AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm back! I hope you all had a great time over the holidays.
Thank you all for your support. I will now resume posting one new chapter every week for the next few months.
Chapter 172: The Big Seance.
"You have awakened me from my slumber of afterlife. Why?"
"By your orders, sir, [...] You swore you'd be back; that you'd never stop hunting. You're [sic] chance is now."
-Phoebe-and-Tabbatha, The dream Lives On: Our Unanswered Questions
Early that evening, at Cowslip's warren, a group of rabbits were gathered in the great burrow. That afternoon, Bluesky and Raincloud had announced Prince Rainbow's approval of their plan to help Toadflax speak with Cowslip (of course, Prince Rainbow had not approved or denied any request; this was merely part of the two rabbits' trick). While initially, Toadflax had suggested having a private conversation, virtually everyone else in the warren expressed interest in witnessing the event.
Conspicuously absent from the meeting was Bluesky, who was in another burrow nearby, from which he could handle the ceremony's "special effects" undetected. The burrow also contained one of the warren's infamous "shapes". According to Tindra, this one depicted El-ahrairah battling his counterpart from an evil mirror universe. Bluesky had never heard that story before, and to him, the fact that it could be depicted with a few boring grey rocks stuck to the wall was absurd and also rather creepy. Unfortunately, this was the only burrow from which he would be able to manipulate the effects properly; he nevertheless did his best to look away from the shape.
In the great burrow, Raincloud started to speak. The sounds coming out of his mouth were not words, merely gibberish: this was supposed to make the situation spookier. He stopped only after hearing another rabbit laugh; he opened his eyes, and saw that it was Flesca. He looked at her sharply, at which point she became silent. As soon as he started "speaking" again, however, the laughter resumed.
-"Will you quit it?" he finally shouted. "This ritual requires absolute concentration, otherwise I will make a mistake and displease the Black Rabbit of Inlé."
-"Sorry, it's just..." Flesca said between fits of laughter, "I can't take this seriously at all. It's so obviously fake."
-"It's NOT fake! And if you can't be quiet, I'll have to ask you to leave."
At this, Flesca finally stopped laughing, and let Raincloud proceed. While she fully realized that this was all fake, she didn't want to miss the show, it could be funny.
After a bit more "talking" on Raincloud's part, some dirt suddenly flew through the burrow's ceiling; it had been blown there by Bluesky through a small vent, to create the illusion of mist.
-"I have made first contact," Raincloud proudly announced.
-"Oh, this is so amazing!" Speedwell said, not realizing the trick; this prompted Acorn to shake his head.
-"Yes. I can fell his presence in my ears."
Raincloud looked in the direction of the vent; he remained silent for a few moments, as if he was awaiting something, but nothing happened.
-"I SAID, I feel his presence in my ears."
This sentence was to notify Bluesky to make Raincloud's ears shine, but he was having trouble. The trick was straightforward: he had gathered several crystals, with the goal of letting the light flow through the vent he had used to blow the dust earlier. Bluesky, however, was unsure which colour to use. When he heard Raincloud's shout of impatience, he settled for the first crystal he could lay his paws on (it was green), and placed it in front of the vent. Even then, he struggled to position it properly: this caused the beam of light to wander throughout the burrow, before stabilizing on Raincloud's face, at the base of his ears. This mistake made Flesca chuckle, despite her best attempts at suppressing it. Acorn was discouraged; Toadflax, meanwhile, seemed merely confused.
-"What's going on?" he asked.
-"That was Cowslip taking a look to see who was here," Raincloud lied, blinking a few times: the green light was uncomfortable on his eyes. "Another colour," he said under his breath, sincerely hoping Bluesky would understand.
-"Can I ask him a question?" Toadflax asked.
-"I do not know how long I can maintain the connection, you'll have to make it quick." Raincloud had initially planned a lengthy conversation, but with the green light in his eyes, he was now in a hurry to finish (unfortunately, Bluesky did not appear to have understood the colour change request).
-"First, I want you to tell him that I'm sorry."
-"Why are you sorry?" Tindra asked, speaking for the first time since the beginning of the meeting, and immediately regretting it.
-"Sorry for straying from the true way of the wire," Toadflax said.
-"He forgives you for that," Raincloud said. "BUT!"
This last word was an agreed-upon signal for Bluesky to move on to the next step. Removing the green crystal, he scratched the burrow floor to kick up loose dirt, which he then blew through the vent to increase the mist. This had an annoying side effect, however: he felt a great need to sneeze, and there was no way he could do that without giving himself away. He tried suppressing it as long as he could, but ultimately he was forced to give in. He stamped twice as he sneezed, hopefully masking the noise. This has the exact opposite of the desired effect: the stamping turned out to be even louder than the sneeze, startling most rabbits. Flesca merely laughed once more.
-"What was that?" Toadflax said. "It sounded like it came from the bur..."
-"...from the other world!" Raincloud cut off Toadflax; this unexpected development wouldn't be too hard to integrate with the story. "Cowslip is displeased."
-"What's the problem?"
-"He knows about the murders. And HE KNOWS WHO'S RESPONSIBLE!"
Bluesky took a red crystal, and placed it in front of the vent. He rotated it rapidly, sending a beam of light swirling throughout the burrow, periodically lighting up random rabbits. Flesca did her best to follow it with her eyes, but she soon got dizzy and fell down.
-"Please tell us who the killer is," Speedwell begged. "Our investigations have been going nowhere."
-"No," Raincloud said simply.
Bluesky removed the red gem, substituting it with (much to Raincloud's annoyance) the green one, still aimed directly at his eyes.
-"No?" Toadflax repeated with a faint trace of anger in his voice.
-"He won't tell. In order to be forgiven, the killer must admit it themselves."
-"You seriously expect me to believe that? Is this some kind of sick joke?" Toadflax was now completely furious. "I was doing my best to believe that there really was a Prince Rainbow, and a Black Rabbit of Inlé. But no, of course there isn't. You were just preying on my ultimate despair for a sick trick. The mist, the lights, the stamping, it's not supernatural, it just comes from the burrow above!"
Flesca got up and started to laugh again.
-"Finally, you figure it out. Perhaps you're not as stupid as you look, after all."
-"No, it's not a trick, I swear!" Raincloud said in desperation. "There's nobody in the burrow above, and I'll take you there to prove it!" he then said, louder than usual, to notify Bluesky to run away.
Fortunately, this time Bluesky quickly got the message, but in his haste to get away, he tripped on the crystals. Ignoring the pain as the sharp gems scratched his body, he gave a powerful kick of his hind legs to propel himself out of the burrow, up the nearest tunnel leading outside. He did not realize that, with his kick, he pushed a silvery-white crystal onto the shape, shattering it, leaving blue dust all over the burrow wall. One by one, the rocks fell from the wall, revealing what lied beyond.
It was only a few moments later that Raincloud arrived at the burrow's entrance, followed by the others.
-"As you can see, there's no ra..." he started to say, only to realize that there WAS a rabbit in there. It was not Bluesky, but someone else, a doe. But this still meant that he had been caught lying; before anyone else could react, he bolted down the same tunnel Bluesky had taken.
-"Good evening, my little bucks and does, and everyone," the new rabbit said.
-"WHO ARE YOU?" Toadflax shouted.
-"My name is Cowslip. Who would you be?"
-"Cowslip? You're not Cowslip! The Cowslip I knew looked and sounded nothing like you!"
-"I'm sorry, being dead tends to reduce one's sense of individuality. I really thought I was Cowslip."
-"Uh, excuse me a moment, I have to pass hraka..." Acorn awkwardly said, pushing his way through the crowd to follow Raincloud above ground.
Raincloud met Bluesky just outside the warren's main entrance; both of them appeared terrified.
-"We've been found out, there's just one thing left to do: run."
The two rabbits dashed away as fast as they could, but Raincloud did not make it very far: he felt someone bite his tail, and he collapsed instantly. Bluesky made it further, but upon realizing that he was alone, he turned back.
-"Raincloud!"
-"Don't worry about me, save yourself!"
Bluesky didn't listen, and ran back the rest of the way to help his friend.
-"I asked you to do something very simple, and yet you still managed to mess it up." Acorn had one of his front paws on Raincloud's back, immobilizing him; he soon did the same thing with his other paw on Bluesky. "And that strange rabbit you got pretending to be Cowslip..."
-"Wait, what strange rabbit?"
Acorn sighed.
-"The doe in the small burrow from which the lights were handled. I don't know who she is, but couldn't you have gotten a buck? Who at least looked somewhat like Cowslip?"
-"That must be Flesca punishing us..." Bluesky mumbled.
-"She's a ghost," came Tindra's voice as she went above ground; the doe seemed unusually nervous. "She went through me."
-"Wait, what?" Acorn could not believe his ears.
-"It's true."
At that moment, "Cowslip" appeared above ground, passing through a tree rot on the way. She also appeared to be hovering just above the ground.
-"Then...we really summoned a ghost after all..."
This was more than Bluesky could handle; he fainted.
-"There he goes hoarding all the credit as usual..." Raincloud said in annoyance.
-"You summoned the wrong ghost," Acorn said. "That's arguably the worst thing you could have done. Not only is Toadflax furious, Speedwell forever clueless, Tindra shaken up, and the murderer still on the loose, but now we're being haunted too, by a weird doe who thinks she's Cowslip."
-"If it makes you feel better, I have no idea how all that happened."
-"That actually makes me feel worse. Your ignorance leaves you unable to solve any of the problems you create, not to mention what else you might accidentally accomplish without even realizing it."