Chapter 16-Nighttime Rescue

Pipkin woke with a start, the smells of an unfamiliar burrow hitting his nose. He panicked until he remembered what had happened, though remembering did not do much to calm him. He looked around the burrow that the Efrafans had thrown him in the night before. If it were not for the two bulky guards watching the entrance, the burrow would have seemed perfectly normal.

"Um, excuse me," Pipkin said quietly, approaching the guards, "could you tell me what I'm doing here? I would really like to leave please."

"Too bad!" a guard with a nasty scar across his face yelled back. "You're to stay here until General Woundwort wants you!"

"Which he does. Move."

The guards both jumped at the sudden appearance of Woundwort. With a glare from him, they made their way quickly down the passage and away from the little prisoner. One they were gone, Woundwort put on a kindly looking face and turned back to Pipkin.

"Hello Pipkin," he said in a softer voice than anyone in Efrafa had ever heard from him, "my name is General Woundwort. How are you doing today? Did you sleep well?"

Pipkin was confused by this treatment. From what he had heard, Woundwort was supposed to be incredibly cruel. He cautiously answered, "I…did, thank you. But I was wondering if you might let me go home? The others must be awfully worried."

"Of course you can go home," Woundwort responded good-naturedly. "Oh, but it can be very dangerous out there alone. I insist you have an escort. You can lead the way, and they'll follow to make sure you come to no harm."

Pipkin's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Um, thank you for the kind offer, but I'll be alright on my own. I know the way back, and I know how to fight."

Though annoyance was beginning to break though his façade, Woundwort kept a smile on his face. "I'm afraid I can't allow that. You either have to leave here with an escort, or you can't leave at all. But it's not so bad, there's plenty of food and no elil. You'll have a wonderful life in Efrafa!" Those outsiders will never know what hit them, Woundwort thought to himself, if I can't get this runt to lead me to their warren, them I can at least turn him against them.

Pipkin, however, had other ideas. "No! You can't keep me here! I'll get out whether you like it or not!"

Woundwort sighed. "Alright, enough of this." He hit Pipkin hard, sending him into the wall. Before the little buck could get up, the General was standing over him with a paw heavy on his chest. "Now I'll try this again, Pipkin, will you tell me where your warren is?"

Though obviously frightened, Pipkin just shook his head.

"Why do you fight me?" Woundwort asked. "If you give into your fear and just tell me, your life will be much easier."

At his words, Pipkin's face changed from one of fear to pure determination. "I don't give in to fear. It's a lesson Bigwig taught me. He said that you can use fear to make you stronger as long as you don't let it overwhelm you. And yes, General, I do fear you, but I fear losing my friends much more."

Woundwort glared at the little buck. "Fine then, we have ways of making you tell us. Vervain!" Pipkin looked to the entrance of the burrow where Vervain walked in with a cruel look on his face. "You know what to do Vervain, make him talk." Woundwort removed his paw from Pipkin and exited the burrow.

"With pleasure, sire," Vervain said as he shot a sadistic smile at Pipkin.

Despite their extensive training, it took all the willpower the guards at the entrance had not to flinch as they heard screams of pain echo through the run.

(Line Break)

Meanwhile at Watership Down, Sam was sitting in a corner of the Honeycomb watching the cacophony before him. As it turned out, while the older members of the warren had been dealing with Cowslip and Efrafa, Pipkin had not been wasting his time: he had been making friends. Lots of friends. Once the word got out that Pipkin had been kidnapped, creatures of every kind flocked to the warren, asking to help. Sam saw mice, hedgehogs, squirrels, and even a bat sent as a representative of the rest of his clan. Hazel was standing on a pedestal at the front of the group trying to quiet the various squeaks and chattering that filled the warren. Sam saw him sigh and say something to Bigwig before the owsla captain moved to the front of the platform.

"Oi! Be quiet!" Bigwig's voice boomed throughout the Honeycomb, making all other noise die as the gathered animals turned their attention to the rabbits. "That's better. All yours, Hazel."

Hazel choked back a laugh as he took the floor again. "Thanks, Bigwig, and thank you all for coming. It's truly amazing to see what an impact Pipkin has had on everyone assembled. As of right now, we don't have a plan for getting him to safety. We ask that all species here leave one representative to help with the planning, and they will pass the plan along once we have it. And believe me, we will have a plan. Together, we can save Pipkin!" His speech was met with loud cheers from dozens of animals, followed by a large exodus, with only a handful left as Hazel had instructed.

Sam approached as Hazel began the planning meeting. "Thank you for your help everyone," Hazel said, "now let's work out how we're going to save Pipkin. Ah, Sunflower, do you have any ideas?"

Sam looked at the creatures assembled and found an immediate problem: he didn't know what half of them were. He told Hazel so and the chief began listing off the species gathered so fast that Sam could barely keep track of it all. Shrews, moles, voles, water rats, mice, bats. Hazel was about to explain what each of their strength was when Sam stopped him. "Ya know Hazel, maybe this part would be better done by you guys. I'm not really following all of what you're saying, and I would hate to screw this up just from a misunderstanding."

Hazel nodded his head, understanding. "Alright, if that's what you think is best. But what will you do?"

Sam flashed him a sly smile. "Don't worry. I'll be thinking of ways I can use my unique talents to help out." Hazel smiled knowingly and granted him leave to go.

Sam walked outside and sat close to the tree, trying to ignore the worry for Pipkin that had been plaguing him for the past few days at bay while we thought. So, how do I do this, he thought to himself. Maybe I should take a trip down to the farm? They would probably have stuff to deter rabbits. Oh, but it would probably be lethal stuff, and I don't really want to kill them. At least, not if I can avoid it. Though he had fought rabbits before, the thought of killing one repulsed him as much as if he were talking about a human. Hm, how about…leg snares? Hey, that could work! And I know just where to get some too.

Stopping only to tell the first rabbit he saw, which happened to be Clover, that he would be gone for a while, Sam set off towards Cowslip's warren. He wasn't walking long when he sensed someone following him. Almost sure he knew who it was, Sam broke into a sprint and leapt into some bushes, hiding from his pursuer. He saw paws stop in front of his hiding place and he jumped out, surprising the other rabbit as she fell to the ground. Sam chuckled before he spoke, "I knew it was you, Glade."

She lay on the ground looking up at Sam. "How did you know I was following you?"

"I just kind of assumed," he said as he helped her up. "You tend to follow me everywhere."

Her ears drooped at his statement. "Oh, I'm sorry Sam."

Realizing that his words sounded harsher than he had intended, Sam quickly added, "It's not a bad thing! It feels good to know that somebody cares enough to watch out for me. And come on, you're my best friend here. There's no one else I'd rather have follow me around."

Glade just smiled back. "I thought you could use some company. You've been really down the past few days."

"I just feel bad about Pipkin getting captured. I'm really worried about him. How do we know that they're going to hold up their end of the bargain? There's only so much Campion can do."

Glade lowered her head. "We just have to hope Sam. Even though he's young, Pipkin is strong. I know he'll make it through. The only thing we can do is be ready to save him when the time comes. Which reminds me, where are we going?"

"Cowslip's warren. I'm going to take some of their snares to use against the Efrafans in a couple days." Glade froze when he said that. Sam looked back to see an appalled look on her face. "No no," he said quickly, "not to kill them, I'm going to lay the snares low so that only their feet get caught."

Glade released a deep breath. "Oh thank Frith, Sam. I thought you meant to try and kill them all."

Sam shuddered at the thought. "Oh God no. I would never do that. It's not like the Efrafans are evil, they're just following the orders of a misguided leader. They don't deserve that."

Glade nodded and the two continued on their way to Cowslip's warren. As they walked, Sam felt a small measure of pride that he actually knew where he was going. He would need to thank Fiver and Glade again for their help. And Holly too, he supposed. It wasn't long before Sam knew they were close to the warren. He stopped and turned to Glade.

"You know, it would probably be a lot easier if we didn't tell them we were here. I'd rather not have to deal with Cowslip again. And it's not like they're going to have any kind of sentries out, so as long as we stay out of sight of the warren, we'll be set."

Glade nodded. "Alright Sam, lead the way."

Sam turned to his human form in preparation for the work. Despite his rabbit body usually being more useful, his human form was still best at tackling human annoyances like snares. They walked around in the foliage as Sam collected every snare he found. They had made it almost half way around the warren and Sam was a bit annoyed. He had only found three snares so far, when before he would have found at least seven. Not that it was bad that there was less, but he really could have used them. He was broken out of his thoughts, however, when he heard a sudden rustling in the bushes to his left.

"Sunflower and…Glade was it? What are you doing out here? I sensed you out here and I was waiting for you to come to the warren but-"

The speech stopped as Sam saw a stunned Silverweed walk out of the bushes and stare at him. Wow, Sam thought to himself, this just gets better and better, doesn't it? Sam tried to get the mystic to come to his senses. "Uh, hi there Silverweed. Long time no see. How's it been?"

The mystic slowly shook his head as he muttered to himself, ignoring Sam's words. "…can't be true. A human? Can't be possible, they don't…humans just don't…"

"Um, Silverweed?"

"How is this possible?" Silverweed said suddenly. "You are Sunflower, I can sense it. You feel the same as you did when you and Fiver came last time. But what is this trickery? Why do you look like that? Is this some kind of mystic power I haven't yet seen?"

Sam shook his head quickly. "No Silverweed, it's me, it really is. I'm sorry we didn't tell you earlier. It's not exactly the thing we lead with when we're trying to get someone on our side." Sam told Silverweed about how he came to be there, explaining his powers, and his conversations with Prince Rainbow. He concluded, "…and so I'm just here to help however I can."

Silverweed hesitantly nodded. "I…think I understand. It does explain why I wasn't able to get inside your mind though: you have divine protection. But Sunflower, or Sam as it may be, you can understand, considering my background, that I may be a bit slow to trust a human."

Sam nodded his head sadly. "Yeah, I can understand. But I swear to you, I'm on your side. I'm doing everything I can to help them."

It was just then that Silverweed noticed that Sam was carrying snares behind him. "What do you plan to do with those?" he asked, suspicion and anger plain in his voice.

"It's not what you think! I just need them to hold up some enemies of ours for a while. I'm going to set them on the ground so that only their paws get caught. They're not going to die, I'm sure of it."

"Why do you need them?" Sam winced, hoping he wouldn't have to explain about Pipkin being captured. Silverweed scoffed after hearing Sam's tale. "Doing everything you can to help, eh? Must not be worth very much if you can't even keep them safe." Sam didn't have a response, and just lowered his head in guilt.

"How dare you!" Sam and Silverweed looked as Glade, shocked over the outburst. "He saved Clover and me. He and Bigwig managed to get Primrose out of Efrafa. If Sam hadn't intervened, the Black Rabbit might have taken our chief! He's done more for us than anyone else, and I will not stand by and let you belittle him over something that wasn't his fault!"

"Glade…"

"Alright." Sam looked back to Silverweed in surprise. "I…apologize, Sam. Clearly you are doing much more than I'm aware of, if such a pure-hearted rabbit would vouch for you. After all I've been through in this place, you would think I would have learned better than to let it cloud my judgment. Of course not all humans are bad. You're living proof of that. Will you forgive me?"

Sam was a little taken aback with Silverweed's formal tone. "Dude, you really need to loosen up. We're friends. Of course I forgive you."

"Friends," Silverweed said quietly, allowing a bit of humor in his voice, "such a foreign concept. But alright, Sam," he said with a smile," friends it is." Silverweed perked up suddenly. "Oh, I just remembered the reason I came out here to talk with you in the first place. Hickory and Marigold are ready to meet you. The rest still need some work, but they're coming along nicely. There are whispers of dissention beginning to crop up in the warren. But the two of them would like to meet you sooner so you can start teaching them how to live on the outside. When should I send them?"

Sam considered that. The meeting to save Pipkin was going to take place in two days, and even though Sam would have preferred to wait longer, he was constrained by the limited counting system of rabbits. "Can you send them our way in four days? Hopefully everything will be back to normal by then and we'll actually have some effort to spare teaching them."

Silverweed nodded. "Agreed, I'll let them know. Thank you Sam, and Glade. Now, I should get back to the warren before Cowslip misses me." He turned to go, then said over his shoulder, "Good-bye…friends." Then he disappeared.

Sam and Glade finished their circle around the warren, finding four more snares, bringing the total up to seven. As they were walking back to Watership Down, Sam still in his human form to carry the snares, he turned to Glade.

"Hey Glade," he said, "thanks for the help back there. With Silverweed I mean."

"I meant everything I said. We really do owe you a lot you know."

Sam chuckled. "Oh come on, it's no big deal."

Glade stopped in front of Sam and turned to face him. "Yes it is, Sam. You have done a lot for us, more then we remember sometimes. You've done so much for this warren, for me personally. Just…thank you, for being here." She said that as she nuzzled his face.

"Well, I sure don't plan on leaving soon."

(Line Break)

It was late evening when they returned to the warren. Sam stored the snares in a safe place in the woods and returned to rabbit form in case any other animals were still about. There were not, however. Just the rabbits at the top of the hill. Clover came over to them as they crested the hilltop.

"Where were you, Sam?" she asked. "Hazel and Bigwig have been looking all over for you. They're going to see Campion tonight and were going to see if you wanted to go."

"Absolutely," Sam said, "come on, Glade, let's go find them. Maybe they got a plan figured out too."

"Actually, I think I'll sit this one out," Glade said. "I'm not really the best planner, just let me know what you decide." Sam nodded and left. It didn't take long to find them, and soon the three were on their way through the cave. They exited close to the bridge and followed Hazel as he led the way towards the woods across the river from Efrafa.

"The meeting place should be this way," he said. "Campion said it was by the biggest tree in the woods, which is supposed to be pretty close to the clearing we met in two nights ago." They came out from the bushes to see a very large tree in front of them, even bigger than the beech tree at the top of the down. Campion soon stepped out from behind the tree.

"Hazel," he said in greeting, nodding his head to the chief.

"Hello, Campion," Hazel replied, "how has everything been? Is Pipkin well?"

"I'm sorry Hazel, I haven't been able to see him. Woundwort has him under heavy guard and nobody gets in except for Vervain and himself. And I have more bad news. I'm sure it should come as no surprise to you that Woundwort intends to double cross you. He plans on coming to the clearing personally, along with Vervain and myself. However, he's going to have three patrols sneak around the side and surround you and anyone you bring with. I hope you have a good plan."

Sam though furiously. Three patrols… "Campion, is every patrol the same size? One leader and four others?" Campion nodded. "Hm, that's fifteen then."

"What's 'fifteen?'" Bigwig interjected.

Sam shook his head dismissively. "Don't worry about it Bigwig. Just let me worry about the logistics, alright?" He had tried teaching the rabbits numbers beyond just four, with no success. Pipkin did the best, remembering the number five for a grand total of maybe three minutes before it became "hrair" again. "Suffice to say, we're going to have to take out the majority of them. Hazel, what did you guys come up with while we were gone?"

"There were a few ideas," Hazel said. "We have a lot of animals capable of digging so that's probably going to be our best weapon. We can have them dig pitfalls underground so that when their owsla walks over them, they should be taken out long enough for us to get away. Darkling said he and the other bats can dive on anyone who gets by the holes."

Sam nodded. "That's good, we can work with that. I also grabbed a few snares from Cowslip's warren to catch feet. Only feet." He said that in response to Campion's suspicious looks.

"How can you be sure you'll only catch paws?" Campion asked.

Sam smiled before he answered. "I'm going to lay them on the ground. I don't know how Efrafa does things, but I haven't seen any of our owsla dragging their face on the ground when they're trying to sneak up on someone."

Campion growled lightly at the boy's sarcasm but nodded his head anyway. "Just be sure that's all you do. I may disagree with Woundwort, but that doesn't mean I'm alright with the slaughter of my owsla."

"I wouldn't do that. Campion," Sam said seriously, "I don't like the thought of pointless killing either. I swear, none of them will die."

"Alright then. Now, how are we going to do this?"

Sam considered carefully before answering. "Alright, here's my thought: Me, Hazel, Bigwig, and Fiver will be in the clearing waiting for you, Vervain, Woundwort, and Pipkin. We'll have a couple of pitfalls there to try and take the other two out. The majority of our efforts will be in the surrounding area. That's where we're going to dig most of the pitfalls and where I'm going to lay the snares. That should take most of the owsla out, but we'll have a few fighters of our own out there, just in case. We'll split the bats into three sections, one on each side, and one in the middle with us. Their job is to push the rabbits into our traps. Does that sound good?"

"And you just came up with that?" Bigwig asked in amazement. Sam nodded. "We might have to have a talk on tactics after this is all over. That's brilliant."

Sam smiled. "Thanks. So Campion, if you can make Woundwort and Vervain come in through that opening," he gestured to a clear break in the undergrowth, "we'll position the traps on the outside of that, making a safe path down the middle. It won't do any good if they discover what we have going on too soon."

Campion nodded. "Alright, I can do that. I should get back. I said I was doing a bit of late night patrolling and if I take any longer, they may come looking for me. Thank you Hazel, Bigwig, Sunflower."

"Be safe, Campion," Hazel said as he and Bigwig turned to go.

"Campion," Sam said as the other rabbits left, "just so you know, you can call me Sam if you want. That's my real name, I just made up the Sunflower thing because I needed a name for my rabbit form."

"I'd rather not," the captain replied. Sam cocked his head in a silent question. "I don't see it in you. You…have been a human, I've seen it, but it doesn't seem right. The name Sunflower fits you. Do you understand?"

Sam shrugged his shoulders. "Not really, but whatever floats your boat I guess. Take care, Campion."

"You as well…Sunflower."

(Line Break)

Two nights later, Sam sat with Hazel, Fiver, and Bigwig in the clearing where they were supposed to meet Woundwort. It had been a challenge, but with a lot of work in the past two days, they had managed to get all the traps ready. Sam had reasoned that Woundwort would send two patrols around one side and one to the other, so both sides were equipped to deal with two patrols-worth of rabbits. There had been a lot of coaxing to keep everyone digging enough to satisfy the boy, since the other animals were no better at counting than the rabbits. Sam had set out the snares and covered them each with a layer of fallen leaves. Splitting the bats up had been easy, with their leader, Darkling, being very accommodating. He had about twenty percent of them in the middle with the rest spread evenly along the other two sides. In the woods behind them were hiding members of their own owsla, ready to deal with any Efrafans that got through the trap field. Sam sat in the clearing feeling relatively confident.

They were ready.

There was movement in the clearing they had directed Campion to come through just as Sam felt some raindrops hit his head. Great, he though in annoyance, just what we need. The rain increased until it was falling steadily. It was then that Campion came though the bushes, followed by the imposing form of General Woundwort. Sam assumed Vervain followed in the back with Pipkin. When Campion came into view, Sam saw a distinct change in his face. Where he was initially emotionless and serious, as soon as he saw them, his face filled with sadness. Sam worried at the sudden change in the usually stoic captain.

"Alright, Woundwort," Hazel yelled, "we're here. Where's Pipkin?"

"You fulfilled your part of the bargain," Woundwort's bass voice carried easily though the rain, "so we will fulfill ours. Vervain?"

The smaller rabbit stepped around his large chief. Through the rain, which was now falling heavily, Sam saw Vervain jerk his head, followed by something flying through the air. It landed about two feet away from them with a grunt.

It was Pipkin!

"Pipkin!" Sam yelled in worry. Pipkin had numerous bad looking scratches on his legs and sides, none of which looked cared for. Upon closer inspection, Sam found that he also had welts on his face, probably from multiple hits. His ears had scratches on them, and the left one was missing a large chunk of flesh. Sam felt anger boiling inside him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hazel yelled angrily. "You said he wouldn't be harmed!"

Vervain chuckled darkly. "I believe I said, 'if you want to see him alive again.' He's alive, and you've seen him."

"Hazel…rah?" Sam and the other looked down as they heard Pipkin speak. He opened his eyes and smiled weakly. "I'm…alright, Hazel. I didn't tell them anything."

"Too bad you won't get a chance to catch up," Woundwort said. "Owsla! Get them!"

The tension was palpable as both groups of rabbits waited, but nothing happened. The three Efrafans, Campion included, looked around in confusion. Bigwig's chuckling brought their attention back to the Watership rabbits. "Nice try, now it's our turn. Darkling! Go!" His call was answered by a small fleet of bats diving down at the Efrafans. Campion gave a small chuckle, and jumped into Vervain, pretending to avoid the bats. They fell into a hole with Campion landing hard on Vervain. Woundwort didn't cower, and actually tried to attack some of them.

"We need to get Pipkin out of here while Woundwort's distracted," Fiver said.

Bigwig nodded. "You and Hazel do that, Sam and I will hold off Woundwort." They nodded and gently dragged Pipkin back towards where their soldiers were hiding. "You ready, Sunflower?" he asked, turning to the boy. Bigwig was taken aback by the pure rage on his face.

"Let's do this."

They heard what could only be described as a roar. They turned to see Woundwort barreling down on them. Bigwig answered with his own battle cry as he and Woundwort jumped at each other and locked in a grapple. While they were struggling, Sam snuck behind Woundwort and kicked out his leg, causing him to topple backwards and putting Bigwig on top. They struggled for only a couple of seconds until Woundwort threw Bigwig off of him with a loud yell. The Watership captain hit a tree and slumped to the ground, unconscious. Sam tried to attack the General before he regained his footing, but was easily thrown aside by the more experienced fighter. Sam landed hard and looked up to see Woundwort quickly closing on Bigwig, who was still out. Sam knew he wouldn't be able to get there in time.

Woundwort stood over the fallen rabbit and raised his paw to strike the final blow. Suddenly, he was blown off his feet and sent across the clearing, hitting a dead tree. He shook his head to regain his bearings, and saw a human standing in the middle of the clearing, glaring at him with a look of pure hatred. Before he could get a word out of his mouth, the human glanced up and threw another of those green balls, this time hitting the tree that Woundwort was still lying against. He heard a crack and looked up to see a mess of branches falling to meet him.

Sam looked on in satisfaction as a large amount of branches fell on Woundwort from the tree above. It was probably not enough to hurt the large rabbit, but was certainly enough to trap him. Sam began to walk towards the fallen general when he heard a gasp behind him. He turned and saw a rabbit he didn't recognize, quickly joined by more. They must have been the Efrafan soldiers that got out of the pitfalls and snares. Sam generated a green ball in each hand as he turned to face them. "Run," he told them in a threatening voice, "get out of here." They hesitated until he launched one of the balls at them. In a flash, they were gone.

"Come back here you cowards," Woundwort yelled after his retreating owsla, "humans are nothing to be feared, especially one so small!"

"Small or not," Sam said as he knelt by the pinned rabbit, "I was still enough to take you down. He pulled out his knife and held it gently by Woundwort's throat. The large rabbit froze, but strangely, had only rage on his face instead of fear as might be expected. "I told myself that you weren't evil. That you just needed to be shown the right way, and turned away from this cruelty. But after what you've done to Pipkin, for the sole purpose of finding and killing us, I see I was wrong. If you mess with my friends, you mess with me. Now, any last words?"

"No…Sam. Don't…do it."

Sam looked to his side to see Pipkin standing there on shaking legs. His eyes were pleading with Sam.

"Pipkin, it has to be done. Just look at what this monster did to you! He won't hesitate to do that to any of us. Or worse! He has to be stopped."

Pipkin shook his head, his voice gaining strength. "But not like this. Not when he's defenseless and can't fight back. That's what he does. Don't be him, Sam."

"He's right, Sam," Glade said as she stepped out of the woods next to Pipkin, moving to prop the smaller rabbit up. "This isn't you. Didn't you say that killing for no reason didn't appeal to you? We've already won this fight. There's no reason to continue this."

Sam looked at them in disbelief. "But he-" Then he stopped. Sam let their words sink in, and lowered the knife away from the still snarling General's throat. He bent down close to Woundwort's face and spoke quietly. "You're lucky, you evil bastard, that my friends have more grace than you. If it were up to me, you'd be dead right now. But listen carefully: if I didn't already have enough reasons to hate you with everything you've done to your people, this has clinched it. You don't hurt my friends and get away with it unpunished. I will kill you, so you can't do this to anyone else. Believe that."

He got up slowly and walked over to Bigwig and shook him a few times to awaken him. They walked over to Pipkin and Glade. "Let's go," Sam said as he gently picked Pipkin up, "let's get out of here." They nodded and followed Sam back towards the cave, counting on the rain to cover their tracks.

As Sam walked away, he failed to hear Woundwort's reply. "I'm ready for you, Messenger. Mark my words, things will be different this time."

(Line Break)

It wasn't long before everyone was back in the warren, wet and cold, but safe none the less. Blackberry was inspecting Pipkin to make sure none of his wounds were life threatening.

"They're not," Holly said sadly. As everyone looked at him in confusion, he continued, "In the…less peaceful times back in Sandleford, I've had to give many of those same wounds myself. They're meant to inflict pain, nothing more. They sting terribly and bleed a lot, but none are life threatening."

"They tortured him…" Sam said quietly to himself. Feeling his anger rise, he quickly turned and left the warren, preferring to be out in the fresh air, the rain having since cleared up. He paced furiously. I should have done it, he thought to himself, I should have ignored them and done it. The bastard had it coming! But he stopped as he remembered the looks on Glade's and Pipkin's faces: they were begging him to stop, they felt sadness at his anguish, but now Sam realized there was another emotion there. They were scared of me…

"Sam?"

He turned quickly and saw Glade standing a few feet away with a concerned look on her face. "Are you alright Sam? You left so quickly, and you looked so angry."

Sam closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, before he sat down, facing away from the warren and Glade. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I don't know what happened. I…seeing Pipkin like that just made me so angry. I…I almost went too far. You were right, you both were. That wasn't me. Thank you. Glade, for helping me."

Glade came closer and lay down next to Sam. "Sam, we're here for you whenever you need us. We told you this already, you don't need to do everything alone. You can do all these amazing things, but that doesn't mean you're perfect, and it doesn't mean you don't need help sometimes. Just…let us know."

"Thanks, Glade," Sam said as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a sitting hug. "You're the best."

"Yeah," she responded wryly, "I know."

"Glade! Sam!"

The two broke out of their peaceful moment to see Clover running towards them from the warren. "Come on you two," she said quickly, "you have to come back. Primrose has some wonderful news." They followed Clover back into the warren to find everyone gathered in the Honeycomb.

Hazel nodded to Primrose and she walked to the front of the group. "This was a hard night," she said. "But I believe that this proves that we can beat Efrafa, we're stronger than them. I have faith we will win this, I have faith in the future. It is this faith that allows me to feel confident in giving my kittens their names." Hazel nudged the three up towards their mother. Primrose gestured to the first one, a white doe. "My daughter, your name will be Snowdrop." She continued with the other doe, a light brown rabbit that got the name Gillia. Then came the buck. "For my son's name, I wish to honor a dear friend of mine. He was with me during my captivity in Efrafa, and I don't know that I would have made it here without him. My son, your name will be Blackavar."

Sam smiled and cheered with the rest of the rabbits at the conclusion of the Naming Ceremony. He liked the names chosen, but his gaze lingered over the newly dubbed Blackavar. I'll do better this time, he thought to himself and to his deceased namesake. I won't let anything happen to you. You will be a reminder to me, little one. A reminder to be more vigilant and do whatever I can to protect my friends. No matter how much of myself I have to give.