The Green Ember

Synopsis

Heather and Picket, two young rabbits, live simply and quietly in their home in Nick Hollow, along with their parents and baby brother, Jacks. One day, their father tells them of the great King Jupiter, the greatest rabbit king ever to rule Natalia. The next day, Heather and Picket are sent to pick berries. From a distance, they see their oak tree house being burned, and wolves milling about. They run away as fast as they can, but they are spotted and pursued. They escape eventually, with unexpected help from an Uncle Wilfred and Cousin Smalls they have never met. They make their way to Cloud Mountain and in the process Picket hurts his foot. They meet a rabbit Heather’s age named Emma, who is training to be a doctor. She gets them food and water and leads them to a room.

The next day Emma shows them around the mountain. The see a strange black rabbit fight a sort of contraption and almost get killed, saved just in time by their uncle and Smalls and the lord of Cloud Mountain. Picket is very angry about losing his family, and hates being pitied. Heather is upset that her once carefree brother is now a sullen, brooding mess. She meets a buck named Kyle and they become friends, despite his reputation for being a troublemaker. Wilfred tells her and Picket that they have another uncle, Garten, who betrayed the great King Jupiter, and ruined their family name, Longtreader. This explains the nasty looks they have been getting from the inhabitants of the mountain.

Smalls  tells Heather he is going to look for his mother, and asks her if she trusts Kyle, and after some thought, she says yes. Feeling uncertain later, she looks for him and finds him in Lighthall, a stained-glass-windowed room that tells the story of King Jupiter in pictures. The last picture is of Smalls, crown on head and sword in hand. She realizes he is the son of the late King Jupiter, and heir to the throne. She tells her uncle that she knows everything, just as wolves attack the mountain. Wilfred asks where Smalls is and she tells him he is going to find his mother, maybe with Kyle. Wilfred becomes angry, and Heather realizes she has made a terrible mistake. She tells Picket, who has been training to fight with the black rabbit, Helmer, that he must find and stop Smalls. He comes to Jupiter’s Crossing, the place where King Jupiter was killed, and sees Smalls there, about to be killed by the captain of the wolves, Redeye Garlackson. He rushes out and jumps onto one of the birds of prey also at the scene. He kills it and jumps down on Garlackson, sword drawn. Just as he is picking up Smalls, he sees a bunch of wolves coming out of the trees. Then, a rabbit army comes out on the other side and they defeat the wolves. The war against Morbin Blackhawk and his wolves and birds of prey is not over yet, but this battle is won.