I do not own Watership Down either film or book and have merely borrowed the characters for my own story.

And Onwards

I can honestly say that I won't be watching the new BBC remake of Watership Down Saturday and Sunday. I read the book in my early teens; but it was being taken to see the animated film that just meant I would never be able to watch another adaptation of the book. While I was fine with some of the violence – although I thought that the way the Sandleford Warren was destroyed was disgusting – Hazel's death at the end of the book had me in floods of tears. I know that it was inevitable (and that Hazel is a fictional character) but the 11 year-old me didn't quite see it that way and it has always left me sobbing my heart out. But this very short fan fiction came to me one night while I was re-reading the end of the book. I have tried to meld book (and 1978 animated feature) in order to write Hazel's entry into Lapine (Rabbit) Heaven. My story begins where the film ends with Hazel and El-ahrairah (and in the book I believe it is him) bounding up above the earth and finally into Heaven.

Further and further; higher and higher they ran until the earth was no more than a speck beneath them. Then Hazel saw El-ahrairah take a final leap into the glowing nimbus ahead of them. For a moment, Hazel was afraid and then closing his eyes, he jumped into the light and landed on soft, green grass. Opening his eyes in shock he stared about him and suddenly a familiar voice called, "Hazel? Hazel, is it really you?"

And it was Fiver, not Fiver when he'd slipped away two winters before, but Fiver as he'd been in his youth when they'd made the arduous journey to Watership Down and made their home there. Looking around Hazel saw his other comrades, Blackberry, Cowslip, Dandelion, and even Bigwig. But overpowering the delight at seeing his old friends again was the sudden indescribable bliss that made his fur prickle and his whiskers stand on end. Lifting his ears Hazel murmured, "Lord Frith." And felt a wave of love and compassion engulf him until he was quivering with pleasure.

Then just as suddenly El-ahrairah was at his side again, a twinkle of starlight in the dark eyes, "Come, Hazel," he said, "I promised to show you my Owsla." And took off in a single bound.

Filled with strength, power and overwhelming joy, Hazel turned and leapt after him.

FIN