AUTHOR'S NOTE: sorry for my silence last week. I experienced computer issues that left me unable to finish the chapter on time. These issues have since been resolved and there should not be any other unplanned breaks for a while now.

Chapter 263: The Healing Challenges.

"Can you believe, that tomorrow is the last day of school?"

-Weekyle15, True Love

Blackberry quickly became one of the busiest rabbits in the warren. After taking care of Dandelion, she went back to check in on Heather; as it turned out, she was kindling. She was struggling with this, as she had been left weakened by seasons spent in Efrafa. Given the risk of complications, Blackberry tasked Dandelion with keeping an eye on her: he would not be taking part in the battle, and this was better than sitting around doing nothing.

The next casualty that Blackberry had to take care of was Vilthuril, who had sprained her paw early in the battle. Luckily, it was only a light injury, and she claimed that she would be able to return above ground and resume fighting very soon. But Blackberry disagreed:

-"If you put too much strain on it, this will make the pain worse and it will take even longer before you are back to normal."

-"Perhaps you're right...but I feel useless in here, doing nothing."

-"You would be much more useless if you were dead."

Vilthuril fell silent. Soon afterwards, an idea formed into her mind.

-"Shouldn't you go outside?" she asked. "What if there are rabbits above ground that are hurt, but too weak to make it here for treatment?"

-"That's true. I'll go see if there is anyone."

After Blackberry went out of the burrow, Vilthuril waited for a few moments before carrying out the rest of her plan. With Blackberry out of the way, there was nothing stopping her from sneaking out of the burrow to fight again. Marigold was still present, but she would be easier to silence.

-"Don't say a word," Vilthuril said, before hopping through another tunnel. Her walk was a bit slower than expected: this one paw would be slowing her down, but she would be fine.

After a few minutes, Blackberry returned, along with Strawberry and Bluebell. One of Strawberry's ears had a hole in it, while Bluebell had a large gash on his side.

-"I tell you, it's just a small hole," Strawberry complained. "I didn't even notice it was there until you pointed it out."

-"Which is exactly why I'm bringing you here," Blackberry explained. "It's better to take care of it now before it gets worse. Now it's just a small cut, but if it gets infected, you might lose your ear entirely."

-"I would rather lose my ear than lose the war."

-"Neither will be lost, if you let me take care of you."

Blackberry picked up a large leaf, and chewed one edge of it. Then, she wrapped it tightly around the injured buck's ear, in such a way that the ear was completely hidden inside.

-"Could you try shaking your head?"

Strawberry did so; the ear and leaf did not move.

-"Perfect. You should be able to go back above ground now. But remember: if the leaf is damaged or falls off, don't wait like you did earlier. Go see me so I can replace it."

-"Thank you Blackberry."

As Strawberry ran out of the burrow, Blackberry turned her attention to Bluebell. Unfortunately, taking care of him wouldn't be as easy as it had been with Strawberry.

-"I'll need your help with him, Marigold," Blackberry said.

-"Why? What's going on?" Bluebell asked nervously.

-"Don't move. It seems the rabbit you were fighting left one of his claws inside you."

-"Oh yes. It was delicious," Bluebell joked inappropriately. "I would have eaten a few more, but he ran away before I could bite them all off."

Blackberry rolled her eyes; Marigold, meanwhile, had a look of horror on her face, as she truly believed that Bluebell had been eating claws.

-"He left it in your flesh, not in your stomach," Blackberry explained, "and I will remove it. Hold him down, Marigold!"

Marigold jumped on Bluebell's back, as Blackberry carefully sniffed his wound, and prepared to remove the claw embedded in it. The thought of what Blackberry was going to do terrified Bluebell; he struggled, but could not break free from Marigold's grip.

-"You can relax now," Blackberry suddenly announced. "It's out."

Bluebell slowly opened his eyes. He thought the extraction of the claw would be a very painful process, but instead it had been painlessly removed. Blackberry then put some chewed leaves on the wound.

-"It didn't hurt..." he said.

-"It wasn't supposed to. If it had been painful, it would have meant that I did something wrong. Anyway, just lie down here and get some rest, and you will soon be back to normal."

-"You mean I can't go back and fight?"

-"Not yet. You need to rest until you get better."

-"But I'm so useless down here..."

-"No, you're not," Marigold said. "As soon as you're better, you can fight again."

It was then that the other Blackberry, who had been accidentally trampled by Hannah's friends, arrived in the Honeycomb. Bluebell was left horrified as he saw all the wounds.

-"Blackberry! Are you all right?"

-"I'll be fine," Blackberry said. "Just kiss me."

-"With pleasure."

Bluebell hopped over to Blackberry, and their noses touched, before this blossomed into a kiss. They remained tightly together for a long time, as the other Blackberry got to work examining the wounds.

Another rabbit soon arrived; it was Nyreem, and the first thing she saw was the kissing couple.

-"Of course that's I walk in on," she said. "Took you two long enough. Anyway, Blackberry, when you can, I will need your help."

Suddenly, there was a loud cry, coming not from above ground, but from deeper underground.

-"Marigold, can you go check on that?" Blackberry asked.

Marigold nodded, and hopped towards the direction from which the sound had come. Her first assumption was that it was likely Heather, but as she entered the doe's burrow, there was nothing visibly wrong with her.

-"What's going on?" Dandelion asked, confused.

-"Didn't she squeal just now?"

-"It wasn't her. She hasn't made a sound, her situation hasn't really changed since I first arrived."

Marigold was left confused: if it wasn't Heather who had cried, who was it? As she ran past another burrow, she heard it again. Peaking inside, she saw Lady May staring at her in a mixture of confusion and fear.

-"There's so much noise!" she said. "The tree roots carry the sound underground, and it's so loud. What's going on?"

-"Woundwort and his Darkhaveners are attacking, we're fighting them," Marigold said, not wasting any time with overly-long explanations.

-"Woundwort and his Darkhaveners...sounds like the name of a rock n' roll band..." Lady May mumbled.

-"As much as I would like to hear you tell me all about rock n' roll, whatever that is, now is not a good time. Do you need help with anything?"

-"I'm hungry. Can you ask Broom to take me above ground for silflay?"

-"Like I just said, there's a battle above ground, Broom is busy fighting, and it's not safe for you there anyway."

-"But I'm hungry!"

-"I'll get you some flayrah, I'll be right back."

Marigold did not know if she really would be "right back": it would depend on whether Blackberry needed help. Caring for the casualties of war would take priority over feeding that annoying doe that nobody really liked.

Marigold returned to the Honeycomb just in time to see Blackberry dropping some sort of herb in front of her namesake.

-"The good news is, it's all superficial," Blackberry said. "Eat this, and you can get back to the battle."

-"I think I can go back too!" Bluebell said cheerfully. "This kissing has been doing wonders for my health, I'm already feeling so much better than before you removed the claw."

Blackberry considered it for a few moments. She reasoned that Blackberry and Bluebell would be able to support each other emotionally if they fought together; perhaps it would be reasonable to let Bluebell go back above ground.

-"All right, you both go. Marigold, can you help me with Nyreem's gash?"

The two does performed an initial inspection on their latest patient. A Darkhavener had ripped off some fur and scratched the skin, but fortunately, it didn't go much deeper. Blackberry got to work preparing the required herbs, when suddenly, Dandelion arrived running.

-"Blackberry, there's something very wrong with Heather!"

-"You just told me she was fine," Marigold pointed out.

-"She was then, but not anymore. She told me the pain was too much, at which point she passed out, and then I noticed that she was bleeding. I don't know what to do!"

This was even worse than Blackberry had previously expected. If Heather was bleeding, she was in need of immediate assistance; Marigold and Dandelion may not be able to provide that, she would have to go herself.

-"Dandelion, you help Marigold with Nyreem," she ordered. "I'll go take care of Heather."