Chapter 176: Facing The Consequences.

"The life here is not only hard

it is not worth living

but I go on

there may be almost no hope left

but it will have to last for a bit longer"

-Lizella, To life

Lionel-Hector Appleby felt something lick his face. Half-asleep, he swatted his bucket at it, and rolled over on his other side, hitting his nose on a rock. This had the very unpleasant side effect of waking him up.

As he sat back up, the first thing he felt was a splitting headache. It took him several minutes to fully process his surroundings. It appeared that he was sitting in a puddle, in the middle of an unfamiliar field; his clothes were soaking wet. In one hand, he was holding an empty bucket, with a few red spots on the side. There was a terrible stench coming from all around; he soon noticed an overturned trash can nearby, the plastic trash bags torn and their contents (mostly empty beer bottles) scattered around the field. He stared directly at the sun for a few moments; it was late morning. Hopefully he would be able to clean everything up before the smell got worse.

As he got up and started to pick up the trash, he tried to recall what had happened. It was when he spotted his friend, lying in the grass, unconscious, that he started to vaguely remember. The two had gotten drunk, and eventually passed out in this unknown field. He did not remember what they had done while under the influence; he had never blacked out like this before, and it left him terrified. He was now suffering the consequences: a massive hangover. He bent down and shook his friend violently.

-"Wake up! Please wake up!"

The friend groaned, and soon opened his eyes and sat up.

-"What?" he mumbled.

-"Oh, I'm so glad you're not dead. It'll be time for us to get back home."

The friend looked around him, blinking a few times.

-"...where even are we?"

-"I was hoping you would be able to answer that."

-"None of this was worth it."

-"Do you remember what we did, then?"

-"No. But no matter what it was, it wasn't worth it."

The friend got up to help LH clean up the trash. As he put the empty bottles in a plastic bag, he noticed one object in the field that left him terrified: an anvil. He instantly thought back at his encounter on the train. Was his current headache just a hangover, or had he been hit by the anvil? Would his nemeses return to punish him further? Dropping his garbage bag, he ran away as fast as he could, screaming all the way. LH could only stare at him, utterly confused as to what had provoked this. LH was exhausted, there was no way he would ever be able to catch up with his friend. He made a mental note to phone him later to check up on him.

LH continued to clean up the trash, alone, when he was met with a gruesome sight. There was a weasel on the ground, its head at an awkward angle and covered with blood. He cast a quick glance at his bucket, taking another look at the red stains. It had been the weasel licking his face that had caused him to wake up, and he knew that he was responsible for the creature's injury. Forgetting the trash, he picked it up under his arm and ran away, hoping to take it to a vet before it was too late. If only he knew which way to go...

At Watership Down, the situation was much calmer. A crowd was gathered outside so Vilthuril could tell the story of the previous evening's events, the journey through the portal. Bigwig was notably absent: as he had said the previous evening, he did not wish to hear anything about this ever again. He nevertheless remained above ground, waiting for everyone else to be finished, so he could then set up another owsla training session.

Vilthuril stood in the middle of the crowd, so everyone else could hear, and began her story. However, she had hardly made it past everyone reaching the spaceship, that she was interrupted.

-"No offence," Bluebell said, "but as the warren's official storyteller, I should be the one to tell the story."

-"If I forget an important detail, don't hesitate to correct me."

-"You, the official storyteller?" Dandelion seemed upset by Bluebell's comment. "I thought that was me."

-"Uh...maybe," Bluebell replied, after thinking it over for a few moments. "But you don't know this story, while me and Vilthuril actually lived through it."

-"...that's true...carry on."

Dandelion was left very embarrassed by this incident. He wanted to hide in shame, but his curiosity

over the story kept him above ground. He listened silently as Vilthuril told the rest of the story (with Bluebell and the others occasionally interjecting to add a few additional details). Once the story was finished, however, he was among the first to leave. Worried about his friend, Hawkbit followed him.

-"Are you all right?"

-"That's the most absurd story I've ever heard!" Dandelion said.

-"It was definitely weird," Hawkbit admitted. "But some of your past stories have also been weird."

-"Hey, my stories weren't THAT weird!" Dandelion retorted with an offended tone.

-"What about the one where you stopped a hrududu?" It was the first story Hawkbit thought of; while he did not actually find it particularly weird, he was nevertheless annoyed at how often Dandelion told it.

-"It actually happened, I really did stop a hrududu. The story I just heard, however, is obviously fictional."

-"I don't know. Everyone seemed convinced that it really happened."

-"Maybe some parts of the story were real, but others were clearly made up on the spot, like the robot rabbit fighting for freedom."

-"The rabbot," Hawkbit corrected.

-"The what now?"

-"The rabbot. It's easier to say than 'robot rabbit'."

-"Whatever you call her, it's still ridiculous."

-"Do you even know what a rabbot, er, I mean a robot, is?"

-"No. Do you?"

-"Me neither. But how can you know that it's 'ridiculous' if you don't have all the information?"

-"...it just is! As the warren's official storyteller, I should know."

-"Here's the thing, though," came Bigwig's voice as he hopped over to the two rabbits. "I was there. I saw her. She's real."

-"You're not saying this as a joke, are you?" Dandelion asked nervously.

-"Do I look like the type of rabbit who would waste everyone's time with inappropriate jokes?"

-"No! Not at all. In fact, usually you're the voice of reason."

-"Voice of reason, yeah right..." Hawkbit mumbled. "Because all that training is so reasonable..."

-"What was that?" Bigwig said in a threatening tone.

-"Uh...nothing." Hawkbit was forced to quickly improvise in order to avoid facing Bigwig's wrath. "I was just saying I would have loved to mate, er, meet, the doe!"

-"Believe me, you should be glad you didn't get involved in this whole madness. Anyway, it is now time for training. I assume the two of you are ready?"

-"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," Hawkbit whispered, hoping Bigwig wouldn't hear. He then raised his voice to a more audible level. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Hazel had been among the many rabbits who listened to the story. While he had lived through it, he wished to hear other rabbits' thoughts on the situation. Unexpectedly, the one comment he couldn't stop thinking about was not even related to the story itself. After Vilthuril had finished, he hopped away, and sought out the other two Chiefs.

-"Should we have an 'official storyteller'?" he asked, once all three were gathered over the same patch of grass. "I'm not too fond of the idea, but Bluebell and Dandelion's conversation back there is making me reconsider. Have other warrens done this in the past?"

-"While Bluebell did tell most of the stories back at the old warren, he had no official position whatsoever," Hyzenthlay explained. "I suspect his comment about being this warren's official storyteller was a joke, but maybe he was serious. It can be hard to tell with him."

-"There was no official storyteller at Sandleford either," Holly said. "If we assign such a role here, we might be the first warren to do so."

-"That's what I suspected," Hazel said. "But just because it was never done before, doesn't mean we shouldn't try it. We've always tried to be open to new ideas and ways of thinking here."

-"Indeed, and it usually worked out well for us," Holly said. "But you said earlier that you didn't particularly like this idea."

-"The only reason I'm considering it, is because it would probably make Dandelion happy."

-"I appreciate your desire to make other rabbits happy," Hyzenthlay said. "It's part of what makes you a great leader. But promoting Dandelion would make Bluebell sad, just like promoting Bluebell would leave Dandelion unhappy."

-"The only way to avoid hard feelings would be to promote both of them," Holly suggested. "Or scrap the idea entirely."

-"I suppose we could wait and see how the situation evolves," Hazel suggested. "If the subject isn't brought up again, we probably shouldn't do anything. If they do talk about it again...then we'll see."

-"Sounds good for me," Holly said, as he and Hyzenthlay nodded.

With that, the three rabbits silently went back to their silflay, and hopped away in separate directions once they were finished.