Chapter 279: The Confession.

"The whole world is gonna know you

They'll all beggin at your paw soon

So dig it up all you want to"

-Josh Gracin & Madrox1275, Hound Dude: You'll Be An Owsla

That evening, at the warren of the shining wires, all the rabbits were at silflay. Everyone was silently nibbling the grass; nobody dared visit the flayrah supply, due to the wires in the surrounding area. Nobody was speaking; with nearly every group conversation recently having ended in an argument, perhaps it was for the best.

-"LOGS LOGS LOGS hey what just happened?" the ghost of Cowslip asked. As she had no physical body, she could not eat, but she nevertheless remained above ground, much to the consternation of the living rabbits at silflay.

Tindra was feeling very nervous at the prospect of the confrontation with Flesca. As suggested, she had told Acorn what the squirrels and hedgehog had told her, and he had agreed to assist her. However, she had also made the more questionable decision of telling Bluesky and Raincloud. She felt that their "storytelling" abilities could be an asset; their status as hlessil also meant that they had no specific alliances with anyone. Additionally, if things went wrong, and Flesca's murderous impulses were awakened, hopefully she would pick them as her first victims, giving everyone else more time to get away. However, with the moment of truth approaching, they appeared very nervous; Tindra was getting worried that they might perhaps panic and ruin everything. All it would take is a single ill-advised comment...

Despite being on the verge of panic, Tindra did a much better job at hiding it than Bluesky and Raincloud did. She occasionally glanced at Flesca, but not often enough to be noticed. The fellow doe was not behaving suspiciously, she was just nibbling the grass like everyone else. Maybe the squirrels and hedgehog were wrong, and she was actually innocent. Or maybe she was just good at looking innocent. And while on the subject of squirrels and hedgehog, would they actually follow through on their promise and provide support during the confrontation?

It was then that Tindra noticed that there was a squirrel peaking out of a bush near the edge of the field. She wondered: was this one of the same squirrels who had visited her earlier? All squirrels looked alike to her, not to mention that it was still far away. But as a second squirrel and a hedgehog came into view, her suspicions were confirmed: this really was them. She hopped over to Acorn and gently nudged him, giving him the signal that the time had come. He took a deep breath, and uttered the words that could never be unsaid:

-"I think I know who the killer is," he said.

He raised his ears anxiously, awaiting the reaction; Tindra, meanwhile, hopped over to another patch of grass, so that the two rabbits' collaboration would be less obvious. Toadflax was the first rabbit to speak again.

-"Of course you know. As we all know, it's you."

-"Me?" Of all the possible ways things could have turned out, this was one Acorn had not seen coming. "What are you talking about? Have you forgotten how I was almost killed?"

-"Like I said at the time: you staged it, so that we would stop suspecting you," Toadflax replied, without looking at him.

Rosie, Tumbler and Crackers were hiding in a nearby bush, allowing them to keep an eye on the situation without being noticed by Toadflax or anyone else. They looked at each other: the first problems had come earlier than expected.

-"We need to get their conversation back on topic before Acorn becomes the next murder victim," Rosie said.

-"We'll have to announced the real killer ourselves," Tumbler said. "Crackers, you have the most powerful voice of us all; you should do it."

The second squirrel nodded, and peaked out of the bush.

-"Actually it's Flesca!"

-"Who said that!?" Toadflax was furious at being interrupted.

-"I did," Tindra said, falsely taking the blame, knowing how Toadflax would react if he found out that "lesser creatures" were meddling in the discussion.

-"Stop meddling, you have nothing to do with this," Toadflax said, accusing Tindra anyway.

-"It's very sharp," Cowslip's ghost said, despite the fact that her comment had nothing to do with the current discussion. "Stay away from the eye. Four hrair hrair. The other ONE is level and even."

-"But I saw her behaving suspiciously," Tindra lied, talking about Flesca and ignoring the ghost. "I saw her fraternizing with a rabbit from New Sandleford."

-"She did WHAT?" Speedwell yelled in shock. "I thought they were the enemy!"

-"I truly saw them interact, and they seemed quite friendly," Tindra added.

-"Even more than that: they seemed loving," Bluesky suddenly said.

-"Yes, Tindra said that she saw them mating," Raincloud added.

-"Wait, no, I didn't..." Tindra was quick to attempt to clarify, but it was already too late, Bluesky and Raincloud had already started their absurd tale, and they could not be stopped.

-"In fact, she may already be pregnant with the tainted half-bloods," Bluesky falsely claimed.

-"The New Sandleford rabbits will take away this warren's purity, we will all be weaker."

-"And this will allow the association of criminals to take over."

-"This warren will become nothing more than a cesspool of thieving, more murders, and much worse."

-"Please stop with the conspiracies," Tindra whispered shamefully, regretting ever letting those two in on the secret. "I just saw her kissing; nothing more."

-"If you're worried about that purity nonsense, perhaps you two should leave to another, purer warren," Toadflax shouted at Bluesky and Raincloud: even he felt that they were taking things too far. He then turned to look at Flesca. "Serious allegations have been made against you. Do you deny them?"

Flesca looked at the crowd around her, as they all awaited her denial. Then, she smiled.

-"No."

-"No?"

-"Why would I? The allegations are true. Not what the two idiot tricksters said, but everything else, yes. I did kill...uh...you know, it's been so long, I forgot his name."

-"His name was Buckthorn!" Acorn shouted accusingly.

-"Right, Buckthorn. Anyway, I killed him. You got me."

-"You should be healing, not hurting," Speedwell said, prompting a chuckle on Flesca's part.

-"The positive one loved that. I did what I had to do."

There was complete silence in the field. Just like that, the killer's identity was known. Confusingly, she was completely open about her crimes, and she showed no remorse whatsoever.

-"Eating grass by moonlight, it tastes so much better than by daylight," Cowslip's ghost said nonsensically. "I only wish Stitchwort was here..."

As much as everyone was confused as to who Stitchwort was supposed to be, nobody dared ask; instead, the ghost was ignored yet again.

-"Why did you kill him?" Toadflax asked Flesca. "Was it flayrah disputes? Organized crime?"

At this, Flesca started to laugh.

-"Oh, you lot are the worst detectives I have ever met!"

-"Aren't we the ONLY detectives you have ever met?" Tindra asked.

"...that's besides the point! Besides, don't you remember how I had already confessed a few days ago? You all thought I was joking, but I wasn't."

Many of the rabbits recalled this incident; in hindsight, their quick dismissal of her confession had been a mistake.

-"Oh! Looks like I'm in the middle of something, maybe I should come back later..."

The voice did not come from any of the warren rabbits; looking in the direction from which it had come, they saw that it was another rabbit, albeit one they did not know. Rosie, Tumbler and Crackers, however, recognized him as the same one that Flesca had been kissing earlier.