AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry for the extended absence. Real life has been really messy for the past few weeks, and I wasn't really motivated to work on this. I should now be able to return to posting at least one chapter every Sunday.

Chapter 13: Strangers at Redstone!

"The boldness of asking deep questions may require unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers."

-Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe

Hazel peaked out of the warren's main entrance. It had been raining all night, but it was now early morning and the sky had cleared.

Further away, he could see Clover and Cornflower sitting in the grass together. Cornflower was smelling various plants, and occasionally nibbling some of them. Hazel approached them.

-"So, how are you liking it here, Cornflower?" he asked.

-"I must say it's really different from the hutch," Cornflower replied. "I never felt the wind in my fur before, and it's an amazing feeling. And this grass, it's very wet. I've never tasted such wet food in my life. Not that I mind it, I was often thirsty back at the farm. The only thing that worries me is the elil. You saw what happened to Blackavar yesterday, and I'm afraid something like this might happen to me."

-"Your concern is understandable," Hazel said. "Luckily, we can see any elil coming from a long way off, but nevertheless, if I were you I wouldn't stray too far from the warren."

-"I'll keep an eye out for you," Clover said. "Nothing bad will happen to you. If anything tries to attack you, I'll fight it."

-"I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for me..."

-"Who said anything about a sacrifice? I know I don't have any experience in fighting, but I'll still give it my best shot and I'll probably survive."

Hazel hopped away and looked at the sky. Blackberry and Primrose were not back yet. He was not really surprised: the journey to Redstone was a long one, and they would probably stay there a short while. What he could not understand was why they had decided to undertake such a journey in the first place, especially without telling anyone except Pipkin. He heard another rabbit behind him; it was Fiver.

-"You're feeling worried, aren't you?" he asked.

-"It's just Primrose and Blackberry."

-"You don't give them enough credit. They probably made it to the warren safely."

-"But what if they didn't? If they encountered trouble along the way, there is nothing we can do to help them."

-"Calm down, Hazel. Worrying won't help anyone."

-"I know, Fiver. But sitting here and doing nothing is really depressing."

Hazel fell silent. Fiver remained close to him, trying to think of a way to cheer his brother up, until suddenly an idea came into his mind. Without any warning, he pounced on Hazel, knocking him on his side, and started moving his paws through his brother's fur. Hazel struggled, but was unable to escape.

-"Fiver, stop!" he said desperately, when it became obvious there was no other way out of Fiver's tickle attack.

Fiver obeyed, and Hazel got up to catch his breath.

-"Thanks Fiver. I needed that."

The two rabbits started to walk towards the warren. As they were nearing the main entrance, Fiver said:

-"Bigwig, you don't have to hide from us."

At this, Bigwig peaked out from behind the tree. He looked at the two brothers, visibly embarrassed at having been caught spying on them. He attempted to distract them:

-"Uh, Hazel, I've been thinking...now that the war's over maybe we should try to form an alliance with Efrafa."

-"Always looking for adventure, aren't you Bigwig?" Hazel said. "But with the way Campion reacted, don't you think we should wait a while longer?"

-"It's already been two days, Hazel. I'm sure he must have recovered by now. After all, he didn't send out the whole owsla into the caverns to attack us. A good thing he didn't, because we couldn't have won such a battle."

-"But Bigwig, as you say it's only been two days. After we've been at war for almost a year, it can't end in just two days."

-"I don't think it would cause any problems if we were to go to Efrafa now." Fiver stepped into the argument. "But I don't think we would be able to form an alliance either."

-"Then what would happen?" Hazel asked.

-"Nothing. It might make you feel better, Hazel, as it would keep you occupied, but the situation between the two warrens won't change today."

-"In that case, we're going," Bigwig decided. "I don't see the need to bring many rabbits, so let's go just the three of us. Let's start after silflay?"

-"Sounds good," Hazel said.

-"YAAAAAAAAAARK!"

The three rabbits turned at the direction of the noise, to see a large white bird, with a mouse on its back, flaying straight towards them. They ducked just in time, as the bird crashed into the grass further away, and fell off onto the ground.

-"Oof!" she said, removing the dirt from her fur. "Ye could at least tray to work on improvin those landins, Kehaar."

-"Sorry, Hanniah," Kehaar said, as he got back up and started to clean his feathers.

-"What's going on?" Hawkbit asked, having arrived at the scene following the noise. "Oh, it's you again."

-"We're glad to have you two back," Hazel said. "How was your trip to the...Big City?"

-"Oof, twas bad," Hannah said. "Full o noise and hrududil and humans and de air stink so bad."

-"Ya." Kehaar agreed. "Kehaar not going back there soon. Hey vat did I miss?"

-"Many things," Hawkbit said. "Many things..."

It took a while for Primrose and Blackberry to reach Redstone. By the time they had arrived, their fur was soaking wet. There were no other rabbits outside, and the two does simply wandered into the first empty burrow they could find, where they fell asleep.

Blackberry awoke a while later, her fur mostly dry. Primrose was still asleep in the far corner of the burrow; Blackberry debated whether she should wake her friend up, eventually deciding against it: Primrose couldn't really enjoy her stay at Redstone if she was exhausted.

Blackberry got out of the burrow and started to wander throughout the warren. She had never been to another warren since she had left Sandleford the previous year with Hazel and the others; visiting Redstone was a fascinating experience.

Redstone was a very different warren from Watership Down: it contained many more runs and burrows, but they were smaller on average, and there was no large central chamber like the Honeycomb. The number of rabbits was similar, with bucks and does in seemingly equal numbers.

But what struck Blackberry the most was how everyone seemed worried, to varying degrees. She couldn't understand why: unlike Cowslip's warren, there were no snares there, or any other major dangers. While in their previous warren they had every reason to worry, here they had none. They had been living there since early the previous fall, so they should have gotten used to this new life by now. Was there an unseen danger that she ignored?

After a while, Blackberry went above ground. When she had first arrived in the middle of the night, it was too dark and she was too tired to take a look at the warren, and now that she did, she was concerned by what she saw. The Watership Down warren was well hidden, but Redstone was plainly visible. The rocks (which, despite the warren's name, were grey) stood out against the grass, and the holes were extremely easy to see. Blackberry remembered how a few weeks before, several rabbits had visited the warren after the birth of Marigold's litter, and upon his return Bigwig spent a while complaining about how lax their security was. She had initially dismissed this as him overreacting like he often does, but now she saw that he had a point. This was made even worse by the fact that Redstone, unlike Watership Down, was on even ground, making it nearly impossible to see approaching elil before they had reached the warren.

This, however, was not the most shocking thing about the area: the grass seemed to be scarce. There were several patches of ground without vegetation, and where the grass was growing, it seemed thinner than at the Down. There were a few rabbits at silflay, but some of them had to go far from the warren to find decent food. One of them, a yellow-orange doe, was looking carefully around her. Blackberry approached her; the other doe sniffed her carefully before starting to talk:

-"You're not from here, are you?"

-"No, I come from..."

-"Welcome to Redstone warren. You're free to live here if you want. There isn't as much food as we would like, but we manage to make the best of what we have."

-"I'm not coming to live here, I'm..."

-"That's all right. You're free to leave any time you want, but you will always be welcome..."

-"No, I'm a visitor from Watership Down."

-"Oh...I'm sorry, I thought you were a hlessi, I wasn't thinking. It's always nice to have someone visit us from Watership Down. I don't think I've met you before..."

-"I'm Blackberry."

-"I'm Marigold. It's nice to meet you, Blackberry. How are things at your warren? Did you come alone, or did..."

-"One question at a time. I didn't come alone, I brought Primrose, I'm sure you remember her."

-"Yes, I remember her. Where is she now?"

-"The last time I saw her, she was still in the empty burrow where she fell asleep when we arrived in the middle of the night. Anyway, I have great news: the war with Efrafa is over."

-"Really? That's amazing! How did it happen?"

-"It was really unexpected to all of us. A few days ago..."

While Blackberry was telling Marigold all about the end of the war, Primrose was slowly waking up. Her first feeling was one of confusion: why was she in this cramped, damp burrow, and why was she alone? It took her a few moments to clear her mind and remember that she was at Redstone, and that Blackberry had come with her.

She remained motionless for a while, thinking about her problems. She tried to push them out of her mind, but they kept forcing their way back in. There did not appear to be any obvious solution; she would have to ask someone else for advice, but she didn't know anyone who would be able to provide an unbiased opinion.

She slowly walked out of the burrow, up the run and outside. Judging by Frith's position in the sky, it was already late in the morning. She walked further away and started to nibble a small patch of grass. She had not eaten anything in over a day; she had no idea how to resolve her problems, but until then, there was no point in starving.