AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm afraid there will be another short break following this chapter. The next one will come on 10 July.
Chapter 191: Return To The Haunted Warren.
"A child, asleep in her bed, stirs fitfully. Later, she will wake screaming at formless terrors that she cannot describe."
-astrokath, Mixed Blessings
The group of rabbits continued their journey towards the place Flyairth had found. Following their stop in the orchard, Bark decided to join them the rest of the way, partly in case they encountered any dangers along the way, but also because she felt she didn't spend enough time with them.
As it turned out, the place Flyairth had found was not as distant as she had initially implied. When the rabbits and badger reached a field of sunflowers, she announced that it was "not far now". While such an announcement would normally have relieved Hawkbit, who was feeling very tired from the extended journey, instead it left him anxious.
-"This looks familiar, doesn't it, Fiver?" he said.
-"I hope the place Flyairth found is not what I think it is," Fiver replied.
-"I hope so too, but it probably is."
As they made it further into the field of sunflowers, and Flyairth stopped in front of a large hole in the ground, Fiver and Hawkbit's fears were confirmed: this really was the haunted warren they had visited a few days before, after hearing about it from captain Broom.
-"And here we are!" the doe proudly announced. "Isn't it beautiful?"
-"I already knew this abandoned warren existed," Bigwig said. "I found it while on patrol, long before I met you."
-"Oh good, since you're already familiar with this place, I won't have to give you a tour. What do you think?"
-"I think we should get going now," Hawkbit said.
-"I wasn't asking YOU, I was asking Bigwig," Flyairth said.
-"I still say we should leave, before the ghosts see us," Hawkbit insisted.
-"The ghosts?" Bigwig was both confused and annoyed. "What are you even talking about?"
-"This warren is haunted."
-"Everything seemed perfectly normal when I discovered it," Flyairth said. "Unless the ghosts showed up earlier this morning, everything is fine."
-"It's been haunted for a long time." Hawkbit shuddered as he thought back to his previous visit. "Captain Broom talked about how..."
-"I wouldn't listen to the ramblings of someone who has trouble separating legends and reality," Flyairth said.
-"She's right," Bigwig added. "When Hazel and Primrose found him alone at Redstone, he was talking to other rabbits, except that they had died long ago."
-"Maybe they were still there as spirits," Fiver speculated. "And, for unclear reasons, he was the only one who could see them."
-"What happened or didn't happen at Redstone is irrelevant here," Hawkbit insisted. "This warren here right now, it really is haunted. I encountered the ghosts."
-"I did too," Fiver added. "It was really scary. The fact that I, the one with the creepy visions, says this, should give you an idea of how terrifying it was."
-"Remember that time, when you two were stuck in the caverns with Hazel?" Bigwig said. "While they were looking for you, Dandelion and Pipkin saw the Black Rabbit of Inlé in the cave, or at least that's what they thought at the time. It was merely their shadows."
-"Why are you bringing that up?" Hawkbit raised his ear. "That was a full set of seasons ago."
-"Because it's similar to the current situation: it was terrifying at first, but in the end there was a perfectly rational explanation, and no otherworldly creatures were involved. This supposedly haunted warren will likely turn out to be harmless."
-"No, there really is something amiss here," Acacia said, speaking for the first time since everyone had arrived. "After spending all this time with my good friend Nicole, I have learned to pick up on the spooky details."
-"We've really gone off-topic here, with all this nonsense about ghosts," Flyairth said. "You still haven't answered my question, Bigwig: what do you think of this place?"
-"If you ignore the unsubstantiated rumours, it looks rather decent," Bigwig said, finally answering the question.
-"Decent?" Flyairth appeared disappointed. "Is that all you have to say about it? After all the time I spent looking for a place like this?"
-"Well, this isn't the sort of a place where I would want to spend the rest of my life. But as a rest spot, it should get the job done," Bigwig clarified. "I would still like to take a closer look, though."
-"I wouldn't call those rumours unsubstantiated," Hawkbit said. "At all. This place is very much haunted."
Ignoring Hawkbit, Bigwig hopped away, to take a look at the rest of the field. It did not take him long to return.
-"We're not alone here."
-"Of course we're not alone," Fiver said. "This place is filled with ghosts."
-"No, not ghosts, just a few kittens playing in the field," Bigwig corrected.
-"I don't see anyone, there's nobody in that field," Flyairth said.
-"They're just behind here..." Bigwig hopped over to a few sunflowers and spread them apart, only to see that the field beyond was indeed empty, just like Flyairth had said. "Where did they go? They were right there moments ago!"
Subconsciously, the captain was starting to realize that maybe the others were right, and the warren really was haunted, but he still remained unwilling to admit this. He therefore tried to come up with another explanation, no matter how unlikely.
-"Maybe we inadvertently scared them and they ran away."
Acacia was, apart from Bigwig, the only one who had seen the ghosts. He had also seen them disappear; they had not run away like the captain had speculated, they had simply faded into nothingness. He pulled Fiver aside, hoping to speak with him privately.
-"Fiver, you are very cute and very powerful. Your visions are useful and always get everyone out of trouble."
-"Not this time, I'm afraid," Fiver said sadly. "I haven't had any vision about the ghosts here."
-"Don't know if they are mean evil ghosts or nice friendly ghosts. If we talk to them, we may understand."
-"I don't think I would be able to talk to the ghosts. I never tried anything like this before, and my visions don't usually work that way."
-"No, that's not what I'm asking you to do. I want you to summon Nicole, who can see their auras. Alternatively, I could go back to the warren and bring her back here, but it would be faster to telepathically ask her to come here."
-"Oh. That may be within the realm of my abilities. If not, I can summon Silverweed instead and have him relay the message. Is Nicole at the warren right now?"
-"She was when we left earlier."
-"I'll do my best. Can you try to get the others to calm down, please? I will need total concentration to do what you asked."
As Fiver got to work, Acacia went back to the rest of the group. Out of all the rabbits, it was Hawkbit who seemed to be the most nervous, so Acacia went to him first.
-"Little Hawkbit, are you afraid of the ghosts?"
-"Honestly?" Hawkbit looked directly at Acacia. "Yes, I'm terrified. Bigwig says that we should use our fear to make us stronger, but it's different when the source of the fear is not of this world."
-"I keep telling you, there's a rational explanation for any weird phenomena we might encounter here," Bigwig said, although by that point he was extremely unconvinced.
Suddenly, the sunflowers started to lose their petals. Within a few moments, they had all completely wilted.
-"I would sure like to see you rationally explain that," Hawkbit said. "I know flowers dying is a natural process, but normally it doesn't happen THAT quickly."
-"There are some hrududil that can clear a field of all plants in just a few moments," Bigwig said. "Holly mentioned seeing one when Sandleford was destroyed."
-"Sure. But I can't see the hrududu anywhere."
-"It's gone now. Its work is done, the field is cleared, there is no reason for it to stick around now."
-"Haunting is real," Bark suddenly said. "Is curse of Dark Forest."
-"Oh no, not you too..."
-"Looks like this place is useless even as a resting spot for patrols," Flyairth said, as she too realized the unfortunate truth. "There is no point in staying here longer than necessary, let's get back to the Down."
-"We probably should," Bigwig reluctantly admitted.
Before the rabbits could make it very far, however, someone appeared in front of them, blocking the way. It was another ghost, and this rabbit was huge, larger even than Woundwort. It stared directly at the group of living rabbits in front of him.
-"Were you able to contact Nicole?" Acacia whispered in Fiver's ear.
-"She'll be coming soon."
-"Bark, you said you would protect us in case of danger," Hawkbit said. "Now would be a good time."
-"Bark can't protect against dangerous curse," the badger said.
-"Oh great..." the grey buck said sarcastically. "We're all doomed."