AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)
Chapter 116: Bramble Cottage.
"I will not say it again! Now leave! your presence here is no longer required. Guards, lead them out."
-Dark-Celeste, Fleeing Efrafa
The fox was calmly walking through the grass, sniffing the air for an easy meal. It soon found a wounded rat with a broken leg, and put a brutal end to the poor rodent's life, leaving nothing but a few bones and a puddle of blood. Behind a nearby bush, a few rabbits were looking at the scene.
-"So this is a fox?" Clover said; having spent most of her life living in a hutch, she had never seen one before. "Big deal! Why do they scare you all so much? That idiot Duster back at Nuthanger Farm was much more dangerous than that cute little orange fellow."
-"That's a mistake too many rabbis make," Holly explained. "Foxes may look harmless from a distance, but if you let your curiosity get the better of you and approach them, then things can go wrong."
-"Well, we found what we're looking for," Hyzenthlay said, "so why don't we just go back to the warren and report to Bigwig?"
-"Let's do that."
The rabbits had not traveled very far when things went wrong. Blackberry tripped on a tree root, making a lot of noise and immediately attracting the fox's attention.
-"Are you hurt?" Hyzenthlay asked.
-"I'm all right," her friend replied, shaking himself. "But we need to get out of here."
Flora glanced towards the fox, and saw that it was approaching them, growling. The others were not getting away fast enough; Clover in particular was too slow. Flora knew that she had to do something, or the others might die. She ran past the fox and sank her teeth in its tail. It yelped in shock and turned around, seeing Flora with its fur in her mouth. Growling, it started to run towards her, but she had already run off.
-"Where did Flora go?" Holly asked, realizing that there were only four rabbits left.
-"I haven't seen her since we spotted the fox," Hyzenthlay replied.
-"Could the fox have gotten her?" Clover asked nervously.
-"I hope not," Hyzenthlay replied. "We'll have to look for her."
-"That may not be easy," Holly said. "Her scent is masked by that of fox. Everyone stay close."
The rabbits were about to hop towards the place where they had spotted the fox, when suddenly, Flora burst out of a nearby bush.
-"Flora!" Clover grinned. "You're alive!"
-"Yes. I just had to lead the fox away from the rest of us before it caught up to us."
-"You saved us. That was very brave of you." Clover hopped closer to Flora.
-"Thanks. But now we should head back home."
The rabbits hopped away, retracing their steps back towards the warren. Along the way, they came across a human building.
-"Let's cut through that garden," Holly suggested. "It will get us back to Watership Down in half the time." He looked at the others and grinned. "Not to mention the flayrah."
Blackberry was the first rabbit to hop into the garden, and he did not check for elil first. Neither did Clover; instead she hopped straight to the lettuce and started to nibble it.
-"Be careful!" Holly said. "There may be cats or dogs about. I'll have to go check."
-"I'll go with you," Hyzenthlay said.
-"I'll stay with Clover and Blackberry," Flora said. "In case the cat or dog shows up at the garden while you're elsewhere."
As Holly and Hyzenthlay hopped away, the three other rabbits nibbled the flayrah. There were several different vegetables, although not as many as at Nuthanger Farm. After a few minutes, Holly and Hyzenthlay returned.
-"Any elil?" Blackberry asked.
-"Just one dog, but it's small and tied up," Holly said. "But there's something else you might be interested in seeing."
-"What is it?" Blackberry asked, dashing off for a closer look.
-"It's a tame rabbit in a hutch," Hyzenthlay said, following Blackberry; the others soon followed. While most of them peered inside the hutch, Clover maintained some distance.
-"Who are you?" the tame rabbit asked in a posh voice.
-"I'm captain Holly, and these are my friends Hyzenthlay, Blackberry, Flora and Clover. We come from Watership Down."
-"Captain? That's mighty pretentious of you," the rabbit said, looking down her nose at the others.
-"He's a really good patroller and deserves the title," Hyzenthlay said. "Anyway, who would you be?"
-"Why, I'm Lady May, the prize-winning Angora rabbit of this area. I suppose you live in one of those ghastly warren-type places."
-"Hey!" Clover shouted. "Watership Down is not ghastly!"
-"Perhaps you simply don't know better, having lived there all your life..."
-"In case it interests you, I once lived in a hutch, until I escaped. I wouldn't go back."
Lady May did not reply, and simply looked upwards, proudly showing her thick fur. Clover wondered how she could survive in the summer heat like this.
-"Clover is right," Blackberry said. "Life in our warren is better than being cooped up in a hutch! Come on everyone, I'm going back to the flayrah."
With that, he hopped away from the hutch. One by one, the others followed him, until only Hyzenthlay remained.
-"Could I have your ribbon please?" she asked. "My sister lost hers and..."
-"A ribbon would get covered with dirt so quickly in one of those ghastly warrens..."
-"Would you be interested in joining us? I know you don't seem interested in warrens, but life at Watership Down is really amazing."
-"No."
-"Just remember that this may be your only chance at freedom."
-"NO!"
-"As you wish. Farewell!"
Hyzenthlay rejoined the others at the garden.
-"Perhaps we could bring some of the flayrah back to the warren," Clover suggested. "I know Hazel already got some from Efrafa, but we could always use more, couldn't we?"
-"That sounds like a good idea," Holly replied; the others nodded in agreement, and soon departed, carrying several carrots and leaves of lettuce.
Little did they know, but three other rabbits arrived near the building mere minutes after their departure.
-"Here we are!" Orchis said proudly. "Bramble Cottage! They have such great flayrah."
-"We're supposed to be looking for the outsiders' warren, not for flayrah," Aspen said.
-"Nothing wrong with stopping for flayrah along the way, is there? Come on, let's go."
Aspen was about to complain again, when the scent of carrots caught his nostrils. Unable to resist, he followed Orchis into the garden.
-"What's the matter, Vervain?" Orchis said, staring at his fellow captain, who remained some distance away. "Don't you want flayrah?"
-"But...what about cats? Or dogs?" Vervain said, clearly afraid but doing his best not to show it.
-"Oh, don't worry about it. That dog won't be an issue."
-"Regardless, if you're wrong and it becomes an issue, don't count on me to save you."
-"I don't mind. I enjoy fighting that dog; it is clearly lacking in intelligence, and I can use that to my advantage.
Vervain stared at Orchis, clearly confused. Orchis enjoyed fighting a dog? Even such a dim-witted creature as a canine could pose a massive threat; a rabbit would have to be mad to try to fight one. Nevertheless, Vervain followed Orchis into the garden; if the dog did attack, he could always sacrifice Aspen (again) in order to get away himself.
The three rabbits spent a while nibbling the flayrah. It was a nice distraction from the constant fighting and lack of decent food at Darkhaven.
-"Let's go visit my arch-enemy," Orchis suddenly said.
-"Your arch-enemy!?" Vervain was horrified by Orchis' suggestion.
-"I mean the dog."
-"No! Not unless it strikes first."
-"Fine. If you don't want to come, I'll go myself."
Without waiting for a reply, Orchis hopped away, towards the building. Vervain hesitated: all his instincts told him to stay away, but he also wondered what exactly Orchis was up to. His curiosity eventually won out, and he followed Orchis towards the building.
Making his way through the tall grass, he soon spotted Orchis, sitting in front of the dog. It was a young chihuahua, smaller than the rabbits, and it was lying on a blanket. Now Vervain understood why Orchis didn't seem to mind fighting it, although he would still prefer not to do it himself if he could avoid it.
-"I remember how, one time," Orchis said, "I tied a knot in the blanket, trapping it inside until the humans arrived to the rescue." Vervain shuddered.
-"This time, let's just ignore it, and it'll probably do the same with us."
-"Good old cowardly Vervain...always wanting to avoid a fight if possible."
-"Cowardly?" Vervain knew this was true, but still did not appreciate Orchis' comment. "Not wanting to fight a dog isn't cowardly, it's common sense!"
-"The fact is, this dog is a fool. We should not hesitate to tackle it."
But Orchis did not tackle.
-"Shall we go back to the garden?" Vervain asked after a while.
-"Not yet. Not until I've had my fun. It's asleep right now, so let's wake it up."
Orchis kicked a pebble, hitting the dog's neck. It turned its head and, staring at the rabbits, whimpered.
-"It looks like it's afraid of us!" Aspen said.
-"You thought you were rid of me, weren't you?" Orchis teased, making the dog whimper again. "Oh come on, make it snappy will you? I don't have all day."
This last comment brought the desired effect. The dog tried to pounce on Orchis, but he had jumped in the air as it crashed into the ground. He hopped on the dog's and, with a quick movement, wrapped his hind legs around its jaws, preventing it from barking and alerting the humans. The dog tried to twist its way out of the rabbit's grip, but Orchis had anticipated that, and placed his front paws over its neck in such a way that any movement would cause his claws to rip its throat open. The dog was forced to surrender the battle, and simply looked angrily at Orchis. It was tired of being defeated over and over again by the same rabbit.
-"What are you going to do now?" Vervain asked, both amazed and horrified. "Are you going to kill it?"
-"Kill it?" Orchis gasped. "Why would I do that? I wouldn't be able to fight him anymore."
-"You're going to let it go, then?"
-"Not just yet. It needs to suffer a bit more."
Vervain rolled his eyes.
-"I'll be going back to the flayrah. You coming, Aspen?"
-"Uh, sure...but at this rate we'll never find the warren today."
-"We'll deal with that after Orchis is done with his pointless torture."