Duncan's woodland cabin is transformed from a quiet home in the trees into a crowded base for the Were-hare drove. Tents, campers, motorcycles, patrols, and urgent discussions overtake its surroundings, while Duncan's kitchen becomes a gathering place for allies and unexpected visitors. The cabin's shift from private dwelling to contested wartime hub gives the looming conflict a concrete setting: people can assemble and prepare there, but they must wait for Venus's next move.

Setting and physical surroundings

The cabin stands amid trees, reached by a dirt driveway. Before the drove arrives, its exterior is described as serene; afterward, that stillness is replaced by movement across the grounds. Hares put up tents, arrive in campers, and park motorcycles in groups. Camouflage nets cover larger objects, concealing them from immediate view, while small patrols disappear into the surrounding woods.

These details establish a camp that spreads beyond the cabin itself. The house remains its center, but the surrounding terrain is put to use for concealment and watchfulness. Patrol members signal to one another with quick hand movements as they move through the brush. The woodland is thus both the cabin's peaceful setting and the space into which its occupants extend their defenses.

A home taken over by the drove

After Sid calls the drove and reports in, Ikka steers the van back to the cabin. The return brings a larger group into Duncan's domestic space: the drove takes over the property and fills the kitchen with people. The narrator likens their arrival to a swarm of locusts, a comparison sharpened by the amount they eat. A platter of sandwiches, put out by Sid, serves the practical needs of a gathering that has outgrown the household's ordinary scale.

The change is not simply a matter of crowding. Lock nudges Ava and quietly remarks on the invasion, while she watches patrols pass into the woods. The familiar cabin becomes a place where domestic habits and organized security coexist: food is served, tents are raised, and concealed patrols keep watch in the same burst of activity. Its ordinary serenity is not erased so much as pressed beneath the demands of the arriving group.

Organization and waiting

The cabin also supports a division of labor. Lock handles the logistics of accommodating everyone, since the drove is not accustomed to having its members all in one place. Ezra finally takes a shower, Sid provides snacks, and Olive checks the cabin's defenses. When Ava questions whether that task should be left to one of the men, Ikka says she will double-check Olive's findings as a customary precaution, but emphasizes Olive's thoroughness and ferocity. The exchange presents security as both a practical responsibility and a task assigned on the basis of demonstrated ability.

Ava is less accustomed to group leadership than to working in a small unit or acting as a sniper. Ikka does not ask her to direct the others; instead, she suggests that Ava start a fire to save time otherwise spent gathering kindling. The cabin's work is distributed according to immediate needs, and Ava's firebug ability has a practical use amid the camp's preparations. At the same time, the group cannot proceed with its larger plan until Venus calls. Les, the drove's leader, says there is little to plan before that call, and Duncan agrees. The busy grounds therefore contain a force ready to organize, but still held in suspense by information it does not yet have.

Duncan's table and the widening conflict

Duncan's kitchen and table provide a second kind of staging ground: a place where the drove can listen, assess newcomers, and confront the politics beyond the cabin. Duncan whittles a tiny fox while Ava, angry and impatient, questions the usefulness of the carving. Their exchanged look does not resolve her anger, but Lock's knee touching hers helps her relax. The small gesture unfolds amid the wider gathering, showing how personal tensions continue even as the cabin serves collective needs.

Later, Alistair sits at the head of Duncan's table with two companions: a blonde woman and a very large representative of the Portsmouth Council. Ava recognizes the Council connection in light of the recent Vodyanoy attempt to kill the group and openly challenges the visitors' presence. The drove is lounging rather than on alert, which Ava takes as evidence that they do not regard the arrivals as an immediate threat; she follows their cues without losing her distrust. The cabin's table consequently becomes a point of contact between the gathered allies and outside power, but not a guarantee of easy trust.

From temporary base to campaign

The cabin's significance lies in the contrast between its quiet domestic identity and the scale of the gathering it must accommodate. It shelters coordination, food, security checks, and tense negotiations, yet cannot turn waiting into certainty: the group remains unable to plan fully until Venus makes contact. In the later nighttime preparations for the operation, about thirty members of the drove stand together behind Ava, with Les, Duncan, Alistair, and Parkin leading small groups. That formation marks a movement from dispersed camp life toward coordinated action; the cabin episode shows the crowded, provisional base from which the larger conflict is taking shape.