AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)
Chapter 106: Felines vs Lagomorphs.
"For a second Blaze and my eyes met, and I could see the pain in them. If you wanted to be my friend, you should have turned down the [...] invitation!"
-Stormstar LeSummer, Every Blueberry Shrivels, Every Storm Runs Dry
Hannah was sitting in an old bucket, her tail making waves in the water at the bottom, wondering if Dandelion and the others would ever find her. Finally, tired of waiting for the rabbits, she jumped out of her hiding place, and saw that there was nobody else in the barn.
-"I've wun!" she cried, as she skipped out of the barn. As she approached a shed, however, she noticed Dandelion pinned to the ground by Tabitha. She had to do something, but she knew she wouldn't stand a chance on her own against a cat. She ran towards the garden.
Hawkbit returned from his patrol without having located any cats, and saw that all the others were still in the garden, without a care in the world. Primrose was lying in front of a cauliflower with her eyes closed, slowly chewing the flayrah. Fiver was tugging at the greens of a carrot (one of the few that were the right side up) in an attempt at pulling it out of the ground. Pipkin was eating a turnip that seemed as large as he was. Hazel, Bigwig and Silver were taking various vegetables and stacking them next to the garden, hoping to bring them back to Watership Down to eat later on. Blackberry was sitting in the field further away, eating some blackberries. Hawkbit considered making a dumb joke about it, but decided against it: he should be eating flayrah instead, before the others stripped the field bare.
Just as he was about to take a bite out of a juicy lettuce...
-"Wabbits! Dandy's in trooble! Cat got 'im!"
Hawkbit's ears dropped to the sides of his head. In an attempt at getting back to the garden as soon as possible, he had not been paying as much attention during his patrol as he should have, and now his best friend's life was in danger because of this.
-"I'll kill that cat myself!" he shouted. "Where are they, Hannah?"
-"I'll show ye. Juss hurry!"
All the rabbits followed the mouse to the side of the barn. Tabitha still had Dandelion firmly pinned to the ground as she licked her lips.
-"Get away from him, cat!" came the voice of Silverweed, as he jumped out of the bushes and shot a bright beam of light from his claws, striking Tabitha in the face. She immediately jumped off Dandelion and dashed towards Silverweed, meowing in anger. He shot several other light beams with his claws, but they had little effect on the cat other than making her more and more angry. He bolted out of the way just in time.
-"My claws aren't as effective against creatures other than rabbits, I'm afraid," he told the others. "Everybody run!"
Dandelion was completely confused: just a few moments before, he was convinced he was going to die, and now he had been saved by Silverweed. When did Silverweed get here anyway? Nevertheless, he did not hesitate when it came to running away, and neither did any of the others.
The group of rabbits, with Hazel and Bigwig out front, and Primrose and Silverweed at the back, made their way towards a hole in the fence, which they had used as an emergency exit on a few past occasions. As they ran through the garden, however, another cat jumped in front of them, snarling menacingly. From the looks of his claws and fur, it was plainly a stray.
-"Where did he come from?" Bigwig exclaimed.
Realizing how dire the situation was, Fiver looked around him, and noticed a carrot right next to him. He picked it up and, swinging it like a baseball bat, struck the cat in the face, buying everyone a few precious seconds.
-"That won't hold him off for long, run!"
With the cat preventing the rabbits from going through the hole, they ran as fast as they could to the other side of the farmyard. Thankfully, the cats did not cause them any trouble along the way.
When the rabbits reached the farm's main exit, however, they saw a human standing there, looking at the sky. It was the officer, and he was smoking a cigarette.
-"We're trapped, aren't we?" Hawkbit said.
-"There has to be another way," Bigwig said.
-"Any idea what we can do, Fiver?" Hazel asked.
Their conversation was interrupted by loud meowing. The rabbits turned and saw, much to their terror, the stray cat running towards them. Tabitha was following from a distance, clearly angry.
-"One word: RUN!"
-"Where do we run?" Primrose asked, clinging to Hazel and shivering.
-"Anywhere!" Hazel shouted.
The rabbits ran towards the other side of the farmhouse, eventually reaching a large pile of straw.
-"We can all hide in there!" Silverweed suggested.
The others immediately agreed, and everyone jumped into the straw.
The stray cat arrived soon afterwards and saw rabbit ears and tails sticking out of the straw at seemingly random angles. Those stupid long-ears probably thought they were hidden, he would be able to get an easy meal, starting with the mouse hiding with the rabbits. He approached the straw, and started to lick Hannah's tail; however, she immediately hid deeper into the straw before he could sink his teeth into her body. Meowing in frustration, he turned to the next tail, which happened to be Silver's. This time, he would not bother with the licking, he bite right away.
He had just opened his mouth when suddenly, Silver turned around and cuffed him inside the mouth, scratching the tongue. The cat meowed in pain; realizing he wasn't going to get an easy meal here, he soon ran towards the farm's exit, stopping in front of the officer. The human looked at the cat, before starting to speak in an unusually soft and high-pitched voice and reaching down to pet him.
-"Here, kitty kitty kitty kitty..."
-"MEOW!"
-"OUCH!"
Losing patience, the cat bit deep into the human's hand, and ran away. Dropping his cigarette, the bleeding officer ran back to the farmhouse.
-"You can come out now, it's safe," Silver said, hopping out of the pile of straw. "The cat is gone. The human is gone too."
Fiver was the first rabbit to look out of the pile. The cat had completely vanished.
-"What happened?" Blackberry asked.
-"Silver saved us," Fiver said.
-"Well, in that case, we owe you our lives, Silver," Hazel said. "I suggest that we gather our flayrah and go home."
The others silently agreed, and started to hop towards the garden. As they made it back to the other side of the farmhouse, however, Bigwig stepped back.
-"What's wrong this time?" Hawkbit asked.
-"Take a look and see for yourself."
Hawkbit cautiously looked towards the garden, only to see Tabitha lying on the pile of flayrah Hazel, Silver and Bigwig had gathered. There was no way to get to the flayrah without attracting her attention.
-"Looks like we'll have to leave the flayrah behind," Hazel said sadly, before hopping towards the exit, with the others silently following. All this work for nothing...
Before leaving the farmyard, Primrose stopped by the open hole that used to be Blackavar's grave. The previous evening, Hazel had told her all about Blackavar's "death", and how he came back to life afterwards. There were no traces of him in the grave anymore, apart from a small puddle of blood at the bottom of the pit. She shed a few tears, thinking about how he never had the opportunity to lead a good life. After the escape from Efrafa, she became mates with Hazel, and friends with almost everyone else, while Blackavar never managed to build any meaningful friendships, and spent his days in agonizing loneliness. Hopefully he would be able to befriend some of the new rabbits at the warren. However, as she thought of Efrafa, an idea formed into her head. She would mention it to the others once they were back at the Down. She ran towards the others, hoping to catch up with them.
Pipkin briefly stopped by the place where the human was standing a few minutes before, and noticed a weird object on the ground, with a small rectangle shining in various colours: the officer's smartphone. Curious, he picked it up, before joining the others. He would examine it more closely once back at the warren.
Silverweed felt rather nervous. The longer he waited before attempting to find Leo, the harder it would be to find him. The game of owslafa, and then the obligation to come to his friends' defence at the farm, had prevented him from beginning the search. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard another rabbit's voice:
-"Weed."
-"Silver." Silverweed turned around. "It's nice to see you again."
-"I have no idea how you got here, but I want you to know that I won't be falling for your propaganda any longer, and I will make sure nobody else does."
-"There's no need to worry. I have learned the error of my ways. I promise I will never use my powers for evil purposes again."