Groundsel looked out into the dark night. The trees and grass dark purples against the black, twinkling night. The moon hung in the sky, shining full and bright, almost too bright to stare at directly. Groundsel could feel the nighttime chill steadily growing colder, and he let out a shiver. The fog from yesterday had cleared. It was strange, he thought to himself, how to fog quickly arrived and then dissipated in a matter of two days. Most of the time fog would stick around for a long while.

A sudden rustling alerted Groundsel that someone had arrived. Out of the deep darkness popped the head of the efrafa leader Campion.

"Come in! Come in!" Groundsel beckoned.

Campion was no longer as sleek and agile as he used to be; his bones creaked almost every time he hopped, and he had devolved a slight limp from a front paw injury he had gotten an unknown time ago. He seemed tired constantly, eyes drooping as if he had just woken up from a bad night of sleep. On top of all this, his entire body had become weaker. Once he could run for minutes at a time, but now he could barely think about doing it. Groundsel notes that he was limping as well.

"Have you seen Blackberry about?" He asked, scanning the dark landscape, "I told him we would be meeting tonight".

Groundsel had met with Blackberry-rah two days prior to when they were to meet. 'In two days we are to meet at my warren at moonlight. Promises me you'll be there,' he had said. BlackBerry had verbally agreed.

"No I have not," campion responded, "Shall we wait for him?"

Groundsel agreed.

After a long while, Blackberry-rah hasn't appeared. Groundsel started getting frustrated, mad at the fact that Blackberry-rah hadn't kept his word.

"Ah forget it, he probably forgot about it anyway! Follow me to my burrow, I ask someone to bring some flayrah for us both," Groundsel nudged campion to his feet.

"Hold on a moment, Groundsel. I know Blackberry, he isn't one who is keen to forget. In fact, the reason he was the new Chief of the honeycomb is his intelligence. Even if he couldn't come he would probably send one of his owsla." Campion reasoned.

"Then why hasn't anyone appeared yet? Trust me, Campion, he forgot."

"That doesn't seem quite right, he isn't one to forget, especially with things like this. Maybe something happened to him"

"What could have happened? If he was killed we would have gotten that news by now, if he was taken away by a hawk we would know, and it would be entirely unreasonable if they ran away."

"And it would be improbable that he forgot, Groundsel." Campion pointed out.

Groundsel pondered on the thought for a second, then spoke once more, "We could argue about it all night, but we have more important things to discuss than the blunder of one of our other members! If he does show up that's that. Anyhow Campion: follow me, we've got things to discuss in the security of my burrow."

Campion tagged behind Groundsel, limping on his tired legs. He looked back towards the warren's entrance. BlackBerry still hadn't appeared.

They both had discussed what had happened to their warrens. At Efrafa nothing major happened except for a lone dog who had wandered near it. As for vleflain, a light fog, and a hawk a few days ago were barely any news. Campion enjoyed the meetings, he had to be honest. It was nice to see old faces. But this time he felt odd about it. He didn't feel as enthralled in it as he usually did. Perhaps it was old age, or maybe he was bored with its repetition. He felt this way even before the passing of hazel.

A hint of sadness came upon him when he thought about Hazel; he was a successful leader, not perfect, but a fair and kind one. It was no surprise when they heard the news of his passing; it was quick and sudden, he had simply died, no grace, no glory.

After he had died the warren had a vote on who would be the next chief rabbit. Their first idea was Fiver, being as he was the brother of the late thistle, and this would be a reasonable choice. However, he turned the opportunity down, opting instead for BlackBerry to be the next Warren; he was one of brightest rabbits out there. Of course, Groundsel and Campion heard about this from messengers, and not during the meetings that took place prior.

Campion pulled himself away from his reflections and put his attention back on groundsel, who had started making plans for safer messenger routes. The messengers were Hazel's ideas

Messengers are a select few of, particularly brave rabbits. Their job is to send messages between warrens as quick as possible; they usually go in pairs, whoever sometimes only one may go. However due to the high fatalities of the job they needed to change the paths.

After they had finished talking about the plans for new routes, as well as particularly fatal parts of land between the warrens, Groundsel finished up the meeting. He thanked Campion for coming and sent him on his way.

"Thank you for coming, Campion, see you next full moon." He said.

Campion nodded and disappeared into the night. The rustling of brush and bushes slowly faded away.

Groundsel went back inside his warren towards his burrow. Along the way, he came across another rabbit, a messenger rabbit, which gave him an idea.

"Rose." Groundsel Commanded.

The buck's ears stood up hearing his name. "What is it Groundsel-rah?"

"Tomorrow morning I want you and another messenger to go to Watership Down. Ask BlackBerry-rah why he didn't show up tonight."

"Will do sir," the buck said enthusiastically.

"Good, now I have to go to my burrow. I have important business to attend to."

Groundsel then went to his burrow and fell promptly to sleep.