AUTHOR'S NOTE: Warning, this chapter is dark...

Also due to real life, I will be taking a short break following this chapter. Chapter 225 will likely be posted on 21 May.

Chapter 224: The Loss.

"The thought of her death scared him beyond anything. He knew that he was prolonging the pain, as her body was slowly succumbing to the end."

-Theodoria, The Black Rabbit and The Blind Doe

Blackberry was soon located in her burrow, where she was taking a nap after her encounter with Hickory. Upon learning of the situation, she rushed over to the burrow where the rabbit in need of help was. While the rest of the crowd stayed outside the burrow, she examined Nelthilta for a few moments, before reaching the obvious conclusion.

-"She's dead."

Hazel's ears drooped as he heard the news. Thethuthinnang closed her eyes, trying to hold back her tears. Even Hawkbit and Dandelion, who had never really liked Nelthilta, were saddened by this.

-"My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today," Hyzenthlay whispered.

-"How did it happen?" Hazel asked.

-"I knew she would never live as long as the rest of us, due to her health problems, but I didn't expect it to happen this quickly. In fact, she's already been dead for a long time. When's the last time anyone saw her?"

There was intense murmuring, as everyone tried to recall when that would have been.

-"She was at the evening silflay yesterday, I think," Fiver said, hesitating slightly.

-"In that case, she died at some point last night, in her sleep," Blackberry said with a sigh. "There's nothing more we can do for her now."

Vesper was among the rabbits in the crowd, who was feeling especially bad about the situation. The saddest part of all this was that Nelthilta had died largely as she had lived: alone. That was perhaps the worst fate that could happen to any rabbit. Her attitude had meant that others rarely interacted with her, and it took almost half a day before anyone even noticed that she was dead.

The rabbits were soon confronted with a more urgent question: what to do with Nelthilta's body. It could certainly not be left in her burrow. Usually, when a rabbit dies, it is because they were killed by elil, in which case there is no body to recover. If they died of a disease such as the White Blindness, it would be dangerous to touch the body, everyone else would have to flee for their own safety. While Nelthilta had died of health problems, this was not contagious, so there was no harm in moving the body.

They would have to do just like when Blackavar had been killed by Tabitha at Nuthanger Farm: burry her. The only difference was that they would have to carry the body some distance, so as to avoid attracting elil. Once again, since she was not named after a plant, the grave would be marked with a simple cross in the dirt. Hazel, Fiver, Flyairth and Blackberry were chosen to carry out this mission; they only came back much later, after evening silflay.

The mood was sombre for the rest of the day. The young doe's death, like that of Blackavar a few weeks before, brought sadness to everyone. They had spent their first set of seasons at Watership Down without losing a single rabbit, and now two stopped running within a single cycle of Inlé. Hopefully this would be the end of it, but several rabbits were worried that the deaths would continue. And while Blackavar was eventually brought back through mysterious circumstances, there was little hope that this would happen again with Nelthilta.

Bigwig, sensing that his owsla would likely not be able to perform, allowed them to take a break until the next day. In the afternoon, the air was filled with the playful cries of the kittens as they played tail tag (they were the only ones still cheerful), but Primrose had since taken them underground, and all five rabbits soon fell asleep. At evening silflay, the Down was eerily silent, with the only sound being that of a few rabbits' teeth as they chewed grass. Even the wind was silent.

Further away, Blackberry was nibbling some clover, as silently as everyone else.

-"What do ye think about magic, eh?"

Blackberry looked down, and saw Hannah staring up at him. She was not carrying her pebble with her, as she had left it on Hedge's island, but its absence was still a surprise to Blackberry. In fact, her entire presence left him confused: her question was very random, he was unsure just what to reply.

-"I never gave it much thought. I suspect there is a logical explanation for everything, even if it's not always obvious."

-"Oof!" Hannah frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Blackberry kept staring at the mouse. He was more than used to leaving others baffled with his words. But on this occasion, he himself was confused, and he still had to try to explain his thoughts to Hannah.

-"It's easy to dismiss something one doesn't understand as magic. Do you remember when we sent Primrose flying? I'm fairly sure some of the others thought that was magic, but it wasn't. There was a reason why it happened, we just didn't understand it."

Hannah nodded, and sat in the grass. She scratched the ground a bit, until she found a small seed, and took a bite.

-"It hurts when someone is in distress, and you can't help them," she said, thinking about all the times she tried to help others with her magic, which was actually useless.

-"Yes. Yes it does." Blackberry, meanwhile, was thinking about Nelthilta, and how nobody had been able to save her life.

Later that evening after silflay, Hawkbit was looking forward to getting some sleep. As he approached the burrow he shared with Dandelion, he heard a faint voice. Curious, he peaked inside, and saw that Dandelion was alone: he was talking to himself. Or, rather, talking to a small rock in front of him. Since his back was turned to Hawkbit, he did not notice that the grey buck was there.

-"Hi, I see you're playing bob-stones, mind if I join?" he was saying. "No, this may not be a good time...keep things simple, Dandelion, just approach, and ask." He stood up straight; to avoid colliding with the ceiling, he was forced to lower his ears. "Hi sunshine, you shine brightly today..." he stammered, putting one of his front paws on the rock. "No, that won't work..."

He shook his head and took a few steps back. After a deep breath, he tried again:

-"I am Dandelion. I want to sniff you, and lick your nose, and jump in your paws, and MATE WITH YOU! No, that's too creepy..."

Rolling his eyes, Hawkbit decided that the time had come to reveal himself. He did so in the most surprising way: by biting Dandelion's tail.

-"Aaah!" the storyteller cried out, turning around. "Hawkbit, I didn't realize you were there."

-"You really are weird, aren't you? Not a bad thing, of course. What's going on?"

-"Long story...do you really want to know?"

-"I do. Is this a new story you're practising? Then again, I've never known you to practice like this."

-"No, this isn't about a story. I'm actually practising asking someone to be my mate."

-"I'm quite happy you found someone you truly love." Hawkbit smiled. "Who is it?"

Dandelion looked away, trying to avoid the question.

-"If you're worried that I might spill your secret, you can trust me, I won't," Hawkbit insisted.

-"No, that's not why I'm hesitating, it's just...I haven't decided yet."

-"You...you haven't decided yet?" Hawkbit could hardly believe his ears. "Then why are you even practising?"

-"This way, I'll be ready when the time comes."

-"Seems like a waste of time to practise for something that may perhaps never happen. Anyway, if you don't mind, that should be enough for today, we should sleep."

The two rabbits lied down against each other; Hawkbit fell asleep almost instantly. Around 15 minutes later, however...

-"How about Clover?" Dandelion suddenly said.

-"What about her?" Hawkbit asked, annoyed at being woken up.

-"What if she became my mate?"

-"Mating with CLOVER?" Hawkbit repeated in shock.

-"Yes. You're not considering her yourself, are you?"

-"That's not it. I'm just surprised, that's all. Clover has been around this warren for so long, longer even than Primrose, and I don't recall you ever expressing interest in mating with her before. I thought you two were happy as friends."

-"I...I really don't know. I just don't want to die alone like Nelthilta."

-"Whether you have a mate or not, you still have me. Can I go back to sleep now?"