Fiver" Bigwig praised "and well spotted Skylar" Fiver hopped over and said "thanks, Hawkbit was getting annoying" Skylar and Selene both laughed at this. Bigwig then hopped over and asked "Skylar would you like a go at single combat?"

Hazel then appeared and said "this is my test if the two of you can complete a course successfully I will allow you to join the owsla with my blessing. We will set it up for when Frith is in the highest point in the sky, meet us back at the warren then, Strawberry, Hawkbit, Dandelion, Blackavar and Fiver with me" Hazel then left with the owsla to set up the challenge.

Bigwig then hopped over and said "looks like hazel is coming around to the idea, I wish you the best of luck" before hopping up the hill to join Hazel and the owsla. Skylar and Selene looked at each other and Skylar said "this challenge will be hard, I'm guessing that if we get pinned at any point we will fail, the owsla will be hidden to ambush us, it's the most likely thing Hazel will pick to test us. We will probably have to go from one area to another without being captured, we better start planning possibilities." Selene looked thoughtful and said "it's quite scary that you can deduce what Hazel will do"

Skylar laughed and said "he is quite easy to predict" they both then moved to plan some possibilities on what to do for Hazels test. When Frith was at its highest point in the sky they made their way up to the warren. Hazel and Bigwig were there and Hazel spoke first "your challenge is to move through the wood to the farm, go through the farm, pick up a piece of flayrah then back up to the warren, if you get pinned by one of the members of owsla you fail, you can fight, but you can't push them off you. Are you ready"

Skylar looked at Selene and nodded, this is what they planned for. "Right, go" Hazel shouted They both shot down the hill and into the woods "we need to be careful, if we take the easy or 'set' route that they will expect us to take, we will be caught quickly, this is where they will have most of the owsla to ambush us, they won't want too may rabbits at the farm to attract attention, we need to go a different way."

As they travelled they dodged down a narrow route off the main path, they caught the scents of Blackavar, Hawkbit, Dandelion and Pipkin, both Skylar and Selene chuckled to themselves, they made it easily to the farm with no problems arriving at the other side of the yard to the hole in the wall. At the farm they saw the vegetable patch that they had gone to the day they arrived on the down.

Skylar sniffed around for the scents of the owsla "I can smell Fiver, Captain Holly and Captain Broom. They will be waiting till we make our move to the vegetable patch to pin us, but I have an idea" Skylar said as moved to where the vegetables were stored before transport. "Let's get carrots from the barn, they won't expect that and if they do we will be able to double back or go out the back door, they can't guard all entrances" Skylar whispered, Sicking to the undergrowth they cross they farm yard with no problems, they checked for the cat, dog and man before entering the barn.

They each picked up a carrot, Selene said "right lets run by the barn wall, so if they check in the barn we can hide" they moved along the edge of the barn wall. Checking the back door entrance, they both spot Fiver, Captain Holly and Captain Broom hiding in the brambles near the vegetable patch. "From where they are they can't see us, we can run to the fence and back through the wood, but we will be on a different path to where the others are, as we are on the other side of the farm. They will expect us to go through the hole in the wall not through the fence as it is quicker to go through the wall" Skylar said to Selene as they prepared to move.

"I can go up through the trees and act as look out, and I can warn you if they are near" Selene said and Skylar nodded. The moved into the woods and Selene jumped into the trees and started to jump from branch to branch. After moving through woods Selene came down the tree and said "I can't see the others, we must have passed them, and I can see the hill." Skylar nodded and said "let's move, Bigwig may be waiting to give chase, he is the only one left to give an ambush"

Selene grumbled "of course, leave him till last, we won't be able to out run him" Skylar chuckled "I have already spotted him, I was on lookout for him, he is under the brambles by the exit from the woods, where we should have come out, if we move around to the left he won't see us heading up the hill till it's too late" Selene chuckled and said "they are all going to be mad that we have out foxed them, they haven't even seen us" they both moved round the bottom of the hill and made a dash for it to the top, they heard Bigwig cry out and start to give chase, they knew he would try to catch them as it was in his owsla honour to do so.

They made it to the top with no problems and hopped over to Hazel and dropped their carrots at his feet, he was staring at them, gobsmacked. Bigwig made it up the hill a few seconds later panting. Bigwig said to Kehaar "ok, go and let everyone know the challenge is over" Kehaar nodded and took off into the sky.

When everyone was back Hazel asked "ok how did you do it?" Skylar and Selene chuckled "we knew you would expect us to take the easy routes through the woods so we went a longer, more tricky route that brought us to the other side of the farm yard, you also expected use to take the carrots from the vegetable patch and ambush us there, so we went to the barn store instead which was not observed, we then went back through the woods on a different route that lead us to the other side of the hill, giving us enough of a lead on Bigwig, we then ran for it and we made it back with no problems."

Bigwig looked proud and Hazel looked sighed. "well I guess you can join the owsla, well done you managed the most of the test without being seen which is quite a feat, you have my blessing to join the owsla." Bigwig said "well done I never doubted you both for a second, you planned and executed a perfect plan with all precautions in place. Welcome to the owsla, training starts tomorrow" he then left with Hazel.

The rest of the rabbits congratulated them and left to go back to their burrows. As the sun started to set Skylar said "well we did it, we are in the owsla." As the sun set they went back to their burrows ready for a good night sleep.