By the following day, Kehaar had fully recovered. Before he flew off, he promised that if there was ever anything he could do to repay the rabbits, he would.
Nothing much happened for the next few weeks. They continued building their warren, and they ate and slept and played and did all the things that rabbits do.
Then one morning Kyle woke Stan up with distressing news. "My brother Ike is missing. He must have wandered away during the night."
"That's not good," said Stan. "We'd better go find him."
Stan went to find Mackey. "Kyle's brother has disappeared. Kyle and I are gonna look for him. I'm leaving you in charge here until we get back."
"M'kay," said Mackey.
Stan and Kyle emerged from the warren and stood on top of the down. "Which way do you think he went?" Stan asked Kyle.
Kyle sniffed the air. "I can smell his scent over there." He pointed east.
"Okay, let's check it out."
They loped down the east side of the hill. They had never explored this area before.
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Cartman was inspecting a new mosaic that his followers had made of him, in the same room where the old picture of El-ahrairah had been before Mackey accidentally destroyed it.
"What do you think of it?" Laburnum asked.
Cartman was furious! "I'm not that fat! And my mouth's not that big! You're gonna have to start all over!" He kicked the stones, scattering them.
Cowslip poked his head in the door. "Chief Rabbit? You better come with me. We've got a problem."
Cartman was miffed by the interruption. "What is it?"
"See for yourself." Cowslip set off down the tunnel. With an irritated sigh, Cartman followed.
They came to the storeroom. Cartman was shocked to find it almost empty. "How did this happen?"
"Ever since you tricked the farmer into putting his foot in the trap, he hasn't been setting any more traps, but he hasn't been bringing us food either. I think he's given up on us altogether. My best guess is that we've got enough food for two or three days, then we'll starve."
"Nooooooooo!" Cartman felt like his head was gonna explode. "This is a nightmare. A nightmare and I CAN'T WAKE UP!"
"Well, what do you wanna do about it?" said Cowslip.
"Why the fuck are you asking me?" Cartman demanded.
"You're the new Chief Rabbit. These decisions are up to you now."
Cartman took a few breaths to calm himself. Being a leader had been great as long as everyone was kissing his butt, but now there was an actual crisis. His mind raced to formulate a plan. If he didn't come up with something good fast, the other rabbits might throw him out.
"Okay…" he said after a minute. "Okay. If the farmer won't give us fresh vegetables anymore, we'll raid his garden and steal them ourselves. Just like when El-ahrairah stole King Darzin's lettuce."
"He has a gun," Cowslip warned. "He might shoot us."
"So, we'll send someone to keep an eye on his house," Cartman said. "We'll wait until he leaves the house, and raid the garden then." Now that he had a plan, he was starting to calm down. "I don't see how that could possibly go wrong…"