Deep Bunny Lovin.

Terrycloth:

This is a story about love, honor, fear, clover, courage, righteousness, 
vigilance, shinies, duty, determination, destruction, asphalt, desolation, 
defeat, depression, construction, doom, death, deus ex machina, and bunnies. 
Well, maybe not. But it *is* about bunnies.
 
Binky bunny was in love -- she could feel it from the tips of her ears, 
wiggling merrily in the cool spring breeze, to the ends of her fuzzy little 
paws as they sat lightly in the dew-damp grass. She was in love with the 
world, with the green grass, with the blue sky, with the fluffy white clouds, 
and most of all with Cadge.
 
She scanned the treeline as she hopped happily through the meadow. Where was 
her cute little squirrel-toy? Oh, she longed to snuggle up in his fluffy tail 
and nibble his cute pointy little ears. She didn't care *what* her father 
thought. What was the family honor compared to her sweetheart? Besides, there 
were dozens of other daughters to marry off, albeit none so beautiful as 
her... she tilted her head to the side and delicately preened her whiskers.
 
Suddenly, Binky lept three feet in the air, fur frizzled out from fear, as a 
loud voice behind her went, 'BOO!'

Dogfire:

Binky's heart almost lept out of her mouth, then she turned and her hears 
splayed sideways. Toy stood behind her, grinning his bucky toothed grin, 
"Scared ya, thought I was the big bad coursing hound come to chase ya!"
 
Binka pounced Toy and smirked, "Why you..you...you!" She forgot and snuggled 
him, despite the dangers of being in the middle of a large meadow.  It was'nt 
like that years ago when farmer had lived in the old house at the edge of the 
meadow. The only dog he had was an great big, elderly Labrador, who was 
content to watch the rabbits from a flat stone in the sun. 
 
The dog had one day vanished and in it's place, the farmer had brought 
brindle hound, who could dash across the field in a few gallops and flash of 
fangs and teeth would catch the unwary. To the bitter dismay of the warren 
and other field creatures.
 
"Binky..", Toy asked, "What did your father say about you coming up to the 
Oak tree for the Gathering tonight?"
  
Binky looked at Toy, "He forbade me to go...I told him that there were 
chaparones.." She looked away, recalling her parent's words as yet another 
batch of kips (baby rabbits) dashed by in the burrow, 'Squirrel Chaparones!', 
her father had harumphed, 'No daughter of mine will consort with Squirrels, 
they're dirty chatter things. I forbid you to go!'
 
Tarka:
 
Toy laughed and fluffed out his squirrls tail and looked at Binky with cocked 
head. "I can just see it now. That old coot sitting up on his mound and 
telling you that you can't go." He puts his paws on his hips and lower lip 
thrust out. "I, forbit, you, from, going. with squirrel chaparones. Forbid I 
tell you.
  
Binky shakes her head and cuffs the squirrel with her paw. "You need to get a 
life!"
 
Toy pounces on Binky and they tussle in the grass for another minute before 
looking around for prediters.
 
"So will you be going to the gathering Binky?" asked Toy.
 
With a snicker Binky moved forward and whispered into Toy's ear. "Meet me at 
the bush bolt hole later... I will sneak out that way."
 
Lobowolf: 
 
Toy blushed as Binky whispered in his hear.  He caught a subtle tone in her 
voice that made him smile.  "She really likes me," thought Toy.
"Well," said Toy, "Have you ever been to any gatherings before, Binky?"
 
"Umm, no...this is my first one, Toy....is it all squirrels?  Are there any 
other rabbits?
 
"No, you're the only one."  Toy grinned, winking at Binky......she giggled 
and blushed as she realized she had truly been invited to something special.
 
Terrycloth: 
 
Toy saw Binky blushing, and continued. "There *was* a badger at a gathering 
once, though. No! Really! She couldn't climb up the trees to catch us, so we 
all laughed and threw acorn shells. So she *ate* them, until she got really 
drowsy and fell asleep, right in the middle of the party..."
 
Binky slapped him playfully with a paw. "Don't start with that, Toy. But... 
how will I get up in the trees, though?"
 
Toy took Binky's paw in his and looked it over carefully, poking at the claws 
and massaging the bones and sinews. "Hmm..." He moved on to her other front 
paw. "Hmm..." Binky closed her eyes and flopped down into the grass as the 
squirrel massaged and prodded at her rear paws too, then giggled as he poked 
her sides. "Hmm... I think... you'll have to use the lift. Don't worry, we've 
had land-lubbers visit us before."
 
Toy looked really excited, "And then you can see the forest as it was meant 
to be seen, and meet all my friends, and have more of that sap you like so 
much, it'll be great!"
 
Dogfire: 
 
Binky's eyes caught movement and the pair froze, hearts beating in fright. At 
one corner of the meadow padding stilt like, was a brindle furred giant, the 
dog!   Nose sampling the air and armed with fangs and teeth that could snap 
up the pair in an instant, the coursing hound padded several yards away.
 
Binky froze, glad they were down wind of the dog as he padded off to the farm 
house, he seemed like he was...full. 
 
Toy whispered in Binky's long ear, "That was close! He came from the forest 
clearing this time! "
 
Binky spoke softly, "He came from the clearing, that's where your Oak tree 
is...Oh toy, did you notice his flanks?" She sobbed, "He's getting bolder."

Toy, gruffed and said, "I'm afraid of no hound." He 
nosed Binky in reassurance, "Look, we'll be safe. The Gathering will be up in 
the Oak tree at twighlight. No hound can reach us."

"I hope so."

"I promise, Binky. Come I'll pad with you to your burrow entrance."
  
Toy escorted Binky as close to the warren entrance as he could. He did'nt 
want to cause a ruckus if Binky's parents should spot him in her company. He 
flicked his bushy tail in a good by and scampered off. 
 
Binky nosed her way into the warren common's burrow, when she heard her 
mother's voice...
 
Tarka: 
 
"Your father wants to see you Binky." Her mothers voice had a hard echo there 
underground and Binky winced.
 
"Yes mother." She lowered her ears and went off down a side tunnel to the 
bucks area and chambers. When she got to the main counsel all the officers of 
the warren went quite. There was some shuffling of fur and she could sense 
her father standing near her.
 
"Young lady, what have I told you about seeing that squirrel?"
 
Binky stammered for a moment.
 
Bucktooth cut her off before she could get a word out with a bellow. "I told 
you to never see it again! Rabbits don't mix company with tree dwellers! It 
is so and has always been so!"
 
"But Father! He is my friend!"
 
He cuffed her over the ears and leaned close to Binky and hissed in a harsh 
voice. "My long patrol saw you with one of them today. You were out in the 
middle of the field. Out in the OPEN! You could have been killed!" He pushed 
at her with his frunt paws... knocking her over onto her side. Then his voice 
soffened. "I worry about you my child. I don't want you to meet the black 
rabbit to soon in this life. Go on now... and don't disobye me again."
 
Binky fled the room as fast as she could... her heart racing in her chest, 
her fur smelling of fear.
 
Lobowolf: 
 
Binky began to cry as the tears welled up inside her.  She ran blindly 
through the warren, trying to put as much distance between herself and her 
father.  She heard her mother calling her...."Binky?  Binky dear?"  But she 
was too upset to care.  She LOVED Toy with all her heart.  "My family be 
damned," she muttered to herself as she collapsed in tears.
 
Binky sat and sobbed for what seemed like an eternity, then slowly regained 
her resolve.....a resolve dangerously tinged with anger and disobedience.  "I 
shall go find Toy now!  I've had enough of being treated like a child," Binky 
screamed, to nobody in particular.  Her voice echoed throughout the warren as 
she turned her back and found an exit.
 
Binky climbed out of the hole.....it just so happens this particular exit 
landed her right in the middle of the field.  Fortunately, she was more or 
less invisible under the cover of darkness.  She was giddy with anger and 
anticipation, and for her love of Toy.  She sat and sniffed the air, but 
could detect nothing in the gentle breeze.  There was no moon tonight, and 
the trail to Toy's tree was invisible in the inky blackness.
 
"Which way?"  She sobbed again, beginning to panic.  She was alone, and 
suddenly lost, and she realized she couldn't see well enough to make it to 
Toy's holt.  However, love is blind, and so was she, so she started blindly 
ahead, tripping over each stone and root as she went.  Suddenly, off in the 
distance, she heard the dog howl.
 
Terrycloth: 
 
Binky froze, ears upright and swivelling to determine the direction the 
terrible sound was coming from, then bolted into the darkness. Running back 
into the warren -- back to her horrible parents and their stupid rules -- 
never even crossed her mind. Well, not until it was too late.
 
So she ran and ran through the darkness, with the howling echoing behind her, 
until the soft grass gave way to sharp gravel, and then to a flat slab of 
rock, but not proper rock like in the lowest levels of the warren -- it was 
sticky and soft, and smelled strange.
 
Then she froze again, as a terrible cold light blinded her. It was him! The 
black rabbit! And those were his EYES, his terrible burning eyes, rushing 
towards her out of the night!
 
Dogfire: 
 
A loud rumbling noise assaulted Binky's ears, she flattened herself against 
the strange flat, oily smelling rock surface as the terrible glowing eyes 
bore down upon her! With a roar the gargantuan black rabbit overtook Binky 
and flew over her. 
 
Binky's fur furrowed in the gale as the black rabbit of death rushed away. 
She slowly drew herself up, wanting to flee back home, but she was closer to 
the clearing. "I'll will go." And she padded off across the strange surface.
 
The forest animals had rarely used the route across the farmer's yard to 
reach the Oak tree, Binky's night vision could make out strange metal objects 
and their scent, and the quivering heavy canine scent of the hound's burrow, 
a smaller house near the big one belonging to the farmer. Hesitating, she 
twitched her ears and sniffed. The hound was nowhere to be found.
 
She flicked her long ears and hurriedly hopped to the welcoming glow of the 
Oak tree, glimmering in patches of phosphorescne and the chittering sounds of 
Squirrels. She grinned, for the tree rodents had brought patches of glowing 
fungus to light up the branches in a pearl string array...
 
Tarka: 
 
"Binky!" Toy leaped out of the branches and landed with a thump right nice to 
the rabbit. "You made it! I knew you would."
 
There was another thump to Binky's other side. "Hey! What is the rabbit doing 
here Toy? I thought you said that you were bringing a friend. No some 
smelling ground thing."
 
Toy darted to the other side of Binky. "Why Chitters... as a guest of honor 
it is my right to have any guest that I wish. Binky here just happens to be 
my choce for tonight."
 
Chitter's glared at Toy. "Toy.... you did tell her about the final ritual for 
the night. Continuation of the line and all that? How can you continue the 
royal squirrel line with that creature!
 
Toy shoke his head, "Chitter Chitter Chitter.... you get to worked up about 
things... really. Go make the lift ready now."
 
Binky looked at Toy.. not havn't understude much of the fast squirrel talk. 
"Can we go up the lift now?"
 
"Why yes!"
 
Meanwhile... back at the rabbit warren. Captain Jasper rushed up to Buchtooth.
"Sir.... Some of my men came accross Binky's scent. She was heading to the 
squirrels tree!"
  
Bucktooth reared up in rage. "No! She couoldn't have. Captain... gather my 
men. It is time for us to teach the treedwellers a lesson they will never 
forget. This is war!
 
Terrycloth:
 
Bucktooth's troops gathered quickly, and twenty strong they headed for the 
woods, careful to move as quietly as possible so as not to attract the 
attention of any nighttime predators. The party was starting to go into full 
swing, and they could hear the chattering and faintly make out the glow from 
a long way off.
 
"Damn you all, this isn't funny." Toy said, chattering at the three other 
squirrels who refused to pull up the lift. Their manaical chattering laughter 
seemed to prove him wrong.
 
"If she's going to be your *queeeeen*, Toy, she needs to be able to climb. 
What's a squirrel who can't climb?" taunted Sylvie. Toy knew she was jealous, 
and for no good reason. He'd *never* have chosen *her*.
 
Binky sat in the lift with her ears flattened, the rejection by the squirrels 
as well as her parents starting to bring her down. She was not enjoying the 
party. Why hadn't Toy told her they were like this? She'd assumed his friends 
were as nice as he was...
 
Bucktooth gathered his troops at the edge of the clearing, just out of the 
light, watching the scene. "On my signal..."
 
Dogfire: 
 
Bucktooth grunted, "Now!" The warren troop, fifteen in all,  charged across 
the edge of the forest towards the oak tree.
 
Chitters looked up from his perch and chattered, "Tails up! We're under 
attack!" The squirrels in the branches halted their merriment and chittered 
in surprise and anger.
"Rabbits?"
 
"Yes, it's Binky's friend, she betrayed us, they're coming to steal our 
acorns!"
 
An old squirrel cried out, "Don't throw the acorns, that's what they want us 
to do. Counterattack, ready teeth!" A dozen squirrels rattled their tails 
like war banners and streamed down the trunk, scampering past Binky and Toy...
 
Binky and Toy watched stunned as white and brown met in the dim night around 
the meadow, chittering and fur flying as teeth flashed, and heavy lapine legs 
thumped against flanks in high pitched and squeecky snarls.
 
Toy turned to Binky, "I'm so sorry, I did'nt mean for this to happen." 
Suddenly, Binky's sharp eyes spied a huge form padding up from under the 
false moon glow of the farm house's outdoor light. The hound!
 
Toy and Binky cried out, "Stop fighting, the hound! The Hound!" They watched 
as the huge beast watched from the distance, ears erect at the battle, with a 
flick of his chops, the gargantuan preditor launched himself across the lawn, 
heavy paws devouring up the distance between the canine and the group, 
fighting and laid out like a banquet...
 
Tarka:
 
At the sound of their princes voice all of the squirrels leaped back from the 
battle and looked at the hound as it rushed them... with a squeell then 
turned around and ran... the rabbits.. havn't not yet turned around to see 
what was comming cryed out in victory. "We have won!" The victory was short 
lived as then the hound was on them.
 
Toy looked up at the lift... "Pull us up... now!" He shouted at the to of his 
lungs as streamed past him up the trees. The lift people put their teeth into 
the task of pulling Binky up into the tree... below a massacer was taking 
shape.
 
Binky looked down in horror as she watched her fellow rabbits being torn limb 
from limb below her... their horrid death squeels the only sound left in the 
night as the savage dog before ripped their flesh from their bones.
  
Toy put her paws over Binky's eyes a moment later and his voice was in her 
ears. "Don't look my love. You shouldn't see this."
 
Binky welcomeed darkness... the last imaged burned into her eyelid... her 
fatehrs twitching body, guts ripped out on the ground, on the far side of the 
clearing.
 
Terrycloth: 
 
It was the best festival in years. The squirrels cheered their victory and 
danced with the new king and queen, tossing the empty husks of acorns down at 
the twitching bodies of the bunnies that were still alive... for the dog had 
dragged off one carcass to feed on, leaving the rest mangled and bleeding to 
die slowly as raccoons gnawed at them.
 
But Binky and Toy knew no joy. None of the squirrels would even speak to the 
traitors, and Binky couldn't get the image of her father's death out of her 
mind. So while Chitter and Sylvie were crowned king and queen, they huddled 
in a burrow, Binky Sobbing and Toy trying to console her despite his own foul 
mood.
 
But Binky didn't want to be consoled. "Just go away! I never want to see you 
again! It's your fault they died!"
"Fine!" snapped Toy, running off.
 
And so Binky crawled out of the hollow tree burrow and made her way to the 
lift, and quietly let herself down. The foraging raccoon looked up at her 
disinterestedly, and she slowly hopped away through the forest.
 
She hopped to the dog, but he was sleeping, sated, and wouldn't take her 
either.
 
So she hopped to the strange rock, and waited for the black rabbit himself to 
take her into his arms. But it was no use.
 
At dawn she went back to her burrow, where her mother was waiting. She 
married a nice buck, and they lived happily ever after, as rabbits are wont 
to.
 
Dogfire: 
 
Toy pined a bit, but he choose Sylivie's horrid sister as a mate. On those 
days, when he and the kits would bounce acorns off the hound sniffing at the 
base of their tree, he would think of Binky.
 
Binky, sequestered in her burrow and pumping out hutch after hutch of rabbits 
would sometimes reflect on those summer eve she spent as a young lapine lass 
with Binky. But she would say to herself, "Never consort squirrels, all you 
get is sorrow and a pile of mixed nuts."