AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you TheRanger101 for the review :) Spartina's story will have several twists over the course of later chapters.
Chapter 41: Return to Ancient Simplicity.
"No, no, no, no, no, no. It's the truth, I'm telling you! You gotta help me! Don't leave me here! [...] My IQ's dropping by the second! I'm becoming one of them!"
-Cars
As Fiver walked out of the warren's main entrance, the first thing he noticed was how dark it was, despite the fact it was day. There was a thick blanket of fog over the area; this was not the first time this had happened, but it was easily the worst. Even at night, the moon and the stars provided faint light, but now there was nothing. He could see as far as the edge of the Down, but no further. He thought of Blackberry, Hazel, Primrose and Bigwig, all of them far away from home in this miserable weather. He hoped all them would make it back to the warren safely.
Further away, Blackberry and Strawberry were sitting on the rock. They heard another rabbit approaching from behind and turned to see who it was.
-"I'm bored." It was Bluebell. "What are you two doing?"
-"We're riding a boat," Blackberry said.
-"A boat? Can I join you? I've always wanted to be a water rabbit."
Blackberry and Strawberry looked at each other, trying to think of what to reply.
-"Our boat is small, but there is enough space for someone who wants to become a water rabbit," Strawberry finally said.
Bluebell smiled, and jumped on the rock behind the other two. Immediately afterwards, he placed a kiss on Blackberry's cheek.
-"I'm not in the mood for this," Blackberry said, with a faint trace of annoyance.
Bluebell remained silent for a few moments, trying to think of something else he could do.
-"Look!" he eventually said. "Up there in the sky! What is that?"
Blackberry and Strawberry looked upwards, then at each other, and finally at Bluebell.
-"It's fog..." Strawberry started to say.
-"It's a cloud! A big one, I must say. It's going to rain soon."
Blackberry and Strawberry looked at each other again; Strawberry was visibly puzzled.
-"Fog technically is a cloud, but I think he's trying to play a game with us," Blackberry whispered.
Strawberry smiled, and looked at the sky again.
-"Oh yes, that is really worrying," she said. "I hope we will make it to a safe place before the storm breaks."
-"It probably looks worse than it will be, Strawberry," Blackberry said. "I'm sure we'll be fine."
Meanwhile. Bluebell had hopped off the rock and cut off a few blades of grass with his claws. After he had accumulated a small pile of grass, he threw some of it over the two others.
-"It's raining," he said.
-"Oh, what a nuisance," Blackberry said. "I was hoping we would make it back before it started."
-"It's a good thing I planned ahead," Strawberry said, as she hopped away. A few moments later, she came back with a cabbage leaf from the warren's flayrah supply, and draped it over both her and Blackberry's heads. The "rain" could no longer bother them.
Bluebell decided to try something else. He jumped on the rock and started stamping.
-"What's going on?" Blackberry asked.
-"The storm is intensifying! The waves are rocking the boat, carrying it up and down, left and right, there is no escape. The water is agitated, be careful, don't fall off!"
It was no use: the "waves" caused Blackberry and Strawberry to fall (or, more accurately, jump) off the boat into the "water".
-"Blackberry, help!" Strawberry shouted, as she squirmed in the grass. "I can't swim!"
-"I'll save you!"
Blackberry "swam" towards his friend as fast as he could, and once he had made it he grabbed hold of her and placed his head under hers, keeping it above the "water's" surface. The two rabbits slowly started to make their way back to the boat, until suddenly, Blackberry stopped and squealed.
-"Are you all right?" Strawberry said.
-"My paw caught something. I can't move."
Strawberry dove below the surface to examine the situation. Blackberry was clearly in a bad way; his paw had gotten stuck in some underwater plant, and the more he moved, the tighter it got tangled.
-"I'll save you!"
Strawberry dove again, and raised one of her hind legs, placing it under Blackberry's chin to keep his head above the surface while she tried to untangle the plant. The fact that she was underwater prevented her from chewing it, forcing her to use her front paws instead, making things much more complicated.
After what felt like a long time, Blackberry's paw was finally free, allowing the two rabbits to continue their journey towards the boat. Once they were close to it, though, a wave swept them back.
-"The water wants you!" Bluebell said as he threw leaves onto the other two. "You can't have your boat back! Will you have the strength to make it to the shore?"
-"I can't last," Strawberry said, as she sank below the surface.
-"But you can't be the first either!" Bluebell joked.
-"No, we will make it through this!" Blackberry shouted. "There has to be a way out."
As Blackberry dove beneath the surface to grab hold of Strawberry, he caught sight of something unusual at the bottom of the river. It looked like some sort of tunnel, that might lead them to safety.
-"I think I found a way out, just take a deep breath and follow me."
The two rabbits soon dove again, and swam towards the tunnel. It was too narrow for both of them to swim side-by-side; Blackberry went first to see if it was safe.
It seemed to Blackberry as if the tunnel would never end. They would never make it to the other side, they would just drown there. He was rapidly losing strength. Too weak to continue, he let himself sink towards the bottom.
Strawberry was also slowly drowning; she used her last strength to push Blackberry out of the way towards the end of the tunnel. They had reached a hot spring some distance from the river. It was a trivial step to swim to the safety of the shore.
The two rabbits remained in the grass for a long time.
-"That was amazing," Blackberry finally said.
-"I know this is only a game," Strawberry said, "but you still saved my life."
-"I would have done the same thing if this were real. And you saved mine too."
Bluebell looked at the scene from a distance, satisfied at having brought some excitement in everyone's lives.
Further away, Fiver was nibbling the grass, when he suddenly saw Flyairth come outside. She hopped over to the edge of the Down and stared into the distance, seeing nothing. Fiver hopped over to her.
-"Nasty weather, isn't it?" he said.
-"You can say that again. Is it always like this?"
-"Not always. Anyway, what do you plan to do today?"
-"Keep training the same three rabbits to turn them into a decent owsla."
-"Speaking of them, they talked to me last night. They accused you of torturing them. Supposedly you forced them to continue training despite the fact that they were exhausted."
Flyairth sighed.
-"Cowards, they couldn't even complain directly to me, instead they had to talk behind my back," she complained. "Those three are the most incompetent group of rabbits I've ever seen in an owsla. That Strawberry fellow is the only one who takes things seriously. Am I still allowed to train them today?"
-"You're right that they don't take their job seriously enough, but you were probably too hard on them. You can still train them, but ease up, please."
-"I don't think I'll be able to accomplish much if I treat them too softly, but I could still try. Could I also train the rabbits I brought here with me?"
-"You can, but whether or not they get to join the owsla will be for Bigwig to decide, once he gets back."
-"He better let them join! Most are far more competent that those three I trained yesterday."
-"If they're that good, he probably will. But ultimately, it's still Bigwig's decision."
With that, Flyairth walked away, towards the owsla training ground.
The training grounds were covered with small fragments of the log Flyairth had destroyed the previous day. The only useable piece of equipment available was the rock. But first, Flyairth had to go and find everyone. She could see Blackberry and Strawberry further away. Both were lying on the grass, and Strawberry was nibbling the grass near Blackberry's hind legs. She had no idea what they were up to, but she didn't really care. There were other rabbits to train.
Meanwhile, Spartina walked out of the warren's main entrance. She had been talking with several of the rabbits underground, but nobody seemed to remember seeing her before. She had clearly never been at this warren before, and still couldn't remember anything about her past. But maybe it was for the best. Maybe she didn't remember because there was nothing good to remember. And besides, she had no reason to cling to the past; she could start a new life at this warren, Watership Down, free from any past mistakes she might have made. She lied down in the grass and started to nibble it.
Suddenly, she noticed an unusual scent. It was a smell of humans, but not strong enough to indicate the presence of an actual human. It was probably a small object of human origin somewhere nearby. Her instincts told her that this was a bad thing and she should get away from this object as soon as possible, but for some reason, she was not worried, almost as if she was used to such scents. She did not understand why she felt this way, she just did.
It did not take her very long to find the object she had smelled. In the grass near the top of the Down, there was a very long, thin piece of fabric; it had probably been carried there by the wind. She found its colour, blue like the sky, very pleasing, and decided to carry it back to the warren.
The Honeycomb was nearly deserted. Hawkbit was in a corner; Snowdrop, Mallow and Gilia were sitting on top of him.
-"When are mother and father coming back?"
-"How many times do I have to tell you: I don't know."
-"How do we know you're not keeping secrets?"
-"Dandelion will vouch for me."
-"But I miss them so much..."
-"I miss him too. If he were here, he would get that crazy doe under control..."
-"Why didn't they tell us before leaving?"
At that moment, Flyairth entered the burrow, followed by Hyzenthlay, Thethuthinnang and a few others.
-"If you are to participate in training today, Hawkbit, you will have to..." She suddenly stopped to sniff the air. "What's that smell? It stinks of humans."
-"It must be this ribbon thing..." Spartina started to say.
-"You brought a human thing inside the warren? Get that thing away from here! You want to infect us all with the White Blindness?"
-"Spooky!" one of the kittens said.
-"I told you she was crazy..." Hawkbit said.
-"You may think I'm crazy now, but when you're all ill and dying you'll wish you had listened to me."
-"There is no smell of disease," Spartina said. "If there was, I would have left it alone."
-"But humans ALWAYS bring disease."
-"Flyairth, I thought you wanted to train us," Thethuthinnang said, eager to put an end to the argument.
-"But what about..."
-"I'm ready, and I'm sure everyone else is. Let's not keep them waiting."
Flyairth wanted to protest, but soon realized that it was no use, and simply followed Thethuthinnang outside, mumbling something about how nobody ever wants to listen to her.
After the two does had left, the situation in the Honeycomb mostly calmed down. Spartina dropped the ribbon and looked at it worriedly.
-"Don't worry," Hyzenthlay said, "you didn't do anything wrong."
-"But what if she's right, and this ribbon thing will make us all sick? Perhaps I really should get rid of it."
-"Flyairth has been obsessed with the White Blindness for a long time. If the disease enters a warren, everyone will die. She means well, but she sometimes takes things too far. Your ribbon looks harmless, it doesn't smell of disease, you can keep it."
-"I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable."
-"In that case, I suppose you could keep it in your own burrow, and not bring it out until after the smell has faded."
Spartina nodded, and carried the ribbon all the way to the burrow where she had spent the previous night. It would take a while for the smell to fade, but she could still try to speed up the process, by licking the ribbon.