Chapter 241: Escape From Darkhaven.

"I-I mean, I should walk you back to your home, not my home. Not that I would mind if you wanted to-I mean-"

-MrsRoseThehedgehog, Beach Love

While most rabbits in Darkhaven were sound asleep, Campion remained wide awake. He had a good reason for this: unlike the others, he was not looking forward to the attack. It was something he had been trying to prevent for seasons, and now he was powerless to do so. All he could do was try to warn his friends, giving them enough time to evacuate. His thoughts were interrupted, however, as he saw that one rabbit remained outside the pit. That did not make sense, Woundwort had ordered everyone back down for the night.

After climbing out of the pit, he saw that it was Spartina, and Lady May was with her; they were hopping away from the warren. He had had mixed feelings about Spartina ever since she had first returned to Darkhaven after her extended absence. What had she been up to during that time? What was she doing now? As soon as she had made it behind some nearby bushes, he ran after her; he had no trouble catching up with her, as Lady May slowed her down. He quickly pounced on her, which had the unfortunate side effect of knocking Lady May down; the doe groaned in pain. Campion ignored her, instead placing one of his front paws over Spartina's mouth to prevent her from raising the alarm.

-"What do you think you're doing?"

Only then did he remove his paw, allowing her to reply.

-"I could ask you the same question, Campion."

-"Well I asked first, so you answer first."

-"What's it to you?"

-"Sneaking away from everyone like this is very suspicious."

-"So is your behaviour: just ask Vervain."

Campion sighed. He wouldn't have to keep denying much longer, but it looked like he would have to do so one more time...

-"You don't believe his wild accusations, do you?" he asked.

-"It's not very polite to stand on someone's back while you're asking them questions."

Before he had a chance to react, Spartina had escaped from his grip and had jumped on his back, with her front paws around his neck, completely reversing their positions. He could feel her sharp claws touching his skin.

-"Hey, remember me?" Lady May said, lying on her side. "I'm still here, and I can't get up!"

-"I'm in the middle of something here," Spartina said sternly. "I'll deal with you later. Don't make me regret rescuing you."

-"RESCUING her?" Campion repeated. "Just what are you up to?"

-"I'm the one asking the questions now," was Spartina's response. "Are you going to stop me?"

-"That depends...what would I be stopping, exactly?"

-"You can stop denying, I know that you used to work with the outsiders, Hazel told me himself. The question is: are you still working with them?"

It did not occur to Campion that Spartina was telling the truth; he decided to continue denying his secret allegiance.

-"You're bluffing. You've never met Hazel."

-"He also told me about the time he bashed your face in, because you flirted with Primrose."

Only then did Campion start to believe that Spartina was telling the truth. The incident she had just described was highly embarrassing, and nobody in Darkhaven had any way of knowing about it; Spartina surely had heard of it from Hazel himself.

-"You got me," he confessed. "Yes, I'm still supporting the outsiders, but I don't know if I'm much of an ally, since Woundwort is attacking tomorrow. Since you spoke with Hazel, I assume you are an ally too?"

-"Whoa," Lady May interjected. "You two have, like, your own big thing going on. A major tale of mystery, romance and betrayal. Is this the rabbit version of Coronation Street or something?"

Campion and Spartina both looked at the doe, not understanding her last few words.

-"Anyway, I freely admit it, I'm working for the outsiders," Campion told Spartina, not even trying to come up with a response to Lady May's comments. "Are you?"

-"Yes, I am, they sent me here to work undercover, to stop Woundwort. I failed too."

-"Since we're both on the same side, how about you let me get up?"

-"...good idea."

Spartina removed her paws from Campion, allowing him to get back up and shake the dirt off his fur.

-"I was going to Watership Down to warn them of the upcoming attack," Spartina explained. "Do you want to come with me?"

-"I probably should. I have no reason to stay here anymore."

-"Please don't leave me here, in the dust!" Lady May begged, terrified that the other two would go without her. "Please take me with you!"

-"Is she a double agent too?" Campion asked Spartina.

-"No, she's just a very inept former hutch rabbit that Vervain picked up on patrol."

-"Then why are you bringing her with you? She seems to be more of a burden than an asset."

-"I don't want her to die in the war. I know that she's a bit of a jerk at times, but she's not a real villain like the rest of them."

-"You do know that I'm right here, and I hear you two repeatedly insulting me?" Lady May pointed out.

-"Whatever," was Spartina's response. "Just hop back on top of me and let's all get going."

None of the three rabbits noticed, however, that someone had been watching them all along...

General Woundwort spent much of the evening in his burrow, unable to sleep. His mind was full of fantasies of himself killing Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, and everyone else in their warren. Vervain would probably ask for permission to deal with Primrose himself; he might consider granting such a request. By the time he would be finished, all the outsiders would be dead, except maybe a few does who would be brought back to Darkhaven, assuming they were better behaved than Lady May. Maybe Pipkin too, he still remembered the good times the two had experienced back in Efrafa, long ago.

Taking a momentary break from his violent thoughts, he toured the perimeter of the pit. For the first time ever since he had returned to Darkhaven, he was pleased with his owsla. Everyone was sound asleep, they should be fully rested by morning, and ready to fight. He would be going to sleep too, but until then, he still felt hungry, so he went to the flayrah chamber.

As he entered the large chamber, he was shocked to find that someone else was there. Orchis was awkwardly sprawled out on top of the pile of carrots, this position could absolutely not be comfortable. He slowly turned his head upon noticing that Woundwort had arrived.

-"Yo Wound-wound!"

Woundwort was taken aback by such blatant disrespect: Orchis hadn't called him "General" or "Sir", not even "Dark One", just the cringe-worthy nickname "Wound-wound".

-"What is the meaning of this!?" he asked, furious.

-"I know what is wrong with this warren."

-"Who said anything was wrong?"

-"It needs more sunlight," Orchis replied, completely ignoring Woundwort's question. "I would love to happily bask in the sunlight and relax, but there is no sunlight."

Woundwort could hardly believe the absurdity of Orchis' comment.

-"It's night, of course there's no sunlight, you fool! What the Inlé do you expect me to do, abolish the night?"

-"That sounds like a good plan."

-"I...will look into it once the outsiders are destroyed." Woundwort gradually calmed down, as Orchis did not appear malicious; his outrageous behaviour was just very confusing. "Why are you here?"

-"I have a mad case of the munchies."

Orchis took a bite of the flayrah; while it is usually reserved to the Chief, Woundwort was too confused to rebuke his captain.

-"Have you seen Campion?" Orchis asked.

-"Not lately. Have you?"

-"Yeah, he ran. He RAN, dude. Just, went up and ran away."

-"He did WHAT?"

-"He was running! Oh, and the thing ran with him too."

-"Thing? What thing?" Amazingly, Orchis was now making even less sense.

-"You know...tHe ThInG fRoM tHe HuTcH!" Orchis' disdain towards Lady May was becoming plainly obvious. "The doe took it. Not the doe with the skull, the one with THE FEATHER! The one that Vervain would suspect if he wasn't gone to Nepenthes to find Chibiscuit..." Orchis realized too late that he had talked too much, and revealed what Vervain had done. "Oh hraka..."

-"Vervain did WHAT? Actually, never mind him for the moment. You're saying Spartina took Lady May away, and Campion went with them?"

-"YES! Of course that's what I'm embleer saying! Don't you pay attention when someone TALKS to ya?"

Woundwort pondered what Orchis had revealed. Had Vervain been right all along? Was Campion really a traitor? And was that mysterious feathered doe working with him? Or was Orchis making everything up? He clearly wasn't in his right state of mind. But as absurd as these ramblings were, it would be too dangerous to dismiss them, especially so close to the battle.

-"Did they say where they were going?"

-"Nope, they just LEFT, didn't talk to anyone. ThEy'Re GoNe!"

-"Why didn't you stop them!?"

-"Was that my job?"

Woundwort was very anxious: if something nefarious really was happening, it could threaten the upcoming battle.

-"Orchis, gather the fastest rabbits in the warren..." he started to say, but Orchis was very wobbly: he tried to stand up, only to collapse again almost instantly. "Never mind, I'll do it myself..."