Chapter 9-Hazel Does Something Stupid

Sam awoke in the familiar darkness. Good, he thought, I have some questions. He looked around and located Prince Rainbow rather quickly.

"HELLO, SAM," he said, "HOW ARE YOU?"

"Oh, pretty good," Sam replied. "Ya know, aside from the whole, being spiritually drained thing." Sam focused on his spiritual energy, "Although, it seems I'm all better now." Huh, he thought to himself, I didn't know I could just…tell, like that. Cool.

"THAT'S GOOD SAM. IT SHOWS THAT YOU'RE BECOMING MORE USED TO CHANNELING YOUR ENERGY IF YOU ARE ABLE TO GAUGE YOUR OWN STRENGTH. AND BEFORE YOU ASK, THE 'GREEN BALL,' AS YOU PUT IT, IS SIMPLY A PURE BLAST OF SPIRITUAL ENERGY. FOR NOW, IT'S GOING TO BE PRETTY DRAINING FOR YOU, SO I WOULD SUGGEST USING IT ONLY AS A LAST RESORT."

"Sounds good," Sam said. "It kinda sucks being so tired, and after only one shot."

"WELL, GIVE IT TIME SAM," Prince Rainbow said. "EVENTUALLY YOU WILL BE THROWING THEM AROUND LIKE IT'S NOTHING. WHEN YOU GET STRONGER, I SUGGEST YOU EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR NEW GREEN POWER. ITS PURPOSE IS FOR SELF DEFENSE, AND IT IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE OF ALL YOUR POWERS."

The thought made Sam smile. "Sweet! So I'm going to turn into a walking death machine?" He said in mock-excitement.

Prince Rainbow stared at him in shock. "SAM, THAT IS NOT AT ALL HOW YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT IT. YOU MUST USE THESE POWERS RESPON-"

Sam interrupted him, "I was just kidding, calm down." Ignoring Prince Rainbow's glare, Sam went on to ask the other question that had been bugging him. "So what's up with Woundwort? I've read the book, and watched the TV show enough times to know that he was acting kind of brutal, even for him. Oh, and he didn't fall for Hazel's trick like he was supposed to."

Prince Rainbow's eyes widened at the mention of Woundwort's name. "UH, SORRY TO GO SO SOON SAM," he said, speaking quickly, "LOTS OF THINGS TO DO, LOTS AND LOTS OF THINGS. SEE YOU LATER!"

"Hey wai-" That was all Sam had time to say before Prince Rainbow waved his hand and Sam's vision went black.

Sam woke with a start when and found himself in the cave they had slept in the night before. Dang you, Prince Rainbow, he thought to himself, what's that about? He didn't have much time to think on it before he heard Fiver's voice behind him.

"Sam! You're awake!" He turned to see Fiver near the entrance of the cave.

"Oh, hey Fiver," Sam said as he stretched out his sore back. "Where are Hazel and Bigwig?"

"They're out keeping watch. Making sure we aren't being followed by Efrafans. Do you think you're going to be ready to make the rest of the trip home?"

Sam stood up, surprised at how energetic he felt. "Oh yeah! Couldn't tell you why, but I'm feeling awesome this morning. I'm ready as soon as we grab the others."

Fiver and Sam, back in his rabbit body, left the cave and quickly found Hazel and Bigwig. After a bit of talking (mostly complaints about the wait from Bigwig), the group set off for the down. The return trip was not nearly as eventful as the trip there, although Sam did have some more fun with the scarecrow, ending with Bigwig chasing him around the field. After a half day of traveling, they were climbing up the side of Watership Down. They were greeted by the rest of the rabbits, with an ecstatic Pipkin in front.

"Sam! Fiver! Hazel! Bigwig! You're back!" This he said as he nuzzled each rabbit in turn. "We were so worried! Weren't we Blackberry?"

She chuckled at Pipkin's enthusiasm as she approached the group. "Indeed we were Pipkin, although it appears that we didn't need to be. How did everything go?"

The group looked to Hazel to provide. He sat there with a faraway look, seemingly ignoring what was being said. Bigwig decided to answer for him. "It was worse than we had thought. Let's gather everyone at the top of the hill and we'll tell you all what happened."

As it turned out, the others were already outside. This included Holly whose injuries were looking much better. Bigwig began the story. He told of the journey, and about meeting Primrose and Blackavar outside the warren. Fiver took over when they split up, since Hazel was still out of it. Sam noticed Hazel's behavior, just he noticed how stony Hazel's face got when Fiver was talking about how they got thrown in the same burrow as Primrose and Blackavar. Bigwig finished with the trial and Sam's ball of energy that saved Hazel and Fiver's life.

At the end of the story, the others were sitting there with looks of amazement and shock on their faces. Holly was the first to form a reaction.

"Who does this Woundwort think he is?!" He yelled. "In my hrair seasons in the Sandleford owsla, I have never seen or heard of a rabbit being treated as badly as these are. He's a monster."

"It's worse than I had heard," Strawberry said. "There were rumors about a vicious warren, but no one ever said anything like this."

Blackberry answered, "That's likely because no one who knows more has been able to get out, if what Bigwig and Fiver says is true. It sounds like any attempt to leave would be met with severe punishment."

Hazel jerked his head up and heatedly said, "Not yet they haven't, but they will!" He stared at the rest of the group before walking back to the warren.

Pipkin asked what was on everyone's mind, "What's wrong with Hazel?"

"He's just a little…distracted right now," Fiver said.

"By what?"

Sam answered before Fiver could say anything, "With Primrose. She's that doe Fiver told you they were held captive with. What he didn't tell you is that Hazel fell for her. It was love at first sight."

The rest of the rabbits looked over at their retreating leader. "That's horrible," Blackberry said. "And she's still trapped in Efrafa. No wonder he's so down."

"And that means it's up to us to pick him up!" Bigwig said. "I'm sure he'll be thinking nonstop about how to get them out of that place, so we need to do whatever we can to keep his spirits up."

The rest of the rabbits agreed and began walking off in twos and threes, planning ways to make sure Hazel didn't dwell on Primrose too much.

"Hey Pipkin," Sam said to the small buck, "can you come here for a second? I have a job for you…"

The next few days went how everyone was expecting. Hazel eventually went back to normal, but everyone could tell he was still planning a rescue. The others did their best, but Hazel's mind was stuck on Primrose, though he rationalized it to the rest by saying they needed more rabbits in their warren. He never said her name.

Early one morning while everyone was asleep in the warren, a lone rabbit was sneaking out. He went outside and began heading towards Nuthanger Farm.

"Hazel-rah, where are you going?" Hazel froze when he heard Pipkin behind him. Hazel turned and saw him slowly crawl out from the warren. "What are you doing up so early?"

Hazel answered, "I'm…just going to Nuthanger Farm. It's nothing to worry about."

"Why? And why so early? And most importantly, why are you going alone?"

"Like I said Pipkin, it's nothing important. Just go back to sleep and I'll be back before you know it."

Pipkin shook his head as he ran out to stand next to Hazel, "No way! I'm not letting you go alone, it's too dangerous. Aren't you the one always saying that we need to stick together?"

Hazel sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get out of there alone. "Fine Pipkin, you can come. But you have to do exactly what I say, understand?"

Pipkin nodded happily, "I will Hazel, I promise." The two set off to the farm. Pipkin tried to engage Hazel in conversation during the trip, but he stopped because Hazel was only giving one word answers, when he responded at all.

The came to the hole in the stone fence and stopped. Hazel looked through the hole and around the farmyard, looking for the cat. "It's clear Pipkin, there's no cat in sight. Let's make our way across the yard and into the barn."

"The barn?" Pipkin asked, confused, "what to do want to do in there? And on that note, what exactly are we doing here Hazel?"

"Right, I haven't told you yet," Hazel replied. "We're here to get more rabbits for the warren. When we stopped here the night before we got to Watership Down, I remember seeing a hutch in the barn. We were too busy to do anything about it then, but now…"

"But Hazel," Pipkin said, "this seems kind of dangerous. Shouldn't we have brought more rabbits with us? Or at least come up with a plan? This just isn't like you."

Hazel got annoyed at Pipkin's words. "Well we didn't Pipkin! It's just the two of us, now are going to help me or not?"

Pipkin was shocked at the tone Hazel was using. He's never spoken to any of the rabbits like that. "Yes Hazel," he said, looking away, "I'll help you." Because it's pretty clear you aren't going to be watching out for yourself, he added internally.

"Good," Hazel said, and then started toward the barn with Pipkin in tow. Seeing that Hazel was only looking towards the barn, Pipkin made sure he was looking around for likely places a sneaky cat might be hiding. They made it to the barn before Pipkin noticed anything.

"Hazel," he said in a quiet voice, "we need to be careful, I smell a cat around here."

"I know Pipkin, I smell it too. It isn't in the barn, all the scent is outside. You stay here and keep watch, while I go and see about getting those hutch rabbits out."

Pipkin looked a little scared at the thought of being out there alone, but he shook it off. I need to do this, he thought. Hazel is acting so strangely, I just have to do what I can to keep us safe.

With Pipkin watched the farmyard for any signs of trouble, Hazel went in the barn. The "barn" was really more of a large storage shed, only having the many tools a farmer would require. There were bags of seeds, farming tools, and a number of pots for indoor plants. Hazel ignored all of this, instead focusing on the object in the corner. Sitting on top of a pile of hay bales, was a rabbit hutch. Hazel walked towards it, climbing on a lower bale and stretching up so he could see inside.

"Hello," he said to the sleeping rabbits inside, waking them up, "my name is Hazel."

"Hey, what are you doing outside?" one asked in an airy voice. "How did you get outside of your cage?"

This was an odd question to Hazel, but he answered as best he could. "I don't live in a…cage. I live outside."

"Outside?" another said, "you can live outside? But, who brings you food? What do you do about cats, and things like that? That cat is always staring in here."

Hazel shook his head at these odd questions. "No one feeds me, I feed myself. And I avoid elil using trickery from El-ahrairah."

Hazel so focused on the talking to the hutch rabbits, that he didn't even notice there was now another being on the watching him from the barn floor.

"You just can't sit still, can you?"

This familiar voice startled Hazel so much that he gave a high pitched noise before tumbling off the other side of the hay bales. He righted himself and poked his head around the corner to see a familiar rabbit, laughing at him.

"Sam! But…what are you doing here? How did you know where to find us?"

Sam stopped laughing and gave Hazel a "what else did you expect" look. "Well Hazel, what I'm doing here, is that I'm here to help you free some of these rabbits. And as to how I knew where you were…

(Flashback)

"Hey Pipkin," Sam said to the small buck, "can you come here for a second? I have a job for you." Pipkin hopped over to Sam.

"What do you need Sam? Do you have an idea for cheering up Hazel?"

Sam chuckled, "Not exactly buddy, though I'm sure he will have a pleasant surprise. No, what I need you to do is to just keep an eye on Hazel for me. Let me know if he does anything weird."

"Well, alright," Pipkin said, not quite understanding. "What do you mean by weird? I would have said Hazel was already acting weird."

"Oh definitely. No, what I mean is…oh, things like leaving the warren at odd times of the day, or trying to sneak off or something like that."

"Sneak off?" Pipkin said, "why would he do that?"

"Well, you know how Hazel likes that doe from Efrafa, Primrose?" Pipkin nodded. "Well, because he's so frustrated, I'm fairly certain that he's going to do something stupid, just as a way of blowing off steam. Of course, Hazel is still Hazel, so he won't tell anyone about it beforehand, he'll just try and do it on his own. We have to make sure he has help, alright?"

"Alright Sam," Pipkin said. "You can count on me."

It was three days until anything happened. During that time, Sam made sure to try and sleep in such a way that he would be able to hear if Hazel tried to leave in the middle of the night. But Sam was not the one to catch him, Pipkin was. It was early in the morning, the sun was barely up and none of the rabbits were awake. Or rather, none should have been awake.

"Sam," Pipkin whispered, nudging the sleeping teen, "wake up. I think Hazel is going somewhere."

Sam shot awake when he heard that. "Alright Pipkin, good job. Now for the next part, can you go talk to him? See what he's doing?"

The small buck nodded, "Alright Sam, but what should I do if he won't tell me?"

"Just…no matter what he says, make sure he takes you with him. I'll be following behind the two of you to make sure nothing happens,"

"Right," Pipkin said, "we have to be there for him. Whatever he's doing, he needs us."

"Exactly. Just remember, I'll be following behind you."

Pipkin nodded and headed to the entrance of the warren. It wasn't long before Sam heard, "Hazel-rah, where are you going?"

"…and following you here was easy, seeing as someone was so little attention that you didn't even hear me following after you."

Hazel was surprised to hear that. "So, Pipkin was spying on me?"

"Only because I told him to. I knew you wouldn't have let anyone help you; you're just too afraid of putting anyone else in danger. So I knew the only way that I would be able to find out when you were leaving was with his help."

Hazel sighed and looked away. "You could have just asked me…"

"Would you have told me? Hazel, be honest, if I had told you this was going to happen, you wouldn't have woken us up, you would have found some way to get out without Pipkin noticing. I couldn't have that."

"I…" Hazel said hesitantly, "I suppose you're right. I just…didn't want to put anyone else in danger. I figured that if this went bad, the warren would only lose me-"

Upon hearing that, Sam interrupted. "Woah woah woah, what do you mean only lose you? Hazel, you're our chief, we need you!"

"I doubt that Sam. You could do just fine without me. If something were to have happened, I'm sure you would have been a fine replacement."

Sam's eyes widened. "Wha-me?! Hazel, I mean this as respectfully as I can, but hell no!" Hazel blinked in surprise at the sudden outburst. "Ok, besides the fact that if I even tried, Holly would probably challenge me to a duel, I'm a bad leader. Sure, it's easy when I know what's going to happen, but if something unexpected happens, I probably couldn't handle it. We need you Hazel."

"I…" Hazel was about to continue when Pipkin's voice rang through the barn.

"Hazel! Sam! There's a cat out there!"

"We'll finish this later," Sam said as he was jumping up to the hutch himself. He jumped on top of the hutch and changed into human form where the rabbits inside couldn't see him. In about five seconds, he had sawn through the cured leather hinges with one of his knives. He turned back into a rabbit and jumped to the floor. "I'll handle the cat Hazel, you and Pipkin try and get as many of them out as you can.

Sam heard Hazel about to protest, but he was already out the door. He looked around trying to find the cat, and spotted it near the farm house. He began running towards it, actually catching it by surprise, before he veered off between the house and the barn, causing the cat to follow. What Sam did not see, was that he woke the dog up that was tied to the side of the barn, who immediately started barking. Sam was planning on running behind the barn and losing the cat in some cover, but he didn't count on there being a large stack of crates around the corner. After almost running head first into them, Sam turned around and saw the cat had him cornered.

"Oh wonderful," he muttered sarcastically. That was all he had time for before the cat closed in and started to try and claw at him. Sam was able to avoid the first two swipes, but the third one caught him on the side of the face, making three shallow, parallel grooves on his cheek. Sam cried out in pain, but he didn't have long to dwell on it before the cat went for a pounce. The training Bigwig had given Sam kicked in, he rose up on two legs, and caught the cat's front paws under the claws with his own. The cat pushed him onto his back, where he shoved with his hind legs, using the cat's momentum against it to send it flying into the crates behind him. He got up and looked to where the cat was and saw it struggle to get to its feet while its head was bobbing slightly. It was obviously dazed by the strike, so Sam decided it would be a good time to run.

He rounded the house and saw Hazel standing in the middle of the yard, seemingly looking for him. He was running towards Hazel when he heard a sound that chilled his blood: the sound of a rifle cocking. Sam looked to his left and saw a man, probably the farmer, raise a gun towards Hazel. Realizing that Hazel didn't see the farmer, Sam put on a burst of speed and tackled Hazel, just before he heard the gun go off. He felt dirt pelt him from the narrowly missed shot.

"Hazel," Sam said as he got up, "you have to run, now!"

"Sam! What-"

"We'll meet at the warren, go!" And he shoved Hazel towards the bushes, causing him to stumble and fall into cover. Meanwhile, Sam took off in the opposite direction, trying to run in a zigzag pattern since he knew the farmer must have been aiming at him at this point. Another loud bang echoed through the air, this time accompanied by a yell of pain.

Sam was thrown off his feet from the impact of the bullet into his left thigh, after a couple of seconds, it felt like his entire leg was on fire. As he opened his eyes, he noticed that the blast had thrown him almost to the line of bushes. He managed to get up and using his three good legs, managed to hobble into the brush.

He kept hopping, slowly and painfully, along the tree line that followed a dirt road. His leg was still burning terribly, and he had a thought in the back of his head about how much blood he was losing and how he was leaving a trail. As he kept going, he was beginning to feel light headed. Sam knew he would have to stop soon, but he needed to find some place relatively safe. It was then that a metal drainage ditch came into sight. Ironic, he thought to himself weakly as he crawled inside, I bet this is the same place Hazel would have gone. Oh damn it this hurts! That was his last thought as he went unconscious, slipping back into his human form.

Meanwhile, Hazel and the others were running toward Watership Down as quickly as they could manage. They had heard the second shot as well and were all fearing for Sam. Hazel, realizing that fat, lazy hutch rabbits don't run very fast, told Pipkin to lead the rest of the way to the down while he rushed ahead.

In very little time, he got to the top of the hill. He didn't waste any time. "Fiver!" He yelled, "And Kehaar, and…Bigwig, come here!" The three went over, alarmed by the tone in Hazel's voice.

Fiver spoke. "Hazel, what's wrong? And where were you? Have you seen Pipkin or Sam, they've been missing all day. We're starting to get worried."

"I'll explain on the way," Hazel said, trying to catch his breath, "Sam might be in a lot of trouble, because of me. Come on, we need to hurry!" He turned and ran back towards the farm with the others following him.

As they ran, Hazel gave a short explanation. "I was going to go to Nuthanger Farm to try and get some of the rabbits from the hutch they have there free. Pipkin caught me leaving, and apparently he told Sam, because he showed up there too. It was all going well until the cat showed up. Sam ran out to take care of it, leaving Pipkin and I to try and get any hutch rabbits to leave that would. I sent Pipkin and the others off to hide, while I stopped and looked around for Sam. He came around from behind the barn, and the next thing I knew, he had tackled me, told me to run, and shoved me into the bushes.

Good lad, Bigwig thought to himself, always protect the chief.

Hazel continued. "I didn't immediately go, I was trying to see where he had gone. But then I heard a loud bang, and I thought I heard Sam yell. I stayed in cover and tried to find him, but I couldn't. I met with Pipkin and the others, and we went back." He finished as they reached the stone fence. "Which brings us here."

While the rabbits stayed in the bushes Kehaar flew around the area to see if he could spot Sam. He noticed something odd on the ground and flew in to take a closer look. He recognized it immediately and flew back to report. "Hazel, Bigwig, Fiver, I find something!" He led them to the sight he had noticed from the air: blood.

Fiver hopped closer and sniffed. "It's Sam's," he said, confirming their suspicions, "I remember the smell from the weasel attack. But…I think he's still alive. You can follow the scent over that way." He gestured along the grass by the road.

"And over here," Bigwig, who was further up the trail, said, "there's more blood here. There's an awful lot of it though, we need to hurry and find him."

The four looked along the road in any likely hiding spots, but they didn't find anything. Finally, Hazel had an idea.

"Fiver, do you think you could have a vision that would tell us where to find Sam?"

Fiver shook his head. "Hazel, you know my visions don't work that way. I don't just…get them, they come when they please."

"Can you try?"

"I've never asked for a vision before…"

"Well," Hazel said, "wouldn't this be a good time to try?"

"A-Alright," Fiver said. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Hazel thought it was working, because his face scrunched up like it always did when he had visions in the past. Fiver opened his eyes and looked at his brother's hopeful face before he shook his head. "There was nothing Hazel, I'm sorry."

Hazel sighed in disappointment. "It isn't your fault Fiver." It's mine.

Just then, Bigwig ran up to the two of them. "What are you two doing over here?" They explained about trying to get Fiver to have a vision, and Bigwig just shook his head. "Instead of wasting time with that, how about you look over there." He pointed behind him and Hazel and Fiver noticed what he had seen: there was a rainbow that seemed to touch down just over the next hill. The rabbits and Kehaar hurried to where the rainbow led, and found the metal drainage ditch.

"He's in there," Hazel said in a desperate tone, "he has to be!" The rabbits closed in with Hazel in the lead. "Sam!" he called, sticking his head in the pipe, "Sam! Can you hear me?" There was no reply. Saddened, the rabbits were about to turn around and keep looking, when the smell of blood hit their noses. It was coming from deeper inside the pipe! Hazel climbed inside, and with a little effort, came back out dragging the unconscious boy slowly by his good leg.

"Sam!" Fiver, Bigwig, and Kehaar yelled in unison. Fiver began trying to wake him up, while the other three looked at the bullet wound.

"Oh, is bad," Kehaar said after a quick look, "Sam was bitten by black pebble. Need to get it out."

"And just how do we do that?" Bigwig asked.

"No worries, Kehaar can do it" the gull proclaimed. "First, need to get colorful thing out of the way." Kehaar was talking about Sam's clothes. At his direction, Hazel and Bigwig grabbed a mouthful of Sam's pants and pulled in opposite directions at the penetration hole, ripping it apart a bit more so Kehaar could get at the wound. The gull gave the hole in Sam's leg an appraising view, then suddenly darted his head down and dug out the bullet. The sudden pain of Kehaar grabbing the bullet was enough to shock Sam back to consciousness with a yell of pain, followed by clutching his left leg.

"Sam!" Fiver yelled, "You're alright!"

This caused Sam to chuckle weakly. "Well, I don't know if I'd say alright, but I'm certainly not dead." All of the rabbits, even Bigwig nuzzled him in happiness. Sam rose slowly until he was sitting. "Well," he said weakly, "we should probably be getting back to the down."

This suggestion surprised all of the rabbits. "Already?" asked Hazel. "I don't think that's a very good idea Sam, you need to rest."

Sam shook his head. "Oh I know I do, but I also know that a few hours of rest, heck, even a few days will make me more travel ready. The way I see it, I'd rather just do it now, and spend the next few…weeks probably, resting where I know it's safe."

After a bit of arguing, the rabbits finally agreed. With their help, Sam was able to stand up. They began making their way slowly toward Watership Down, with Sam leaning heavily on Bigwig.

"So Hazel," Sam said as they were making their way, "did Pipkin get back alright?"

"Oh yes," Hazel replied, "he and the rabbits we freed made it back just fine."

"That's good." It took a second for what Hazel said to register. "Wait a second, did you say 'rabbits?' As in more than one?"

"Why yes, two of the hutch rabbits came with us. Both does. Their names are Clover and Glade."

Glade? Sam thought to himself, who the heck is Glade? "Ah, that's wonderful news. Good to see this wasn't a waste of a trip then." Sam didn't notice, but Hazel's face fell a bit when he said that.

The group crested the top of the hill with Sam breathing heavily, his leg in pain. The others came running when they saw that Sam had returned. Everyone crowded around them except for two shocked rabbits that were standing near the entrance to the warren. Sam was looking at all his friends with numerous assurances that he was going to be alright, when he noticed the two new rabbits staring at him. Crap.

"Uh, guys?" He said, pointing to the two surprised does near the warren. Everyone looked their way before they realized the problem. "Well," Sam said, making them look back at him, "I guess we're getting this out of the way early this time. Can you help me over there, Bigwig?" The big buck nodded and the group made their way over to the two does who, to their credit, didn't look so much scared as they did amazed. Sam looked at them awkwardly, not quite knowing how to start. "Um, hi. My name is Sam."

When he spoke, their eyes opened even wider. "You can talk!" This came from the one on the left. She was a bit smaller than Sam and was completely covered in light grey fur. She looked as if she had never lived a day outside in her life. "And how did you get so small?" she said in a very airy voice. "Most men are much larger."

"You…you aren't scared of me?" Sam asked.

"Not really. Should we be? Oh, my name is Clover."

The other one introduced herself as well in a stronger voice than Clover. "And my name Glade. I heard you were a big help in getting us out of that place. Thank you." She was taller, almost as tall as Dandelion. Her fur was russet, and blue, inquisitive eyes.

"Um, yeah, no problem," Sam said. "So…you don't mind that I'm human? Or that I'm staying here?"

"I don't if Clover doesn't." Clover shook her head. "I think it will be rather interesting actually. Most humans aren't capable of understanding anything we say, so it will be fun to actually talk to one."

"Ha, sounds like a plan," said Sam. Wow, he thought, why can't they all be like this? "Oh no, there's no problem at all, I'm actually excited for it!" Oh well… "Well if that's settled, I would absolutely love to get some rest. We'll fill you in on the rest in the morning."

Hazel stepped forward. "Here Bigwig, you've done enough. I'll take Sam into the warren and make sure he's alright." Sam leaned on Hazel and the two of them made their way to Sam's burrow. Sam laid down on the ground softly before letting out a breath.

He thought to himself, I didn't know a dirt floor could feel so good!

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Hazel clear his throat. "Sam," he said hesitantly, "I…just wanted to apologize for everything today. If I hadn't been so stupid, none of this would have happened."

"Hazel, don't worry about it, I don't blame you. I made my own choices, it's my fault I got hurt. And we managed to get two new members to our warren."

Hazel shook his head fiercely. "Even so Sam, because of my reckless actions, my charging in without a plan, you got hurt. This day taught me a lesson. I will get Primrose out of Efrafa, but I'm not going to try anything until I'm positive it's going to work. I won't let my foolishness hurt another of my friends."

Sam listened, impressed. "Remember that Hazel. Like I said, I don't blame you, but those feeling are good ones to keep in mind. They will serve you well in the future."

Hazel nodded, "Thank you Sam, for everything. Good night."

Sam chuckled. "G'night buddy."