Chapter 114: Secret Feelings.

"What was there to do to gain the respect he wanted and to erase he mistakes he had made with his findings? The only way to do this, he suspected, was to find something amazing. But what? No one else seemed in the least bit interested in his findings as they had no effect on their lives, so what did?"

-Dark Hearted Disco Queen, Prove Yourself

Underground, the game of owslafa continued. After a certain amount of deliberating, most rabbits agreed on who they were voting out: Nyreem.

-"Just a moment!" Cover suddenly stood up and waved her front paws. "I'm the great lover!"

-"Randomly assigning roles sometimes results in unusual selections," Holly said, shaking his head. "You don't have a mate, but you're still the great lover."

-"You don't have a mate?" Vesper appeared shocked. "Surely such a beautiful doe as you would..."

-"Actually," Flyairth explained, cutting Vesper off, "the great lover is a role in the game. She has chosen two rabbits, the lovers, and if one of them leaves the game, the other is also forced to. Based on her reaction, I assume Nyreem is one of them."

-"She is!" Clover grinned. "And her lover is Pipkin!"

At she heard this, Nyreem gasped.

-"What's wrong?" Clover was confused. "You two are really cute together. And I thought you had a crush on him?"

-"Pipkin is not in the game."

The smile on Clover's face slowly faded.

-"This means you two can't be lovers?"

-"Not in the game. But in reality..." Nyreem cautiously looked at her elders "we'll see."

-"This means," Flyairth said, "that you have to choose another lover for Nyreem."

-"That's difficult...if she doesn't mate with Pipkin, who will she mate with?"

-"You realize that the two lovers you choose don't necessarily have to be romantically involved in reality?" Thethuthinnang said. "It's just part of the game."

-"Oh, well in that case..." Clover looked around the Honeycomb, before raising her front paw and aiming it at another rabbit. "Holly!"

-"Why me?" he asked.

-"Honestly, I have no idea. You just happened to be the first rabbit I could think of."

-"Very well. But that was a mistake: I'm innocent."

With that, he hopped out of the burrow, and went above ground.

-"I'm afraid Holly is right," Flyairth said once he was gone. "He was an outskirter, and so was Nyreem. I must say, you have done a really poor job getting rid of the owslafa so far. It has been hrair rounds, and only one of them has been eliminated so far."

Primrose had been hovering over the area for a long time. She was calm and relaxed, and simply contemplated the amazing view. She could see many things she had never seen before, even when standing on the edge of Watership Down. She witnessed most of Hannah's adventure, as well as the others' trip down the river. This was the only part of the trip that was not enjoyable to her: while she saw everything, she was unable to help anyone.

Suddenly, her nose picked up a worrying scent, that of a hawk. Cautiously looking behind her, she could see it, rapidly flying closer to her; it was Skree's mother. Suspended in mid-air, she was unable to dash for cover, leaving her totally helpless. She squealed and closed her eyes as she awaited the inevitable.

A loud popping sound was heard, but Primrose could not feel any pain. She carefully opened her eyes, and looked around her. The hawk was flying away and shedding feathers. Next to her, the string tied to her ribbon had fallen, with the remains of the popped balloon at the other end. She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized she was still alive and unharmed, until she realized that the object that allowed her to fly in the first place had been destroyed; she was now falling rapidly towards the ground.

Hazel, Bigwig, Heather, Blackberry, Strawberry, Strawberry and the kittens made their way to the top of Watership Down. They had managed to obtain a certain amount of flayrah, enough to last a week or two. Further raids would be needed later on for the winter.

A few rabbits were at silflay, but Dandelion was away from the others, ripping various plants out of the ground.

-"What are you doing?" Hazel shouted, horrified. "You're ripping out the roots like those sheep did, that grass will never grow back!"

Dandelion looked at the Chief and blinked a few times, confused.

-"Bu- bu- but Hawkbit said you wanted me to take care of this..."

-"Hawkbit said WHAT? Regardless, stop right now. I'm off to talk to him..."

Hazel soon found Hawkbit, lying in the grass listening to Captain Broom. The latter seemed really happy that for once, someone was interested in his stories.

-"That sound you heard coming from underground was not a ghost," the captain said. "The warren really is haunted, but the ghosts are not underground. That sound was probably someone making a joke."

-"I should have known, especially after Dandelion's previous prank...but if the ghosts are not underground, where are they?"

-"By the sunflowers, you can see Pipkin-rah, the former Chief Rabbit of Sunflower Forest Warren, playing peacefully with his kits in the evening sun. They have been doing that for years and years and years, and they will, until..."

-"Pipkin-rah?" Pipkin ran into the others, nearly knocking Captain Broom down in the process.

-"Sorry laddy," the old captain said," but it's not the same Pipkin..."

-"What did you tell..." Hazel started to say to Hawkbit, until he was interrupted by loud squealing, which he immediately recognized. "Primrose! Where are you?"

-"In the tree!"

Hazel looked up, and saw his beautiful mate in the beech tree, visibly terrified. The balloon's string had gotten tangled in a branch, preventing her from hitting the ground. However, it was only a matter of time before the ribbon was ripped apart, and she would fall the rest of the way down.

-"Please get me down, Hazel!" she shouted desperately.

All the shouting attracted the attention of all rabbits above ground. The curious crowd gathered in front of the tree and looked at the helpless doe trapped at the top.

-"Don't worry," Hyzenthlay shouted, "we'll get you down in no time!"

-"You said she would be all right!" Hazel was really angry. "And look at what happened!"

-"She will be all right, as you can see there are no wounds on her body, not even a scratch. We just need to get her down."

-"How do you plan to do that?"

-"A pile of rabbits. We all climb on each other's backs until the pile is high enough, then she climbs down."

-"Of course, we will have to start with the largest rabbits at the bottom," Blackberry added, "and the smallest at the top."

-"Not exactly," Bigwig said, turning to Dandelion. "You climb on my back, and everyone else on top of you. This shall be your punishment for what you did to our grass."

The rabbits piled up. Like Bigwig had said, he was the first one at the bottom, and Dandelion was forced to climb on his back, followed by Holly, Hyzenthlay, Hazel, Strawberry, Blackberry, Bluebell, Strawberry, Fiver and finally Pipkin. Despite so many rabbits taking part, the pile was not high enough: stretching out his paws, Pipkin could touch the tip of Primrose's tail, but they would have to do better than that.

-"Children!" Hazel shouted. "Help save your mother!"

Snowdrop, Mallow, Gilia and Periwinkle were playing tail tag further away. As soon as they heard their father, they immediately ran to the pile of rabbits.

-"This looks like a fun game you're playing! Can we join?"

-"Yes, just climb to the top and grab your mother!"

The four kittens looked at each other, before starting to climb the tower, one by one.

-"Ow, look out for my tail!" Dandelion moaned. "And Holly don't bury your claws in my fur like this!"

-"Stop him!" Fiver shouted. "He's moving a lot, and it's getting dangerously unstable up here!"

-"This whole plan was doomed from the start," Strawberry said sadly.

It did not take long for the inevitable to happen. The pile of rabbits soon crumbled, sending everyone falling towards the ground. Bigwig, being at the bottom of the pile, had several rabbits land on top of him, including Primrose.

Vervain and Orchis had made their way out of the pit of Darkhaven, and were slowly hopping away from the warren. Vervain was mumbling in frustration at Woundwort's refusal to let him speak with the Speaker, and did not notice her heading back to the warren by Campion's side. Orchis, meanwhile, remained silent, seemingly more focused on their current task than his partner.

-"Hey, you two, wait for me!" came a third voice.

The two captain turned around, and saw Aspen running up to them.

-"What are you doing here?" Vervain asked in annoyance.

-"General Woundwort sent me to keep an eye on you during your patrol, sir."

-"You realize what this means?" Orchis said, turning to Vervain.

-"It means he doesn't trust us!" Vervain shouted in anger. "That blundering fool! Sometimes I wonder why I still follow him."

-"Let's run away. Together." Orchis winked at Vervain. "Woundwort need never know."

-"And give up my only chance of finding Chibiscuit? Absolutely not. Not until I hear what that Speaker doe has to say."

-"Please don't run away," Aspen said. "If you do, I'll have to tell Woundwort, and he won't like that."

-"He can't tell anything if you're dead, can he?" Orchis revealed one of his claws, much longer than the others, and gently scratched Aspen's neck as a warning.

-"I've already died, sir," Aspen said, plainly nervous.

-"And he sends the freak, of all rabbits, to look after us," Orchis whispered in Vervain's ear. "Shows how much he trusts us. Come on, let's..."

-"For the last time, no!" Vervain shouted. "I must find Chib."

-"Chibiscuit...I think she's the doe you used to love, right?" Aspen asked, prompting a sigh from Vervain.

-"Yes...that's her..."