text: [Themes: Science Fiction, crashed spaceship, non-human npcs, telepathy, science fiction, changing environment, violence]
  
  > Look around
  The burrow is cool and dark, and the sandy soil smells pleasantly spicy. Emotionally, you feel totally secure here. Intellectually, you know that the unstable walls could collapse on you, and probably kill you, at any time.
  
  > Dig
  You scuff the soil a little.
  
  > Exit
  You emerge, blinking, into the sunlight.
  
  Part of the canyon wall has fallen here, forming a huge bank of sandy rubble. This looks like it used to be part of the rabbit warren you can see to the south, but this section has been abandoned. Part of the mound has begun to be colonised by the woods that extend to the north. You can see the river in the distance down to the east.
  
  The bank doesn't look very stable and is full of partially collapsed burrows. One of them has been dug free of sand.
  
  You can feel peacefulness from the south, and irritation from the east.
  
  > go to the east
  The flat river valley here isn't as wet as the marsh further south, and has bloomed into an astonishing wildflower meadow. The flowers are all strange and alien, of course, but the air is fragrant and peaceful. The only sound is the gentle noise of the river to the east. Off to the west the ground begins to rise up to meet the canyon wall, while forests dominate the north.
  
  You almost run into the fox again. It eagerly begins to chase you.
  
  You can feel annoyance from the south.
  
  > Go west
  Part of the canyon wall has fallen here, forming a huge bank of sandy rubble. This looks like it used to be part of the rabbit warren you can see to the south, but this section has been abandoned. Part of the mound has begun to be colonised by the woods that extend to the north. You can see the river in the distance down to the east.
  
  The bank doesn't look very stable and is full of partially collapsed burrows. One of them has been dug free of sand.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the east.
  
  You can feel peacefulness from the south.
  
  > enter the burrow
  It takes a few moments for your eyes to adjust to the dim light.
  
  The burrow is cool and dark, and the sandy soil smells pleasantly spicy. Emotionally, you feel totally secure here. Intellectually, you know that the unstable walls could collapse on you, and probably kill you, at any time.
  
  You can feel excitement from outside.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  You suddenly notice excitement changing to hunger from outside.
  
  > Exit
  You emerge, blinking, into the sunlight.
  
  Part of the canyon wall has fallen here, forming a huge bank of sandy rubble. This looks like it used to be part of the rabbit warren you can see to the south, but this section has been abandoned. Part of the mound has begun to be colonised by the woods that extend to the north. You can see the river in the distance down to the east.
  
  The bank doesn't look very stable and is full of partially collapsed burrows. One of them has been dug free of sand.
  
  You can feel caution from the south, and hunger from the east.
  
  > Kick
  (the burrows)
  You give the sandy bank a good whack. Small avalanches of sand start cascading all over, one of them neatly filling up the burrow you dug out.
  
  You sense there is a new feeling of annoyance from the south and the feeling of hunger fading from the east.
  
  > Dig
  You go to work with your front paws and quickly clear the loose sand out of the burrow. It's surprisingly satisfying work.
  
  The deer gallop up from the south with a thunder of hooves. They spend several moments looking around with suspicion before returning to their grazing.
  
  You sense annoyance fading from the south.
  
  > Smell
  The air is good, nearly as good as the Concerto's, but
  uninteresting.
  
  The buck deer shakes itself. A cloud of dust rises from its mane.
  
  You sense a new feeling of hunger from the south.
  
  > Go north
  The ground rises to meet the canyon wall to the west here, and small trees are scattered across the slope. There is very little undergrowth, lending the woods an airy, garden-like feel. The trees get denser to the north and east, but space opens out to the south.
  
  The deer gallop up from the south with a thunder of hooves. They spend several moments looking around with suspicion before returning to their grazing.
  
  > look at the trees
  The trees are peculiar, very similar to Earth trees and yet somehow different. The geometry is still based on a branching fractal structure but you suspect the rules are different. The leaves are very familiar, though, and unless you make a point of noticing the differences they're just trees.
  
  The deer stare into space for a while.
  
  You sense a new feeling of hunger from the south.
  
  > Smell
  The trees have slightly acrid, slightly resiny smell that is not unappealing.
  
  The deer suddenly look up, and then bound off north.
  
  The fox approaches from the south. It eagerly begins to chase you.
  
  You sense hunger fading from the south.
  
  > go north
  A massive slab of rock has fallen into the woods from the canyon walls to the west. It is halfway sunk into the turf and looks almost sculpted. The canyon wall looms over you from the west. The woodlands parallel it, running north-south, although the canyon steepens to the north. Water glints between the trees to the east.
  
  The huge boulder towers over the surrounding trees.
  
  The deer suddenly look up, and then bound off north.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the south.
  
  > go east
  A haphazard but substantial dam has been built across the river out of logs and fallen trees. Water pours through the many little gaps to form a delta of pools and runnels, before joining back together into the main flow of the river, which disappears into the woods to the south. Upstream of the dam to the north there is a substantial lake, but everywhere else, all you can see are trees. The river looks crossable, to reach the east side of the canyon.
  
  Some fish flap about in the pools.
  
  A half-dozen or so humped, stocky creatures are bustling about, working on the dam: Elysian beavers. They bustle about, working on the dam.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the west.
  
  The beavers suddenly notice the fox and start hissing threateningly. It stays well over to the west side of the dam.
  
  > look at the beavers
  Unlike the other Earth namesakes in the canyon, the beavers here look absolutely nothing like the Earth kind. They're small and
  stocky, with a bulldog neck and serrated tusks that stick out sideways from their mouths which they use to saw through trees. They don't have big teeth, they don't gnaw and they certainly don't have the trademark tail. The dam they're building isn't much good, either.
  
  You did ask Francis about them, you remember: he was the primary author of the survey report. He just shrugged. "They had a dam, and we ran out of imagination," he said.
  
  The fox pounces on you. You just have time to think oh, sh---
  as its jaws close on your neck, and then everything stops.
  
  > Go north
  The lake nestles under the cliffs at the edge of the canyon, so that the east side is a sheer wall rising out of the water; but here on the west side the ground slopes gradually so there is a wide shore of pebbles and rough sand. Mats of grassy plants form little green islands here and there, some under the water. Beyond the beach, unkempt woodland rises up the west side of the canyon, while far to the north, at the head of the canyon, there is a distant skein of falling water as the river tumbles down the cliff into the lake.
  
  Scattered along the waterfront are some splintered fish bones.
  
  Over on the other side of the lake, a black animal is playing on the edge of the water. It never seems to stay still and it takes you a few moments to identify it as an Elysian otter.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the south.
  
  You can feel hostility from the south, and contentment from the west.
  
  > look at the otter
  It's not really an otter, of course; it's a quasi-mammal with the usual cartiligenous backbone that creatures have here. But it's got fur, warm blood, lives in water and eats fish, so the necessities of physics make it look vaguely otter-like, which means that's what everyone on the Concerto calls it.
  
  The fox pounces on you. You just have time to think oh, sh---
  as its jaws close on your neck, and then everything stops.
  
  > go to the west
  The trees here are stunted and wiry, and the steeply sloping ground is showing its rocky bones through the thin grass. The canyon is spread out below you: the lake to your east, the woodland covering the lower slopes, and the green dome of the Mother Tree far to the south, now shrunken by distance. The canyon ends not far to the north in a tumble of fallen rock.
  
  The deer suddenly look up, and then bound off north.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the east.
  
  > Go north
  You are perched at the very north-west tip of the canyon, where the slopes disintegrate into a tangle of smashed rock. Wiry, heather-like grass grows between the gaps between the boulders, and there are even a few trees. Below to the east is a maelstrom of white water at the head of the river; to the south, the slope begins to flatten.
  
  Tiny multicoloured birds dart back and forth on the cliff face above you.
  
  The deer suddenly look up, and then bound off east.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the south.
  
  > go east
  The river pours out of an aperture in the northern wall of the canyon and tumbles down through a snarl of fallen rock before flowing into the lake, to the south. The noise of rushing water is everywhere. The eastern shore is a sheer rockface, but the western shore is a rocky slope that rises to meet the canyon wall in the distance. Some trees hug the edge of the water.
  
  Water pours around, through, and over the massive pile of boulders. There are nooks and crannies and vortices everywhere.
  
  The water swirling in one large rock pool in particular catches your eye.
  
  The deer suddenly look up, and then bound off south.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the west.
  
  > go south
  The lake nestles under the cliffs at the edge of the canyon, so that the east side is a sheer wall rising out of the water; but here on the west side the ground slopes gradually so there is a wide shore of pebbles and rough sand. Mats of grassy plants form little green islands here and there, some under the water. Beyond the beach, unkempt woodland rises up the west side of the canyon, while far to the north, at the head of the canyon, there is a distant skein of falling water as the river tumbles down the cliff into the lake.
  
  Scattered along the waterfront are some splintered fish bones.
  
  The deer suddenly look up, and then bound off south.
  
  Over on the other side of the lake, the otter is basking in the sunlight.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the north.
  
  You can feel concentration from the south.
  
  > Go south
  A haphazard but substantial dam has been built across the river out of logs and fallen trees. Water pours through the many little gaps to form a delta of pools and runnels, before joining back together into the main flow of the river, which disappears into the woods to the south. Upstream of the dam to the north there is a substantial lake, but everywhere else, all you can see are trees. The river looks crossable, to reach the east side of the canyon.
  
  Some fish flap about in the pools.
  
  The deer suddenly look up, and then bound off south. The beavers relax, disperse, and go about their business again.
  
  The beavers bustle about, working on the dam.
  
  The fox is chasing behind you from the north.
  
  The beavers suddenly notice the fox and start hissing threateningly. It stays well over to the west side of the dam.
  
  > Go east
  The woodland here is quite unlike the west side of the canyon. The trees are short and gnarled and look quite unhealthy: they are also very close together and visibilty through the tangled branches is poor. Despite the gloom, the undergrowth is thick, with ferns, tall grasses, and less identifiable plants filling the space between the tree trunks. The forest sweeps east up to the rock face above and south as far as you can see through the trees.
  
  Bushes of the thorny aromatic plant grow profusely.
  
  A pair of shining eyes stares at you from out of the thorny bush. After a few seconds, the shape of a vaguely anthropoid creature resolves around them. Ah, yes, you remember this: it's a lemur. You have just enough warning to brace yourself before...
  
  The lemur stares at the strange rabbit with a distant curiosity.
  Its mind is unfocused, blurred by the psychedelic drug in the leaves it loves so much. It knows that the rabbit is unusual, but it doesn't care. It doesn't care much about anything except the leaves. It just sits and watches the world, and occasionally, when the colours focus for a moment, interacts with it.
  
  That was... unusual.
  
  The lemur is sitting in one of the thorny bushes.
  
  The lemur languidly picks up a some small insect of some kind, stares at it for a while, and then pulls the legs off before throwing it away.
  
  You can feel excitement and hostility from the west.
  
  > examine Plant
  Unlike the animals, this plant defies neat categorisation into the Earth ecosystem. A great froth of slightly furry parsley-like leaves shields long, razor sharp thorns underneath. It smells intensely of... something. Mint crossed with vanilla? It's very strong and not very appetising.
  
  The lemur stares solemnly at you from out of the spiky bush.
  
  You sense excitement changing to hunger from the west.
  
  > take Plant
  You gingerly take a mouthful of leaves, avoiding the thorns.
  
  The lemur scratches itself.
  
  You sense excitement changing to hunger from the west.
  
  > eat Plant
  You're not cut out to be a browser.
  
  The lemur licks itself contemplatively.
  
  You sense hunger fading and hostility changing to concentration from the west.
  
  > Smell plant
  All you can smell is that plant.
  
  The lemur gives you a suspicious look.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You are carrying a bundle of aromatic leaves in your mouth.
  
  The lemur languidly picks up a some small insect of some kind, stares at it for a while, and then pulls the legs off before throwing it away.
  
  > Go west
  A haphazard but substantial dam has been built across the river out of logs and fallen trees. Water pours through the many little gaps to form a delta of pools and runnels, before joining back together into the main flow of the river, which disappears into the woods to the south. Upstream of the dam to the north there is a substantial lake, but everywhere else, all you can see are trees. The river looks crossable, to reach the east side of the canyon.
  
  Some fish flap about in the pools.
  
  The beavers bustle about, working on the dam.
  
  You can feel peacefulness from the east.
  
  > examine fish
  They're brown and trout-like, but on closer inspection the fins are all wrong and the tail is bifurcated. You think that Elysia could have some very plausible mermaid myths.
  
  One of the beavers starts whittling a branch with its serrated tusks.
  
  You sense peacefulness fading from the east.
  
  > take the fish
  (first dropping the bundle of aromatic leaves)
  You easily catch one of the stranded fish and bite down on the back of its neck. Snap-crunch. You feel nauseous.
  
  A couple of beavers scuffle meaninglessly for a bit.
  
  > go west
  A massive slab of rock has fallen into the woods from the canyon walls to the west. It is halfway sunk into the turf and looks almost sculpted. The canyon wall looms over you from the west. The woodlands parallel it, running north-south, although the canyon steepens to the north. Water glints between the trees to the east.
  
  The huge boulder towers over the surrounding trees.
  
  You can feel concentration from the east.
  
  > climb the rock
  (the giant rock)
  Dropping the dead fish, you jump and scrabble wildly with your powerful hind legs, eventually managing to haul yourself to the top.