AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)
Chapter 137: The Secrets.
"Fear meant control and control meant power."
-rosexnight, The Efrafan Princess
Speedwell spent a while above ground at silflay. He thought back at the previous day's events, notably the visit from the messengers of Prince Rainbow. Unlike nearly everyone else, he was willing to believe that they really were who they claimed to be. Subconsciously, he knew they were mere tricksters, but he was desperate for a better life. If these rabbits could help him achieve this goal, he would do anything they said.
He hopped back underground and went to the visitors' burrow, only to be appalled by what he saw. The two rabbits were rolling around, scratching, kicking and biting each other.
-"What's going on around here?" he shouted.
Both rabbits abruptly stopped moving and stared at Speedwell, before hurriedly sitting up.
-"We were, uh...practicing!" Bluesky improvised. "We need to be ready to fight elil, should the need arise."
-"You had some amazing moves." Bluesky's lie was obvious, but it still fooled Speedwell. "Could you teach me some of these? I hope to be in an owsla some day."
-"A noble pursuit," Raincloud said.
-"Didn't you say this warren doesn't have an owsla?" Bluesky pointed out.
-"That is true, but I won't be spending the rest of my life here. As Prince Rainbow's messengers, you are the most qualified to teach me how to lead a better life. At least, I think so. Our previous Chief forbade anyone from telling any stories Prince Rainbow or El-ahrairah, so I may be completely wrong about this, and I hope I'm not asking too much of you..."
-"No, not at all," Bluesky said. "We would be glad to help you."
-"Also, I was hoping you might teach us the ways of normal rabbits, which we have largely forgotten due to, once again, our previous Chief."
-"That can be arranged. But we would need to finish practicing our fighting first."
-"Oh, that's fine. I'll leave you to it, then. It's going to be so much fun, learning from you!"
Speedwell excitedly hopped out of the burrow, looking forward to the future lessons. Bluesky and Raincloud, while still angry at each other, did not resume their battle: they had more important things to worry about at the moment.
-"All these rabbits seem to want something from us," Bluesky finally said.
-"Different things, too," Raincloud said. "Sometimes contradictory."
-"They said this was a small warren. At this rate, every single rabbit will have visited us."
-"Out of the rabbits we saw last night, they all visited us, except one. A small doe, rather timid."
-"You mean the one staring at us right now?"
Raincloud awkwardly looked at the entrance, and saw small, timid Tindra looking at them.
-"What is this all about?" Tindra asked.
-"Oh, just some code to communicate with Prince Rainbow," Bluesky quickly improvised. "What may we do for you?"
-"You say that you came here as Prince Rainbow's messengers, so that our Chief Rabbit and owsla captain could become the next El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle. Right?"
-"Yes, that was our goal, but..."
-"I think you have the wrong warren. We never had an owsla, we never believed in Prince Rainbow, and our Chief was evil. You're probably looking for New Sandleford Warren."
-"New Sandleford?" Raincloud pretended to think for a few moments. "That name does not sound familiar."
-"It's on the other side of the woods, so you could have easily visited the wrong warren by mistake," Tindra explained. "I don't know much about them, beyond the fact that they have an owsla and a somewhat decent Chief. You should probably visit them, I'm sure they would be more deserving of whatever awards you were planning to bestow."
-"You may actually be right," Bluesky said. "We'll contact Prince Rainbow and see what he has to say."
-"Thank you. Also, if you do go to New Sandleford, stay away from the hedges along the way, they're full of snares."
Tindra slowly hopped out of the burrow, hoping the visitors wouldn't ask any further questions. It had taken her a while to build up enough courage to come speak to them, and now she felt completely drained mentally.
-"Perhaps those New Sandleford fellows could be convinced. We should try our scheme over there," Bluesky suggested, following Tindra's departure.
-"After all the trouble we've had here...you want to try again?" Raincloud could hardly believe his ears. "Really now?"
-"It would certainly be better than the current mess we're in. We would just need to leave without the others noticing. This way, we won't have to worry about their contradictory instructions."
-"And earlier, you called me a coward for wanting to leave..."
-"Look, let's forget all our disagreements, and get away first. Our lives are the most important thing."
As Bluesky hopped towards the burrow's entrance, however, Raincloud lied down.
-"What are you doing? I thought we were leaving."
-"I'm tired. Nap first, escape later."
Bluesky sighed, annoyed at this delay. With nothing else to do, he lied down to nap too.
-"Vervain, you are very slow."
Vervain had been carrying Orchis for a long time. They were in the middle of a large open field, with several puddles spread around them; Darkhaven was still far away.
-"I need to stop...I can't anymore..."
Vervain made a few painful steps away from the nearest puddle, before collapsing. He needed to take a break to rest, if he hoped to make it the rest of the way. Orchis slid off his back.
-"Will you be long? I was hoping to make it back before sunset. At this rate, it'll take until tomorrow morning."
-"Just let me rest, will you? It won't do either of us any good if I keep going while half-dead."
Orchis did not reply, instead starting to nibble some nearby dandelions. A few minutes later, a third rabbit arrived, panting.
-"Slow down, will you? You're too fast for me, I can't keep up!"
-"Let me tell you, that wasn't 'fast'." Vervain turned his head towards Lady May. "You should see me when I don't have anything on my back."
-"That may be slow for you, but remember that I've been in a hutch my whole life. My paws are supposed to be cute, not fast."
Lady May collapsed in exhaustion next to Vervain. This journey was clearly a challenge for everyone involved. Orchis was the only rabbit who remained awake; after he had finished with his silflay, he simply stared in the distance. There wasn't anything interesting to see: both Bramble Cottage and Darkhaven were too far away to be visible.
After a while, he spotted an approaching shape. Worried that it might be elil, he considered waking up Vervain, but soon realized that this would be pointless: there was no way Vervain would be able to carry him away before it was too late. Even letting the elil eat Lady May wasn't an option, no matter how appealing it would be to get rid of her: she was all fur and no flesh, it would still be hungry enough to eat a second rabbit. Fortunately, as the creature got closer, Orchis realized that it wasn't elil, but another rabbit.
-"Oh, thank Frith you're alive!"
-"Oh right, you exist," Orchis said, staring directly at Aspen. The voices were enough to wake up the other two rabbits.
-"Where were you?" Vervain asked.
-"I woke up very early, and I was bored, so I decided to wander, and I encountered Nep..." Aspen started to say, but was cut off by Orchis.
-"Nobody cares."
-"Shall we get going, then?"
-"Aspen, could you please carry Orchis?" Vervain asked, hopping over to the others. "I'm too tired to keep this up."
-"No," Orchis said sternly. "I insist that Vervain be the one carrying me."
-"Come on! Give me a break, will you?"
-"You just had your break."
-"In that case, Aspen sir, could you carry me?" Lady May asked.
-"I, uh...I suppose I could..." Aspen was not sure how to react, but he nevertheless let Lady May climb onto his back. The group soon departed; their progress was just as slow as before the break.
While the kittens were busy destroying the fake elil, Bigwig went underground. He wanted to check up on Blueberry, as he subconsciously felt bad over keeping him confined to his burrow, when he might not even be guilty. As he looked into the burrow, he saw Blueberry facing the burrow wall, his head moving up and down.
-"Blueberry."
The kitten did not react, but continued to move his head up and down.
-"Blueberry!"
Even with Bigwig shouting, Blueberry did not reply. Frustrated, Bigwig hopped inside the burrow placed his paw on his tail. This startled the kitten, who quickly turned around, then removed a pair of weird objects from his ears with his front paws.
-"Sorry, Bigwig sir, I didn't hear you come in," he said.
-"Don't worry about it." Clearly, whatever the objects in Blueberry's ears were, they hindered his hearing.
-"Am I free to go?" Blueberry asked.
-"I'm afraid not. Just know...this isn't personal. Woundwort would kill us all if he had the chance, we have to be sure..."
-"You don't have to explain yourself. I get why you're doing what you're doing. Yes, I was with Woundwort, no, I didn't tell him anything. I'm not lying, but I could be, and your actions are reasonable under the circumstances."
-"It's not that I don't believe you. We just have to be absolutely sure, considering how much of a threat Woundwort is. If you really are innocent, we'll have Silverweed, he's a mind reader, look into your heart, and prove it."
-"Spooky."
-"Are you hungry? You're not allowed to leave this burrow, so silflay is not an option..."
-"It's fine."
-"Very well." Bigwig was running out of things to say. "Please call out if this changes."
With that, he hopped out of the burrow towards the Honeycomb, as Blueberry put the objects back in his ears.