Chapter 201: The Big Knots.

"[...] seeing the terror frozen on their faces which mingled nastily with the blood congealing from their open wounds."

-TimeTraveller-1900, Aftermath of the Battle


The Darkhaveners spent several hours try to patch up the leak, in the hopes of preventing another flood. By the time the tunnel was filled up again, Campion's prediction had come true: the pit was split in two by the newly-formed river. The water level had remained largely the same overnight; unless the humans intervened and drained the water, it was likely to remain there.

Woundwort was left in a foul mood, and not just because the living space was now objectively worse. Filling in the tunnel had taken so long that there was no time left for training once they were finished. That, along with the shenanigans with Orchis's "revolutionary method of torture", meant that the entire day had been a colossal waste of time.

The next morning, however, after a good night's rest, he was feeling better, and had a more positive view of the previous day's events. Filling in the tunnel had been its own form of training. Additionally, at its size, the river was not entirely a bad thing. Around the middle of the pit, it was shallow enough that one could simply walk across, without having to swim. In other sections, it was very deep, and would be perfect to teach his owsla how to swim. And, if necessary, it would be a more convenient place to torture a prisoner than Orchis' barrel.

Until then, however, Woundwort had come up with another training method, this one focusing on pouncing. The owsla would have to try to reach a specific target on the other side of the river; if they failed, they would land in the water instead, an unpleasant feeling that would hopefully motivate them to do better in the future.

By mid-day, a disappointingly large number of rabbits were soaking wet. This once again wrecked Woundwort's mood, as perfection still appeared so far away. Just as he was wondering if things could possibly get worse, however, it happened. Granite, the largest rabbit in the warren (excluding Woundwort himself) completely missed his jump. Due to his large size, he caused water to splash everywhere, on all rabbits in the vicinity, including the General.

Granite, unaware of how bad his mistake was, calmly swam out of the river, then shook himself to dry his fur; this had the side effect of further spraying Woundwort. It took a ferocious growl on the General's part for him to realize what he had done; as he did, he gasped. He took a few steps back and lowered his head, terrified of the punishment that was likely to come.

-"I've killed rabbits in the past for lesser offenses," Woundwort said sternly.

-"Why don't you just get it over with?" Granite begged. The punishment would likely be less agonizing than the wait.

-"As tempting as it would be, I won't be killing you. I've already lost much of my owsla in the recent flood, I can't afford to lose any more, even someone as foolish as you. Now try the jump again, and keep going until you make it. Campion, you keep an eye on them all, I'll be right back."

Woundwort was feeling very uncomfortable after Granite had splashed him; he had to groom himself, and he wanted to do so privately. He didn't care about his appearance as much as Lady May, but he still had to maintain at least some dignity, and comfort.

It was then that he actually spotted Lady May, sitting in front of an old cracked mirror. He stopped to observe her for a few minutes, trying to figure out what she was doing. She was just staring, occasionally pausing to scratch or lick a certain spot on her body. As he got closer, she spotted his reflection in the mirror, causing her to squeak in horror, and place her front paws over her eyes.

-"Ugh! You're filthy!" she cried out. "As if you weren't already ugly enough to begin with!"

This left Woundwort just as mad as Granite splashing him. Lady May kept on being rude towards him; would she ever learn that this was not acceptable?

-"What are you doing?" he asked.

-"I'm looking at myself, obviously," the doe said. "As it turns out, my glorious fur wasn't permanently ruined by the flood after all. Perhaps, if I spend enough time grooming it back into place, I might look pretty again in the future. But it will take a lot of work for me to get there, and I need to know which spots need it the most, which is why I'm looking. As for you, though, you are likely doomed to eternal ugliness."

-"Good luck with that."

Woundwort was slightly annoyed at how Lady May seemed to care only about her appearance (not to mention that she had just insulted him again) but if it kept her busy, and she stayed out of his way, he had no reason to complain. He was about to hop away, when she spoke again:

-"Hey, there's this most bothersome knot in the fur on my back, and I can't quite reach it with my claws or my teeth. The human had so many wonderful brushes to perfectly comb everything, so I never had to worry about that before. But now, I'm stuck. Can you take care of it like a nice bun?"

Woundwort was in no mood to groom someone else, especially someone with such a problematic attitude. He was tempted to just rip off the knotted fur, even if this would likely leave a bald spot on her back, with no guarantee that it would ever grow back. It was then that he spotted another rabbit nearby, just standing there, staring into nothingness.

-"Hey you!"

-"What do you want?" the Speaker replied.

-"Groom her. And I swear, if you dare say that it is against the law or anything like that, I'll kill you myself."

The Speaker kept staring in silence.

-"I will do it," she finally said.

As Woundwort hopped away, the Speaker made her way over to Lady May. The former hutch doe grimaced at the other rabbit's appearance, but did not make any insulting comments like she had done with Woundwort.

-"Right, so the knot is over on the left side, near the neck and EEK!"

The Speaker had suddenly grabbed Lady May with one of her front paws, holding her tightly. With her other paw, she started slowly untangling the knot.

-"Are you not afraid?" the Speaker said ominously.

-"Afraid? Afraid of what?" The truth was that Lady May was becoming afraid of the Speaker, but she was also afraid of voicing this fear.

-"Afraid of the Black Rabbit of Inlé."

-"Who?" Lady May, having spent her entire life living in a hutch, was unaware of wild rabbits' spiritual beliefs.

At that moment, the Speaker pulled her even closer. This was very uncomfortable, she was unable to move her tail and it really bothered her.

-"I know."

In the mirror, Lady May could see the Speaker's twisted smile, not quite hidden beneath the skull.

-"Know what?" she asked nervously.

-"Everything."

Such a vague non-answer left Lady May even more anxious, especially with the Speaker pulling her even closer. She didn't think it would be possible for a rabbit to be creepier than Woundwort. And yet, this doe had managed it.


Once he had finished grooming himself, Woundwort went back to supervising the owsla training, and continued until it was time for evening silflay. His owsla improved over the course of the day; Woundwort managed to remain dry. There was still a lot of work yet to be done, though: he would have to keep up the training, and maybe, after a while, they would be competent enough to destroy the outsiders.

After silflay, it was time for sleep, and Woundwort went back to his burrow. Lady May joined him a few minutes later, and her attitude was as negative as ever.

-"Ugh, that doe is such a creep!"

-"Who?" Woundwort asked.

-"The one you forced to groom me."

-"Oh, she certainly is disturbing. But did she at least get the knots out?"

-"Some of them, but more are likely to form in the future. Maintaining this fur is a full-time job, and I'll need someone to help me with all this grooming. Not her, there's no way I'm letting that freak near me again, but someone else, I trust you'll find a decent rabbit for the job. By the way, where's the flayrah?"

Woundwort sighed loudly. Lady May kept on making (increasingly absurd) demands, but what did she give in return? Nothing. It was all take and no give. She did make a valid point about the flayrah: the storage room was empty. But that largely her own fault: she insisted on having the best food, she didn't go to silflay outside the pit like everyone else did.

-"I'll be sending Campion and Orchis on a raid in the morning," he announced.

-"But I'm hungry now!"

-"If you don't want to wait, you are free to go out and raid your own flayrah right now if you wish. I, for one, am going to sleep. Good night."

-"That's not a nice way to treat your queen...good night anyway..."

Woundwort could appreciate the irony of Lady May calling him rude; clearly she hadn't looked in that mirror hard enough. However, he was not in the mood to argue, so he did not reply, and instead closed his eyes. He was starting to fall asleep when suddenly...

-"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU FREAK!"

The sudden cry startled Woundwort, and his instantly sat back up. That was Lady May's voice, but as he looked at her, she appeared peacefully asleep. She was alone in her corner; there was nobody touching her.

-"STOP FREAK!" she suddenly said; she was likely having a nightmare. Woundwort, however, did not attempt to comfort her; instead, he merely shook her awake.

-"Ugh, get off me you big..." she mumbled, until she saw who it was shaking her. "Oh it's you again. What do you want?"

-"You were talking in your sleep."

-"Was I? I didn't know."

-"Well, now you do. So be quiet."

-"How do you expect me to stop doing something if I didn't even realize I was doing it?"

-"I don't care how you do it. All I care about is the result: your silence."

-"Still being rude, aren't you? But all right, I'll try."

Woundwort once again tried to fall asleep. This time, he actually succeeded...only to be woken up just a few minutes later.

-"NO! NOT MY EARS! PLEASE, ANYTHING BUT THE EARS!"

Lady May had said that she would try to be quiet, but clearly (to Woundwort) she wasn't trying hard enough. He hopped over to her and pulled her ears down; judging by the squeal she made, this was probably painful, but it did wake her up.

-"What now?" she said, exasperated.

-"You were talking again, and I've had enough. Go find yourself another burrow, I'm sleeping alone tonight."

-"Again? That's the second time you kick me out! Say, what's the point of being a queen if I can't even sleep in the royal burrow?"

Woundwort almost considered demoting Lady May from the rank of queen, but he was in no mood to argue.

-"Fine. You keep this burrow, I'll go sleep elsewhere."

-"Sounds like a good idea! And as an additional benefit, I won't have to look at your ugly face all night."

As he hopped out of the burrow, Woundwort noticed another flaw in Lady May's reasoning: how could she look at his "ugly face" if she was asleep? It was almost as if she was intentionally trying to insult his appearance at every opportunity. He was trying to be nice to her, and this is how she paid him back. Was this even worth it? Probably not, but for now, he was too tired, he just wanted to sleep. In the morning, however, she would suffer the consequences, unless she radically changed her attitude overnight.