AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you TheRanger101. Glad you liked the latest chapter; I tried to make it less dramatic, especially considering what's going to happen in this one...

Chapter 44: The Big Surprise.

"The full moon cast an eerie glow through thick ancient dark woods. In the shadows around a tree, the serial killer ran his knife lovingly over Chelsea's trussed dead body. She lay, as if posed for a photo, wearing only bloody pink underpants."

-H. Raven Rose, Dark Eros

Rosie was sitting in her den, holding a twig in her front paws. It had been several days since the rabbits had left the warren, and she remained anxious over their fate. In an attempt at distracting herself from her worry, she carved shapes into the dirt, or onto leaves, with her twig. It was relaxing; she was generally pleased with the results, and so were her friends.

While Tumbler visited nearly every day, that day she was also expecting a visit from another squirrel who lived further away, Crackers. Apart from a white spot at the tip of one's tail, the two squirrels looked absolutely identical.

Rosie and Tumbler were working together on the latest leaf carving when Crackers burst into the den.

-"RROOOOOSIIIIIEE! TUUUUMBBLEEEEERR!"

-"Great to see you," Tumbler said, as the two squirrels wrapped their tails around each other.

-"Yey you're back!" Rosie added as she joined the group hug.

After the hug had ended, Crackers looked at the leaf on the ground.

-"Purdy."

Rosie smiled.

-"Anyway, how are you?" she asked. "It's been a while."

-"Eh, life is life. Dancing is amazing, except when the neighbours interrupt. It takes a lot of restraint not to smack them, sometimes."

-"I'll smack them for you!" Tumbler picked up the twig and raised it half-threateningly, making Crackers laugh.

-"Thanks, but I don't think they'll be necessary."

-"You learn any new dance moves recently?"

-"A few. Do you want to see them? We would have to go outside for that."

-"Of course!" Tumbler said.

-"I would love it!" Rosie added.

Crackers smiled, and made her way above ground. She looked at the nearby trees, trying to determine which one was best suited for the demonstration. She eventually chose the tallest one, and climbed around halfway to the top.

-"You two ready?" she shouted.

-"Yes!" Rosie and Tumbler replied in unison.

-"All right then, here goes!"

Tumbler and Rosie looked attentively as Crackers gracefully jumped from one branch to the other, making complicated movements along the way. This went on for several minutes before she stopped at the top of the tree; the two creatures on the ground started clapping.

-"That was beautiful," Tumbler said.

-"I think I might have messed up that last..." Crackers started to say, but was cut off by Rosie:

-"Noooooooo, you were great."

-"Should I do more?"

-"YES!"

As Crackers was about to start dancing again, however, she noticed something unusual some distance away.

-"There's a group of rabbits approaching."

-"All the rabbits from the warren left a few days ago," Tumbler explained. "They're coming back?"

-"You say that they left? All of them? They are not all coming back."

-"How many are there?"

-"I can't quite figure out the exact number, they're not close enough, but if all of them left, there are a lot of them missing."

-"We should take a closer look," Rosie decided.

Crackers danced her way down the tree, and reached the ground just as the first rabbits made their way through the warren's main entrance. The total number of rabbits was depressingly low; only six of them, none of whom the squirrels and hedgehog knew by name. While they seemed physically unharmed, with only minor scratches, five of them all had the same depressed look on their face. The sixth one, instead, was laughing creepily.

After all the rabbits were underground, Rosie, Crackers and Tumbler stayed hidden in the grass for a long time, hoping more would arrive, but none did.

-"What do you think happened?" Rosie asked after a while.

-"I don't know," Tumbler replied. "If they did go to war like Woundwort said, I guess they lost."

-"Who's this Woundwort fellow you're talking about?" Crackers asked. "I never heard you mention him during my previous visits."

-"He only arrived recently," Rosie explained. "He taught everyone how to fight, then took them away to destroy another warren that he called 'the outsiders'."

-"Why is it that some seem obsessed with teaching others how to hurt creatures?" Crackers with a sigh. "Even those who try to defend us, often end up hurting us instead."

-"War is pointless," Rosie said.

-"It sure is," Tumbler agreed.

With that, the three creatures silently made their way back to Rosie's den.

-"We should probably go talk to them tomorrow, see if there's anything we could do to help them," Rosie eventually suggested.

-"I agree," Crackers said. "We probably won't be able to do much, but it's better than nothing."

The next day, however, nothing went as planned.

The rabbits had plenty of empty burrows to choose from, but they weren't picky. After such a journey, they were just happy to be underground, and they all fell asleep in the great burrow.

The next morning, the first rabbit to wake up was Acorn. After stretching and yawning, he decided to silflay. With Toadflax still asleep, he wouldn't have to worry about being bullied away from the flayrah.

He made his way above ground, towards the pile of flayrah. It was clearly several days old; the farmer had presumably not distributed any more with all the rabbits gone. It still tasted wonderful, a major improvement over the dry grass he had been forced to silflay on while traveling. He closed his eyes, feeling that nothing could disturb this peaceful moment.

Until his nose caught the scent of blood.

Rabbit blood.

They had only been back for less than a day, and one of them had already fallen victim to the wires. And this was not something that they could ignore like they did in the past. They were too few for that; anyone vanishing would be immediately noticed.

He looked around him to see if anyone else had followed him outside. It was then that he saw the corpse, in plain sight in the middle of the field. The head was at an awkward angle, clearly indicating a broken neck, and the tail had been ripped off the body. That, along with the body's location, indicated that Buckthorn had not fallen victim to a snare, but to another creature.

Acorn was nauseated by the gruesome sight, but it was also impossible for him to look away. The flies were loudly buzzing around the corpse, and it was only a matter of time before the larger elil arrived. He lost all taste for flayrah. He bolted back underground.

In his near-tharn state, he didn't pay attention to where he was going, and stepped on one of Speedwell's front paws. Speedwell didn't flinch; Acorn lied back down and pretended to be asleep, as if nothing had ever happened.

However, moments later, he heard Speedwell get up, and hop away. Judging by the direction of the sounds, it seemed that he was heading through the same run Acorn himself had used.

This was followed by a few minutes of silence, and then rapid footsteps, as Speedwell also came running back underground, presumably having seen the dead body too. What followed afterwards, however, was different.

-"Acorn, wake up," Speedwell said, as he poked his friend's back.

-"What is it?"

-"Buckthorn is dead."

-"Dead? What happened?" Acorn did not want to reveal that he had already been above ground, out of fear someone might accuse him of killing Buckthorn.

-"I don't know. He's just lying there in the middle of the field...dead."

At that moment, Acorn and Speedwell heard a yawn; Tindra was slowly waking up.

-"I had a horrible nightmare," she said. "I went out to pass hraka and there was a dead rabbit in the field."

-"That's not a nightmare," Speedwell said. "There really is a dead rabbit outside."

Tindra stared at Speedwell for a few moments, hoping, against all odds, that this was a (terribly unfunny) joke.

-"Who?" she eventually asked.

-"Buckthorn," Acorn replied.

Tindra looked around the burrow; Buckthorn was nowhere to be seen. It really wasn't a joke.

-"What happened?"

-"NOBODY LEAVE THIS BURROW!"

Nobody had noticed Toadflax's absence until they heard his voice coming from above ground. The last sleeping rabbit, Flesca, woke up immediately.

-"Oh great, the fool is back..." Tindra mumbled.

-"Someone killed Buckthorn!" Toadflax shouted as he burst into the burrow.

-"You're just about the last one to find out," Acorn said.

-"And one of you is responsible."

The burrow fell silent.

-"Are you saying that one of us killed him?" Speedwell asked.

-"Exactly. There is no scent of elil, and there are no snares near him. There is no other possibility. And I will make sure that, whoever is responsible, they will pay the ultimate penalty."

-"And how do you intend to find out who did it?" Flesca asked.

-"I am going to lead a thorough investigation. But first, I need to know what each of you were doing just before sunrise this morning."

-"Seriously? We were asleep." Tindra rolled her eyes. "Like any sane rabbit would be."

With the exception of Toadflax, everyone in the burrow nodded.

-"Clearly," he said, "someone's lying!"

-"Too bad it wasn't HIM who was murdered," Acorn whispered in Speedwell's ear.

-"Looks like the next few days will be pretty miserable for us all."