'Follow the creek for a few miles until we spot signs of microbunnies'. 

It seemed so easy when you said it that way. In reality, of course, 
they were scrambling through dense underbrush, up and down little 
hills, and detouring around cliffs and rocks and whatnot. 

If the damn geometer had been squirrel-portable, he'd have suggested 
Remus just wait back at the car so he could take a direct route. But 
they were as likely to spot their quarry in any of their random wiggles 
as on the stream bank itself, and it was nice to know whether they'd 
overshot.

But it meant that a thirty-minute trip was stretching into hours, and 
the sun was getting dangerously low.

"I sometimes wonder what it's like to see the forest as a squirrel," 
Remus said, "I mean, I look around and see a bunch of trees, but they 
all have special meaning to you, right?"

"A tree's a tree," Chit said, giving a bored noncommittal flick he was 
sure Remus wouldn't understand. "You can climb them, and some of them 
have nuts in autumn, which it isn't. I know all their names and all... 
but they're all just trees." 

Chit chittered softly. "I hate trees. I especially hate huge bunches of 
trees that all look alike."

"Oh, like when the logging companies replant the forests?"

"Well, yeah, but also just forests in general. It's a little better now 
than in the summer, when it's just green green green everywhere. But 
not much."

"That's a weird-looking tree over there.  Chit, what color are the 
leaves on that tree?"

"[blink][tilthead] Is this a test?"

"I'm red-green colorblind," Remus explained.

"Oh.  They're blue. [flick]"

"I'm not *stupid*, Chit."

"So you admit it." Chit grinned. "Most of the trees with leaves are red 
right now."

"Neat.  Do you know what kind of tree it is?"

"Witch elm."

"Um...I guess that one over there."

"Witch."

"The tree with the red leaves."

"They all have red leaves!! [chatter]"

"The one I was talking about!"

"Witch!"

"That one over there!"

"Witch! [irritated flick]"

Sighing, Remus looked sternly at the squirrel.  "Okay, let's try again. 
What color are the leaves on *that* tree?"

"I'm not going to talk to you if you aren't going to listen. [flick] 
If you're in mortal danger from a falling leaf I'll say duck."

"Wouldn't you want to say 'leaf' instead?" Remus grinned and started 
climbing over a pile of dead branches blocking their path.

"Yes, but your ferret would eat me if I let you get hurt." Chit 
stopped, suddenly. There was a pawprint in a patch of snow off to the 
side... and it didn't look like a fox or a rabbit. It looked more 
like a... he scurried over to investigate.

"Hey, Remus. Is this a microbunny trail? It smells sort of bunnyish."

"Remus?"

Chit ran over to the top of the deadfall, and looked out into the void.

"I'm okay," a voice came from below. Chit looked down and saw Remus standing
in a snowdrift, brushing himself off. "Wasn't looking where I was going."

"I think I found a microbunny trail!" Chit said excitedly. "Can you come take
a look and make sure?"

"I... don't think so, Chit," Remus said. "It looks pretty slippery, and I've
never been much of a climber. I think this is the creek, though, so at least
we aren't lost." He smiled. "The bank was shallower a ways back, so it'll just
mean a little detour..."

"Argh," Chit said, looking for a good spot to climb down. "That was two hours
ago! It'll be dark by the time we get back here." Hell with it. He leaped
right at Remus, grabbing onto his jacket.

"Well, the geometer says the signal's coming from a few miles further down." 

Chit scrambled onto Remus's shoulder to take a look. "The tracks led that way
too. They can't be far..."

"Let's go, then. I'm sure there'll be another place to climb out *somewhere*."
Remus grinned.

Walking directly along the creek was a bit faster, although certainly more
dangerous. One slip on the ice-covered rocks that lined the banks in places
and they'd be soaked with freezing cold water, and probably die of
hypothermia. Well, okay, it wasn't *that* cold, but it certainly wouldn't be
pleasant.

But the stream banks were getting higher, if anything, and they'd long since
lost sight of the sun. Even the glow of dusk was fading.

"We've been walking *forever*," Chit said, staring up at the darkening sky.
"Are we close to the signal, yet?"

"We passed it five miles back," Remus said. "I don't think this is the creek,
it wasn't this long on the map."

Remus took out the map, but it was too dark to read. "Got a flashlight?"

"In my pack," Chit chittered.

Remus stopped. "I think we'd better stop for the night.  I'll break my neck
walking around in the dark."

"I suppose you'd rather be eaten by grues?" Chit stopped, realizing that the
human wasn't following. "Come on, you're not serious. We can't spend the night
out here!"

"Don't think we have much choice, really," Remus said.  "Come on, what 
could possibly go wrong?"