2. Birth and Death
I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different
-T.S. Eliot
Safflower, heavy with her unborn litter, made her way slowly out of one of the runs of the Watership Down warren and into the warm early morning sun. It was just after sunrise, and even then, frost glinted like glass amid the emerald green leaves of turf that covered the downs.
The doe paused to pass hraka before continuing on, away from the warren greeting the other rabbits around her as she moved.
Nibbling at the new grass poking out amongst the crushed, brown leaves, Safflower hopped towards a quiet patch of clover, eating in relative privacy.
The doe was rather unremarkable looking, a man would not be able to tell her apart from any other rabbit on the down but for the four horizontal scars running across her face, from the base of her right ear to her nose, souvenir from General Woundwort. Safflower, who had gone tharn on the bank of the river, torn between her horror at the water and the approaching Chief Rabbit of Efrafa had not been quick enough to dodge the blow dealt to her by the enraged General, spurring her into action and getting her onto the boat. The wounds, though deep, had not been deadly and she had survived the journey down the river and under the bridge. The scars served for Safflower as a grim reminder of the tyranny she and many others had faced under General Woundwort's rule and that she would not stand for that kind of treatment again.
As she nibbled, Safflower thought about those who had died in their flight to Watership Down; her sister, Thrayonlosa had stopped running after she had been caught in the back by the low bridge, the work of metal and stone tearing a fatal gash down her spine.
Sitting up on her hind legs, the doe wiped her nose and ears with her front paws, trying to dislodge the sad memories from her mind. She had nothing to fear now. Watership Down was safe from elil of all forms.
Looking back, Safflower smiled at the sight of does and bucks, young and not so young, cropping at the grass close to the holes of the warren.
Abruptly pain tore sliced through her as though she had been struck by lightning. Safflower writhed, the breath drawn from her lungs so she could not even squeal.
As suddenly as the pain had come, it vanished, leaving the doe panting and confused.
Ears laying flat against her skull, Safflower turned in the direction of the down.
A second jolt of agony raced through the doe, causing her to kick out helplessly. The pain, Safflower realized, was that of labour; her kittens were coming.
But too early, the doe knew, far too early.
As the pain began to grow, it drove all rational thought from the rabbit's mind so instead of heading back to the security of the warren, Safflower turned around and ran away from it. She needed to find a safe place to have her kittens, underground or hidden.
Running blindly, the doe screamed in terror when her paws left solid ground and she tumbled down a slope in the earth, falling into a hollow such as the one where Bigwig and Silver had found Kehaar.
Lying on her side, gasping for air, Safflower closed her eyes as she shook, pain engulfing her.
WD
"Has anyone seen Safflower?" Hyzenthlay asked a group of three or four does enjoying the tender green shoots of grass that had come up in the warming sun.
"She came this way not too long ago," a doe named Rosehip told her through a mouthful of clover.
The others nodded in agreement with Rosehip's words but offered nothing to the conversation.
"Is something the matter?" Rosehip asked.
Hyzenthlay crouched in the grass, peering out over the downs.
"I am not sure," she muttered, "But Safflower, her kittens are coming soon and I know she wouldn't stray too far from the warren."
Hyzenthlay had known Safflower in Efrafa and knew her to be a rational, sensible doe.
"Perhaps she has gone inside already," Rosehip suggested and Hyzenthlay looked to her, "Perhaps you are right."
Turning away from the gathered does, Hyzenthlay returned to the warren and entered the close, warm tunnels of the warren.
WD
"Safflower? Safflower!"
Hyzenthlay looked up at the sound of a rabbit shouting. Curious, she hopped to the opening of the burrow she shared with Hazel and peered out.
"Have you seen her?"
"No, not since dawn silflay."
"She didn't come back… I can't find her…"
Coming into the tunnel ahead of Hyzenthlay was Cloud, Safflower's mate. His eyes were round and large with fright and worry; Hyzenthlay could see their whites.
"I need to speak to the Chief Rabbit," Cloud said, coming upon Hyzenthlay.
"What's all this then?" a loud voice called from farther down the tunnel and the doe recognized Bigwig's voice.
Cloud turned in the run to face Bigwig.
"I can't find Safflower, sir," the former Efrafan rabbit answered, "I need to speak with the Chief Rabbit."
"Let us not jump to conclusions," Bigwig told the distraught Cloud, "I am certain we'll find Safflower."
Hyzenthlay could see Cloud sag with relief. His ears drooped and his nose nearly touched the floor of the tunnel.
"I'll gather up a few others and we can all search for Safflower," Bigwig told Cloud.
"I want to help," Hyzenthlay announced and came up the run behind Cloud.
The look on gratitude on the former Efrafan rabbit's face was impossible to ignore, even in the darkness of the warren.
WD
Cloud sat up on his back legs and peered over his shoulder at the small group of rabbits gathered behind him.
Bigwig and Hyzenthlay, Rosehip, Danelion and Silver had all offered to help in the search for his missing mate.
No such thing would have happened in Efrafa.
Then again, Safflower would probably have not had a litter if they were still in Efrafa.
Cloud, one of the five rabbits to surrender to Hazel and the other residents of Watership Down, along with Groundsel who himself was now Chief Rabbit of the new warren at Caesar's Belt, could barely recall life before these times. Efrafa, as it had been under General Woundwort's command, seemed like a long ago nightmare.
"Where did you see her last?" Cloud heard Bigwig ask Rosehip about Safflower.
"She passed us on her way to that patch of clover," the doe answered and Cloud looked where she indicated.
Hopping over to the close-cropped clover flowers, Cloud could clearly smell Safflower's scent over that of the foliage.
A sudden, horrible thought occurred to Cloud and he peered over his shoulder at the rescue party.
"What if she was taken by elil?"
"Unlikely," Silver told him, "Any rabbit would have seen elil a long way off before they could get close enough to attack. Even Safflower, in her condition, would have been able to get back to the warren in time."
"Are you certain?" Cloud asked, his whiskers trembling nervously.
Silver nodded, "The biggest threat out here are the kestrels and they only go after kittens."
"Then where is she?" Cloud whispered, turning back to peer across the downs.
WD
Safflower sighed. The pain had vanished and although she was exhausted and weak, she was buoyed with happiness and pride.
Five tiny, pink, and helpless rabbit kittens huddled on the grass next to Safflower, blind though actively seeking to suckle.
The doe nuzzle them with her soft, warm nose before looking up, startled at the sound of voices approaching.
"Safflower?"
She peered up at the sound of her mate's voice.
"Oh no," she heard Bigwig mutter, "This is not good."
"They're here, Cloud," Safflower told her buck, "They were early but they're all live."
Her mate hopped into the depression beside her and they touched noses.
Safflower could hear the others talking quietly above them but she wasn't listening.
WD
Hyzenthlay peered down at the tiny, hairless kittens nestled against Safflower's side and frowned.
The kittens, born too early, were small and she didn't think they would survive, especially not out in the hollow, where they and Safflower would be at the mercy of the elements.
"There is no way to move them," she heard Silver say, "Not now anyway."
"But if we leave them out here, they'll die for certain," Bigwig argued.
Hyzenthlay watched as Silver eyed the larger rabbit, "Do you want to disturb Safflower? Maybe frighten her into eating the kittens?"
"Of course not!" Bigwig exclaimed, looking insulted, "But it isn't safe out here."
Hyzenthlay looked at Dandelion. The doe rubbed her front paws over her nose as she thought.
"Is there a way to keep the kittens safe until they are strong enough to be moved to the warren?" she asked Dandelion.
The other rabbit raised himself up on his back legs and glanced back towards the warren.
"Some of the beech trees lost their branches over the winter," Dandelion began, "Maybe we could use that to our advantage. Have Cloud dig a scrape for himself and Safflower then we could bring some of the beech branches here to cover it up, hide it a bit."
Hyzenthlay smiled, that seemed like the best course of action.
WD
By moonrise that evening, Cloud, Safflower and their kittens were as snug and hidden as possible in the hollow. Cloud had dug a deep scrape close to where Safflower lay and as carefully as possible had rolled the newborn kittens the couple of inches into it, their mother curling her body around them to keep them warm.
Above them all the sky was crisscrossed with skeletal beech branches, some with bronzed leaves attached, which had been brought to the hollow by Bigwig, Silver, and Dandelion.
It was certainly not the best start for the kittens but it was the best chance the rabbits of Watership Down could give them.
WD
A number of days had passed. Safflower's kittens were still very small and only had odd patches of fur covering their bodies, but their eyes were open and they grew increasingly active.
The doe had hopped away from the scrape, only a few feet, in order to nibble at the grass nearby and to pass hraka away from her young.
Cloud was higher up, on the top of the down with the other rabbits. Safflower was alone.
The doe sniffed the air, searching for tender grass shoots when a new, strange and ominous smell wafted towards her on the air.
When she had lived in Efrafa she had never known what men smelled like but here on the downs, they occasionally walked, often with their white sticks in their mouths.
Safflower froze, her gaze going to her litter only a few feet away before searching the grass around her, eyes alert for the danger.
Slow, dull vibrations travelled up through the ground beneath Safflower's feet and she bolted, dashing beneath the beech branches and into the scrape to protect her kittens.
Overhead, she heard the rapid thudding of a rabbit's warning signal and knew that the others were rushing towards the safety of the runs, Cloud among them.
The air over Safflower became thick with the dull, slow speech of men and the doe's heart hammered in her chest, her every instinct telling her to run to safety.
But she couldn't leave her kittens. They needed her.
Closer, the man was coming closer, and closer, and closer.
Safflower's fear overruled her maternal instinct and she fled from the scrape, scrabbling up the side of the hollow towards the warren, all the while terrified for her kittens.
The doe raced across the open ground and dove into the first hole she saw, shaking and panting.
"Safflower! Are you all right?" a familiar voice, Thethuthinnang, asked and the mother shook her head.
"My kittens! Oh, my kittens! I have abandoned them! Oh, they are dead! I know they are!" Safflower wailed as Thethuthinnang crouched beside her, trying to comfort her with a nose to hers.
WD
Cloud and Safflower, along with Hyzenthlay and Bigwig crept forwards once the man had gone on his way.
Safflower was beside herself with fear and guilt. Her mate nuzzled his nose into her side, trying to tell her that whatever happened, it would not be her fault.
"I shouldn't have left them alone!" Safflower lamented, "I should have stayed!"
"If you had," Bigwig comment, "We might have lost you."
The doe said nothing. They were approaching the top of the hollow where Safflower had had her litter.
"I could go down first," Cloud suggested but his mate shook her head, "I am coming too."
Grimly, while the others waited, Cloud and Safflower made their way down into the hollow.
The first thing the rabbits noticed was the pervasive smell of men and their white sticks, the second thing was that the carefully arranged beech branches had been moved aside and that the scrape had been disturbed; the dried grasses and fur pulled from Safflower's belly had been pushed aside and the kittens were nowhere to be seen.
"Oh they are gone! Dead! I know they are!" Safflower cried, full of guilt and sorrow.
Cloud laid his ears flat against his head, sadness washing over him for his lost kittens.
"Wait!"
Cloud raised his head and saw Bigwig, Silver and Dandelion peering over the edge of the hollow.
"The kittens might be alive," Bigwig told them.
Safflower looked hopeful though doubtful and Cloud's face took on a cynical expression.
"They were too small to eat, surely," Bigwig continued, "Perhaps the man took them because he thought they were abandoned because they were aboveground."
Cloud hesitated but could see how that made sense, even though he didn't know a great deal about men or their ways.
"But they are still lost," Cloud whispered.
Bigwig, nor any of the others, had any reply to that.
Author's Note:
I just finished re-reading Watership Down- one of my favourite books- and I was curious to see if there were any fanfictions connected with it. There were and I had a sudden urge to write something of my own. Please take a moment to review and let me know what you think!
Stay tuned to find out what happened to Safflower's kittens!
If you like the story so far, please be kind and leave a review.
