Chapter 253: Back Again.

"Always remember who you are outside and inside your heart, spirit, soul, and mind."

-destinycopley13, The New Comer

Following his capture of Dandelion, Vervain found himself with a dilemma. Crippling his hostage's paw had seemed like a good idea of the time, preventing him from running away, but now he could not walk either. This left Vervain with only three options. The first was to carry Dandelion; he quickly rejected this, thinking back at the time he had been forced to carry Orchis. The second option was to leave without Dandelion, which would defeat the purpose of taking him hostage to begin with; as such, Vervain also rejected this. The third and final option was to stay there with him until someone else stumbled upon them. This is what Vervain eventually chose.

As the hours passed, Vervain grew bored, which worsened his mood even further. He had to find something to keep himself occupied.

-"You're supposed to be a storyteller, aren't you?" he eventually asked.

-"What of it?" was Dandelion's response.

-"I'm bored. Tell me a story."

Dandelion spent a few moments thinking of which story he would tell, before beginning:

-"Once, so they say, there was a time when El-ahrairah..."

-"All right, that's enough," Vervain said, cutting off Dandelion just as he was getting started. "I can't stand your voice, just be quiet."

And so it was back to the boring silence. As annoying as it was, it was still much better than listening to Dandelion, Vervain thought.

When Orchis opened his eyes, he was in an unfamiliar location. It looked like a human building. But unlike the structures in Darkhaven, which were slowly falling apart, this was a beautiful place, with a very high ceiling, and grand stone columns. A clear blue sky was visible through the many windows.

Orchis hopped through the room, taking in his surroundings. It was filled with potted plants; while they were not edible, they still looked pretty. In the middle, there was a large fountain; Orchis jumped on the edge and took a drink. It was highly refreshing; once he was no longer thirsty, he hopped in to have a swim.

While this was a pleasant activity, Orchis eventually had enough. He hopped back out of the fountain, and shook the water out of his fur. It was then that he saw that he was not alone: there was another rabbit lying on the floor near the fountain. His fur was brown, except for between his ears, where it was a mixture of green and yellow.

-"Good morning!" the stranger cheerfully said.

-"Good morning," Orchis replied, as he continued shaking. "I'm dead, am I not?"

-"Yes, you are."

-"So this is the afterlife? Not quite what I expected."

As Orchis hopped around the room, the stranger's eyes kept following him; eventually, the late captain grew impatient.

-"What are you staring at?"

-"Don't you have any regrets?" the stranger asked.

-"Regrets?" Orchis sighed, then chuckled. "I never did get revenge on that cat."

-"Surely you have something else that you regret leaving unfulfilled?"

It was an interesting question, and it took Orchis a few moments to come up with an answer.

-"I would have liked to help destroy those outsiders that Woundwort is always talking about, but it's not so bad. He will do fine without me."

-"What about your family?" the stranger pressed further.

-"I have no family."

-"Don't you? No point in lying to me, I already know the truth."

-"If you already know, then why do you even ask?" Orchis was getting annoyed at all the questions. "Can I just move on with my afterlife already?"

-"Captain Orchis, shut up!"

-"Say, who do you think you are to tell me to shut up?" Orchis' annoyance had turned into anger. "I was a great captain! If there was a hrududu nearby, I would put you inside and activate it, forcing you to control it until you inevitably crashed. That would teach you a much-needed lesson."

-"Who do I think I am? I know who I am. I am Prince Rainbow."

-"You are Prince Rainbow?" Orchis' eyes went wide, he did not know whether this stranger really was telling the truth about his identity. "I didn't realize that you were a rabbit, I always thought you were..."

-"I can take many forms. I am merely appearing to you as a rabbit to simplify our interactions." The fur between Prince Rainbow's ears changed colours, it was now blue and red. "And I tell you once again to shut up."

This time, Orchis did shut up. He was convinced that the stranger was telling the truth, and he did not wish to anger someone as powerful as Prince Rainbow.

-"So, if you did have the opportunity to change something, what would you do?" Prince Rainbow asked.

This was met with complete silence: Orchis did not wish to risk speaking again. Sensing the captain's reluctance, Prince Rainbow realized his mistake.

-"You're allowed to speak now."

-"I would find another way to celebrate the upcoming battle." The plant that Orchis had consumed to celebrate had killed him, just like the Speaker had warned would happen.

-"Anything else?"

-"What else is there? I probably would have accomplished much more had I lived longer, but I didn't, so I won't. Considering the limited time I had, I am largely pleased."

-"What about your family?"

-"You keep bringing that up." Orchis was once again getting annoyed. "I told you, I have no family."

-"And we both know that's not true," Prince Rainbow insisted. "You have a brother."

Orchis looked away: Prince Rainbow had brought up an unpleasant subject.

-"My brother doesn't know me anymore. Now that I'm dead, I'll miss him. But I don't think he will miss me."

-"If you had lived, would you have gotten to know him better?"

-"With the knowledge I have now, I would have found my way back to him earlier."

Orchis shed a tear over the failed relationship. Prince Rainbow hopped over to him.

-"Do you think you deserve a second chance at life?" he asked.

-"Probably not," Orchis admitted. "I did torture many rabbits over the seasons. And while it pleases me, it may not please Frith or El-ahrairah."

-"You're acknowledging your mistakes. That is very mature of you."

-"Mistakes? Who said anything about mistakes!" Orchis quickly became defensive. "I would torture those rabbits all over again if I could. The only mistakes I made were eating that plant and lying to my brother. And yes, I would correct those if I had the chance."

-"That's all I needed to hear."

Prince Rainbow grinned; this expression left Orchis confused.

-"Wait what?"

"You will have two days, and two days only. You will go back with all of your memories intact. You are a free agent in the universe with the blessing of the great Frith and his court."

-"What are you..."

-"Oh, and some friendly advice: try not to get amnesia like the last rabbit Frith attempted this with."

-"I don't..."

Prince Rainbow stamped, and Orchis fell through the floor.

The Darkhaven owsla's journey was progressing nicely. Feldspar appeared confident that he was going the right way, at least until he suddenly stopped.

-"I heard something," he said ominously.

-"Elil?" Campion suggested; while he didn't believe his own words, he hoped that this would lead to fear and uncertainty among the owsla. Sure enough, the crowd was filled with gasps and cries; a few rabbits tried to quietly sneak away. Cowards, the whole lot of them, Woundwort thought.
-"I don't know," Feldspar said stupidly. "Many creatures could have made that sound."

-"Use your nose, you fool!" Woundwort shouted angrily. "Even if you can't identify the sound, you can still identify the scent."

Feldspar sniffed the air a few times.

-"It smells like rabbits," was his conclusion.

-"You're surrounded by rabbits, you idiot, of course that's what it smells like!" Woundwort was furious. "You have to pick up the more distant smells and separate them from the closer ones. Do I really have to do everything myself?"

Woundwort was about to hop to the front of the group and sniff the air himself, but someone else spoke first:

-"Granite is smelling a rabbit who is not part of our group."

-"Are you blind? That's not..." Woundwort was about to point out that it was Feldspar who had identified the unusual sound, as opposed to Granite, when he realized that it was Orchis who had spoken. He blinked a few times, to make sure he had seen correctly. Orchis was somehow among his owsla again? How could this be possible? He had clearly seen his dead body in the flayrah chamber. There was something weird going on, and it went far beyond the Speaker's usual craziness.

-"What happened to you?" he asked nervously.

-"That plant was so PUNGENT!" Orchis shouted, a remark that felt entirely meaningless to Woundwort. "Shall we investigate the stranger?"

Woundwort was increasingly baffled by Orchis' return. In an attempt at reducing his internal panic, he tried to focus on the bright side: if Feldspar had misremembered the location of the outsiders' warren (which was likely), Orchis could steer them back towards the right path.

-"Yes, let's investigate."