Chapter 273: Continued Existence.
"In these once familiar hills I feel shadows everywhere."
-hyzenflayrabbit, Bright eyes
Meanwhile, some distance from Watership Down, the situation appeared much more positive. The rain had stopped, leaving behind a small rainbow in the sky by the rising sun. In the undergrowth, snares shone brightly, but they had not captured anyone in several days.
Out of a small hole in the ground, came a lone hedgehog. She soon met up with her squirrel friend, who came down a nearby tree. On this occasion, it was just the two of them; their third friend, another squirrel, had been absent for a few days.
The squirrel and hedgehog were going about their morning routine, foraging through the field, while being careful to avoid the metal traps. Going out this early was a necessity, before the best food was claimed by anyone else.
After around 15 minutes, an ominous shadow appeared in front of the sun. The two creatures got ready to flee, until they spotted a familiar tail emerge from the shape.
-"You're back!"
Crackers ran over to Tumbler and hugged her, wrapping her tail around her friend. Rosie would have joined the hug too, but her species made this impractical.
-"I would never abandon you two forever!" Tumbler said, excited.
-"Where have you been all this time?"
-"It's a long story, but I will explain."
The three friends settled down in the undergrowth so that Tumbler could tell her story without anyone getting disturbed.
-"I have met someone," she explained.
-"You will have to introduced us to them!" Rosie said with a smile. "A fourth friend in our group!"
-"Ha. Yes, I will introduce you to him. But...it's more than that. We're in love."
Crackers and Rosie stared: this was an unexpected development.
-"We want to take our relationship to the next level," Tumbler continued.
-"Look at you all grown up!" Crackers said, with another tail hug. "And it was not long ago that we were growing up and dancing together."
-"This also makes meeting him all the more important," Rosie added, "to make sure that he's good enough for you."
-"Assuming someone can be good enough for my honorary sister," Crackers said, teasing.
-"I'm sure he'll make a great first impression on you two," Tumbler replied. "The only problem is...he lives far from here, and I will be moving with him."
-"Wait, so...you're leaving?" Rosie asked sadly.
-"Of course, I will still visit from time to time, but it's true, I won't be living here anymore."
The three creatures all hugged each other. Even Rosie did her best to join in without hurting anyone.
-"When are you leaving?"
-"In a few days," Tumbler explained. "But until then, I was thinking that maybe we should finish the project we started.
-"Which project is that?"
-"Solving the murder."
-"Ah yes, one of the rabbits got murdered...Buckthorn, I think it was?" Rosie recalled.
-"Where exactly were we?" Crackers asked. "If I remember correctly, the crime scene had been tampered with, leaving no usable evidence; did we even have a suspect?"
-"Toadflax, maybe," Rosie said.
-"Toadflax is a jerk," Tumbler said, "but that doesn't necessarily make him a killer. We don't have any evidence pointing to him."
-"Indeed," Crackers said with a nod. "I've met so many jerks in my life, but none of them ever murdered anyone. I hope."
-"The New Sandleford rabbits are up to to something nefarious, I'm sure," Tumbler said. "We attacked his leader, what's his name, already?"
-"Scabious."
-"That's right, Scabious. What ever happened to him? He ran away, but did he return afterwards?"
-"I haven't seen him since then," Crackers said. "That was a few days ago; I'm starting to wonder if he's ever coming back."
-"A very poor leader he was," Rosie said. "Led his community on a path of war and tyranny, but the moment things got tough, all too quick to blame everyone else and flee, leaving everyone else to suffer."
-"Wise words, Rosie."
-"He may have been a poor leader, I'll give you that. But that doesn't necessarily make him a murderer," Tumbler said.
-"I don't think it's him either," Crackers theorized. "Seriously, he doesn't look like the type of rabbit who would be willing to get his paws dirty. He would just offload the task onto some random underling."
-"That would still make him morally guilty," Rosie pointed out.
-"True. But in this case, there would be be two villains: the one who ordered the murder, and the one who actually carried it out."
-"But we still have no idea who this mystery second villain could be," Tumbler said. "Nor do we have any hard evidence linking either of them to the crime. It's one thing to make accusations, but proving them..."
-"Shush," Rosie said suddenly.
-"Why are..."
-"There's someone coming, we need to hide!"
The three creatures hid under a bush; peaking through the leaves, they looked to see who this mysterious visitor was.
At first, nobody came, leading to speculation that it might have been a false alarm, until suddenly, they spotted them: two rabbits coming from the direction of New Sandleford. One of them was unfamiliar; there were many rabbits in this warren that the squirrels and hedgehog had never met. The other, however, was already known to them: it was Flesca, and she was not actually from New Sandleford. Instead, she came from what used to be Cowslip's warren. The two warrens were supposed to be enemies; what were these two rabbits doing together?
It was then that the two rabbits nuzzled lovingly. Perhaps they even kissed, but it was hard to know for sure, as they were still some distance away and the leaves partially obscured the view. Then, they both went back towards their respective warrens.
-"They seem really friendly," Tumbler said.
-"Yes, kissing, nuzzling, exchanging sweet words. As friends do," Crackers said sarcastically, implying that the two rabbits were clearly more than just friends.
-"Still, are the two warrens not enemies? We must warn them that they have a spy in their midst."
-"Is that wise?" Crackers questioned. "Last time we tried to warn them of possible danger, their reaction wasn't exactly friendly." She shuddered as she recalled the way Toadflax had kicked her on this past occasion.
-"More specifically, Toadflax's reaction wasn't," Rosie pointed out. "The others didn't really get a chance to react on their own before he violently kicked us out."
-"Which is why, this time, we're not going to talk to Toadflax, but to someone else," Tumbler said. "We will find one, and only one, trustworthy rabbit, and talk to them alone."
-"Who do you have in mind?"
-"It's not as if we have many options. I think less than 10 of them are still alive. If they get attacked, they won't stand a chance, they will be assimilated into the larger warren."
-"I was thinking Tindra," Rosie suggested.
-"Why her?" Crackers asked. "Sometimes she gets sad for no reason."
-"This may be a good thing. It shows that she's not entirely emotionless and crazy, like Cowslip used to be."
-"Yeah, she's probably one of the least crazy ones in the warren," Tumbler added.
-"You two are probably right. Considering our limited options, she is probably the best choice," Crackers said in agreement. "How soon should we go?"
-"Right away, I would suggest," Tumbler said. "If the New Sandleford rabbits are indeed planning something, we may not have long to act."
-"Let's just hope that she's alone right now," Rosie said.
-"Given that there are only a few rabbits living in this large warren, she probably has her own burrow," Tumbler speculated. "I think we have a good chance of finding her alone."
-"Unless she got a boyfriend like you did," Crackers teased.
-"Heh. If she does have one, we will either have to trust them both, or find someone else."
-"We will cross that bridge when we get there. For now, let's go."
The three friends went towards the warren's main entrance. Rosie stopped to pick up her trusty twig sword, and soon joined her squirrel friends underground.
