Chapter 28: The First Crash.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The characters of Dewdrop and Sainfoin are backported from the miniseries. The miniseries hasn't been released yet, however (just a few weeks to go...) so my portrayal of them may be inaccurate.

Also, TheRanger101 thanks for the review, I'm glad you're enjoying this story so far :)

"I've buried a husband and a son. I'm a widow and a... Funny, there's no word. Lose your parents, you're an orphan. Lose your only son and you are... Nothing."

-Suddenly, Last Summer

It was late afternoon in Efrafa. Moss was at silflay, alone. He, Rake and Leo had spent most of the day interrogating various rabbits in the warren, separately. Doing so allowed them to talk to more rabbits than if the three had worked together. Also, a group of three always together would be easier to notice by the other officers, and they might get suspicious. They only met together again after silflay, in the hraka ditch.

-"Any luck?" Moss asked.

-"None at all," Leo said sadly. "Every rabbit I talked to said they were in their burrow at the time. No witnesses, of course, except for the other rabbits in their burrow."

-"What about you, Rake?"

-"Same as Leo. Apart from one rabbit who was out here in the ditch, and an officer was there with him and kept a close eye on him the whole time, he couldn't have sneaked away."

-"I can't say I'm surprised," Moss said sadly. "I went through pretty much the same thing. I'm starting to think we're looking at this the wrong way."

-"What do you mean?" Rake asked.

-"Maybe it wasn't just one rabbit who did it. Maybe there were several of them who ganged up on the General. They would all be backing up each other's alibis."

-"It's worth considering," Leo said. "The General was a strong rabbit, and it seems unlikely that a single rabbit would be able to kill him. But I don't know how we could find everyone involved."

-"We might be able to stumble upon one of them by chance," Rake added, "and he might reveal the identity of his partners in crime."

-"I doubt he would reveal anything unless we tortured him," Moss said, "and I really don't want to do that. It's almost hopeless..."

Suddenly, there was a loud noise coming from inside the warren. Moss hopped out of the ditch, followed by the two others, and they saw that a large branch from the tree had fallen. They ran underground to see if there was any damage. As they reached the area where the branch had fallen, however, they saw that a large number of rabbits, outskirters and owsla alike, were gathered in front of a wall, with several of them digging. Moss tried to break to the front of the crowd to see what was happening, but was unable to do so.

-"What's going on?" he asked the first owsla officer he found.

-"The burrow there just collapsed. We're trying to dig out those trapped inside. There's not much time before they suffocate!"

Moss realized the urgency of the situation. While some rabbits were digging, others were simply crowding the run, making it harder for the owsla to keep the situation under control. Moss tried to steer some rabbits back to their burrows, but this proved to be impossible, as more rabbits kept arriving. Moss soon lost contact with Leo and Rake, and was unable to do anything to help. He was just another rabbit in the crowd, complicating the situation.

After what felt like forever, the diggers had finally managed to break through the wall into what remained of the burrow. They dragged two rabbits out of the dirt, both of them dead. They did not know if there were any other dead bodies burried in the dirt; if there were, they would be unrecoverable.

Due to all the noise, it took a long time for everyone to learn the sad news. As it sank in, the rabbits slowly wandered away. Some went back to their burrows, while others lied down nervously in the corners of various runs, not willing to risk returning to their unstable burrows. Moss approached the bodies to examine them. Nearby, an elderly doe could be seen with tears in her eyes; an owsla officer was next to her, trying to persuade her to go back to her burrow.

-"Did you know them?" Moss asked her.

-"I didn't know the brown one. But the white one...her name was Dewdrop. She was my daughter."

With that, she lied down and covered her face with her front paws. The officer tried to drag her away, but she refused to budge.

-"Moss, can you help me with this?" he asked.

Moss, however, was not paying attention. He wanted to alleviate this doe's suffering.

-"We shall give her a proper burial," he said.

The officer looked at Moss with shock. Burying outskirters was unheard of: in most cases, the body was simply carried a long distance from the warren to attract elil. Generally, a few officers stayed nearby for a few days to kill whatever creature stumbled upon the corpse.

-"And what about the other one?" he asked. "What do we do with him?"

-"First, find out who he is."

After an extensive search, the brown rabbit was identified as Sainfoin, a former owsla officer who had retired years before; he had no living relatives. Moss ordered that he be burried next to Dewdrop. The two bodies were carried some distance from Efrafa and placed in a small trench dug by Rake, Leo and another officer. Dewdrop's mother was allowed to supervise the whole process. After the hole was filled up again, she took a large leaf, with faint traces of dew still on it, and put it on her daughter's grave. She remained sitting next to it for along time. Moss stared at her, before starting to make his way back towards Efrafa with Leo and Rake.

-"Hey, what am I supposed to do now?" the remaining officer asked.

-"Stay with her as long as she wants, and make sure no elil come. When she's ready, escort her back to the warren."

After Moss had gone, the officer looked at the doe and sighed. He had been trained to obey all orders without questions, but having to babysit an old emotional slave doe was really annoying.

The three other officers, meanwhile, went back to the hraka ditch.

-"We have to make sure things nobody else dies in any more burrow collapses," Moss said. "We need to inspect all burrows in the warren to see if they are structurally sound."

-"What about the investigation?" Rake asked.

-"It will have to wait a day or two."

-"I don't know much about digging," Leo said, "how do we know if a burrow is stable?"

-"Poke the walls. If something collapses, then the burrow isn't fit to live in, the rabbits living there will have to sleep in the central chamber."

-"It's going to get very crowded..."

-"I know, but I can't think of any other solution. Hopefully Campion will be back soon..."

-"Uh, excuse me," came a fourth voice. The rabbits turned around, and saw another rabbit. He had black fur, and judging by his size, he was still very young. He appeared to have a small object tied to his back, with a wire reaching into his ear. A quick scan of his body failed to reveal a mark; he was therefore not an Efrafan, but an outsider.

-"May I help you?" Leo asked.

-"Does anyone know the way to Watership Down?"

-"I've never heard of this place before, I'm afraid," Moss said.

-"It's a warren," the stranger explained. "I heard that it's at the top of a high hill near the farm, but that's all I know."

-"I'm not familiar with the area you describe. Would you like to spend the night at my warren, though?"

-"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll just keep searching."

With that, he hopped away towards the river.

-"Was that the Black Rabbit of Inlé?" Rake said.

-"I really don't think so," Leo said. "I know he smelled weird, but he didn't smell like death."

-"We should probably go back to the warren now," Moss decided. "We have a lot of work to do."