Disclaimer: I do not own Watership Down
Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I've recently watched The Plague Dogs and frankly enjoy the song for that movie more than Bright Eyes, but that's more because of my numbness I feel in my brain. Anyways, hope this chapter was worth the wait :)
After a long, tender moment of two hares staring at a kitten brushing up against the blood related elder, Ebony sped back then sped forward before jumping into the pool of water. Blackcurrant just padded in hoping the water wasn't too frigid his body would go into shock.
"Grandpa, their coming towards us." The kitten exclaimed, a little skittish to say the least.
"Yes, Tacca, but their not like those other Hares we escaped from; they might be coming to help us."
When Blackcurrant was halfway across the stream he had the uncanny suspicion something bad was heading their way. He turned around, just a flitting glance of what was behind them, and saw the terrible quadrupled legged Elie on the top of the hill they just ran down, looking at him with anger and a long scathing mark sanguineous from a recent fight.
Ebony was already on the other side of the stream before he had a chance to notice the Elie glaring at them as well. His attention was flitting from making sure Blackcurrant could make it to the other side to seeing the dog run down the hill making a guttural sound as if exclaiming "I'm going to eat you!"
It was at that moment Blackcurrant believed Ebony and him were going to be this Elie's toy, chewed by his big pink maw until he drained them of their blood and teared one nibble at a time through their flesh.
"Strangers...Hares..." The older Hare looked at the kitten with eyes glistening with a tear of sorrow. "You'll need help to find your parents. I'm not that help; they might just be able to help you. I'm going to try to save that other one, but if he doesn't make it back or we both don't make it back...run with this stranger no matter what."
"Grandpa!"
The grandfather left his kitten alone with the stranger Hare towards the other stranger Hare desperately trying to survive from the maw with rows of white-chittering-triangles. The grandfather jumped like Ebony, landing submerged in the water, feeling the sharp pebbles on his paws. He paddled with only one paw out of the water while his other three paddled under the water.
The Elie had his two front paws in the water right when the older Hare nibbled his front teeth on Blackcurrant's nape and pulled on him.
It seemed as if luck was on their side, however, there was one problem for the Hares: the stream was shallow to the Elie. The sleets barely reached his ulna as he swam towards his helpless prey, treading effortlessly.
The grandpa kicked even harder, moved even faster, but he knew even if they moved fast his kitten wouldn't be able to outrun their enemy. He had to reflect on his life, on all he's done in the lifespan of a Hare who lived in a safe haven until now, still moving as fast as his old legs could move.
The sepia brown buck joined his white buck with green and orange patchworks friend at his side while he tried to catch his breath. Tacca bolted to the forest as if they weren't even there.
"We have to move, grandpa!"
His grandfather moved...the other way. He was swimming towards the Elie, its ravenously hungry eyes seeing him as he reached his nuzzle length. The Elie wasted no time snapping its maw at the elder black with white speckles buck ready to eat it, but what it really caught was the cold tears of Gaia moving towards the ocean.
What his grandfather had done was done purportedly to save them. Ebony was as stressed with heart-stopping anxiety almost as acutely severe as when he was back in his owsla before the genocide of his fellow bucks and does.
Blackcurrant was up—the Elie was still clawing in the water trying to capture the old buck—and Ebony was nibbling at his friends' neck trying to give him a code they should move without alerting the dog hungry enough to swallow one of them whole.
They dashed, not very quickly but that wasn't a problem until they heard the bone chilling howl of an Elie on the hunt.
Scurrying away from an Elie was something every Hare had to get used to, but this time he was running towards a kitten moving the opposite path of him. If he went that way he would be close to the dog and surely be eaten. The horrific sight of kittens with red coagulation and deteriorating eyeballs haunted Ebony's mind.
He wasn't brave enough to follow him where the dog was, but he was big enough to plow into the kitten and knock him on the ground, and while he was down there he lifted him with his mouth in the air before tossing him on his back and Blackcurrant who was very close to his fellow buck now.
Ebony carried Tacca by his two rear legs to the halfway point of his back while Blackcurrant carried his upper body where he had one ear so bent right it nearly touched his right arm and another tangled like a spider's web. His pink tongue lolled out while his eyes were shut.
"Did you have to hit him so hard?" Blackcurrant exclaimed more than asked.
"He's young; it takes time to tell him when he's about to make a big mistake...besides, we are in a hurry. I think the dog is after us now."