Chapter 221: The Unfortunate Consequences.
"That was possible what had drawn them to each other. In their own ways, they both had dark pasts."
-Celestial-Vapidity, Dignity and Animality
Lionel-Hector was too absorbed in the mobile game he was playing to pay attention to his surroundings. Even as the dynamite exploded and the structure collapsed, he remained hooked to the miniature screen. Due to his ear pods, he did not hear anything either.
Sir Fredrick was calmly sitting on the chemical toilet, reflecting on the situation. He wanted to dispose of his junkyard as fast as possible, but the amount of work that needed to be done was overwhelming. Surely there was a way to dismantle everything rapidly, then sell the raw materials? Or even give them away, that would be faster. However, his thoughts were interrupted as the stall was abruptly knocked over on its side, spilling the contents of the toilet all over his clothes. It took him a few moments to overcome his disgust and jump out of the stall.
He would have to burn his clothes. It was the only solution. But that would have to wait until he got home, since he did not have any spares with him at the moment.
Suddenly, he noticed the structures of his junkyard: they were gone. There was nothing left of them except random debris scattered across the pit. A quick glance revealed that it was the crushing roller from the top that had knocked his stall down. At first he was horrified, but the more he thought about it, the more satisfied he became. He calmly walked over to LH, who was still at his smartphone, and patted him on the shoulder.
-"Thank you."
-"Huh?" LH hurriedly took out his ear pods and put the phone back into his pocket. "Oh sorry sir boss Fred, I uh, I mean, I, uh...was taking a break, uh...a break yes..."
-"No, seriously, thank you. You just took a big load off my mind."
-"Aw, gee..." Lionel-Hector gave a slight smile. "Thanks sir Fredrick."
-"One thing though: please don't post it on the Internet. I know you've always wanted to go viral, but this is the type of thing the world shouldn't know about."
-"But...but...what are you talking about?"
-"The destruction, of course!"
-"Destruction?"
Lionel-Hector looked around him, and immediately realized that everything had collapsed.
-"Oh sir Fredrick! This is dreadful! We must get the fire extinguishers!"
Unfortunately, the fire extinguishers were misplaced during the flood. As a result, Fredrick and Lionel-Hector were forced to use the water from the new river instead, carrying it with buckets; a slow and tedious task.
-"I'm still confused as to how all this happened," LH said, once the fire was finally out.
-"Let's watch your video and find out."
-"But...but...I don't have any video! I didn't know this happened."
-"What? Were you not filming the destruction with your smartphone?"
-"I swear, sir Fred, I wasn't filming, I was just playing games. I don't know what happened." Lionel-Hector had not made the connection with his cigarette, and remained unaware of the dynamite's existence.
Fredrick was dumbstruck. At first, he had assumed LH had accidentally caused the structure to collapse, and then filmed it, hoping to post it on social media. But LH was not the type of person who would lie about things like this: even if he made a foolish mistake, he would quickly confess and express remorse. Therefore, if he was not responsible...who was? Fredrick was pleased with the destruction of the machines, but the fact that it was an unknown stranger who had done it was more than he could stand.
-"Let's go home," he said, fainting. Lionel-Hector managed to grab him before he could hit the ground.
-"Sir Fred?" LH gently slapped him in the face a few times, hoping this would wake him up. "Sir Fredrick?" But to no avail. Realizing that he was not making any progress with this, he decided to carry his boss home instead. But first, he had to carry him out of the pit; a daunting task, considering that Fredrick was taller than him.
Shale and Granite looked with horror as Darkhaven was destroyed before their very eyes.
-"Did we do that?" Shale asked nervously.
-"I doubt it," Granite whispered.
-"Still, though, we failed to bring back a tree." Shale sighed. "The General will kill us."
-"Maybe the fire will distract him from our failure. Maybe, this way, we will survive."
Indeed, when the two rabbits reached the bottom of the pit, Woundwort paid no attention to them: he was too busy berating Lady May. They were therefore able to go back to their burrows unnoticed. Hopefully he wouldn't be too angry in the morning...
That evening, Vervain and Inqwynn returned to their burrow at Nu Beatha, exhausted. During the earthquake a few days before, several chambers had collapsed. These were mostly the empty burrows that Vervain and the others had been forced to dig as payment for being allowed to live in this warren; however, the council insisted that everything be dug up again, leaving them with even more work to be done. After another busy day, he was looking forward to finally getting some sleep.
-"Excited about existing, it's a rare privilege," Inqwynn suddenly said, just as Vervain was about to lie down.
-"Huh? Say what now!?" Inqwynn had this tendency of saying random things that Vervain did not understand.
-"I was recently thinking about El-ahrairah."
-"What about him?"
-"There are a lot of tales about him, but how do we know they really happened?"
-"You're doubting our hero? How dare you!"
-"Think about it. All these tales happened so long ago, surely all those who witnessed the heroics are long dead. The original witnesses and participants told the tale to other rabbits, who then told it to others. The stories we hear today have been passed on from one rabbit to another for a very long time. What if, when someone new retells it, they make a few changes? Not maliciously, just misremembering a few details. Then someone else changes a few more details again, and so on. Each change is likely to be very minor, but these pile up, and eventually you are left with a tale completely different from the original."
-"Huh. That's possible..." Vervain was not reassured by this. 'Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed', Frith had told El-ahrairah...supposedly. What if this is not what had actually happened? What if Frith hadn't told El-ahrairah anything, or worse, what if he had said something along the lines of 'your destruction is imminent'? In order to distract himself from these anxiety-inducing thoughts, he changed the subject. "What does that have to do with 'existing' and 'privileges'?"
-"Perhaps along the way," Inqwynn continued, oblivious to Vervain's existential crisis, "new characters were created who were never there when the events first happened. But, because someone along the way added them to the story, they now exist in there. Meanwhile, other characters were not added, and therefore don't exist."
Now the conversation had reached the point where Inqwynn was pondering thoughts too deep for Vervain to comprehend.
-"But they were still invented by someone, they don't actually exist," he retorted.
-"Yes, but they still exist within the story," Inqwynn clarified.
-"Which isn't real. You said yourself that it has become completely different from what really happened, because of cumulative storyteller mistakes."
Inqwynn sighed.
-"That is true. The only way to know the truth with absolute certainty, would be to witness it. But we have not yet discovered a way to visit the past, like we would visit another warren."
-"It's not like we can visit another warren either, you know?" By this point, Vervain was in a bad mood: he had been looking forward to getting some sleep, but instead he was now in the middle of another deep conversation with Inqwynn. As a result, he argued, just for the sake of arguing.
-"Sure, but there's still a difference. We can't visit other warrens because the council decided to make it illegal to do so. As for time travel, regardless of any laws on the subject (or lack thereof), it is physically impossible to accomplish. And even if we could somehow do it, our interference in the events would likely alter them. Perhaps even erasing ourselves from existence in the process, meaning we couldn't change the events after all. Things are very very broken."
-"Uh...what does that have to do with stories? You don't think future generations will be telling stories about us, do you?" That prospect seemed horrifying to Vervain.
-"Maybe they will. Or maybe not. That's not the point. What matters is not what really happened, but what everyone thinks happened." Inqwynn's tone turned ominous, and he started speaking more softly. "You told me about your former Chief Woundwort, but surely you didn't tell the entire story. You keep talking about how he saved Efrafa and kept the warren safe from elil, but nobody talks about all the innocent rabbits he killed. The important ones decided that this never happened, so it's like it never did. And YOU (yes, you!) were complicit in this."
Inqwynn had moved uncomfortably close to Vervain, and he was whispering almost directly into his eye, leaving the former captain feeling very nervous. Suddenly, he hopped away, and grinned.
-"With my friends, I used to do something where we would re-enact ancient tales. Each one of us pretended to be a character, and we would act out the whole plot. Sometimes, we made up our own stories, or even a story within a story. Do you want to do this with me? Of course, since there are only two of us, our options would be more limited, unless we each roleplay several characters at once, in which case might be able to pull off something amazing."
-"No." Vervain had finally had enough, he would be putting an end to this madness.
-"Why not?"
-"I think you are overanalyzing something that was never meant to be. I would rather get back to the important stuff."
-"What is this more important stuff?"
-"Sleep. If we are to trust the council, we will have a lot of work to do tomorrow."
-"It seems all you do in your life these days is work, silflay, and sleep." Inqwynn sighed. "Don't you want to have fun?"
Vervain did not respond, he had already fallen asleep.