Chapter 227: Darkhaven Life Is Not Pleasant.

"'Why do you repeat yourself?

'Why don't you? Asked Levey

'You aren't supposed to repeat yourself' said Brindle

'I know, but it's more fun-fun-fun!' said Levey ecstatically."

-Pipkin3, Brindle 2: The River Journey

Spartina had spent much of the day attempting to train Lady May. The former hutch doe managed to reach an important milestone: she no longer tripped on her own paws and fur when running (or, rather, when trying to run). This had been an exhausting day: Lady May tired quickly and needed frequent breaks. Spartina took advantage of this to go digging, but she could not stay away too long, or she would risk getting caught in the act by Woundwort or his owsla, which would threaten her mission.

When evening came, and the day's training was over, Lady May fell asleep above ground almost instantly, not even bothering to find a burrow. Spartina, meanwhile, went for a brief silflay, before continuing her search. By this point, she had checked all the obvious spots, forcing her to resort to something much less efficient: digging a hole every few metres or so, hoping each time that this would be the right one. Further complicating matters were the debris left behind by the structure's collapse: Spartina had to clear the debris before she could start digging. After each failure, she then had to fill the hole up again: this was a secret mission, after all, she couldn't very well leave holes all over the place.

She was on her third hole of the evening when she heard someone else speak to her, a highly unexpected occurrence at this time of night.

-"So, you are the one who has been digging all these holes."

Turning around, she saw that it was the Speaker of the Past who had spoken. This doe had hardly changed since Spartina's youth, and she still had her creepy skull over her face.

-"What holes?" Spartina regretted her words as soon as she spoke: she would never be able to fool the Speaker like this.

-"I know you try to fill them up after you are done with them, but you still leave traces behind."

Spartina sighed. In hindsight, she should have expected that: she was not as good a digger as Blackberry, or even Hawkbit.

-"I know why you are digging like this," the Speaker said.

-"Oh really?" Spartina asked nervously, worried about how much the Speaker had figured out. "Then tell me: why am I digging like this?"

-"You are searching for something."

A relatively simple answer; perhaps the Speaker did not yet know what Spartina was looking for. But she could not risk telling her: the Speaker was not entirely trustworthy, there was nothing stopping her from reporting back to Woundwort.

-"What if I am?"

-"You will find it where you least expect it."

Before Spartina could react, the Speaker hopped away.

This encounter had left Spartina in a bad mood. Trying to think of unexpected locations would be pointless, because then she would be expecting to find it, making the Speaker's statement false. The only solution was to keep digging, and hoping that eventually, she would stumble upon it. She now also had an additional task: keeping an eye on the Speaker. If she told Woundwort what she had seen, the results would be disastrous. Spartina would likely be forced to escape, to avoid being executed.

Spartina had no additional interruptions until morning, at which point it was time for her to resume her official duties. The day's goal would be to teach Lady May how to hop and then land back on the ground safely. The first attempt was an absolute failure: while the doe managed to jump relatively high, when she came back down, her front paw twisted at an unfortunate angle, and she squealed in pain.

-"Do you need help?" Spartina asked.

-"I can't get back up," Lady May said, as she became terrified. "I CAN'T GET BACK UP!"

-"Calm down," Spartina said softly: the last thing she needed was a screaming doe attracting Woundwort's attention. "Here, let me help you back up."

Spartina gently eased Lady May back on her paws. The moment she withdrew her physical support, however, the former hutch doe collapsed again. This was worse than expected, the injury was clearly quite severe. Darkhaven law always frowned upon healing, but the owsla still kept limited supplies around, in case of an emergency.

-"Don't move, I'll be back with help."

-"'Don't move', it's not as if I actually COULD move, you know?" Lady May whined.

As Spartina searched for the supply chamber, one rabbit in the distance caught her attention: it was Campion. It appeared that he and Feldspar had just returned from their patrol. This seemed like a good opportunity to talk to him, so she hopped over to him.

-"You're the newcomer, aren't you?" he said, upon seeing her approach. "Spartina, is it?"

-"Yes, that's me. And I assume you're Campion?"

-"That is correct. Granite told me you were asking about me yesterday."

Spartina did not want to reveal that she was a double agent just yet, as she didn't know if Campion still supported Watership Down. She would have to be more sneaky.

-"I've heard rumours about you."

-"What sort of rumours?" Campion asked nervously.

-"I hear...you're working with the outsiders."

Campion did not know that Spartina was working against Woundwort just like he was, so while her allegation was true, he would still have to deny it. There was something about her behaviour that left him concerned. He would have to get to know her better before even considering trying to recruit her.

-"Who did you hear that from? Vervain?"

Spartina had heard about Vervain from the Watershippers, and how he was always suspecting Campion of various misdeeds. However, she had not seen him around in Darkhaven, and Orchis' repeated insistence that he was on patrol was suspicious, so it would be best to neither confirm nor deny that she had heard it from him.

-"I've...heard it around."

-"You shouldn't believe everything you hear. Spreading baseless rumours is only going to lead to trouble."

-"I'll keep that in mind." Spartina was disappointed by this outcome, when she suddenly remembered Lady May's predicament. "By the way, would you happen to know where the healing supplies are stored?"

Campion lowered his head.

-"There aren't any."

-"Seriously?"

-"A few days before you arrived here, there was a massive flood here. Our supplies were destroyed then."

-"Oh..." Spartina recalled the flood, and how it had almost destroyed Watership Down; Darkhaven, being located in a deep pit as opposed to on top of a hill, no doubt had it even worse. With no healing herbs available, she would have to improvise. "Well, thanks anyway..."

While Spartina was away, Lady May remained lying on the ground, with her eyes closed. She soon heard someone else arrive; she opened her eyes, and she was horrified when she saw who it was.

-"Hello," Kurai said creepily.

-"Wh...what are you doing here? I thought you were at training with the ugly one."

She had escaped from him once before, but with her wounded paw, she would not be able to outrun him again. She tried crawling away, but with only one functional front paw, this was agonizingly slow, and with a single hop, Kurai had already caught up to her.

-"Don't tell him I said that, but he really IS ugly, isn't he?" he whispered in her ear. "Anyway, I'm taking a break from training. What are you up to?"

-"Uh...I'm on break too..."

-"Oh good! We didn't get to finish our game last time."

-"Game? What game?"

-"You know what game." Kurai placed his claws on Lady May's throat. "Also, I hear that you told Woundwort that I tried to kill you."

Lady May was once again terrified. She had told Woundwort, but he hadn't taken her seriously, and now Kurai seemed about to try to kill her again.

-"No, I swear I didn't say anything like that!" she said desperately. "He must have misunderstood!"

-"If you say anything further to him, or anyone else for that matter...they will be the last words you ever utter."

-"What's going on here?" came Spartina's voice. This made Kurai hesitate: while he was fully prepared to kill Lady May, he could not leave a witness behind, and Spartina would likely put up a fight. He would have to try again later.

-"Oh, I was just catching up with a good friend of mine, but I best get back to work now! See you later!"

As Kurai ran away, Spartina dropped a few leaves on the ground. As much as Lady May wanted to tell her trainer that Kurai was not a "good friend", she remained terrified that the buck would carry out his final threat.

-"I thought you were going to bring back help?" she simply said.

-"I tried, but there's little I can do, apart from wrapping these leaves around your paw to keep it immobilized in the right position."

-"When I was in pain back at the hutch, the human fed me weird liquids. It always tasted horrible, but the pain did go away."

-"You're not in the hutch anymore. Unfortunately, we don't have the same resources here."

-"And how will I eat and drink? I can barely move."

-"I guess I'll have to bring the food and water over to you. It's not ideal, but it will have to do."