6: Vast Vilthuril!
The scientist continued onwards at a steadier pace than before, to avoid tripping up; when he came to the door of the committee room he knocked upon it.
"Come in!" A voice called out from the other side of the door, the scientist went in to face the committee, who were all sitting round a table. He looked to the head of the table, where the chairman sat; he was the one who called him in.
"Well?" The chairman spoke; he was a rather impatient sort of man and didn't like to be kept waiting. The scientist cleared his throat and began to speak.
"It's about Subject #229!" He said, the other members of the committee sat up and listened with anticipation. "The drug seems to have worked," the scientist continued, the members started to smile, "But she's the size of a grizzly bear!" The scientist cried out. "Or was," He continued, "Since it was about 25 minutes ago that I saw her, and I'm pretty sure she's still growing!" All members of the committee, including the chairman, gasped with astonishment; but then they relaxed mundanely, the chairman began to speak.
"You may be going mad," He commented, the scientist felt humiliated, "But we can't take any chances, I shall send for seven shotguns; you, me & five others shall take one each and go down to the room. If what we find is what you said then we'll open fire on this overgrown pest; if not the others & I shall get you into an asylum for treatment." The scientist smiled at this news, and left to prepare himself; meanwhile the committee secretary phoned an ammunitions store for the shotguns, a few committee members started muttering to each-other.
Vilthuril discovered she couldn't control her growth when she tried to make herself stop, so she had to try and get used to it; her captives were still pinned under her forepaws but they had stopped struggling and began to try and work out why the drug was causing this.
Vilthuril herself was wondering exactly what her full size would be, she was certain that no animal continues growing for the rest of it's life, so she was sure her growth would stop at eth point in time. Then she felt a distant connection, the night was falling, she was getting sleepy, but she could hear Fiver's voice in her head.
"Vilthuril," Fiver telepathically called, "I understand the happening, and the bits that make you are rising in number, so you grow whilst your bits remain the same size." Vilthuril felt fairly relieved at this, so she kept her captives pinned down under her forepaws and went to sleep.
By the next morning Hazel-rah suddenly started up almost instantly after he woke up; the answer was right there before him, he could see Vilthuril & the fleeing men, but the thing about this that was different to the image than when he was falling asleep (where Vilthuril was normal but the men were still running from her) was that Vilthuril was hrair times larger than them! He burst from his scrape and bumped into Fiver, who was doing the same thing in the opposite direction. They hushed each-other, then they winked at each-other, then Fiver spoke to Hazel-rah.
"You know don't you." Hazel-rah couldn't help but feel that his brother was going to say that, he nodded; but the idea was still swimming in his head, how could any rabbit grow that large? They looked at each-other, nodded again and went to get the others up & catch a morning silflay. After which Hazel-rah debriefed the others.
"Comrades," He called out, "I've been thinking about Fiver's cryptic message during the night, and when I woke up this morning the answer was there! According to Fiver's confirmation when I met him this morning & my own attempt at logic, Vilthuril is, or will be, much larger than a man! Vahl friends, I know it's hard to believe, but look at the situation, remember Fiver's message. Now tell me, is there any other explanation?" The others shook their heads; Bigwig made hard work to try and disprove this theory but failed and disappointingly shook his head too. "Very well, we shall continue on the rescue mission." Hazel-rah finished and they set off.
Vilthuril woke up with a start, for she was woken by a loud braking noise and a slight headache; when she looked around she realised she had broken through the roof and silf. She then worried about her captives, who were pinned under her forepaws when she went to sleep, she looked down worryingly only to be relieved when she saw them alive & well right by her forepaws, although she had removed her forepaws from them when she woke up they weren't trying to get away from her; on the contrary they were stroking her ankle with a loving affection, as though they suddenly all decided to accept being her pets.
She smiled (she actually managed to smile) and lowered her head to them; at which she very carefully took si of them up in her mouth and threw them up in the air, moved forward slightly and allowed them to land on her back. The other looked up with awe as she did this, apparently becoming more interested in her than anything else. Suddenly Vilthuril heard feeble, high-pitched screams to her left; turning towards them she saw hrair men running away from her, emitting the screams as they went.
'Poor things,' She thought, 'at the slightest sight of a rabbit, an animal that everything knows is a plant-eater, which is much larger than them they immediately get frightened of the rabbit and begin to run from it.' She wanted to get revenge on the men that had caused suffering to herself and hrair other animals, but she pitied those who were just passers-by, she didn't want to cause panic beyond those that made animals suffer. She sighed and decided to rest.
Elaine woke up steadily, she remembered the previous evening when a man, a woman & herself became captives of Subject #229, they had gone to sleep underneath Subject #229's forepaws; but now Subject had relieved them, so the two others & herself commenced to stroke her ankle with affection, it was quite clear that her colleagues here now had the same affection for Subject #229 has she had.
Then she looked up at Subject #229 to see her smiling down at them, Elaine couldn't help but smile back, somehow she was enjoying the whole experience of being grasshopper-sized in comparison to this rabbit; she so wanted to know what Subject #229's true name was, a feeling told her that while Subject #229 was a wild rabbit she still had a proper name. Then she suddenly found the man & herself being picked up by Subject #229, who was picking them up in her mouth, then she found the man & herself being flung in the air, only to come to a soft landing of Subject #229's back. By now Subject #229 had stopped growing, and was looking around herself; eventually the rabbit decided to have a lie down, whilst the other woman gazed up in awe at everything that had happened.
The chairman started up suddenly at the sound of loud braking & distant screaming; the shotguns hadn't arrived yet and every minute counted. He looked to the rest of the committee as they looked about them, for they had woken up suddenly as he did at the sounds.
He looked towards his secretary and yelled out "Where are those shotguns?" The secretary looked towards him suddenly and replied.
"I'll just see sir." She then picked up the telephone and dialled a number. "Hello?" She spoke into the phone "Could you give us an idea as to when the shotguns will get here?" The person at the other end made a diplomatic response.
"We can only tell your manager!" The person replied, so the secretary handed the receiver to the chairman and relayed the situation to him. At which he took the phone sharply and called into the mouthpiece.
"Hello? Will you please tell me when those shotguns will arrive?" There was a brief pause before the person on the other end replied.
"They're on their way now; I think they'll get to you in about half an hour."
"Well, about #"(# time!" The chairman replied with a grunt, the person on the other end hesitated with a bit of shock.
"Well there's no need to be rude, sir." He finally replied, the chairman was still in a hot temper.
"Well thank you and GOODBYE!" He cried down the line and slammed it back onto the hook. Things were getting desperate & stress often caused a very hot temper; everyone else in the committee knew that they only had to be perfectly silent now until he had cooled down.
As the Watership rabbits continued across the countryside toward Basingstoke Hazel-rah was still trying to come to grips with the idea that Vilthuril could become bigger than a man. He was also wondering the exact size Vilthuril had reached/would be reaching; things were getting desperate, he didn't know if Vilthuril would be able to notice them when they'd meet her.
"Look!" Bigwig cried out as they reached a road, the others all looked towards the road.
"So," Hazel-rah replied, "It's a road, we've seen them before!" Bigwig looked at Hazel-rah in an unusual way and shook his head.
"Vahl, Hazel-rah!" Bigwig replied. "But look there!" He indicated with his forepaw, there was a signpost where he was pointing to.
"Oh, vahl," Hazel-rah acknowledged, "What is it?" Everyone turned to Blackberry who studied the signpost carefully.
"It seems," Blackberry told them, "That this thing is what men use to know where to go!" All the other rabbits began to look around to see if anything could give them a lead to Vilthuril.
"Hoi!" Fiver cried out, the other rabbits rushed towards where he was. "This thing here smells of Vilthuril!" He told them, the others confirmed this and notified where it was.
"This proves she was taken in that direction!" Hazel-rah told the others and pointed down the road, the direction the signpost said was the way to Basingstoke; they all set off.