Ah dear readers, you want to see our Sandleford rabbits at work? Time to pitch in on
Chapter 12: First Day Of Farming
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Waking up Hazel turned over and shut off his alarm clock. Hearing other clocks going off in rooms nearby he laid in bed for a minute, letting the dream he'd been having clear out of his brain before he looked at the clock again: 5:02 AM, time to get up for his first day of work on the Hopps family farm.
With a groan he sat up and stretched, and then stood up and winced at the sudden throb in his injured leg. He sat back down, clutching his thigh. His wound always hurt most in the morning, and while it was slightly healed now he had a long way to go before he could walk without pain again. He badly wanted to either go back to sleep or warm up his muscles in the sauna, but this was his first day of work and making a good first impression was vital. Hazel grabbed his set of work clothes and toiletries kit and limped out of the room towards the bathroom. Along the way he stopped at Fiver's room next to his and slowly opened the door: "Fiver?" he whispered.
On the nearby bed he saw his brother curled up, still asleep. Nearby the alarm clock flashed 5:04, and Hazel distinctly remembered seeing Fiver turn on his alarm before so he guessed Fiver had hit the snooze button.
"Fiver? Come on little brother, wake up," Hazel gently shook Fiver's shoulder. "Mmm…" Fiver let out a low groan, opened his eyes a crack to look at Hazel, and then rolled over to face away from him.
"Come on Fiver, we've got to go to work!" Hazel spoke a little more loudly. Fiver's response was to grab his pillow and cover his head with it. Hazel inwardly smiled; his little brother was the most amiable and obedient mammal he knew, but he was still a teenager who loved to sleep when his dreams weren't troubled. Fortunately Hazel had been through this more than enough times to learn a few tricks: slowly he went to the end of the bed, reached under Fiver's sheets and started tickling his feet.
"HUH- WA-HAH!" Fiver yelped and jumped into the air trying to get away from the tickle monster.
"Morning, little brother," Hazel said pleasantly.
"Did you have to that…?" Fiver mumbled, his eyes and ears still drooping.
"I'm sorry, but we do have to go work," Hazel declared. He handed Fiver a stack of clothes from the nearby desk, "Come on, get dressed."
"Mmm…" Fiver grunted with a nod and started to take off his pajamas while Hazel left to check on the others. Most were out about in the hallway now, but a few doors were still closed.
Hazel was just about to knock on Bluebell's door when Bigwig suddenly jumped in and opened it: "OY! Get up, get up!" Bigwig yelled at Bluebell's prone form.
"Mmm, lemme me alone Grandma," Bluebell mumbled pulling the sheets over his face.
"Oh that's it!" Grunted Bigwig, and he yanked the sheets off the navy blue buck sending him spinning on his back. "You're a grown buck, I shouldn't have to be waking you! Now come on, up up!"
"Aye aye, sir," Bluebell grunted with a mock salute as he started to gather himself up.
Bigwig shook his head. "Next time, I'm bringing a bugle," the maned buck murmured as he left the room.
"Sleep well, Bluebell?" Hazel greeted the navy buck as he came out of his room.
"Yeah; would have slept even better in a double bed though," Bluebell muttered as he went down the hall.
"Now now, we agreed: we all want the other double bed so no one gets it, it's the only fair way," Blackberry reminded as she passed them.
"Hopefully something is done about it," grumbled Bluebell. "It is rather tempting to not just rush in and take it."
"Pretty sure none of us is up for another fight for it," Hazel laughed.
Down the hall, Bigwig knocked hard on the door for Violet and Buckthorn. "Oy, you two, please get your clothes on and hustle down for breakfast will you!"
"What's for breakfast anyway?" Speedwell asked as he and Acorn came out of the bathroom, already dressed and ready.
"Holly's making us porridge and toast downstairs," Bigwig answered, knocking again on Violet and Buckthorn's room and then striding over to Hawkbit's.
"What? We were in the bathroom half an hour, we never saw him," Acorn stated.
"Yeah, the captain's always been an early riser," Bigwig mumbled as he finished knocking on everyone's doors and went back to his room to get his toiletries.
"Must be the military experience," noted Bluebell. "Captain has years of military experience getting up early for training and it rubs off on his regular life." Yeah, that's it," Bigwig said as he marched into the bathroom. Hazel couldn't help but notice that Bigwig avoided their eyes as he said that.
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"Did Mr. Stu say anything yesterday? Can we start helping those poor mammals in Zootopia yet?" Pipkin asked Blackberry as she led him downstairs to breakfast.
"I'm sorry darling, but we never saw Mr. Stu yesterday, he's probably very busy now," Blackberry answered sadly. It had now been a day and a half since the tsunami in Zootopia, and the group had received no more news about their new employer's family in the city since the previous morning.
"So who's running the farm now? Who tells us what to do?" Pipkin asked intently as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"That would be me!" called a chipper voice from the kitchen.
Blackberry and Pipkin rushed in to see Connor Hopps, the white buck they had met the other night, sitting at the table with Strawberry and Holly off to a side buttering stacks of toast for the group's breakfast.
"Connor?" asked Blackberry. "Dearie me, how fast did you get here?" "I live down the hall, it takes less than two minutes to get to the guest house," Connor pointed with his thumb at the tunnel door. Then he looked down at Pipkin, "To answer your question, there are several of us that run the farm with Pop, overseeing different things. Like Robbie deals with wholesalers, and Maggie's tending the stand. Me, I got the fun job: I'm helping you guys get oriented this week. And to make your first day on the job a special one…"
He heaved up a heavy bag from the floor and fished out jars to show them: "Hopps family farm jams and jellies. And because I love those English accents of yours so much, orange marmalade!"
"Ohhh, thank you!" Blackberry gratefully accepted one of the jars, "But what do you mean by accents?"
"What? Aren't you all from jolly ol' England? That's what we all thought," Connor asked with a play-accent.
"No – our hometown was in Kansas," Blackberry answered, "But it was originally an English colony, and relatively isolated so, I guess the accents just stuck around." She popped off the lid to sniff the marmalade.
"Huh, never expected that answer," Connor said out loud. "Always wanted to go to England myself; or anywhere – Marcus and I enter contests for it all the time. Anyway, I think Strawberry and I have the day all sorted. Mind if I join you for breakfast before work?"
"No, not at all!" Blackberry answered as she took a seat next to him and Pipkin sat down next to her.
Connor laid back comfortably in his chair: "Thanks – this'll make a nice change from the usual family breakfast – no fighting over food and a guy can get a word in edgewise."
"Will Marcus be joining us?" Holly asked as he retrieved a stack of bowls for porridge from the cupboard.
"Nah – I'll let him sleep in," Connor answered as footsteps suddenly sounded from the stairwell, and then the whole Sandleford group entered the kitchen area at once and started grabbing bowls and lining up for Holly to ladle them porridge.
"Morning, uhh… who are you again?" Hawkbit asked once he saw Connor.
"Connor Hopps, we met the other night,"Connor answered tipping a white baseball cap on his head.
"Sorry, I'd forgotten too, there are so many new faces here," Dandelion jumped in, "Morning Connor, are you here to give us our jobs for the day?"
"Yes, I was just going over that with Strawberry," said Connor, "You, Violet, Buckthorn and Hawkbit will be picking corn…"
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"…And you'll be working with Pimpernel, Pipkin and your brother in the berry patches," Strawberry said to Hazel as he pointed at the rows of berry bushes at the north end of the farm. The group was now walking the outskirts of the farmland as part of an impromptu tour before starting work, and Hazel, who had been late to breakfast and missed Connor's instructions because of the need to rebandage his leg, felt a mix of relief for the light work and resentment that he couldn't do more to help.
"Thanks… is there nothing more I can do until my leg heals?" Hazel asked.
"No; in fact I'm not even comfortable letting you work at all, but Bonnie and Stu think you only have a sprained ankle," Strawberry reminded him. He put a paw on Hazel's shoulder, "Please, please be careful. For all our sakes."
Hazel felt a surge of guilt at his friend's words, fully conscious of the predicament he had put him in, and slowly nodded. "I'm promise, I will be as careful as possible."
"Good. If there's any problems you can reach me on this walkie-talkie," Strawberry produced an old black walkie-talkie from his pocket and placed it in Hazel's paw. Then he pulled out another and spoke into it: "10-4 do you read me? Over." Strawberry's voice crackled from the receiver in Hazel's paw, a little fuzzy but understandable.
Hazel held it up and spoke back: "Um, I read you. Over."
Strawberry shook his head, "You have to hold down the button on the side."
"Oh," Hazel felt the button, pressed it and spoke again: "Is that better?" His voice crackled from Strawberry's walkie-talkie, and the orange buck gave him a thumbs up.
"We could have sure used those on Cowslip's farm, maybe then that doe Blossom would still be alive," grunted Bigwig.
"He was… that place is much better off without him," Strawberry admitted, not liking to speak ill of his old boss in spite of knowing how bad a mammal Cowslip was. "Alright, the other groups have their walkie-talkies too, so we're set. Bigwig, you do your patrol and check in time to time – Connor said that survivors of the wave of Zootopia have started to migrate to Bunnyburrow. If you see any strange folk treat them hospitably, but don't let them steal anything. Understand?"
"Right, you got it," Bigwig gave a mock salute, and regarded his other friends present: "Hazel, good luck. Fiver, look after him, Pimpernel-"
"Y-y-yes?" Pimpernel stammered.
"Err, good luck to you too," Then Bigwig knelt down on one knee to give Pipkin a quick hug, "Enjoy your first day, son," he said as he patted Pipkin on the back. Strawberry was still a little confused by the notion that Pipkin wasn't Bigwig's son, but understood the term of endearment.
"Thank you Bigwig!" Pipkin eagerly hugged him back and ran over to Strawberry, "Can we get started Mr. Strawberry? Can we?"
Strawberry grinned, having never seen a kit so eager to work. "Of course, follow me!" And with a wave of his arm he beckoned Pipkin, Hazel, Fiver and Pimpernel to follow him to the berry patch, while Bigwig went the opposite way to begin his patrol. Pipkin led the way in his haste to get started, and Strawberry instinctively sped up his walking to keep up with the kit, Pimpernel following close behind. Hazel did his best to walk behind Strawberry without limping, but already his wounded leg was starting to burn from the effort of walking. "
"Is everything alright brother?" Fiver whispered, making sure to walk alongside Hazel at his own pace.
"Yes… yes, I'll be fine," Hazel gritted through his teeth forcing a calm of a look onto his face, but Fiver wasn't fooled. "Should I get Strawberry to help you walk?" he whispered.
"No!" Hazel hissed back with a wince, "No – he wouldn't let me work if I can't walk on my own."
"Alright over there, Hazel?" Strawberry suddenly called back.
"Uh, yes! Yes, I'm fine!" Hazel answered.
"Good, here we are!"
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Strawberry led the group up to a small brown and white barnhouse on the outskirts of the berry patch.
"This is where you'll be storing berries for collection later," said Strawberry, "Hold on, Connor gave me the key-" He rummaged in his pockets for a minute and produced a key that he used to click open a padlock on the barn door, and with Pimpernel's help opened it up. He gestured Pimpernel inside, and with the brown buck's help carried out a long plastic picnic table. Then they went back in and Strawberry carried out several stacked wooded trays while Pimpernel carried stacks of light green cardboard berry boxes.
Then the group watched Strawberry go in once more and carry out something covered in plastic that he set on the table. He pulled off the cover to reveal a large digital scale.
"This is how you'll be determining your day's harvest," Strawberry explained, "You will be picking berries, and once your bucket is full you will carry it back here, pour the berries into these cardboard boxes and weigh them."
He showed them how to set the scale, "And once you do that you will write the weight on one of these little post-it notes." he produced a couple of pads and some little pencils from his pocket, "And stick the paper in the box, and stick the box in the tray, they each hold six." He showed them how the green boxes lines up two by three inside the tray.
"Very well, where are our buckets?" Hazel asked, ready to get started.
"In here," Strawberry gestured the group inside, where they saw several buckets hanging on pegs on a wall, along with strange-looking belts with hooks on them. "You will wear these belts, and hang your buckets on them. Pipkin, will you help me demonstrate?"
"Yes, Mister Strawberry!" Pipkin eagerly stepped forward and stayed still while Strawberry put a small belt around him, showed him how to tighten it, and clipped the handle of the bucket on the belt. "There – now just wash your paws in that basin there and you're all ready to go!" Strawberry declared as he pointed at a nearby sink.
"YAAAY!" Pipkin hurried over, washed his paws and was halfway over to the berry patch before the other three even had their belts fully tightened.
"Boy, I've never seen a kit so eager to work – I do hope this keeps up past his first day," Strawberry commented.
"It probably will. In his mind every berry he picks will go to help someone in Zootopia," Hazel said fondly as he finished adjusting his belt, "I've known Pipkin since he was a baby, he's always been like this. His heart's as pure as they come."
"Were you close with his parents, then?" Strawberry asked, remembering Pipkin's tale about their deaths.
Hazel nodded sadly as he and Strawberry headed out to the berry patch with Fiver and Pimpernel behind them. "We were friends – After our father died Fiver and I started spending holidays at the Home for the Unfortunate, and they often attended as well. They grew up in the home with Blackberry and Dandelion and others so they were like family to each other. And Lily – that was his mother – she thought she couldn't have children, so Pipkin was their little miracle."
"That boy will surely become a great buck someday," said Strawberry sentimentally, "I wonder if he'll make mammalitarianism his career someday."
"I would not be surprised at all," Hazel answered as they reached a raspberry patch. "Now where did he go – Pipkin!" He called out, "Pipkin!"
"Here I am, Hazel!" Pipkin called out from another bush thirty yards away, "There are SO many berries in here – I could spend the whole day in this patch!"
"Well, don't go too far, okay?" Hazel called, remembering Strawberry's words about refugees starting to invade Bunnyburrow.
"Okay!" Pipkin answered.
Hazel frowned a little, and then turned to his brother: "Fiver, would you do me a favour? I want you to stick close to Pipkin today."
Fiver's ears shot up – "W-what? But I'm supposed to be looking after you, I promised Bigwig!"
"Don't worry, if there's trouble I'll call for you. Also Pimpernel can help," Hazel gestured at the quiet brown buck nearby, "Just keep an eye on Pipkin, okay? If he runs off or anything you're the one who can best keep up with him."
"Oh um, alright brother," Fiver stuttered. He then carefully hugged Hazel around the waist, "Promise me you'll be careful?"
"I promise," Hazel affirmed. Fiver nodded in appreciation and ran off to join Pipkin in his bush.
"Very well, I'll leave you to it then. Good luck!" Strawberry gave Hazel a clap on the shoulder and took his leave.
Hazel waved bye, and stood in front of his bush and set to work, his fingers running through the prickly bush in search of raspberries. Remembering a trick he had heard on Cowslip's farm he bent down to peer underneath the leaves for berries, finding plenty but then wincing from the effort of bending on his bad leg.
Gritting his teeth a little he set to work, and unnoticed by him, nearby Pimpernel was watching him.
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"How are you feeling, brother?" Fiver asked Hazel a few hours later.
"A bit *pant* tired from bending down a lot but it's not too big an issue for me," Hazel said trying his best to smile but Fiver could tell his brother didn't want to show the agony of his gunshot wound completely.
"Hazel… I can see you're in pain, you don't have to hide it from me."
"I know, but - *ergh*!" Hazel gave an involuntary wince, "But I'm your big brother, I'm supposed to be looking after you, not the other way around."
"That's not true!" Fiver insisted, "I have to protect you too, you're all I've got!"
"I promise you, I do not need protecting." Hazel assured him, a firm note in his voice. Just then his radio crackled to life: "*Kxxxt*, Hazel, do you hear me?" came Strawberry's voice from the radio.
Hazel unclipped the walkie-talkie and pressed the button: "I hear you Strawberry, what's happening?"
"Nothing, just checking in, and letting you know that it's 10:50 and lunch starts in a few minutes," said Strawberry's voice.
"I'm doing fine, thanks. Thanks for the heads-up, over and out," Hazel responded. Still holding the walkie-talkie he said to Fiver: "Why don't you and Pipkin go dump your buckets and go back to the house? We'll talk some more at lunch."
"All-alright," Fiver responded delicately, sensing his brother's injured leg was starting to become a sensitive subject for him. He went back to Pipkin, let him know the time, and the two young bucks made their way to the barnhouse. Hazel decided to work a few more minutes and resumed his picking.
"E-excuse me?" stuttered a voice near Hazel. Hazel looked: peering at him from the other side of the bush was Pimpernel, the brown buck's eyes looking anxious but not unfriendly.
"I - I just wanted to say... thank you, for looking out for us," the brown buck mumbled. Hazel was startled, for he had almost never heard the buck speak before, and assumed Pimpernel was referring to him covering up his injury.
"Um... you're welcome," he managed.
"It, um, it is really is really nice that all of us found this lovely...farm for staying on," Pimpernel continued pausing to look at a bush near Hazel's left leg. "Uh...could you use some...help?"
"No thank you, I can manage," Hazel answered. "Um, nice to talk to you, I don't think we've spoken much before."
"I c-can't speak very well," Pimpernel admitted, "Even b-before the s-s-swirling wind, I've… always h-had a st-tutter."
"The swirling wind seems to have had a greater effect on you than most of us," Hazel said gently, "Are you alright? What happened to you that day, if it's alright to ask? Did you lose anyone?"
Pimpernel's ears hung low, but to Hazel's surprise he answered: "N-no. Not really – m-most of my r-r-relatives died… with the p-p-plague."
Hazel's eyes widened as he fully noticed for the first time that Pimpernel was older than most of the group, no less than 35 going by the bits of grey in his fur– more than old enough to remember the days of the white blindness that hit Sandleford 25 years before.
"A-and what I had… m-my sister and her mate… they d-didn't want me around. I… I had p-p-problems," Pimpernel went on.
Hazel then noticed a distinct twitch in Pimpernel's paw on the last word. He frowned – the buck was naturally shaky, but he, Hazel, had seen that particular twitch on his father's paw many times as a kit.
"You know, you can feel free to talk to me if you're unsure of how to communicate with the others," Hazel said. "I'm all ears and if you want, I can set up sessions with the members of our group so they can get to know you better one at a time."
"NO!" Pimpernel burst out, making Hazel jump. Pimpernel's eyes darted around, clearly startled by what he had just done. "N-no I mean, may-b-be another time? I don't want them… to hate me."
Tears starting to form in Pimpernel's eyes, combined with the fact that he had said the last line with enough conviction that he didn't stammer, convinced Hazel to go along with the older buck's wishes.
Slowly he gripped Pimpernel's arms, "Very well, but if you ever need a friend to talk to, I'm ready to listen, because I think I know what you're going through. Alright?"
"S-sure," Pimpernel stuttered. "A bit, a bit later when I'm… ready okay?" "No problem, you can take as much time as you need to," Hazel answered with a warm smile. "For now, these berries need picking and the two of us to make it happen!"
Pimpernel actually slowly formed a happy look on his face and resumed back to a bunch of raspberries he had attended to earlier. Hazel made a mental note to keep track of that, and added it to a mental list of questions he had about his fellow travellers, which started with the conversation he had heard between Blackberry and Holly two days before.
Just then, they heard a ting-a-linging sound in the distance, "Come n' get it!" hollered a rabbit's voice from the direction of the main house.
"You go," Hazel gestured at Pimpernel, "I still want to fill this bucket," He pointed at his bucket of raspberries, which was over three-quarters full.
"N-no, I can't leave you alone, w-we've got to go!" Pimpernel stammered.
"Just go, I'll only be a couple minutes, there's lots of berries right here," Hazel insisted. "My leg's… not helping my production, I have to keep up with the rest of you."
"Err…" Pimpernel looked nervous.
"Don't worry, I have the walkie-talkie if anything goes wrong," Hazel insisted, holding up the radio for emphasis.
"O-okay…" Pimpernel nodded, and slowly made his way in the direction of the dining hall.
Hazel knelt down, put the radio on the ground and immediately went back to work, picking and filling up his bucket as fast as he could. He was hungry, and eager to get out of the sun, but for the sake of appearances he really did want to increase his productivity. Especially compared to Pipkin, who despite being only six had managed to pick more berries than any of them that morning.
There, his bucket was full; he picked up the walkie-talkie, stood up and turned to go to the barnhouse-
"Oof!"
Hazel's foot walked into a rock in the grass that he hadn't noticed before, and the bucket of berries and the walkie-talkie went flying out of his paws as he fell. Hazel hit the ground hard on his left side, and a sudden burst of pain ripped through his left leg.
"AARGH!" Hazel cried out in agony. And then his ears shot up as horrified realization stole through him.
"No. No no no…" he quickly reached down and felt his leg: it was warm and wet, and when he looked at his paw it was stained with something that was NOT raspberry juice; he had torn his stitches and was bleeding again. Panting with fear, his eyes shot around for the radio, and he spotted it lying several yards away. He tried to crawl for it-
"YAAARGH!"
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Three things then happened at once: inside the dining hall, just as he was getting line for lunch, a sudden omen of dread surged over Fiver.
At the hall's entrance Pimpernel stopped and looked back, still worried about Hazel. And also in the hall, sitting at a table with other members of the Sandleford group, Strawberry's walkie-talkie suddenly crackled to life:
"Strawberry…?" croaked Hazel's voice, sounding so ragged that Strawberry realized what had happened even before he responded:
"Hazel, are you okay?! HAZEL!" "Help… me…"
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"Help! Help! Somebody help!" Fiver called out as he burst through the doors of the hospital wing, followed by Strawberry and Pimpernel who were carrying a dazed and bleeding Hazel between them by his arms on their shoulders. Fiver's eyes frantically darted around the ward, seeing roughly a dozen empty beds lining the walls and nobody resembling a doctor or nurse in attendance.
"Help! Anybody, HELP!" Fiver cried out again. Then a door at the far wall of the wing opened and out rushed Bonnie Hopps, followed by Blackberry.
"Who - Fiver! What is it?" Bonnie shouted in response, and then she spotted Hazel slumped between Strawberry and Pimpernel's shoulders: "What's happened to Hazel?!"
Fiver saw Blackberry's ears shoot up in alarm at those words, and Fiver felt a similar dread as he answered: "He got shot, and he's torn his stitches! He needs help!"
"Shot – OH MY GOODNESS!" Bonnie cried out as she looked closer at Hazel and saw the heavy blood stain on the back of his pant leg, along with a trail of blood drops that appeared in the hall behind them. "How – when did this happen? Get him into examining room 1 now!"
"So… sorry…" Hazel woozily mumbled as Strawberry and Pimpernel carried him over to a different door in the ward.
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Bonnie opened it to reveal a room containing an examining table and several medical supplies.
"Put him there!" She ordered, slapping the table before going over to a basin to start washing her paws. Just as Strawberry and Pimpernel laid Hazel down on his stomach the whole group suddenly heard more footsteps rumbling outside. Fiver creaked the door open just in time to see the whole rest of the Sandleford group enter the ward: Bigwig, Holly, Buckthorn, Dandelion, Hawkbit, Violet, Bluebell, Silver, Speedwell, Acorn, and Pipkin with Hana on his shoulder.
"All of us got here as soon as possible mate!" Bluebell exclaimed as everyone ran over to the examining room.
"What's happening with Hazel now?" Speedwell added.
"He tore his stitches!" Strawberry responded as Bonnie finished washing and strapped on a pair of surgical gloves.
"And I would like to ask Hazel about that in private if you don't mind," Bonnie said with a snap of a glove on her wrist, "And I'll talk to you later too, Strawberry, but in the meantime everybody OUT! I need to treat him!"
"Mrs. Bonnie, I can help you-" Blackberry started.
"NO! Until I get some straight answers, nobody treats this buck but me! Now go!" Bonnie ordered the group, and very reluctantly with their heads hung low the group shuffled out, until only Fiver was left.
"You too, Fiver. He'll be alright, I promise," Bonnie said a little more lightly.
"Please be careful Bonnie," Fiver sniffled, his paws clenched together. "He's always looked out for me and my heart couldn't take the thought of losing h-him now." Struggling to not let his eyes water proved to be a difficult task for him.
"Don't worry; I have nurse training, and I've tended more cuts, bruises and skinned knees than you can imagine," Bonnie reassured him. She looked deeply into his eyes, "But I really do need space to work, understand? Your brother will be fine."
"Okay…" Fiver quickly rushed up and gave Hazel a quick hug, his brother wrapping a free arm around his shoulders in comfort, and finally left the room and closed the door behind him.
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Once outside Fiver found himself with the other Sandleford rabbits looking worriedly at him, each other or the floor.
"Are all of us in trouble now?" Acorn spoke first.
"I – I don't know, she's really mad," Fiver admitted.
"And it's all my fault…" Strawberry's face was buried in his paws, "He was my responsibility, I shouldn't have let him work-"
"Shhh, quiet! All of you!" Bigwig hissed, his ear next to the door. The group quieted down immediately, and with their rabbit ears began to pick up the conversation happening behind the door: 00000
"What were you thinking, trying to work when you're injured like this?!" Bonnie huffed as she cut snipped Hazel's red-stained jeans with special scissors, "And why did you all lie to Stu and me about it? And Strawberry, I'm going to kill him! He's supposed to be looking after you and he lets you go out in the fields like this-"
"NO!" Hazel groaned, trying to keep himself together through the pain in his leg, "No, please, don't fire him!" He huffed and panted, sweating through his fur, as Bonnie paused to listen. "I made him let me work, I made him and the others keep this a secret. Fire me but please, keep them! Please don't throw them out because of me! They're good rabbits and they need this work!"
Bonnie took a deep, slow breath. "Nobody's going anywhere until I get some answers – what happened to you?"
Lying on his stomach Hazel turned his head to look back to face her: "The night we saved Clover, Lucy and Abby, I got shot when of those bucks pursued me. I almost died, but Fiver and Strawberry found me and got me to the hospital. I got treated, and thought I could work on this leg but I fell and ripped my stitches."
Bonnie gasped. "But why not tell us?" "I… thought you wouldn't want to hire us, if one of us was injured," Hazel confessed.
"Don't be ridiculous, after what you did of course we would have hired you!" Bonnie declared, "We would have just put you on light work until your leg was better!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know," Hazel admitted, "I asked everyone to keep it secret until I could tell at a better time, but after lying and saying I had a sprained ankle I thought you'd throw us out for sure if you found out."
Bonnie breathed, processing this information. "…Alright. I'm still ticked off at you, but I understand. I will be speaking to Stu about this, but none of you are fired. Now let's have a look at that leg!"
Hazel felt himself deflate, breathing a deep sigh of relief as Bonnie finished cutting his pant leg and exposed his injury.
"Oh my goodness, that buck really did a number on you!" Bonnie declared as she examined the wound. "You're still bleeding but don't worry, I've treated farming injuries worse than this."
Hazel gulped at the thought of farm injuries worse than his bullet wound as Bonnie picked up a wad of gauze from a box.
"I'm sorry, I don't have any anesthetic," the doe said as she soaked the gauze in some disinfectant and held it up: "This is really going to sting, but I have to stop the bleeding before I can treat your wound. Consider it your punishment."
"Frankly it'd be a relief to be rid of some of this pain," Hazel sighed. "Just do it."
Bonnie nodded and pressed the gauze hard against his leg.
"RRGH!" Hazel winced as the disinfectant burned his injury, struggling to keep his leg from flailing.
"I'm sorry, but I need to keep the pressure on to stop the bleeding," Bonnie said calmly, having done this several times before. "Just try and relax, this will be over soon. Let's talk about something, it'll get your mind off the pain."
"Like… what?" Hazel groaned through his teeth.
"Like… your brother," said Bonnie, "You two seem awfully close, why don't you tell me about him?"
Behind the door, several rabbits' ears perked up with interest as Hazel's body slowly relaxed at the mention of his brother, a smile appearing on his face.
"I love him, I love him so much," Hazel said, "And he's been all I have for a long time; I don't know where I'd be without him."
"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Bonnie asked, "And those strange visions of his – has he always had them?"
"No, those started when he was five," Hazel answered, "But he's always been special, even on the day he was born…" 00000
Yikes, Hazel is in need of medical treatment after a nasty fall, the group has thankfully not lost their jobs but Bonnie got quite angry at the lie about the leg injury being hidden. She is more calm once Hazel explains himself and it appears we'll learn a bit on his family.
Coming up next is a look back at the start of young Fiver's life with Hazel and all sorts of information gets revealed at the tough stages of their growing pains. Till next time dear readers!
