AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the reviews! Something will indeed shake up the situation soon.
Chapter 150: The Leaders.
"It was not supposed to happen like this. No; not to me. Perhaps the others, but not me. Yet, here I am [...]"
-MorbidWerewolf, Matter of Time
Silverweed had been among the first rabbits to wake up that morning. It seemed to him that he had become slowly depressed lately. His dream that night had not helped matters: it had been filled with so many horrible things. In a human warren far away, a hrududu hitting a human, probably killing him. Cowslip (or, at least, someone who resembled Cowslip in appearance and personality very closely, but wasn't quite him) returning and criticizing him for not following the true way of the wire. A rabbit whose body was partly made of metal. A group of creatures (mostly humans but not entirely) traveling beyond the stars. Several rabbits somehow merging into just one. And worst of all, Fiver lying in dirty water, powerless to help as the rest of the warren was attacked by Woundwort.
While all these things may seem like just a random dream at first, to Silverweed it seemed like a dire warning of the future. He was already too late to stop some of these events, and had no idea how to prevent the rest from happening.
He went above ground; his initial goal had been to silflay, but when he got there, he realized that he wasn't really hungry, so he simply looked upwards at the last few stars. A few minutes later, he was joined by Fiver. The two rabbits remained side-by-side for a while, until Silverweed broke the silence:
-"Seeing the future is truly a giant curse."
-"No it's not," Fiver replied. "I once felt that way, but the truth is, you don't cause bad things to happen."
-"I know; that's not why it's a curse. If someone lies down next to me, I see their future. If I play tail-tag long enough, I see all other players' futures. If someone accidentally bumps into me in a narrow tunnel, I see their future. It always happens and I can't make it go away. And let me tell you, Fiver, we're doomed. No matter what we do, we're all doomed."
Fiver lowered his head.
-"I would hug you," he said, "but under the circumstances I would understand if you would rather not be touched."
To Fiver's surprise, it was Silverweed who moved in for the hug.
-"You don't have to restrain yourself, Fiver, I saw your future long ago, and I'm sorry to say, you're just as doomed as the rest of us."
-"When you say we're doomed, do you mean Woundwort will win?"
-"I don't know, I didn't get to look that far into his future. The problems I know we will face are unrelated to him."
-"Perhaps we should try to change the future, and prevent these bad things from happening."
-"I'm worried about that, Fiver. Our attempts at preventing things from happening may end up indirectly causing them instead. There is no answer."
Silverweed buried his face in Fiver's fur.
Hazel woke up shortly after sunrise. This was a new day, and he had high hopes. Soon, the various problems everyone had faced the previous day would be a thing of the past. Fiver had been right: a good night's sleep had been of great help.
As he hopped above ground, there were few other rabbits there with him. Fiver and Silverweed at silflay; Flora gathering flowers; Meadow wandering and moving weird objects around. He hopped over to the latter, curious as to what exactly she was doing.
Upon a closer look, he saw that the objects were orange and yellow. They were lemon and orange peals, although he did not know this. Meadow kept them near the last few bloodstains, and also regularly pressed and stamped on them, extracting a few droplets of juice.
-"What are you doing?" he asked.
-"I'm trying to get rid of the scent of blood," Meadow replied. "These plants are very useful."
-"Those are plants? I've never seen them growing anywhere in the area.
-"That's because they don't grow around here, but far away; humans transport them here. I got these in the trash at Nuthanger Farm. They're not toxic, but they doesn't taste very good, it burns your tongue, but apparently some humans still like it. While on the subject, I would advise against going to the farm for a few days. There are a lot of hrududil there, it seems a very chaotic situation."
-"Thanks for the warning. I also really appreciate all you've done. You saved our warren: if you hadn't arrived when you had, the weasels would have killed most of us."
-"I did my best. But I'm afraid that after silflay, I'll have to leave, though.
-"Leaving again so soon...but I understand, your home warren is back in the hedge maze."
-"Not to worry, I'll visit again."
Hazel remained outside for a while, looking at the other rabbits going about their lives, and also periodically glancing at the horizon for potential invaders; none came. After a while, Flyairth appeared above ground, and slowly hopped towards him, pretending not to be in a hurry. He knew what she was going to talk to him about.
-"Hazel-rah, last night you said that we would leave in the morning," she said, confirming the Chief's suspicions. "Can we get going now?"
-"I didn't say that. I said we would discuss the situation again, which is what we will do."
Hazel wondered whether Flyairth had misunderstood his words the previous evening, or if she was deliberately twisting them to suit her goals. The second theory seemed more likely, but Hazel had an idea he was convinced would resolve the issue.
-"I thought we might perhaps vote on the issue, like we did for the second Chief," he suggested. "This time, we won't have to worry about one option not getting enough votes: there will be only two options, leave or stay."
-"That seems reasonable."
Several rabbits had gathered around Hazel and Flyairth; while many remained elsewhere, there were still enough for what Hazel had in mind.
-"All those in favour of leaving the warren, raise your paw."
Flyairth raised both her front paws. As she looked around her, she realized, to her surprise, that she was the only one who had done so.
-"All those against?" Hazel asked; just as he had predicted, everyone above ground, except Hazel himself and Flyairth, raised at least one paw. "It seems we won't be leaving after all."
Flyairth seemed surprised by this turn of events. Nevertheless, she realized that there was no point in debating the issue further.
-"In that case," she said, "can we vote on who the second Chief will be?"
-"I would rather wait a bit before doing that," Holly said. "There are things I would want to do before voting again."
-"Yes, many things. Like getting Silverweed to look into Blueberry's heart," Bigwig pointed out.
-"Absolutely, if Silverweed has no objections, we could do this now."
Silverweed had overheard the conversation, and pressed himself against Fiver.
-"I object so much. But I don't have a choice."
-"Of course you have a choice," Fiver replied. "This isn't Cowslip's warren. Hazel will understand."
-"He will still unintentionally make me feel guilty if I refuse. Looking at Blueberry's heart is the only way we'll know for sure which side he's on. But either way, I tell you, there's something about that rabbit that deeply worries me."
-"Are you sure there's no other way?"
-"Absolutely sure. There's nothing else to be done."
Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and Silverweed hopped towards Blueberry's burrow. As they looked inside, however, there was nobody there.
-"Maybe he went to silflay," Bigwig said. "I know we told him to stay in his burrow, but it's been a full day, starving isn't an option."
-"I didn't see him at silflay, either last night or this morning," Hazel said worryingly.
-"You were worried that he might be a spy," Silverweed said. "Maybe he went back to Darkhaven to report."
-"If that is the case, we could expect another invasion any moment now..."
-"Oh, no need to worry about Woundwort invading today," came Snowdrop's voice. "Blueberry won't be causing us any trouble again."
-"What do you mean by that?" Hazel asked, preparing himself for the worst.
-"He's probably dead by now."
-"WHAT? Did the weasels get him?"
-"You could say that..."
Snowdrop was running back to the warren, a large stick between her ears. This would be perfect for the plan she had devised with her siblings: a weasel biting it would most likely suffer massive damage to the teeth. Along the way back, however, she saw something highly unexpected: Blueberry battling a weasel, alone; his fighting moves were unlike anything she had ever seen before. It only took a few kicks on Blueberry's part to send the weasel running away. He then repeated the process with a second weasel, with similar results.
Snowdrop came to a startling conclusion, albeit totally logical in her mind. Blueberry was not working for Woundwort, but for the Black Rabbit of Inlé. The fur colour, the unnatural skills, the weird gadget he always carried around, it all made sense now.
-"That's quite a move," she said.
-"You really think so? It's called..."
-"You look like you could take on more than one weasel at the same time."
Blueberry thought for a few moments.
-"Two weasels at once, I like the odds."
-"How about three?" Snowdrop suggested.
-"Challenge accepted!"
Blueberry soon spotted a group of three weasels, and charged towards them, resuming his unusual fighting moves. Snowdrop, meanwhile, went back to her siblings; she could here them complaining about how long it was taking her to bring back the stick.
-"I was sure that would kill him," Snowdrop told the increasing crowd of shocked rabbits around her. "But when the time came to bury the weasels, I found his body; he was unconscious, but he was STILL BREATHING! Surviving a battle against three creatures hrair times his size, talk about being overpowered! So I carried him to the caverns, and we buried him along with the elil. He surely must be dead by now; he may have survived the battle, but there's no way he could survive being buried alive overnight."
The rabbits were left dumbstruck by Snowdrop's revelations. She usually seemed like a kind and sweet kitten, then she sent a fellow rabbit to his death. It was clear that she had wanted to protect the warren, but she acted without mentioning her concerns to anyone, not to mention the fact that Blueberry might have been innocent.
-"I'm going to dig him out," Hawkbit said.
-"I'm going with you," Acacia said.
-"Are you crazy?" Snowdrop seemed horrified. "That's, like, the worst thing you could possibly do! Besides, I thought you hated digging, Hawkbit."
-"Snowdrop, go to your burrow," Hazel said sternly. "Don't come out under any circumstances."
-"Why are..."
-"GO!"
Snowdrop reluctantly complied, genuinely confused by everyone's reactions.
Several rabbits volunteered to help dig Blueberry out; however, due to how small the tunnel leading to the caverns was, only the first to arrive there (Hawkbit, Acacia and Clover) were able to do so. Once the cavern was reopened, progress slowed down even more: the dreadful stench made it difficult to remain concentrated.
Fortunately, Blueberry turned out to be very close the entrance; it did not take long for the diggers to find his ears sticking out of the dirt. Snowdrop had clearly not carried him very far inside the cavern. As soon as they finished digging him out, they carried him over to Blackberry's burrow so she could examine him.
She spent a long time in the burrow with him, while most of the others were staying outside, awaiting her verdict. After a while, she finally exited the burrow to provide them with an update.
-"Not many rabbits would have survived that, but he's strong. He's still unconscious, but with the right herbs and enough water, he'll make it."
-"Thank Frith," Hazel said.
-"We're going through a lot of trouble to help someone who may have betrayed us, kitten or not," Flyairth said. "Is this wise?"
-"As soon as he's conscious again," Hazel said, "Silverweed will look into his heart, and settle this issue once and for all."