Chapter 192: Nicole's Notifications.

"This young, they don't have any walls built to protect them against seeing."

-mandaree1, Visions Can Fade

The group of rabbits remained motionless for what felt to them like a long time. They could not fight the ghost, since it did not have any physical body to be attacked. While they could try to run away, this would only lead them even further from Watership Down; therefore, they stayed put.

-"Did captain Broom say anything else important?" Bigwig whispered in Hawkbit's ear. Broom had been right when he had said that the warren was haunted; perhaps it had been a mistake to dismiss his warning so quickly.

-"He said that this warren's Chief was called Pipkin," Hawkbit replied, "but I don't know if I should believe that. Maybe he was just confusing the former Chief with, well, our Pipkin."

-"Knowing Broom, both options are worth considering," Bigwig admitted.

After a few minutes (that felt much longer than that to the scared rabbits), another rabbit arrived. She had mostly white fur, apart from a few black spots across her face and ears; it was Acacia's friend Nicole. She kept staring at the large ghost as she hopped closer to the living rabbits.

-"That's not quite what I expected when Fiver pinged me," she said, finally turning to look at him.

-"The situation...evolved since then," Fiver said. "We need your help now more than ever, if you can."

-"I'll see what I can do."

Nicole went back to staring at the ghost. She was able to see something none of the others could: a ring of light around the head. This was the aura that Acacia had mentioned; she would use it to deduce the ghost's state of mind, based on its colour (it was light green).

-"He doesn't want to hurt us," she finally concluded. "He just wanted to attract our attention."

-"He certainly succeeded!" Flyairth said. "What does he want now?"

Nicole resumed staring. However, this proved to be fruitless: the ghost's aura did not change, and light green could indicate any number of things. She would have to try something else to find out the details.

-"I don't know."

-"So, that was all a big waste of time, then," Hawkbit whined.

-"Not necessarily. I could let him talk through me, which would allow you all to talk to him yourselves."

-"You mean...let him possess you?" Fiver asked nervously.

-"Unfortunate phrasing, but yes, that's what it would amount to."

-"Is that not dangerous?" Fiver appeared increasingly anxious. "Even if you said that the ghosts don't want to hurt us."

-"It wouldn't be the first time I do this. Besides, if things turn ugly, Acacia knows how to break the connection."

Without waiting for anyone else to voice any objections, Nicole stood up on her hind legs and moved her ears as she closed her eyes. The ghost shrank and soon disappeared; lights started to spin around Nicole, and she hovered. After a few moments, she dropped down to the ground. She appeared largely normal, although her eyes were shining, and the ornaments on her ears had changed colour.

-"Hi there," an unusual voice came out of her mouth. "I am Willow, it is nice to meet you."

-"Hi Willow!" Acacia was the first to respond. "It is a nice name and also common, there are many cute bunnies and others named Willow."

Bigwig stared at the rabbit before him, both amazed and scared. This was no longer Nicole. The ghost (whose name was apparently Willow) had taken over her body. He remained unsure how to react to this. Diplomacy was never his strong suit, and the fact that he was facing a dead rabbit would only make things more complicated. Too bad none of the Chiefs had come along for the mission. Still, as the highest-ranking officer present, it was his responsibility to handle the negotiations.

-"I am Bigwig, I am the captain of owsla from the warren on top of the hill over there."

-"Oh, that's nice," Willow said through Nicole. "I wish I could visit that warren. But alas, I am haunting this one instead, I am unable to stray too far away."

-"Right, that does sound unfortunate."

-"Who are your friends?"

-"Oh." In the heat of the moment, Bigwig had almost forgotten about the others with him. "The one you're possessing right now is Nicole."

-"I know. She's a very nice fellow, it's good to know her. What about the others?"

-"The small one is Fiver, the snarky grey one is Hawkbit, the..."

-"Hey!" Hawkbit shouted, taking offence to the way Bigwig had referred to him.

-"...the pale-furred one is Moss," Bigwig continued, ignoring Hawkbit's complaint, "the doe is Flyairth, and the badger is Bark. Don't worry, despite her species, she won't hurt you."

-"No one of any species can hurt me," Willow said through Nicole. "Being dead has its advantages."

-"Anyway, is the ghost of your Chief still here too?"

-"He is. In fact...I am the Chief."

-"But I was told your Chief was called Pipkin?" Bigwig raised his eyebrow.

-"I heard. This captain Broom you're talking about is clearly mistaken, there was no little Pipkin bunny at this warren."

-"Should have known not to believe that fool," Flyairth mumbled. "So, Chief Willow, no offence, but what are you doing here? Usually, when a rabbit stops running, the Black Rabbit of Inlé takes them to the Meadow, or the Shadowlands. Souls don't stay at their old warren."

-"Everything you have said is absolutely true," Willow admitted through Nicole. "Unfortunately, I was cursed, and even the Black Rabbit is powerless to help me."

-"Who cursed you?"

-"It's a long story."

-"Had I known there would be a story, I would have asked Dandelion to come," Hawkbit mumbled. "Tell us the whole thing," Bigwig said.

Willow-as-Nicole lied down, and began the story.

This was once a large and peaceful warren. Spacious burrows, kind rabbits, few elil, close enough to the farm for frequent raids. We did our best to be welcoming to visiting hlessil. Ultimately, this turned out to be our downfall.

One day, one such hlessi arrived near the warren; this one was a doe. When she first appeared, she said her name was Sagefire, but later she admitted she lied, so I don't know what her real name was. She was very philosophical, always thinking about various complicated questions and trying to answer them. We thought of her as very intelligent, perhaps more than any other rabbit in the warren. As it turns out, first impressions can be deceiving.

One morning at silflay, she suddenly "declared war" on us; she was very insistent on this choice of words. She had no army of her own, but she didn't need one, she was able to take us down alone, without facing any resistance. As she stood above ground between the holes, she closed her eyes, and we all instantly became very tired. Nearly everyone died of old age by the end of the day, even the kittens born just a few days before. She killed all the sunflowers in the field too. The only ones who did not meet this tragic fate were "the Chief's family", which consisted of me and my two kittens, my mate had already died before Sagefire's arrival.

Instead of killing us, she placed a curse on us, and it turned out to be even worse. The kittens were to play with me in the evening sun. While that doesn't sound so bad at first, we were still completely drained. The kittens had lost their energy, but still they kept playing, and playing. I expired. As they huddled around my dead body and cried, they too passed on. Since then, we have been cursed to repeat this cycle every evening, until the end of the world, and beyond. At least the others got to move on to the other realm, we are stuck here, forever. And I suffered an additional indignity: she took my skull.

-"Your...skull?" Moss repeated; this seemed so absurd, that he must have misheard.

-"My skull," Willow-as-Nicole repeated. "Sagefire stayed for several days, as the insects and maggots ate the fur and flesh off my bones. Once only the skeleton remained, she took my skull and placed it on top of her own head. I have never seen her again since then. The rest of my body has since finished decomposing, leaving nothing but dust, but she is likely still wearing my skull as a twisted token of her victory over us."

-"That's all a very sad story," Fiver said. "Is there any way we could help?"

-"There might be. Before she left, Sagefire said how to break the curse. Not sure why, but she did. It is something only a living creature can do, which is why I never did it before."

-"Let me guess: we have to find the doe, defeat her, take back the skull, and bring it back here?" Flyairth said. Many of Bluebell's stories seemed to involve El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle searching for weird artifacts, for mysterious reasons; this would likely be similar.

-"No, not at all," Willow-as-Nicole said. "I mean, you can if you want to, but I'm dead, I have no use for the skull anymore, nor with the rest of my decayed body, for that matter."

-"How then?"

-"There are two ways. The first involves a special type of powder called yahoo."

Flyairth rolled her eyes; her initial prediction that it would involve a random artifact wasn't far off from the truth.

-"What is the second way?" she asked.

-"You have to fill in the warren. Every single burrow and tunnel, until it is as if there was never a warren there."

Hawkbit sighed loudly. Digging. Why did it have to be digging? As if hadn't already done enough of that at Watership Down...

-"Right, so, where can we find that woohoo thing?" he asked, hoping that this option would not require any digging.

-"It's called yahoo, not woohoo. And to tell the truth, I don't know. I have only heard about it in legends. Unless you have any further information about this mysterious substance, this method is unrealistic."

Fiver remembered Bluebell having mentioned the yahoo during the story of the Hanging Garden Warren. But like Willow-as-Nicole had said, that was merely a legend; the substance might perhaps not even exist at all. Not to mention that, in the story, gathering it was very dangerous and many rabbits died in the process.

-"Would you be willing to fill in the warren?" Willow asked through Nicole. "It would be a lot of work, and I would understand if you would rather not. After hrair sets of seasons...actually, so much longer than that, but the fact remains, after so long, waiting a bit longer, until we find someone else, wouldn't be too much of a problem."

-"Maybe we could fill it in," Bigwig said, "but we would have to talk to our Chiefs first."

-"Oh, that's perfectly fine, there is no rush. It would be a bad idea to start today anyway: it will soon be time to go through our daily cycle. You'll probably want to leave before then."

-"Right. So, we'll get going now, and come back in the morning in the morning with an update."

-"I'll be looking forward to that."

With that, Nicole fell silent; while Willow was no longer speaking through her, she still retained the shining eyes. Bigwig looked over to Acacia, who instantly realized what the captain was thinking.

-"To get her to snap out of it, I'll need someone to step on her tail," Acacia explained. "Hawkbit, will you?"

Acacia hopped over to Nicole and pulled her ears down over her eyes. When Hawkbit stepped on her tail as ordered, she quickly shook her head. After blinking a few times, her eyes had returned to their normal colour.

-"Did it work?" she asked, returning to her natural voice.

-"It worked perfectly," Acacia said before turning back to the rest of the crowd. "She never remembers what happens in these situations."

"Oh, that's good to hear. What did they want, then?"

-"We'll discuss it back at the warren," Bigwig decided. "For now, let's go home."