"Am I really his protector?" Hazel questioned himself, "I mean, I promised to our mother that I would keep Fiver safe... but now I just don't know."
"Maybe I have grown to hate him. That could be why I bring him pain and not happiness…but am I truly hurting him on purpose?"
He shook his head, denying it. There was no way he could ever hurt his own little brother…or, at least, not on purpose.
"Maybe I have just gone soft with my duties?!" he continued, trying to reassure himself that he could fix the problem.
"That makes sense. With everything that has been going on, how could I pay much attention to him?!"
"He must think I am a terrible older brother…but I can fix this! I know I can!" he shouted.
"Hey, Fiver!" he yelled with excitement…but his joy was soon cut short, as he saw that his younger brother wasn't in front of him.
"Fiver!" he shouted, his words echoing down the run.
"Hmm, that's weird. I know Fiver, and he wouldn't just wander off without telling me!" he thought, staring down the dark passageway, hoping to see him.
He thought that maybe he had fallen too far behind to spot him. Hazel soon tried to catch up with Fiver, not knowing that he was now heading for a dead end.
"Fiver!" Hazel shouted, hoping for some type of response. But all he got was a weird hissing sound.
Turn's out it was just steam, which was coming from small holes in the wall that were dripping with water. Hazel pressed his paw against the hole just to feel the steam, and soon had a damp paw.
"That's strange." Hazel stated. But he couldn't dwell on it right now. He had to find his little brother before something terrible happened.
Hazel had soon reached the very end of the run. There was an entrance, but it was being blocked off with some very large and heavy fallen rocks.
"Fiver! Are you there?!" Hazel shouted. Maybe Fiver was now on the other side of the rocks, or worse, maybe crushed by it. Now he was starting to panic, causing him to smash his paws onto the surface, fearing that he wouldn't ever find his brother.
"Our Mother would be so disappointed with me," he thought, seeing that his only promise was to watch his little brother and keep him safe, but he couldn't even do that.
"I had one job, to watch him! But no, I couldn't even do that correctly!"
As he continued on with his anger he hadn't noticed that something had snuck up behind him and was making its way closer and closer to the Chief Rabbit. As soon as it was close enough, it decided to reveal itself.
"Hello, long ear!" the creature whispered in his ear, causing Hazel to turn around in a flash, just in time to see its large, glowing eyes. But, soon, everything went black for Hazel. It seems the creature had knocked him out...or worse.
Finally, Hazel started to open his eyes a little, to see that there were colors everywhere around him. He felt like he was just a feather in the wind, feeling nothing under him or above him or, in fact, anywhere.
"What?" he asked very weakly, trying to get hold of what had happened and where he was now.
His eyes went wide to see that he was floating in the air. As bright colors floated all around him, they actually seem to be dancing, as if they were living things.
"Okay, what's going on?!" he demanded, trying to touch the floating colors…but it only made them disappear for a second and then reappear.
"I don't understand…I was in a cave! How am I here now?" he thought. But before he could think more on the subject, he was being pushed forward through the open yet colorful space.
"Hey!" he called out, trying to get hold of something to stop him from moving. But there was nothing for him to grab, so it looked like he was forced to cooperate with it.
As he was floating along, he started to see moving images of his past floating around him, from the time he had had to give up his mother, who had gotten SICK of the white blindness, and the day he'd taken on the responsibility of caring for Fiver, to the time he had gotten into to a terrible argument with him.
Hazel could see that was starting to pick up more and more speed. The floating images were now starting to blur out because of the speed…but now the colors were forming new objects-not memories that move, but places old and new, such as his shared den at Sanderford warren to his new one on Watership Down. But now, he could see that he was about to collide with a large tree that had appeared randomly out in his path.
"Oh, no! I've got to stop myself before I get crushed!" he thought.
He tried to move his body out of the way…but sadly, it seemed that he was immobile, so he closed his eyes and braced himself for the inevitable collision. But after some time, he felt nothing. It was as if the tree hadn't even hit him.
Hazel could also feel some type of ground between his paws. He had opened his eyes to see that the memories of his old home were now gone. Now he was standing in a bright field, and in the distance was a lone beech tree on a hill, obviously indicating that it was their new home, Watership Down.
He continued to look around him, and tried to observe his surroundings to indicate where he was, but all he could see was the field where he was standing, and it looked as if when he tried to go into a random direction, he would just come back to the same spot or get lost forever.
"What is going on?!" he shouted, frustrated that none of this could be real. It had to be a figment of his imagination or something else.
Well, maybe I can get some answers, or at least find some help back at the Down," he finally concluded. With that said, he soon made his way over to his home. From this distance, it seemed to be at least a day's trip before he would get there, but, to his surprise, he made it there in less than a few minutes.
Once he reached the base of the hill, he began to climb up it, hoping there would be signs of life or something to help him out of this weird and strange new place.
"I totally forgot how TIRING it is to go up this hill," he joked, trying to lighten his mood. Luckily, he soon made it to the top of the hill…but when he got there, everything immediately changed into something different.
Everything went dark, and when Hazel looked up, he could see that there were stars in the sky. It was not like before, when it was all brightness. When he looked back to the field he was just standing in moments ago, he saw that it was now complete gone. Everything was back in its rightful place. The farm was there, and so was the Orchard, just as if he had come back from a long trip.
He looked at the large tree, and he could hear voices such as Blackberry and Captain Holly's down in the warren. But before Hazel could enter the warren, Fiver walked out and soon passed him to go and sit on the edge of the Down.
"So was everything just a bad dream?" Hazel thought. He decided to go over and sit next to his brother…but when he tried to place a paw on Fiver's shoulder, it somehow went through him, as if he wasn't there at all.
"What! Am I dead?" Hazel whispered. He was really hoping that wouldn't be the case, or else who would watch over Fiver and the warren?
"No, my son, you aren't dead...yet," a mysterious female voice told him, forcing Hazel to look around for this mysterious female. But all he could see was that Fiver and the Down were gone. He was now standing in the large field again, as if he had never moved from the spot.
"Who said that?!" he shouted, waiting for a response. But, somehow, he knew that voice, although he hadn't heard it for a long time. It had to be someone from his past.
You don't remember me, son? It has been a long time since I have seen you. Not since Sandleford warren."
"Mother?" Hazel whispered. Now he could finally see her in front of him...well, most of her.
She was somewhat transparent and was floating just barely above the ground, staring down at Hazel. The strange thing was that she had died long ago, before Hazel and Fiver went on the journey to their new home, Watership Down.
"How are you here? You died from the white BLINDNESS a long time ago…" he stated sadly, then gasped. "Does that mean I am dead too?"
"No, Hazel. You aren't dead like me. I am here to help you," she replied. With that said, the field had disappeared. Now it was all replaced with Sandleford warren, long before the terrible men came and destroyed their home.
They could see that most of the warren had gathered outside near the forest. It was a time when the SICK were being banished from their warren, sent out to die alone and scared in the dark forest.
"I remember this. It was when you were forced away from us, because you were sick like the rest," Hazel told her, watching as the next unfortunate rabbit was forced away, never to be seen again.
"Yes, I know. Just watch," she replied. Hazel nodded, and continued to watch the awful memory.
It was now time for his mother to leave the warren forever. Fiver was forced to watch, not even able to hug his own mother goodbye because of the illness. But as she left, she stopped in front of Hazel to tell him something. Once that was done, she ventured into the woods, never to be seen again, leaving Hazel and Fiver.
"Do you remember what I told you that day?" she asked. But before Hazel could answer, the memory was gone, and they were standing in the field once again.
"Yes, you told me to watch over and keep Fiver safe until the day I would pass on," he replied…but he was still questioning something about his mom.
"Something is on your mind. Tell me what it is, Hazel."
"Mother, if I may ask, how did you get the BLINDNESS?" he finally asked, hoping he hadn't made her sad by remembering the tragic incident.
"I can show you, but…it's not what you might expect," she answered slowly. Soon their surroundings had changed again into Sandleford warren. But this time it was before she had caught the white blindness.
She was in her burrow, resting a little, when Hazel and Fiver had come in and asked for permission to go and play outside with some other young rabbits. Of course, she said yes, but, as soon as they left, she left the burrow to go see her old friend's burrow. Her friend had caught the blindness…but the burrow had not been sealed up just yet.
When she was in front of the entrance, she could see that all the bedding and everything was still there, so she took a deep, SLOW breath and began to enter the burrow. Soon, she started to roll around in the disease infested burrow, and once she was done, left before anyone would notice her.
Soon the memory had disappeared and now they were both standing in the large field again. Hazel was speechless at what he just seen. His own mother had killed herself for no apparent reason, and had brought a terrible burden on him and his younger brother.
"Wh...why would you do that!?" Hazel screamed, shocking his mother with the sudden outburst…but, she did understand why he was so upset.
"I had to do what was best for you," she replied, trying to calm her son down.
"Yes, because living without a mother is totally best for us!" he replied sarcastically. Now he was beginning to sound a little bit like Hawkbit.
"Hazel, I did it because if I had stayed alive, neither of you would leave me when the men would come, thus, eventually, killing you and your brother!"
Hazel was now very confused. Only he and Fiver knew about that vision, and if this was before he had ever had it, then how would she knew about it?
Hazel's mother sighed. She knew she had to tell him the truth, or else he would never forgive her.
"You never did understand where Fiver got his vision talent," she stated. Now everything fell into place. The reason she had put the disease on her, and how she knew about the danger, Hazel finally understood.
"You had the ability to see into the future, just like Fiver," Hazel whispered. "Your power passed on to him!"
"Yes, you are correct, Hazel. I saw the danger and I tried to tell the chief..."
"But he wouldn't listen," Hazel finished, and she nodded her head in agreement.
"I knew that we wouldn't make it if I came with you, and you wouldn't leave me, even if it meant that you would die as well," she continued to explain while Hazel listened. He was trying very hard not to tear up in front of her.
"I put the disease on myself so they would force me out of the warren. This way, you would both want to leave. I did it to save you both!" she finally finished her story, and tried her best to comfort her son, who had begun to cry.
"A mother will do anything to keep her children safe," she whispered into his ear.
After a few minutes, Hazel had finally calmed back down well enough to talk to her. He was still confused about how she was doing all of this, and why she was doing it, since right now his friends were all in danger.
"Mother, I don't mean to be rude, but...why have you brought me here…and how?" he asked, starting to look around again curiously.
"With El-Ahrairah's permission. He allowed me to see again…but only in your dream, and only once during your lifetime. But it could only be for important news, not just a random visit."
"You know General Woundwort, right?" she asked.
"Yes, right now we are waging war against him. But why is that so important? I already know he is a terrible rabbit who needs to be destroyed and we are already doing everything we can to stop him!" Hazel replied.
"I know, but i have to show a terrible future that can only be prevented by you and your brother or else everything you have worked for will be destroyed!" She told him, she was actually scaring him a little but Hazel knew he had to see this.
With that said, their surroundings immediately changed back to Watership Down. But this time, the place looked terrible. All of its surroundings had changed to darkness. Even the large beech tree had been turned over on its side, lying dead on the ground. Inside the warren, everything laid in ruins. Every burrow had a dead rabbit in it-it wasn't from a disease or man-it was from battle wounds. Most of the dead were Watership Down rabbits… Only a few were from Woundwort's army. This was far worse than Hazel could have imagined.
Outside of the Down, next to the farm, there was a battle taking place. A whole army of Efrafan soldiers stood on one side, fresh and ready for battle. On the other side were the rest of the survivors of Watership Down. There weren't many of them, and all were pretty badly hurt…but what was surprising to Hazel was that Fiver was in the front, acting as leader! By the looks of it, he could barely stay standing. His left eye was gone, and both ears had been torn up…but the most horrific sight was that Molly was lying dead, RIGHT next to Fiver. It looked like he had just witnessed her die in his arms. and all he think about was his hatred towards Woundwort.
He was panting very hard as he tried to stay standing, and was also baring his teeth. Only with the help of Blackberry could he stand. It seemed that most of his friends were now gone. All Hazel could see in the Watership Down army out of his friends were Fiver, Blackberry, Strawberry, Bigwig, Hawkbit, Primrose, and Clover, along some others he really didn't recognize. They were probably from a different warren, but they were no match for the much larger and stronger Efrafan army.
General Woundwort came out in front of his army, laughing as he saw the last remaining hope for Watership Down. But they weren't giving up. Fiver was now talking, although Hazel couldn't hear him, nor any of it. He could only watch the horror of war taking place. By now the battle had begun, and with what looked like a command from Fiver, his army was marching slowly forward towards the Efrafan army, who had started to do the same.
Then, both armies began to charge at one another…but because of the small force the Efrafans were fighting, they immediately surrounded the small group. Slowly, every Watership Down soldier started to die. A few minutes passed, and only Fiver was left alive. All of his friends were slowly dying from their injuries or were already dead. Finally, Woundwort dealt the devastating blow to the back of Fiver's neck, and he lay dead on blood soaked grass. Watership Down was finally destroyed.
Soon, the surroundings had turned back to Efrafa and its cruel leader, Woundwort. His once small empire of slave rabbits had grown to a massive size that had stretched all the way to Watership Down. The warren was now a killing center. A large hole had been formed in the Honeycomb, and it seemed that anyone who would disobey Woundwort would be pushed down into the darkness and never be seen again. He also had taken over many warrens, any he came in contact with. He had killed most of bucks, or anyone who refused to join. He was only taking back does and kittens, who were forced to TRAIN as warriors, or being put to slave work. Some were even forced to kill their own parents just to live another day. And since Watership Down was now gone, there was no hope of escaping, so no one even tried. They had all accepted their fate in the horrible place, under their cruel leader's rules.
Their surroundings soon vanished, and now they were both standing back in the large, empty field, Hazel still shocked at what had just happened.
"I don't understand! Is that what is going to happen in the future, or is that happening right now?" he asked, still confused on the whole matter.
"This will be happening in the future, unless you can PREVENT it!" she replied, trying to help him understand.
"How do I prevent this?"
"All you have to do is just...just protect your little brother. It might seem like he would have anything to do with this terrible future, but all you have to do is protect him and keep him safe!"
Before Hazel could ask how, or ask any more questions at all, she slowly disappeared into the brightness, which caused the field to burst into flames, which slowly engulfed him. But the weird thing was, he didn't feel any pain from it. Now he was falling into blackness…and then disappeared.
Hazel was now lying on very hard and cold ground. He opened his eyes to see that he was back in the main cavern they had entered to search for Hawkbit. Bigwig and Dandelion were standing over him, looking very concerned.
"Hazel, are you all right?" Dandelion asked. His voice was a little muffled, but could still be heard.
"What happened?" Hazel asked weakly, trying to sit back up with the help of Bigwig.
"So it was all just a dream…but it felt so real," he thought, sitting back up and waiting for Bigwig or Dandelion to answer.
"We don't know really. Me and Dandelion were searching in our run like you told us to. But when we were down there, we heard a loud...explosion!" Bigwig exclaimed.
"Then a huge tidal wave came out of nowhere and sucked us up! The next thing we knew, me and Bigwig were thrown back here," Dandelion finished.
"Also, that run is gone now. It caved in when we got back, stopping the water from following us," he added, pointing to the middle run, which was, in fact, now blocked off, although water was still dripping out.
"All right. But, I meant how did I get back here? The last thing I remember was that I got attacked by someone or something," Hazel told them as he started to rub the back of his head, indicating that it still hurt from his encounter.
"Oh, that. Yeah, you we were lucky that we got back, actually!" Dandelion exclaimed, confusing Hazel even more.
"I still don't get it," he replied.
Seeing that Hazel was still not going to understand the comment, Bigwig decided to try and explain it a little bit better than his friend.
"What he means is that when we got back here, we saw a weasel coming out of your run. It was dragging you by the scruff of your neck. It was going to head into the middle run, but when it saw it was blocked off, it started to drag you back the way it came. Luckily, we stopped him," Bigwig told him.
"Well, thank you. I would have been dead if it wasn't for you..." Hazel had finally noticed something was now missing, and so did Bigwig and Dandelion.
"Wait a minute, Hazel. If you are here...then where is Fiver?" Dandelion asked, now that he finally noticed the little rabbit missing.
Immediately after hearing this, the three rabbits could hear someone screaming down the left run, calling Hazel's name. It must have been Fiver…and the weasel was down there with him!
"No, Frith, no!" Hazel thought, knowing that it must have attacked his brother.
He then took off at a fast sprint, leaving Bigwig and Dandelion behind. Both had started to follow their leader, but were slowly losing him because of his speed. He was trying to follow his little brother's cry for help…but it seemed as he got closer and closer the shouting just started to fade away until it finally turned into nothing, resulting in Hazel losing Fiver's trail.
After some time of running, the three found themselves in a new, larger room. It looked similar to the one they had entered, but this one had four entrances instead of three. The fourth entrance was on a higher level.
"Where are we now?!" Dandelion shouted, hoping they weren't lost forever in this confusing place.
"Dandelion, is that you?" A female voice called. When they looked down to the farthest RIGHT opening, they could see that it was Molly. She had emerged with Larch, who was riding on her back, but still bleeding a little from his injuries.
"Hey, did you guys find Hawkbit? And, also, what happened to your leg, Larch?" Bigwig asked, noticing the new wound and the bloodstains on his fur.
"It's a long story…and, no, we didn't find Hawkbit either," Molly answered, putting Larch down so Bigwig and Dandelion could have a look at their injured friend.
"Don't worry, Larch. All we have to do is get you back to the Down, and Blackberry can fix you right up," Bigwig told his friend, who just nodded. Seeing that Molly had grown exhausted carrying Larch, Bigwig took over for her.
"Hey, where is Fiver?" Molly asked, seeing that he wasn't with Hazel anymore. But before anyone could answer her, someone else wanted to introduce himself.
"Hello, long ears!" a mysterious voice called from the fourth tunnel. Soon, a large male weasel came out of its hiding spot, causing the rabbits to ready up in their battle stance.
"You are supposed to be dead! We trapped you down here long ago!" Hazel shouted, standing in front of his friends and facing the weasel angrily.
"Well, guess what? I ain't dead and I think you should be more kind to your friends," the Weasel replied angrily, confusing everyone, especially Molly, since she wasn't there when this one was forced down into the caves.
Finally, the weasel pulled Fiver and their missing friend Hawkbit out his little run. Both were looking uninjured, but probably wouldn't stay that way for long, seeing that they were now in the hands of a very evil and hungry looking weasel. It started to bare its teeth at his two captives, showing the rabbits down below that he will eat them if they make any sudden movements.