That night, Hazel-rah called a meeting to discuss this episode occurring on Watership Down. He had said that anyone who wished to watch could drop in, but mainly it was the Owsla that was needed. It was a larger outcome than Hazel had expected. The honeycomb was packed as people pushed against each other, trying to see. There was a space in the center of the floor open for the speaker to be able to address everyone, but that was a tiny island caught in a sea of fur. The news of May Belle had traveled fast.
Fiver had not been anxious to come. He had reasoned that if some other elil came by while May Belle was outside and wounded, she would not be safe. Hazel had argued, but in the end, Kehaar had settled the argument by offering to keep watch and all but pushing Fiver into the burrow.
So now, here they all sat, looking at one another, the room buzzing with whispers. Hazel stood on his haunches to look taller and mightier, and then cleared his throat. A wave of silence took tide over the room.
Hazel got right to the point. "We have gathered here to discuss the latest… surprise that has fallen into our lives." When nobody said anything, he continued. "Now, I am well aware of the impact that humans have on rabbits."
A few rabbits, mainly the survivors of Sandleford lot, mumbled to each other in agreement. Fiver sat there, stony, only his nose twitching.
Hazel shushed the group. He choose his words carefully "But then, we have this unexpected matter of… well, her having an unusual tongue for…" Hazel stopped. He was about to say "Lapine" but realized that this would be wrong. "I'm not exactly sure what it is."
Fiver stood now, his eyes so bright that they demanded Hazel's attention. "It's not that she can speak our language," he said. "It's just that she can… well, hear me."
A flitter of whispers broke out. "Is that possible?" asked Bigwig, his voice rising above all others.
Hazel shook his head. "No, I don't think that it is. I can't think of a single reasonable explanation."
Now everyone was offering their explanations. Most of them were absolutely ridiculous ("She's an alien," one had shouted)., but out of the corner of his eye, Hazel caught a glimpse of Dandelion. He had a faraway look, but he seemed to be deciding whether or not to say something. "Dandelion?" he asked. "Something wrong?"
"Well," Dandelion seemed timid. "There's this old story that I once heard as a kitten. El-ahrairah and the rabbits' hearing."
"The rabbits' hearing? What does that have to do with anything?" Bigwig was getting impatient by how slow that this meeting was moving. What he wanted was permission to run the human out of the down. If he could help it, then he would make sure it happened.
"Well, back when Frith made the world, he made all of the animals the same. He gave them the same hearing and the same language to speak. Because of this, Frith didn't feel it was necessary to give rabbits the excellent hearing that we have today. He just gave us the large ears we have to amuse him. This was all dandy until he began giving out his gifts. He had planned to grant El-ahrairah with the gift of hearing, but he grew frustrated when the rabbit refused to come out of his hole. So he blessed him with the strong haunches that allow us to run." Dandelion paused and looked around, daring the listeners to interrupt.
When he was satisfied that everyone was listening, Dandelion continued. "El-ahrairah and all of his children agreed that this was a fine gift, but they often complained about their inconvenient ears. The extensions made it all the more difficult to camouflage, and slowed you down as you ran. If you fell into a river, swimming back was such a task because your ears would drag you down. They came to envy the proportional ears of the cat.
"To bring this situation to justice, El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle set out to ask Frith for ears of a convenient size. They traveled many days and nights to reach the rising point of the sun. Tired and hurt, they bowed before Frith, and presented their case. 'Great Frith, you have watched over us well, and it is wrong to ask more of you, but we have a problem. Our ears, which have all of the talent of the small-eared cat and no more, are so exceedingly long. It makes for an inconvenience when running, swimming, and even hiding. We implore that you shorten our ears for equality in our journeys.'
"Frith saw this in a light of understanding, but felt that giving El-ahrairah exactly what he asked for would be spoiling him. 'El-ahrairah, Prince with a thousand enemies, I see your problem. I am reluctant to tell you that I shall not be trimming you and your offspring's ears. But I shall make this right.' With that, Frith reached into his bag, searching for the gift of hearing. It was not there. Frith, determined to make this fair, decided that he would take some from another creature and replace it with another gift. But who would he take it from? He looked upon the birds and animals, and could not decide who to deprive of hearing for he loved all of his creatures. Then he noticed a man walking through the area, and had an idea.
"Swiftly, he released half of the man's hearing, which was the half that understood the language of Lapine. Frith replaced this with the cunning cleverness of man to lead them to figure out the things that they have today. As he transferred this hearing to the rabbits, a few drops of it slipped from his fingers, and went running to hide. Even today some of those drops bless creatures at their birth." Dandelion finally stopped again, signaling an end to his story.
Hazel was still. He had not expected such a long story to blossom but there it has. "Are you suggesting that one of these drops blessed May Belle at her birth?"
Dandelion didn't respond for a few moments. "Well, from what I figure from this story is that over the years, these drops have morphed into their very own type of sense."
"You're off your rocker," shouted Silver, raising higher on his haunches.
Dandelion gaze a hard look at Silver. "I'm just a story teller," he said. "And what I'm trying to say is, the way I see it, this sense is, well, something that Frith blesses at chosen beings. May Belle my very well be one of them, but I know one thing for sure…"
"What's that?" asked Pipkin, his ears twitching.
Dandelion rubbed both of his paws over his nose. "Fiver has this blessing."
"He what?" asked Hazel, but he did not need anything repeated. Perhaps this had always been clear to him, but he had just ignored it. Now it all made sense, or at least as much sense as a rabbit can manage to gain in one day.
Fiver did not seem the slightest bit surprised from this. He sat stiffly, every now and then glancing at the hole as if anxious to leave.
Bigwig cleared his throat. "Enough of this talk," he said. "What really matters is one thing. Is the girl going to stay or not?"
Fiver looked at Bigwig with narrowed eyes. "She's staying," he insisted. He looked ready to fight anyone who opposed.
"Fiver," said Hazel sympathetically. "That's not entirely your decision, because we live on Watership Down together."
"No!" Protested Fiver with a start. "But she must stay!"
"Why do you say that, Fiver?" asked Hazel with a reasonably low voice.
Fiver backed down the slightest bit. "I don't know," he said. "But what I do know is that she has to stay. I have the strangest feeling about her, like we have a connection."
"What do you mean?" asked Hazel one of his ears tilting to the side.
"Well, it feels almost as if we were born in the same litter." Fiver cringed at this, because even he sensed how stupid it sounded.
Hazel gave a small chuckle. "Well, we know that isn't the case. After all, I was there when you were born."
Fiver looked up at Hazel with pleading eyes. "Please, Hazel. This is important. Just trust me, as your brother."
Hazel's face soften. "Alright," he said. "She may stay only for the time being, but this matter is not thoroughly discussed. We will look into this further more later." And just like that, the meeting came to a stop.
Fiver relaxed. For now, all was well. His senses were satisfied, for now. May Belle was safe… for now.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxOkay, I know that this chapter was kinda, er, suckish, but I had to answer those lingering questions someway or another. I promise next chapter will fall back into the bittersweet rhythm. Thanks for reading, and please bare with me. I needed to do this chapter, or else the story could not furthermore unravel. And, I guess that the whole, update every other day thing didn't work. Sorry. School's coming up so it might slow down a little. Okay, thanks for reading! :D