AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.
Chapter 120: Surviving in the Rain.
'"I suppose it's a good idea. But I don't know... I mean, a lot can happen. We could get killed, anything! Aren't you worried?" "Of course I'm worried Fireweed! That's what makes this seem more like an adventure! I mean, don't you want to be great adventurers like are [sic] fathers were? Don't you ever long for adventure?"'
-Tawnyfeather, Ginger
Vervain was bored. He and Aspen had eaten nearly all the flayrah in the garden, and were awaiting Orchis' return, to resume the patrol. Dark clouds were forming in the sky; they both hoped they could get going before the storm would break.
-"He's been at it all afternoon," Aspen said. "Will this ever end?"
-"Let's go see if he's dead yet," Vervain suggested.
As they hopped back to the spot where they had last seen Orchis, they saw that he was not dead. The dog was also alive, and still stuck in the same awkward position as earlier.
-"Will you stop, already?" Vervain said in annoyance. "We need to get back to our patrol."
-"Fine..." Orchis bit off one of the dog's whiskers. "I do this every time. I have quite the collection of whiskers back at Darkhaven. Now let's go."
He let the dog go; it ran away as fast as it could out of the garden. The rabbits, meanwhile, ran in the opposite direction, stopping only after they had reached the other side of the building. They could hear the dog vent its frustration by barking loudly, but no humans came to investigate.
-"I guess the humans aren't home," Orchis said. "How about some more flayrah?"
-"There's not much left," Aspen said. "The consequences of tormenting dogs rather than eating."
-"Hiya handsome."
Vervain was startled by the last comment: he could not recognize the voice. He slowly turned around, and saw a pretty doe inside a hutch.
-"Well hello there..." he replied, in a flirty tone.
-"I wasn't talking to you, uglyface, I was talking to your friend here," Lady May said; Vervain was visibly hurt by this response. "The one that looks like a hyena."
-"Who, me?" Aspen asked. "Also, what's a...hyena?"
-"No, not you either, the third one. Ignorant fools, do you really have no idea what a hyena is? Clearly, warrens are as bad for a rabbit's intelligence as for their fur. Anyway, handsome buck, how would you like to join me in here?"
-"She's talking to you," Vervain said, turning to Orchis, his pride still wounded.
-"I know," Orchis replied. "But why waste any words with that thing in the hutch? It's not a real rabbit like us."
-"You're just jealous of my pretty fur," Lady May said. "If you come join me, you'll look just as pampered as me in no time."
-"Can we get going now?" Aspen said, exasperated. At that moment, it started to rain.
-"In this weather?" Orchis scoffed. "Absolutely not. We'll wait here until the rain stops."
-"You wasted our time on purpose! You intentionally delayed us until the rain started, so we would be forced to stay here even longer!"
Orchis did not reply, but winked instead.
-"You do realize that's basically an admission of guilt, right?" Vervain said.
-"I will neither confirm nor deny that statement."
It was early evening by the time Bluesky and Raincloud woke up. When they did so, they were startled to see someone staring at them.
-"What's going on?" Bluesky cried in terror.
-"I see you are now awake," Acorn replied. "Come to the great burrow, and tell us your message."
Acorn hopped out of the burrow; the two visitors had no choice but to follow.
-"What's your message about?" Speedwell asked, once everyone was present.
-"We have an important message for your Chief," Raincloud said. "Will you bring us to them?"
-"We don't have a Chief."
-"You don't? Oh no, are we too late? Did the previous Chief die recently?"
-"Yes, I suppose you could say that. Cowslip was our Chief, wasn't he?" Tindra asked; everyone weekly nodded.
-"What a tragedy!" Bluesky said. "Poor Cowslip-rah, I'm sure he died heroically, protecting his warren from great danger..."
As she heard this, Flesca started to laugh.
-"Are you talking about the same rabbit we are? Cowslip was anything BUT honourable!"
-"Are we that late? What about his predecessor?"
Everyone fell silent.
-"None of us were alive back then," Tindra eventually said.
-"All this business of Prince Rainbow's really delayed us way too long...but regardless. With the previous Chiefs dead, you need a new one. How about the captain of owsla?"
-"We don't have an owsla," Acorn said.
-"Reasonable," Bluesky said. "This seems like a peaceful enough warren, no elil nearby, so no need for an owsla. But surely you must have a candidate in mind for the next Chief?"
-"We have more important things to worry about, like solving a murder," Speedwell said.
-"Always with the humour, eh?" Raincloud said. "When you have decided on a Chief, please let us know, a great privilege shall befall to them. Until then, we shall be in our burrow, napping."
-"Napping? But you just woke up!" Flesca said, still laughing.
At that moment, another rabbit ran into the warren.
-"Everyone fill in all the entrances!"
-"Toadflax?" Tindra looked at the new rabbit in disbelief. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
-"We all will be if we don't fill in the entrances," Toadflax said.
-"One thing at a time," Acorn interjected. "How did you escape from New Sandleford?"
-"Their guard was so incompetent. He left to pass hraka! And didn't get anyone else to relieve him! So I just slipped away."
-"So they didn't murder you?" Speedwell asked. "They threatened to do it."
-"Ah yes, I overheard them talking. You cowards, you did nothing to save me? But thankfully, I escaped before they could put their sordid plan into action. Now that your curiosity has been satisfied, can we get to digging?"
-"You mean...this whole talk about murder isn't joking?" Raincloud asked nervously.
-"I have another question," Flesca said. "What do you know about Pimpernel?"
-"Who?" Toadflax looked around the burrow. "I don't care about him, come on now, it's raining hard!"
-"Ugh, I hate the rain, we'll kill Pimpernel once the sky clears. But the soil is very solid, the rain won't leak underground."
-"This is no ordinary rainstorm," Toadflax insisted. "It's an absolute deluge! Large torrents of water will pour in through all open entrances, and we will all drown. The farmer, poor soul, has already been forced to evacuate."
-"I don't believe you," Acorn said.
-"Then go see for yourself."
Still unconvinced, Acorn went up the nearest tunnel. He soon realized that Toadflax was telling the truth: the area was flooding. There were several shining wires floating on the surface, and the water would soon reach the warren's main entrance. He ran back to the great burrow to tell the others.
-"He's right, we need to fill in the holes as quickly as possible!"
The rabbits scattered across the various tunnels, each working on filling up one hole. Bluesky and Raincloud, however, remained in the main chamber.
-"Aren't you two going to help?" Speedwell asked.
-"Digging? That's does' work. It does not suit our complexion."
-"If you don't help us, we're all going to die! And we won't be able to elect a new Chief to receive that silly message from Prince Rainbow!"
Bluesky and Raincloud looked at each other, and sighed. They would have no choice but to dig.
Meanwhile, at the top of a nearby tree, Tumbler, Crackers and Rosie watched the field below them slowly flood.
-"Is there really no way to help those poor rabbits?" Rosie asked.
-"Rabbits can't climb trees," Tumbler said sadly. "Their only hope is to close all their entrances before the burrows flood."
-"But what if the warren caves in? None of them appear to be good diggers, they might weaken the structure."
-"If that happens...may God help them."
-"Meh..." Crackers mumbled something that the two other creatures were unable to understand. "Hopefully they'll survive; until then, we should get some sleep."
At Watership Down, the rabbits remained silent, staring powerlessly at the rising water. Primrose protectively clutched onto Hazel. Fiver pushed Vilthuril away so she wouldn't drown like in his dream, although the water had barely reached the bottom of the Down. Spartina thought back of her time in Darkhaven: the pit had been flooded on several occasions. A certain number of rabbits survived by climbing to the top of various structures, or remaining on floating objects until the water drained away. While many rabbits died each time, nobody was bothered by this, since it was a good way to "purge the weak" rabbits who were not strong enough to survive.
Blackberry, however, noticed something unusual. Near the bottom of the Down, there were a few large rocks that were sticking out of the water; the rising currents did not move them. The ideas fit together in her mind very nicely.
-"Blackberry, I have an idea," she said.
-"What is it?" Blackberry replied.
-"We need rocks, branches, any large objects we can find."
-"I really don't see how rocks can stop a flood," Bigwig said.
-"Blackberry had many good ideas over the seasons," Hazel said. "I don't know what she has in mind this time, but it's worth trying."
The rabbits got to work. There were a few rocks lying at the top of the Down, and many underground, waiting to be dug out. As the level of water kept rising, a large number of rocks were scattered at the top, and Blackberry was pushing them around, making a small circle around the beech tree. The larger rabbits started stacking them, building a second layer of rocks on top of the first one.
-"This is a brilliant idea, Blackberry!" Fiver said, excited.
-"I'm still don't understand what this is all about," Hazel said.
-"We're building a dam around the warren. The water will need to rise much higher before it will pose a threat to us."
-"Hey, it's wet in here!" came a distant voice.
-"Nelthilta," Blackberry said. "The hole in the ceiling of her burrow is outside the dam, I should go fill it up. Can you handle things in my absence, Blackberry?"
-"I'll do my best," the other Blackberry replied; the doe nodded, and went underground to take care of the leaking burrow.
The rabbits continued stacking the rocks, while Blackberry supervised their work.
-"There's a problem, I'm afraid," he said after a while. "There are many gaps between the rocks, the water could leak through the dam. Besides, this second layer is rather unstable, look at this."
He placed his front paws on two stacked rocks; the top one fell off and rolled into the water below.
-"We need something to fill the gaps and hold the rocks together," Hyzenthlay said.
-"Would you mind letting me through?" Hawkbit said. "I'm covered in mud once again after digging out all these rocks, I want to clean myself in the floodwater."
-"That's it! Mud" Blackberry exclaimed.
-"What are you so excited about?"
-"We'll use mud do plug in the gaps, the perfect solution to the problem. Thank you Hawkbit!"
With that, Blackberry ran underground, looking for any wet dirt that could be placed between the rocks. Hawkbit, meanwhile, turned to Hazel and Fiver.
-"What did I do?"
-"You gave him an idea that may save the warren," Fiver said.
-"Heh. Nice to see I was useful for something."