Watership Down: The CrossBearer

by RogueFanKC

Justin is a scorned and outcast human teenager, but when he is chosen as the Crossbearer, he must fullfill the prophesy of saving Elahrairah with the help of the Watership rabbits in the land beyond life, a journey of courage and love between friends.

23. You Can Always Teach An Old Holly New Tr...

/*

Author's note: I'm sorry for the delay, but this chapter took 28 pages on my computer!  I apologize, but on the upside, here's our adorable rabbit captain, HOLLY!

Oh, by the way, three elil from previous chapters will make a special comeback here!  Who are they?  Read and find out! =:)

*/

CHAPTER 22

                "Embleer Frith, go away, the lot of you!"

                "Keep running!  Don't let them get the chance to attack!  Confuse them!"

                "And just how do you propose on doing that, oh-so-great Owsla captain?!"

                "Hawkbit, shut up!!"

                "O Frith and Inle, they're gaining on us!!"

                "Yeowch!  Great jumping bluebottles!!  That one got a piece on me!"

                "Justin, keep your head down!!  The blighters will aim for your eyes if you are not careful!!  Don't look at them!  Shield your face!!"

                "I know, Strawberry!"

                The group of sixteen were running valiantly and hurriedly from a flock of four-score crows and ravens flying precariously behind them, one of the Thousand who have never attacked the rabbit species unless if they were incredibly young or old, weak, and defenseless from their sharp beaks and ruthless scavenging demeanor.  However, due to Elil-rah's desperation and relentless persistence, all animals and creatures consisting of the Thousand were sent to attack the Watership Owsla, and the murder of crows were the latest unexpected ambush yet.  Now, as Justin rode on Strawberry's back, the rabbits of El-ahrairah and Watership Down were valiantly and breathlessly running with great haste as the crows and ravens cawed and chased them obstinately, diving and scratching some of them in process.

                "I swear, by the Black Rabbit, when I get my paws on Elil-rah...!" cursed Campion as he raced across the green pastures, nimbly dodging the beak of one voracious crow.

                "We can't keep this up forever, chaps!" Blackberry gasped.

                "Justin, quickly!  Can you drive them off?!" Hazel asked urgently.  Pipkin then hit upon an idea.

                "Justin, use the tool that you used to drive away the hawks when we were captured by Scry-rah's flock!  If it worked then, it shall work now against these crows!"  Justin quickly obeyed without thinking and hesitation.

                "Bearerang!"  With a burst of sparks, the X-shaped boomerang, twinkling in icy, unforgiving gold luster, appeared in Justin's hand, and with some difficulty, the teenager threw it behind him, flicking his wrist in a horizontal motion.  The result was instantaneous and effective.  Flying and dashing so quickly, the weapon appeared nothing more than golden flickers of light, and yet after every blaze, the crows and ravens shrieked madly as they felt the metal soundly thwack them on their wings and heads excruciatingly, feathers emerging from their bodied in clumps.  Unable to fend themselves from such an aerial attack such as this and with no way to even anticipate the next strike, the murderous flock had no choice to retreat.  Taking to the skies, they flew as fast as they can in the opposite direction, while the bearerang humorously trailed behind, detaching some tail feathers off some of the birds in the process.  Soon the attackers were gone, disappearing over the western horizon.  No longer pursued, the Watership Owsla ceased their frantic run.

                Justin, his heart pounding, raised his hand and said in a firm voice, "Return!"

                Immediately, with a whirring noise as soft as a rabbit paw setting onto the grass, the boomerang returned, settling itself gently into Justin's palms before vanishing.  Hazel checked over the rest of his comrades; Fiver was bleeding from a scratch on his right ear from a raven's beak, Acorn had a piece of flesh gouged from his back, and Pipkin was gasping, exhausted as his eyes rolled around wildly from the sprint and from fear.  Yet, they were all pretty much safe and sound as they took temporary refuge underneath a large elm tree, its base littered with fumitories and polypody ferns.

                "Frith and Inle," groaned Fiver as Justin healed his ear, "The closer we approach El-ahrairah's warren in Fenlo, the more persistent and vicious the attacks from Elil-rah's Owsla become!"

                "Well, we'll be safe here," Holly said encouragingly as he sniffed around, "And that contraption that Justin summoned with his cross helped drive away those crows, so those bloody hellions shall not be coming back for a counterattack anytime soon."

                "We should not have even ran, for Frith's sake!" Bigwig griped, heated that he did not have a chance to stand up to some of the avian elil, "I would have been more than willing to fight all those feathered nuisances and give them a standing up to that none of them would ever forget!!"

                "That's what you said before when the kestrel tried to prey on the mouse back when we first settled at Watership Down," Silver said, giving Bigwig a sly, knowing smirk, "If you are still up to it, the next time those crows come about, you do the fighting and the rest of us chaps shall just stand by and watch!"

                Acorn added, "Besides, it is perhaps best that we drove those ravens away with that 'toon-er-lang' without needing one of us to engage in battle."

                "It's pronounced 'boomerang', Acorn," Blackberry corrected mechanically as he rolled his eyes upward.

                "Actually, we decided to call it 'bearerang', Blackberry!" piped Pipkin as he and Speedwell hungrily gulped down several fumitories.

                Now it was Hawkbit's turn to roll his eyes as Justin helped him remove a sharp pebble from his paw.  "'Bearerang'?!  By the fur and paw, what idiot decided to come up with that term?!!"

                "Well, after discussing it with Justin, we thought it fits perfectly!" Speedwell snickered, "Just take parts of the words 'cross-bearer' and 'boomerang', and we combined it to form the word 'bearerang'!  That's what Justin decided he would name the weapon from now on, and all three of us decided that it jolly well fits!"

                "Again, I repeat -" Hawkbit started nastily.

                "Shut up, Hawkbit," Pipkin, Justin, and Speedwell all said together humorously and whimsically.  Yet Bigwig and Campion then suddenly sprang to attention as their sharp eyes and noses caught the sight and presence of...

                "I...I can't believe it!" whispered Campion in awe.

                "Frith and Inle!  Another one?!!" exclaimed Bigwig, his eyes displaying a unique mixture of disbelief and mistrust.  The other rabbits sprang up in alarm at the sound of these words, but the smell wafting in their noses alerted them of something much, much bigger.

                "Frith in a hole!" gasped Silver.

                "I...I see, but I can't believe it!" murmured Dandelion in astonishment.  Justin was confused, to say the least.

                "What?!  What's wrong?!  Is it an enemy?!" Justin demanded, looking at Strawberry, but Strawberry, speechless, gently placed a paw underneath Justin's chin and turned his head slightly towards the direction of where they were all of the Watership Owsla were staring.  Justin then understood.

                It was a human male, young, a teenager and probably around the same age as Justin, in the far distance, and he was wandering aimlessly, but solidly, as it was apparent that he took no notice of the rabbits or Justin next to the elm tree.  Even from the vast gap between them, Justin was able to tell that the teen was tall, athletic, and strapping with vigor and endurance.  He did not look as if he could tire easily, as if trudging through the grassy terrains and mountains was something he was accustomed to every day.  His powerful frame was slightly hidden from the athletic high-school letterman jacket his was wearing, but Justin could tell he was a jock, judging from the sport merit-badges that were sown into the blue and white sleeves.  The adolescent was also very handsome, with a chiseled face, square jaw, blue eyes, and hair as dark as a crow's feathers.  He seemed confident, strong, any high school would be willing to have him as a student and an athlete, not to mention he would probably be wildly popular with everybody.  He seemed...exactly what Justin wasn't, exactly what Justin wished he could be, the cross-bearer thought sadly, but he shook off the simple thoughts of slight jealousy and admiration.  It was clear that the unknown adolescent was lost and would be in grave danger if he wandered around by himself.  However, the rest of the rabbits were not as imprudent.

                "Could that human be an enemy??  It could be one of Elil-rah's tricks," suspected Bluebell out loud.

                "I don't think so," replied Dandelion as he twitched his ears and whiskers nervously, "Don't you remember the legends, Bluebell?  Not even Elil-rah has the power to summon forth a man, a human being, from the physical world and to enter into our realm beyond the living."

                "He certainly seems real enough," mused Blackberry in wonder, "I can certainly smell his scent from here, so if it is an illusion, it is quite realistic!"

                "It could be a shape-shifter, like Silverweed," Strawberry put in darkly as Justin felt one of his paws protectively place itself on Justin's left shoulder, "Fiver??"

                Yet the small visionary seer shook his head, "I'm sorry, Strawberry, but...but I can honestly say I have nothing of the sort!  No misgivings, no dark fears, no premonitions, nothing about this human!  But...I can sense his heart, sort of how I sensed about your timidity and compassion when we first met, Justin.  Except in this heart, I can sense courage and lack of fear of any kind, and astoundingly enough, a driving force of determination stronger than any of our own!"  Justin felt these words slightly sting, but he snapped back to reality as Hazel confided in Bigwig and Holly.

                "So, whatever, shall we do?  He seems harmless enough."

                "Perhaps it be best if we ignore him completely and continue on our path to El-ahrairah without him," Bigwig suggested, "Just because he isn't elil and just because Fiver does not have any visions about that chap does not mean we can trust him!  Hazel, it would be best if we left and forgot about seeing him in the land beyond life!"

                "No, Bigwig!  Please!" Justin pleaded, and the three rabbits, along with Speedwell, Blackberry, Campion, Pipkin and Fiver, who were all close by, turned to look at him questioningly.  Justin continued, "Hazel, Holly, please, we can't leave him there by himself!  He'd be in danger, with every animal here in the land beyond life disliking humans and stuff!!  He'd be killed if he ran into some of the animals here or back at the Lands of Yesterday and Tomorrow, and I'm sure he doesn't deserve any of that!!  Please, we have to help!  We have to take him with us!"

                "Justin..." warned Blackberry aggravatingly.  Justin just continued.

                "No, Blackberry!  C'mon!  Please?!  It'll be safer for us too!  Another human would be great company for me since it's been a while since I've been in contact with another person ever since I came here!  And with him around, he might be able to help us watch out for elil or something!  Please, Hazel??  Let him come with us!"

                "Yes, Hazel-rah!" agreed Pipkin, chirping in like a child.

                "I can honestly say no reason why we shouldn't," Campion added, "and Justin could use the camaraderie."

                "Now, listen here...!" protested Blackberry, but Speedwell teasingly but graciously tweaked the black-eared buck's nose, silencing him.

                "Come now, old chap!" Speedwell grinned, "Things should be jolly easier for you, I daresay, if you just don't argue and follow along with what Hazel-rah decides!"  And so it was agreed, and Justin rode on Holly as the clan moved speedily towards the unidentified human teenager.  When the teenager saw them approaching, strangely enough, Hazel noticed, he did not act the slightest disturbed nor fearful of the sight of rabbits, taller than he, wearing colored tunics, hopping towards him in a fast pace.  Justin did not perceive this as he jumped off Holly's back and said smoothly and encouragingly, "Don't be scared!  We're not going to hurt you!  Don't worry about the rabbits, they're friends of mine!!"

                Now the dark-haired teen, who was a good head or two taller than Justin, was frowning unceremoniously at the cross-bearer, and this made Justin slightly uneasy.  Still, he was willing to try to make friends with the stranger; it was a nice, pleasant change after seeing only talking humanoid animals in the land beyond life.  Justin held out a hand for a handshake, blithely announcing and pointing out the rabbits as he named them, "My...my name is Justin, and I'm a friend of the rabbits behind me, and that's Hazel, the whiskered one is Holly, and -"

                "My name is Damien," the other boy replied gruffly and shortly in a baritone voice, lined with harsh contempt that made Justin pause, stunned at the bitter dislike in his voice, and the other rabbits were starting to become uneasy.  Damien then smiled, his tan face crinkling and his eyes gleaming with anticipation, as if he was planning this very moment forever and knew of the specific outcome that would arise because of it.  Damien then rudely and offensively slapped Justin's hand away from him as he derided the smaller teenager, "And I know who you are, you idiot!  I know all of those stupid rabbit friends of yours!  Frith himself told me!  Why else would I even be here in the land beyond life, you stupid, fat weakling?!!"

                "Frith sent you?!" gasped Acorn, incredulous.  Damien then smiled patronizingly at Justin, ignoring Acorn.

                "He sends a message: your services are no longer needed as the cross-bearer, Justin!  You've been replaced!  He's found someone much more competent and stronger for this quest!"  With that, the Adonis jock gave Justin a brutal shove and Justin fell on his rear, too surprised to even do any retaliation.  The other rabbits were quickly outraged and livid.

                "How dare you!!" snarled Hawkbit as he stood up to his full height, his forepaws prepared.

                "Now, hold on!  What in Frith's name gives you the right to say such a preposterous notion?!" demanded Blackberry.  Yet to their amazement, Justin's cross began to glow in white, not golden, light, and it began to tug against Justin's neck as it pointed towards Damien.  Justin just gaped at it, utterly mystified, but Damien's smile grew wider and more malicious.

                "You see?!" he swaggered in a callous, severe tone, "I'm telling the truth!  Frith told me that I'm now the new cross-bearer!!  Now let's let the cross choose the one who was meant for the glory and power of the legend!!  Give me the power!!"  Justin gasped as he tried to hold on to the vital piece of jewelry, his only hope and prayer in surviving this land and helping his friends, and...the only thing that would probably ensure that the Watership Down Owsla would never leave him.  Yet it betrayed him.  Unfeeling and cold, the metal was briefly held in Justin's smudged palms, the cool silver metal caressing tautly against his skin, before it vanished in a trail of white sparkles, disappearing in thin air.  Justin nearly cried as he got on his knees and hands, looking around wildly on the dirt to see if the cross had simply fallen off, but Damien then gave an annoying, smug cough for Justin's attention.

                "Ahem."  Justin looked up to see, to his horror, that now, Damien was now wearing his cross, the silver glinting off the sun, the golden crystal cross now gently blanketed in a soft, hazy orb of orange and golden mist.  It was impossible, this could not be happening, Justin could not believe it.  And yet Fiver's words echoed cruelly in his mind as he felt his eyes well up in anger, scandal, and frustration: But...I can sense his heart, sort of how I sensed about your timidity and compassion when we first met, Justin.  Except in this heart, I can sense courage and lack of fear of any kind, and astoundingly enough, a driving force of determination stronger than any of our own!"

                "It...it can't be," Justin whined, his throat closing with bile; he could honestly say he had never felt more sickened and nauseated in his entire life.

                "It is, you wimp," Damien laughed at Justin, "I'm the new cross-bearer now, and you...like always for your entire life...are nothing."

                Justin was visibly shaking with a mixture of loss and grief-stricken failure, his voice breaking and rising an octave higher as he sobbed at the end.  "But...but I...I thought I was the cross-bearer!  It's not fair!  It's not fair!!  I was the one who had to fight my way up here!!  I was the one who had to endure all the trials, all the fights, the battles!!  Why did this have to happen?!  WHY??!!"

                Damien gave Justin a cold, smug glare.  "You were just the delivery boy."

                Hazel and the other rabbits of El-ahrairah's Owsla were stunned, unable to do or say anything.  It could be a trick, but the legends did say that the powers of the cross-bearer can be redistributed to another man if the former chosen was deemed as inadequate and selfish.  Selfish, Justin certainly wasn't, but inadequate...well, none of the fifteen had any concrete conviction otherwise.  Gentle, loving, friendly, kind, understanding, empathic, loyal, faithful – all of those did describe Justin, but the teenager was also not physically able to defend himself, couldn't run fast, could not fight, and was incredibly stubborn, naive, and had a tendency to be foolish when making crucial decisions.  They just stood or squatted there in shock, listening to Damien as he continued to berate Justin who was on his hands and knees, the embarrassment and disappointment and disillusionment of no longer being the cross-bearer, of losing it to someone who was better than he would ever be, formed such a tight, icy feeling in his gut, it practically shut down his brain, forcing his nerves to die off and his body to remain frozen with grief and loss.

                "What, did you actually think you were strong enough to be the cross-bearer?!" scorned Damien as he placed his hands on his hips in an arrogant posture, "Did you actually think Frith wasn't going to use you as a worthless replacement until he found someone a lot better?!  Please!  Even by looking at you, I can already tell what your life was like: you have no friends, you're an embarrassment to your family, and no one wants to admit they're even close to you!!  You're scum, weak, a sniveling moron who always lets people step all over him, and even if you could fight back, you're so weak and girly and pathetic that you'd just get your ass handed back to your every time!!  No wonder Frith decided to bring me to this land and take your place!!  You couldn't even handle fighting by yourself without depending on your so-called 'friends'!!  Hell, the best and only company who would be willing to tolerate you is nothing more than a bunch of animals?!!  God, that's so sad, it's revolting!!"

                "That is enough!!!" Holly snarled, unable to take anymore, and from the looks of it, Dandelion, Hawkbit, Speedwell, and Silver were about to join in.  Holly, seething with rage and indignity, threw himself between Damien and Justin.  "You have made your point, Damien!  You are the new cross-bearer now!  But stop laying it thick upon Justin!  He has never done a single act of injustice against you or your person, and yet here you come, take his cross, and insult and mock him as if he was nothing!!"

                "He is nothing, you old crone!" Damien's voice had a dangerous edge to it, "Just like you, you shriveled-up, senile, old fool!"

                "What did you call me?!!"  Now Holly's voice had a murderous, venomous sharpness to it as his eyes flashed red and his fur stood upright, his body quivering with anticipation.  If anything was ever a sore spot with Holly, it was any insinuation about his age and his usefulness in an Owsla, and seeing Damien do this directly to his whiskered face was enough to make the rabbit's blood permeate into lava-like wrath.

                "Holly, don't!!" warned Hazel as he, Bigwig, and Silver sprinted towards them, but Damien was faster as he said audaciously, "What, you have trouble hearing and understanding as well as fighting, you ancient fossil?!  Now that I think about it, you're far too old do possible be of any use with the fighting and tracking, so why didn't Frith decide to leave you at your warren with the other female rabbits and leave this mission with the competent soldiers, which alone is probably a standard even Justin could achieve despite his weaknesses!"

                "How dare you!!" roared Holly, his pride now making him insensible of everything around him except towards the black-haired athlete with the blue and white letterman jacket in front of him.

                "Come and get me then, old man!!" goaded Damien.

                "Holly, NO!!" Silver yelled as he and Hazel tried to restrain him, but it was too late.  With a roar, Holly charged, leaping towards Damien and preparing to tackle and pin the cross-bearer down, but to his amazement, Damien moved with fluid, cat-like, agility, faster than Holly could react, and horrified, almost as if in slow motion, Holly sailed past Damien, missing him completely, but just before Holly could try to brace his body for a turnabout landing in order to try to attack Damien again, Damien uttered a single word and a flash of gold appeared in his hand before he thrust his hand towards Holly's unprotected right side.

                Immediately, Holly felt the pain from a thousand fires, a thousand wounds, all merged into one single moment as his entire right segment of his body exploded in blood and flesh, staining his fur and clothes.  Holly thought he heard Fiver and Pipkin squealing his name, but he was amazed that he could even hear it over the sounds of his own cries of pain and agony and the loud humming in his ears as blood began to drain out of his body.  It was a morbid, yet slightly exhilarating experience, to hear the scream echo like distant whispers, to have everything move in slow motion as Holly fell to his side, and to have his sight blur and threaten to darken as he could faintly hear Hazel, Silver, Bigwig, Speedwell, Strawberry, and Buckthorn loom over him, shouting and pleading.

                Justin just watched from a distance, nauseated and scared before turning his gaze back to Damien.  The teenager was smiling a very sick, repelling beam of satisfaction as he still carried the golden sword he summoned from the cross, the very same sword that Buckthorn used to fight against Hufsa, now covered with Holly's blood after stabbing the rabbit warrior.  Now, Holly was panting laboriously as Justin could now see that the sword had lacerated Holly's body from his shoulder, across his ribs and ended with a ripping, gaping hole on his right thigh.  Blood was seeping out at an incredible rate, and Buckthorn, Acorn, Strawberry, Pipkin, and Fiver were all doing their best to stop it as they licked Holly's wounds, but unfortunately, it was too much for five rabbits to keep up with.

                Meanwhile, the rest of the rabbits were angry enough for murder and mobbing with Damien, and Bigwig was seriously wondering whether or not he could kill the little upstart by burrowing his teeth into the teenager's throat.  It certainly would have been satisfactory.

                "How could you?!!" he bellowed, forcing himself to ignore the sword Damien pointed at Bigwig's heart, "Embleer Frith, how could you?!!  Holly was one of your protectors, one of the rabbits of Watership Down and a loyal follower of El-ahrairah!!  How could you do that to him?!!"

                "He was old," Damien said simply.

                "He was loyal!!" shouted Dandelion angrily.

                "He attacked me; I was simply defending myself," Damien stated in an aloof voice.

                "Only because you provoked him, you spoiled, rotten, arrogant disgrace of a human!!" Speedwell cried, his nostrils wide with fury and his brows narrowed.

                "It doesn't matter," Damien said slickly, "We need to get back to your warren so that I can heal your Prince.  C'mon, let's go."

                "We cannot!" protested Silver who was busy trying to wipe his bloodstained nose before attempting to lick Holly's wounds once again, "Holly needs hrair days of rest and constant care before we can help him heal his wounds, and if he is forced to journey along, he would be in far worse shape!!  We have to rest now, Damien!  Holly cannot travel at this point!"

                "Who said the old fool is coming along?  Leave him," Damien ordered.

                "WHAT?!!  You are insane!!  How can you even think of such a thing?!!  This is not fair!!"  The chorus of responses from the other rabbits was automatic.  Yet Damien was unmoved as he turned his backs to the Watership rabbits and continued to walk eastward.

                "Fine, then.  You furballs can go tend to Holly while I go to your home warren, alone and unprotected, yet I hope you realize you're defying Frith's orders to follow and protect the cross-bearer and if anything happens to me, all of you will be to blame as your Prince, Ella-what's-his-face, gets weaker and allows Elil-rah to defeat him and take over your land."  This immediately silenced the rest of the rabbits as they were unsure what to do, and Holly felt his heart burst as he decided to give them the incentive to follow Damien's orders.  After all, in the grand scheme of things, what was more important: Holly or El-ahrairah?

                "Just go," Holly hissed in pain, and the other rabbits turned to stare at him.

                "Holly?" choked Campion, but Holly was obdurate in his decision.

                "Just go!  Leave me behind, and go along with the cross-bearer back to El-ahrairah's warren!"

                "Holly, we can't!" wailed Bluebell, sniveling, "I wanted to do the very exact deed you wished to do so back when we were attacked by the Efrafans and the Ilips, and you chaps did not leave me behind!!  We shan't leave you to the same fate!"

                "But that was because Justin did not want to leave you behind," Acorn said softly, realizing, "And he was the cross-bearer back then.  Now...Damien is the cross-bearer."  Acorn nearly choked with repulsion at the mention of Damien's name.  Hazel looked at Holly, still hesitant and recognizing that all the other rabbits were looking up to him and Bigwig to make a decision.  Holly pleaded with Hazel one last time, calling him by his full title.

                "Hazel-rah, please, remember our oath to El-ahrairah.  We promised him that we would do whatever it takes to bring the cross-bearer back to the warren in Fenlo!  Please, if nothing else, do this for our Prince and Lord of all Rabbits."  Though the ice in his gut refused to melt, Hazel made his decision.

                "We'll go," he said shakily, much to the dismay of some of the rabbits, especially Campion, Bigwig, Bluebell, and Silver, "I promise, we will send several rabbits back to retrieve you Holly the instant we get Damien to El-ahrairah.  I promise."  Holly nodded his understanding approval.

                "Come, Justin," Campion whispered to the teenager who was still on the floor, his paws gently wrapped around his shoulders, but Justin noticed that Campion's eyes were watering.  "Come, we must go."

                "Campion, but Holly -" Justin pleaded softly, tearfully.

                "He made his choice, he'll be fine," choked Speedwell as he whispered encouragingly to Justin, "Come..."  He cursed himself as he nearly lapsed on calling Justin "cross-bearer", realizing things weren't getting any better for Justin.

                "Come on, young Justin, let us leave," Speedwell finished lamely.

                "Whoever said that he was coming along?" Damien snarled as he turned around abruptly, glaring at Justin who looked back at him blankly.  Surely there was nothing wrong with him coming with them?

                "That wimp would only get in our way!" belittled Damien, continuing, "He stays with the old rabbit!  We leave both of them behind!"

                "What?!" exclaimed Hawkbit.

                "No, you shan't!!" cried Pipkin.

                "Watch me," the cross-bearer said coldly.

                "You can't!" protested Strawberry, "Justin was the cross-bearer, he's our friend!  We cannot leave him behind!"

                "I am the cross-bearer now," Damien asserted callously, and then a horrible, gruesome idea formed in his mind.  "If any of you still have reservations about this...well, we cannot debate over this if Justin happens to meet a similar accident such as Holly."

                Hazel and the others recognized the threat clearly.  Dandelion whispered, "You wouldn't."

                Yet the smirk on Damien's face let them know that he was mad enough to accomplish the task.  Hazel and Bigwig, with pained expressions, nodded towards each other, even though to make their choice felt like they were ripping their own hearts out.

                "We'll leave," Bigwig replied hoarsely, "Justin, try to take care of Holly for us, all right, chap?"

                Blackberry followed suit, though he actually seemed distant as he glanced back at Justin, commenting, "Justin, I am truly sorry."

                Hazel could not even bear to look at Justin's shocked face as his voice threatened to break, "Take care, Justin."

                Damien was pleased as he saw more and more of the rabbits abide by their leaders' decisions, though Pipkin, Speedwell, Fiver and Campion nearly had to be dragged away by Silver, Hawkbit, Bluebell, and Bigwig, and Blackberry.  Justin knew he should have been understanding, should have tried taking into consideration on how the rabbits had to obey, and yet all he could focus on was how they were leaving him, after all they had promised him.

                Bigwig snarled to King Darzin, "If you ever come within a smell's distance of Justin or any of my comrades, I will make you regret it!  And tell your dark master Elil-rah that he will never be able to lay a paw on the cross-bearer, not while I'm still alive!"

                "I won't give up.  I won't leave you." Silver whispered, crying, as he and Justin were entombed in the avalanche.

                Speedwell recited in his story, "All the rabbits said, 'Look at that human!  He's so sad and lonely!  We'll adopt him and make him a member of El-ahrairah's family!  We'll care for him like he was our very own!'  And from that day on, Justin never knew pain, sadness, or hurt, for he continued to live in the warren, with the Watership Down rabbits as his best and very close brothers and El-ahrairah as his father in the burrows of light and friendship."

                Pipkin smiled, his eyes twinkling with tears of joy and love, and said, "And you'll always be my friend...and the cross-bearer who I'll always protect and always be by his side with all my mind and heart."

                So it was all a lie.  So it was under the condition that Justin remain as the cross-bearer.  So it was all pointless.

                Justin felt his frustration, his hurt, his trust and compassion shatter as he muttered audibly with bitter scorn for himself and for his former friends, "Fine!  Fine, then!!  Go ahead and leave me!  Forget me!  Just go away and leave me behind!!  It's not like everyone else hasn't done it to me before!!"

                That hurt.  A lot.  And it even got through some of the rabbits as they winced inwardly from the inured yet indignant words of accusation.  Albeit Pipkin, Silver, Fiver, and Strawberry looked regrettably at the sight of Justin on his hands and knees, his head bowed and hidden from sight as the teenager let the hot tears of disappointment, offense, and loneliness plop on the grass, none of the rabbits faltered in their strides as they galloped east with Damien, their new cross-bearer, towards El-ahrairah's warren, leaving Holly and Justin behind.  If Justin had looked up for that moment, he would have seen Damien sneering at Justin's loss, and the rabbits glancing back with heavy hearts.

                Holly was gasping as the pain in his side was burning excruciatingly, the deep incision across his skin and tissue spanning from his ribs to his right hind leg was bleeding freely, mixing with his sweat-dampened gray fur and staining his ruined silver and white tunic.  The whiskered, aged rabbit just blankly looked at the fleeting image of the rabbits leaving without him as he managed to prop himself up on his forepaws.  He knew it was the right thing to do, the only thing to do, the instinctive ways of rabbits must follow, without question, without guilt, and without sickening angst and emotion.  In fact, Holly himself had earnestly insisted that they leave him behind moments earlier.  So why was it that he felt so old, so useless...so hurt?

                "Aaaauuugggh!!" he groaned as the effort of rising had made his wound open up even further, sending more agony into his body.  He sank to the ground, but to his surprise, Holly felt a pair of hands awkwardly but firmly support the Owsla captain by his torso and neck before he could hit the grassy ground.  It was Justin, his face wet but still full of stubbornness and kind worry.

                Holly gave the teenager a tired, weak smile, but he gasped with slight annoyance, "Young one...please...there's no need for you to stay here.  Let me be.  I'll...be all right.  Please, young one, just go back home where you'll...be safe, where you won't be in danger.  Just...leave me behind."

                Justin just sadly looked at Holly before casting his eyes downward as he whispered, "No.  If we're going to be left behind...I want us to be left behind together."

                Holly didn't have much strength to protest this as Justin helped Holly move towards a fresh area of cool grassy ground underneath the elm tree before he passed out from the pain and effort.

                                                                                ***

                As it turned out, things were not faring much better for Hazel and the rest of the Watership rabbits as they stopped to rest as the sun began to set, letting the evening drift in gently.  While Silver, Hawkbit, and Bluebell were trying their best to stop Damien from getting out of hand, the rest of the rabbits were miserably contemplating what had happened.  Bigwig, Blackberry, and Hazel tried their best to boost the morale of the Owsla, but not without much success.

                "Everyone, come on," Hazel tried to give confidence while the rest of the Watership rabbits sulked and brooded silently, staring at the grass, "Please, it won't make things much better if we just squat around and sulk.  We need to concentrate!  We're not too far from El-ahrairah's warren, and we must remember that, though it is painful, it had to be done.  El-ahrairah gave us orders to -"

                Pipkin was inconsolable as he turned to Hazel fiercely, whimpering, "Orders?!  Orders?!  Hazel-rah, how can you believe that?!  El-ahrairah would have never asked us to follow Damien!"  Hazel was taken aback; this coming from Pipkin, one of the most loyal rabbits he had ever known?  Pipkin was now sobbing with great, racking moans that caused the small rabbit to bury his head in his paws.  "And we left Holly behind!  He was just fighting for Justin's honor and defending him, and Damien was the one who injured him!  And yet we had to leave Holly behind because we needed to follow the new human!"

                "Damien is the cross-bearer, Pipkin," Hazel reminded the Owsla soldier gently and reasonably, "Our lord and prince, El-ahrairah himself, has commanded us to stay with and protect the human cross-bearer regardless of what needs to be done because of it, and I'm sure El-ahrairah deserves nothing less than for us to follow his dying pleas of help."

                "And what about Justin, Hazel-rah?!" Buckthorn snapped angrily, hot tears leaking out of his blue eyes.  He was crying as well.  "What in the name of the Black Rabbit did he ever do to deserve this from Frith and El-ahrairah?!  He was our friend, our comrade, who did nothing but show us friendship and understanding, and yet we broke his heart and conveniently forgot all he had ever done for us!  He was the cross-bearer too!"

                "I know how you feel, Buckthorn, but Damien is the cross-bearer now," Blackberry emphasized, coming to Hazel's defense but having difficulty in choosing his words carefully, "He's the only one who can help us with El-ahrairah's plight, and Justin...simply cannot do that for us anymore.  That is all there is to the matter, chap.  Simple as that, and nothing more.  After all, it is perhaps for the better.  If Justin was too weak to be the cross-bearer, it would be better for a stronger man to take his place."

                Campion stood up on his hind legs and got into Blackberry's dark face, roaring furiously, "'Weak'?!  'WEAK'?!!  How dare you, you ignorant, shortsighted scamp!!  Is that all that Justin is to you?!  A tool, a pawn, an implement that we can toss aside like moldy flayrah or hraka when it is no longer of any use to us?!!"

                "It is the truth, Campion!" Blackberry objected evenly and crossly, his voice concrete in his common sense and wisdom, and the tone angered Campion even more.

                "You...!" Campion managed to heatedly sputter out, but Strawberry gracefully stopped Campion before his paw could cuff Blackberry across the face.

                Speedwell jumped in, protesting, "What about our oath, our promise, Hazel-rah?!  We swore to Justin that we would never leave him, that he would always be welcome as our friend and family, and that we would never stop caring for his sake and well-being!!"

                "Justin was one of us!  And Holly too!  How can you expect us to forget that?!" Acorn demanded angrily.

                "We haven't forgotten that, Acorn!" Blackberry said sharply, "But we made those promises of protection and friendship when Justin was the cross-bearer, not as an ordinary human!  Now since Damien is the cross-bearer, there is no reason for us to stand by Justin!  Damien needs us now!!"

                "As if that pompous, cruel bugger would ever want anything from the likes of us," insinuated Acorn as he glanced at the raven-haired human.

                "It is not as if we have left them for dead, buckos," Bigwig growled impatiently at Acorn, but he did so with a heavy heart, "Holly is a tough chap, and he cannot die in the land beyond life!  Damien may have hurt him, but he'll be all right after hrair days of rest and healing.  We did the reasonable and sensible thing to do, to leave one of our own behind if they are too injured and tender to keep up with the journey!  Holly wanted it that way!  I know it, Hazel-rah knows it, and by Frith, the rest of you tharn, stupid duffers should as well!!"

                "And what of Justin?!" snarled Dandelion unrelentingly, "He isn't a spirit in the land beyond the living!  He is a physical, flesh-and-blood, living human!  He'll be killed out there, without the cross or any of us to defend him!  Aren't you three even worried for him?!  Don't you even care?!  After everything he has done for us, after all the battles and trials we faced together, after all the time we spent with him?!!"

                Bigwig, unable to look at Dandelion in the face, just shamefacedly averted his gaze to his left; he could not answer that without any conflict.

                "Dandelion, Justin is not of our concern now," repeated Blackberry edgily, earning glares from Dandelion, Pipkin, Campion and Buckthorn.

                Hazel tried to ameliorate the hard feelings between the divided groups before any more arguments and tiffs would shatter the close bonds of brotherly closeness even further, speaking loudly, "That's enough!  All of you!  We do not need to come to blows on this!  Please!  El-ahrairah is getting weaker and weaker, and the light of the cross is the only force that can save him!  We must not stop in our mission, not when we are so close to completing our task!  We are doing what rabbits need to do!  Holly and Justin will understand!  We are not betraying them, and we must remember that we must remain loyal to El-ahrairah!"

                Strawberry gave Hazel a very cold frown.

                "What do you know about loyalty?" he muttered with disgust and repulsion, still sore at Hazel for his indecision to defend him when Silverweed and Cowslip framed him earlier.  Hazel was taken aback, staggered, by this retort, and this gave the graceful opportunity for Pipkin, Strawberry, Dandelion, Speedwell, Buckthorn, Campion, and Acorn to hop away, giving Hazel, Blackberry, and Bigwig the metaphorical cold shoulders.  Fiver, who had been watching from the sidelines, followed them silently.

                "Fiver??" Bigwig questioned hoarsely.  Fiver looked at Blackberry, Hazel, and Bigwig with sad pity.

                "You do not need to ask; you three know where I stand in all of this.  I'm sorry, Hazel," he whispered sadly, and he left.  Hazel felt his world crumble even further; now his own brother was losing faith in Hazel's support and decisions.  Shaken and hurt, Hazel tried to temporarily find refuge from the dark pangs in his gut by attempting to talk to Damien and to let him know more about the land beyond life and to discuss any strategies that they may need to collaborate on if they ever met up with an enemy.  Yet, he may as well been focusing on talking to a rock.  Regardless of Silver, Blackberry, Bigwig, Hawkbit, Bluebell and Hazel's presences, Damien was completely deaf and all he concentrated on was how much he could do with his cross, so irritatingly enough, while the rabbits were trying to instruct him, he was wildly cutting down branches with the bearerang, levitating trees out of the ground and leaving deep craters, shattering rocks into pieces simply by looking at them, causing noticeable destruction.  Hazel fought for control of his ire and frustration as he and Bigwig tried to talk some sense into Damien with using the cross-bearer powers so recklessly, but Damien was unwilling to listen.     

                "And why should I, 'Hazel-rah'??" Damien scoffed with smug disdain at Hazel's Chief rabbit title, as if being with the rabbits was beneath him, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm the cross-bearer, and I don't need to listen to anyone except myself!!  And you stupid, worthless furballs should follow suit!"

                "That is enough!" growled Silver, his frustration at Damien's domineering demeanor threatening to destroy his self-control, "Damien, listen to yourself!  The cross-bearer can only call on his powers if his heart is pure and unselfish, and if you carry on like this, you may endanger yourself and El-ahrairah's health!  Please, don't risk it!"

                "I could never lose such awesome power," Damien replied haughtily, his eyes gleaming with wicked eagerness at such potential at his fingertips, "My heart will always be strong, and I will never allow any being, not even you dumb mutts, to get in my way!  I told you flea-ridden English rabbits that I would heal your Prince, Ella-what's-his-name, and I will!  When I say so!  Until then, I would highly appreciate it if you annoying pests didn't pester me with questions and pleadings while I experiment with how much glorious and wonderful acts I can do with this cross!  Such power!  Such light!  And it is all mine!  MINE!!"

                "I wish it wasn't," muttered Hawkbit to Bluebell, but unfortunately, Damien heard the loud-mouthed rabbit.

                "WHAT WAS THAT?!!" the Adonis roared, glaring at Bluebell and Hawkbit.  He shouted so loudly, he got the attention of every creature around them as they looked on nervously.  Bluebell looked intimidated, but Hawkbit, ever so stubbornly sincere and caustic, forced himself to continue sarcastically.

                "You heard me, you arrogant slave-driver!  Ever since we met you, you've been nothing but rude, insensitive, and stubbornly conceited, treating us like we're your servants and putting our Lord's healing treatment as a condition!  If you were any type of being, you'd realize that we must work together as one, not as your subordinates and you as our superior!!"

                "Like that queer, Justin??" Damien laughed, "You've gotta be kidding me!  He was nothing!!  I'm surprised that you were able to tolerate his stupid whining, his fragile ego, his own lost, delusional world!  He wasn't a man, but a meek, little mouse, hardly worth being called the cross-bearer like myself!!"

                Bluebell had enough, and he retorted angrily, "I would rather deal with a mouse than an embleer rat!"

                "Hmph!  What an attitude problem, one that needs a major adjustment!" chuckled Damien as the cross flashed in orange sunlight at his verbal command, "Both of you, BURN!"

                To Hazel and the other Watership rabbits' horrors, Bluebell and Hawkbit were suddenly engulfed in harsh, bright sunlight, the same type of intensive power that was used against the king of rats, Veil Guplea, when he tried to attack Campion.  Only this time, it was Bluebell and Hawkbit who were getting the brunt of the punishment as the light started to sear their flesh and singe their fur.  Hawkbit squealed as he sank to his side, twitching and Bluebell was crying in agony as he sank on all fours, curling himself into a fetal position.  From the look on Damien's face, it was evident that he would not stop the torture.

                "NO!  STOP THIS AT ONCE!!  DAMIEN, STOP!!" yelled Hazel with extreme concern as he immediately went over to Bluebell and Hawkbit's sides, trying to help ease their pain somehow.  "PLEASE, STOP THIS!!  THIS WILL NOT HELP US WITH ANYTHING IF YOU CONTINUE!!"

                "No," Damien said in a low, snide, cutting tone as the cross gleamed brighter, and Hawkbit and Bluebell screamed louder and louder, their bodies now engulfed with red heat.  Buckthorn, Silver, Bigwig, and Campion finally decided to make a decision and moved threateningly towards Damien with angry, scandalized retaliation, but Damien's voice cut through them, snarling.

                "Attack me, and I'll never heal your Prince!"  That had an enormous effect as all four of them halted immediately, though unwillingly and every fiber of their bodies screaming against the decision to stand down.  Hazel was desperate as he stepped in front of Bluebell and Hawkbit, shielding them from Damien's penetrating glare.

                "Please, stop this!  Don't hurt them!"

                Damien then had a very sickening and appalling grin on his face as a terrible thought sprouted in his mind.

                "Bow your head," he commanded.  Hazel, along with the rest of the rabbits, was taken aback.

                "What...what did you request??"

                "I ordered you to bow your head," Damien retorted slowly, "Submit yourself to me!  Bow your head and acknowledge my leadership!  If you don't, then I'll hurt those two fleabags over there even more!"  To emphasize his point, actual small flames started to alight on Hawkbit and Bluebell's hides, their dark furs alight as they transformed into small, glowing embers and ashes, the air soon bringing in the early wafts of flaming flesh and fur.  At a loss, Hazel just gave Damien a irate, appalled defiant stare...before he, the legendary Chief Rabbit of Watership Down, Owsla warrior of El-ahrairah, the leader of the cross-bearer expedition, painfully winced as he closed his eyes and bowed his head on all fours towards Damien.  The ultimate humiliation for Hazel.  He could hear small gasps from the rest of the audience above the pained whimpering of Bluebell and Hawkbit.  Bigwig and Buckthorn's faces crinkled up, as if both of them were about to break into tears as the sight was too painful for them to watch without causing some ache in their hearts.  Dandelion, Pipkin, and Acorn were tharn, dazed, their eyes wide, glassy and their bodies so rigid, they could have been carved from stone.  Fiver buried his head in his paws and started sobbing, which was cue for Silver to softly wrap his paws around the little warrior, giving the little comfort for the bile that was rising in both of their stomachs.  Blackberry, Speedwell, and Campion were stony, but for different reasons: for Blackberry, it was because such a submissive act was necessary in order for Damien to cooperate, for Speedwell and Campion, it was because no reward was worth doing such an act in the first place which made both of them miss Justin enormously.  Strawberry's reaction was probably the most deprecating and pejorative as he shut his eyes, turned his head away and whispered sorrowfully to himself, "Oh Hazel-rah, you...you fool."

                Hazel felt his sweat of disgust and unbearable intolerance bead on his back and neck as Damien scoffed, pleased that he made Hazel grovel to his presence.

                "Hmph, you're like a dog, only more pathetic!  I'm surprised that El-ahrairah allowed to let such a belittling, submissive rabbit as yourself into his esteemed Owsla!  It's the sorriest sight I've ever seen!"  The teenager turned away abruptly, but not without flicking his hands and releasing Hawkbit and Bluebell from the searing torture, the fiery, burning light vanishing in a flash.  Hawkbit and Bluebell both lay on the cool grass, gasping with pain and in mixtures of whimpering pleas and chocked sobs of pain.  Indeed, they certainly looked awful.  All over their bodies were red and pink welts emerging from the charred blank patches of burnt fur, parts of it still sending puffs of gray smoke into the air, and some of the welts had already developed white blisters which popped, revealing exposed lines of pink, oozing tissue.  It would be many days of constant cleaning and supervision before Hawkbit and Bluebell would ever be well again.  Hazel and the other rabbits rushed hurriedly towards the two as Damien went off, ignoring all of them completely.

                "Hawkbit, let us help you!" Hazel pleaded, but Hawkbit, extremely furious at being mistreated, lashed out unreasonably at the first being he saw...which unfortunately was Hazel.

                "Don't touch me!" he snarled with contemptible disgust, though one of the reasons he was still crying was due to the way he blamed himself rather than Hazel for leaving Justin, "Embleer Frith, how could you do such a thing, Hazel-rah?!!  We weren't worth you forsaking your pride and honor of being a rabbit!!  How could you?!!  I didn't need to know that I had to force you to bow to...to him!!"

                "I...I thought -"

                "By Frith and Inle, not even El-ahrairah would do such an deed!!  I do not even know why I even look up to you as a Chief Rabbit, you...you rotter!!"  With that, the contentious rabbit wobbled, with the help of Speedwell and Dandelion, away from Hazel.  Everyone else followed, though some threw sad glances at Hazel, as if they no longer had faith in his abilities; the image of Hazel surrendering to Damien was shattering.  Pipkin and Bluebell, before leaving, tried to give Hazel some encouragement, but they fell on deaf ears as Hazel, now more than ever, wished he could truly perish in the land beyond life, to be devoid of any emotions...and of any guilt and blame.

                                                                                ***

                Justin was getting worried as darkness fell onto the lands, the grass and trees starting to cool as dusk emerged and the sun was vainly trying to prevent the last of its sunbeams from being extinguished as it sunk lower and lower into the horizon.  He was all alone with Holly, who was still heavily injured and still unconscious from the loss of blood, yet he was resting peacefully enough, with Justin's tattered flannel shirt covering him like a blanket, though it did little to keep him warm.  Without the cross, Justin had no light, and there was no moon tonight, so it made the darkness even more threatening and overwhelming.  The stars shining above did very little to lessen the gloom surrounding the land, but it was nowhere as depressed as Justin's heart.  He couldn't think of anything but how Damien came, mocked him, ridiculed him, Holly getting hurt, and the rabbits of Watership Down leaving him to fend for himself in the land beyond life, vulnerable to any animal or one of Elil-rah's Owsla.  Yet Justin found it difficult to care.  He was actually thinking of suicide, and death might as well be the only thing he could think of to get out of his predicament.  Without the cross, none of the rabbits would be willing to help him, El-ahrairah wouldn't wish to see him, and he had nowhere to go since the cross was possibly the key in returning back home...where he would be mocked, teased, and bullied by his father and schoolmates.  In other words, Justin was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

                Justin just wrapped his arms around his knees as he sat, slightly shivering.  Yet, faint noises coming from behind him made him snap to attention, a bit fearful that something was approaching.  His breath quickened and wisely, the teenager went over behind the elm tree, with its thick, scratchy trunk shielding him from view, and peeked cautiously out.  His breath caught in his throat as he saw, despite the darkness, two large, bulky shaped walking this way towards him, though still oblivious at the adolescent who was hiding.  Justin could hear them conversing...but despite his dread, he could have sworn that their voices were oddly familiar.

                "Oy, mate!  Quite a haul, isn't it?!" one figure said cheerfully to the other.

                "Quite true, mate, and of course, nothin' quite like roasted apples over an open flame unless you share it with your best chum of long moons and away from Volgnamass's treacherous and bitter authority, eh mate!"

                Volgnamass.  The word rang in Justin's mind in a flash as he uttered a soft gasp.  The two figures were weasels, the same armored ones who wore chain-metal armor and who mad their teeth and claws encased in shiny steel alloy and who tried to kill Justin and Acorn after kidnapping them.  And if they were close, then so was Volgnamass' army, and once they found him...

                Suddenly, he heard one of the figures stop suddenly, his nose sniffing in the air wildly, "Wait!  It's...great seasons o' sun and showers!  Can you smell that, mate?!"

                The second one agreed wholeheartedly, "I can!  Great moons and Frith!  It's the human!  I smell him too!  The chap's close-by, I daresay!"

                Jesus, the two have caught Justin's scent, and Justin silently berated himself from not running while he had the chance, but even if he did run...what about Holly?  He was still unconscious and defenseless.  As silently as he could, Justin crept back to Holly's side, whispering urgently, "Holly, please wake up!  Please!  There are weasels here, and they caught my scent!  We have to get out of here!  Please, wake up!"

                Yet Holly simply uttered a soft moan as he slightly twitched, and Justin was lost.  Before he could think of anything, a cold, metal claw grabbed him by the shoulders.  His heart leaping out of his throat and his head pounding with extreme panic, Justin shrieked as he tried to fight the weasel off.  The weasel yelped in surprise as Justin punched him in the chest and against the chain-mail covering, and regardless of the number of kicks the adolescent managed to set in, the weasel managed to get behind the teenager and pin Justin with a firm bear hug, preventing the boy's hands from hitting him.  So this was the end, Justin was finally going to die and there would be no more pain and sadness.  However, several seconds passed, yet the weasel did not slay him.  Justin, though extremely scared, said defiantly as he was struggling, "Let go of me!!  Please, you can kill me, but leave Holly alone!  Please!  Just kill me and get it over with!!"

                Yet the next words were the best ones Justin had ever heard for the whole day.  The weasel lessened his grip slightly as he said softly, "Cross-bearer!  Wake up, lad!  Don't be scared!  Do you not recognize us?!  It's your mates, Sneezewort and Lousewort!  Come on!  Stop!  It is us, cross-bearer!"

                Justin felt his heart leap up to his throat again as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and glanced upwards to see that he was staring into the sage, yet fierce face of the light-browned Sneezewort, though now his eyes were registering concern and kindness for his friend.  And behind him stood the goofy-faced, simple-minded white weasel named Lousewort, who was staring at the scene with a mixture of surprise and humor.

                Sneezewort continued, slightly exasperated but still jovial to see his friend and the being who had helped the two escape injury and Volgnamass' cruelty, "Oy, lad!  Whatcha' tryin' ta' do, hurt yourself?!  You would have bloodied your knuckles and paws if you continued to bash in my metal armor, cross-bearer and...oh spears and shields."

                Sneezewort cursed that last phrase softly and with troubled confusion as Justin, at the word "cross-bearer" started trembling and though he stubbornly kept his mouth firmly shut and his teeth gritted, Lousewort could notice that the teenager started crying again, weakly holding on to Sneezewort's paws as if he could not possibly stand on his feet without some sort of support.  Wordlessly, Lousewort just knelt down in front of the human and stroked his head as Justin, pained, softly told them everything.

                Justin was still emotionlessly talking for a good half-hour later, white and detached, his strength worn out, as Sneezewort was sitting behind Justin with his metal paws wrapped protectively around the teen as he numbly sat on Sneezewort's lap.  This was relatively easy considering that Sneezewort was almost twice as large as Bigwig.  Lousewort looked sincerely indignant and upset as he made camp while taking note of Justin's testimony.  The two were truly a blessing for Justin and Holly.  With dry brush and a click from Lousewort's metal claws for sparks, they soon had a small, warm fire crackling brightly.  Sneezewort managed to chew some light green, sweet, clean bog moss into a poultice he had gathered earlier from a medicinal leather pouch he carried and used it as a light dressing to cover Holly's immense wound, explaining to Justin that it could help the rabbit heal faster by stopping the bleeding and preventing infection.  Also, Lousewort managed to cut down four evergreen boughs, as tall as either of the two weasels and their branches lush and full of soft pine needles, and laid them out as mattresses for them to rest on; they were certainly warmer than the ground, and after helping Justin gently lay Holly on one of them, Holly was resting very comfortably next to the fire as the two weasels and Justin talked, though Justin was still very miserable, even after eating some of the fruit and nuts rations Lousewort was saving.

                Lousewort said thoughtfully, "I never thought that such a thing could have happened, young one.  I daresay, none of the legends we have heard about the cross-bearer had ever mentioned such a condition, and even if it was true, you were still able to do many good and benevolent miracles with that cross of yours."

                "It was never mine to begin with," Justin quivered as his voice threatened to break again, "I should have known better than to even think that I could ever be happy, that this would be different.  Now, everyone's left me, and I'm all alone and no way to go back home, not that I would want to!  Nobody wants me back there either!"

                Sneezewort held Justin a bit more firmly, trying to comfort the adolescent and possibly prevent him from suicidal thoughts or thoughts of dark despair as he said softly, "You may not be the cross-bearer, but we'll still protect you, you know."

                Justin laughed hollowly, very cynical.  "That was what Hazel and other rabbits said, that was what my mother said, and that was probably what God said too!  I can't trust anybody now, and no one cares how much I hurt, how much I just need someone right now, and the only reason Holly stayed with me was because of default since he's too injured to do anything else but wait with me!  The minute he gets all better again, he'll leave me too!"

                Justin tried to curl up in a ball as the thoughts brought forth a fresh wave of sobbing, yet Sneezewort tried to raise the boy's spirits.  "We aren't lying; we will stay with you."

                "Yeah, right!" Justin's voice was uncharacteristically bitter and harshly distrustful as he shut his eyes, "What do you know about being abandoned, about no one wanting you?!  What do you know about being alone in a world where everyone hates you?!!"

                "My, how quickly you've forgotten.  Don't ya' remember how we first met, why we even left Volgnamass and Elil-rah's Owsla in the first place?"  Lousewort's voice was sardonic as he gave Justin a funny look.  The adolescent then remembered; Volgnamass attempted to injure them and then leave them behind, kicking them out because of their supposed incompetence, yet the weasels were nothing but loyal, good warriors who did not deserve to be mistreated, and when Acorn and Justin helped them out, they escaped, abandoning their past lives as soldiers for Elil-rah's army.  Justin blushed.

                "Sorry."

                "Conveniently forgot, did you?" replied Lousewort coolly, yet the smile on his bright face let Justin know he took no umbrage to the outburst.

                "So...so what do we do, now?" Justin asked, wiping his eyes.

                "Well, we were hoping you would tell us, lad," replied Sneezewort, "After all, me n' Lousewort are renegades from our own army, and we do not have anything planned, but remember young Justin, we'll gladly return the favor for the kindness you have shown us previously.  If there is something you wish for us to do, just say it, and we shall gladly help you."  Justin honestly could not think of anything to help himself, primarily because he didn't need protection anymore due to the loss of his powers, but then his eyes fell on Holly.

                "I want you to take Holly back to the warren of El-ahrairah in the meadows of Fenlo."

                "What?"  Lousewort looked genuinely confused.

                "I want you to take care of Holly for me," Justin repeated lucidly, "Holly is still too weak to journey back to El-ahrairah by himself, and...and I know the rest of the guys will be very worried about him in the meantime.  But if Holly was back at the warren, he could get better care, and he would be reunited with his friends and his family."

                Sneezewort said softly, "And what about you, Justin?"  The morose teenager did not answer that as he slightly cast his eyes downward, and Lousewort guessed what Justin wanted.

                Lousewort stated softly, "You wish for us to leave you behind, do you not?"  Justin still didn't answer.

                "Justin, there is no point for you to throw your life away, mate," the white-furred weasel encouraged softly, "And you shouldn't be so hard on the rabbits; they are your family too and they would be glad to see you again."

                "They would not want to see me, and neither would El-ahrairah for that matter.  Damien is the cross-bearer now, not me.  Besides, it's just as well.  No one here would care if I lived or died, now that I can't be of use to anyone."

                "I would care, young one," croaked a voice, and all three turned around to see Holly, who had finally regained consciousness, and it was apparent that though the sage, elderly rabbit was still troubled from his wound, the moss poultice did rejuvenate the Watership Owsla warrior significantly.  Holly managed to give Justin a tired smile, though he was slightly unnerved at the sight of Sneezewort and Lousewort, not to mention the fire flickering warmly close by.

                "Glad t' see that you are awake, old one," Sneezewort managed to tease the rabbit considerately.  Holly gave him a mock, wry glower.

                "I may be old but still spry enough to cuff the living daylights out of you, you duffer."

                "How...how're you feeling, Holly?" asked Justin tentatively as Lousewort and Sneezewort chuckled, "And...how long have you been conscious?"

                Holly smiled, "It was around the moment when I heard Sneezewort remind you that he and Lousewort still owed you a favor and that they were willing to assist you with whatever you wished for.  And I still stand by what I said, young Justin.  You may not be the cross-bearer, but I would be greatly pained if anything happened to you, and I daresay that the rest of the buckos from Watership Down feel exactly the same."

                "But they abandoned me -" began Justin, flaring.

                "Because they had to follow the orders of El-ahrairah, because they did not wish to endanger our Prince and Lord of all Rabbits, and...because if they did take you along with them, Damien would have killed you right then and there.  Do you not, remember, young one?"

                Justin was still mulish.  "Damien still wouldn't want me to be with you, and all that mattered was his opinion.  If the others did care for me, they would have still stood by me regardless of the consequences."

                "No," Holly said sharply, feeling some discipline was needed to make Justin realize the truth, "it is El-ahrairah and Frith's decisions, not his, not yours, not even Hazel-rah and the others'.  For Frith's sake, Justin, do not act like a spoilt, selfish kit who covers his ears and whines at every single moment his elders try to give advice or try to make one see the real truth.  You are far too gentle and noble to act as such, and you know the truth as well as I do!  Do you honestly believe what Damien has told you?  Hazel-rah, Bigwig, Silver, Speedwell, Campion, and the rest of the bloody chaps care for you!  They did not wish to abandon you, they did not wish to harm you nor cause you grievance!  Yet, do you still thoughtlessly wish for them to forget how their Prince, their ancestor, their benevolent leader, is dying and forsake the only thing they need to help him, all for your sake?!  Do you still wish for them to ignore another suffering creature in need, all for you?!  If you still do, then you are no better than Elil-rah himself!  As for Damien...yes, he is the cross-bearer who will fight Elil-rah, but I still stand by my conviction that El-ahrairah and Frith would be pleased and welcoming to see you if you come to their warren!  And...I still think that regardless, you shall always be our friend and the only one any rabbit would be willing to declare with joy as the cross-bearer.  I would stake every tuft of gray fur on my body on that, young one."  Justin had no idea he was quivering again until Sneezewort gently tightened his arms around the frail teen.  Holly then turned to Lousewort.

                "Am I right to say that we can rely on you and Sneezewort to accompany us back to the warren in Fenlo?"

                "You can," Sneezewort said, his face uneasy but his mouth set in a determined, thin line, "We haven't forgotten the kindness Justin showed us awhile back.  We know the risks, and we shall gladly accept them."  Holly nodded his thanks.

                "We shall start at daybreak, mates," declared Lousewort in a final tone.

                                                                                ***

                Early, as the sun began to break up the night sky, causing it to turn to a light blue in the eastern horizon, Lousewort, Sneezewort, Holly, and Justin set forth towards El-ahrairah's warren, though unlike the rabbits, who went directly eastward, Holly convinced them to head directly into the neighboring forests which would provide better cover and shield their scents with all the wild flora that abounded the region.  Holly almost made a speedily recovery, and it would be another day or two before he would be back to his vigorous self, though it was apparent that his wound was still troubling him.  As they journeyed, Justin, who was riding on Sneezewort's back, then had a sudden thought.

                "Holly, I'm just curious.  I remembered when Damien attacked you after provoking you about being the eldest rabbit in the entire group that was sent to retrieve me.  Well, Hazel and the others died of old age too, and yet they look relatively young in the land beyond life, as if...as if exactly how they were pictured in the stories about Watership Down I've read back in my world.  And yet you...please forgive me if I offend you, but you...well, still look rather old.  Why is that?" he asked awkwardly.

                Holly took no resentment to Justin's inadvertent questioning, replying, "To be honest with you, young one, I do not know.  When an animal of Frith passes away and is brought to the land beyond life by the Black Rabbit of Inle, Frith decides how the spirit of that animal should appear once they enter.  He could make it so that the rabbit that has stopped running could be as old as the day he or she died, or Frith could make them younger, when they were strong, robust, full of fighting spirit like Bigwig, or as young as a complete kitten, innocent, playful, and dependent on a mother's nurturing care.  So, the truth be told, though all creatures in the land beyond the living have endless masses of vigor and vivacity flowing in them and their minds in entirety, Frith decided that I, that is, my spirit, should be a bit older than the rest of the chaps from Watership Down once I entered the land beyond life.  Yet, it is of no matter.  After all, pelil éan, atha néan."

                Lousewort, who had never heard of Lapine before in his entire life, looked at Holly inquisitively, "Oy, mate!  What in the name of seasons of wind and rain does that mean?"

                Holly replied proudly, "It means 'old legs, young heart'."

                Justin chipped in helpfully, "So Holly is basically saying you may have an old body, but what's important is that his heart is still young and energetic, so it's the heart that's important.  In other words, you're only as old as you want to be, as much as you feel."

                "I could not have said it better -" yet Holly left that sentence to hang as he stopped abruptly, sniffing the air, and following suits, Sneezewort and Lousewort halted too.

                "Holly?" Justin asked breathlessly.

                "Lendri," growled Holly, "and I recognize that treacherous scent anywhere!  It is Lord Brock!"  Justin's blood ran cold at the thought of the badger who had previously tried to kill him and ended up tackling both he and Pipkin off the ledges in the mountains.  The badger that was just as large as an Ilip and was nowhere as sane and controlled as one either, with ruthless demeanor and teal eyes that registered nothing but poisoned ice and stone.  If he was here, if he managed to walk away from his fall after the mountains...Justin shuddered, his breath quaking and mixing with his sharp inhales of cold air to keep his head level.  Sneezewort felt Justin shake with fear on his back, and he whispered encouragingly, "We won't let him get to you, lad.  Not without a fight."

                Justin couldn't answer back; his throat was too dry.  Narrowing his eyes, Lousewort plunged into the underbrush noisily, disappearing immediately into the thicket.

                "Lousewort, wait!" Holly called out harshly, outraged that the weasel would do something so foolish, yet Lousewort conveniently ignored the Owsla rabbit.  Sneezewort explained.

                "He went to scout the area, mate, but don't be alarmed.  If Lord Brock is here, he would be less likely to believe that a weasel, a member of Volgnamass' army of Elil-rah, would be lying to him about the whereabouts of the cross-bearer.  So, if Lousewort sees that Lord Brock would be an immediate danger to the young lad, he would trick him into believing that our scouting parties turned up no scent nor trace of the cross-bearer and drive him away while we sneak out quietly."

                "But you and Lousewort aren't part of Elil-rah's army anymore," Justin said.

                "Yes, but Lord Brock does not know that, and that would give us an advantage to delay him."

                Holly was still irritated.  "Sneezewort, that is a foolhardy plan!  What if Lord Brock does not believe Lousewort?!  What if he already guessed the truth or if he has spotted us from the underbrush?!  What if he caught our scents?!  We should have ran the instant I smelled his scent instead of wasting time talking!"

                "He would have caught on to Justin's scent anyway, Holly," Sneezewort snapped, "and unlike you, I'm not the one yelling loudly enough like a duffer for all enemies to hear and track us down with."  Before Holly could retort, Lousewort came crashing back, his eyes wide with disbelief.

                "Lousewort, what happened?" Justin asked.

                "Er, I think you mates ought to see this with your own eyes.  It is the badger, Lord Brock, but I do not think he is in a position to perform any threat of harm on us."  Morbidly curious (and on Holly's part, still a little suspicious of trusting the word of elil), the four of them quietly snuck through the bushes and trees to see the sight of Lord Brock imprisoned by Elil-rah underneath a knobby, contorted oak tree as castigation.  Lord Brock was truly a miserable sight.  Leaves and cobwebs stuck to his fur in a shaggy, filthy mess of dust and dirt, making his beautiful black and white pelt, once lustrous and glossy, now squalid, unkempt, and sordid.  His paws and body was entwined with manacles made of twisted roots and vines, so painfully tight that they were biting into the badger's flesh.  Only the badger's head and paws were protruding out of the grassy terrain, and it appeared the rest of the badger's body was painfully compressed by the trunk of the tree, allowing sticky sap, termites, and ants to painfully and madly scuttle on his body.  The fur underneath his clouded teal eyes were wet, indicating that Lord Brock was crying, and the lack of food and water was complete torture for the creature, and since he could not already perish in the land beyond the living, the badger was wasting away, his frame appearing sallow, malnourished, and his dry, parched throat was rasping with cacophonous noises.  Lord Brock, upon seeing Justin, immediately became furious.

                "YOU!!!" he roared as the earth slightly quivered as Lord Brock, finding new strength in his anger and refueled temper, tried to extract himself free from the convoluted mass of roots.  Holly, Sneezewort, and Lousewort backed away slowly, yet it was obvious that no amount of thrashing and struggling would ever free Lord Brock.  He collapsed, close to fainting from exertion, panting but still had a murderous look in his eyes.

                "So, come to laugh at my misfortune, Justin?!" Lord Brock growled, "I swear, by the dark beast, I should have killed you when I had the chance!  You ruined everything!!  I swear, I will kill you, Justin!!  Damn you, all of you!!"

                "Let us leave," whispered Lousewort, but as Holly and Sneezewort agreed, Justin said lucidly and loudly.

                "No."

                "Justin??" Holly gaped, incredulous.  Justin jumped off Sneezewort's back and carefully walked up to Lord Brock until he was only inches from the badger's huge, trapped paws.  Lord Brock just glared at Justin, heaving with sobs of frustration and embarrassment and fatigue, before the teenager spoke.

                "If you want food and water, we can help you," Justin offered.  Lord Brock felt his enmity and hostility fade away at he thought of food and water, and though he wanted to kill Justin so much, hunger and thirst won out the argument.  He nodded, defeated but still irritated and glowering.

                "Justin, have you gone mad?" Sneezewort demanded angrily as he grabbed Justin by the shoulder, "You could have been killed!"

                "Sneezewort, we can't leave Lord Brock there without helping him!"  Lord Brock grumbled several curses at this statement.

                "He still wishes to eradicate you!"

                "He's in pain!  He probably hasn't had food and water for several weeks!  He's suffering!  We can't just walk away and ignore him!!"

                "I can live with that," huffed Holly darkly.

                "Sort of like how Volgnamass and Damien could live with it when they abandoned all three of you?"  Now it was Justin's turn to glare as he threw the question in their faces; he had them there and they sighed, resigned.  Though the leftover rations of berries and nuts Lousewort carried were barely enough to satisfy a rabbit, much less a badger, Justin and Holly and Sneezewort gathered each huge piles of blackberries, wild toadstools, mint, and various assortments of seeds and nuts.  Lousewort managed to empty the contents of his medicinal pouch and filled it with clear water from a far off stream.  Of course, combine the fact that a small pouch full of water would not be enough to even wet Lord Brock's throat, the fact that it took ten minutes of running at full speed to bring water back and forth for one roundabout trip from the stream to Lord Brock, and the fact that even with Sneezewort helping with his own pouch, over fifty trips before Lord Brock thirst was quenched was enough to make Lousewort wish he kept his mouth shut about Lord Brock's incarceration.

                As Lord Brock ate his fill, none too gently, he blamed Justin for his punishment, describing to the four how he was saved from the fall off the mountain only to be saved by Elil-rah and put underneath the tree as punishment for trying to use the cross to overthrow Elil-rah's rule and how only the cross-bearer could be the one to free him with his power.  The memories were enough to work up the badger, now with enough food and water for rejuvenation, and he struggled to wrench himself out of his prison, shouting curses and threats the instant he laid his paws on Justin.  Feeling that it would be safer to leave, Holly, Sneezewort, Lousewort, and Justin left, but as they made their way eastward, they could still hear Lord Brock roaring.

                "DAMN YOU, JUSTIN, THIS ISN'T OVER!!  YOU MAY NOT BE THE CROSS-BEARER NOW, BUT THE INSTANT DAMIEN FREES ME FROM MY PRISON, I WILL KILL YOU!!!  YOU RUINED MY LIFE, MY CHANCES FOR FAVOR FROM THE DARK LORD, MY QUEST FOR POWER!!  DO YOU HEAR ME, JUSTIN?!!  I WILL BE FREE AND I WILL KILL YOU!!!  DO YOU HEAR ME?!!"

                "Such a nice way of showing gratitude," grumbled Sneezewort sardonically as the yowls and howls of ire and unreason echoed in the forests, "The bloody duffer did not even thank us for the efforts."  Yet Lousewort noticed that Holly appeared troubled.

                "Holly, whatever is the matter?"

                Holly looked at Justin while his mind clicked rapidly at what Lord Brock had just told them.  He asked calculatingly, "Justin, did...did you ever mention to Lord Brock that you lost your powers of the cross-bearer?  That you lost your cross?"

                Justin shook his head, unable to see what Holly was getting at.  "N-no."

                Holly then turned to Sneezewort and Lousewort.  "Did either of you mention to Lord Brock about what happened with Justin and Damien?  Did you ever mentioned the new cross-bearer's name??"

                "We couldn't even if we wanted to, Holly," Lousewort told him, "Me n' Sneezewort were too busy fetching water and gathering food to bother telling Lord Brock stories he wouldn't be in the mood to hear.  But why?  Why all the questions, mate?"

                Holly did not answer, but instead kept a very thoughtful silence as they ran amongst the trees, weeds, grass, and bushes, the screams of Lord Brock getting fainter and fainter, like a distant nightmare one best leaves forgotten in the crevices of obscurity.

                                                                                ***

                "Embleer Frith, we wasted so much time when we could have been traveling and getting closer to El-ahrairah's warren!" Speedwell cursed softly as they galloped at the peak hours of darkness later that same day to Strawberry.  It was now night, the sun had retired long ago.  After the incident with Hawkbit and Bluebell's punishment, it was discovered that their injuries were far too extensive to ignore, so unanimous, the rabbits spent the rest of the time caring and licking Bluebell and Hawkbit's wounds, tending to them and helping them cope with their burns and sores.  Damien, though annoyed, used the time to continue heedlessly practicing his powers on various objects.  By now, he was able to achieve far greater things with the powers of the cross of light than Justin was ever able to, including creating a geyser of water from an underground spring to erupt and create a small pond, was able to telekinetically summon and push rocks and trees with such force, they shattered and fragmented, practiced shooting with a newly-created golden bow, strung with silver thread, which shot out arrows of painful sunlight that exploded and charred everything they touched, and, most remarkably, was able to create animate creatures out of their shadows, bona fide, life-like, yet horribly disfigured and humanoid, like gruesome monsters with gleaming eyes of harsh yellow.  All these acts made the rabbits slightly edgy and tense, especially since Strawberry and Silver swore that they heard Damien muttering something about needing targets to practice the full amount of damage and effectiveness of the jewel's light.

                "I know, chap," whispered Strawberry surreptitiously as he gave Damien, who was riding on Bigwig's back a wary look out of the corner of his eye, "By the fur and paw of the Black Rabbit, it sickens me to see him act like this without feeling the slightest remorse for torturing Bluebell and Hawkbit!  Look at them wince, and Bluebell is nearly limping, the poor chap!  And the cross-bearer expects them to be able to journey despite their wounds, as if he does not care that they could befall serious impairment and harm from the forced running!  I do not know why we must listen to him!"

                "Because he has the cross, Strawberry," Blackberry chastised, overhearing the rabbit as he galloped alongside him, "and Hazel knew that if we refused Damien's wishes, he could easily use his powers to force us to agree as he did with Bluebell and Hawkbit."

                "Then why won't Damien heal them?!" Dandelion asked incredulously, "It would be far better for us in the long run, and Justin always -"

                Dandelion then stopped short, leaving the sentence unfinished and suspended, as a wave of grief and regret washed over him at the mention of Justin's name.  He knew he shouldn't have, but it was not very easy to forget their former cross-bearer and friend, his compassion, his cheerful personality.  Dandelion felt his ears droop as he slightly bowed his head.

                "You miss Justin too, do you not?" Speedwell asked softly, in understanding.

                "Yes, I do," admitted Dandelion.

                "I do not care what Damien says," Strawberry said bitterly, nearly forgetting to whisper, "I cannot and will not believe that Frith and El-ahrairah would have chosen Damien to replace Justin!  Yes, he may have faults, yet what creature does not??  And Justin was never one to misuse his powers!  So why should he have been replaced?!"

                "I do not know, Strawberry," Blackberry shushed Strawberry as Damien glanced at their way a bit suspiciously, "Yet, we cannot question Frith's word and decision -"

                "You mean what Damien says is Frith's word and decision," Speedwell corrected irately.

                Blackberry continued in rigid conviction, "- and the point is, we do not have any choice but to listen to Damien because he is the only one who can help us fight Elil-rah and bring peace and tranquility back to El-ahrairah's warren and heal our Prince's sickness."

                "I don't care!" Dandelion snapped, "I would forsake everything if I could only see and be with -"

                "Justin?!" Damien's voice rang out sharply, and at the sound of his voice, the rabbits stopped abruptly (also to Hawkbit and Bluebell's relief since they felt that some of their wounds began to bleed again) and stared in the far off distance a little to their left in a clearing a bit outside the surrounding woods.  They were now currently in a huge plot of land next to a gargantuan, unfathomable lake, lapping against shorelines of mud and several crags and precipices of black rock and comfortably snuggling against the forests and trees surrounding it.  A bit far off to the precipice, warmly gathered around a small fire, was Justin, happily chatting with a light brown and a white weasel wearing chain-mail armor amongst a barren patch of dry dirt.

                "It's Sneezewort and Lousewort!" gasped Acorn, recognizing them, "Justin must have met up with them after we left!  The blokes must be helping him get by and protecting him!  By Frith, it looks like your premonition was right, Fiver!  They would be helpful to Justin eventually!"

                Damien leapt off Bigwig's back, his eyes now glittering as a very malicious smile formed on his face.  He grasped the cross around his neck and muttered a very silent prayer, closing his eyes and his mouth moving, but barely detectable.

                "Damien?" Pipkin asked, confused, yet the cross-bearer ignored him as he continued praying.  Suspicious, Bigwig marched up to Damien, growling, "Just what are you up to, wretch?!"

                A second later, Bigwig halted as Damien now was alert and no longer praying as the golden sword appeared into his hand and he now threateningly pointed the weapon directly at the rabbit's head, the point barely an inch or two away from his face.

                "Don't touch me!" Damien snarled.

                Bigwig, though submissive, still glared at Damien with mistrust and skepticism.  "Just what are you planning, Damien?"

                "I need a little target practice," replied the raven-haired Adonis gruesomely, and immediately, all the rabbits, with sickening realization, what that meant.

                "No, you shan't!" gasped Fiver.

                "Watch me," growled Damien, "Justin is siding with weasels, elil who are part of Elil-rah's Owsla, and yet the wimp, trying to find an easy way out, is fraternizing with our enemy!  He betrayed us!  He has to die for his stupidity and betrayal!"

                "You do not understand!" growled Blackberry as he made his way to the front of the group and stared down at Damien, "Sneezewort and Lousewort are weasels who abandoned Volgnamass' army because they were cruelly mistreated and their leader banished them after they kidnapped Justin and Acorn!  Yet they became friendly and saw the truth, that what they were doing was wrong, and Fiver told us that it would be merciful if Justin could heal them!  Justin is not fraternizing with the enemy!  He is being helped by two weasels that owe him a great debt for the kindness and love he has shown them!  Those two weasels are no longer part of Elil-rah's Owsla!"

                "Are you calling me a fool?"  Damien's voice was brutal and building with pressure.

                Blackberry, though wise yet prudish, knew then where his loyalties lay, and squealed heatedly, "More so than Justin, you self-righteous -!!"

                Yet what Blackberry said was lost immediately as Damien widened his eyes as a single, powerful telekinetic force struck Blackberry directly in the chest, sending the agonized rabbit flying back by thirty feet before crashing onto the ground.  Pipkin, Fiver, and Dandelion went over to the buck's side while the others just stared at Damien with absolute hatred and indignation.  Damien gave no notice as he teleported before any of the Watership soldiers could do anything.  Justin, Sneezewort and Lousewort, all whom heard the commotion and the telltale flash of orange sunlight in the far distance, yet before they could investigate, Damien appeared in front of them magically amidst a flurry of sparkles and glowing dust.  Realizing the sudden threat, Lousewort got in front of Justin, shielding him as Sneezewort crossed his arms and glowered menacingly at Damien.

                "What do you want?" Sneezewort rumbled.

                "Justin's head on a stake," sneered Damien.

                "It will not happen without a fight, you false impersonator!" roared Sneezewort, but he simply braced himself, wisely forgoing the option of charging towards Damien, especially since he was carrying a sword.  Damien then widened his eyes and with a flash, despite his heavy form and body, Sneezewort was sent flying with a forceful telekinetic blast exactly like Blackberry.  He landed roughly on a patch of grass not too far off, but laid sprawled out, unconscious.  Lousewort immediately tried to reach for Justin.

                "Justin, quickly, get on my back!  I will carry – what in the name of Frith?!!" Lousewort yelled as he and Justin noticed that he was unable to walk, his feet remaining stationary and attached to the floor, and glancing down, they both realized that vaporous, black wisps of smoke was rising from Lousewort's shadow as Lousewort's hind paws were sinking slowly into the darkness, like quicksand.  Lousewort struggled to wrench his paws free out of the yawning, engulfing mess, but he too was sent flying and collapsed on his stomach, barely awake as he groaned and struggled to rise.  Justin turned to face Damien who was fitting another bright, vicious arrow of harsh light into the string of his golden bow before drawing back his arm, aiming the weapon at Justin's heart.

                "Damien, what are you doing?!" Justin asked, flabbergasted, "I didn't do anything to you!"

                "I know, and that makes this all the more fun!" snickered Damien as he was about to let loose the shaft.  Yet miraculously, a bit on Damien's left, the dirt around him exploded before Holly emerged from the Slack Run and tackled Damien, who was so caught off guard, he had no way to defend himself as he released the deadly shaft prematurely and it struck the fire next to Justin, setting off dangerous sparks and embers and extinguishing several branches of wood from the pile.

                The Slack Run is a defensive strategy used by rabbits in case of attack, as described in "Watership Down" in which a deep ditch in the earth was made and a rabbit is placed into it before being lightly covered with a thin layer of soil for camouflage, hidden from view.  Thus, whenever an enemy was close by, the buried and covered rabbit could spring up out of the blue beneath the antagonist, completely taking him or her by surprise.  Bigwig had used this before to attack Woundwort when he laid siege on Watership Down and now, Holly was using it to save Justin's life.

                Damien screamed as Holly burrowed his teeth into the teenager's throat, but with another invisible force of light, Holly was pushed back, hollering in pain as he crashed against a rock embedded into the dirt.  With blood pouring down his front and staining the collar of his blue and white letterman jacket grotesquely, Damien, now illuminated completely with sunlight, this time, unlike Justin's power, the luminosity was harsh, severe, blinding, and ardent with power and uncontrollable frenzy.  Damien was now focused on disemboweling Holly, but before he could take a step, a thick, medium-length tree branch struck Damien on the temple, flying in a circular, revolving motion as it flew in the air.

                "Leave Holly alone, you jerk!!" rang out a voice, and Holly struggled to rise as he groaned pleadingly.

                "Justin...don't, please..." the old rabbit croaked.

                Damien turned around and glared at Justin who picked up another thick, wooden branch.  Justin brandished it like a baseball bat, all the meanwhile yelling, "Adrenaline rush!  Give me your best shot, you jerk!"

                Damien's eyes narrowed as he grinned malevolently, showing all of his teeth like a demented, rabid animal.  With a fling of his hand, a flash of orange blaze shot out from the cross and hit the branch Justin was holding, sending the sap and wood into a flaming mass of embers and charcoal.  Justin stared at his weapon wide-eyed before dropping it with a yelp.

                "Oh...crap," Justin stuttered in shock, realizing that attacking Damien may not have been his best option.

                "Time-freeze!" snarled Damien, and with a sudden outpouring of light, Justin, to his horror, could not move!  Damien had cast the powers to stop time on his own body, just as Justin had done before with countless enemies.  His arms, his legs, felt like stone, heavy, unwilling to listen to any of his commands from his nervous systems and his brain, remaining stationary, numb, stiff, frozen, and regardless of the lack of breathing or the fact that he could not blink his wide eyes, Justin could honestly say he could not feel any sensation of pain whatsoever.  However, it looked liked he was going to find out the hard way, especially since Damien now summoned a powerful, lethal surge of white lightening from the sky, the thunderous electricity generating painful crackles and pops as they formed into a ball in Damien's tightly clenched hand, wildly shifting and glinting.

                "Justin, DIE!" he yelled, and with a mad prod, the cross-bearer flung the ball of lightening directly at Justin's chest.  And with Justin immobilized, he couldn't dodge it.

                "No, stop!!!" cried Hazel, but it was too late.

                "Double crap!" Justin thought to himself as the lightening struck, causing a mild explosion of searing heat as fragments of the ground had shattered from the impact of energy and caused a huge cloud of debris and dust to immediately spew out of nowhere, blocking Hazel's view and hiding the gruesome carnage in obscurity.  Damien laughed, a low, cold, apathetic, shrill mocking glee of the insane.

                "Take that, you weak, pathetic, bas-", yet the words died in Damien's throat as his body was convulsed with disbelieving rage and wrathful antagonism when the dust cloud cleared away to reveal something completely unexpected.  The time-freeze spell had worn off, and now Justin was kneeling down in extreme and dismayed concern at the sight of Bigwig, Pipkin, Campion, Strawberry and Acorn, horrifically injured as they lay twitching and smoldering from the lightening.  As it turns out, Damien was so intent on killing Justin, he did not see the five rabbits sprint off in the last possible moment and shield Justin from the entire force of the attack, their furry bodies making an impenetrable wall as the orb of deadly heat struck them and not the teenager.  Without Acorn or Campion or Pipkin or Bigwig or Strawberry, Justin would have perished.  Damien was beside himself.

                "What?!!  You miserable, pathetic scum dare betray me?!!  And your Prince?!!"

                Bigwig, though heavily injured, managed to give Damien a snide, aloof glare.  "Figured it out just now, didn't you, you crack-brained slave-driver?"

                Pipkin managed to comment fervently, "We would never betray El-ahrairah and Frith, Damien..."

                "...but we are simply doing what our hearts have been telling us to do," finished Strawberry, adding, "And our hearts tell us, all of us, that we should have never abandoned Justin!  Even without the cross, the young one is still our cross-bearer!"

                Justin felt his eyes well up again with relief and slight comfort, despite the fact that he was still in grave danger.  Campion rested his head in the cradle of Justin's arms, unable to speak, but relieved that he was able to protect Justin, as Justin whispered hoarsely, "You guys...thank you."

                Damien growled as this time, a ball of red and orange flame emerged from his palm, "If you chose to side with that twerp over me, then all of you can suffer with him!!  I'll burn all of you to hell!!"

                Yet Damien was unable to do so as, with a huge, magnanimous cry of rage, Speedwell, Buckthorn, Silver, Fiver, and Hawkbit leapt upon Damien, tackling, cuffing, scratching, and yes, even biting, unwilling to let Damien attempt to murder Justin for a second time.  Seeing the first five rabbits springing to action was more than enough to encourage them to do the very same.

                "Get off, you flea-ridden pests!" Damien shrieked as the rabbits overwhelmed him so much, they brought him to his knees as he vainly tried to pummel them off.

                "This was for setting me on fire, you wretched bugger!" snarled Hawkbit as he cuffed Damien so hard on the neck, blood gushed forward.

                Silver, who was struggling to pin down Damien and preventing him from using his hands, yelled urgently, "Hazel-rah, quickly, go and see if Holly and the others are all right!   We can detain Damien!"

                "Easier said than done, chap!" gulped Speedwell as a fireball Damien managed to throw at aimlessly nearly singed one of his ears off as it shot past him into the night sky.  Still, he and Fiver were proficient enough to pinion Damien's arms to the grass, preventing the murderous teenager from summoning even more fire.  Hazel, Dandelion, Bluebell, and Blackberry sprinted across towards the fallen wounded of the party.

                "Are you two sure you're all right?!" Dandelion asked breathlessly as Sneezewort shakily stood up, propping himself against Dandelion and clutching his head painfully.  Lousewort, who was less injured, managed to rise of his own accord.

                "Oy, I think we are, mate," Sneezewort groaned as he slightly winced from the throbbing bruises he received all over his legs and back,  "Thank Frith we have metal armor or we would have come out of that landing a lot worse off."

                Suddenly, there was a howl of exuberant rage as the cross around Damien's neck flashed and the momentum from the force of light blazing around Damien sent the rabbits attacking him flying far in various directions.  Damien, now with even more bruises and cuts from claw marks and numerous attempts to bite him, was now seething.

                "I'll punish all of you right now, for defying Frith and my will!  And all of you can just watch as I kill Justin and rip him apart before you very eyes!"  Hazel, Blackberry, Dandelion, and Bluebell tried to gather around protectively, but Justin, unafraid made his way through and face Damien, his eyes powerfully calm and registering the prayers he was making silently in his head to God and Jesus.

                "Justin, don't!" Hazel yelled in panic.  Damien just smiled at the pitiful attempt.

                "Finally trying to face me, without a weapon to defend yourself with?!" sneered the cross-bearer in contempt.

                Justin said compellingly, "I don't need a weapon, and I'm never helpless, not as long as I have my heart and my friends."

                Damien rolled his eyes at Justin's nauseating speech.  "Your heart?!  Please, spare me the moral lessons unless you wanna see me hurl!  What good is your heart gonna do, especially since all you have is your pathetic hide, your weak beliefs, and those spineless rabbits whom you are so desperate to look up to since no right-minded human ever would?!!  What good is your 'special' heart gonna do for you?!"

                Justin managed to look at Damien right in the eye as he spoke, looking at his antagonist with pity, as if he truly knew something that Damien would never be able to comprehend in his lifetime.  "My heart is everything to me, since I have my faith, my soul, and my friends, all with me because of it!  Holly helped me see that!  As long as I have Hazel, Fiver, and the rest of the rabbit Owsla from Watership Down, I won't ever be weak!!  Because we care for each other ever since this whole mission began, and to tell you the truth, all of them are more important than all the powers that cross could have ever shown!  You may be unstoppable because of that cross, but I've learned that other things like friendship, loyalty, honor, faith, hope, and love, all of that is true power!  To tell you the truth, I don't even care about being the cross-bearer anymore!!  My friends, both the Watership Owsla and the elil like Sneezewort and Lousewort, are more than anything the necklace could have ever blessed me with!"  With this, Justin's voice became harder as he clenched his fists.  "And you're the one who's weak, Damien!!  The cross isn't the real power, it's only a representation of it!  You don't put your faith in an object!  You put your faith in God and all the blessings He's given you, but your problem is that you're too shortsighted to see that the biggest blessings and power you had wasn't the cross but the Watership rabbits who swore to protect you!!  And as long as I remember that in my heart, I won't ever be weak or pathetic!!"

                Before Damien could offer a malicious and spiteful retort (perhaps even attempt to kill Justin again), the impossible became reality.  The cross around Damien's neck reacted violently, blazing in orange sunlight and sparkling in a passionate fury as it began to fade.  The Adonis was horrified as he vainly tried to grab at the silver chain and crystal trinket.

                "NO!!!" he bellowed with disbelief, but it was too late.  The necklace vanished and to everyone's joy (and Damien's horrified mortification), it reappeared back around Justin's neck, much to Justin's shock and surprise, only to have his face melt away into relieved exhilaration.  There was no question about it.  Justin was now the cross-bearer again.

                Damien was now screaming loudly enough to wake the dead, his voice erratic with disbelief and outrage, "NO!!!  THIS CAN'T BE!!  THIS CAN'T BE!!!  HOW THE HELL COULD I HAVE LOST THE CROSS AND THE POWER OF LIGHT AND FRITH TO...TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU?!!  HOW?!!  IT WAS MINE!!!  IT WAS SUPPOSSED TO BE MINE!!!"

                "Because the cross knows which human was meant to truly be the cross-bearer!" Holly crowed triumphantly, enjoying the look of humiliation on the smug Damien's face.  "It does not take much to see that Justin, our Justin, is the one with the stronger and purer heart!!"

                "And we should have known better," Blackberry murmured quietly as he gave a sheepish look to Justin, not sure if Justin was willing to pardon him for a second time for being incredibly boorish.  Justin just grinned, letting the forgiven Blackberry off the hook.

                "Oh please!  You guys can't get rid of me that easily!"

                "It appears that no matter what, with or without the cross, Justin will always be our gentle, loving cross-bearer," Buckthorn sighed weakly, placing a reassuring paw on Justin's shoulders.

                "Frith and Inle, I guess that means we are forever bound with him!" Bluebell said jovially.

                "My, what a shame!" Hawkbit joked sarcastically from the distance, "And just when I was enjoying getting struck by Damien's powers every tharn moment!"

                "While I hate to break up this sentimental moment, Justin, for Frith's sake, could you please heal us while you're still the cross-bearer?!" Acorn panted with a bit of urgent humor as he, Pipkin, Bigwig, Strawberry, and Campion were all still lying on the floor, heavily wounded from Damien's initial attack.  Damien, however, was still bellowing his wrath like a mindless zombie.

                "THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!!!" screeched Damien, his face flushed and flecks of spit flying out of his frothing, angry mouth, "HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!!  ELIL-RAH PROMISED ME THAT THE SPELL WOULD MAINTAIN THE CROSS INTO MY POWER FOREVERMORE!!!  HOW COULD SUCH A TWERP SUCH AS HIM COULD HAVE NEGATED ELIL-RAH'S POWERS?!!"

                "What was that?!" Buckthorn's ears twitched furiously, "Did that chap say what I think he had just mentioned?!!"

                "So Damien was working with Elil-rah all along!" gasped Fiver.

                "We figured that out earlier," Holly snarled, giving Damien a look of pure contempt, "We ran into Lord Brock in the forest, imprisoned underneath a tree, and we found out that Lord Brock, without any of us chaps mentioning the subject, already knew that Justin was no longer the cross-bearer and that Damien had taken his place!  However, I got suspicious of that!  How could it be possible that Lord Brock knew, without running into any of us ever since that fateful day on the mountain?  The only way he could have known...was that if someone who was plotting with Elil-rah told him, and since it was apparent from scent that there were no other tracks recently made by any elil of members of Elil-rah's dark Owsla, it proved that Damien must have plotted this with the dark beast!  Don't you see?!  This was all a clever ploy by Elil-rah!  Damien had no intention of healing El-ahrairah, and once he had the powers of the cross-bearer, he and Elil-rah would have been unstoppable!  He would have immediately reported back to his dark master like the wretched servant he is!"

                "I knew I had him when I said he was an embleer rat!" snarled Bluebell.

                "I should have known!" growled Silver, now actually willing to give Damien some well-deserved payback.  He certainly would never kill anything, especially in the land beyond the living, yet he was willing to make an exception with Damien, especially since the power-hungry wretch had previously tried to kill Justin.  Sneezewort and Lousewort stepped alongside Silver, the light of the stars glinting off their chain-metal armor and claws and teeth.

                "Let us help you rabbits too, mate!" growled Sneezewort as he stood upright in a fighting stance.

                "Justin is our friend; we shan't leave you rabbits to do the fighting by yourselves!" Lousewort added, his goofy features slightly darkened at the memory of Damien attacking himself, Justin, Sneezewort, and Holly for no apparent reason.  Damien now looked at the rabbits making a vast circle around him.

                "It is finished, Damien!" roared Bigwig.

                "You have lost this one, you bloody rotter!" screamed Strawberry.

                "Is it??" Damien smirked as he began to laugh insanely, his cackles bordering on the line of sadistic and fanatical.  At this, Damien was engulfed with a luster of crimson radiance, making his appearance even more malevolent and wicked in the moonless, night sky, causing the few, dark clouds amongst the stars and the lake to glow slightly pink from the harsh, evil aura.  To their shock and repugnance, Damien laughed in an insane, vacant, and wraithlike as his skin and tissue actually melted.  Like wet paint, rivulets of flesh and skin dripped and fell off to reveal a slightly bloodstained, yet evil-looking old, gray rabbit.  The rabbit was gaunt and thin, almost malnourished, but the rabbits face had a look of pure sedition and filth, his black eyes narrowed and a slight tuft of white fur underneath his chin gave him the look of a crazed, old bearded man.  His sides were heaving as he rasped in a hoarse yet baritone expression, "I will NOT turn back to Elil-rah empty-handed!!  I will kill you, Justin!!  You have pestered me long enough!!"

                "Who...who is that??" Justin gasped.

                "Greenweed!" grimaced Holly as if he tasted something foul and utterly revolting; even dry hraka would have left a better aftertaste than mentioning that old rabbit's name.  Justin then remembered where he heard that name before.  In "Tales From Watership Down", in "The Story of the Comical Field", Greenweed was a underhanded, double-crossing rabbit who lived next to an abandoned human house and a comical field which had a maze consisting of hedges and bushes, and he served under a dark creature that allowed him safety from elil if Greenweed would agree to make friends with rabbits and tempt them into entering the comical field, only to be led to a grisly fate of being lost and then killed by the dark beast as food.  El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle, after pleading their case to save their warren from King Darzin to the Black Rabbit of Inle, were allured into the maze after befriending Greenweed, but luckily, El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle were able to escape out of the maze of the comical field, and after confronting Greenweed, they forced Greenweed to abandon his tricks and servitude to the dark carnivore and left him in an honest rabbit warren.  Or, at least that was the case.

                "Whatever is the matter, Greenweed?!" snarled Acorn in scornful derision, "The other rabbits at the warren finally realized you for the filthy, lazy, slothful rabbit you always were and banished you for being such a duffer?!"

                "Smart words, coming from such insignificant brutes such as yourselves!" Greenweed lashed out, "Now witness the true extent of Elil-rah's glorious command!!"  With that, Greenweed started to glow in a red appearance once again as his fur began to darken and his body began to enlarge, broadening, extending, widening his bony frame with sinewy muscle and might and forceful dynamism, until he was a foot taller than Sneezewort and Lousewort, and quietly radiating with power and strength as the rest of the rabbits, astounded, could see that Greenweed had now transformed into a youthful, brawny version of himself, as if he had plunged into the spring of eternal youth and vim.

                "Justin, freeze him!!" called out Hazel, alarmed, yet there was a scream followed by a muffled thud and a groan, and the rabbits turned around, to their dismayed apprehension, to witness Lord Brock, soiled and encrusted with dirt and grime, towering over them as a little way off, Justin was on his side, unconscious as blood began to trickle out of a deep gash on the side of his head.  Since the lendri was downwind, none of the rabbits were able to sense him by scent, and without Justin awake to use his powers, they were definitely in trouble.

                "Lord Brock?!!" squealed Pipkin, now shaking and quivering at the huge shadow towering over them, "How?!!"

                "That...that is bloody impossible, mates!!" gasped Sneezewort, "That horrible badger was s'pposed to be trapped underneath the oak tree we passed by a while back!!  'Tis impossible!  We heard you say only the cross-bearer could free you from your prison!!  And Justin did no such thing for such a dark bloke like you!!"

                "I daresay I have a very good guess of who was the duffer who had a paw in this perfidy!" growled Dandelion as he glared back at Greenweed, "It was Greenweed!  The treacherous blighter freed Lord Brock from his punishment in case he needed additional help to assassinate Justin!  He did it with the prayer he uttered before he tried to attack Justin and Sneezewort and Lousewort!!"

                "Smart guess, Dandelion" snapped Greenweed, "Quite a shame that you did not realize the truth until it was too late!"  He then glared at Lord Brock.

                "And having you certainly did not help much with matters, you brainless, embleer oaf!!" he griped, "You and your foolishness and lack of caution led to Holly guessing the truth immediately!!  Elil-rah shall not be pleased to hear how you have let slip that vital information!  You are truly fortunate that the old fool was not able to warn the others in time!"

                "Shut up, you!!" barked Lord Brock, "I haven't the time to argue with a conniving, devious wretch such as yourself!  I will keep my part of the bargain!  Keep the rest of those blasted rabbits busy, Greenweed!"  With that, the large badger advanced towards the still form of Justin.

                "GET AWAY FROM HIM!!!" yelled Hazel as he, Buckthorn, Strawberry, Speedwell, Acorn, Silver, Pipkin and Blackberry charged towards the badger while Bluebell made a secret effort to try to reach the cross-bearer and try to drag him away from danger.  However, Lord Brock knew that tactic well.  With a sudden lunge, he managed to brush past the other rabbits and gave Bluebell such a hard clout, Bluebell's neck broke upon contact and the rabbit lay twitching on the grass in a bloody mess.  With one paw, he roughly picked up the body of Justin and with his other, he clawed at all the rabbits as they advanced and attempted to attack him, injuring many at once.  However, this gave Sneezewort and Lousewort the advantage to assail the large badger, and hidden by Lord Brock's blind spot, both armored weasels strategically attacked, literally climbing on the badger's hide as they tried to reach for the badger's face, hoping that they could blind him.  Lord Brock howled in pain as Sneezewort sunk his metal claws and teeth into the badger's fur, drawing forth steady fountains of blood, and with mad ire and a swipe of his paw, Lord Brock managed to pry Sneezewort off his arm, leaving the fallen weasel sprawled onto the grass next to Bluebell.  Furiously and mercilessly, the badger managed to grab Lousewort with his teeth and tried to bite the weasel in two.  The pressure caused Lousewort to scream, but then, miraculously, the chain-metal armor the weasel was wearing snapped and painfully embedded itself into Lord Brock's gum, hooking and gouging itself into the pink, fleshy tissue and the tongue, and enraged, Lord Brock dropped Justin as he vainly tried to pick the metal out of his mouth.  Luckily, Lousewort was able to wriggle himself out of the ruined armor before he could get stuck and fell back down to the ground below after a long fall.  Shakily, he tried to stand up and grab Justin, but with unexpectedly, Lord Brock saw him, and with a fierce cuff, he sent the white weasel flying away, though not as brutally as Sneezewort.

                Meanwhile, the battle was not faring much better with the other against Greenweed, who was standing on his hind legs.  Holly, who was still injured, could not directly assault the rabbit and just helplessly held his bruised side and watched Dandelion, Campion, Bigwig, Fiver, and Hawkbit tackle and head-butt Greenweed.  Yet it appeared they were not doing well.

                "What in the name of Frith?!" cried out Campion as he was already scrabbling onto Greenweed's back and attempted to bite him, only to have his teeth painfully jar as if he had tried to bite metal, "I can't sink my teeth into him!!  His fur is impenetrable!!"

                "And I cannot scratch him!  My claws aren't doing any damage!!" wailed Fiver as he was upon Greenweed's shoulder, helplessly seeing his claws were now chipped and broken from striking.  Wordlessly, Greenweed grabbed Fiver by the hind leg and Campion by the throat before slamming them together painfully and then tossing their unconscious bodies directly into Dandelion and Hawkbit, the impact leaving them stunned and reeling.  Bigwig, with a snarl, pounced on him, yet Greenweed was undaunted as he managed to catch Bigwig by the scruff of the neck and started choking the brawny rabbit with both paws.  Bigwig squealed as his airway tightened and, to no avail, he tried to cuff and scratch Greenweed's hide, trying to force the rabbit into releasing him, but Greenweed sneered.

                "You fool!" he hissed, "Did you not guess?  This is my gift from Elil-rah so that I could defeat you, you and your precious cross-bearer!!  I am invincible underneath this rock-armor for he gave me the power to transform into a golem, a living and breathing creature made of rock and the hardest stone!!  No matter how much you try to attack me, not even your strongest rabbit in El-ahrairah's warren can damage the hard covering protecting my body from your attacks!!  Of course, it is irreversible, but all the more reason to celebrate my victory over you miserable lot!!  No longer am I Greenweed, the old, frail rabbit in legends told, but Greenweed, the impenetrable and unstoppable rabbit servant of Elil-rah and the true mercenary who managed to kill your precious cross-bearer!!"  With a final twist, Greenweed broke Bigwig's neck and left the brawny rabbit there to lie still on the grass, rasping and in unbearable pain, blood seeping out of his mouth.  Holly felt at loss; he was next, and if five rabbits could not stop Greenweed, then he would not certainly have a chance.  Desperate, Holly closed his eyes and prayed as he erratically stood on his hind legs.

                Justin, please, El-ahrairah, Frith, please, help me!!  I cannot win this without aid, and I have no idea what to do!!  Please, Frith and El-ahrairah!!  You sent Justin so that I could protect and care for him!!  You showed Justin would always be the cross-bearer and our friend!!  Please!!  I must win this war, for Justin's sake!!  Give me power, an idea, a strategy, anything to help me win!!  I can't let Justin and my family be finished like this!!  El-ahrairah, you always said that it is one's heart that makes the difference in battle, so please give me strength!!  Help me use the power and strength in my heart!!!

                Phenomenally, the instant Holly thought this prayer, as Lord Brock gingerly picked up the unconscious form of Justin, ready to kill the teenager, the golden cross began to glow softly, radiating with the strength and purity of Captain Holly's heart.

                Holly closed his eyes as he felt the soothing warmth of the sunlight from Justin transfer into his own body at the remembrance of those memories, the pains of his wounds erasing from the wonderful, exhilarating sensations inundating him in an instant.  Greenweed was undaunted, though slightly confused, at the appearance of Captain Holly glimmering in white and gold for a brief moment, before the halos submerged and Holly was left unaffected, breathing heavily but staring at Greenweed with an undefeated, grim, and courageous expression in his whiskered face.  Compared to Greenweed, Holly now appeared to be the exemplar of true eternal youth and vigor, a blessing to all of El-ahrairah's children in the land beyond life.  And if Greenweed had looked closer, he would have noticed that Holly's paws, especially his ebony-colored claws, were shimmering with a faint outline of orange and golden sunlight.  Greenweed began to stomp towards Holly, fearless, standing upright on his hind legs, his petrified armor sending heavy vibrations through the grass and dirt, all the meanwhile yelling a command at Lord Brock who was in the far off distance, away from Holly and himself, "Brock, kill the boy now!!!"

                "I am not your servant, you wretch!" the badger growled, but he leaned his snout closer towards the limp form of Justin in his left paw, his jaws advancing closer and closer to rip and break the cross-bearer's unconscious body into pulp.  Immediately, Holly's paw flicked out in an instant towards Lord Brock's face.  Greenweed was confused; the rabbit was appearing to only hit thin air and not even the fastest rabbit runner in the entire land beyond life could reach Lord Brock in time.  Yet a howl of pain from the large badger indicated otherwise.  To Greenweed's dismayed anger, somehow, Lord Brock had a series of three, long, parallel gashes running horizontally across his face and eyes, and they appeared to be the work of a rabbit's claws.  He now dropped the limp body of Justin as he busied himself with pain.

                The frenzied, elderly evil antagonist squealed again, temporarily forgetting to take the time to wonder how such a feat could have even occurred, "What are you doing, you fool?!  Kill the cross-bearer now before you have lost the chance!!"

                "Be quiet, you cowardly, shriveled old blackguard!!" bellowed Lord Brock impatiently and with maddening irritation and being unexpectedly injured as he raised his paw, ready to squash the adolescent into a bloody pool, yet Holly furiously flicked his paw behind him again.  In a spilt second, the badger's paw exploded in a messy, gruesome discharge of fur, skin, and soft tissue, rent to pieces; Lord Brock once more hollered with suffering, as he now clutched his injured, throbbing paw to his chest, the white bone sticking out of the hacked flesh as strong trickles of blood began to stain the badger's white-furred belly.  Before Greenweed could stop him, Holly flung his other paw in the huge eli's direction, and shrieking, the badger flew backwards by several feet before landing onto his back, his soft stomach now cluttered with deep gashes and jagged cuts.  Too busy with pain, the huge badger curled into a fetal position as he cried hot tears of misery and torment.  And all this had been done in a matter of seconds...and without Holly even physically touching the huge badger, who towered over the Owsla captain by many-fold.  Greenweed was confounded, but Holly did not waste a single moment of safety.

                "Lousewort!  Hurry!!"  With a mad dash, the armored weasel managed to skid over to Justin's unconscious form, picked up the teenager like a baby in the cradle of his arms, and swiftly carried the teenager away from danger, where he collapsed in a nervous heap next to Sneezewort.  Sneezewort checked Justin worriedly, but was relieved to find that Justin was bruised and hurt, but was still breathing and had no broken bones, miraculously.  Holly then turned to Greenweed who was furious beyond comprehension, his body quivering with searing rage underneath his stone skin as the bulky rabbit advanced towards Captain Holly, intent to breaking every single bone in his body until the rabbit was no more than a recognizable pulp for hindering his plans.  Sneezewort, thought terribly injured, worse than his chum Lousewort, managed to stand upright, holding his bleeding left side with one metal paw.

                "Holly!!" the weasel hollered, "Let me help you!!  I can still fight!!"

                Holly, however, was adamant as he answered back, growling as he stared down at Greenweed, "NO!!  JUST WATCH OVER JUSTIN AND THE REST OF THE BUCKOS ALONG WITH HAZEL!!!  THIS IS MY FIGHT!!"

                "You miserable, troublemaking, ancient, weak pest!!  You have been in my way for the last time!!  I'll rip you to pieces!!" snarled Greenweed as he progressed closer and closer to Holly.  Holly just looked at him coolly.

                "Hraka, embleer wretch!" he sniped as he flung a glowing paw at Greenweed.  Greenweed smirked as he barely felt the magical blow, a few faint scrapes made in the gray cast, causing a few tiny chips to fly out but no serious damage nevertheless.  The rabbit servant of Elil-rah crowed as Holly flicked his paws at his rival several times again in quick succession, only to have his swipes of his rending attacks bounce off harmlessly from Greenweed's chest, torso, and head.  Holly, seeing it was pointless to continue, felt his mind race furiously as the armored antagonist charged after him, yet then Holly noticed that behind him, the dark lake was shimmering against the light of the stars, the dim outline of the shores and surrounding trees barely visible as the deep, black water threatened to swallow up everything underneath the night sky.  Holly then felt inspiration hit him, and feeling some extra help would be needed, he nodded ever so slightly towards Lousewort and Sneezewort, hoping that they understood.

                Bracing himself with years of Owsla expertise, Holly ducked the cuff that would have likely cracked his skull and with a flying leap, Holly dodged the second cuff that hit the spot Holly was squatting on a moment ago, the ground erupting with a small burst of sod, dirt, and grass.  With a little difficulty, Greenweed managed to extract his stuck paw from the dirt and saw that Holly was running away towards the lake, all the meanwhile throwing insults.

                "By Frith, are you that slow, Greenweed?!  Did you live so long next to the comical field that your dark master did not even bother teaching you how to fight?!  By the fur and tail of El-ahrairah, no wonder our Prince was able to find his way out of the comical field and subdue you for your treachery so easily!  You are truly helpless without Elil-rah's power!!"

                Greenweed was not fooled; he knew that Holly was trying to distract him from exterminating Justin so he turned back his attention to the human adolescent.  Yet, unfortunately, he turned back too late as the bodies of Sneezewort and Lousewort flung at him, scratching at his face madly.  Greenweed screamed as he clutched his face painfully, now full of hot, red, deep gashes from the metal-encased claws of the weasels.  Since they were harder than rock, they did far more damage than Greenweed anticipated.  Yet it was still unfinished.  Without giving Greenweed a chance to recover, using his chain-armor as protective padding, Sneezewort rammed his upper body directly into Greenweed's hard chest, sending him flying for a few feet before he landed on his back, breathless and his ribcage pounding painfully from the brute strength of Sneezewort, who was far more powerful than a solitary rabbit.  Seizing his opportunity, Lousewort, with a laborious grunt, managed to heave the heavy golem over his head and with a roar of exertion, the white, hefty weasel flung the stone Greenweed towards the lake, yet Holly, with sinking insight, grasped that it was too short.  Greenweed, though at the edge of a precipice, which was precariously overlooking a deep section of the murky water, was still safely on land, though oblivious to what Holly, Sneezewort, and Lousewort were trying to achieve.  Though a bit lightheaded and dizzy, the enemy managed to brag, "You have not defeated me yet, you pathetic weaklings!!!"

                Holly then managed to combine his power to rend, rip, scratch and shred objects to pieces at will with inspiration.  With all the strength he could muster, he aimed his power directly at the ground, and the dirt beneath Greenweed's paws crumbled, swallowing the golem's hind legs and embedding them deep into the soil, and the addition of Greenweed's heavy stone body made it all the more difficult for the wretch to extract them out easily.  Distracted, Greenweed tried to yank his paws free, and this was the moment Holly was waiting for.

                  "NOW!!!" he yelled and with a lunge, Holly, Sneezewort, and Lousewort charged together, a powerful, massive force of strategic teamwork and combined effort as they all rammed into Greenweed at once with all of their might.  WHOMP!  With a scream, Greenweed went sailing into the very middle of the lake where he collided into the cold, gloomy water with a colossal splash.  Exhausted, yet wary, all three of the animals climbed to the very tip of the cliff and watched the scene below.  It was very apparent that Greenweed was frantically trying to stay afloat as he thrashed, bucked, and screamed, churning the water into a froth while futilely trying to swim.  Unfortunately, with horror, he realized he was being dragged deeper and deeper into the infinite fathoms of the lake despite his best efforts.

                "What...is...hap-...-penning?!!" the rabbit managed to sputter and choke out audibly.

                Holly said in a tired yet triumphant voice, "A fatal flaw, Greenweed.  One that you had forgotten to foresee!"

                Lousewort added in a satisfied voice, "Your stone armor may protect you from attacks and make you invulnerable..."

                Sneezewort finished for him, "...yet like all rock, once in water, it weighs down and sinks to the bottom!  You forgot that stone does not float, you wretch!"

                "No!  NOO!  NOOOOOO -!!!" Greenweed managed to scream with disbelief before the dark water took him, silencing the enemy and leaving only a messy trail of air bubbles rising at the surface.  Yet, hypnotized, Holly, Sneezewort, and Lousewort did not turn away as they slowly watched the stream of air bubbles lessen and lessen until they halted completely.  Greenweed had run out of air, and still alive and conscious, he would continue to sink deeper and deeper into the hellish darkness, devoid of light and warmth of any kind before he would reach the very foot of the lake.  Unfortunately for Greenweed, the lake was bottomless.

                                                                                ***

                "Are you sure you are all right, mate?" Lousewort asked Justin weakly as he cradled the boy in his furry arms.  Justin managed to nod; he had regained consciousness after Holly and Sneezewort and Lousewort managed to bathe his face with their tongues.  Without further ado, the adolescent gently held his cross and whispered a single command.

                "Heal."

                With a great flash of light, all the Watership Down Owsla, including Holly, and the two weasels were completely energized, mended, and full of life and ease, no longer unconscious from the brutal wounds that they had received.  Unfortunately, this also included Lord Brock.  He managed to rise, yet Holly immediately dashed in front of the badger's face, holding up a paw and growling menacingly.

                "I still have the rending powers Justin blessed me with his cross," Holly rumbled loudly, "I can still tear you to pieces without laying a single paw on your body, lendri!!"  Lord Brock flinched, but did not move.

                "I am giving you a chance.  Leave now, and never come back!  Never return to seek vengeance on Justin again, or else I will not show you any mercy!"  With a poisonous glare, Lord Brock tore into the woods, clearly terrified of Holly's threat, retreating as fast as he could run.  It was evident, as the rabbits watched him disappear into the distance, that he would never, ever bother Justin and the Watership rabbits ever again.  Holly sighed, relieved.  He really did not wish to engage into another confrontation, yet the rabbits started to titter madly with praise.

                "Holly, old chap!  That was amazing!" marveled Bigwig, his eyes wide with relieved admiration for his friend and fellow Owsla captain.

                "You did it!  You actually did it!!  O Frith and Inle, you won!!" cheered Dandelion as he playfully stamped his happy giddiness onto the ground.

                "By the fur and paw, what a remarkable display of power and cunning!" gasped Bluebell.

                "You are a true example of a leader, Holly-rah!" praised Strawberry, playfully tackling the old captain on his back.

                "Well done, bucko!  Well done!!" laughed Silver, "By Frith and El-ahrairah, you received such great blessings of power!"

                "'Pelil éan, atha néan'," quoted Justin, grinning.  Holly cast him a fond glance as he lowered his head so that his eyes were level with the cross-bearer's.

                "And I could not have been able to do it without you, young one," Holly whispered affectionately to the teenager, his red eyes twinkling, as he brought his nose to Justin's.

                "Ye' got that right, mate!" cheered Lousewort as he hugged Justin fiercely from behind, relieved that both of his newfound friends have made it out safe and that he and Sneezewort had actually participated in keeping Justin, the famous cross-bearer, safe.  Sneezewort soon followed suit, chuckling as he embraced Lousewort, Justin and Holly altogether with his wide open arms, "Even without the cross, you'll always be our mate, true and good, and the only cross-bearer in our eyes."

                Justin didn't mind as he smiled and let the old rabbit and the two weasels softly get close, nuzzling his face; he was starting to get used to the Lapine culture.  Yet, as the Watership rabbits rejoiced in Justin and Holly's victory, Hazel, from a distance, heard all of the praise and commendation with a heavy heart and soul.  Rigid and stunned, Hazel could only just mournfully listen to his rabbits conveniently ignored him as they focused on Holly's bravery and resourcefulness, feeling the pangs of self-doubt, disgust, and blame eat away at his faith and confidence.

                "What do you know about loyalty?" Strawberry accused, his glare of hostile ice penetrating Hazel's assurance.

                "By Frith and Inle, not even El-ahrairah would do such an deed!!  I do not even know why I even look up to you as a Chief Rabbit, you...you rotter!!" snarled Hawkbit in tearful repugnance, his tone of voice harsher than normal.

                "Hmph, you're like a dog, only more pathetic!  I'm surprised that El-ahrairah allowed to let such a belittling, submissive rabbit as yourself into his esteemed Owsla!  It's the sorriest sight I've ever seen!" sneered Greenweed, still disguised as Damien.

                "You do not need to ask; you three know where I stand in all of this.  I'm sorry, Hazel," Fiver whispered sadly as his looked at his brother with a stinging look of pity and faithless tolerance.

                Fiver, who was joyously celebrating alongside Silver and Hawkbit, felt a sudden chill in his backbone, alerting him of something wrong.  He turned around to see Hazel edging himself away from the group and disappearing into the ferns and bushes, covered by the dark shadows as twilight draped across the sky.

                "Hazel??" Fiver asked worriedly, and his brother, the past Chief Rabbit of Watership Down, turned to Fiver at the sound of his name.  Fiver nearly gasped.  Hazel's face was sad and miserable beyond words, his features aged, worn, and drained, erasing the former aspects of light, coolness, reliance, and benevolence.  Yet what was most disturbing was his eyes; they were no longer light brown and sparkling under the light, but instead, were dim, hollow, emotionless, and no light was reflected off the black pupils, but instead, Hazel's eyes seemed completely engulfed with an obscure shadow centered from his soul.

                "Hrairoo, please...I...I need some time alone.  Holly...can handle and take care of everything...without me for now," Hazel choked in a glum, miserable voice, nearly disembodied, and without another pause, the rabbit disappeared within the thicket.  Fiver shivered from the cold, distant aura Hazel, his brother, left behind.

                "Hazel," Fiver murmured apprehensively.

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Author's note: The quote "Pelil éan, atha néan" is a Lapine quote I read from fellow fan fiction WD writer Loganberry's site.  What does it mean?  Go to Loganberry's Bits n' Bobstones link in his profile (or search on the web) in order to find out! =:)

Next: HAZEL-RAH in "Hazel-rah and the Black Rabbit of Inle"

This chapter will be up within a WEEK!  That's right, you heard me!  Within a week!  Now that summer is here, I can devote more time writing!

Liked this chapter?  I hope so!  Got something to say?  Got something to suggest?  Constructive criticism you would like to offer?  Push the "Review" button!  All reviews and constructive criticism are welcome!  R/R please! =:)

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