Chapter 8: Meet Death.
"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die."
-Leonardo da Vinci
Ever since his departure from Watership Down the previous day, Campion had been aimlessly wandering throughout the area. He had not gone back to Efrafa, although he had briefly stopped by Woundwort's grave. It had been opened, and the smell of weasel was everywhere. Everything seemed to indicate that the corpse had fallen victim to elil.
Early that afternoon, Campion reached a large canal. He looked down the stone walls at his reflection in the water far below. Who was he? He was an Efrafan, and it was his responsibility to lead his warren. But he had made mistakes. He had been trying to help the outsiders, but they had betrayed his trust by killing his Chief. Or maybe they were telling the truth, and they really were innocent. But either way, Vervain was right: he was a traitor. Efrafa had no need for traitors; the warren would be better off without him. Moss was a competent rabbit; he could handle things fine without him.
"And if the outsiders are responsible for his death, at least pretty little Blackberry is innocent," he thought, raising his head to look at the darkening clouds in the sky. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't pay attention to where he was doing, and as a consequence walked straight into the canal. He squealed in fear as he fell for what felt like forever, before he painfully collided with the surface, and slowly sank in the uncomfortably cold water. Almost immediately afterwards, he was struck by the propeller of a passing boat.
It took a while before Campion regained consciousness. When he did, he struggled to remember where he was or why he was there. This place looked like a desert; there were no plants nearby, not even a single blade of grass or weed. While there was a green meadow in the distance, it was so far away that it was hardly visible to Campion. He tried to move, but his legs were too tired to carry him very far. At this rate it would take him moons to reach the meadow.
Suddenly, it became very windy. This was not the soft breeze he had experienced the previous day on Watership Down, but an ice-cold feeling that prevented him from moving forward. It took him all his strength to turn around. In front of him was a tall, dark figure, roughly the shape of a rabbit, with two red shapes where the eyes should be.
-"Are you the Black Rabbit of Inlé?" he asked.
-"YES," the figure replied in a low-pitched, echoey voice. "WHAT DID YOU THINK I WAS?"
-"If my time has come, I am ready to go with you, Black Rabbit."
-"YOUR TIME HAS NOT COME YET CAMPION. WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IN THE SHADOWLANDS? ONLY THE DEAD ARE ALLOWED HERE."
-"I...honestly don't know, Black Rabbit. I remember something about a river, and a boat..."
-"EXACTLY. YOU CARELESSLY WALKED INTO A RIVER WHERE YOU WERE STRUCK BY A BOAT. BE MORE CAREFUL NEXT TIME."
-"Since my time has not yet come, what happens now?"
-"I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO RETURN YOU TO THE WORLD OF THE LIVING."
-"Before you send me back, may I ask for a favour?"
-"THAT DEPENDS."
-"May I speak with General Woundwort one last time?"
-"YOU CANNOT, FOR HE IS NOT HERE."
-"Not here? But the outsiders killed him! Don't all dead rabbits end up here?"
-"THREE THINGS. ONE: THE OUTSIDERS DIDN'T KILL HIM, IT WAS VERVAIN. TWO: VERVAIN DIDN'T EVEN KILL HIM, HE'S STILL ALIVE. THREE: NOT ALL DEAD RABBITS GO HERE, SOME GO TO THE MEADOW YOU SAW EARLIER INSTEAD."
-"Vervain? Are you telling the truth?"
-"ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR?"
Campion chuckled.
-"Good old Vervain...I never thought he would be brave enough to try that."
-"IT DOENS'T REALLY MATTER, DOES IT? GENERAL WOUNDWORT IS STILL ALIVE AND HIS HEART IS FILLED WITH DARK THOUGHTS OF REVENGE ."
-"Are you sending me back to deal with him?"
-"NO. YOUR TIME HAS NOT COME YET, SO IT IS MY RESPONSIBILITY TO SEND YOU BACK. BUT YOU CAN STILL TRY TO KEEP HIM UNDER CONTROL."
-"Do I have to kill him myself?"
-"DON'T EVEN TRY. WHEN AND WHERE WOUNDWORT WILL DIE HAS ALREADY BEEN DETERMINED, AND NEITHER YOU, NOR ANYONE ELSE, CAN CHANGE THAT. YOU CAN ONLY MODIFY WHAT HAPPENS UNTIL THEN."
Campion was about to reply, but he was not given the chance. The Black Rabbit dissipated into a thick cloud of black smoke that entered Campion's nose and penetrated his lungs, causing him to cough uncontrollably until he fell unconscious again.
When he regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was cold in his tail and hind legs. He turned his head, and realized that he was on the shore of a river, and the lower half of his body was still in the water. He dragged himself out of the river and shook the water out of his fur. He briefly looked at his reflection in the water; the top half of his left ear was missing. To the left, he saw the canal he had fallen in. To the right, he could see the boat he had collided with; he reasoned that it was responsible for his ear injury. His mind drifted back to his trip to the Shadowlands.
"That must have been a nightmare," he thought. "There's no way I met the Black Rabbit of Inlé only for him to send me back to the world of the living. And Woundwort still being alive, that doesn't make any sense: I saw his body, there's no way he could have survived such a savage attack. The Black Rabbit was right about one thing though: I should look more carefully where I walk next time."