AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review!
Chapter 164: Almost.
"It was not his body that was drained, it was his soul, a soul that groaned under the burdens of the life he had led."
-Legatum & randomkungfupandafan, Healing A Broken Soul
True to their word, the addition of the two new Chiefs changed very little, at least at first. That evening, silflay took place as usual, with most rabbits in the warren taking part. Several groups were eating the grass and clover, while others were playfully chasing each other in a game of tail tag.
Near the beech tree, two elderly rabbits were lying down, discussing the day's events.
-"I hope you're not too disappointed about your defeat, Holly my boy," the first one said.
-"My defeat?" Holly was confused. "What are you talking about, captain Broom, I won."
-"You did? In that case, congratulations. I didn't realize you were so popular."
Hawkbit and Dandelion were also having a discussion of their own, further away.
-"Aren't you afraid things might get worse, with those two as Chiefs?" Dandelion asked nervously.
-"Worse how?" Hawkbit momentarily stopped chewing. "I don't think they'll make us dig. Not any more than Hazel did, anyway, which is still too much, but no worse than before."
-"But what about the owsla? It's already bad enough with Bigwig in charge, and now there's Holly and a doe."
-"Oh, don't get me wrong, that's going to get much worse. But it's not fair to blame the new Chiefs for that, Bigwig has clearly said that he won't let them meddle in his owsla. If you want to blame someone, blame Woundwort."
-"I wish there was a way out."
-"Be careful, Dandelion. If you perform too poorly, he'll discharge you from the owsla."
-"Yay!" Dandelion started to laugh. "Thanks for the suggestion!"
-"What? No!" Hawkbit was horrified by his friend's reaction. "Not 'yay'! That wasn't a suggestion, that was a warning. If you do that, you'll be replaced. It's not just the two of us and Strawberry in the owsla anymore."
-"I don't mind, I'm still a talented storyteller."
-"So is Bluebell. Do you really want to become useless?"
While most of the rabbits were in a good mood, one stood apart, staring into the distance. A few rabbits tried to talk to her, but she always remained silent, completely ignoring their presence. After a while, Thethuthinnang tried her luck.
-"Your behaviour is getting worrying," she said. "I haven't seen you act like this since..."
-"I just don't get it," Flyairth said suddenly, without looking at Thethuthinnang. "I was just one vote away from a majority, and then everyone deserted me. What happened?"
-"I have a feeling it might have to do with your suggestion to abandon the warren. That was not a very popular idea."
-"I still think it would for the best. This warren is under threat."
-"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but you are pretty much the the only one who believes it is. Some of the others lived here all their lives, and those who haven't also have a deep love for this place."
-"Hyzenthlay is great, I wouldn't have made her captain otherwise." Flyairth changed the subject, uninterested in further discussions about leaving the warren. "But I was really hoping I could be Chief again."
-"Don't give up hope. Even if you're not Chief Rabbit, I'm sure you will be able to lead a happy life here. And maybe one day, there will be another warren who will want to have you as their leader."
-"Maybe...and I suppose I should be pleased for Hyzenthlay, and also that fellow Holly. I don't know him that well, but he seemed reasonable..."
-"That's the spirit! Will you come back underground now? It's getting late."
Flyairth sighed.
-"This morning, it was agreed that someone would have to keep watch. I would volunteer, but in my current mental state, I'm not as alert as I could be, so you'll have to find someone else."
-"Come and rest. It'll all be better in the morning."
With that, Thethuthinnang hopped away, until Flyairth called her back.
-"By the way, I haven't acted like this since when?"
-"Since Prake lost her litter seasons ago."
Flyairth fell silent, awkwardly looking at Thethuthinnang, before hopping away behind the beech tree. Thethuthinnang realized that she had unintentionally triggered painful memories, and worsened the situation; the only thing she could do now was let Flyairth alone until she calmed down.
-"Is it much further?"
Vervain ran after Orchis. The two had been travelling towards Nepenthes all day, and Vervain was starting to wonder if Orchis really knew the way, or was just wandering towards nowhere while pretending to be going to Nepenthes.
-"We are very close now," Orchis said.
-"That's the third time you say that!"
-"And we're even closer each time. If you didn't slow me down with all your whining, we would be there already."
This time, Orchis really was right, that they were close. Just a few minutes later, they reached an empty field.
-"Here we are!" he proudly proclaimed. "Nepenthes! Not quite how I remembered it, but still the same old place!"
Vervain looked around him. There was very little to see: a large empty field, the nearest trees some distance away, the grass freshly-cut. Further away, there was a house; it had only been built recently, but to the rabbits, it was indistinguishable from any other "human burrow". There were no signs of rabbit burrows or tunnels; if there had been a warren there, it was long gone now.
Vervain had tried not to get his hopes up too high. Orchis had repeatedly mentioned that he hadn't been to Nepenthes in seasons, and the Speaker had clearly stated that the its fate was unknown. Finding nothing had always been a possible conclusion to this adventure. But Vervain still felt disappointed. His best line of investigation...gone.
Vervain stayed motionless, staring in front of him. He felt extremely sad. Was there any point in continuing his search? Or should he just go back to being Woundwort's mindless minion? It's not like he would amount to much any other way.
-"Let's go," he said.
-"Don't you want to spend the night?" Orchis asked. "We've been travelling all day."
-"No," Vervain said forcefully. "We leave now."
He made a few hops when suddenly, something caught his hind leg, causing him to trip and fall. With a grunt, he got back up and turned around to see what had happened.
The object that had made him lose his balance was a long, thin, brown thing, sticking out of the ground. As he touched it with his paw, he realized how flexible it was, but with both ends still buried underground, there was a limit to how far he could pull it. It was not a snare: it was too thick for that, and there was no noose anyway. Vervain was left completely perplexed.
-"What's that?"
-"Looks like a tree root," Orchis said, hopping over to him.
-"In the middle of an empty field?"
-"What else could it be?"
-"I don't know, but I intend to find out."
Vervain started to dig around the object.
-"You said you wanted to leave, so..."
-"Not just yet!" Vervain cut Orchis off. "Not until I find out what this is."
The wire was longer than Vervain had initially expected, but he kept digging. If this thing, whatever it was, held clues as to the fate of Nepenthes, he was determined to find them.
At the warren of the snares, Bluesky returned to the burrow he shared with Raincloud. When he had entered the warren, his back was covered with various objects, mostly rocks and crystals, many of which fell off along the way to the burrow. He had to make several trips back to pick up what he had lost.
He was still sorting through what he had gathered, when his partner returned to the burrow.
-"That's a lot of junk," Raincloud said, upon seeing what his partner had brought back.
-"Junk?" Bluesky was offended at how Raincloud had dismissed his finds. "There's some great stuff here, including some rare rocks. Take a look at this one." He kicked one rock forward; it had a quartz-like appearance. "A mouse told me it's called dilit..."
-"Talking to mice, now, are we? What a waste of time!"
-"I'll have you know that mouse was very helpful in finding interesting stuff I could use to..."
-"Wait...how much did you tell that mouse about our scheme? What if...it told the other rabbits...we're doomed!" Raincloud, who had previously appeared annoyed, was now on the verge of panic.
-"Calm down, mate, I didn't tell the mouse anything. I just asked for pretty crystals, and it was more than happy to help me. Besides, these rabbits don't seem like the kind who would go around having conversations with inferior creatures."
-"Still, I hope that nobody discovers the rest. For your sake."
-"Are you threatening me?"
-"That's...actually pretty rude," came a third voice.
Bluesky and Raincloud stopped, and turned to the burrow's entrance, where Tindra was sitting. Once again, their argument had been interrupted by a third rabbit eavesdropping on their conversation.
-"We always talk to each other like that, it's an important part of our friendship," Bluesky said; this statement wasn't entirely false.
-"No, I wasn't talking about that," Tindra clarified. "I was thinking of the so-called 'inferior creatures'. I don't think they are inferior."
-"Then you think wrong. Don't you know the story? Frith blessed the rabbits, not the mice."
-"Actually, Frith blessed all creatures, including the elil. Just different blessings for everyone. I do feel that rabbits should try to maintain better relationships with other creatures like mice, squirrels, hedgehogs, birds, or chipmunks. This would benefit us as much as them."
As Tindra spoke, she was starting to regret having chosen to have this conversation. Talking to others, especially about such a subject, was always very stressful.
-"And I suppose next you'll be suggesting that we try to befriend elil?" Raincloud said.
Yes we should, Tindra thought, and try to get them to stop eating rabbits. They could eat fish instead, or something. Nevertheless, mentioning this would probably be a bad idea: the others already had a low opinion of her, there was no point in destroying her reputation even further. Not to mention the panic attack she felt coming on.
-"I just remembered that I have an important silflay to get to! See you later..."
She ran out of the burrow, leaving two confused rabbits behind.
-"What was THAT all about?" Raincloud asked.
-"Maybe she's right," Bluesky said. "Maybe we should try to befriend other creatures."
-"I don't care. I just want to finish summoning Cowslip and all that, so we can leave for a safer place."
-"I was actually working on that before you showed up. I can't work if you talk so much, why don't you go distract Toadflax for a while, while I finish up."
-"Why don't you distract him, while I prepare?"
-"You had me gather the supplies, so only I know what preparations are necessary for optimal use of my crystals."
Grumbling, Raincloud walked out of the burrow, towards the one where Toadflax was living.