Chapter 178: The Lucky Ones.

"She muttered something about lazy rich people and raised her eyebrows. "Let's go, rebuild the wall!""

-ink-splotter08, Rosebel and Her Life Before

That night, Vesper and Violet were chosen to be the first guards. They were paired up specifically because they did not appear to have any special attachment whatsoever; they were just friends, but then Vesper was friends with just about everyone. While Violet was mentally unstable, and might have sacrificed herself to the enemy in a moment of weakness, Vesper was a more reliable rabbit and would be able to balance her out.

As with Nyreem and Blackavar the previous evening, the two rabbits remained silent. Violet had no desire to make small talk; if she spotted a potential danger, she would announce it to Vesper, but otherwise she would not speak at all. Vesper, not wishing to make her feel bad, also remained silent, until he could not hold it in any longer.

-"I'm sorry."

-"Huh?" Violet seemed both confused and annoyed by what she had heard.

-"I'm sorry you're feeling so depressed."

-"Ah, quit feeling sorry for me. I already have enough self-pity, I don't need someone else joining me."

-"You have to keep hope, that it will get better."

-"Right, hope..." Violet sighed. "There's not much to hope for, except Blackberry's treatment working, but I'm not too optimistic. The truth is, nobody seems to understand what I have gone through. I wish I had dealt with a normal hawk."

-"I don't understand why you say there's not much to hope for. You survived a hawk attack. Few rabbits managed to pull that off."

-"Everyone keeps mentioning that like it's something I should be proud of. Why should I be proud? I didn't do anything to survive, it just happened, against all odds. I'm not a hero. All right, maybe I am, I did push Thethuthinnang out of the way before getting grabbed. But I never expected to survive."

-"Yes, you are a hero, for the way you were willing to bravely sacrifice yourself, to save a fellow rabbit from a vicious creature. You..."

-"There." Violet shook her head in sadness. "You see? You just made the same mistake everyone did, with your talk of a 'vicious creature'. The fact is, nobody is willing to try to understand what I have gone through."

-"I am." Vesper made a few hops closer to Violet. "I want to understand, if you're willing to help me."

Violet stared at Vesper, and smiled faintly. While several other rabbits had tried to cheer her up in the past, they usually gave up when she told them they didn't understand; he was the first rabbit who had expressed interest in learning more about her, and she was determined take advantage of this opportunity. She told him all about her time with Skree and his mother, how Skree had refused to kill her, and in fact had saved her life during the fire, at the cost of his own. All the time, Vesper remained silent; after a while, she was starting to wonder if he was even listening anymore. He was still looking at her, so she came to the conclusion that he was probably still listening; she therefore continued her story.

Once she was finished, she eyed him nervously, wondering what, if anything, he was going to say. She was now worried that he would dismiss what she had told him as fiction, as she had heard other rabbits do with Vilthuril's story earlier.

-"I think I understand now," Vesper finally said. "You're upset that everyone assumes that Skree was hostile, just because he was a hawk. In fact, rather than try to kill you, he saved you."

-"Yes! Finally someone gives that poor bird the respect he deserves."

-"I'm sorry you went through all this, and that nobody tried to understand."

-"Stop."

-"I apologize too much, don't I?" Vesper said with a sigh.

-"No, it's not you. We're here to stand guard, and we have a pair of visitors."

Vesper looked forward, and saw the visitors Violet was talking about: two white mice, walking towards the warren's entrance. One of them was holding a weird object, although neither rabbit was able to identify it.

-"What are you doing?" Violet asked, stepping in front of them to prevent them from going underground.

-"I am the Brain, and I am here to carry out the next step in my elaborate plan to take over the world, yes!" the mouse with the larger head said.

-"And I'm going to help!" his friend added. "Narf!"

-"Quiet, Pinky."

-"You want to take over the world, that's a very ambitious goal," Vesper said.

-"It may seem that way to you," Brain explained, "but the truth is that my superior intelligence makes me uniquely qualified to be in charge."

The two rabbits looked at each other, unsure exactly how to react to Brain's display of ego.

-"May we go in now?" Brain broke the awkward silence. "We have important business to handle underground."

-"What sort of business?" Vesper asked. "You see, we have to be very careful about who we let in, we have enemies out to destroy us, we have to be sure that nobody who visits us poses a threat."

-"Someone wants to destroy you?" Brain took on a fake shocked attitude. "Oh the fiends! I sincerely hope they don't succeed."

-"But Brain, aren't you..." Pinky started to say, before getting slapped in the face.

-"Forgive my friend, he has some weird delusions."

-"I doubt that violence is the best response to such delusions," Vesper said.

Brain frowned: he was not used to getting called out on his behaviour. Even Pinky, his usual victim, rarely complained about getting smacked around.

-"I've tried everything else, nothing worked," he improvised, hoping this would put an end to the annoying rabbit's questions. "So, will you let us pass?"

-"You still haven't told us why it's so critical to your world domination plot that you visit our warren."

Brain sighed; the questions just kept on coming. This time, the real answer was simple: the plan was to destroy the warren in order to obtain Woundwort's favour. Of course, he could not tell them that; he would have to invent another reason, and his imagination was failing him. He was half-hoping that Pinky would say something absurd yet plausible, as he often did. Unfortunately, as he looked at Pinky, he saw that the other mouse was pulling on a blade of grass, for no apparent reason, grunting in effort. Brain could only shake his head, as he desperately tried to think of an answer.

-"Oy, ye too cum bikk!" suddenly came a high-pitched voice, painfully loud to Brain's oversized ears. He had heard that voice the previous day; it belong to the lone mouse who (for some reason Brain could not understand) lived in the warren with the rabbits. He looked over to the warren's entrance; she was sitting there, staring at him and Pinky with a smile.

-"Hannah, do you know them?" Vesper asked, turning towards the female mouse.

"Ye! Eh mit em wass nayt!"

-"I'm not sure I understood exactly what you said, but I'll take that as a yes." Vesper turned back to Pinky and the Brain. "Our friend vouches for you, so you may go in now. And best of luck of El-ahrairah with your world domination endeavour."

-"Thank you," Brain mumbled, as he followed Hannah and Pinky underground.

Violet kept an eye on the mice until they were out of sight.

-"That mouse Hannah has some weird friends," she said.

-"As long as they get along, who are we to judge?"

-"Fair enough, I guess," Violet said, unconvinced.

-"So, where were we?"

-"I don't quite remember, but it doesn't really matter." Violet sighed. "The fact remains, over the past several days, I've survived too much. Woundwort's attack? Somehow none of us got caught by his owsla, except Nelthilta, and she survived too. The hrududu crash? Many of us were killed by debris, but somehow I wasn't. The weasels yesterday? Someone always showed up in time to save my life. Redstone's destruction? Literally everyone died except me and three others. The hawks? I just told you about that, it has to be the weirdest situation. It's crazy. It's like the Black Rabbit really wants me, but somehow I keep evading him, her, whatever. No matter how improbable the odds are, I always survive, through no fault of my own."

-"Isn't that a good thing? Many rabbits would be grateful at being given the opportunity to live a day longer."

-"I am not most rabbits. Besides, this isn't just one dangerous situation, it's hrair, over and over again, in just a few days. At this rate, my luck will soon run out."

-"I'm sure everything will be fine. Until then...do you want a hug?"

-"What I want doesn't matter. Blackberry said not to let anyone touch me, or it might hinder fur growth."

-"I see. I won't hug you, then..." Vesper said sadly; he looked away, and decided to change the subject. "Do you think we'll be getting any more visitors?"

-"If we do, hopefully they won't be as weird as those two mice."