Chapter 244: The Search for Solutions.

"Do your thing, little birds, do your thing. Dispose of him."

-Sakura1287, The Return of Kehaar


Hazel was enjoying a relatively peaceful sleep when he found himself woken up in the middle of the night, by one of the guards on duty.

-"Er, Hazel, there's a problem," Strawberry said, with a worried tone, shaking his Chief.

Hazel woke up instantly: his first fear was that Gilia had tried running away again. But as he looked around him, he saw that she was still there, sound asleep; so were all her siblings. This reassured him a bit, but the fact remained that there was clearly something bad happening, and he needed to act right away, it couldn't wait until morning.

Hazel and Strawberry hopped out of the burrow, to continue the conversation while minimizing the risk of waking the others up. Once they were in the Honeycomb, they were joined by Silver, Strawberry's duty partner.

-"What's going on?" Hazel asked.

-"Dandelion went out to pass hraka, but he didn't come back," was Strawberry's explanation.

-"We have looked all over the Down, and in all the burrows; he quite simply vanished," Silver added.

-"Oh, that's not good at all. We'll have to wake up the owsla."


Once the owsla realized the urgency of the situation, it did not take them long to gather above ground. A few of them went on a quick patrol around the warren; they came up empty.

-"No recent scents of elil or Darkhaveners on the Down," one of the them announced upon their return. "Residual scents of Darkhaven remain from their patrol earlier, but that's all."

-"Tracks?" Bigwig asked.

-"Many of them, both from us and from them, but only one of them has Dandelion's scent, and it is very recent. The only possible explanation is that he chose to run."

-"That doesn't make any sense! What reason would he have to do something so foolish?"

-"Reason or not, he clearly did so anyway."

-"What if the Black Rabbit of Inlé took him?" Marigold asked nervously. "And left no body..."

-"As tempting as it might be to jump to such a hasty conclusion," Hazel said, "we should make sure all other options are exhausted before turning to a supernatural explanation."

-"Hawkbit, you share a burrow with him," Fiver said. "Are you SURE he didn't say anything suspicious last night?"

-"I swear, he had no reason to run!" Hawkbit shouted in panic, devastated to see his best friend missing. "He seemed so cheerful last night, the happiest I've seen him in a long time."

-"Regardless of why he ran...we have to find him, before he gets in trouble," Fiver replied.

-"Oh, he WILL be in trouble, when I get my paws on him..." Bigwig threatened, furious at what he considered Dandelion's foolish decision. "Owsla, move out!"

The owsla started to hop towards the bottom of the Down; Hazel was about join them, but Bigwig turned around and spoke to him:

-"No, Hazel, you stay here."

-"He's one of our original group of friends from Sandleford Warren, I don't want to give up on him."

-"Nobody's giving up on anyone! But you also have to think of your daughter. Dandelion went off and did exactly what she was planning to do, minus the whole 'chasing love' thing."

-"You're right, I hadn't thought of it this way. Not to mention that she's still mad at me and Primrose..."


Later in the morning, Hazel called a meeting in the Honeycomb, on the subject of his daughter and Blueberry. Most of the rabbits who were not gone on patrol took part except, obviously, the two rabbits who were being discussed. Gilia's siblings were tasked with keeping an eye on her for the duration of the meeting; Blueberry was returned to Strawberry's care in order to allow his adoptive mother Clover to participate in the meeting.

Hazel started by presenting a brief summary of the situation for those who remained unaware of the details. Once he had finished, Acacia was the first to respond, and he had a lot to say about it:

-"Frith and Inlé, the trip they planned to take scares me. Going to the sea is extremely dangerous even for a group of experienced adult rabbits, not to mention all the challenges that such an undertaking entails. In fact, it's a much bigger challenge than looking for a home like you did after fleeing Sandleford. Did this young cutie Blueberry have any idea what he was about to do? And he wanted to take Gilia...what they were going to do is the most insane thing I've heard so far. A trip to the other lake in the ocean is not only crazy, it is suicide for a rabbit that knows nothing of the world, and it is worse for the young. You all got lucky in the past, and even travelled to the stars. The feeling that Gilia and Blueberry have is beautiful, love is always beautiful. But their mission...it would have been the biggest mistake of their lives had it not been stopped."

Vesper, meanwhile, caught on to a specific detail of Acacia's speech.

-"True love is impossible to achieve for some of us...and when these two did, you stopped it."

-"Is it really love, though?" Fiver questioned. "They are both young and inexperienced. It's easy to think that the first love is the right one, but it rarely is. I had several crushes back at Sandleford. None of them ever amounted to anything. Same with my brother."

-"It's true," Hazel replied. "While I did find happiness with Primrose..." he put one of his paws around her, "...by that point, we were both mature adults."

-"The real issue here isn't about love," Blackberry said. "What they do privately is none of our business."

Hazel and Primrose were about to voice their strong disagreement, but Hyzenthlay spoke first.

-"She's right. The problem isn't that they are in love, but the insane mission they were planning. Regardless of whether they are a couple or merely friends, this would still be an issue."

-"There's a difference between safety and oppression," Holly said. "We're not like Efrafa, we're not keeping anyone imprisoned here. But if some rabbits plan to needlessly risk their lives, shouldn't we save them from themselves?"

-"This younger generation is so foolish," captain Broom said. "When I was a kit, we didn't try to run away with those we loved. Sneaking into the flayrah chamber and nuzzling until you inevitably got caught by the owsla? Sure, all the time. But leaving to go Frith knows where? Absolutely not."

-"There's another detail that I'm surprised nobody mentioned yet," Flyairth said. "Their age. Gilia and Blueberry are both kits. They are still under the care of their parents. If said parents choose to forbid them from crossing the Big Water, they have to obey."

-"That's true, but unfortunately, it is likely to backfire," Holly said. "Kittens eventually reach a rebellious age where, when their parents order them not to do something, it only makes them even more motivated to do it."

-"Would the situation be any different if, instead of going alone, they had asked for a capable adult to accompany them?" Clover asked. "If my adoptive son had asked me, I would have gone with him."

-"In theory, yes, since they would have someone to protect them from dangers," Hyzenthlay said. "But in practice, probably not. With the current war against Woundwort, we need all the officers we can get; it would be inadvisable to send anyone away, when they could be needed here."

-"We can all agree that this plan was a bad idea, and they won't be going to the Big Water anytime soon, if ever," Primrose summarized. "The question is: how do we make them understand that this is for their own good?"

-"I'm sorry to interrupt..." Everyone turned towards one of the burrow's entrances, where Strawberry was standing. "Hazel-rah, there's something that would need your immediate attention."

-"What's going on?" Hazel asked. "Have they tried to leave again?"

-"Brambles, no. They have behaved, mostly. I just wanted to tell you that there is a pair of bats above ground, they say they want to speak with our leader."