>   Dawn was just past, and stripes of sunlight filtered into the campsite
>through the trees.  On the ground below, covered by a thin layer of snow,
>a cuton geometer beeped a muffled proximity alarm...and at the foot of
>Remus's enclosed sleeping bag, some tiny shapes circled in the snow.

>   "Remus!  Wake up!"

The microbunnies scattered as Chit struggled out of the blanket, which had
somehow shifted during the night to pin one of his hindlegs. "Remus!" He
braced his three free legs against the branch and started pushing as hard
as he could, he didn't have time to unwind the blanket.

With a final yank Chit pulled his leg free of the blanket, and went flying
off the branch. Remus woke up with a yell and grabbed around for some sort of
weapon as the small fuzzy form landed on his sleeping bag.

"Remus!" Chit screeched, scurrying back to a safe distance and casting about
for his weapons... he'd left them nearby, but it must have snowed more
overnight because they were nowhere in sight. "The microbunnies were just
here!"

Remus was looking at the frayed, gnawed section near the foot of his sleeping
bag.  "Whoa," he said, fingering the tattered material, "That wasn't very
friendly of them.  The devilbunny genes are really dominant, I guess."

"Fascinating..." Chit said, running around frantically, looking for his
crossbow or his sword.

"We have to find where they're sleeping, and see how much it resembles a
devilbunny warren. Can you track them?"

"Probably," Chit said, slipping his sabre back into its scabbard. Under a rock.
What a clever place to hide it. No chance of losing it *there*. "Have you seen
my crossbow anywhere?"

"Where did you put it?"

"I don't *know* where I put it!" Chit chattered, lashing his tail around
randomly. "Forget it, we don't have time... I'll... er... which way did they
go?" He looked around, but all the nearby tracks had been annihilated by his
searching.

"The geometer says back the way we came."

"Thanks. Wait here, I'll be back. [flick]"

"If you get lost, make a cute face and I'll come after you with the geometer,"
Remus grinned.

Chit raced along the stream bank, looking for tracks and trying to think back
to his scout training... the memory seemed really fuzzy, had it really been
that long ago?

Oh, yeah.

It was... fictional.

Still, he thought to himself, breaking back into a run after his momentary
pause, the trail was about five minutes old, through the snow.

So why weren't there any tracks?

Chit looked up at the valley walls. Slippery. Treacherous. But climbable,
for a rodent. After a moment's thought, he started up.

The forest outside the ravine wasn't as heavily snowcovered as he'd hoped.
The low elevation had gathered enough snow to make a thick cover, while out
here it was just a light dusting and a few patches here and there. Some of the
patches were too large for a fleeing microbunny to detour around, though, and
after a few minutes of checking these he managed to pick up a trail.

Chit sniffed deeply to pick up the scent and chittered softly at the smell of
devilbunnies. That was one smell he'd learned for real, during his time in
Missouri. With the smell and what snow there was, he worked his way along the
track as quickly as he could.

He almost tripped over his feet when the trail suddenly disappeared into a
small hole in the ground.

Looking around, he saw other holes scattered around the small clearing. And
tracks everywhere. And -- what was that? Chit trotted over to take a look at
the strange object half buried in a pile of fallen leaves and sticks at the
base of a nearby tree. He cleared away the debris to reveal a leather boot,
weatherbeaten but probably still functional. Except for the large hole gnawed
in the toe portion.

It could have been a coincidence, god knew plenty of battles had taken place
in these woods. But, well, the microbunnies *did* like toes, they knew that
now, so it wasn't completely irrational to suppose they'd attack a human.

Or a squirrel? 

Chit's fur bristled, and he looked up from his find into the glinting eyes of
a thousand tiny lapine forms. He drew his sabre silently and glowered at the
massed enemy. If he was going down...

It was a sign of the strength of his recent conditioning that it took fully
half a second for reason to kick in, and he went up instead, carrying the
sabre in his teeth as he scurried up the trunk of the tree.

From a high branch, he considered his options. Stay here until they found
some way to get to him, or run back and tell Remus where they were. He liked
simple choices.