AUTHOR'S NOTE: as another year is almost over, it is once again the time where I take a break from this story for December. If everything goes as planned, chapter 251 will be posted in January 2024, and the story will be finished by the end of next year. Until then, thank you all for reading, and enjoy the holidays!

Chapter 250: The Last Good Time.

Samedi soir à Saint-Dilon (Saturday night in [the town of] St-Dilon)

Il n'y avait pas grand-chose à faire (There was nothing much to do)

On a dit: On fait une danse (So we said: let's have a dance)

[...]

On s'est trouvé un violon (We found ourselves a fiddle)

Un salon des partenaires (A hall, some partners)

Puis là la soirée commence (And so the evening begins)

-Gilles Vigneault, La danse à Saint-Dilon

Blackberry and Bluebell were at silflay in front of the beech tree, nibbling the grass in front of them.

-"Why didn't you want to do the same thing we did at Marli-rah?" Bluebell asked after a while.

-"You may remember that I never took part," Blackberry recalled. "I always stayed underground and everyone left me alone."

-"I remember that, but why?"

-"It was too formal. There were so many rules, and with nearly everyone in the warren participating, nobody had any privacy. Not to mention, I had no partner to do it with."

-"Oh. These are all good reasons."

Bluebell's disappointment gradually turned to excitement, as an idea formed into his mind.

-"What if we do it anyway? You have a partner now, and we could do it privately without anyone else."

Blackberry considered Bluebell's suggestion for a few moments.

-"Let's go for it."

-"I'm not being inappropriate or making you feel uncomfortable, am I?"

-"No. Let's do it now, and maybe we'll have the time to finish it before Woundwort arrives."

The two rabbits hopped to a quiet spot on the other side of the beech tree, behind a bush, where it was less likely that someone else would stumble upon them.

-"The moon isn't round," Bluebell pointed out.

-"Just a minor detail," was Blackberry's response. "One of many rules we don't have to follow exactly. It'll have to do."

-"What about the trench? You remember, the trench surrounding the predetermined couples' area?"

-"Let's make this quick."

Blackberry quickly moved one of his front paws across the ground, scratching off a bit of grass. Just a minute later, there was a small rectangle around the two of them.

-"It's small," Bluebell pointed out. "If this was Marli-rah, it would stretch all the way from the tree to the edge of the Down.

-"Yes, but at Marli-rah, the whole warren was participating. With only the two of us, this should be large enough."

-"I see." Bluebell sniffed the air. "Now, time to pair up. If there were more of us, this would be the most complicated part of the event, with the rules improvised on the spot. The does each chose a buck, or another doe, but then there were the leftover bucks that none of the does wanted, and some of the does didn't want anyone, so some of the bucks chose each other, then Flyairth suggested that some of them would exchange partners, but the established couples didn't want to split, so then Prake suggested going with trios instead of pairs, and even with that, there were still always two or three rabbits left out."

Blackberry sighed: Bluebell sometimes talked too much.

-"Now you probably understand why I said it was too formal and there were too many rules," he replied. "Fortunately, we can sort this out by eliminating the does entirely, leaving only the two of us. I choose you, you choose me, moving on..."

The two rabbits stood up on their hind legs and nuzzled. After a few moments, however, Bluebell, being his typical self, went for the mouth instead, kissing Blackberry.

-"That wasn't part of the rules," Blackberry said after they had finished. "But I liked it."

-"We can deviate from the rules if it's more fun."

-"Does this mean we don't have to do the long speech?" Blackberry asked, thinking back at the next step in the ritual at Marli-rah.

-"Maybe not. We could speak from the heart instead."

The two rabbits raised their front paws, and touched each other. Blackberry was about to say something romantic, but Bluebell spoke first, and very quickly.

-"My dear, I love you, I thank Frith every day that He has blessed me with an amazing mate like you, I cannot imagine my life without you, I want us to be together forever, you are the the best rabbit, I love you so much."

-"So much for speaking from the heart..." Blackberry mumbled, as he realized that Bluebell had recited the usual speech.

-"But I did. It's not my fault that the classic speech also perfectly reflects my feelings."

This made Blackberry smile. He moved in for another nuzzle, but unexpectedly, Bluebell pulled back.

-"I think Captain Broom disapproves."

-"Is this another inappropriate joke?" Blackberry sighed: these jokes could ruin the mood.

-"Unfortunately no."

Blackberry awkwardly looked behind him: as Bluebell had implied, Captain Broom was right there, staring.

-"He's wrong, I don't disapprove," he said. "After all, who am I to stand in the way of true love? As long as you at still take care of your owsla duties. You know, this reminds me of that fateful day at old Redstone, when..."

-"Let's go to our burrow now," Blackberry suggested. "More privacy."

Underground, the large group in Hazel's burrow slowly dispersed. Nyreem was the first to leave, as she was really tired, and Pipkin followed soon afterwards. A while later, Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang decided to spend some time alone, and departed; Holly followed soon afterwards. Finally, Fiver and Vilthuril went back to their burrow, but not before a long hug between Hazel and Fiver. By then, only Hazel, Primrose and the kittens remained, although most of them had fallen asleep long ago. Only Gilia remained awake: she had something important she wanted to tell her parents, and only them. It was a challenge for her to stay awake until everyone else had left.

-"I'm sorry," she suddenly said.

Not expecting this sudden confession, Hazel and Primrose looked at their daughter.

-"I've done so many things wrong," she continued. "I shouldn't have tried to leave the warren without telling anyone. I shouldn't have said that you were worse than Efrafa. In hindsight, you all were right to stop me. You just wanted to keep me safe, to protect me from him, from myself. I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused you."

Gilia buried herself between her two parents, in an attempt at hugging them both.

-"You're forgiven," Primrose said.

-"When faced with strong feelings, we sometimes say things we don't really mean," Hazel added.

-"Thank you."

Gilia moved out from between the two adults; they took turns nuzzling her.

-"So what do you think of Blueberry now?" Primrose asked.

-"He had good intentions, I don't doubt that...but...he rushed into the mission...without planning ahead. And...if he does...teleport, I...I..."

Gilia's voice gradually became softer, until it completely stopped: she had fallen asleep mid-sentence. Hazel and Primrose smiled at the cute and touching scene.

-"Hazel...can I tell you something?" Primrose asked, softly so as to avoid waking up her children.

-"Of course Primrose my dear."

-"Thank you for making me happy for the past seasons. Regardless of the outcome of the battle, I will forever be grateful."

-"I love you."

-"I love you too."

At that moment, Bigwig and Spartina arrived at the burrow's entrance.

-"Is it time?" Hazel asked them, wondering if maybe the Darkhaveners had been spotted.

-"Not yet, but we managed to build several traps," Spartina explained, cleaning dirt from her ear. "Thanks largely to Hannah, who managed to get a large number of woodlanders to help us."

-"Woundwort and his Darkhaveners don't stand a chance," Bigwig said with a smirk.

-"This is excellent news," Hazel said, smiling. "You two deserve some rest now."

As Spartina and Bigwig hopped away, Primrose moved closer to Hazel.

Meanwhile, Fiver and Vilthuril had lied down close together in their own burrow, and exchanged a loving nuzzle.

-"Fiver, my dear," Vilthuril asked, "did you have any visions about the battle?"

-"I haven't," Fiver replied sadly. "I wish I had, so we would have an idea what to expect."

-"Do you think we'll make it through?"

-"I don't know...I'm sorry."

-"Don't feel bad about this. You can't control your visions."

-"You're right. Either way, we should keep hope that the future will be positive. And hopefully, it will."

They nuzzled each other one last time, before closing their eyes and falling asleep.

But Fiver did not sleep very long, as he was soon woken up by a vision; ironic, considering his mate's recent questions. As he gathered his thoughts, he was left disappointed: this vision provided very little useful information. If anything, it raised more questions than it answered. Nevertheless, he had to tell Hazel about it; perhaps he would have an idea what it was about.

When he reached his brother's burrow, he saw that Primrose had already fallen asleep, but Hazel was still awake.

-"I just had a vision," Fiver announced.

This made Hazel nervous, as he wondered what future calamity his brother had predicted.

-"How bad is it?"

-"I don't know. Woundwort has something we want."

-"Huh?" Fiver's visions were often cryptic or vague, but this was even worse than usual, Hazel thought.
-"I don't understand it. Do you know what it could be referring to?"

-"Not at all. What could he possibly have that we desire?"

-"That's what I thought. Oh well, thanks for listening, Hazel. Unfortunately, with so little information, there's little we can do about it..."

-"Maybe it's something like his flayrah supply?" Hazel theorized. "Flayrah is always good."

-"Flayrah is indeed good, but that's not why we're fighting this war, Hazel. I have the feeling that it may be something more important than that..."