Chapter 174: The Guards.
"[...] acting like he could faint for the dramatic effects. Everyone else agreed along with the occasional "It's cute too" coming from the others."
-DarkKing427-FluffKing, Love of The Night
At Watership Down, Clover and Flora were the only two rabbits above ground. The portal was opened deep underground; the two does remained unaware of what had happened, and remained focused on keeping a look out for possible dangers.
-"There are so many scents out here," Clover said, sniffing the air. "How are we supposed to identify elil before they get dangerously close?"
-"The wind," Flora explained. "Not only does it carry every whisper, but also all scents."
-"It's not particularly windy."
-"Still, you would be surprised how much even a light wind carries."
The two does kept sniffing, but there were no unusual scents. There was nothing unusual visible in the distance either.
-"Do you have a favourite word?" Flora suddenly asked.
-"Excuse me?" Clover was left surprised by the random question.
-"Some words must be more pleasing in your ears than others."
-"To be honest, I never gave it much thought...have you?"
-"Pussyfoot. It means being careful and noncommittal."
-"Interesting."
The two rabbits made their way closer to the edge of the Down, to get a better view.
-"Look at that!" Flora suddenly said.
-"Where?" Clover asked, looking around her in alarm. "Should we call in the owsla?"
-"No, it's not elil, sorry to have worried you." Flora lowered her head. "It's just a pretty plant."
With her claws, Flora carefully detached the piece of vegetation from the ground, and placed in front of Clover, who sniffed it.
-"It's clover," the former hutch doe observed.
-"It's no ordinary clover. This one has four leaves, rather than the usual three."
Clover observed the clover more closely. It indeed had four leaves.
-"It is said that they bring good luck to whoever eats them," Flora said.
-"You should eat it, Flora. You're the one who found it."
-"No, you eat it. Consider it my gift to you."
Clover took a bite of clover and started to chew. It was moist, especially delicious. She chewed unusually slowly, to better appreciate the taste, until she swallowed.
-"Did you like it?"
-"I saved you a leaf." With her front paw, Clover pushed the last remaining piece of clover in front of Flora.
-"Clover, you were supposed to eat the whole thing."
-"I just wanted to share. You deserve it."
Appreciating Clover's kindness, Flora ate the last leaf. After she was finished, the two does remained silent for a while, as they continued to scan the horizon; still nothing happened, there did not appear to be any elil coming.
-"Did you ever think about taking a mate?" Flora eventually said.
-"To be honest, I never gave much thought to that either," Clover confessed.
-"You can think about it now. Don't you want someone who will love you, will always be there for you? Who will sleep with you every night, and groom you in all the hard-to-reach spots? Who will protect you from all the dangers? Who will..."
-"No," Clover suddenly interrupted. "NO. I don't want anyone to protect me. There are some rabbits, not naming names, but you should know who I'm talking about...they seem to consider me inferior, because I used to live in a hutch. Yes, I'll never be as fast, or as good at picking up scents, as the rest of you, but I am not an unreal rabbit, I can take care of myself. I am who I am, and I am pleased with my identity."
Flora was taken aback by Clover's intense reaction.
-"I am sorry, I did not mean to offend you. You are just as real a rabbit as the rest of us; just as great and pretty."
-"It's fine. It's just a few rabbits, really a few, who treat me this way, almost everyone else is nice. You're one of the good ones, you've always treated me with respect."
-"Thank you."
Flora waited for a few moments, then continued:
-"Forget the 'protection' bit, the rest of what I said still stands. Don't you want a partner with whom to spend your life?"
-"When you put it that way, it does sound nice," Clover admitted. "I suppose the main reason I never thought of it, was because nobody ever suggested it to me."
-"Really, nobody? All the rabbits in the warren, and the other rabbits at the hutch, don't realize they're missing out on someone exceptional."
-"I...wouldn't go that far. As for the other hutch rabbits, none of them were really interested in mating."
-"I see..."
This was followed by further silence. Clover sniffed the air once again; still no unusual scents. She was starting to wonder if staying out like this was really worth it, there was clearly no danger.
-"Do you have any special plans for after the war?" Flora asked, once again breaking the awkward silence.
-"Assuming we survive the war. That Woundwort is a nasty fellow, and once he finds out where we live, he'll be doing his best to kill us all."
-"But, unlike Woundwort, we all care for each other, we're all good friends. That gives us the advantage."
-"Most of us are, I hope you're right..." Clover did not seem entirely convinced.
-"So, any plans?"
-"Not really. I would say that life would probably go back to normal after our victory, but this war has been going on for close to this warren's entire existence, so what qualifies as 'normal' is debatable. Do you have any plans?"
Flora felt nervous upon hearing Clover's question; she looked away.
-"...hopefully work up the courage to confess my feelings..."
-"Why wait until the war is over to do that? Why not do it today?"
-"I should. I really should." Flora shook her head, and fell silent once more. Clover was starting to notice a pattern: Flora would ask a question, have a short conversation with her, and when the topic was exhausted, there would be a break until another question was asked.
-"We kissed the other day," soon came Flora's voice, as Clover had predicted. "Do you want to do it again?"
-"Yes."
The two does were about to kiss, when they were interrupted by the sound of another rabbit clearing their throat. Turning towards the direction of the noise, they saw Blackberry and Bluebell, sitting just outside the warren's entrance.
-"You two are the second set of guards?" Flora asked.
-"Yes, we've come to replace you, and for good reason," Blackberry said. "Your job here is to look out for elil."
-"There are no elil anywhere, we had to pass the time somehow," Flora improvised.
-"If you want to nuzzle and kiss, I won't stop you, but you should do it in your burrow."
-"Now don't lie," Clover said with a wink, "you two were planning to do the exact same thing once we were gone, weren't you?"
-"That was the plan, yes," Bluebell quickly admitted.
Blackberry sighed. Of course this had been Bluebell's plan all along, that rabbit was just obsessed with kissing. He should have known there was an ulterior motive when Bluebell had volunteered for guard duty.
-"Bluebell, what about the elil?"
-"The elil can't defeat our love."
-"I still say we should keep a look out."
-"We'll leave you to your ki...I mean your guarding, then," Flora said. "Good night."
The two does went back underground, towards their respective burrows. Clover, however, stopped just inside the warren, and listened. After a few moments, she heard kissing noises, coming from the two bucks. Her prediction confirmed, she went to her burrow to sleep.
Debbie had slept poorly that night. She and her family had spent most of the day cleaning up the mess left behind by the kidnappers and the flood; an exhausting task, and it would take several more days before they were finished. Now that night had come, she did not feel comfortable sleeping in the same bed as her husband. While she had slept on the couch on several past occasions, this piece of furniture had been damaged beyond repair, and was therefore thrown away. The only place left for her to sleep was a squeaky old rocking chair; it was not comfortable at all.
After falling asleep, she experienced the weirdest dreams. The worst had to be the one where she discovered that her husband was actually a giant chicken in disguise; she soon woke up, sweating. This was only a dream, but Debbie still had a bad feeling. What if it was more than just a dream?
She went over to the room where her husband was sleeping. Her arrival did not wake him up, he kept on snoring painfully loud. Her eyes looked down to his ridiculous beard, which he clearly hadn't shaved in days. If he really was a chicken, that beard would be fake. She grabbed it and pulled as hard as she could.
Predictably, it was a real beard, and she was unable to rip it off. All she accomplished was waking him up, screaming in pain. She quickly ran back out of the room, before he could see who had pulled on his beard.
She sat back down in the same rocking chair, and placed her hands on the sides of her head: the recent events had left her paranoid. How could she have seriously believed that her wacky dream was real? She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and checked her notifications; LH still had not called or texted. Truly inexcusable, especially considering his earlier promise that he would be there for her in these unprecedented times.
It was then that she made a drastic decision: she was going to put an end to this relationship. She was still divorcing her current husband; the recent events hadn't magically turned him into a better person. But, once everything was finalized, she wouldn't be marrying LH either. She would remain single until she met the right person.
Hearing approaching footsteps, she put the phone back in her pocket, and closed her eyes, leaning her head backwards, pretending to sleep, to maintain plausible deniability over the beard assault.