AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review!
Also, this chapter is dark, again. It's the last dark chapter for a while, though.
Chapter 142: The Original Place for Playing.
"Wonders why
He's lived so long,
He's lived at all,
He's so near death."
-dietredpop, Just a Rabbit
Blackberry had been among the last rabbits to find a fighting partner, partly due to her delay in joining the fight, followed her uncertainty in who would be best to work with. She eventually found herself paired up with one of the last arrivals, Violet. Blackberry found herself pitying her partner. The poor doe had had much of her fur burned off; Blackberry would have to try some remedies to help her. Assuming, of course, they both survived.
Which was far from a certainty. She quickly realized that Violet was extremely reckless in her fighting; they were both almost killed several times, surviving only thanks to the interventions of Meadow or Spartina. It almost seemed like Violet didn't care if she lived or died.
They were on to their fourth weasel when they found themselves, once again, pinned to the ground with no hope of escape unless someone else bailed them out. On that occasion, it was Bigwig who came to their rescue. As he realized who the rabbits he had helped were, he gasped.
-"Blackberry? What are you doing here?"
-"I can't sit idly at the warren while everyone else..."
-"You wouldn't be idle at all, you could tend to the wounded."
-"Oh." Blackberry was disappointed in herself; how could she have forgotten about this unique talent? "How many casualties so far?"
-"None that I know of, but that may still change."
Bigwig escorted Blackberry back to the warren, stopping near the entrance. As he was about to hop back to the battlefield, however, he spotted Flora on top of Clover, kissing. He stared for a few moments, to make sure this was really happening.
-"Hey, the rest of us are fighting here!" he shouted. "This is not the time..."
The two does opened their eyes and pulled away from each other. After Clover got back up, they both stared at him.
-"Right, sorry. We'll get back to it."
Bigwig nodded, and hopped away, mumbling something about how "everyone is kissing now, it's so weird".
Blackberry, meanwhile, cast one last glance at Violet before going underground. The injured doe was pinned by a weasel, but Flyairth managed to knock it away. She then got back up and dramatically looked upwards.
-"Ugh! Just take me already, Inlé!" she shouted, loud enough for Blackberry to be able to hear her from the distance. This confirmed her tragic suspicions, that Violet may perhaps be attempting to die on purpose.
Hawkbit's mind was filled with negative thoughts. With this battle, he hoped to prove to Bigwig that he was still important to the warren and owsla despite the new, more talented recruits. But so far, this had the opposite effect: Dandelion and Strawberry seemed to be doing a good job on their own, without his help. It didn't surprise him about Strawberry: even before the Marli-rah rabbits' arrival, he always took his job more seriously than any other officer. But Dandelion? That was a bit much. Hawkbit felt that it was only a matter of time before he would get kicked out of the owsla and become the laughingstock of the entire warren. Some of the others were probably laughing already, behind his back.
Aimlessly wandering throughout the area, he was suddenly knocked down and felt something heavy on top of him. He did not look; he already knew what was happening. He did not have the strength to try to break free. Hopefully he would be remembered as a hero, one he wasn't.
Bluebell was also wandering throughout the area, when suddenly two weasels appeared in front of him, ready to pounce.
-"Hold it!"
The weasels suddenly stopped. Bluebell was unsure if they had understood what he had said, or if they were just shocked to hear a rabbit speak to them rather than attempt to flee.
-"You two seem so much alike," he continued. "You look inseparable. You should kiss."
-"Kiss?" One of the weasels asked, indicating that they had indeed understood Bluebell.
-"Yes. You look like the kind of weasels who would be willing to spend their entire lives together. Which won't be very long, since Flyairth will kill you as soon as I'm done rambling, but..."
-"I'm not waiting that long!" Flyairth shouted, as she performed a side kick against one of the weasels, sending it crashing into the other. The angle of Flyairth's kick was such that they impaled each other with each other's teeth.
-"Huh. They died kissing..."
Somewhat upset by the happy couple's death, Bluebell hopped away. He looked at the other fighting rabbits to see which ones might need help. Most of them seemed to be doing well; Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang had ripped off one weasel's ears, with the creature staggering around helplessly, while Blackberry and Strawberry had another of them pinned to the ground, while it was kicking its legs in a futile attempt at escaping.
Suddenly, he noticed another rabbit who was visibly in distress: Hawkbit pinned to the ground by one of the weasels. Earlier, Hawkbit had accused Bluebell of betraying him; he was determined not to let that happen again. As fast as he could, he plowed straight into the weasel, knocking it off Hawkbit. Moments later, he heard its death cry, as other rabbits finished it off.
Hawkbit looked around him, confused as to what had just happened.
-"Are you hurt?" Bluebell asked.
-"I'll be all right," Hawkbit replied as he got up. "Why did you do this?"
-"I saved your life."
-"But why?" Hawkbit seemed genuinely surprised by Bluebell's behaviour. "We're not exactly under friendly terms, are we?"
-"I hope we can be friends. But if you're not able to forgive my betrayals, I..."
-"I...forgive you? The vote thing was just an overreaction on my part. I thought YOU didn't like me anymore."
Bluebell was about to reply when he heard a weasel growl behind him.
-"Let's discuss this later," he said, kicking the weasel with his hind legs. "The priority right now should be the weasels."
-"That make sense. Let's fight together."
Silverweed was running throughout the orchard, searching for Bark's den. He had only been there once before, at night, when all trees look alike. Now, he had no idea where exactly to find her, which was especially frustrating considering the urgency of the situation.
He was making little progress until he heard a twig snap. He instantly turned in the direction the sound came from.
-"Bark, is that you?"
He waited for a few moments, until he saw the creature responsible for the noise hop out from behind a nearby tree. It was not Bark, but another rabbit, with mostly mostly white fur, apart from black ears and markings around her blue eyes. Behind her, Silverweed could see several other creatures, of several different species.
-"Who are you?" he asked.
-"My name is Nicole, and these are my friends of the Sundewfa," the stranger replied. "You appear to be deeply worried, is there any way we may be of assistance?"
Silverweed was left confused by Nicole's statement. She was correct when saying that he was worried, but he had no idea how she had figured that out. After spending so long at Cowslip's warren, he usually tried to keep his emotions concealed. Still, he had no reason to reject Nicole's offer of assistance.
-"I'm looking for Bark the badger, do you know who she is?"
-"My apologies. I regret to inform you that I am unaware of the whereabouts of the badger known as Bark."
-"All right, thanks anyway..."
Under ordinary circumstances, Silverweed would have stayed to get to know the strangers better, but the current situation was one of urgency, so he ran off instead, continuing to search for Bark again. A few moments later, however, he heard Nicole's voice again:
-"Are you aware of the rabbits in distress in the area?"
Silverweed turned towards the doe. Somehow, she knew about the weasels. Perhaps her group could be of assistance in the battle. In fact, maybe Fiver's vision wasn't about Bark at all, but about them. As he thought about it a bit more, he realized that since he mentioned Bark to Fiver, she could no longer qualify as "unexpected", while these creatures might.
-"They're getting attacked by weasels, I came for reinforcements," he said.
-"Good luck with your reinforcements. May Frith be with you all."
Nicole hopped away in the direction of the warren, with the rest of the Sundewfa following. Silverweed watched them depart; after they vanished from his point of view, he hopped away, but it did not take long for him to bump into another creature.
-"I hear you looking for me?"
Silverweed looked up, and was pleased by who he saw.
-"Bark! Yes, we need your help, it's an emergency."
-"Will help."
The badger picked up Silverweed and ran towards the warren, carrying him all the way.
Meanwhile at the warren, Acacia and Vesper were wandering throughout the area. They both considered themselves creatures of peace, and hated being forced to battle the weasels, no matter how dangerous they were. Unlike other rabbits, like Bigwig, Flyairth or Spartina, who actively sought out weasels to fight them, Acacia and Vesper focused mostly on defence, locating distressed rabbits and coming to their rescue.
Vesper was great at tackling, and frequently jumped onto weasels to push them off rabbits they held pinned. Acacia, meanwhile, mostly used his slingshot, firing pebbles at the weasels. Most pebbles ended up hitting the weasels in the face, keeping them incapacitated long enough for other rabbits to defeat them.
-"Your necklace has magical powers," Acacia told Vesper while aiming a pebble towards the weasel Clover and Flora were fighting.
-"Yes, it does, although the details tend to be confusing," Vesper replied, returning from another tackle. "Why?"
-"Perhaps you could use it to defeat the weasels without the need for violence? You could try to summon the Black Rabbit of Inlé." Acacia fired the pebble; it landed directly in the weasel's open mouth. The creature immediately started to choke, and soon collapsed to the ground, unable to breathe.
-"I've heard contradictory statements in the old tales, I don't know if the Black Rabbit can be 'summoned'," Vesper replied. "Even if it's possible, I would have no idea how to do it with my necklace."
He then ran off to tackle a weasel threatening Violet, leaving Acacia alone. As he tried aiming yet another pebble, however, he spotted a familiar rabbit in the distance.
-"Nicole?"