AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review!

Chapter 144: The Cleanup Crew.

"And besides, I never hated you. I'm always going to like you, even if you do the stupidest things, and this is not one of them." [...] "You're forgiven. Now let's get back inside, I'm exhausted."

-ToonGuy, Forgiven

Hawkbit and Bluebell were digging where the entrance to Hickory and Marigold's burrow used to be. Progress was reasonably fast, and both were fully concentrated on their paw movements. Nevertheless, this was a good opportunity to discuss the situation between the two of them.

-"Honestly, I really did make a mistake," Bluebell said. "Spending so much time with you, kissing you, only to let you go the moment Blackberry became interested in me...that wasn't nice."

-"I appreciate you admitting it," Hawkbit replied. "But it's not entirely your fault. I was being overly possessive."

-"Had I known Blackberry would change his mind like that, I wouldn't have done this."

-"Nelthilta is a real thorn in our ears, but she was right about one thing: you and Blackberry really are inseparable. It's perfectly reasonable that you went back to him, and I hope you'll be very happy together."

-"I'm sure we will be. But I hope the two of us can remain friends."

-"Friends." Hawkbit hesitated for a few moments. "Sure. I'm sorry I accused you of hating me."

-"I really don't hate you. You're a nice buck. In fact, I rather like you."

-"But I'm not Blackberry."

-"I don't want you to be Blackberry. You need to be yourself, and I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding yourself someone."

-"Yeah, maybe..."

-"Do you want my help?"

-"I think I can manage it on my own."

-"As you wish. But if you change your mind and decide you want my expert matchmaking skills after all, don't hesitate to ask."

At this point, the hole they had dug was large enough to come in or out of the burrow easily; the diggers peaked inside. Hickory and Marigold were trembling in fear, while their kitten, unaware of the situation with the weasels, was asleep.

-"It's safe now, you can come out," Hawkbit said.

While Marigold seemed relieved by this development, Hickory, hiding behind her, reacted in absolute terror.

-"No!"

-"Why not?" Hawkbit asked.

-"You're not who you claim to be."

Bluebell and Hawkbit looked at each other, each hoping the other one understood Hickory's cryptic statement, but neither did.

-"All right then," Bluebell said. "Who are we?"

-"You are a pair of weasels manipulating the dead bodies of Bluebell and Hawkbit trying to convince us they are still alive, so we leave the burrow, and you eat us too."

-"Have you been teaching him inappropriate jokes?" Hawkbit whispered to Bluebell.

-"I haven't," his friend replied. "I think he's serious."

-"We're not weasels!" Hawkbit cried.

-"That's exactly what a weasel would say!" Hickory was completely panicked.

-"What has gotten into you?" Marigold broke her silence. "In all those seasons we've known each other, I've never heard something so absurd from you."

-"I'M TRYING TO SAVE OUR LIVES!" Hickory smacked Marigold in the face with his front paw. He was about to do it again, but stopped mid-move, and lowered his paw. He went completely tharn, horrified at his own behaviour. Marigold seemed just as horrified, with her usually loving mate having brutalized her. Bluebell and Hawkbit stared into the burrow, also horrified by what they had witnessed. The hungry kitten, not understanding the situation, started to cry, hoping her mother would feed her.

-"What should we do?" Bluebell asked.

-"I..." Not wanting to appear useless, Hawkbit tried to think of a possible course of action, but came up empty. "...I have no idea."

-"I don't think we should leave them together."

-"You are most likely correct."

The two bucks grabbed Hickory from his front paws, and dragged him out of the burrow. He did not resist, instead staring at nothing in particular as he was pulled away.

-"We should tell someone about this," Bluebell said.

-"I'll tell Hazel after he's done punishing his misbehaving kittens," Hawkbit said.

Hazel, Fiver and Primrose spent a long time tickling, and it was getting tiring for everyone involved. Eventually, Hazel decided that the kittens had suffered enough, and he allowed them to return to their burrows. Hawkbit, who had been lying in a corner of the burrow waiting for Hazel to become available, opened his mouth, but Flyairth spoke first:

-"Hazel, the field is covered with blood."

Hazel stared at Flyairth. These had been exact same words Fiver had used to describe Sandleford's destruction seasons ago.

-"Well, if you want to be technical, it's covered with dead bodies," Flyairth continued. "Bloody weasels, they're going to attract even more elil."

-"Yes, you're absolutely right," Hazel said, focusing more closely on the doe's words. "We need to remove the weasel's bodies, and put them underground, where they won't attract unwanted attention."

-"But there are so many of them, it's going to take all evening! And while we might be able to dispose of the bodies, there will still be traces of blood on the ground."

-"What do you suggest?"

-"We evacuate the warren."

Everyone in the burrow gasped; most rabbits were too shocked to even speak. It was Thethuthinnang who broke the silence:

-"Is...is that really necessary?"

-"Absolutely not!" Hawkbit cried out. "There's no way..."

-"How about we start by cleaning up the current mess, and THEN evaluate the situation?" Hazel suggested.

Removing the weasel bodies was a lengthy and tedious process, especially since most rabbits were already exhausted following the battle. While Bark offered to take a few weasels back to her den to eat, there were still hrair others remaining. The rabbits slowly dragged them all to the top of the Down and brought them underground. A lot of blood was spilled along the way, and by the time all of them were underground, the Honeycomb was extremely cluttered, not to mention the dreadful stench. It was plain that this was only a temporary solution, and another place for the bodies would soon have to be found.

With the Honeycomb unusable, Hazel called a meeting above ground to discuss the situation.

-"What we need to do, is bury the weasels," Strawberry said. "We put them in a burrow, then get it to cave in. All traces of them are gone."

-"That seems like a good plan," Hazel said, as he remembered something else. "Blackberry, I forgot to ask you earlier, but you were to inspect the burrows to see if any are unstable. What did you find?"

-"Everything is perfectly solid, Hazel," Blackberry replied. "Not a single unstable burrow."

-"I see..." Hazel was disappointed: under ordinary circumstances, this would have been great news, but now a few unstable burrows would have been welcome.

-"I really don't fancy sacrificing some perfectly good burrows just to get rid of weasels," Hawkbit said.

-"Now, now, don't lie," Nelthilta said slowly; she had still not finished cleaning herself after biting the weasel's nose. "You just want to avoid digging replacement burrows afterwards."

-"Why don't you just shut up?" Hawkbit had had enough of the doe's comments at his expense.

-"We could put the weasels in the old caverns?" Captain Holly suggested. "Now that Efrafa is destroyed, we don't have any use for them anymore. We could easily put the weasels there, then cause the ceiling to collapse and enclose them in the dirt."

-"That's brilliant!" Hyzenthlay said. "The weasels should be taken care of in no time."

-"I'm afraid there's a problem," Blackberry said. "The entrance to the caverns has already been closed."

-"What? Why?" Bigwig asked.

-"There's a river in there. With the flood we had last night, I had to collapse the ceiling so the warren wouldn't flood from the inside. Alternatively, I could have piled rocks like we did outside, but we didn't have enough for both locations, so I just quickly closed the burrow."

-"I appreciate you did that," Hazel said softly. "Would it be safe to reopen the entrance now?"

-"Yes, and no. The water has receded, so we shouldn't be flooded, but the entire area might still be unstable."

-"As long as we just push the weasels in, then close it again, we should be safe," Hyzenthlay said. "Shall we go dig? The more of us who participate, the faster we will be finished."

-"Count me out," Hawkbit said. "I already had to dig out the Redstone pair, I'm not digging again today. Speaking of whom..."

-"Anyone too tired to dig is excused from doing so," Hazel said, once again preventing Hawkbit from mentioning what he had witnessed. "The rest of you, your help would be greatly appreciated."

-"Of all the ideas I've ever heard, this is the craziest," Bigwig said. "Dig up a closed burrow, then destroy it again...but I can't think of any other option, so I'll go help with the digging."