Sneak Peak: The Squirrel Wars

So here's a little peak into an upcoming project that'll get a little more work-time once Underbush is completed.  Actually, I'll probably work on this a bit before going back to touch that story up.  Sometimes you just have to do that, you know?

Anyway, its full title is Memoirs from the Squirrel Wars and it will follow a "war" that raged for a time between Rabbits, Squirrels, Sparrows, Turtles, and other animals near a small Ohio farm.  It will mainly follow the adventures of Twig and the rest of his comrades of the Cottontail Militia as they struggle against the National Squirrel Army for various reasons.  Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds.

I haven't decided if it will have a serious or playful tone yet, but I just couldn't shake the image of a grizzled, old, war-vet Rabbit hunched over a desk, scratching out the Forward found below.  Don't know if it'll even make it into the story at all, but I was amused so I just went with it.

Expect more of Memoirs from the Squirrel Wars this Christmas!

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Memoirs from the Squirrel Wars

By Twig

Dedications:

To Milly.  Without you I never would've been able to finish.

Srgt. McFinn, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you.

To my children and their children.  Never forget.

Forward:

"The Squirrel Wars".  Not many Rabbits can say those words nowadays without repressing a little shudder.  They represented a dark time in our history, when destruction ran wild in the land and the future was anything but certain.  But we must also recall that they brought out the indominable spirit that defines us as a species.  When the Sparrows fled and the Turtles boxed themselves in, it was the Rabbits that took the fight to the enemy; that finally won through to victory.  Many years have passed since then, of course, and I often look back on those days very differently than I did in my youth.  It was an adventure, then.  The grandest one of all, in fact.  The Squirrels had brought their unstoppable machine of war to our doorsteps and, like in some fanciful tale of old, it was up to us to stop them in their tracks.  We knew even then that it wasn't going to be easy, of course.  They were the Squirrels, after all: a virtually undefeated race since history began.  They were quick, agile, and possessed a devious cunning that even we Rabbits had to admire.  But we also knew that we could do it, that we could bring down the Beast, so to speak.

What follows is my humble attempt to chronicle the events of that war from beginning to end.  More importantly, though, I want you to know the individuals that played their roles within it, some large and some small.  Because what is a war if not the interactions of various individuals?

Over the years, I have gathered a number of journal entries from my old comrades and others, as well as some of my own, that tell the tales as they happened.  I would not dare presume to change these for they are the echoes of history.  But I will insert my commentary where I feel in necessary for you, the reader, to get the full impact of these events.  I only pray that somehow justice is done to these brave men and women and I don't, instead, tarnish their memory.  For, you see, in my old age I have come to find that memories are more important than an entire bounty of carrots.  They are what reminds us of who we are and there is nothing greater than that.