Chapter 3-The Truth Revealed
As Sam was sleeping that night on Watership Down, he began to dream. For a while, he dreamt of his home, of the normal life that awaited him at the end of all his trials here. Whatever they might be. The thought of going back did not appeal as much as he thought it would. A vacation from the real world might be nice. Later, he dreamt of Prince Rainbow. Sam was wishing that he could still ask questions, there was still so much that he did not understand. It was at this thought that he woke, but something was off. Even though he opened his eyes, Sam still only saw darkness. He could not feel anything around him either. It was as if he was floating. Just then, a bright light appeared behind him. He "turned" around, which was rather difficult to do since it felt like he was floating. As he turned, he saw the wizened face of Prince Rainbow staring back at him.
This, of course, surprised the teenager a great deal as he "jumped" back, yelling in surprise. "What's the deal? Where am I now?! God, why do you keep doing crap like this to me? You know, I would be totally fine with a normal, on the ground conversation. Not on a rainbow, or in…wherever the heck we are now." And upon finally noticing one very important detail, he added, "and why aren't I a rabbit anymore?"
"SO NICE TO SEE YOU TOO SAM," Prince Rainbow said sarcastically, "I'VE BEEN JUST FINE, HOW ABOUT YOU?" Seeing the glare Sam shot him, Prince Rainbow rolled his eyes and continued, "TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION AS TO WHERE WE ARE, WE'RE IN YOUR MIND. YOU'RE STILL DREAMING. IT'S THE MOST CONVENIENT WAY TO CONTACT YOU. AND YOU ARE A HUMAN HERE BECAUSE THAT IS HOW YOU PERCEIVE YOURSELF. SO YOU APPEAR HUMAN HERE IN YOUR OWN MIND TO REFLECT THAT."
Sam, growing numb to the increasing insanity of his life, responded nonchalantly, "Oh of course. Make perfect sense."
Prince Rainbow continued, ignoring the teen. "I BROUGHT YOU HERE BECAUSE, WELL, I FORGOT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING PERTAINING TO YOUR POWERS."
"Whoa whoa whoa," Sam interrupted, "you forgot?! You're Prince Rainbow! How do you just, forget something?"
"BLAST IT YOU LITTLE- I'M NOT PERFECT ALRIGHT!" Sam, seeing that he had struck a nerve, mumbled an apology. Prince Rainbow continued after a deep breath, "NOW LIKE I WAS SAYING, I DID NOT TELL YOU SOMETHING THAT IS VERY IMPORTANT ABOUT YOUR POWERS YESTERDAY. YOU RECALL THAT YOUR POWERS ARE TIED TO YOUR SPIRITUAL ENERGY? WELL, THAT ENERGY IS NOT UNLIMITED. THINK OF IT AS A MUSCLE, WITH ENOUGH WORK, YOU WILL EVENTUALLY BE VERY POWERFUL, BUT SINCE YOU ARE JUST BEGINNING, YOUR SPIRITUAL ENERGY IS RELATIVELY WEAK. BY USING YOUR POWERS, YOU ARE STRAINING YOUR SPIRITUAL ENERGY. THE POWERS OF PURPLE AND BLUE ARE A CONSTANT DRAIN ON YOUR ENERGY. IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE JUST HOLDING SOMETHING WITH YOUR IMAGINARY MUSCLE I MENTIONED EARLIER. THE LONGER YOU HOLD IT, THE HEAVIER IT GETS, UNTIL EVENTUALLY IT SLIPS OUT OF YOUR GRASP, YOUR MUSCLE OVERWORKED. WHEN THAT HAPPENS, AND YOUR ENERGY IS USED UP, YOUR BODY EXPERIENCES SOMETHING KNOWN AS SPIRITUAL BACKLASH. BASICALLY, THE ENERGY IN YOUR BODY SNAPS INSTANTLY BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL CONFORMATION. YOU MIGHT NOT THINK THAT SOUNDS TOO BAD, BUT YOUR BODY WILL BE WRACKED WITH PAIN. RATHER BAD PAIN, I MIGHT ADD. AFTER THIS HAPPENS, YOUR POWERS WILL BE USELESS FOR THE NEXT TWENTY FOUR HOURS. ANY QUESTIONS?"
Sam thought carefully through everything Prince Rainbow had said, and eventually came up with one thing that didn't sit well with him. "Not that I'm ungrateful for this information, but is there a reason you decided to tell me now? I mean, this seems like the kind of thing you could have done any time. So, why tell me about the looming threat of immense physical pain now, of all times?"
"YOU DON'T MISS A BEAT DO YOU? YOU PROBABLY HAVE IT MORE OR LESS FIGURED OUT. INDEED, THE REASON THAT I AM TELLING YOU IS BECAUSE ONCE WE LEAVE HERE, YOU HAVE ABOUT 40 SECONDS BEFORE THE BACKLASH SETS IN. ANOTHER REASON I CAME IN YOUR DREAMS IS BECAUSE THE HUMAN BRAIN CAN REGISTER ALL OF THIS CONVERSATION MUCH QUICKER THAN YOU COULD AWAKE. IT SEEMS LIKE WE HAVE BEEN HERE ABOUT 45 MINUTES, WHEN IN REALITY, YOU HAVE BEEN HAVING THIS DREAM FOR ABOUT 30 SECONDS NOW."
"Well that's just wonderful," said Sam. "So I'm going to wake up, go through intense pain, then probably get mauled by the seven rabbits that I'm going to surprise by turning into a human right in the middle of their warren." He sighed. "This looks to be a great morning."
Prince Rainbow responded, "I WILL BE THERE TO HELP YOU SAM. SAY ANYTHING, DO ANYTHING TO GET OUTSIDE. ONCE THERE, I WILL SEND THOSE RABBITS A SIGN THEY CANNOT POSSIBLY IGNORE. JUST HAVE FAITH IN ME. OH, AND SEEING AS YOU WILL BE LOSING YOUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE LAPINE LANGUAGE WHEN YOU LOSE THE BLUE POWER, I WILL BE TRANSLATING WHAT THEY SAY INTO YOUR MIND. BUT JUST FOR TODAY. CONSIDER IT MY APOLOGY FOR THIS OVERSIGHT."
Sam thought this through and figured that was as good as it was going to get. "Alright, Prince Rainbow, I guess that's all I can ask. I'm about as ready for this as it's possible to be." He cringed. "Let's go."
"VERY WELL," said Prince Rainbow. With those words, Sam suddenly felt himself falling, until he fell back to sleep.
Sam awoke with a start. As he looked around, he realized he was back in the burrow surrounded by sleeping rabbits. He was also back in his rabbit body. He barely had time to take all this in, when the effects of the backlash started. It began with a tightness in his chest, barely noticeable, but it soon spread until every muscle in his body tightening painfully. The energy left his limbs, just as Prince Rainbow said, but it was much quicker than Sam himself did the day before. The sensation felt like something was cutting through the inside of his body with a knife. Unable to withstand the pain, Sam yelled. This, of course, had the effect of waking up the other rabbits, who starred in shock and confusion as Sam writhed on the floor of the burrow.
Pipkin, being the caring fellow that he is, was the first one to say something. "Sunflower, what's wrong? Are you alright?" But even Pipkin was shocked by what happened next.
As Sam was on the ground suffering through the muscle spasms, it suddenly felt like his entire body was being engulfed in flames. The next thing he knew, he felt the same weakness he did when he first transformed, leaving him without the energy to move while suffering the pain in silence. Suddenly, an incredibly bright flash came from Sam's body that was so bright, it blinded for a few moments. As their vision cleared, they were frozen with shock to see a human boy lying where Sunflower had once been. As Sam was recovering, so were the rabbits.
"What in Frith's name…," began Hazel, who was at a loss as to what had just occurred. "Where did this…human…come from?
However, Bigwig had other ideas about how to handle the situation rather than idle wondering. Letting out a mighty battle cry, Bigwig soon had the boy pinned to ground, the same way he had pinned Sunflower just the other day. "Embleer ithè," he yelled with hatred clear in his voice, "what did you do with Sunflower? Tell me!" This he accented by pressing his claws further into Sam's shoulders, which would have pierced Sam's skin were it not for Prince Rainbow's special clothes.
Upon feeling the Bigwig's claws dig into his flesh, Sam snapped out of his pain-induced stupor. "It is me! Prince Rainbow changed me into a rabbit so I could help y- arrgh!" He was unable to finish his statement because upon hearing his story, Bigwig proceeded to deliver a raking slash across Sam's chest. This did make it through the shirt, and drew blood.
"Do you really think we bloody buy that? You humans are all the same, you'll do anything to destroy us rabbits for the smallest reason. Well you're not welcome here. And with such a prime opportunity, I don't know if we can miss such a chance to destroy a member of the deadliest kind of elil."
As Sam realized what he meant, he began to panic. Seeing the agreeing looks on the faces of all the rabbits except Blackberry and Pipkin, who had backed nearer to the entrance to stay out of any potential fighting, only increased his fears. "Wait," he said with desperation in his voice, "Prince Rainbow told me to go outside! If you'll just let me go…"
Hawkbit interrupted, "so you can just run? No way ithè, that trick isn't going to work on us, we're too clever," he finished with a vain look on his face.
Sam realized they would not listen to him, so he did what Prince Rainbow told him: he did anything to get out. Sam took a deep breath, and suddenly kneed Bigwig twice in the stomach, causing the large rabbit to collapse on top of him. He shoved Bigwig off of him and into Hazel, Hawkbit, and Dandelion, causing the four of them to become so tangled that Sam was able to slip by as Blackberry ran over to try and help them. Kehaar was the next to jump in Sam's way. The gull stood taller than Sam, and attempted to peck at the teen's shoulder with his sharp beak. Sam jumped out of the way and tackled Kehaar to the ground. Before the bird could react, Sam jumped up and ran. He continued his charge toward the entrance when Fiver made a half hearted attempt to tackle him back. Since Sam was actually bigger than Fiver, it was a simple move to shove him aside. Then, the only thing standing between Sam and the exit was a very scared looking Pipkin. This caused Sam to hesitate, and jump over the frightened buck instead of plow through him. Having gotten by all the rabbits, Sam burst out onto the hill top, where he stopped to take a breath. As he looked back, he saw the five bucks, minus Pipkin, hot on his trail, and soon they had him surrounded.
Alright Prince Rainbow, Sam thought to himself, whatever you're going to do, you should do it pretty dang soon! As he saw all five of the rabbits tense up for the attack that would finish him, he closed his eyes and braced himself. The seconds ticked by slowly, but Sam did not feel the crushing weight or the teeth tearing into his flesh like he expected. He opened his eyes just a bit, and saw all the rabbits, Hannah and Kehaar, staring at him with expressions of awe. As he opened his eyes the rest of the way, he saw what had them all so amazed: he was bathed in a pillar of rainbow that stretched straight down from the sky. As he looked up, he failed to realize his clothes were glowing. Surrounded by the bright light, his clothes changed.
Sam looked down and it was his turn to be amazed. Where before his clothes were grey and dull, they were now filled with color. Reds, blues, yellows, and every color in between swirled on Sam's shirt and pants. His cloths looked like a maelstrom of color. Sam took this in silence, awed at the colors of his garments. But while Sam was gawking at his new wardrobe, Hazel, Bigwig, Fiver, and Blackberry were having a serious discussion, while Pipkin, Kehaar, Hawkbit, Hannah, and Dandelion were only listening half-heartedly. They were still amazed by the pillar of rainbow.
Hazel was the first one to find to find his voice after the shock. "So, what now? This…we cannot ignore this. There is no doubt in my mind that he is who he says he is: Prince Rainbow's messenger. But a human! How? How do we handle this situation? Even El-ahrairah never had to do anything like this. For once, I must say that I don't have a clue what to do."
Bigwig had an answer come immediately to mind. "Hazel, we cannot let him stay. He's elil! That…ITHÈ, has no place among the good animals of Frith. That is why they are separate from the rest of nature: they can't help but destroy everything around them! I say we ask Prince Rainbow's forgiveness, and run him out, if not kill him outright!"
Blackberry did not agree. "Bigwig, we can't do that! If Prince Rainbow sent him here, then human or not, we should accept his help. There must be a good reason that he's been sent, we just need to find out what it is. I can't say that I'm comfortable with having a human living with us either, but I don't think we have a choice.
"Fiver," said Hazel after hearing the others' takes on the situation, "what do you think?"
With this question, Fiver sat for a minute and thought deeply. The others assumed he was trying to use his seer powers to look for any danger. But what he did next was a surprise to them all. He turned away from them and began slowly hopping towards Sam. Sam, who noticed that the leaders of the group of rabbits were talking and decided to stay quiet and wait for his verdict, was almost scared by the approaching rabbit, but he stood his ground. Fiver came and stood right in front of Sam, and the two of them looked deep into each other's eyes. After about a minute, Fiver smiled, and went back to the group of three. "I believe…he is good," Fiver said. "I can't be sure, but I sense no malice in him whatsoever. In fact, he's more scared of this whole situation than we are. I think that should we let him stay, we will find a true and powerful ally in him."
Pipkin, having remembered Sam's actions in the burrow, put in his own opinion. "I don't think he wants to hurt us. Back when we were underground and he was trying to escape, he could have hurt Fiver and I pretty badly while the rest of you were all tangled, but he didn't. He pushed Fiver aside, and he actually stopped and ran around me, and that's when he thought he was in danger. Why would he do that? I say we trust him."
"Tell that to my bruised tailfeathers," Kehaar grumbled.
"Sorry," Sam chimed in. "You're big. It was the only way to get by you."
"Embleer Frith," exclaimed Bigwig, "we can't do this! We cannot take in a human, it's unnatural! Just wait, if we let him stay, he'll wait until we lower our guard, and then he'll strike!"
Hazel considered this, but eventually relented. "It seems as if we have no choice Bigwig. Who are we to go against the word of Prince Rainbow? If he has sent this human to help us, then we must make the best of it." That decision made, Hazel, Fiver, Blackberry and Pipkin went over to Sam to explain the situation.
As they approached, Sam began tried to guess their intentions. Well, if it's those four, it can't be too bad, right? I mean, if they meant to kill me, surely Bigwig wouldn't be staying back. He finished his internal monologue just as the rabbits got close enough to talk to him, but still stayed a fair distance away. Hazel began.
"Sunflower, we have talked it over, and even though it goes against everything we've been taught about man, we will honor Prince Rainbow's wishes. You may stay, and help us if you can. We…are sorry about earlier. We should have tried to figure out how a rabbit could suddenly have turned into a man, instead of wantonly attacking."
After hearing this, Sam let out a deep breath that he did not realize he had been holding. "Well," he began, "that's a relief. Thank you, for trusting me. I swear to you that I'll make myself useful. And don't worry about attacking me, I completely understand. I mean, that had to have been rather unnerving, me just appearing like that. I honestly don't blame you. Oh, and my name is Sam by the way. I made up the name Sunflower since I couldn't really use a human name in rabbit body, could I?" He finished with an awkward laugh.
Pipkin returned with a laugh of his own, "No, I don't suppose that would have gone very well. Oh, and thank you for not hurting me earlier, I know it would have been easy."
Fiver continued with praise of his own. "Yes Sunflo- Sam, thank you from me as well. After the effortless way you shoved me aside, I was a bit scared to try attacking you again. But, I must say that your restraint is admirable, even in the face of danger. I could tell when I looked into your heart, you are a very merciful soul who truly has no desire to fight or hurt anyone."
Seeing Bigwig about to begin on his opinions, Hazel quickly interjected, "Yes well, we still have to explain to the rest about all of this." This statement made all of them look over at Hawkbit, Dandelion, Hannah, and Kehaar who were simply watching from the side.
The group of rabbits and Sam went over to their friends and explained the situation about how Sam was going to be staying with them. This sparked varying reactions, with Hawkbit being the first to voice his concerns. "For once in my life," he said, "I agree with Bigwig. I just think that it would be stupid to have a human staying so close to us, no matter how friendly he seems." But upon seeing the looks on the others' faces, he relented. "Ugh, fine. But we'll have our eyes on you…Sam, was it...don't doubt that." His part said, Hawkbit went to talk to Bigwig, presumably about Sam.
Dandelion was a bit more excited. "I think this is absolutely amazing! It has the making of the greatest story ever told, right up there with those of El-ahrairah. You and I must have a long talk about your world, Sam. There may never again be such an opportunity." This got a chuckle from Sam and a promise that sometime when they had a boring day, they would talk.
Hannah and Kehaar were both a bit leery about the idea, especially since Sam had tackled Kehaar. But in the end, they agreed. Hannah walked away mumbling something about rabbits being stranger than she remembered.
After everyone was up to speed, Blackberry brought their attention to an issue still facing them. "That burrow we slept in last night was fine and all, but we really must make it bigger. It barely fit the lot of us last night. Not to mention that hopefully there will be more that just us here." This instantly sparked an argument from Bigwig about the ridiculousness of bucks digging when traditionally it was does' work. Sam sat by the sidelines while the rabbits sorted the issues out, and it ended up with Bigwig, Hawkbit, and Dandelion going off to keep watch with the help of Hannah and Kehaar, while the rest of the rabbits went to dig.
As Sam saw the rabbits split, he walked up to Hazel. "So," he began, "what should I be doing?"
This question caught Hazel by surprise since had forgotten about Sam while they were arguing. "Um, I'm not sure really. We've never had to think about that before. Can you dig? That might be the best place for you right now, seeing as Bigwig has taken a bit of a disliking to you."
"Well, I can sure give it a shot," Sam said. "I don't really know how effective I'll be since humans aren't really built for that sort of thing, but I'm willing to try. Maybe I can use the knives to hack away at tough ground? Prince Rainbow told me they wouldn't break."
"Yes well, whatever you think is best," Hazel said awkwardly.
Digging was a new experience for Sam, he had never really done any kind of hard labor back in his world. But with Blackberry guiding him along with the other bucks who had as little experience digging as he did, their work began to take rough shape. They started by digging four burrows, but Sam encouraged them to dig two more after Hazel told him what the sleeping plans were going to be until everyone had their own burrow. The plan was for Hazel and Fiver to share a burrow, Hawkbit and Dandelion, Bigwig and Pipkin, Kehaar and Hannah, and Blackberry and Sam were going to have burrows of their own, making six necessary. The rabbits of course questioned digging more than they thought they needed to, since they could not count past four, and therefore could not grasp the issue. Sam tried to explain the concept of the number six, but eventually gave up and said, "We need hrair burrows, right? Well, we don't have hrair yet, so we need to keep going." That made much more sense to the rabbits.
During the time that they were digging, Sam made an effort to get to know his new companions a little better. He tried talking with Hazel and Blackberry, but both of them always became awkward when Sam was around, their speech becoming halting and not trying to carry a conversation along at all. Even Fiver was a bit hesitant around Sam, jumping easier and stuttering a lot. But Pipkin on the other hand could not get enough of the teen. The two ended up talking with each other the entire day, about anything and everything. Pipkin kept shooting question after question at Sam about his world, which Sam thought would have gotten annoying after awhile, but he just could not get mad at Pipkin's child-like innocence.
As Frith was setting below the horizon, the entire group gathered on the hill top for evening silflay. The rabbits, having done hard work all around, were so hungry that all they concentrated on was their food. None of them noticed Sam standing a little ways away looking out over the landscape. He was looking around for any source of food for a human. Since he was temporarily stuck in his human body, he had to see about something else to hold him over for the night. Grass was not as appealing an option as it was the other day. Not finding anything within easy reach (it was much too late for a raid on Nuthanger Farm), he tried to keep his mind off his hunger by walking around the hill. Once he saw the rabbits finishing, he went back up.
Sam made it back just in time for Hazel to address the group. "Alright everyone, we've had a good first day. Our home has made real strides in actually becoming a home, and Bigwig tells me there are no signs of elil around for quite a distance away from the down. Let's get some sleep, tomorrow is a busy day too."
As the rabbits began to hop toward the burrow, Sam felt a firm paw on his shoulders. He turned and saw Bigwig with a serious look on his face. He spoke quietly with no hint of joking in his voice, "Listen up ithè, you may have the others fooled, but not me. Humans have never been friends of rabbits, and as far as I'm concerned, they never will. Now you listen closely, because I will not repeat this: the others have decided to let you stay, and for now, I'll respect what my chief and friends decided. But if you give me one reason, any reason at all, to think that you pose a threat to anyone in this warren, and I promise, I will personally end you. Clear?" Sam managed a weak nod, and Bigwig too went off towards the warren.
Sam was pretty shaken by Bigwig's speech. You know, I didn't think meeting the Watership Down rabbit would go so…badly, he thought morosely to himself. It was with faltering steps that he made his own way to the warren, only to be greeted by a happy looking Pipkin.
"Hi Sam," the young rabbit began, "I was just waiting to say good night. What were you and Bigwig talking about? Did he finally patch things up with you?"
Sam chuckled a little bit, his spirits restored by the cheerful little rabbit. "Not quite. It was nothing important Pipkin, just…letting me know what he wants from me regarding the safety of the warren." Sam would have continued, but just then, his stomach growled.
"Are you alright Sam," Pipkin asked with genuine worry in his voice. "What was that strange noise?"
Too bad there aren't more humans as nice as him, thought Sam. "It was nothing," he said out loud, "I'm just a bit hungry." Sam explained his situation with the food. "But it's not that big of a deal. I'll be able to turn into a rabbit again tomorrow, so I can just eat big then."
This idea did not sit very well with Pipkin. "Sam, you worked just as hard as everyone else today, it's not fair that you don't get to eat. I'm sure we can find you something around the down. I'll go talk to Hazel and the others." He was just about to run to tell the other rabbits when Sam stopped him.
"Pipkin, it's alright, really. I don't want to cause any trouble, especially when everyone is so shaky about my being here anyway. I'll live with skipping a meal, but thank you for your concern. Just, head off to bed alright? I'll see you in the morning." Pipkin was about to protest, but closed his mouth quickly and hopped off with a thoughtful look on his face. Sam thought nothing of it as he went into his own burrow and lay down on the dirt floor. I don't know why I was expecting dirt to be softer. Oh well. I'd better get used to it, there's no telling how long I'll be here. After a while, he fell asleep.
Pipkin waited until he was sure Bigwig was asleep before he quietly crawled out of their shared burrow. He made his way to the entrance of the warren and slipped into the night. "Sam will be so happy when he wakes up to flayrah tomorrow morning. After all, it can't be that hard to find." With this thought in mind, he set off down the hill, unaware that he was not the only one out that night looking for a meal.