After The Battle (Watership Down Fanfiction)

Chapter One

Thorn emerged from her burrow, stretching idly as the sun rose in the sky. She walked over to her brother, Thistle, who had already risen, and was waiting impatiently for his sister. As she approached, he grinned, trotting over to her. "Finally! I've been waiting for ages, sister! We can't be late for our first day of training in the owsla!", Thistle yelped in excitement. "Err,  sorry I took so long. And you're right. Let's get to the training grounds.", She replied. Thorn followed as Thistle lead the way to the training grounds. As they walked into the clearing surrounded by four trees, Bigwig came forward to greet his kits. "You're right on time, kits. Get into line with the other new trainees.", He said gruffly, but with a hint of warmth in his voice. Thorn nodded and headed to the line of trainees with her brother. There were four other rabbits in the line: Dew, Bullrush, Birch and Daffodil. Dew greeted them with a welcoming dip of his head, and Daffodil smiled at them. Bigwig stood, tall and strong infront of them. "So, today we will be focusing on finding your strengths and weaknesses. This will help me when it comes to helping you improve in your skills. But before we get into that, I'd like it if we could all introduce ourselves. I'm Bigwig. I'm your chief rabbit, as I assume you already know. I will be training you to become part of our owsla.", Bigwig's voice was stern and commanding. Dew was the first to step forward. "Well, I'm Dew, and my brother is Bullrush!", He was always so optimistic, and it seemed to get the others to talk. As Dew stepped back and sat down, his brother Bullrush began to speak, "I'm Bullrush," he begun without stepping forward, "My brother is Dew.", He wore a bored expression,  obviously not having anything more to say. "I'm Daffodil!", Daffodil's voice rang out over the clearing, "I'm very excited to start trainingandmybrotherisBirch!", she talked so fast it took a moment for Thorn to figure out what she said, as the others blinked in surprise. Thorn shook her head quickly and chuckled. Thistle stepped forward, "I'm Thistle. I will train the best I can to become a good member of this owsla.", He didn't bother to mention they were related, but Thorn wasn't surprised. She finally summoned the courage to speak, Here goes nothing, she thought before speaking up. "I'm Thorn, my brother is Thistle, and I hope to learn new skills and become a valuable member of the owsla, if I can.", She looked around nervously at her new piers. Bullrush was frowning, looking as her strange teeth. He hadn't noticed her unusual fangs before, but now looking confused and judgemental. Oh... That was a great first impression, Thorn. You really captured the audience.. not in a good way. She thought to herself frustratedly. Thistle looked concerned, knowing how the rabbits would react to her strange appearance. Birch stayed silent, but looked at her with an expression of curiousity plastered on his face. She felt a little better when Daffodil commented, "That is kind of weird- but also cool". Thorn smiled sheepishly. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.