3 Days Out of Watership Down...
The El-ahrairah-One was hovering over an oval-shaped stone structure, an old relic of a long-bygone era of human history, which had endured for millennia, this far into the future. After two days of non-stop travelling, following the significantly changed Italian Peninsula, which was now no longer connected to mainland Europe, they had reached their destination on schedule. The gigantic Colosseum, the cultural icon of the long-forgotten city of Rome, stretched out beneath them, still perfectly recognisable and remarkably well preserved, save for the excess vegetation that coated its ancient walls.
Around the Colosseum, the city itself, like every other place they'd seen so far, was being reclaimed by nature. Some of the older and more robust stone structures, including the Pantheon, St Peter's Basilica, the Castel Sant' Angelo and the Trevi Fountain still survived, whilst other modern buildings had long since turned to rubble and buried beneath a thick blanket of vegetation.
The Colosseum's hypogeum interior, originally divided by walls, had long since been filled in with earth and debris, burying it in and creating a smooth grassy surface in the former arena for them to land on. Hotdog steered the airship downward, bringing it to a gentle stop on the arena floor and the Watershippers disembarked. The rabbits stared in wonder at their unfamiliar surroundings.
"This place feels kind of spooky, doesn't it, Hazel?" muttered Fiver, who could probably sense the presence of the souls of the many Gladiators who had died here thousands of years ago, still lingering about the ruins.
"To tell you the truth, I feel a bit unnerved about this place too, Fiver," muttered Hazel, staring wearily at the dim archways along the walls, almost expecting to see the gleaming eyes of elil watching them from the shadows. But the place was quite deserted.
The floor of the Colosseum was overrun by vegetation, including several orange trees and plenty of grass for the rabbits, turning it into a wild garden. Around the arena, the towering walls that once housed the former seating areas were mostly intact, but were now home to countless giant pigeon nests. Nonetheless, the place was sheltered enough to provide a safe camping spot for the night, when King Darzin was due to make his appearance.
Bigwig, as usual, called his Owsla to order and took out a patrol with Holly to scout the surrounding area for signs of danger. The rest of the rabbits were only interested in silflaying, or passing hraka, after being cooped up inside a stuffy airship for nearly two days. Alan and Hotdog busied themselves by setting up camp and making sure the airship was in order.
Pipkin, always curious to explore, curious sniffed one of the oranges lying on the ground. He'd never seen fruit like that before. The scent, although unfamiliar, smelt most intriguing. He took a bite; the peel tasted somewhat bitter, but the inside was sweet as fruit out of Frith's heavens!
"This is so delicious! You've got to try this!" he exclaimed to his friends, as the rabbits all gathered round, curiously sniffing at the oranges. Once they'd had a taste however, they fell upon the oranges like children in a candy store, not interested in a single blade of grass.
"Well, it sure was worth coming all this way, even for just a bite of this," said Hawkbit, licking his lips, "What is this flayrah called anyway, Alan?" Alan, who was busy bringing bags for them to collect more of the oranges for the journey, chuckled at Hawkbit's ignorance.
"It's not flayrah, it's a fruit, called an orange. Oranges aren't vegetables," he explained, helping to one himself. God, how he'd missed the taste of orange all these years, he thought, feeling the Vitamin C invigorate his system, "Only don't overdo it, unless you all want to get yourselves stomach horrible aches from the sugary content." Unlike humans, rabbits had a very low tolerance for sugar in their diet, and fruit rich in sugar, like oranges, should only be eaten in moderation. Alas, Alan was only wasting his words, because by now the entire Watership Owsla had gone into a feeding frenzy. He shook his head in amusement. Don't come crying back to me, for stomach-ache remedies...
The oranges from the Colosseum were collected in bags and loaded onboard the airship for the next lag of their journey; but they couldn't find any water source nearby. So Derek and Sam were sent out on water collection detail. They ventured outside the Colosseum, searching the area that was once downtown Rome, now a densely forested area, dotted with the ruinous relics of days gone by. It wasn't long before they discovered a stream running outside the Pantheon, where a busy metropolitan plaza swarming with tourists used to be seven hundred years ago.
The pair spent most of the afternoon touring the ruined city, discovering more and more familiar relics from their own century, many still perfectly well preserved. Finally, they decided to take a break at the Trevi Fountain.
"Wish I still had a camera," said Derek with a laugh, "Post-apocalyptic enthusiasts back in the 21st century would pay a fortune for pictures of this place!"
"I still find it so hard to believe we are the first people to walk these streets in all these centuries," muttered Sam, staring around at the ruins. The sight of the long-forgotten remains of this city, one of many scattered all over the world, filled her with amazement, as well as sadness, "Are we really the only human beings left on the Earth?"
"We still have each other, Sam," said Derek, moving close to comfort her, "And we have Hazel-rah and our rabbit friends. We are now truly living at peace with nature, Sam, and that is a privilege not many human beings have been able to enjoy like we have. Don't tell me you're not happy here."
"Oh, yes, Deke, I am," said Sam. Truly, she loved the new life she'd made for herself in this future world, among the rabbits of Watership Down, even though it was at times harsh, not to mention dangerous. "I feel more alive here than I've ever felt in my entire life! It's just that I miss some things..."
"Like the telly, internet, latest fashion, cars?" asked Derek, chuckling, "I remember Josie had to go through an entire adjustment period without her makeup..."
"I never really cared for makeup," said Sam, snorting at the thought, "A woman's real beauty is only found in her natural, untouched appearance anyway." Derek raised an eyebrow; one of his first girlfriends at university had once given him a slap over the head when he suggested she'd be fine without makeup on their first date. "What I miss is the dream of starting a family, having children. How can one possibly expect to have a family in a world where the human population is practically zero?" She lowered her head sadly.
Feeling for her, Derek moved closer and gently took her hand. Although he'd never admitted it to anyone before, he too hated the thought of never having a wife and family of his own. Unfortunately, his choices and those of Hotdog, were extremely limited; Alan already had Josie, the pair brought together through the common loss of their spouses, and while it was fairly certain they wouldn't be having any kids, the colonists would never consent to sharing their only woman between them like in some knocking-shop. That was why he'd instead dedicated himself to his engineering and inventions all these years; that is, until Sam had come along.
"Sam, I... I just wanted to say...," he stammered, afraid of making her feel like he was trying to take advantage of her. Alas, unlike his friend Alan, Derek Shaw wasn't very talented with the ladies, "Well, I...I love you..." Sam looked at Derek. For a moment, she said nothing. Then, she slowly put her hand up to his face.
"I love you too, Deke."
They slowly moved closer to each other; their lips met. The pair held each other close, lost in the midst of their loving bliss. Around them, birds continued to chirp and a soft breeze continued to blow across the ruined city of the long dead...
They returned to the Colosseum sometime later, holding hands and smiling from ear to ear. They met Holly at the entrance.
"Where in Frith's name have you been all this time?" he demanded crossly, "We were beginning to think you'd run into trouble."
"Sorry, eh, couldn't find a stream nearby," said Derek sheepishly. Beside him, Sam blushed scarlet. The strange looks everyone was giving her and Derek were making her feel so embarrassed!
On the top of the Colosseum wall, Campion had volunteered to take the first watch, keeping a sharp lookout for any signs of the marauders. Although it was unlikely Crowley's men would attempt to work out the location of the Crypts the same way they were, the Watershippers weren't taking any chances.
Although his health was rapidly improving and would soon be fit to rejoin the patrols proper, Campion really wanted to be left alone, to try to work out his feelings for Violet.
Unlike his Owsla comrades, who firmly disapproved of a doe joining them on this dangerous mission, he was secretly glad to have Violet out here with them. That doe had given him back the will to live after Woundwort had done his damn best to break him. His talk with the Black Rabbit of Inle kept playing over in his mind. Although part of him felt it had just been his injuries playing tricks on his mind, another part couldn't help but wonder: why had the Black Rabbit not taken him? Why sent him back at all? Could Violet have been the reason?
Although Campion would have given anything to have Violet be part of his future now, he couldn't imagine how that could ever happen. He had more honour than to betray his friends' trust by making advances on a doe who still had a mate, and to whom she'd sworn to remain loyal to the end. No, he thought, she and Bluebell had already lost their children; he couldn't get between them and claim Violet for himself when they needed each other, now more than ever.
"Campion?"
Startled, he turned to see Bluebell, who had made his way up to the top. Campion frowned; had he finally figured out there might be something between him and his mate and come to confront him about it? Bluebell approached and sat down beside Campion.
"See anything?"
"No, looks like we aren't been followed after all," said Campion, "I just hope we have enough time to find them before it's too late for the girl..."
"We'll find them, Hazel-rah and Alan will make sure of that," said Bluebell confidently. Then his face considerably darkened, "And when we do, it's payback time! My children's deaths won't go unanswered!" All of the Watershippers had a score to settle with Crowley and his mercenaries; Bigwig had personally made an oath to claim the heads of four marauders for every single rabbit they'd lost when they next met up with those thugs.
"I'm afraid it might not be so easy," said Campion solemnly, flashing back to what he had seen that fateful night, when Vleflain had been destroyed, "Woundwort's done something to himself, I'm telling you; no one could so much as touch him, not even my best Owsla fighters, whom I personally trained in combat." Although the Watershippers had finally accepted the impossible truth that Woundwort had indeed returned from the dead, many were still sceptical of Campion's story that their enemy was in fact no longer a mortal rabbit, impervious to death; the majority still believed all it would take was a bullet clean through Woundwort's skull to finish the job. "Bluebell, I shouldn't be talking while on watch duty..."
"I need to talk to you," said Bluebell, his tone suddenly turning firm, "It's about you and Violet." Campion grew tense; could this mean the beginning of a bitter animosity between him and Bluebell? Bluebell's previous animosity with his late cousin Speedwell had been bad enough.
"Look, Bluebell, I know this sounds like an outright lie, but I swear, there was never anything inappropriate between us. I would never try and steal Violet away from you!"
"How do I believe you?" challenged Bluebell, who had seen the tenderness between them back on Watership Down, when she'd stopped Campion from drowning himself in despair. Although probably not meant as a threat, the frostiness in his voice didn't go amiss to Campion.
"Because she told me herself, she would never leave you for as long as you live, and I believe her," he finally said, "She still loves you, Bluebell, no matter what you are." That seemed to ease up Bluebell somewhat. Despite his misfortunes in life that had cost him his cousin, his Owsla career, and even his children, at least his beautiful Violet still remained loyal to him. But, deep down, Bluebell knew it couldn't possibly last forever.
"Thank you for being honest with me, Campion," he said finally, "Unfortunately, we both know she's only wasting her life on a lost cause." Campion looked sympathetically at Bluebell; everyone knew how much Bluebell hated himself for his injury that made him so reliant on others for his survival, particularly Violet.
"You mustn't lose hope, Bluebell," Campion tried reassuring him, "You survived an injury no other rabbit has ever survived before, and that's definitely something to thank Frith for. Maybe someday, we'll find a cure..."
"Don't spout that hraka with me, Campion, I've heard that song before," said Bluebell, "You know as well as I do it's only a matter of time before I meet the Black Rabbit of Inle proper. I need your help, Campion." Campion wanted to point out there wasn't anything he or anybody else could do to help Bluebell, but what the Watershipper said next caught him completely by surprise.
"When my time comes, Violet will be left all alone," he said, "Our children are all dead, and after I'm gone too, she'll have nothing left to live for. Quite possibly, she might try and take her own life. I'm counting on you, Campion, to make sure that doesn't happen."
Campion stared at Bluebell without saying a word. He was just too emotionally moved. Bluebell went on speaking.
"The reason I joined this mission is because, when the time comes, I prefer to die in the line of duty, and alongside my doe, rather than forgotten on the sidelines," he said, "I haven't got much time left, but Violet still has a chance to live the full life I couldn't give her. The only one I can trust to make that possible is you, Campion. Do I have your word?"
Campion nodded, nearly driven to tears. Part of him wanted to cheer at the thought of being with the doe of his dreams some day, the other cursing his callousness at having dibs on another buck's doe, and a dying buck at that! But he never got a chance to deliberate however, because Bluebell left him to return to Violet before she got worried. Before he did however, he spoke to Campion one more time.
"But until such time comes, if you so much as look at my doe the wrong way, I'll beat the living hraka out of you so badly, you'd rather mate with Woundwort, you hear?" Campion couldn't suppress a mild laugh at Bluebell's humour.
It was well past nightfall. The Watershippers lay side by side on the grass inside the Colosseum, with a clear view of the night sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of King Darzin, or whatever was up there, pointing the way to the Crypts. The structure of the Colosseum formed a circular frame of the night sky, creating a rudimentary star chart; to help in their observations, Alan and Derek had strung two lengths of cord, coated in fluorescent marker ink so it would be visible in the dark, across the top of the arena, in a cross, marking the four compass headings.
At first the humans thought it wouldn't be too difficult. With no light pollution and with the atmosphere having had over 700 years to purge itself clean, they figured it would be like a visit to the planetarium. Alas, as fate would have it, the weather that night was cloudy, blotting out the sky and any view of the stars. Only a faint glow through the clouds marked the position of the rising moon. They waited for hours. No luck.
"Damn this weather!" cursed Alan incredulously. There they were, with directions for the next lag of their journey right above their heads, and they couldn't see it! And if they missed their window, there wouldn't be another until next month, by which time the Crypts would be in the hands of the enemy, to be looted or destroyed, and Lucy would be as good as dead.
"I'm sorry, Alan," muttered Hazel solemnly, "Frith isn't smiling on us today, I'm afraid."
"No doubt He's taken offence at us seeking out the help of King Darzin, the same traitor who led El-ahrairah astray," put in Blackberry. Alan had to use all self-control he possessed not to yell out loud for Frith to go to hell for letting them down at such a crucial moment, least he offend his rabbit friends who had always stood by his side for so long.
"If you ask me, we've been chasing fool's gold," grumbled Derek, thinking they had come all this way for nothing, "We were bonkers to come out of our way. We should get the airship back in the air and get out of here. We can still pick up the trail if we hurry..."
"No, we have to wait!" said Fiver, who could sense things the others couldn't thanks to his sixth sense. "King Darzin will be here soon. We just need to be patient!"
"We can't wait any longer, Fiver!" exclaimed Silver, also thinking that they were wasting their time, when they should be far away from here, trying to pick up the marauders' trail. But Alan, who had more than enough reason to trust Fiver's visions, overruled him.
They waited another hour. Then, just before midnight, their luck finally changed for the better. The winds shifted direction, causing the clouds to part.
"There it is, I see it!"
The night sky cleared, revealing the star-lit sky, all the constellations shining more clearly than they ever had in the 21st century. In the background was the moon, partially obscured by the Pandora Belt - the ring of space debris from the shattered asteroid that had originally destroyed the Earth -, a distinct feature of the night sky of the future earth. However, there was nothing up there that looked remotely like King Darzin, whatever King Darzin was supposed to look like.
"See? There's no King Darzin up there, Fiver," said Hawkbit mockingly, "It's all just in your crazy head!" Fiver shot him an annoyed look.
"Come on out already, King Darzin, you rotter!" exclaimed an exasperated Dandelion, "Show us your secret!" It seemed they'd come all this way for nothing, but then, Alan, looking more closely at the sky, realised something. The full moon in the background and the fragments of the Pandora Belt in the foreground, together formed a peculiar shape in the sky resembling the head of some sort of long-snouted animal, the moon being its eye. Not elil, or any kind of recognisable creature, but animal nonetheless. They'd found King Darzin!
"My friends, I think our eyes are just playing tricks on us," said Alan, with an ear-splitting smile, "We're staring at King Darzin right in the face!" If anyone were to try and see it at any time other than the full moon, it would not have been visible; even trying to see it without the Colosseum walls forming a circular frame around the shape, they'd have probably missed it as it blended in with the stars. Then came the hard part.
"So, congratulations to us, we found King Darzin," said Hawkbit sarcastically, "How do we get his directions to the Crypts?"
The Watershippers realised Hawkbit had a good point. El-ahrairah and his people might have worshipped that asteroid formation of space debris as one of their deities, like they did the sun and the rainbow, as Frith and Prince Rainbow respectively, but Alan was certain the one thing it couldn't do was talk back.
For a long while, they kept staring blankly at the formation. Other than being a spectacular sight to behold, it didn't offer a single clue as to where the Crypts of Civilisation might be. The "face" of King Darzin almost seemed to mock them in silence high up in the sky as they struggled to unravel his secret.
Alan studied the formation over and over, trying to make out some hidden detail they'd overlooked. Nothing. Just a cloud of space debris, visible by reflecting sunlight, the four largest fragments of which formed the dots that marked the outline of the strange formation that was the face of King Darzin... The four largest fragments... Four fragments, four Crypts... Could it be?
Inspiration suddenly hit Alan like a stone. Studying the formation again, he realised the one thing it had in common with the Crypts were those four large fragments that formed the edges of the shape. It couldn't be a coincidence, Alan thought. After all, Drake had used that thing to mark the locations of the Crypts for a reason... Wait a minute, to mark the locations...as if on a map! That's it!
Alan stood up. "I need a camera, quick!"
"A camera?" asked Derek, wondering what on earth his friend was on about, "Whatever do you need a camera for?"
"Never mind why, damn it, just get it!" yelled Alan, looking nervously up at the sky. More clouds were shifting in their direction. Any minute now, King Darzin would be obscured again, "Quickly, before the clouds blot out the formation!"
Derek and Hotdog looked at each other; neither of them had a camera, as all of their photographic equipment had been destroyed when the mercenaries had burned down their home. But then, Sam stood up and began going through her backpack.
"Here, use this," she said, passing them her now useless mobile phone, which she'd brought with her from 2016 and which she only still held onto because it had her parents and brother's picture. It may be useless for communication in this future age, but at least the camera still worked.
Muttering his thanks, Alan took the phone, lay down again and, focusing its screen skyward in night-mode, he snapped several shots of the asteroid formation, making sure to include the edges of the Colosseum in the pictures for visual reference. No sooner had he finished than more clouds moved across the moon, blotting out their view of King Darzin.
Motioning to the others to follow him, he hurried back to the airship. Inside the cabin, he walked over to a television screen at the engineer's station; this was linked to a camera mounted on a rotating stand on the roof of the cabin, which was the airship's periscope that allowed a 360-degree view of the horizon in night vision. Travelling by night in this future world was risky, even by air, due to lack of any visual reference on the ground, making a night-vision periscope necessary.
Disconnecting the camera link, Alan hooked up Sam's phone to the screen; the photographs came up in slide-slow form. Shifting through the photographs until he found the clearest one, he brought it up on full-screen. Then, he turned to a world atlas the colonists kept pinned on a board on the wall of the cabin for plotting courses. Flipping through the pages, he found the one with the world in hemisphere view; just like the view of King Darzin through the Colosseum opening. Tearing out the page, he held it up alongside the screen for everyone to see.
"See that?" he exclaimed, pointing between the photograph of the night sky and the map, "Those fragments are pointers! If we bring that picture to scale against this map, it marks the locations of the Crypts across the globe!"
Using a transparent plastic sheet used for drawing course lines on the map, Alan placed it flat against the television screen and began marking everything he could see with a marker, as accurately as he could: the circle that marked the edge of the Colosseum walls and all of the largest fragments that made up the formation of King Darzin. Then, taking the plastic sheet, he placed it on the map. Once the circle was aligned with that of the globe, the four dots in the image, which were the fragments out in space, marked the locations crystal clear.
Studying the map closely, Alan realised the Crypts were scattered across the Earth, on separate continents: the nearest one to them, the Crypt of Wealth was in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, in Romania; the Crypt of Science was somewhere in the Tassili n' Ajjer region of the Sahara Desert, in southern Algeria. In an icy region on Ross Island in Antarctica, close to Mount Erebus, was the Crypt of Life; and on the all-too-familiar Manhattan Island along the Jersey shoreline in the former United States was the Crypt of Knowledge. Lost and forgotten for over seven hundred years, the troves of mankind's lost legacy were finally about to be rediscovered.
They all gasped, realising Alan was right. At long last, they'd unravelled the mystery of King Darzin's riddle!
"Cor blimey, he's right!" exclaimed Derek, staring at the map, "Al, you son of a gun, you've finally broken that ruddy riddle!"
"You're a bloody genius, you know that, man?" put in Hotdog. The search was finally over; and now the race to the prize was on! There wasn't a minute to lose.
"We have to have to get moving at once," said Hazel, "Woundwort and Crowley have probably worked out the riddle too by now and are on their way to the Crypts as we speak."
"I'd like to see those stupid rotters work out anything," smirked Hawkbit, naively thinking Crowley's marauders lacked the intelligence to work out the secret, just because they were their enemies. After all, who could best the Watershippers, the role models of El-ahrairah's cunning and trickery? As far as he was concerned, the secret was safe with them. But Alan wasn't fool enough to think so.
"Crowley knew all about the Crypts long before we did, thanks to Robbins' tape," he pointed out, "And you can bet your ears, Woundwort did too from his ancestral history, if not more. Between them, they're bound to work it out, if they haven't already. We're out of here in five minutes!"
Hurryingly gathering up all of their equipment, plus a fresh supply of water and oranges from the orchard they'd found in the Colosseum for the journey, they departed, leaving the ruins of the long-abandoned city of Rome to nature once again. Following a north-easterly course towards Romania, the Watershippers and their airship made a run for the Carpathian Mountains. Elsewhere, a group of human mercenaries, General Woundwort and their prisoner were just crossing the border of Germany into Hungary, also en route to the Carpathians. The only question was, who would get to the finish line first?
Author's note: Coming up next, the Crypt of Wealth! For those of you who are wondering, I changed the name of one of the Crypts for continuity reasons, so don't get confused! Enjoy!