><Under Cover><

[Errant and Nazareth]

A logical animal would have gone to sleep by that point, but neither Errant nor Nazareth belonged in that category. Granted, Errant used to sleep. So long as he was buried under tons of cover, he slept quite well, often for days. Then Narazeth bounded over him, fell through, and he had been introduced to all of the reasons one shouldn't sleep. For one, the world was a scary place. For another, this scary place tended to creep up on you when you were sleeping, particularly since this was the time when apparently everything else was awake.

The sun was setting at last, though, and the white-tailed jackrabbit cautiously poked his head out of the hollow tree-stump he had literally hopped upon (or into, rather). Nazareth was preventing proper movement, squashed against him and muttering something about evil hot flames wanting to devour him at night. Errant knew what he meant, but he didn't see any outside of the trunk, so he didn't quite see the problem.

"Naz... Naz, do you see anything?"

His voice often seemed to calm the other male, and two large blacks ears peeked out of the top of the stump, rapidly followed by the rest of the jackrabbit's head. Errant looked through the crack in the trunk, large ears swiveling, nose twitching. He could hear movement in the distance, which was enough to stop him from moving most days, but it sounded like it was leaving, and so a tiny part of him -- the starving part -- thought maybe they were okay.

"I... I don't see... See anything..."

Nazareth had this odd problem with saying a word only once; some words just had to be said twice. Errant snorted softly as he returned to the comforts of the tree trunk. Nazareth looked nervously down at the jackrabbit, then back outside. He couldn't see, smell, or hear any predators. The only things he smelled were some birds, deer, and squirrels. What was Errant's problem? He knew the flames were bad and all, but he'd smell those coming, and they were no where to be found.

"I'm... I'm going out. I'm hungry..."

"Didn't you hear that, though? There's something out there."

"It's a... A deer." Nazareth's voice was about as condescending as he could manage. Stupid rabbit; didn't he know deers didn't eat rabbits? They were just competition for food. He sprang out of the tree trunk and straight into a bush with a loud crack. Errant winced while Nazareth bolted forward blindly.

Silence. "Nazareth?"

Errant trembled inside the trunk. What could have happened? Did that deer snatch him? No, deer didn't eat bunnies. Was it a wolf disguised as a deer? No, that didn't make any sense. But then his life never seemed to make any sense anymore. Maybe these days wolves had the ability to disguise their scent as a deer. He'd heard of humans that smelled like dogs before. Still, he should search. The other rabbit was his only sense of security -- and by that he figured Nazareth would be tastier than he would.

A bit of compulsive grooming to prepare himself, then the white-tailed jackrabbit bounded out of the trunk. He could see Nazareth's tracks, and after looking around, sniffing, and pausing for a minute or two, he finally set off after them... And discovered Nazareth chewing on some grass growing, shielded from snow and cold, at the base of a tree.

"Naz! You couldn't even get me?" After all he had done for the other male, he was being left to starve! Or be eaten! Or some other horror!

Nazareth jumped; had he not recognized the smell and heard a rabbit coming, he would have bolted. Instead he muttered sheepishly and moved aside to give Errant room. The other rabbit set to eating ravenously, and Nazareth regretted his generosity; Errant would starve him out at this rate...

[Tylo]

Someone was being loud. Well, maybe not loud, but they were waking him up.

Grunting and grumbling and generally complaining, Tylo rolled over in the tree-hollow he'd been sleeping in, and reluctantly woke up. He'd been sleeping for days...or had it been weeks? Winter just made him feel cold and lazy, and he dreaded the moments that he had to be awake to endure it.

Ah well, he should probably find something to eat, anyway. Luckily, he had started out as a fat raccoon, because his attempts to 'fatten up' for winter had not turned out as successfully as they could have. Still getting used to everything that wild-living entailed, and all that.

Poking his head out into the chilly winter light, the raccoon squinted crookedly down toward the snow. At first, all he really noticed were oddly-moving black spots against the white of the snow...and a moment later--once his eyes became slightly more alert--realized that the spots were really eyes and eartips of some crazily-shaped rabbits.

"Hey! What are you guys whispering and muttering about! Can't you see I'm attempting to sleep, here??"

Tylo still hadn't quite grasped the correlation between noise and attracting predators, just yet. His skunk friend, and other assorted animals, had tried to get this--among other important facts--through his head, but...there were just so many things to remember, y'know?

- Meet Tylo -

[Errant and Nazareth]

Someone, somewhere, decided to break the silence of the forest. Both rabbits heard it as a soft buzz at first, coming from above them. Errant jumped straight into the nearest bush, certain that the buzz was in fact some eagle or falcon coming to eat him. Granted, birds normally didn't buzz when they came to hunt, but what did he know? Perhaps it was a bird way of laughing at his misfortune. Better to be safe than sorry, either way.

Nazareth was not so spooked, though his ears swiveled as he tried to locate the sound. Upon hearing softer noises, he finally looked up and scented the air. A pungent smell hit him, and he quickly identified the culprit. A raccoon.

A loud raccoon. Errant dashed a few bushes away before he realized he wasn't being chased. Nazareth winced and stepped toward the bushes, but nothing came to eat them. Thankfully, the raccoon didn't seem to wake anything else that would be around.

"We were discussing the lack of predators. Something you may fix if you keep yelling."

Nazareth's nose twitched as he regarded the raccoon. He normally didn't consider himself to be a grumpy creature, but getting only five hours of sleep in two or three days tended to do that to him. Sighing, he looked to see Errant peeking his head out of a bush and staring in the raccoon's general direction.

"Aren't you going to run?"

"I don't think it wants to eat us. It just wants us to quiet down."

Errant compulsively groomed at his face. Nazareth suspected it would fall off eventually.

"Well, in that case, he should quiet down."

With that, Errant sighed and carefully made his way back to Nazareth. Nazareth just turned upon the raccoon with a look that clearly said 'You happy now?'

[Tylo]

Oh that was just great. Not only was it miserable outside, and he was hungry, he had a couple of wiseguys to deal with.

"Fantastic," he muttered, voice muffled as he turned around and stuck his butt out of the gap in the tree trunk. He had finally learned how to back down a tree instead of sliding haphazardly face-first, and so he proceeded to shimmy down towards the ground.

He grunted and shook the tree-dust from his fur once earth-bound.

"Well, I don't have much to fear since I can climb trees." He retorted, a bit late. His fur was a sleepy mess, which he only halfheartedly tried to smooth with his hands.

"You, dear..." he hesitated "...rabbits, are not so lucky."

Their funny build and bizarre coloring still had him wondering, however, and he leaned towards the nearest one with a wiggling nose.

"You are rabbits, aren't you?"

[Errant and Nazareth]

When the raccoon turned around, Errant desperately hoped he was going to go back to sleep. Instead, the raccoon started to climb down the tree. Errant grunted softly, knowing the raccoon wouldn't get the hint, but needing to let out his frustration somehow. Nazareth paused, thinking the noise was meant for him; when it didn't continue, though, he resumed eating, figuring that no amount of grunting or grumbling would get the raccoon to leave them be.

At the raccoon's words, however, he stopped eating and stared. Was he joking? Did he really think that climbing a tree would save him? Upon the raccoon's second statement, he realized that no, the critter wasn't joking at all. Nazareth's ears swiveled back, while Errant's eyes widened with surprise. This raccoon was crazy!

"Hate to break it to you, but a hawk could get you from the trees no problem."

He sniffed softly.

"Though I question if it'd be able to carry you off."

Errant snorted softly at the words, though he didn't relax. For all he knew, Nazareth's slight would just piss the raccoon off and make him attack them. Particularly since he apparently was unable to identify them. Both rabbits stared at the raccoon as if he had lost his head, and didn't feel the need to answer such a stupid question. Too much unnecessary talking may alert predators. Nazareth did jump back, though, when the raccoon got too close.

"Keep your distance, please. I haven't figured out if you're going to eat me or not."

"He won't eat you." Errant felt suspiciously sure of that. Which was unusual, because he normally thought everything would eat him. "He may attract stuff that will, though."

With that, the two rabbits fell silent. They didn't expect the raccoon to do so, though. If he hadn't gotten the hint by now...