CHAPTER 5: EL-AHRAIRAH AND THE CRUEL HUMAN

WARNING: the El-ahrairah story in this chapter contains descriptions of animal cruelty that some readers may find upsetting. If you don't think you can handle this, you may wish to skip the part in italics. Also, if you haven't read TFWD, Quiens and Melsa are two does who live at Watership Down.

"There is no kind way to rip the skin off animals' backs. Anyone who wears any fur shares the blame for the torture and gruesome deaths of millions of animals each year."

-Natalie Imbruglia

The next morning after silflay, most of the rabbits were relaxing in the great burrow, awaiting the challenge of the day, hoping it wouldn't be as bad as the previous ones. A while later, Prince Rainbow announced what it was, easing their worries:

-"Today's challenge is storytelling. Hazel, Pipkin and Woundwort, each of you will tell a story. The best storyteller receives some flayrah, and the worst gets evicted. General, you begin."

The General took his place in the centre of the burrow, and started to tell his story:

-"The humans were destroying everything, like they do all the time. Frith was angry at how they were killing many innocent creatures. So he decided to do something about it. He started a fire..."

-"That's too violent, Woundwort," complained Prince Rainbow. "Tell another story. If you try this again, I'm evicting you."

General Woundwort remained silent for a few moments, thinking about his choices. He hated being held prisoner in this warren, but if he was evicted, he would be unable to have revenge against Hazel, Hyzenthlay and the others. His desire for revenge was stronger than his hatred of Prince Rainbow.

-"Very well. A stupid human was having trouble with his hrududu. It stubbornly refused to move, until he got his gun and shot it a few times. Then, it did move, but not where he had expected. It flew to Inlé and crashed there. The human remains there to this day. The end."

-"Very good, General," said Prince Rainbow. "Pipkin, you're next."

-"Hazel, I've never told a story in front of such a large crowd before. I'm...I'm afraid," confided Pipkin.

-"It's all right, Hlao-roo, we've all been there at some point. I tell you, everything will be all right," answered the Chief Rabbit.

-"Of course everything will be all right!" said Bluebell with a smirk. "Tell him the story of El-ahrairah and the cruel human."

-"Thank you for the suggestion, Bluebell."

Pipkin began.

"There was a time when El-ahrairah and his people were in very bad shape. It had not rained in hrair cycles of Inlé. The grass was very dry and everyone was close to starvation. El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle spent their days searching for food, but to no avail. The bad weather had spread everywhere and all nearby farms seemed abandoned.

El-ahrairah considered relocating the warren to another land far away, but quickly rejected the idea: his people were extremely weak, many would not survive the journey, and there was no guarantee that they would find a suitable location. Quite simply, there was nothing he could do but pray to Frith that the rain would come back soon.

One day, Prince Rainbow approached El-ahrairah, saying:

-"Well, El-ahrairah, how have things been going lately?"

-"Not very well, my Lord. My people are starving, and there is nothing I can do about it."

-"Why don't you trick the clouds into producing rain?"

-"I would do that, my Lord, but you would not appreciate it, and you would punish me."

-"You're right about that. I would punish you. I guess you'll have to wait for the rain to come of its own free will."

This conversation angered El-ahrairah very much, for he knew that Prince Rainbow was, to a degree, responsible for the heat wave. To make things worse, there was nothing he could do about it.

The next day, El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle went on yet another patrol for food, this time going very close to a human village, far closer than they ever had gone before. The knew the risks, but by this point, they had nothing to lose. Then, suddenly, they found it.

There was a large garden, full of hrair types of fresh flayrah. There was a small fence surrounding it, but they quickly dug a tunnel underneath it and started to feast on the greens. It was extremely refreshing and they were filled with a wave of pleasure with each bite. After a while, they were satisfied, and decided to carry some flayrah back to the warren for everyone else to eat. They were in the process of carrying it out of the garden when, suddenly, Rabscuttle stamped. El-ahrairah bolted back to the other side of the fence and took cover under a pile of dead leaves. He then realized that he was alone: Rabscuttle was still in danger in the garden! He looked, and saw his owsla captain under the fence, stuck due to the lettuce he was carrying. Worst of all, a human had arrived; he grabbed Rabscuttle and went into a nearby building.

El-ahrairah sat there and thought. He had been involved in hrair rescues, but none of them had involved going so close to humans. Rabscuttle was not just his owsla captain, he was also his best friend, and he could not leave him there at the mercy of humans. Since he could not not afford to waste any time by going back to the warren to get other rabbits, he would have to rescue him alone.

El-ahrairah went back under the fence and followed the human's tracks. There were many of them, but he could clearly see which ones were the most recent. He found himself face to face with a large barn. He rapidly dug a tunnel under the wall and went inside. What he saw was dreadful."

Pipkin paused. There were several stories, like that of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé, that scared him a lot, and the one he was telling at the moment would also fit in that category. After a few words of encouragement from Hazel, Fiver and Hyzenthlay, he found the courage to continue.

"Inside, there were many human objects for which we have no words. But right in the middle, there was a large platform, and on top was an unconscious Rabscuttle. He was trapped inside a terrible thing, with large branches preventing him from moving. Some of the branches went into his ears, on his nose and under his tail. Humans use them to send large amounts of energy into the creature, who is then filled with an extremely painful sensation everywhere in their body, as if they were burning alive, and they are unable to do anything about it. Those who are taken by the Black Rabbit at this point are lucky, but very few of them are. Then, the humans rip off their fur and skin while they are still alive and squealing in pain. It is said that it is the worst possible death for any rabbit, far worse than any other type of elil.

El-ahrairah knew very well that the human aimed to kill Rabscuttle with this machine very soon. He remembered that the energy the branches send comes from long, shining wires enveloped in a soft, pliable material that is very easy to chew, like small tree roots. He quickly found one of these lying on the ground, and started to chew it, until he finally reached the shining wire. He knew very well the dangers of touching it: many rabbits who had stopped running following contact with similar wires during garden raids. He therefore took a small white stick, you know, those things humans put in their mouths to blow foul-smelling smoke? It was lying on the floor and there was still smoke coming out of it. He was filled with a very unpleasant sensation, and began to choke due to the smoke, but he managed to split the wire in two. As he finished, the strange glowing eyes at the top of the building stopped giving light, and the place was filled with darkness. I don't know much about humans, but I know one thing: they are terrible at seeing in the dark, unlike us rabbits.

The human started shouting in some incomprehensible human language, searching for another source of light. He bumped into several of the objects across the building, cursing in pain. Meanwhile, El-ahrairah jumped on the platform where Rabscuttle was and tried to remove the branches. He had no problems with those in his ears, but the one on his nose went inside his mouth and was very hard to remove. The one under his tail also penetrated his body, and caused Rabscuttle a great deal of pain.

By the time El-ahrairah had finished, the human had somehow made the eyes bright again and was staring at the two rabbits. El-ahrairah kept urging Rabscuttle to move, but he was still unconscious and did not hear him. El-ahrairah would have to resort to the most dangerous thing he ever had done before: tricking a human. He called out to Prince Rainbow, who arrived shortly afterwards, bursting through the roof, not unlike Kehaar did yesterday.

-"I see you have gone on one raid too many, El-ahrairah, and your tricks have finally caught up with you!" said Prince Rainbow mockingly.

-"My Lord, it is your fault I am doing this," explained El-ahrairah. "If you hadn't caused this heat wave, I never would have gone here."

-"But that was exactly my goal, El-ahrairah. You see, all this was just an elaborate trick to get rid of you. I manipulated that human's mind so he would plant a garden in the wilderness here. I knew you and Rabscuttle would come, and he would capture you two and turn you into beautiful fur coats."

Their argument was cut short by loud stamping and screaming. The human was running away with his arms in the air, screaming as he went.

-"Now you see what you've done? He's off to tell the human owsla what just happened, how I exist and you spoke, and they will probably send him to an asylum! Really great!"

-"That's exactly what I was hoping would happen, my Lord.""

-"What is an "asylum"?" asked Hazel.

-"I don't really understand it myself," replied Pipkin. "When Dandelion told me this story, he said it was a place where all the insane humans live. I assume they are kept in conditions similar to what rabbits in Efrafa faced before Campion-rah took control." He then resumed his story:

"Prince Rainbow continued to complain:

-"And now, I have to prevent him from being sent there, and fast! Thanks for the trouble!"

He shot out of the roof, leaving the two rabbits alone in the building. By this point, Rabscuttle had woken up. The branch the human had placed in his mouth had hurt his tongue, making it hard for him to speak, but apart from that, he was mostly unharmed. El-ahrairah dug a scrape just outside the garden, and the two rabbits stayed there for a few days until Rabscuttle got all his strength back. They then left the terrible garden, taking lots of flayrah with them. Their warren was saved, and shortly afterwards, the rain came back and grass started to grow again.

As for Prince Rainbow, nobody really knows what happened to him in the human village. Some say the humans thought he was another human disguised as a character from a popular story. Others think he was arrested by the human owsla. Another theory is that all the humans fired their guns at him. But Dandelion told me that he personally believes that Prince Rainbow spent a full set of seasons to organize an escape from the asylum, only to realize that the human he wanted to save had stayed behind."

As Pipkin finished, everyone in the burrow praised him for a job well-done. Cowslip was laughing uncontrollably. Even the General, who wanted to kill Pipkin when he had compared the asylum with Efrafa, and didn't for the sole reason that he was pinned to the ground by Hazel and Hyzenthlay, was extremely satisfied with the last part of the story. Everyone was happy, except Prince Rainbow...

-"How...how DARE you humiliate me like that, you dirty little...GET OUT! OUT! OUT!"

He threw increasingly powerful fireballs with each "out", but due to his anger, he was not aiming very well. Pipkin ran out of the warren as fast as he could, and found Kehaar foraging in the field.

-"Kehaar, Bluebell once said you would fly me to the moon if necessary. Well, I'm going to need that now!"

-"Ees day! Vere is no moon."

-"Fly me to the clouds then!"

He climbed on the gull's back, who took off and flew over the trees just before Prince Rainbow arrived.

-"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! NOBODY HUMILIATES ME LIKE THAT! Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Hazel, it's your turn to tell a story."

Hazel, who had followed him above ground, looked at him sadly, and told his story:

-"There was a prince, who had a great domain and many powers. He had everything he could hope for. But he was mean. He did everything he could to make the lives of those who displeased him miserable. And most of the time, he succeeded. The end."

He then went back to his burrow, along with most of the others. Under ordinary circumstances, Prince Rainbow would have evicted Hazel too, but he was still too angry at Pipkin to do anything about it.

A group of humans were playing poker and drinking tea at Nuthanger Farm, when suddenly one of them pointed out the window.

-"What's zat?"

-"What's what?"

A bright light suddenly appeared in the middle of the sky.

-"Zat!"

-"Ah dunno. Fireworks?"

-"At zis time o' day?"

-"Well, I'll check it out tomorra, 'kay? Now it's yur turn ta bet!"

That day at ni-Frith silflay, Clover made another attempt at bringing her kittens above ground. It was the complete opposite of the previous day. Previously, the kittens were cautious and nervous, but this time they simply ran everywhere without a care in the world. At first, Clover tried to keep an eye on them to make sure they stayed safe, but she soon realized that she was unable to watch all of them at the same time, since they were running in opposite directions. She therefore asked others for help her.

A group of rabbits was assembled around the warren to watch the kittens, and capture them if they ventured too far. At first, Thethuthinnang found this idea horrifying, as it reminded her of Efrafa. However, she was soon forced to admit that the kittens were still too young and inexperienced to fend for themselves, and therefore should not stray too far from the warren. She even volunteered to help keep them under control, along with Dandelion, Quiens, Speedwell and Melsa.

-"You know things are out of control when it takes hrair rabbits to watch four kittens," complained Hawkbit.

-"Perhaps we could use one more," said Bigwig.

-"Maybe. I'm sure Haystack would be willing to help her old friend."

-"Perhaps she would. And perhaps you could help her?"

-"Me? Why me? Haystack is a doe. She has more experience with kittens."

-"Your argument is flawed, Hawkbit. She never had kittens, although Boxwood hopes she will soon. You would be better for the job. GO!"

Hawkbit grumbled, but nevertheless took a spot on the edge of the Down, ready to catch any kitten who came his way. He vowed never to have kittens: he already had enough trouble dealing with other rabbits' kittens without having any of his own.

Blackberry was at silflay, keeping a distracted eye on the kittens. He had had a bad night, filled with nightmares of Prince Rainbow tormenting his prisoners and physically torturing a few. Luckily, it was only a dream (at least, he hoped it was only a dream, since he had no way to know). To make things worse, he had still not been able to come up with any realistic rescue plan.

As he took a bite out of a fresh piece of lettuce he had stolen from Nuthanger Farm that morning, one of kittens crashed into him, knocking him down. She mumbled a quick apology and jumped off, burying her claws in his fur. Luckily, they were too short to do any real damage.

However, he did not get back up. He remained lying on his side with his eyes closed, thinking. The collision had given him an idea, and he slowly let the ideas organize themselves. It was crazy, but it might be crazy enough to work.

-"Blackberry, are you all right?"

Blackberry slowly opened his eyes, and saw another rabbit standing over him, looking at him worriedly; it was Strawberry. He immediately scrambled back to his feet.

-"Strawberry! It's nice to see you. When did you get here? How are you? How are things at Vleflain?"

-"Blackberry." Strawberry smiled. "I got here just moments ago. I was a bit worried when I saw you lying there...it's great you're alive. As for Vleflain, it hasn't been going very well. Campion was supposed to visit us, but he didn't show up. I decided to visit here to get my mind off things."

-"I know where Campion is. He is at a strange warren where Prince Rainbow is keeping him prisoner."

-"What?"

-"He's not there only one there. Hazel, Hyzenthlay, Fiver, Pipkin, Vilthuril, Bluebell, Woundwort, Cowslip and..."

-"Cowslip..." repeated Strawberry, as he looked at the ground. He awkwardly turned his head and stared in the distance for a few moments, thinking about his tragic past at Cowslip's warren. "I...I'm rather tired after this journey, I think I'll go take a nap in the Honeycomb."

As Strawberry slowly hopped away with his ears drooping to the sides of his head, Blackberry realized he had made a mistake by mentioning Cowslip. He knew Strawberry well, and all mentions of the place where he had been born triggered painful memories of the long-dead love of his life, Nildro-hain. When this happened, the best course of action was to leave him alone until he felt better. On several prior occasions others had tried to help him and failed.

Blackberry was still reflecting on the situation when another rabbit collided with him, knocking him over on his back. It was Clover.

-"I'm sorry Blackberry," she said. "I was in a mad chase and I didn't realize you were there until it was too late."

-"Don't worry about it, you didn't hurt me."

-"Have you thought of any ideas to save the others from that dreadful Prince Rainbow?"

-"Actually, I think I might have something. You said that Prince Rainbow likes to throw fireballs?"

-"He did that several times when I was there. What is your plan?"

-"All of us go to the warren and we try to keep Prince Rainbow distracted. While he throws fireballs at all of us, the prisoners sneak away. And then we run away too."

Clover stood motionless on Blackberry's abdomen for a few moments, dumbstruck.

-"That's never going to work, we'll all get hurt!"

-"That's what I was afraid of," replied Blackberry sadly. "Looks like I'll have to start over..."

The two rabbits were interrupted by squealing further away. They both turned their heads to see what was happening: the four kittens had Dandelion pinned to the ground and were tickling him.

-"Not again..." mumbled Clover, as she hopped off Blackberry to rescue Dandelion. Blackberry slowly got back up and shook the dirt out of his fur. With a sigh, he tried to think of other ideas. This rescue plan was going to be much more complicated than helping the does escape from Efrafa.