[El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle] had supposed it would be easy to get out, but they soon found that it was nothing of the kind. They had no idea which way to go and wandered up and down the green paths until they felt quite bewildered.
It was during one of their puzzled halts that El-ahrairah became sure of something of which he had already been half aware for some time past. There was some other creature in the comical field as well as themselves—someone on the move like them. He could hear it: now far off; now, so it seemed, close by. […] He and Rabscuttle remained perfectly still, staring at each other. They both felt alarmed.
"Should we join it, do you think?" asked El-ahrairah after a while. "It might be able to show us the way out."
"Don't make any mistake, master," replied Rabscuttle. "I don't know who or what it is, but I know it's searching for us, and if it finds us it means to kill us. We're being hunted."
They both began to run then: a panic flight, one way and another, not knowing where they were going. It was like a nightmare, a flight without direction or purpose, against all rabbit nature. For as you all know, in the normal way a rabbit knows where the danger lies or where the enemy is, and runs in the opposite direction. But here, among the paths of the comical field, they could not tell where the danger lay; nor could they run directly away from their pursuer, for every path twisted, came to a dead end or turned back on itself. For all they knew, they might be running straight toward this unknown enemy, the dread of whom clutched at their hearts more direly with every moment that passed. Up and down, back and forth, they ran, feeling not only helplessness and terror but also growing exhaustion.
It was during one of their puzzled halts that El-ahrairah became sure of something of which he had already been half aware for some time past. There was some other creature in the comical field as well as themselves—someone on the move like them. He could hear it: now far off; now, so it seemed, close by. […] He and Rabscuttle remained perfectly still, staring at each other. They both felt alarmed.
"Should we join it, do you think?" asked El-ahrairah after a while. "It might be able to show us the way out."
"Don't make any mistake, master," replied Rabscuttle. "I don't know who or what it is, but I know it's searching for us, and if it finds us it means to kill us. We're being hunted."
They both began to run then: a panic flight, one way and another, not knowing where they were going. It was like a nightmare, a flight without direction or purpose, against all rabbit nature. For as you all know, in the normal way a rabbit knows where the danger lies or where the enemy is, and runs in the opposite direction. But here, among the paths of the comical field, they could not tell where the danger lay; nor could they run directly away from their pursuer, for every path twisted, came to a dead end or turned back on itself. For all they knew, they might be running straight toward this unknown enemy, the dread of whom clutched at their hearts more direly with every moment that passed. Up and down, back and forth, they ran, feeling not only helplessness and terror but also growing exhaustion.
— Tales from Watership Down, "The Story of the Comical Field"
