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

Chapter 156: Trapped.

"'Do you think [she] understood?'

'I think she thinks she did.'"

-Shrrgnien, Hope

Bigwig was pacing back and forth near the warren's main entrance. Most of his owsla was gathered around him, but others were still missing. He knew that Strawberry was busy digging with Blackberry, and that Hyzenthlay and Silver were looking into the possibility of setting traps; but he was still waiting for others, who were taking an annoyingly long time to arrive. If they didn't show up soon, he would have to start the training without them. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, especially since those still missing were among those that needed the most training.

At that moment, Hawkbit and Thethuthinnang came out running out of the warren.

-"Sorry we're late," Hawkbit said. "We were helping Hazel with Hickory and Marigold."

-"Nice to see, for once, you have a decent excuse, Hawkbit," Bigwig said. "Now where's Dandelion?"

-"He said he would go to help with the traps."

-"Him too? At this rate I'll never get him into shape...anyway, let's get going. We're training at the river today."

-"The river?" Captain Broom shook his head. "We'll be all wet."

-"That's the point. After the flood recently, you could all learn how to swim."

-"And how will that help us should Woundwort attack?" Blackberry asked.

-"You will also have to learn how to use the river to your advantage in a battle."

-"Good old Bigwig...always finding more ridiculous things to learn..." Hawkbit mumbled.

-"Owsla, move out!" Bigwig ordered, ignoring Hawkbit's snarky comment.

Hyzenthlay, Silver and Dandelion were at the bottom of the Down. Silver was inspecting the area to see what sort of traps could be set up there; the other two would provide advice and help building the traps once they were all in agreement.

-"We could try to dig pits," Silver suggested. "We would then place plants and branches over them to conceal them. Unsuspecting creatures would never know they about their existence before falling in. If we choose the right plants, small rabbits could safely step on them, but heavy weasels would fall to the bottom."

-"That would be a good plan, at least in theory," Hyzenthlay said. "In practice, though...rabbits can be of widely different sizes. A plump rabbit like Bigwig would be just as heavy as a small weasel, and could fall into the pit."

Hyzenthlay had the misfortune of voicing her concerns just as Bigwig and the owsla were passing by. While the captain was not paying close attention to the discussion, he clearly heard an infuriating pair of words.

-"Hey, I am NOT a plump rabbit!"

-"She was just pointing out a fact..." Dandelion started to say, only for the angry Bigwig to cut him off:

-"I swear, the next one who refers to me as 'plump rabbit' will be spending the rest of the day running circles around the warren."

There was momentary silence, as Dandelion seemed terrified of Bigwig's possible punishment. Bluebell was the first to speak again:

-"That's harsh, Bigwig. You really should embrace your inner plumpness."

Bigwig responded by smacking him in the face.

-"Hey, nobody hurts my Bluebell and gets away with it!" Blackberry shouted.

For a brief moment, Bigwig seemed willing to take on Blackberry and Bluebell, but instead he backed down. Training them was more important than punishing them.

-"Let's get going. At this rate, we'll get to the river so late we will hardly have any time to train before we'll have to head back for the night. Also Dandelion, when you're finished here, come meet us at the river. You REALLY need the training."

Dandelion, Hyzenthlay and Silver watched nervously as Bigwig and the rest of the owsla hopped away. Once they were all gone, they felt safe resuming their discussion.

-"Right, so pits are out of the question," Silver said. "How about snares?" Seeing the horrified looks on the other two rabbits' faces, he elaborated. "We'll set them so it's impossible for anyone to stick their neck in them. It will just catch the paws, immobilizing them."

-"Any rabbit accidentally getting stuck in there would break their legs," Dandelion said. "Like in the story of El-ahrairah and the Challenge of of Prince Rainbow."

-"That's absolutely true," Hyzenthlay said. "Wires are quite simply out of the question."

-"I never heard that El-ahrairah story," Silver confessed. "Or any other, for that matter. But you're right, that was a very bad idea on my part."

-"You never heard any El-ahrairah stories?" Dandelion seemed horrified. "We'll have to remedy that."

-"Maybe later?" Hyzenthlay suggested. "We still haven't come up with any traps to implement yet."

-"It's really hard to find something that won't end up accidentally hurting some bigger, or..." Silver looked nervously around him, "...plump, rabbits."

-"The warren's favourite plump rabbit once mentioned something about Woundwort," Dandelion said. "He kept a fox skull near Efrafa, as a warning to other elil. We could maybe do the same thing here, with the skull of one of the weasels."

Silver shook his head.

-"Maybe you could have suggested that before we buried them."

-"We dug out Blueberry, why not do it again?"

-"The more we dig, the more dangerous it gets," Hyzenthlay explained. "We only dug again to save another rabbit's life; I wouldn't do it just to mutilate a corpse."

-"If we encounter further elil in the future, though, we could consider this," Silver added.

The rabbits continued to think of other possible traps, and also searched for things they could use to build them. As Silver stumbled upon a foul-smelling plant, he got an idea.

-"There must be some plants that elil don't like," he said. "Having those near the warren could potentially drive them away."

Hyzenthlay and Dandelion remained silent for a few moments, thinking it over.

-"That sounds like a great plan," Hyzenthlay said. "Do you know which plants?"

-"I don't. I was hoping you two would know."

-"I suppose we'll have to ask Blackberry, when she's done digging," Dandelion said.

-"Maybe she's done now," Silver said. "Let's go see."

-"I'm afraid I can't. You heard Plumpy: I have to go waste my time at the river..."

-"It's not a waste of time, I'm sure," Hyzenthlay said.

-"Maybe not, but that doesn't make it fun either."

With that, Dandelion hopped in the direction of the rest of the owsla, while Hyzenthlay and Silver made their way back to the warren.

Violet was lying in Blackberry's burrow. There was a variety of plants scattered around them; most of them had been chewed or torn, and the resulting mixture was being rubbed on Violet's scars.

-"This is supposed to make my fur grow back?" the wounded doe asked.

-"That is the goal," Blackberry replied. "However, I have never actually tried this with a living rabbit before, so I can't be sure of success."

-"You never tried this on a LIVING rabbit before? Do you spend that much time hanging around corpses?"

-"That was a poor choice of words on my part, my mistake. This is my first time trying to heal this. I hope it will work, but I can't guarantee anything."

The two rabbits fell back silent as Blackberry continued to rub.

-"We're done," she finally said. "To increase the odds of success, I'm going to ask that you take various precautions. Don't let anyone touch you, especially not insects, don't walk too close to tunnel walls, don't lie down on your side or your back..."

-"Why don't you just tell me what I CAN do?"

-"Silflay, bob-stones...many things, really, as long as nobody touches you."

-"I'm not sure if this is worth it."

-"Don't you want your fur back?"

-"Yes, but even if it does work, it'll take seasons. Assuming I live that long. Until then, I'll still be ugly."

-"Will you at least try?" Blackberry begged. "Just for today, and then we'll discuss it again?"

-"I don't have anything to lose..."

Violet hopped out of the burrow, doing her best not to touch the walls. As she hopped past Silverweed, the seer made the mistake of staring at her for a few moments; another awkward future witnessed. With a sigh, he hopped over to Fiver's burrow. He hated bothering his friend with his constant troubles, but Fiver was one of the few things that stopped him from going completely mad.

Blackberry, meanwhile, was also feeling sad. It seemed that Violet's problems went way beyond the fear of being ugly. If only there was more that could be done...