Otter Creek night has a thousand eyes

Task: Is outsmarted by a... rabbit.

No longer did he roam the forest, because the forest was gone. The darkness of their boughs and spidering branches had been replaced by the alderwood which bordered the mountain range. Sweeping hills of green were hidden beneath thick snow, the powder clinging to his coat as he marched through it. Mou paused long enough to urinate on a frozen blackberry bush, and carried on.

He wasn't supposed to venture too far from Diaspora. It wasn't a rule, really. A carry-over from his days of paranoia, more like it. Going too far would invite more than the nostalgia of a lost home, but the heartache of a family disowned, or the immense and immediate fear for his own safety should he make it to the rival mountain range. Mou would never go that far.

The scent of rabbit had drawn him down from the hollow, though. Meat had been a scarcity for all of them to suffer through. He dreamt of it sometimes; not in any concrete manner exactly, but Mou often woke hungry and could recall with some clarity the various layers of his multifaceted dreams. The allure of fresh meat drew him along the creek's edge, intent on his full-bellied return by day's end.