It was cloudy. The morning was dreary, and it become worse when the rain started pouring. It wasn't dark, but there was certainly no sunlight. Most of the twelve rabbits remained inside, keeping themselves warm and dry. Others had differnet plans.

Danielle carefully crawled out of the burrow, looking for Clock. He was sitting there, staring out into the distance. She hopped over to him. "Clock, what are you doing out here? You're soaked!"

The buck took a moment before looking over to Danielle. "Were you talking to me?" His voice was different. It was hollow and solemn.

"Yes, your name is Clock, isn't it?"

The buck turned his head back forward, looking to the distance again. "No. I'm afraid you're mistaken."

Danielle lowered her ears. "What do you mean? You look just like him. I haven't seen any other rabbit like you."

"You are mistaken. My name is Down Town. And I have not met you before. The one you seek must be elsewhere, maybe dead and gone by now..."

"Don't say that! You are Clock! Is this some kind of joke?" Danielle angrily lowered her ears and glared at the brown buck.

"No joke. You are caught in some strange delirium, making you believe I am this 'Clock' you seek. But I tell you the truth, I am not him." He turned his blue eyes to her.

Danielle drew back a little. Those weren't Clock's eyes. It might have been him, but those weren't his eyes. His eyes were bright and sparkling. These were dull and pale. She remained there for a moment, then raced for the burrow.

***

Mercutio stared out the entrance, an intrigued look on his face. "And you say that it is not he?"

"Yeah. He's... I dunno, different."

"He appears to be the same..."

"But he's not! I saw it... Something's wrong with him, Mercutio. But I don't know what."

The tan rabbit observed Clock from the safety of the burrow. Clock didn't normally sit out in the rain. He didn't normally sit in one place. And he wasn't normally this silent. Danielle was right, something was wrong.

Mercutio turned to Skokey, "Care to throw in an opinion?"

Skokey perked his ears, "About Clock? I wouldn't know..."

Vessel slowly came over to Skokey, writing something in the soft earth.

Skokey raised an eyebrow, then spoke up. "Vessel says it might have something to do with the rain."

"Makes sense..." Danielle mused. "I didn't rain could do such a thing to someone... But I still want to know something."

Vessel looked to her. Skokey interpretted, "Yeah?"

"Why did he call himself 'Down Town'? If it was just the rain, he would've told me to leave him alone or something. But it was like he was an entirely different being. Like he was never Clock..."

Vessel wrote more, and Skokey spoke. "Vessel thinks..." Vessel shot a look at him, which made Skokey sigh before continuing. "He thinks it might be something called a split personality."

Danielle and Mercutio both looked to them. Mercutio flicked an ear. "That does make sense..."

"You know what that is?" Danielle tilted her head.

"Yes. It is rare, but I have seen others with it. One day they are one person, the next day they are someone else. Yet they are not aware, most of the time. They only believe they are one person when they are, in fact, two."

"Or more." Skokey said after a pause.

"You think Clock knows?" Danielle went to the entrance again to look.

"We'll have to wait for the sun to come out. Then we can ask him." Skokey sighed.

***

The sun had come out after a long morning of rain. Everything was wet, shining in the sunlight. Drops of water fell from the towering trees above, making it possible for little ones to create a new game. Faytha and Fenkovan played outside, with the drops falling down, they wanted to see who could go the longest without getting hit. It was fun, and hard, but somehow they managed to do it for about an hour, before Faytha bumped into a small sapling sending dozens of tiny drops all over her.

Danielle came out of the burrow in search for Clock. He wasn't in his spot anymore. She tried to call out, but remembered she wasn't as loud as a deer anymore. She still called, regardless. "Clock!" She hopped around all over the place. "Cloooooock!" She stopped at a small circle of little pines, seeing Clock sitting in the middle of it. "Clock!" She breathed, before going over to him.

"Hello." Clock said with a smile.

"Is it really you this time?" She said, regretting asking it afterwards.

"Me? What do you mean, who else could I be?" Clock looked at her, confused.

Danielle's heart sank a little. He doesn't know... "Nevermind... What are you doing here?"

"Just... Thinkin. I dunno. It's a nice little spot I found yesterday. Very peaceful and out of the way. I bet Vessel would like it here." He continued to blab cheerfully, slowly letting Danielle know that he was just fine.

She smiled, "Well, why don't we go back to the burrow?"

Clock smiled back, "Sure!"

They walked over to the burrow, finding it was more out of the way then they thought. They talked about a lot of things. Clock was blissfully unaware of this morning. That bothered Danielle.

The brown buck perked his ears and chuckled. "Boy, I must've slept in pretty late, huh? I didn't know it was raining, you shoulda told me! I love rain."

Danielle shot a concerned look at him.

"What?" She didn't say anything. "Danielle, what is it? Is something wrong?"

"You... were awake this morning..."

"Huh? No I wasn't, I don't remember being up when it was raining..."

"But... you were... Only..."

"Only what?"

She hesitated. Would he believe me if I told him?...

"You can tell me, it's okay. I can take it. Come on, just say it..."

"You were awake this morning, but... you weren't... you."

Clock furrowed his brow. "I wasn't me?"

"Yeah... You were someone else. Someone different."

The buck lowered his ears. "I see... I think I know what you're talking about..."

"You do?"

"Yeah... A mental illness known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. Split personality..."

"Yeah..."

"I was afraid of that... I've been wondering for a long time why I couldn't remember certain days... That explains it, though." Clock looked down solemnly. "Who was I?"

"You called yourself Down Town. He was... very depressing..."

Clock nodded. He looked at her with a sad smile on his face. "Anyone else I should know about? Surely you've seen Down Town before."

Danielle shook her head. "No... Although, I did see someone else once. Back in the Forest. But then he jumped in the Pond, and there you were."

"Did he mention his name?"

"Umm... Edward, I think..."

"Edward? Down Town? What's with all the weird names?"

"Tch, I dunno... They're your personalities."

They seemed to take this a little more lightly now, knowing it wasn't a huge problem. They conlcuded that Down Town came only when it rained, which helped Clock a lot. It didn't rain a lot in the Forest. Danielle told him that it was cloudy when she saw Edward, which didn't happen normally in the Forest either. It made him feel a little easier.

"So, as long as it's sunny, I'll still be me." He smiled at her. "I'll try not to bother you otherwise. Maybe you can be friends with the others."

She smiled, a little halfheartedly, at him. "I'll try."

***

As the months went by, more things started to enter the rabbits' minds. They had become accustomed to their different life. They knew exactly what foods to eat, where to find water, what to do when a predetor is around... But their minds were still set on going home. They knew that they had stayed in the Valley for a long time. They wondered when they would ever go home.

Vessel sat on a rock, watching Skokey and Fenqua play with their kittens. A pondering look on his face, which made him seem lost in his own world. Xylia watched as well, but from the ground, sitting next to the rock.

The kittens continued to play, though the rain drops stopped falling from tree branches. They played a game of tag, giggling and screaming while their parents jumped at them and tickled them. Xylia smiled, seeing the two little fluffy rabbits hop about. Her mind wandered to her half-sister, Aspen. She would have her child soon. She wondered when she could come back to the Forest so she wouldn't miss it.

Vessel stared down at the family. His mind drifted, from when Fenqua gave birth to them, to when he was a fawn, to when he met Xylia, and to when he found out Aspen was pregnant. He couldn't keep his thoughts straight. He and Xylia had been talking. They had been talking for a while, even before this trip through worlds. Talking about children.

He didn't like the thought of it at first. He had always hated fawns, though now he was sort of forced to be around them. They were noisy, obnoxious, ignorant little things. It made him irritated when one would come up to him, commanding him to play with it. And when he refused, it would either have a tantrum or start crying. Or both. His peace always seemed to be shattered by fawns.

He thought of what his offspring would be like. Around him and Xylia, would it really be all that noisy? Not to mention, what would it think of him? He couldn't speak to his own child... No way of communicating to it before it learned to read. He would have to rely on Xylia to teach it everything... That wasn't very fair.

Vessel continued to stare, blinking occasionally. Xylia looked up to him, sighing. The blue-ish doe began to be concerned about him, but she thought it would only be a passing contemplation. She believed he would be okay in a few days.

Meanwhile, Zilant and Fulu were talking. They were thinking on the same subject, children. They watched as the two little ones played with their parents.

"Do you think being a rabbit would change anything?" Fulu asked, flicking her black-tipped ears.

"I'm not sure... Maybe you should ask Clock, he's the one with the brains."

She smiled at him, nipping at his ear, "Come on, you're not that dumb."

They both chuckled, and decided to go over to him. Clock welcomed them with a warm greeting, as if he hadn't seen them in years.

"Clock, we wanna know something..."

"Yeah?" Clock beamed at them, glad that he could put his knowledge to some use at the moment.

"Would... Would going to different worlds affect... a developing baby?"

Clock raised his eyebrows, then chuckled loudly before responding. "No, I wouldn't think so. Time is different in this place, so you don't have to worry about having a rabbit child or whatever before we go home. And second, we all change, but that just means the baby will change too. Whatever form it's in, that's what it'll come to be, but once we're back in the Forest, it'll be a deer again. A perfectly pure deer."

Fulu smiled, nuzzling Zilant. "Thank you..." They both hopped away, joining the other family in their games.

Clock smiled warmly. He was glad everyone was enjoying themselves. I just hope they don't freak out too much when they hear how long they're staying...

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LONG CHAPTER IS LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG

yeah so... um yeah XD

kinda explains itself 8D enjoy <3