Chapter 211: Buck in an Awkward Place.

"You're not breaking any promise. You're not forcing me down that path. I'm choosing to go down."

-The Lupine Sojourner, Roseluck and the Seer

Pipkin was sitting in front of Nelthilta. After her coughing had reduced, he had brought her moist clover to keep her hydrated. Even then, she had to chew slowly, or risk coughing again. There was nothing more Pipkin could do to help her, so he simply remained close by in case the situation changed. After a while, Thethuthinnang hopped over to him.

-"You did good, Pipkin," she said, "but I can take over now."

-"Will she live?"

-"I wish I could tell you, but truly, I don't know."

-"And Nyreem?"

-"I'm sorry Pipkin, but I'm not Fiver, I can't see the future."

Pipkin had almost forgotten about Fiver, who had fallen unconscious around the same time as the earthquake struck. He ran off towards the spot where the seer was lying. The situation did not appear to have significantly changed: he was still on his side, and Hazel and Vilthuril were still sitting beside him.

-"Will HE live?" Pipkin asked.

-"Thethuthinnang seems optimistic, but can't be completely sure," Hazel said.

-"Nobody knows anything around here!"

Pipkin immediately realized that he had just screamed at his friend, and felt terrible about it.

-"I'm sorry Hazel..."

Hazel responded to this by hopping closer to Pipkin and hugging him tightly.

-"You're a great rabbit Pipkin. Don't feel bad."

-"Greatness is not what truly matters. I'm absolutely powerless."

-"What do you mean by that?"

-"I wanted to help rescue Nyreem, but I can't, because I'm not a good enough digger. I can't help Fiver either. Instead, I was sent to help Nelthilta, and I tried, but she's still so weak! Seriously, am I even helping?"

-"Yes you are."

-"How?"

-"For one thing, you alerted us all to Nyreem's plea."

-"That's not a lot."

-"A little is better than nothing at all."

-"But how am I helping Nelthilta?"

-"You're doing your best. Nobody can ask you to do more than that."

-"Perhaps you're right, Hazel. But still, I don't want Nelthilta to die. I don't particularly like her, but I hope she will live. And I want Nyreem to live too. She's so young, she has an amazing future ahead of her, but if she stays buried there..." Pipkin shuddered. "I would rather not think about it."

-"We'll do everything we can to make sure everyone survives."

Hazel and Pipkin continued to hug until, suddenly, they heard loud noises coming from Nyreem's direction. Pipkin quickly ran off to see what was happening.

The digging around Nyreem was going well. A stable path had been prepared leading to her, making it possible for Flora and Hawkbit to start releasing her from the ground. Hyzenthlay's story helped her remain calm as the others dug around her. After a while, Hannah came running towards them, carrying her pebble as usual.

-"Why didn't ye just tell me that Nyreem was stuck, and I would have saved her with magic?"

-"I appreciate your desire to help, Hannah, but we're almost done now," Holly said.

Hannah wasn't really paying attention, and soon closed her eyes and recited what she thought were the magic words. However, she had the words completely twisted, they had little to do with what the turtle had initially told her.

-"I call the general of the wind, living in the flame

I demand his desire, please donate me the beauty

I think, I'm not your mate, most of the time

The possibility that should break the universe in the shiny dewy silver willow

SAVE NYREEM!"

Hannah reopened her eyes. She half-expected to find Nyreem out of the pit, but instead nothing had changed (except that everyone was now staring at her).

-"Oof! That's weird. I must have got the words wrong. I'll try again..."

-"Please don't," Clover said. "I'm sorry, I know you want to help, but loud noises can only destabilize the ground even more."

-"Fine. If ye don't want my help, just say it."

-"That's not what she..." Flora started to say, but Hannah was already gone.

After a few minutes, the diggers received another visitor; this time, it was Bigwig, and he was holding a carrot.

-"Good to see you back," Holly said. "How did it go with Spartina?"

-"I escorted her most of the way, she should have reached her destination by now." Bigwig felt like crying, but he didn't want to publicly display his feelings like this, so he quickly changed the subject. "I stopped by Nuthanger Farm on the way back, and there is a huge trench that stretches all the way from there to here. Do you know what that's all about?"

-"I didn't realize it was that big. I assume you felt the shaking near Darkhaven too?"

-"I did. Is that what caused this?"

-"Yes, the former caverns leading to Efrafa collapsed. Also Nyreem was caught in the process, we're digging her out right now."

-"This warren always stays busy, doesn't it?"

-"You're right about that."

Moments later, however, the situation changed drastically. Dandelion came running, and started throwing leaves in the pit.

-"What are you doing?" Holly asked.

-"Don't worry, Nyreem, I'll save you!" Dandelion said in a melodramatic voice, as he continued throwing leaves, which left everyone confused. After running out of leaves to throw, he slowly crawled into the pit, making sure to keep his paws on the leaves, without touching the dirt.

-"This won't end well," Clover said.

-"Please stop!" Flyairth pleaded. "You're too heavy, you're only making things worse!"

-"I'm just trying to help. What's the worst that can happen?"

As if on cue, he felt the ground fall underneath him. Nyreem squealed in fear. Hawkbit grabbed Dandelion's ears; this prevented him from getting caught in the collapse, but he still squeaked in pain.

After a few moments, the collapse was over. Thanks to Hawkbit's painful rescue, Dandelion had avoided the worst of it. As he tried to hop back out of the pit, however, he realized that it was not all perfect.

-"My claws are stuck."

-"YOU IDIOT!" Bigwig shouted at the top of his lungs.

-"Bigwig, you need to calm down," Flyairth said, "loud noises put Nyreem at risk of getting stuck deeper. Things are already bad enough as is."

Nyreem had not fared as well as Dandelion had: the collapse had caused her to sink even further, negating all the work done so far. In fact, she was stuck even deeper than before the digging started: only the top half of her head remained above ground, and the terror was plainly visible in her eyes. With her mouth and nose underground, there was no way for her to breathe.

-"We have to work fast," Strawberry said. "But still remain delicate, or we could accidentally injure her."

-"What's happening?" Everyone turned to see who had spoken; it was Pipkin.

-"There's no time to explain, we must dig," Clover replied, as she started scratching the ground again.

Pipkin quickly looked around; after realizing Nyreem's desperate situation, he immediately jumped into the pit and started digging alongside Clover.