AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)
Chapter 121: High on the High Seas.
"The clouds burst with rain early the next morning as the band continued their journey down the deer trail."
-dragonore266, The Great Journey
Inside the farmhouse, the farmer and his daughter were sitting on the couch. Duster's dead body was still where it had fallen, the blood staining the carpet. The officer and the woman were sitting in front of their hostages, waiting for them to make the phone call.
-"Mum's taking a long time to get back from the market," Lucy whispered in her father's ear.
-"Hey, the carpet's wet!" the woman suddenly said, pointing towards the front door.
-"That stupid dog must have peed all over! Disgusting beast!" The officer walked towards the door and ripped the carpet off the floor. "I'll throw it out before it stinks up the whole place!"
-"As if the corpse didn't already smell bad enough," the woman mumbled.
As the officer opened the door to throw out the carpet, however, a torrent of water poured onto him, into the house.
-"It's a flood, everyone upstairs now!" he shouted.
-"You fools! That was a perfect example of how NOT to fight!"
Campion had spent most of the day attempting to train the other Darkhaveners. Judging by Woundwort's latest comment, he hadn't done a very good job, but perhaps this was for the best: they would be easier for the outsiders to defeat.
-"Can't we take a break?" Feldspar asked, exhausted. "We've been at it all day, and it's raining."
-"Absolutely not!" Woundwort replied. "Not until you can perform a proper long jump. Campion, show them once again how it's done."
Campion sighed: he had already made hrair such demonstrations, but the others still failed to learn. He positioned himself, before leaping. While he remained rather close to the ground, he travelled a long distance, eventually landing in front of another rabbit.
-"If it is still your deepest desire to return to the warren of the outsiders, the best option should be to depart at the instant in time when confusion and chaos are at their highest level since the events of the end of the season," the Speaker of the Past told him.
Campion had no idea what events the Speaker was talking about, but he had more important questions to ask.
-"When will that be?"
-"There will come a time when the hole, of which we are currently located at the bottom, will be entirely filled with rainwater. The mortals have not yet managed to realize these events will occur, but when their brains successfully reach this conclusion, they will be desperate to save their own pitiful lives. That will be the optimal time to depart on your journey, due to the fact that the absence of one rabbit in such a situation is unlikely to get noticed until after the waves have receded."
-"So, when everyone realizes they're going to drown and freaks out, I run. Simple enough."
Campion and the Speaker hopped in separate directions. One by one, the other rabbits attempted the long jump; while most made it further than on previous attempts, none made it as far as Campion had. This went on until Shale's turn. He failed miserably: he ended up jumping sideways rather than forward, and landed an unusually deep puddle.
-"There's really a lot of rainwater in here," he said, grooming himself.
-"You haven't seen anything," Granite replied. "Seasons ago, it went as high as the top of the human structures."
-"That high?" Shale's voice indicated nervousness. "What if this happens again?"
At that moment, a small section of the edge of the pit collapsed, creating a waterfall and dumping large quantities of water down the pit. Woundwort had the misfortune of sitting right at the bottom of the waterfall; before he could get away, he was drenched. Everyone immediately rushed towards him to rescue him, except two rabbits.
-"The events currently unfolding are the signal you were awaiting," the Speaker said; she was sitting on a small wooden board, that would most likely float on the rising current. "Depart!"
But Campion did not hear her: he had already run off. The trail leading out of Darkhaven was extremely muddy and unstable; it did not take long for him to slide off and fall back to the bottom.
Had Campion landed on the hard rocky ground, he would have been seriously injured, or killed, but the rising water at the bottom of the pit saved his life. He quickly swam back to the trail, which had become even less stable. Nevertheless, having learned of most weak spots during his first failed attempt, Campion was able to make it out of the pit. Before continuing his journey, he cast one last glance at Darkhaven. Most rabbits were attempting to climb the various structures throughout the junkyard, with varying degrees of success. Most of the others were sitting on various floating objects.
At first, there was only a thin layer of water over the ground; as Campion ran, his paws could still feel the ground beneath him. It soon became obvious, however, that he had underestimated how far away Watership Down was. The storm intensified, dramatically reducing visibility, leaving Campion wondering if he was even going in the right direction. The water level kept rising; soon Campion was no longer running, but swimming.
As the currents intensified, Campion could no longer control his movements. He was at the mercy of the water, and he could not change where it was carrying him. His strength was rapidly fading. It seemed to Campion that he was doomed to dying once again, and then the Black Rabbit of Inlé would send him back.
Until suddenly, he felt someone touch him. This was not the cold, dead touch of the Black Rabbit, but another living creature. Before he could fully understand what was happening, the creature pulled him, and he was out of the water.
-"Don't worry, you're safe now," someone said.
Campion blinked a few times, clearing his vision, and looked at his surroundings. He was on a floating object of some sort, with water stretching out as far as he could see in all directions. The creature who had rescued him was a rabbit, although he had never met him before. He could also see several other creatures on the boat: mice, rats, hedgehogs, squirrels, moles, a bat, and even a raccoon. While he had never encountered one before, he had heard of them from ancient tales of El-ahrairah, and knew that it did not pose a threat. However, he ignored it, focusing on the rabbit instead.
-"Who are you?"
-"My name is Vesper," the stranger said. "You were lucky I found you, you looked like you were about to drown."
-"Why did you save me?"
-"Why not? I have a boat, and many innocent creatures were displaced by this tragic flood. I have to do my best to help everyone I can."
-"Do you know a place called Watership Down?"
-"It's a great warren. Probably the only place still dry at the moment. If you wish, I could take you there."
-"Yes please."
Exhausted, Campion lied down. This flood had been perhaps the most dangerous situation he had encountered over the past few days. Yet, despite having died at least once every day since his departure from Efrafa, this time, he had survived; this felt incredibly satisfying. And he was being escorted to the greatest warren; things just kept getting better and better. Perhaps there was hope for a better life after all.
Vervain, Orchis and Aspen were sitting on top of Lady May's hutch. The water had flooded the field and the garden; they had no choice but to get to higher ground to keep their paws dry. Nevertheless, this did little to keep their heads and backs dry.
-"This is yet another advantage of hutch life," Lady may said. "It's really dry in here, while you three are stuck in the rain. Orchis? I think that's what you said your name was? Anyway, you should join me in here, and I'll help you clean your fur."
-"You have to admit," Aspen said, "she makes a valid point. We would be very comfortable in there."
-"It's never lived in a warren," Orchis replied. "It's never scratched a day's work in its life. If you looked like that and lived out here, you wouldn't be able to do a thing because you'd be worried about breaking a claw."
-"Regardless," Vervain said, "this isn't very pleasant. Are you sure we can't join her, just for now?"
-"How you ever became a captain is beyond me," Orchis said, shaking his head. "Bothered by the rain. In Darkhaven, we never take a break, no matter how bad the weather."
Vervain considered complaining, but decided against it. No matter what he said, it wouldn't improve his situation, and he would still be stuck in the rain.
Flyairth was lying in a corner of the Honeycomb, trying to take a quick nap while the other rabbits present were arguing over who to vote out. The game of owslafa kept going on and on, and the latest night phase had ended without anyone getting kicked. The healing expert had apparently decided to protect the same creature the owslafa wanted to evict. There were still hrair players in the game, but it seemed that finally, the end was in sight. Suddenly, she was woken up as another rabbit poked her on the nose. She opened her eyes, and found herself face to face with Rake Nightfur.
-"I'm out. I'll be going back to another burrow now."
As Rake hopped away, Flyairth got up and looked at the few remaining players.
-"It seems you voted out another outskirter," she explained. "It is now time for another night phase. All of you close your eyes; owslafa, healer, choose who you're attacking, or protecting."
The creatures all closed their eyes. The owslafa were the first to indicate their decision: Leo would be without a burrow that morning. Then came the turn of the healer. Before they could open their eyes, however, a loud noise was heard, as a rock rolled through the Honeycomb at high speed. Strawberry, alerted by the noise, noticed Violet right in its path. He jumped onto her and pushed her away, sending them both crashing into a nearby wall.
Moments later, Bluebell burst into the burrow.
-"I'm sorry, things went out of control. I hope nobody is hurt..."
-"It's not too bad," Violet said, having landed further away on top of Strawberry. "At least nobody died this time."
-"Sorry about all the trouble," Bluebell hurriedly said, before running over to his rock and rolling it out of the Honeycomb.
It took a few minutes for the various rabbits to recover from the shock of the incident with the rock. None of them knew what Bluebell was up to, but everyone was simply glad that nobody had been injured, and wanted to get back to the game.
-"Leo, you're out," Flyairth said once everyone had calmed down. "He was the healer, which means that in the next night phases, nobody can be protected."