A longer amount of time had passed, and now Flyairth's daughters were fully grown. The clear field we had chosen as our territory for the Eternal Warren didn't worry us with any more elil since the cat, and both Oak and Faith had fully recovered. Eating silflay with Lily right beside me, I took deep breaths through my nostrils as I glanced at the other does around me. While the Eternal Warren couldn't be going better, there was still a coldness in the air that I couldn't put my paw on. The one concern, that I'm sure Oak and Fang wouldn't count as a concern, was that there were no kits yet. The only two bucks had their pick of all the does now that Flyairth's daughters were all grown up, though I had no idea who Oak had his eye on. Our interactions had almost completely returned to what they were before, like the fateful day we opened up to each other was but a mere dream in my head. The only indicator that we had anything at all was a conversation here and there, and we were both members of the same Owsla for El-airairah's sake! I didn't even have any idea if he was pulling his weight like me and Lily did from sunup to sundown to keep the humans and the White Blindness away from our warren.
Lily however, had been at my side nearly everyday, sometimes taking a break day here and there from my company to check on other does and return to me to discuss anything interesting. Such as Fang spending all his time with Sunset and not seeming to be talking to a different doe everyday unlike Oak. Though strangely enough, Lily seemed to refuse to talk about him in her findings and I couldn't figure out why.
Maybe, I glanced up at Flyairth as she hopped towards me and Lily. Perhaps I'll get my answers sooner than I think.
"You two, I would like to speak with you," Flyairth announced, in her dry and unrevealing tone as usual. Oak had to be joining us, he was the remaining member of the Owsla! Feeling a rush in my long legs as Flyairth hopped to a grassy hill in the distance, Lily barely able to keep up with me, the three of us stopped on the top of the hill as I glanced over my shoulder.
"Where's…where's Oak?" I croaked. Sure I wasn't thinking about him constantly like the first few weeks after the cat incident, but he played just as important a role as we did! Feeling my heart constricting as Flyairth looked at me like I had bugs all over my fur, the Chief Rabbit shook her head.
"I would like to start by stating how wonderful you two are at your responsibilities," Flyairth glanced at both me and Lily before she continued. "Sky, you've made sure that patrols are happening multiple times a day. I have no doubt that you can and would take on even bigger elil to protect us, something most rabbits can't say they've done. Lily, you've kept up positivity in the warren by making sure all the does are heard and cared for. The feelings of the Eternal Warren are super important, as there's no point in protecting a group if they have hostility amongst each other."
"Thank you, Chief Rabbit," Lily nodded her head.
"And what about Oak?" I insisted, refusing to have his name be dropped from the conversation. Surely I wasn't imagining that day he became Owsla with us? Lily stared at the ground, her body shaking briefly before she willed herself to stare at Flyairth. What was going on?
"Rest assured to both of you, he is off doing solo missions assigned to him from me personally," Flyairth briefly glanced at me before giving a pointed stare and nod in Lily's direction. "To steer him on the right path, of course. Sky, could I have a word with you privately?"
"Sure?" I glanced as I saw out of nowhere, Lightning appeared beside Lily as the two does hopped down the hill and back to the warren. "Why did Lily need someone to escort her back to the burrows?"
"Extra measurement she asked to protect herself from those elil," Flyairth shrugged, and a cold jolt rushed into my chest at the wrongness of that statement. Lily may have been smaller than the rest of us, but she would've never asked to be hovered over unless something really horrible happened to her. A brief image flashing of the cat returning, facing a wide-eyed Lily with its amber eyes and bright teeth and claws, played out in my head as I flinched.
"Did something happen? I swore I didn't notice any-"
"None of them hurt her," Flyairth reassured me as she raised a paw to cease my escalating fear, only calming me a little as she continued. "Some experiences she has had are personal, and perhaps she'll share details with you someday. That's not for me to say on her behalf, Sky, that would be very inappropriate of me."
"O…Okay?" I heard the word coming out of my own mouth feel farther away than it should've, only snapping out of my spiraling thoughts as Flyairth leaned closer and placed her paw on my shoulder.
"And as for Oak," Flyairth gave a deep breath. "You're very perceptive, Sky, and I have intentionally separated his Owsla position from yours and Lily's duties. He is physically capable, as the both of you are. But he is a buck, and bucks normally get the idea to be Chief Rabbit. I'm guiding him into a role of complete subservience to keep him from usurping me."
"I guess I understand what you're saying," Didn't mean I agreed with it, but Flyairth seemed to brighten up at that answer as she removed her paw from my shoulder.
"There you go, please leave the worrying about him to me," Flyairth insisted. "Keep to your responsibilities and warn me about anything out of place, and you'll do just fine, Sky."
Feeling my chest tightening at the thought of any harm coming to Lily, of not being allowed to know anything, and of Oak distancing himself from me…I simply turned away from our Chief Rabbit and made my way back to the burrows. I knew when I had chosen to leave Watership Down that Flyairth was significantly more cautious than the average rabbit, and that she once ran an all-doe warren. Having two bucks this time must've been an obstacle for her, just to make sure they didn't make it their warren instead of letting her be in charge. Telling myself that, the cold feeling inside me faded away a little as I saw Lily sprawling in a bright patch of the late Ni-Frith sky. Hopping over to her, seeing her small brown eyes staring at me as if I landed from the clouds, I sprawled beside her and glanced at her.
"You've been alright since we were promoted to Owsla members?" I asked her, feeling her body briefly tremble before she nodded.
"There's certainly been challenges, but Flyairth has been very accommodating and I'm trusting her," Lily's normally soft and airy voice carried an edge to it with each word she said, almost as if she was defensive to my thoughts before I could even voice them.
"Yeah, we should trust her," I agreed. "I hope Oak is doing well as a mem-"
"How have you been?" Lily interrupted me, and before I could reassert what I was trying to say, my dear friend placed her black paw over my white paw. Feeling a sudden warmth blossoming in my chest that made me forget my conversation with our Chief Rabbit, my shoulders relaxed as I took a deep breath.
"Perhaps more worried than I should be," I admitted. "We haven't seen any elil, we've had plenty to eat, and everyone is as happy as they can be. Every time I wake up, I'm looking to see what I need to protect the Eternal Warren from. I can't let anything get inside and destroy us, you understand."
"That does sound quite troubling," Lily leaned her head onto my shoulder, and my heart fluttered as she openly listened to me. I had to drag Oak by the paw to even get a few words out of him, but Lily had never stopped being there for me. And on top of that, she spoke to me a lot more ever since we had found the new territory and became Owsla. "Why do you think that is?"
"I mean, my parents were both Chief Rabbits," I looked down at Lily as I continued. "They've had enough struggles to last several rabbits' lifetimes. And as soon as I told them that I'd be leaving to join Flyairth, they had a talk with me. And on top of that, you know how Flyairth is. She won't expect any less of me…"
The sun began to fall with each hour of our conversation, of me explaining my last talk with my parents and Lily talking about how she learned about so many plants living in her owner's garden. As the moon was high in the sky, I snickered as I smiled down at Lily.
"I swear to El-ahrairah, if you keep spending all this time with me, you're not going to be able to land a buck," I laughed, although Lily went completely silent from my joke. Before I could ask her if she was alright, the tiny black doe pulled her paw and stood up.
"Why would I have a buck? I have you," Lily tilted her head. "That's not exactly a funny joke, Sky."
"I really mean that much to you?" My eyes widened, my company negated any sort of courtship she wanted from a buck?
"Of course you do, Sky, wasn't that obvious?" Lily hopped forward till she was right in front of me, her glittering black fur looking more beautiful in contrast to the dark blue sky and the many stars around the moon. All the obsessing over Oak and him talking to me, only to ignore my friendship with Lily, made my face flush with hot red embarrassment as I leaned my head forward. Lily moved her forehead up to press against my forehead, our eyes closing as we focused on the deep warmth of each other's bodies while listening to the chirps of crickets and the distant wingbeats of birds. Pulling back, seeing Lily still looking at me with that peculiar starry-eyed expression, I chuckled.
"That's a dumb comment to make, you're right," I admitted. "Why don't we head to our burrow and go to sleep?"
"Yes, please," Lily giggled, turning her tiny little butt around and hopping towards the burrow we shared in the distance. While my heart was strangely fluttering and my paws felt lighter than before, I still worried about Oak and where his head was at. How Flyairth treated him when we weren't looking, or if she dismissed him and he just hasn't told me?
Promising myself that I would check up on him in the morning as soon as I woke up, I followed Lily into our burrow to go to sleep…