Chapter 5: Floxwood Warren
At first, Brindle could not even see the burrow entrance. It was not until Stalwart indicated to them to follow him, that Brindle noticed it. On closer inspection, it looked as though it had been dug rather hurriedly. It wasn't quite a circular hole. The top left side had been dug to far out wards, giving t a rather stretched looked. The hole itself was situated in an embankment, covered in long grass, and soggy, dead leaves were trapped in it, a like a fly in a spiders web. Gnarled trees sat on top of the embankment, and they creaked and swayed in the wind. The ground below Brindles feet was dry and cracked, telling Brindle that they were well sheltered from the rain. They had to mind the stray branches of bramble and bindweed that were trailed along the ground. A couple of dead daffodils still remained, their skeletons hidden in the shadows that the trees cast. The hole was well covered by a single thistle that stuck out sharply, ready to scratch anyone that it could. To Brindle, it looked as though it was eager to scratch him, personally. He looked across at Rian, who also looked worried at the prospect of going near it. As they got nearer, the earth dipped slightly, as though a ditch had once been there, but had been filled in long ago.
Stalwart paused at the entrance. 'You have to be careful here,' he said warningly, ' this thistle is dangerous if you don't know how to get passed it. We've been meaning to remove it for ages, but the thistles are so long, we can't reach the stem to bit in two'. He gestured for them to watch him closely. 'This is how you do it' he said, and demonstrated. He moved his front paws in first and pulled his right side of his tummy to the far right of the hole, and then dragged his back feet in after him.
'I'm not going through that!' said Blethlin
'Afraid of the ickle thistles?' mocked Corla. 'Shame, you'd look better with some scratches on you'.
'Perhaps' said Miriple-rah, rather more loudly, so as to stop an argument, 'we should guide the newcomers through first. You first Brindle. Stalwart will instruct you once more'.
Brindle looked nervously at the thistle, but with Stalwarts help, he was soon on the other side. Rian followed, everyone participating to coax him through (Blethlin bit him on the tail). As he came through, he dragged the scratches on his right hind leg in the dirt. Blethlin followed, then Duffel (who made a noise that we could interpret as a giggle, as he got scratched on the nose), then Miriple-rah and Corla.
Brindle was now able to see a little way down the run. It went down a long way, ending in a fork. There were two passages to take. Duffel saw him looking and said 'we have two sections to our warren. One, the one on the left, is for visitors only. They must stay there for a least a day. Rabbits will go there to talk to you, until you know them. You will go there first, but as you know us, you might not be there long. The one on the right leads to the main section and the burrows'.
Corla continued with 'the visitors burrow is the same as the main section, just smaller'.
They were indeed led down the passage to the left. Brindle felt slightly uneasy about this warren. What was the point of a visitors burrow? Why not just go straight in like any normal warren? Corla seemed to read his mind. 'It's the attacks,' she said, 'we want to be extra careful about who we let in. They could be another attacker. Usually I interview them, but I doubt I will need to do that with you, since I already know why you are here'.
They followed Stalwart down the run, and they came out into what looked like a mini version, yet slightly rough around the edges, Honeycomb. There were no tree roots above, but the earth was cracked and dry. There were all sorts of little runs leading off it. 'They are the burrows' said Duffel, simply.
'Aren't they great?' Brindle had no time to reply.
'We'd best leave you to have a rest' said Miriple-rah. 'No doubt you have had a long journey. What we shall do later is to bring the rest of the warren in here, to meet you, and we shall have a meeting to discuss the events that have just happened'. She ended on rather a sad note. 'Come on, Miriple-rah' said Corla. She led the way out of the burrow, followed by Miriple-rah, Stalwart and Duffel, who whispered 'See you later'.
The mini burrows were only meant for one rabbit, so they had one each. Blethlin fell asleep after a lot of complaints about the space in her burrow. But Brindle lay wide-awake. He was thinking. Evidently, the warren was pretty small, to fit in the mini "Honeycomb". Had there been a great many attacks? What would the meeting be like? Would they like him? From the trembling noises that came from the next burrow, he knew Rian was thinking exactly the same thing. And he was right. Rian was terrified of being gawped at by six rabbits, let alone a whole warren. Trying to block those noises out, Brindle finally fell asleep.
It was not a great sleep. The burrow was uncomfortable, and Brindle kept dreaming of dead bodies, and waking up in a sweat. Every time he woke, he heard Blethlins snorts and Rians worried mutterings of " No, they wouldn't do that! Would they?"
He was glad when he was woken up by Duffel entering the visitor's burrow. Brindle shook some fallen dirt off his fur, and went out to meet him. 'Oh, you're up!' he practically shouted, to wake the others. Seconds later, Blethlin cursed and Rian squeaked. Brindle looked tired, Blethlin looked shattered, but no one looked as exhausted as Rian. He had no closed his eyes once that night, worried about the next day. The wake up call had made him jump; telling him the moment had come. He was relieved to see it was Duffel. 'Oh it's you!' said Rian. 'But who are they?'
Brindle turned to see who Rian was looking at. A doe and a kitten had appeared at the entrance. Duffel went up to them. 'This is my family. My doe Nutta, and our kitten Laurel'
'Greetings' said Nutta, smiling at the other three. Laurel just giggled. If Duffel had told him about the kitten at the time, Brindle would have bet it would not have been normal, with Duffel as a father. However, the laugh was not a crazy one, to Brindles relief. 'These are the three I told you about earlier' said Duffel. The other two just stayed still. 'Goodnight?' asked Duffel, inquiringly.
'It was good' Brindle lied.
'The best' said Blethlin. 'I slept like a log!' Pity she wasn't as quiet as one, thought Brindle. 'I dreamt that a sheep gave birth to me last night' Duffel blurted out. Blethlin snorted. 'What did you dream about?' he asked Brindle.
'Oh, I don't remember' he replied.
'I dreamt I was silflaying in a meadow' said Blethlin.
'That's odd. Really?' asked Duffel, apparently forgetting what he had dreamt about. Rian said nothing. Laurel piped up 'marli always said that these burrows were horribly uncomfortable. She says dreams are nicer than the ugly life we have here. But I don't agree with that'
'What do you think?' asked Brindle kindly.
'I think life isn't ugly at all. It's beautiful. The way things like flowers grow up to the sun, to Lord Frith high in the sky is wonderful to think about. Dreams are silly. They are deceptive and can turn out either bad or good. You have little control once in a deep sleep. But you can control the events and consequences in real life. It does not do well to depend on dreams, and forget to live in the real world'. Laurel fell silent once more. Brindle saw that he couldn't be more than three months old. He liked the little fellow. Nutta looked a little abashed at having being contradicted, but Brindle smiled at her. She smiled back. Duffel leaned towards him and whispered in his ears. 'I must say,' he said quietly, 'They aren't quite as on the ball as I am, but they are lovely! We love to hear Laurel jabbering his nonsense at us! Nutta says little, but I like her all the same'
They stopped talking at this point, because they heard the sound of rabbits moving towards them. It sounded like some sort of army or patrol, echoing down the long burrows. The chatter that followed made it seem rather spooky. The first three to enter the burrow were Corla, Stalwart and Miriple-rah. The three made their way to the back of the large "Honeycomb", and requested that Brindle, Blethlin and Rian should stand to the left of them. They did so, Rian whimpering. A great cloud of rabbits swarmed into the burrow from then on. They were all of different shapes and sizes. Some small, some tall. But most were very serious looking, and everyone looked very stressed, apart from Duffel, Nutta and Laurel. The rabbits began to form rows, which were divided into male and female sections. Duffel and Laurel positioned themselves in the middle of the very front row. Brindle caught Duffels eye, which mouthed 'Good luck!' But then his sight fell behind him to another buck. He looked very old, had grey hair, yellow teeth and had a very surly look on his face. He glared at everyone, including Miriple-rah. Brindle also noticed another buck hesitating in the burrow entrance. He was small, with a ratty shaped face, and strange black rims around his eyes, and teeth that stood out rather oddly, as though too big for the mouth. The burrow was now crammed with these rabbits, who looked at Brindle, Blethlin and Rian strangely, as though not sure whether to be suspicious or not. As Brindles eyes searched, he saw that Laurel was the only kitten present. Perhaps there were no other kittens? However, he no time to contemplate on this fact, because the buzzing of voice died down, and fell silent. The burrow had begun to heat up rapidly, with so many bodies present. The cracks on the ceiling would not benefit from the heat.
'Now,' began Miriple-rah, 'I'm sure we all know by now why we have been called here. But for those who don't, I shall explain. You ALL know that my son, Oakla, disappeared not long ago'. She heaved a sigh at this point, as though struggling with the emotions. 'On our search for him, we found three rabbits. These three' she added, gesturing to Brindle, Blethlin and Rian (who kept his head down). 'They are Brindle, Blethlin and Rian. Now Rian seems the most important to mention at this point. We found him unconscious next to the body of my son'. She allowed a pause for the audience to gasp. 'However on waking, he told us what he had seen. Perhaps you should tell everyone Rian' Rian panicked at the mention of this. But everyone was looking at him. He very well couldn't refuse the chief of the warren. He timidly stepped forward. He flinched at the sight of everyone's gazes upon him. As usually, his speech was hindered by a stutter.
He finished saying 'something black emerged from the bushes. That's all I remember'. The crowd gasped once more, but not so sympathetically. Some gave Rian scathing looks. 'Why had you not mentioned this before?' asked Stalwart. Corla gave Rian a dark look. 'I didn't think it would be much help' Rian replied.
'Or he's got something to hide!' yelled one of the crowd.
'Here, here' said a few of them in return.
'I swear I don't-' said Rian, but someone cut across him.
'If I may say something, Miriple-rah,' said the goofy rabbit at the back, 'Rian and the rest of his friends may just have been in the wrong place and wrong time' He paused, considering. 'However, its very suspicious. There is no one to back up his story. Who is there to say that Rian killed Oakla, and knocked himself out?' Members of the crowd nodded. Rian kept his head down. In defence of his friend, Brindle spoke up. 'We know Rian, and we know the kind of things he is capable of!'
'Well of course, you'd stick up for him!' came an answer.
'Don't talk to Brindle like that!' shouted Blethlin.
'We can talk suspects how we like!' shouted back the rabbit with the strange eye markings. 'MURDERER! MURDERER! MURDERER!' he began to chant. Some of members of the crowd followed his lead. Everyone except Duffel, Laurel, Nutta, the old rabbit and the six at the front joined in. Miriple-rah desperately tried to calm everyone down. Rabbits were standing up now, shouting at Rian. ('Fight! Fight! Fight!' chanted Duffel). To them, he was the one to blame, and not the other two. They had not been there. Brindle distinctly heard one of them say 'Zayn sisi il yao i laynt dayn, hristhay! On lay nahl bral mi ulé roo!*'. That made Brindle angry, and he began to shout back. 'SILENCE!' shouted Corla, glaring at the crowd.
'Er-thank you Corla, just calm down now……..' said Miriple-rah, to everyone.
Eventually, they began to settle down once more. 'I don't not believe that any of these three had anything to do with these attacks. The body was so-' she took a sharpe intake of breath, and burst into tears a second a later. She hurried out the burrow as quickly as she could. All the rabbits stared at she went passed.
Stalwart took over. He spoke loudly to drown out the rabbits chatter. Rian was still centre of attention, Brindle and Blethlin waited patiently to the left. 'As Miriple-rah nearly stated, the body was in such a condition that we see no rabbit, hombil, man or dog is responsible' But no one listened to him. They only listened to themselves and the chief. 'We want them to go!' said one.
'You will be waiting along time. None of them leaves unless the chief says so'. There was an instant uproar at this point. During which most of the rabbits left in disgust. 'The meeting has ended. You may go!' said Corla.
When the crowd had left, muttering to themselves, Duffel and his family came over to Brindle and Blethlin. 'Wasn't that great?' he said cheerily, though perhaps not as loudly as he would normally. 'Excuse me, not feeling great,' he said, 'but it'll pass. That meeting could have been much worse'.
'Excuse me….' said Rian quietly, pushing passed and going into his burrow, looking incredibly depressed. Brindle had no idea what to say. Even Blethlin had no unkind word. She turned to Nutta and tried to make conversation. 'So how come you don't speak?'. The other doe laughed.
' I do actually. Its just a matter of getting words in when you are in Duffels company'.
'Parli talks a lot,' said Laurel brightly, 'He gets very over excited. Will you come and play with me? Can she play with me marli?'
'Of course' Blethlin was rather taken aback by being asked this by a kitten. She'd never done it before. She nearly said no, but then remembered the time when no one wanted to play with her when she was little. It had happened often. 'I'd love to' she said.
'Come on then' said Laurel, leading her up the run. 'I can show you the woods oldest trees'. They disappeared.
Nutta went over to where Brindle and Duffel were in conversation. 'I'm going back to the burrow' she said.
'I'll come too' said Duffel. 'Where's Laurel?'
'Playing with Blethlin'
'That's all right then. He'll come back to our burrow when they are done. See you later Brindle!' he called. Just as they left, Stalwart came back in.
'I came to warn you,' he said cautiously, 'to not go out of this burrow tonight without proper supervision. None of you are liked at the moment'
'But Blethlins gone out with Laurel' said Brindle in a panic.
'Oh Blethlin will be all right. It's Rian I'm worried about…'
From inside his burrow, Rian heard everything going on. He made it clear to himself that he will he not leave the burrow without Brindle. He was worrying over this when a buck entered. It was the old buck that Brindle had spotted. 'Hello,' he said in a gruff voice, 'I am Thorn. I'd just like to say- I believe you' Rian was stunned. No one had actually said they believed him, in words. 'Thank you' he said. Inexplicably, the rabbits talked to each other. It turned out that Thorn was somewhat of a recluse as well. They talked for ages.
Brindle was so worried about him; he went to see whom he was talking too, just as both emerged. 'I've made a friend' said Rian, as though producing work he'd done at playschool to his marli. 'That's great', said Brindle, delightedly.
'He says he'll take me a tour of the burrow' Rian continued. Brindle nearly said "no", but then thought that Thorn would look after him. 'Go on then,' he said, 'I'll wait for you here'. The two disappeared talking, animatedly.
Brindle was now alone in the burrow. But he had yet to REALLY experience what the warren was like. He knew as soon as Rian came back.
Hours later, and Rian had not returned. It was only a small burrow. Brindle had been wandering why Rian was taking so long, when he entered the burrow. 'RIAN!' he exclaimed, and he had good reason too. Rian was covered in blood from his nose. One of his ears had been completely shreded. He breathed like he was having a panic attack, and he shook violently. The back of his neck was covered in scratch marks and bites and small patches of fur were missing. Brindle ran forward to comfort his best friend. He looked smaller than ever, and he found it hard to breath through all his tears. 'Attacked' was the only word Brindle could make out, before Rian collapsed completely on to the floor. 'Please-take-home!' he choked through his tears. He clawed at Brindle desperately. 'TAKE--HOME! TAKE--HOME! TAKE ME HOME! PLEASE!'
*Literally means, " Go again to where you came from, worm! We believe you even little!"
('Go back to where you came from, worm! We don't believe you one bit!')
At first, Brindle could not even see the burrow entrance. It was not until Stalwart indicated to them to follow him, that Brindle noticed it. On closer inspection, it looked as though it had been dug rather hurriedly. It wasn't quite a circular hole. The top left side had been dug to far out wards, giving t a rather stretched looked. The hole itself was situated in an embankment, covered in long grass, and soggy, dead leaves were trapped in it, a like a fly in a spiders web. Gnarled trees sat on top of the embankment, and they creaked and swayed in the wind. The ground below Brindles feet was dry and cracked, telling Brindle that they were well sheltered from the rain. They had to mind the stray branches of bramble and bindweed that were trailed along the ground. A couple of dead daffodils still remained, their skeletons hidden in the shadows that the trees cast. The hole was well covered by a single thistle that stuck out sharply, ready to scratch anyone that it could. To Brindle, it looked as though it was eager to scratch him, personally. He looked across at Rian, who also looked worried at the prospect of going near it. As they got nearer, the earth dipped slightly, as though a ditch had once been there, but had been filled in long ago.
Stalwart paused at the entrance. 'You have to be careful here,' he said warningly, ' this thistle is dangerous if you don't know how to get passed it. We've been meaning to remove it for ages, but the thistles are so long, we can't reach the stem to bit in two'. He gestured for them to watch him closely. 'This is how you do it' he said, and demonstrated. He moved his front paws in first and pulled his right side of his tummy to the far right of the hole, and then dragged his back feet in after him.
'I'm not going through that!' said Blethlin
'Afraid of the ickle thistles?' mocked Corla. 'Shame, you'd look better with some scratches on you'.
'Perhaps' said Miriple-rah, rather more loudly, so as to stop an argument, 'we should guide the newcomers through first. You first Brindle. Stalwart will instruct you once more'.
Brindle looked nervously at the thistle, but with Stalwarts help, he was soon on the other side. Rian followed, everyone participating to coax him through (Blethlin bit him on the tail). As he came through, he dragged the scratches on his right hind leg in the dirt. Blethlin followed, then Duffel (who made a noise that we could interpret as a giggle, as he got scratched on the nose), then Miriple-rah and Corla.
Brindle was now able to see a little way down the run. It went down a long way, ending in a fork. There were two passages to take. Duffel saw him looking and said 'we have two sections to our warren. One, the one on the left, is for visitors only. They must stay there for a least a day. Rabbits will go there to talk to you, until you know them. You will go there first, but as you know us, you might not be there long. The one on the right leads to the main section and the burrows'.
Corla continued with 'the visitors burrow is the same as the main section, just smaller'.
They were indeed led down the passage to the left. Brindle felt slightly uneasy about this warren. What was the point of a visitors burrow? Why not just go straight in like any normal warren? Corla seemed to read his mind. 'It's the attacks,' she said, 'we want to be extra careful about who we let in. They could be another attacker. Usually I interview them, but I doubt I will need to do that with you, since I already know why you are here'.
They followed Stalwart down the run, and they came out into what looked like a mini version, yet slightly rough around the edges, Honeycomb. There were no tree roots above, but the earth was cracked and dry. There were all sorts of little runs leading off it. 'They are the burrows' said Duffel, simply.
'Aren't they great?' Brindle had no time to reply.
'We'd best leave you to have a rest' said Miriple-rah. 'No doubt you have had a long journey. What we shall do later is to bring the rest of the warren in here, to meet you, and we shall have a meeting to discuss the events that have just happened'. She ended on rather a sad note. 'Come on, Miriple-rah' said Corla. She led the way out of the burrow, followed by Miriple-rah, Stalwart and Duffel, who whispered 'See you later'.
The mini burrows were only meant for one rabbit, so they had one each. Blethlin fell asleep after a lot of complaints about the space in her burrow. But Brindle lay wide-awake. He was thinking. Evidently, the warren was pretty small, to fit in the mini "Honeycomb". Had there been a great many attacks? What would the meeting be like? Would they like him? From the trembling noises that came from the next burrow, he knew Rian was thinking exactly the same thing. And he was right. Rian was terrified of being gawped at by six rabbits, let alone a whole warren. Trying to block those noises out, Brindle finally fell asleep.
It was not a great sleep. The burrow was uncomfortable, and Brindle kept dreaming of dead bodies, and waking up in a sweat. Every time he woke, he heard Blethlins snorts and Rians worried mutterings of " No, they wouldn't do that! Would they?"
He was glad when he was woken up by Duffel entering the visitor's burrow. Brindle shook some fallen dirt off his fur, and went out to meet him. 'Oh, you're up!' he practically shouted, to wake the others. Seconds later, Blethlin cursed and Rian squeaked. Brindle looked tired, Blethlin looked shattered, but no one looked as exhausted as Rian. He had no closed his eyes once that night, worried about the next day. The wake up call had made him jump; telling him the moment had come. He was relieved to see it was Duffel. 'Oh it's you!' said Rian. 'But who are they?'
Brindle turned to see who Rian was looking at. A doe and a kitten had appeared at the entrance. Duffel went up to them. 'This is my family. My doe Nutta, and our kitten Laurel'
'Greetings' said Nutta, smiling at the other three. Laurel just giggled. If Duffel had told him about the kitten at the time, Brindle would have bet it would not have been normal, with Duffel as a father. However, the laugh was not a crazy one, to Brindles relief. 'These are the three I told you about earlier' said Duffel. The other two just stayed still. 'Goodnight?' asked Duffel, inquiringly.
'It was good' Brindle lied.
'The best' said Blethlin. 'I slept like a log!' Pity she wasn't as quiet as one, thought Brindle. 'I dreamt that a sheep gave birth to me last night' Duffel blurted out. Blethlin snorted. 'What did you dream about?' he asked Brindle.
'Oh, I don't remember' he replied.
'I dreamt I was silflaying in a meadow' said Blethlin.
'That's odd. Really?' asked Duffel, apparently forgetting what he had dreamt about. Rian said nothing. Laurel piped up 'marli always said that these burrows were horribly uncomfortable. She says dreams are nicer than the ugly life we have here. But I don't agree with that'
'What do you think?' asked Brindle kindly.
'I think life isn't ugly at all. It's beautiful. The way things like flowers grow up to the sun, to Lord Frith high in the sky is wonderful to think about. Dreams are silly. They are deceptive and can turn out either bad or good. You have little control once in a deep sleep. But you can control the events and consequences in real life. It does not do well to depend on dreams, and forget to live in the real world'. Laurel fell silent once more. Brindle saw that he couldn't be more than three months old. He liked the little fellow. Nutta looked a little abashed at having being contradicted, but Brindle smiled at her. She smiled back. Duffel leaned towards him and whispered in his ears. 'I must say,' he said quietly, 'They aren't quite as on the ball as I am, but they are lovely! We love to hear Laurel jabbering his nonsense at us! Nutta says little, but I like her all the same'
They stopped talking at this point, because they heard the sound of rabbits moving towards them. It sounded like some sort of army or patrol, echoing down the long burrows. The chatter that followed made it seem rather spooky. The first three to enter the burrow were Corla, Stalwart and Miriple-rah. The three made their way to the back of the large "Honeycomb", and requested that Brindle, Blethlin and Rian should stand to the left of them. They did so, Rian whimpering. A great cloud of rabbits swarmed into the burrow from then on. They were all of different shapes and sizes. Some small, some tall. But most were very serious looking, and everyone looked very stressed, apart from Duffel, Nutta and Laurel. The rabbits began to form rows, which were divided into male and female sections. Duffel and Laurel positioned themselves in the middle of the very front row. Brindle caught Duffels eye, which mouthed 'Good luck!' But then his sight fell behind him to another buck. He looked very old, had grey hair, yellow teeth and had a very surly look on his face. He glared at everyone, including Miriple-rah. Brindle also noticed another buck hesitating in the burrow entrance. He was small, with a ratty shaped face, and strange black rims around his eyes, and teeth that stood out rather oddly, as though too big for the mouth. The burrow was now crammed with these rabbits, who looked at Brindle, Blethlin and Rian strangely, as though not sure whether to be suspicious or not. As Brindles eyes searched, he saw that Laurel was the only kitten present. Perhaps there were no other kittens? However, he no time to contemplate on this fact, because the buzzing of voice died down, and fell silent. The burrow had begun to heat up rapidly, with so many bodies present. The cracks on the ceiling would not benefit from the heat.
'Now,' began Miriple-rah, 'I'm sure we all know by now why we have been called here. But for those who don't, I shall explain. You ALL know that my son, Oakla, disappeared not long ago'. She heaved a sigh at this point, as though struggling with the emotions. 'On our search for him, we found three rabbits. These three' she added, gesturing to Brindle, Blethlin and Rian (who kept his head down). 'They are Brindle, Blethlin and Rian. Now Rian seems the most important to mention at this point. We found him unconscious next to the body of my son'. She allowed a pause for the audience to gasp. 'However on waking, he told us what he had seen. Perhaps you should tell everyone Rian' Rian panicked at the mention of this. But everyone was looking at him. He very well couldn't refuse the chief of the warren. He timidly stepped forward. He flinched at the sight of everyone's gazes upon him. As usually, his speech was hindered by a stutter.
He finished saying 'something black emerged from the bushes. That's all I remember'. The crowd gasped once more, but not so sympathetically. Some gave Rian scathing looks. 'Why had you not mentioned this before?' asked Stalwart. Corla gave Rian a dark look. 'I didn't think it would be much help' Rian replied.
'Or he's got something to hide!' yelled one of the crowd.
'Here, here' said a few of them in return.
'I swear I don't-' said Rian, but someone cut across him.
'If I may say something, Miriple-rah,' said the goofy rabbit at the back, 'Rian and the rest of his friends may just have been in the wrong place and wrong time' He paused, considering. 'However, its very suspicious. There is no one to back up his story. Who is there to say that Rian killed Oakla, and knocked himself out?' Members of the crowd nodded. Rian kept his head down. In defence of his friend, Brindle spoke up. 'We know Rian, and we know the kind of things he is capable of!'
'Well of course, you'd stick up for him!' came an answer.
'Don't talk to Brindle like that!' shouted Blethlin.
'We can talk suspects how we like!' shouted back the rabbit with the strange eye markings. 'MURDERER! MURDERER! MURDERER!' he began to chant. Some of members of the crowd followed his lead. Everyone except Duffel, Laurel, Nutta, the old rabbit and the six at the front joined in. Miriple-rah desperately tried to calm everyone down. Rabbits were standing up now, shouting at Rian. ('Fight! Fight! Fight!' chanted Duffel). To them, he was the one to blame, and not the other two. They had not been there. Brindle distinctly heard one of them say 'Zayn sisi il yao i laynt dayn, hristhay! On lay nahl bral mi ulé roo!*'. That made Brindle angry, and he began to shout back. 'SILENCE!' shouted Corla, glaring at the crowd.
'Er-thank you Corla, just calm down now……..' said Miriple-rah, to everyone.
Eventually, they began to settle down once more. 'I don't not believe that any of these three had anything to do with these attacks. The body was so-' she took a sharpe intake of breath, and burst into tears a second a later. She hurried out the burrow as quickly as she could. All the rabbits stared at she went passed.
Stalwart took over. He spoke loudly to drown out the rabbits chatter. Rian was still centre of attention, Brindle and Blethlin waited patiently to the left. 'As Miriple-rah nearly stated, the body was in such a condition that we see no rabbit, hombil, man or dog is responsible' But no one listened to him. They only listened to themselves and the chief. 'We want them to go!' said one.
'You will be waiting along time. None of them leaves unless the chief says so'. There was an instant uproar at this point. During which most of the rabbits left in disgust. 'The meeting has ended. You may go!' said Corla.
When the crowd had left, muttering to themselves, Duffel and his family came over to Brindle and Blethlin. 'Wasn't that great?' he said cheerily, though perhaps not as loudly as he would normally. 'Excuse me, not feeling great,' he said, 'but it'll pass. That meeting could have been much worse'.
'Excuse me….' said Rian quietly, pushing passed and going into his burrow, looking incredibly depressed. Brindle had no idea what to say. Even Blethlin had no unkind word. She turned to Nutta and tried to make conversation. 'So how come you don't speak?'. The other doe laughed.
' I do actually. Its just a matter of getting words in when you are in Duffels company'.
'Parli talks a lot,' said Laurel brightly, 'He gets very over excited. Will you come and play with me? Can she play with me marli?'
'Of course' Blethlin was rather taken aback by being asked this by a kitten. She'd never done it before. She nearly said no, but then remembered the time when no one wanted to play with her when she was little. It had happened often. 'I'd love to' she said.
'Come on then' said Laurel, leading her up the run. 'I can show you the woods oldest trees'. They disappeared.
Nutta went over to where Brindle and Duffel were in conversation. 'I'm going back to the burrow' she said.
'I'll come too' said Duffel. 'Where's Laurel?'
'Playing with Blethlin'
'That's all right then. He'll come back to our burrow when they are done. See you later Brindle!' he called. Just as they left, Stalwart came back in.
'I came to warn you,' he said cautiously, 'to not go out of this burrow tonight without proper supervision. None of you are liked at the moment'
'But Blethlins gone out with Laurel' said Brindle in a panic.
'Oh Blethlin will be all right. It's Rian I'm worried about…'
From inside his burrow, Rian heard everything going on. He made it clear to himself that he will he not leave the burrow without Brindle. He was worrying over this when a buck entered. It was the old buck that Brindle had spotted. 'Hello,' he said in a gruff voice, 'I am Thorn. I'd just like to say- I believe you' Rian was stunned. No one had actually said they believed him, in words. 'Thank you' he said. Inexplicably, the rabbits talked to each other. It turned out that Thorn was somewhat of a recluse as well. They talked for ages.
Brindle was so worried about him; he went to see whom he was talking too, just as both emerged. 'I've made a friend' said Rian, as though producing work he'd done at playschool to his marli. 'That's great', said Brindle, delightedly.
'He says he'll take me a tour of the burrow' Rian continued. Brindle nearly said "no", but then thought that Thorn would look after him. 'Go on then,' he said, 'I'll wait for you here'. The two disappeared talking, animatedly.
Brindle was now alone in the burrow. But he had yet to REALLY experience what the warren was like. He knew as soon as Rian came back.
Hours later, and Rian had not returned. It was only a small burrow. Brindle had been wandering why Rian was taking so long, when he entered the burrow. 'RIAN!' he exclaimed, and he had good reason too. Rian was covered in blood from his nose. One of his ears had been completely shreded. He breathed like he was having a panic attack, and he shook violently. The back of his neck was covered in scratch marks and bites and small patches of fur were missing. Brindle ran forward to comfort his best friend. He looked smaller than ever, and he found it hard to breath through all his tears. 'Attacked' was the only word Brindle could make out, before Rian collapsed completely on to the floor. 'Please-take-home!' he choked through his tears. He clawed at Brindle desperately. 'TAKE--HOME! TAKE--HOME! TAKE ME HOME! PLEASE!'
*Literally means, " Go again to where you came from, worm! We believe you even little!"
('Go back to where you came from, worm! We don't believe you one bit!')