AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)

Chapter 146: Two Kinds of Dust.

"Grey clouds blanketed the sky, and from them water poured down into the earth."

-Jiaccomo, Seasons on Watership Down

At Watership Down, reopening the caverns took a long time. When she had closed the run, Blackberry had simply pulled out a tree root, causing the ceiling to collapse, sealing the run shut. There was a lot of loose debris cluttering the run, and all of it had to be removed to access the cavern again. To make things even more complicated, the rabbits had to avoid removing the last root until after the weasels were buried. After what felt like forever, there was finally an opening large enough for the bodies to fit.

Fiver was the first rabbit to venture inside the cavern, and what he saw inside was saddening. He had been one of the first visitors to the caverns the previous summer, he had come to see them as a place of great beauty. Now, it was all terror and ugliness.

The caverns had evidently been flooded the previous day, and the water level remained higher than it had been in the past. Another change was the colour of the water: it was no longer deep blue, but dark brown, filled with dirt and rocks. The crystals on the walls had broken off, and the large open spaces were in severe danger of collapse.

Fiver hopped out of the caverns and looked at his brother.

-"We're really not losing much by using this chamber to bury the weasels. It's ruined."

-"In that case, let's put the weasels there and get it over with."

It once again took a long time to move the bodies from the Honeycomb to the caverns. The shortest tunnel between the two locations was initially too narrow, and had to be enlarged. To make things worse, a lot of blood was spilled along the way.

-"Just how much blood do these monsters have in them?" Dandelion grumbled. "We could almost make a river out of it."

-"You're covering the entire warren with weasel blood," Flyairth complained. "Is it really worth the trouble? We could just start a new warren elsewhere."

-"Not really," Bigwig said. "We could easily fill up the dirty tunnels after we're done, and dig new ones instead."

-"Or just bury the blood," Blackberry said.

-"Eh, count me out of this digging..." Hawkbit said.

-"Arguing only slows us down," Hazel said. "The sooner the weasels are buried, the sooner we can move on to more pleasant things."

After a long time, the weasels were all in the caverns. Blackberry stood up on her hind legs next to the wall, ready to remove the last tree root holding the ceiling in the caverns.

-"You might want to make sure that we're not forgetting any body," she said. "Once this is closed, we're not reopening it."

-"I'll go see if there's anything left outside," Spartina said, before hopping away.

The other rabbits remained silent as they waited for Spartina to return, before Nicole spoke.

-"Shouldn't we...say something?"

-"Say what?" Hazel asked.

-"I don't know. These creatures have left this world and are now...somewhere. Most rabbits believe in Frith, the Meadow and the Shadowlands. I don't know what weasels believe."

-"Uh..." Hazel was left slightly disturbed. He had never thought about what would happen to elil after death. "I suppose if want to say something, you can do so."

-"Thank you."

Nicole made a few cautious steps forward, and looked upwards. She was whispering, and nobody was able to understand what she was saying. This did not stop a few rabbits from mumbling about how this was just a big waste of time.

-"I'm done," the white rabbit said after a while. "Does anyone have anything they wish to add?"

-"I hope this will serve as a warning to all other weasels, not to mess with rabbits," Flyairth said.

-"It would have been nice if we could have avoided all this mass killing, but they didn't give us any choice," Pipkin said sadly. "We had to protect ourselves."

-"What's taking Spartina so long?" Dandelion asked. "She's been gone for a while, can we get this over with?"

-"I'll go see what she's up to," Bigwig said. As he made his way through the crowd, however, he saw Dandelion smirk. The captain of owsla pulled him aside.

-"What's so funny?"

-"You should just see yourself. You have a crush on that doe, don't you?"

-"...if you say one word about this to anyone, you can be sure I'll..."

-"Calm down, I won't tell anyone."

-"You better not."

Spartina was sitting on top of the Down, looking at the view. It was raining, not a huge storm like the previous day, just light rain, and she welcomed the feeling of water on her fur. Also, there was the nice side effect that it would wash away the blood on the ground. It would soon be almost as if the battle had never taken place.

Spartina's mind had drifted to Darkhaven, but for the first time since getting her memory back, she simply pushed it out of her mind. She would not be going back, and she would openly mention her past soon. Not tonight, everyone was exhausted, and would probably retreat to their burrows for some sleep after the weasels were taken care of. But within a few days, she would tell the truth. She would be able to start a new life, and the Watershippers would probably be happy to see one of their enemies switch sides, like that rabbit Campion she had heard mentioned a few times.

She stood in the rain for a long time, simply feeling intense happiness and relief, until she remembered the purpose of her trip above ground: seeing if any weasels remained. She should go back underground with the information. As she entered the warren, however, she came face to face with Bigwig.

-"I, uh, just wanted to see how you were doing..." he started to say.

-"I appreciate the intention, but that really wasn't necessary. Also there aren't any weasels, the caverns can be closed any time."

With that Spartina hopped towards the run where the others were, leaving a confused Bigwig behind. -"There's nothing left, feel free to collapse.

-"You might want to get out of here, all of you," Blackberry said. "There will be a lot of dust in the air, which will make it hard to breathe."

-"You heard her," Flyairth said as she attempted to push others out of the run. "Let's all get out of here."

The rabbits progressively left the burrow, until only a few of them were left.

-"No, seriously, all of you leave," Blackberry insisted. "I don't want more rabbits exposed to the dust than necessary."

After this, the last few rabbits left the run. Blackberry carefully removed the root, before bolting away. Loud crashing was heard, and dust filled the tunnel. A few moments later, one rabbit emerged from the dust.

-"Nelthilta?" Blackberry was horrified by what she saw, and rushed to the doe. "What are you doing in there? I said that everyone had to leave."

-"I was hoping the dust would clean the weasel junk," Nelthilta replied between coughs. "I was wrong, but I'll be fine."

-"I wish I shared your optimism. Let's get you outside for fresh air."

Debbie kept walking towards the house, until it finally came into view. There were two vehicles in front of the house. The first one was a police car, cluelessly parked in the middle of the vegetable garden. The second one was a normal car, with a woman leaning against it. A man wearing a police uniform was pacing back and forth between the two vehicles, holding a roll of police tape, although none had been deployed yet.

-"What is going on here?" Debbie shouted.

This attracted the attention of both people. The officer walked over to her.

-"I'm sorry, ma'am, you can't be here, this is a restricted area..."

-"That's my husband and daughter in there!"

-"Oh." The officer was visibly embarrassed. "Come along, then."

Debbie surveyed the scene. The door to the farmhouse was closed, and the curtains in all the windows were drawn. There was no way to know what was happening inside.

-"So, I have a few questions," she said. "First off: can't you watch where you're driving!? We're farmers, we grow vegetables for a living, and you just destroyed a significant part of this year's crop!"

-"That's not my fault," the officer said. "That car was driven here by the kidnapper."

-"So the kidnapper stole a police car?"

-"...long story..."

-"Anyway, second question: why wasn't I notified that my family is being held hostage? Why did I have to learn about this from BBC news?"

-"Ugh, who tipped off the press THIS time?" the officer mumbled. "We were waiting until we had positively identified the victims before making any formal announcements."

-"Wow, you are clearly in a hurry..." Debbie said sarcastically. "Third question: why are there only two officers on the case?"

-"One, actually," the woman said. "I'm a civilian."

-"This is a small town, with very few officers, and most of them are busy helping the victims of last night's flood," the officer said.

-"This case should be your priority! There are lives at stake!"

-"We're doing everything we can."

-"You don't look like it!"

-"It's been years since we've had to deal with bigger crimes than minor thefts and traffic violations. So we called someone more qualified to handle this. In fact, I believe that's them now."

Debbie turned around, and saw a large van arriving. It stopped at the end of the lane; a man stepped out of the driver's seat, and three other people exited the vehicle through the other doors.