Chapter 185: Vervain the Prisoner.
"You ordered he be set free" replied Napoleon as his head sunk lower.
"Yet here he sits as a prisoner and not free" told Major."Why is that?"
-BeastWithinProductions, The Next Chapter
When Vervain woke up, he breathed a sigh of contentment. This burrow was so comfortable, the ground was so soft, and there was something equally soft covering him. It reminded him of when he was a kitten, sleeping pressed against his mother and siblings. He vaguely recalled leaving Darkhaven in the evening, and falling into a trap soon afterwards, but he dismissed it as a nightmare, he must have actually spent the night comfortably sleeping in what was probably the best burrow in all of Darkhaven.
Until his nostrils suddenly picked up the artificial scent. It did not match any creature or plant that he knew. As he slowly opened his eyes, he was starting to wonder if maybe his late night departure and everything that followed wasn't a nightmare after all.
He looked around him, trying to figure out what this place was. He was inside a ruined building, on top of a bed, beneath the covers. But Vervain was unfamiliar with such concepts; it somewhat reminded him of the mattress he had landed on a few times in Darkhaven, but beyond that, he was left very confused. Maybe he had died in the trap, and this was the afterlife?
Vervain was still very confused, when he heard movement close by. There was someone else with him under the covers. Considering the unfamiliar place where he was, Vervain assumed the worst: elil were after him. He had to run.
Unlike the mattress in Darkhaven, which was directly on the ground, this was a full bed, with a wooden frame underneath. Vervain did not realize this until after he had run over the edge, causing him to painfully crash on the dirty tile floor. The elil would no doubt catch him now.
A few moments later, the other creature peaked out from beneath the covers; it turned out to be a rabbit. An unfamiliar one, with mostly grey fur, but a rabbit nonetheless. At least it wasn't elil, Vervain reasoned, but he was still in pain from the fall.
-"Oh good, you're finally up," the stranger said.
-"Do you have any idea how much you scared me, you old fool?" Vervain shouted back, as he slowly got back up, and started to groom himself, having picked up a lot of dirt when he had landed on the floor.
-"It was really not my intention." The stranger hopped off the bed, and was soon sitting next to Vervain. The bearded rabbit did not feel comfortable with the weird stranger so close by.
-"Who are you, anyway?"
-"Among friends, you may call me Inqwynn," the stranger replied. "What would your name be?"
-"Friends? We're not friends, we literally just met!"
-"We don't have to be friends if you don't want to. But you still haven't told me your name."
-"I'm Vervain! Now will you just tell me exactly what is this place?"
-"The warren is known as Nu Beatha."
-"That's a weird name."
-"I'm told it means 'rebirth'," Inqwynn explained. "It's because this warren is almost the same as the previous warren, only better in some aspects. Or at least, that's what the others say. I never visited that previous warren, so I am unable to compare for myself."
Vervain took a break from grooming, and looked around him.
-"So, I'm at Nu Beatha. That's good to know...except that I have no idea where this is, or how far away other warrens are. Maybe you can help me: would you happen to know the way to Nepenthes?"
Upon hearing the mention of Nepenthes, Inqwynn became nervous; he tackled Vervain and tried to hold him down. Due to his small size, he did a poor job, and Vervain had no trouble breaking free from his grip.
-"What are you, a spy or something?" Inqwynn asked, just before Vervain broke free.
-"Excuse me?" Vervain, more confused than afraid, slowly stepped backwards, until he hit something solid. Looking behind him, he saw that he had backed into a corner, and Inqwynn was soon blocking his only way of escape.
-"Nepenthes!" Inqwynn repeated. "You said you're from Nepenthes, didn't you? Pretty stupid of you to just casually mention that, and not even try to make up a fake backstory."
-"No, no, you got it all wrong! I'm not from Nepenthes, I'm from Efrafa, and I was searching for Nepenthes." Now that Vervain had clarified the misunderstanding, he shifted to rebutting the nasty insult Inqwynn had made at his expense. "And if anything, you're the stupid one, for failing to grasp the meaning of a simple sentence."
-"My mistake. I'm not usually so aggressive, I promise." Inqwynn made a few steps back and curled up in a ball. "Why are you looking for Nepenthes, anyway?"
-"Because I've been told that my friend might be there." Seeing Inqwynn cowering caused Vervain to assume that the danger had passed, and he was able to move back to the middle of the room. "I get the feeling that you know something I don't."
Inqwynn took a few deep breaths in an attempt at calming down. While this did help, it did not resolve the issue entirely, and when he spoke again, he was still slightly shaking.
-"Nu Beatha is currently at war with Nepenthes. With just about everyone else too, but mostly Nepenthes. If you had been from there, the owsla would have done horrible things to you."
-"At war? But why?"
-"I don't know all the details: the war has been going on longer than I have been living here. The council keeps saying that..."
-"The council?"
-"Yes. We don't have one Chief here, like most warrens do, we have a council instead. Anyway, as I was saying, the council says that we'll be finishing off Nepenthes 'soon', but they have been saying that for so long, and it still hasn't happened. Honestly, I doubt it ever will happen; I suspect the only way the war would end, is if some third party, probably elil, destroys one of the two warrens, leaving either us or them unable to fight back against the surviving warren."
-"Sounds lovely," Vervain said sarcastically.
-"You'll have to get used to it. At your size, you will most likely be recruited for the owsla soon. You will only have to prove yourself as an outskirter first."
This left Vervain with mixed feelings. He hoped he would not be forced to battle his former love, but there was a lot he did not know. Was Nepenthes being attacked for no reason, or was Nu Beatha merely defending itself? Had Chibiscuit changed since their last meeting, turning her into a deranged warrior? Or was she a prisoner under a hostile regime? Was she even still living at Nepenthes, or had she moved on to another warren? Vervain pushed these questions away, in favour of more pressing concerns:
-"Were you the one who saved me from the trap I was in?" Vervain felt the need to thank whoever was responsible: while he rarely showed gratitude, whoever had freed him had saved his life in the process.
-"No, that would be some owsla officer, not sure which one. It's unfortunate that you fell victim to it: the owsla use the traps as a deterrent against elil, but sometimes hlessil get caught too."
-"Wait, are you telling me that the owsla are the ones who put up the trap in the first place?" Vervain was shocked: rabbits using traps like this was unheard of, he had only ever known humans to do it.
-"That's right," Inqwynn confirmed. "Our allies haven't been doing a very good job lately, forcing us to try more inventive methods. Our sister warren hasn't been heard of in a while. The wolves have not made contact so far this season either. The otters have also proven unreliable lately. So, we started using traps."
-"You're allied with wolves and otters?" Vervain knew that rabbits sometimes maintained good relations with other species (the outsiders had that annoying gull, after all), but wolves and otters? That was a bit much.
-"Something to do with the previous, inferior warren. Once again, I don't know all the details."
-"Huh. You don't know much. Here's something hopefully you DO know: where is Nepenthes?"
Inqwynn was left unsettled by Vervain's question.
-"I can't tell you that."
-"I swear I won't betray you, I'll just go get my friend, then take her back with me to my home in Darkhaven." Vervain was unsure whether he would actually keep his promise; he might perhaps change his mind about the betrayal once he had reached his destination. "If you won't tell me the warren's exact location, at least tell me in which direction it is, I'll figure out the rest."
-"You don't understand. You're not allowed to leave this warren, without the council's permission. You can't go to Nepenthes, or anywhere else."
-"Well that's an awful nuisance...in that case, I'll be at silflay."
Vervain was about to hop out of the room; he stopped in his tracks when he heard Inqwynn call him back once again.
-"You can't do that either. Silflay times are strictly regulated, and if you're caught outside at the wrong time of day, you get severely punished."
-"Maybe you should just tell me what I AM allowed do instead," Vervain said in frustration.
-"At the moment...nothing, really. Just stay here until you receive further orders. I'll be right back."
-"Hey, how come YOU get to leave and I can't? Where are you going, anyway?"
-"I'm going to see the council. They asked me to report back once I found out who you were and what you were doing near Nu Beatha territory."
-"Does this mean that all this was just an elaborate interrogation?"
-"You could say that. Usually, they have an owsla officer or two beat up hlessil until they give up the truth, but they decided to try something else this time. Letting you sleep comfortably, having a friendly outskirter asking the questions...this will probably be just a one-time experiment. They will most likely go back to the old ways once I tell them your ridiculous story."
-"You don't believe me?" Vervain was saddened by this revelation. He knew he was telling the truth, and he had assumed, based on Inqwynn's previous comments, that his new acquaintance did believe him.
-"Yes, I believe you. But I'm not the one you have to convince, that would be the council members. Will they believe you? Doubtful. Now, please don't try to run away while I'm gone. They will take away what little silflay time I have, and they will beat you up."
Vervain did not reply, and Inqwynn left the room, towards the council chamber. Had he known where Nepenthes was, the bearded rabbit would have disobeyed Inqwynn and tried to leave, but unfortunately he did not have this information, and did not fancy aimlessly wandering either, leaving him with no option other than to stay..
Reflecting on his situation, Vervain realized that Nu Beatha was being run in a way that was oddly similar to Efrafa. The main difference was that, in Efrafa, Vervain was part of the owsla, which gave him many privileges; he never felt the hardships the outskirters and slaves endured. But now, the roles were reversed, and Vervain would be the one getting oppressed. He would also be the one trying to escape, rather than foiling others' attempts.