- The massive owl loomed out of the shadows, landing on the ground before them.  It told them it was the hare it was after, and that the mice were free to leave.  Rather than attempt to fight the enormous predator, Nipp tried instead to convince it that the hare had been poisoned by nearby ferrets and that eating it would in turn poison the owl.  The owl seemed disinclined to believe the mouse, but as Nipp continued her insistence, it eventually became unwilling to take the chance.

- Unfortunately, Nipp convinced the owl not to eat the hare before she could direct its attention to the ferrets she knew were nearby, and the owl instead turned on the mice.  Swooping down upon them, it grabbed both Nipp and Clove and began flying off with them.

- With some effort, Clove managed to free herself from its talon, but held on and made a heroic effort to free Nipp as well.  Before she was able to, however, her grip finally failed and she fell back to the forest floor.  Meanwhile, Nipp was able to identify a weak point in the bird's talon, and biting hard into it got the owl to drop her as well.

- Hakett, Tom and the hare began to make their way in the direction the owl had flown and, much to their surprise happened upon Clove and Nipp.  At that moment, however, two of the ferrets from the burrow had caught up with them and were just about to leap onto the group when the owl suddenly swooped down on them from the darkness.

- As the predators struggled with each other, the group made their esape.

- Tom thanked the Guardmice for their aid and asked if they could take him to Copperwood where he hoped his wife was waiting for him.  After 10 days of cautious travel, they arrived...