AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you TheRanger101 and anonymous guest for the reviews :)

Chapter 72: Going Nowhere.

"Then, worse than the screams, the silence."

-LittleOtter, Moonlight

Silverweed suddenly woke up. He had had a very unpleasant dream, in which he found himself transformed into a bird of some sort, although he was unsure which species. Then another bird, with green and black feathers, shot him with a purple gun. As he lay dying in the middle of the field of dandelions, he could see Strawberry trying to fight the bird; the doe didn't seem to be doing well. And suddenly a falcon flew overhead, as the bird Strawberry was fighting mysteriously lost all her feathers.

Was this a sample of things to come, or just a random nightmare? Horrified at the thought of this really happening, he hopped out of his burrow to go to silflay. Along the way, he saw Hazel pacing back and forth in a far corner. Blackberry approached the Chief.

-"What's the matter, Hazel-rah?"

-"I failed," Hazel replied, without even looking at Blackberry.

-"What did you fail at?"

-"Helping her."

-"Her?"

-"Yes."

-"Who is she?"

Hazel did not reply, continuing to pace back and forth. When it became obvious he would not get an answer to his question, Blackberry hopped away. In another corner of the burrow, Bluebell was nibbling a turnip; he lied down next to him.

-"Do you know what's the matter with Hazel?" Blackberry asked.

-"The details are hazy, but from what I managed to figure out, he's worried his mate might die."

-"Which rabbit is his mate?"

-"Primrose, the one who squealed earlier. Hyzenthlay's sister."

-"That other doe who checked up on her said it was just a nightmare. Why is he still worried?"

-"Bucks in love can be like that sometimes." Bluebell winked, but Blackberry did not appear to notice.

-"There seems to be a lot about this situation I don't know. And Hyzenthlay's sister turning up after so long...I'll have to ask everyone some questions in the morning."

-"Until then, how about a kiss?"

-"The answer is still no."

-"He pinned me to the ground, and told me that if I didn't do as he said he would kill me."

Hyzenthlay was sitting in front of her sister, in the latter's burrow. Primrose was lying in a corner, conscious but plainly weak, and was telling Hyzenthlay about the day Vervain attacked Redstone. Hyzenthlay had quickly realized that her sister's life had been full of suffering.

-"I don't want to trigger any painful memories..." Hyzenthlay said.

-"No, there is no point in hiding from the past. It happened, you deserve to know."

-"You're already in a bad enough shape without thinking back at such horrors."

-"You think that's sad? This is just the beginning."

-"Are you sure you want to keep going?"

-"Are you interested?"

-"Yes, but only if you want to tell me. I don't want you to feel forced to tell me if you would rather not."

-"In that case I'll tell you everything. Where was I?"

-"That buck with the creepy smile is threatening to kill you."

-"Oh, Vervain...anyway, I wanted to stay alive, so I followed him. And only a few days later regretted it."

-"You regretted obeying him?"

-"Yes. I soon learned two things. Firstly, he wouldn't have killed me even if I had disobeyed him, he was just trying to scare me into submission. Secondly, once I was in Efrafa, death was very appealing."

-"Efrafa?"

Primrose sighed.

-"I'm not making much sense, am I?" she said.

-"From what I make out, you suffered so much you wished you were dead."

-"At the time, yes, but not anymore. I was rescued from Efrafa, and life became worth living again."

The two does nuzzled.

-"It seems to me I went massively off-topic just now," Primrose said. "What was I talking about?"

-"How you followed creepy Vervain away from Redstone."

-"Oh yes...the trip took a few days, during which everyone was kept under strict surveillance. The guards wouldn't let you go anywhere, although it wasn't as bad as in Efrafa..."

The lake seemed to stretch on forever, and the island was very far away. The road continued on the island; there used to be a bridge over the lake, but it had collapsed long ago.

-"Oof!" Hannah told no-one in particular. "Hoo am I gonna git to the oter sid?"

Hannah looked around her, trying to think of a way to cross the lake. While Kehaar often got on her nerves, his ability to fly was quite useful sometimes. She looked at the trees around her; hopefully the branches would stretch out far enough for her to jump to the island. She climbed a nearby tree, and made it to the end of one of the branches. It barely made it past the shore; any attempts at jumping would cause her to land in the lake. However, she noticed a vine overhead: what if she used it to swing, hopefully giving her enough momentum to reach the island? It was worth a try.

Hannah grabbed the vine and ran off the branch. She swung a certain distance, but the vine soon swung back. It kept swinging a few times like a pendulum, before finally stabilizing a short distance from the shore. Hannah looked down with horror as she seemed trapped in mid-air, unable to go anywhere. She squirmed, desperately hoping she might be able to swing back to the tree, but it was of no use. To make things worse, the vine appeared to be slowly breaking off, which would send her falling into the water.

At the Whitchurch Police Station, there was a woman inside the lone interrogation room. She had been there for over an hour by the time someone arrived to question her. Two officers entered the room; the first was holding a file, and according to his badge, his name was "J. Dusty". The other had a large bowl of shrimp, which he was chewing noisily; his badge was slightly rusty, rendering his name unreadable.

-"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Officer Dusty said. "You know how it is, not enough money to..."

-"Cut to the chase," the woman said.

-"Right." Officer Dusty opened the file and browsed through the pages. "You sure you don't want a lawyer?"

-"I was a law student, I can take care of myself."

-"Very well. According to this document, you were arrested for attempted arson, fare evasion, and littering."

-"Attempted arson? Seriously? I know I played with matches..."

-"So you do admit to starting a fire."

-"I was trying to perform a magic trick!"

-"Several of the passengers we talked to said that you were behaving erratically while holding the..."

-"Also, littering? How?"

-"You threw a match out the window."

-"No I didn't!"

-"Eyewitnesses say otherwise."

-"I didn't commit fare evasion either. I paid for my ticket, but it was stolen after I boarded."

-"I've looked at surveillance camera footage from the station, and there is no evidence of you ever buying a ticket."

-"Maybe she's telling the truth," the second officer said, taking a break from his shrimp.

-"Nice to see at least one person believes me here," the woman said. "But you're both overlooking the more obvious crime here."

The two officers fell silent.

-"And what crime is that?" Officer Dusty eventually asked.

-"Assault and battery. I was beaten up on that train."

-"What you call assault and battery, I call a brave civilian trying to restrain a violent criminal."

-"I'm not the criminal here, I'm the victim. While I'm rotting here in this dirty old building, the real criminals are running free. Aren't you at least going to get my side of the story?"

-"She's right, we probably should," the shrimp officer said.

-"Fine," Officer Dusty finally said. "What did this person look like?"

-"Which one?"

-"...the one who attacked you."

-"There were several."

-"Describe them all."

-"Well, the first one was..."

The woman spent several minutes describing those who had attacked her. One of the officers continued to noisily chew his shrimp, paying no attention to her. Officer Dusty seemed to be paying attention at first, but after a while he pulled out his smartphone and started typing.

-"Are you even listening to me?" The woman stood up in anger.

-"Are these the ones who attacked you?" the officer asked, showing her his phone's screen.

-"Yes! This photograph depicts them very accurately. Where did you get it?"

-"From an animated cartoon."

-"...what?"

-"If you want my advice, plead insanity. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some paperwork to file."

With that, Officer Dusty got up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. The other officer pushed the bowl of shrimp in front of the woman.

-"Want some?"

-"Don't mind if I do," she replied, as she picked up one piece.

-"So, you got attacked by some cartoon characters? Tsk, tsk, no jury's ever going to believe you..."

-"I thought you were on my side!"

-"But I am. Call me..." The woman was unable to make out the last word.

-"I'm sorry?"

-"My name is..."

The woman accidentally knocked the bowl of shrimp off the table; the loud noise prevented her from hearing the officer's name. He looked at the floor, then sighed.

-"I can help you beat this rap," he said. "But on one condition."

-"What's the catch?"

-"Once you're free, you must buy me another bowl of shrimp."