AUTHOR'S NOTE: if you haven't read Tales from Watership Down, Rithla is a young buck who lives in Efrafa and acts as a messenger between the three warrens, and Nyreem is a young doe who lives at Watership Down.

""I don't want tea," said Clary, with muffled force. "I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them."

"Unfortunately," said Hodge, "we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing.""

-Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

The next day, most of the rabbits were still sleeping ni-Frith, when a few started to wake up. This was the first time they had managed to get enough sleep since they first arrived at the warren. Previously, they had always been woken up early to participate in a challenge.

Eventually, most of the rabbits had woken up, and were either relaxing in the great burrow or out to silflay. After a while, Bluebell joked:

-"Well, it looks like that prince won't force us to do anything today!"

-"But you are WRONG!" shouted Prince Rainbow. "And stop making fun of me, or I'll send you back to Cowslip's warren!" ("Hey, what's wrong with my warren?" said Cowslip). "There is no challenge today, but there are still rules! You will be kept confined underground all day. You may silflay and pass hraka now, but after you are done I will fill up all the holes and only reopen them tonight. Hurry up, I don't have all day! The Black Rabbit has been complaining again, and I have to go tend to his wounds"

The rabbits spent the next fifteen minutes or so at silflay, with some of them carrying grass underground to eat later. Once everyone was back underground in the main burrow, Prince Rainbow closed all exits.

-"General, you were wrong to say what you told Bigwig the other day, about Hyzenthlay," said Hazel.

Under normal circumstances, Woundwort would have killed Hazel, but he was afraid. Nearly all the other rabbits had great respect for the Chief (except Cowslip, but he was useless in a fight), and if he dared to harm him, everyone else would quickly fight back and incapacitate him. The fight would be hrair against one, and with the does now much healthier than when in Efrafa, the General wouldn't have a chance. Therefore, he decided to mentally torment Hazel instead:

-"I do what I like, you filthy buck!"

-"I hate you!"

-"I'm the king of the warren, so SHUT UP!"

Hazel then stormed off to his burrow.

-"How many times do I have to remind you that I am king of the warren!" retorted Prince Rainbow.

-"That doesn't make any sense: you're Prince Rainbow, not King Rainbow!"

Meanwhile, two does were in Hazel's burrow, trying to comfort him.

-"Oh, Woundwort is so mean!" he cried.

-"You are absolutely right! He is such a mean jerk," replied Nelthilta, doing her best to make sure Woundwort heard every word.

Hyzenthlay then gestured at Nelthilta to leave the burrow. Once she was alone with her mate, she nuzzled him softly, and lied down next to him. Hazel flopped on his side and pressed her closely against him.

-"I love you Hyzenthlay. You're so kind, so brave, so beautiful. It's hard to believe an amazing rabbit like you could possibly exist."

-"I love you too Hazel. I'm so grateful you did for me. I never want to leave you."

-"We will always be together."

-"Always." Hazel and Hyzenthlay lovingly nuzzled each other.

Meanwhile in the great burrow...

-"Where is everybody, Cowslip?" said Bluebell with a smirk.

-"STOP ASKING ME WHERE! STOP ASKING ME WHERE!"

Realizing that everyone was staring at him, Cowslip muttered:

-"It gets on my nerves."

-"Where where where where where. Hrair times where!"

Out of anger, Cowslip lunged at Bluebell, only to find himself rapidly pinned to the ground and begging for his life, just like the previous summer when Holly had attacked him.

-"No, please don't kill me Bluebell! I'll do anything you say! Please..."

-"Then tell me where we are now."

-"In...in a warren somewhere..."

-"Where in the warren?"

-"In...in the...the largest burrow..."

-"Where is your warren?"

Bluebell asked hrair other questions before finally letting Cowslip get back on his paws. He then went back to his burrow, asking the General to come with him so they could speak privately.

-"I'd like you to teach me how to fight. I am so sick and tired of being bullied by these rabbits. Seriously, everyone seems to hate me for no reason! I want to do something about it."

Meanwhile, the other rabbits slowly left the great burrow. Fiver and Vilthuril went to their burrow to entertain Pipkin with a story, leaving only Nelthilta and Bluebell there. Suddenly, dirt started falling from the ceiling. Within a few seconds, a small hole had opened, and a head came out of it; it was Kehaar.

Bluebell wasted no time. He quickly approached the hole and spoke a secret message in hedgerow. Just before he could finish, however, Prince Rainbow boomed:

-"Didn't I tell you that only Lapiné was to be spoken?

-"I don't think you did..."

-"And you Kehaar? How dare you destroy my warren! It took me days to build it to my satisfaction! And you just ruined it! As if I didn't have enough work already!"

-"So sorry, Meester Ranbow."

Kehaar flew away, and came back moments later with something in his beak. He dropped it on the burrow floor.

-"Hav sum feesh?"

Bluebell took one sniff at the dead fish, and ran out of the burrow, thoroughly disgusted, leaving Prince Rainbow alone with Nelthilta and Kehaar. Prince Rainbow threw a fireball at the fish, disintegrating it.

-"I don't want any feesh! Get out of here!"

-"Well, it seems we shall finally have this private talk I've been wanting to have with you ever since I arrived," said Nelthilta after Kehaar had left.

Prince Rainbow sighed. He knew Nelthilta well, and whenever she started talking, there was no stopping her, and she was not always nice with her words. Nevertheless, he replied:

-"You may speak."

-"Well, I must say you are just an embleer wandering hlessi down in the world, almost as bad as u hrair, but a snake could strangle you, and frankly, why did you put me in the water? If there's one thing I hate more than the General, it is swimming. How I would love to make you dig the hraka ditch, and did I tell you that..."

Meanwhile at Efrafa, Campion was in the middle of a heated discussion with the members of the Council. When he and Nelthilta had taken much longer than expected to come back from Vleflain, the Council had sent Rithla to check up on them. The previous evening, Rithla had returned to Efrafa with the news that the two rabbits had never even arrived there. One of the rabbits on the Council, instead of sending out a patrol to look for them, decided that they were dead and proclaimed himself the new Chief Rabbit of Efrafa. He was one of the older members of the council, and used to be one of General Woundwort's most trusted advisers. Campion knew that this was not going to end well unless he did something to stop him.

Suddenly, a loud noise and some vibrations came from the pipe at the entrance of the Council's burrow. A dark shape blocked the entrance, plunging the burrow in near-total darkness. Most of the councillors panicked, and a few started digging an escape tunnel. Only Campion remained calm.

-"Yes, what is it Kehaar?"

-"Meester Campvon, Meester Pluepell, 'e got message for you."

-"What is this message?"

-"'e say, you invade udder town of rabbit. De von vith Meester Ranbow."

-"Well, I'll see what I can do about that. Is there anything else?"

-"Nah, nah, noddings."

-"All right. Thank you Kehaar. But next time, please scream at us to let us know you're here, instead of just dropping on us like you did just now. You scared half the council to death!"

-"Scream at ya? Like dis? YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK! YARK YARK YARK!"

-"...yes, that would be fine, Kehaar. Thank you."

-"You see what he's doing?" screamed the rebel councillor. "There he is, sitting calmly and talking with elil! You call this a good Chief?"

-"That's not elil!" replied Campion. "That's Kehaar! The white bird who helped us establish Vleflain!"

It was true that Kehaar had been extremely important in establishing the warren. Without him, the process would have been much more complicated. But a few rabbits were still afraid: the legends of the great white bird with supernatural powers still persisted.

-"Anyway, as I was saying," continued Campion, "we shall have to invade another warren."

This statement was met by a collective groan.

-"Are you tharn? Don't you remember what happened last time? The General and half the owsla died!"

-"That's the problem. The General is not dead. He fought the Black Rabbit...and actually won the battle."

The rebel councillor stared at Campion for a few seconds as if he were a human, before exploding.

-"Are you saying he's come back from beyond? Have you been playing with burning white human sticks again?"

-"Yes he has, and no I haven't. The General is at that warren we're going to have to invade, along with Nelthilta and several rabbits from the warren on Watership Down. Prince Rainbow is keeping them there against their will. We have to..."

-"You're getting old, Campion. You're imagining things again..."

-"...and consider yourself lucky I don't tell you to silflay hraka. And believe me, if I weren't so tired, I would!"

It was now fu Inlé, and Nelthilta retreated to her burrow to sleep. Prince Rainbow, having endured her complaints all afternoon, was extremely angry. To make things worse, she had prevented him from visiting the Black Rabbit of Inlé. Now that she had gone to rest, he had a burning desire to evict her. He called everyone out to the Great Burrow.

-"There has been no challenge today, but someone will still leave. Therefore, there shall be a vote. Each one of you will vote for the rabbit you would like to see get evicted. You may not nominate yourselves, or me, and you will have to explain your votes. I will evict the one with the most valid votes. You are to whisper your votes in my ear."

-"You're a rainbow. You don't have any ears," joked Bluebell.

Suddenly, a small black hole opened in the middle of Prince Rainbow.

-"Now I do. Vote!"

One by one, the rabbits approached Prince Rainbow's "ear" and cast their votes. Once they had all finished, he made his announcement:

-"The rabbit with the most votes is Woundwort" (he and Cowslip got ready to fight as soon as they heard this), "with hrair votes. However, the reasons for these votes are terrible. Didn't I tell you that you should not consider past experiences when casting your votes?"

-"As a matter of fact, you didn't," pointed out Hyzenthlay.

-"I'm starting to think you're making up the rules as you go along," added Vilthuril.

"...as a result, he is immune from eviction right now," continued Prince Rainbow, ignoring the does. "Therefore, the one in second place shall leave. It is Nelthilta. She has until morning silflay to vanish."

This was followed by a lot of whispering:

-"Nelthilta?"

-"I can't believe someone hates her more than Woundwort..."

-"Nelthilta is really annoying, but why evict her?"

-"I didn't vote for Nelthilta, I voted for Cowslip."

-"Before you leave, Nelthilta, do you mind if we become mates?"

Everyone looked at Bluebell, who had made the joke, except Nelthilta herself, and Fiver.

-"I'm afraid you were all tricked," explained Fiver. "Pipkin voted for Cowslip, Woundwort for Hyzenthlay, and Cowslip for Hazel. Everyone else, including me, voted for Woundwort."

-"In that case, why is Nelthilta getting evicted?" asked Hazel.

-"Because Prince Rainbow himself voted for her because he was annoyed at her. His vote counts as two to him."

-"Thanks for the offer, stranger, but I already have a mate," said Nelthilta annoyed, before turning to Prince Rainbow. "Farewell, Prince!"

She jumped out of Kehaar's hole and made her way back to Efrafa, without even waiting for morning silflay. Prince Rainbow, sensing the growing anger of the other rabbits, quickly demanded that they all go back to their burrows to sleep.

Meanwhile at Watership Down, a few rabbits were at silflay. That afternoon, Clover had brought her four new kittens above ground for the first time. They were rather scared of this new, potentially dangerous place, and therefore remained close to the holes. Only one of them ventured further away, and he ended up going tharn in the middle of the grassy field. She lied down next to him in an attempt to calm him down.

One rabbit stood aside from the others, near the edge of the Down, simply staring into the distance. He heard another rabbit approach; it was Thethuthinnang.

-"Bigwig, it seems to me you've just been sitting here all day," she said. "You didn't train your owsla. You didn't participate in the bob-stones competition this morning. You didn't even show up at silflay."

-"I wasn't hungry."

-"You're worried about Hazel, Hyzenthlay and the others, aren't you?"

-"I would be lying if I said I wasn't. Seriously, they are just being held prisoner in that terrible warren, and I'm not doing anything to help them."

-"You're not helping yourself either. Come share some clover with me. You can't really help our friends with an empty stomach."

Further away, Clover was not making significant progress. In fact, the situation was getting worse: the kitten had closed his eyes and buried his head underneath her.

-"I give up," she said in frustration. "What should I do now? I never had any problems like this with Scabious and the others."

-"You should carry him on your back," suggested Blackberry, who was nibbling a dandelion further away.

-"Thanks for the suggestion, but my back still hurts from carrying Bigwig two days ago."

-"Carry him on your head then. He can't be that heavy."

-"You're right. I could try that."

It did not take Clover long to convince her kitten to climb on her head. As she made her way towards the warren, however, Blackberry seemed worried.

-"Be careful!" he warned. "Don't let him bite yo..."

-"Ouch!"

-"...your ears..."

-"Don't worry, Blackberry. At that age, a rabbit's teeth are too small to do any real damage."

After Clover had gone underground, Blackberry started nibbling the grass again, thinking about how he could possibly help Prince Rainbow's prisoners. His mind was usually filled with creative ideas, but now, when he needed them the most, he was unable to come up with anything. His thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Nyreem:

-"Blackberry, do you know where's Bluebell? I haven't seen him all day."

-"What? Oh...I guess he didn't come back like I thought he would. He's probably lost somewhere. I hope Kehaar comes back soon, so he can search for him."

-"What's wrong? Is he in danger?"

-"It's complicated..."