AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)
Chapter 92: Management.
"What madness took your mind?
You ran before the coast was clear;
You knew it could not work."
-NonyMouse, Blackavar's Song
Bigwig ran away from Hazel's burrow just before Heather, Leo and Rake hopped out, not wanting to be caught listening to their conversation. At first, he had been extremely worried that the Efrafans would want to attack the warren, but after listening to their tale, he wasn't worried anymore. They were clearly harmless, now that Woundwort and his owsla of bullies were gone.
His thoughts went back to the patrol earlier. It had been cut short by the discovery of the last Efrafans, preventing him from making a clear assessment of the newcomers' performance. He would have to lead another patrol.
-"Can I have a status update on these Efrafans?" he shouted, as he entered the Honeycomb.
-"They are all underground now," Strawberry said, "and I was going to get Blackberry to take care of their injuries..."
-"In that case, I'm going to ask that all of you who were on the patrol earlier, follow me!"
Before anyone could answer, he took another run, leading outside, where he repeated the same order.
-"What's happening?" Hyzenthlay asked.
-"We're going on patrol," Bigwig explained.
-"I thought we were done for today? I'm tired," Nyreem said.
-"No we're not! Not until you can successfully complete a patrol. This morning doesn't count, we were interrupted. Now, if you will all follow me..."
He started to hop towards the bottom of the Down. Around halfway down, however, he fell into a hole. This left him more confused than hurt: that hole wasn't there before.
-"Hiya Plumpy," came a feminine voice from behind him. He turned around and saw Nelthilta, lying in a corner in a small nest of grass.
-"My name's Bigwig, get it right!" he shouted, before climbing back out of the hole.
-"You all right Bigwig?" Spartina asked.
-"I'm not physically hurt, if that's what you mean. But I will not tolerate being called such a ridiculous nickname. What is that hole doing there anyway?"
-"You told Blackberry that Nelthilta's burrow wasn't properly ventilated, remember?" Clover said, hopping over to the group. "So she dug a hole in the ceiling, well-hidden so elil can't find it."
-"But right now it's TOO well-hidden. It's way too easy to accidentally fall through it, someone could get hurt! I have a good mind to...never mind, this patrol was already delayed long enough, all of you follow me!"
-"Where are we going?" Clover asked.
-"YOU are going to tell Blackberry to make the hole easier to see. The rest of you, follow me."
With that, Bigwig started to hop towards the bottom of the Down once again, looking carefully at the ground to make sure he wouldn't step in any more holes; all the others followed him, except two. Clover went to find Blackberry, and Dandelion remained near the top, having a conversation with Hawkbit.
-"You know, it's hard to take you seriously with that thing on your head."
-"Dandelion, if you know just how serious this situation is, you wouldn't be joking about this. Seriously, do you realize what happened on that patrol earlier? You fainted. Fortunately, you didn't stumble upon any elil, but what if you had? You would be dead by now!"
-"You sound like Bigwig. But why think about all the terrible things that COULD have happened anyway? There were no elil, so I'm still alive. No big deal."
-"I fully agree with you here, but Bigwig won't. He will see you as a liability after this. Meanwhile, if you look at all these newcomers, you'll see that they have done a good job at impressing Bigwig. They're outperforming you. Seriously, if they keep it up like this, they'll join the owsla, and he won't have any use for us anymore! He'll expel us from the owsla!"
-"Oh, how terrible! What can we do?"
-"I don't know. I would have asked asked Strawberry about it, but I won't humiliate myself in front of him, with that thing on my head. I think we may have to..."
Hawkbit and Dandelion were interrupted as they heard a shout coming from the bottom of the Down:
-"Where's Dandelion? He's always late for patrols these days..."
-"Go!" said a panicked Hawkbit. "Before he gets even angrier!"
-"I'll go!" said an equally panicked Dandelion, as he ran towards the rest of the patrol.
"Not nearly fast enough," Hawkbit thought sadly. "And with those ears of mine, I can't do much to help him. By the time they are straight again, it may be too late. What rotten timing!"
Meanwhile in Hazel's burrow, the Chief Rabbit was reflecting on the meeting. Efrafa was completely gone; the war was officially over. For the first time since they had arrived at Watership Down a full set of seasons ago, they could finally have peace. The only rabbit unaccounted for was Campion, whom he had attacked a few days before. Perhaps he had acted a bit hastily; hopefully Campion would soon return to the warren.
It was at that moment that he felt Primrose's grip on him tighten.
-"Don't let them eat me!" she said desperately.
-"Primrose! Primrose what's wrong? Who wants to eat you?"
Primrose shook her head a few times, and stared intensely at her mate.
-"Oh Hazel...I must have had a nightmare. It was about weasels, a large gang of weasels..."
Hazel looked at her sadly. She must have heard part of the Efrafans' story.
-"Don't worry, Primrose darling. I'll keep you safe from weasels. I love you. I..."
He suddenly realized that he was stroking her ears with his front paw.
-"I love your ears, and how they're beautiful no matter whether you have them raised or lowered."
-"I love the feeling when I am lying closely against you."
-"I love your fur, how it's golden and shiny like Frith himself."
-"I love your bravery, how you risked your life for me on several occasions, and are totally devoted to me, and to your warren."
-"I love your kindness, how you are always for me, and anyone else, when they're not feeling well, and you cheer us up."
-"I love your eyes. They're the prettiest eyes of anyone in this warren."
-"I love you...I love everything about you, Primrose," Hazel said as he hugged her even tighter. "I am blessed to be the mate of a wonderful doe like you. There is nobody else in the world like you."
-"You are the best mate, and the best Chief Rabbit, in the world Hazel. I am so thankful to be able to share my life with you. I want to be with you forever. Always."
-"Always."
Tumbler was slowly travelling through a small tunnel inside the warren. Walking on the ground was noisy, so she decided to walk on the ceiling instead. She did her best to listen for any noises, to see if anyone else was nearby. Eventually, she reached the end of the tunnel and entered the great burrow, without having met anyone else along the way. The warren appeared deserted.
A few minutes later, Rosie entered the burrow from another tunnel, followed soon afterwards by Crackers from yet another tunnel.
-"Nothing?" Tumbler asked.
-"Nothing," Crackers replied. "This place is empty."
-"I really don't understand it," Rosie said. "They were all there in the morning. Where did they go?"
-"Could they all be dead?" Crackers asked.
-"If they were, the bodies would have to be somewhere," Tumbler explained. "It's like they all just vanished without a trace!"
-"Perhaps they all ran away," Rosie said. "Hopefully not to fight another war..."
-"There are too many pawprints outside to know for sure where they went," Crackers said, before suddenly falling silent. "Wait, what's that noise?"
Tumbler and Rosie also paused to listen. It was the sound of rapid footsteps, quickly getting louder.
-"They're coming back!" Crackers shouted. "Everyone hide!"
The two squirrels jumped onto the ceiling; the tree roots were easy to hold on to. Rosie, however, was unable to climb, and was forced to hide behind a small rock instead.
The rabbits ran inside the warren, stopping abruptly inside the main chamber. They all appeared on the verge of panic, and did not notice the visitors.
-"Where did HE come from?" Speedwell asked.
-"We all thought that he got stuck in a..." Flesca started to say, before she started to laugh. "Well, you know."
-"This isn't funny!" Acorn said sternly. "Toadflax was..."
-"Let's forget about Toadflax for the moment," Speedwell said. "We need to worry about Pimpernel."
-"If he survived and lived a good life, good for him," Tindra said. "We may be worrying too much."
On the ceiling, Crackers and Tumbler were still hanging on, listening to the conversation happening below them. However, the root Tumbler was holding on to was starting to crack. It eventually broke off, sending the squirrel falling to the ground. Fortunately for her, she landed on Acorn's soft furry back, preventing any injuries. The rabbit cried in shock, but she managed to jump off him into a nearby tunnel before anyone could notice her. As everyone ran over to Acorn, Crackers was able to sneak away in the confusion.
-"Rosie is still in there," she told Tumbler once the two met again in another burrow. "We have to rescue her."
-"We'll have to snatch her when they're not looking," Tumbler replied. "Follow me."
Meanwhile in the burrow, the other rabbits reacted to Acorn's squeal.
-"What's wrong with you now?" Flesca said, plainly annoyed.
-"I swear, something just jumped on my back," Acorn replied, nearly tharn.
-"It's probably just some dirt falling from the ceiling," Speedwell said.
As if on cue, a small pile of dirt, destabilized from the fallen root, fell in the middle of the burrow between the rabbits.
-"The warren is falling apart," Tindra said, shaking her head. "None of us have the digging skills to fix this if it gets worse. I don't like the idea of an annexation, but if this keeps up, we might have no choice."
-"When Pimpernel remembers who we are, this won't end well," Speedwell warned.
-"I think you are all overlooking an incredibly obvious solution," Flesca said. "We kill him."
Rosie was still sitting near her rock, listening in horror at Flesca's suggestion. Suddenly, two fluffy tails wrapped themselves around her, and dragged her out of the burrow before she could react.
-"You all right, Ro?" Crackers asked.
-"I'm fine," the hedgehog replied, catching her breath. "But it's horrible! They're going to commit another murder! The intended victim is someone called Pimpernel."
-"We must warn this Pimpernel fellow before it's too late," Tumbler said.
Unbeknownst to the squirrels and hedgehog, however, nobody was a fan of Flesca's plan.
-"Are you crazy?" Speedwell and Acorn said in unison.
-"A lot of us are already gone, the last thing we need is MORE death," Tindra added.
-"Can you think of a better option?" Flesca said, hopping out of the burrow. "Sleep on it. Let me know in the morning."