Chapter 283: The Warren Merger.

"Do you have any idea of how hard it is to not get on his nerves? He hates me to the bone every second of the day, even if I hadn't done anything wrong."

-Watership's Nightwish Rat, Lethal Rabbit

After Celandine had left, the rabbits at the warren of the shining wires did their best to return to their silflay, but it was a challenge. What they had heard could not be unheard; the truth was out about the murderer and it was unrealistic to try and pretend that nothing had happened. Everyone was terrified that, without her future mate to keep her in check, Flesca might kill someone else. Toadflax contemplated killing her first (it likely wouldn't be too hard, as he was stronger than she was), but he decided not to, afraid that it would provoke Celandine and the rest of the New Sandleford rabbits into retaliating.

When Celandine finally returned after a few minutes, everyone else felt relieved to be relatively safe again. However, everyone turned their attention towards the rabbit who had arrived with Celandine. He was visibly old, perhaps even more so than Captain Broom (although none of the rabbits present had ever met him). His fur had turned grey with age, his ears and whiskers were sagging, his eyes were closed. With each step he took forward, it seemed as if he struggled to stand. This was supposedly Laburnum, who had built the warren's famous shapes. But nobody else present had ever met Laburnum: he was believed to have been snared before any of them had been born. Therefore, it was impossible for anyone to confirm whether this rabbit really was who he was claimed to be, or someone else.

-"Wire lovers, meet Laburnum," Celandine said, making the introductions. "Laburnum, welcome back to your former warren."

Laburnum raised his head and sniffed the air.

-"I used to live here?" he asked, seemingly surprised.

-"Yes you did," Celandine said. "Don't you remember building the shapes?"

-"What is a shape?" Laburnum was deeply confused.

-"He's been brainwashed!" Speedwell said in anger. "You were lying when you said you weren't trying to eradicate our culture!"

-"I wasn't lying, it's just that Laburnum is old, his memory isn't what it used to be," Celandine calmly claimed. "We haven't brainwashed anyone. If anything, it's you all who have been brainwashed by Cowslip into thinking that freedom is a lie and the only way is that of the wire."

This comment felt deeply provoking to the other rabbits. While it was hard to deny that there was some truth to Celandine's brainwashing claims, it still felt like an attack. However, not wishing to antagonize him any further, nobody complained.

-"Anyway, are you all coming to New Sandleford, or are you staying here?" Celandine asked. "Flesca's coming with me either way."

-"Aw, deary..."

It was once again time for more pointless romantic nonsense (or at least, that's the way almost everyone felt, as the happy couple started kissing once again).

-"I know what went wrong," Bluesky suddenly said. "With two warrens located so close to each other, we must have visited the wrong one. Don't you think so, Raincloud?"

-"It must be true," Raincloud replied, instantly catching on: these latest developments, along with the discovery of a new warren, provided the perfect opportunity to go back to the duo's initial scheme. "Celandine, who is your new Chief Rabbit? Prince Rainbow sent us to speak with him."

With a look of annoyance, Celandine broke off the kiss.

-"I hear you two tried that same trick in Old Sandleford seasons ago. Claiming to be messengers of Prince Rainbow here to tell the Chief and owsla captain that they are the new El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle. We're not falling for this again. In fact..." He suddenly looked angry. "I rescind my offer. You two are not welcome in New Sandleford. Go away and find someone else to trick." He then turned to the rest of the crowd with a smile. "The rest of you are still welcome, though."

This turn of events was not altogether surprising for Bluesky and Raincloud (this wasn't the first time their prospective victims had become furious), but it was still disappointing.

-"We apologize for all the trouble we caused," Bluesky said. "We did cause a lot of it, didn't we? With our silly tricks. We will strive to do better in the future, to live an honest life rather than exploiting others' superstitions."

-"I don't accept your apology," Toadflax said with contempt. "Thanks to you, we're stuck with that annoying ghost."

-"Ghost?" Laburnum tried to raise his ears. "I can take care of that. Where is it?"

By that point, Cowslip's ghost was hovering above the warren's main entrance. That in itself should have made it easy to identify her, but clearly Laburnum wasn't seeing very well.

-"It's her," Acorn said, pointing over to her.

Laburnum made slow, hesitating steps over to the ghost, stopping once they were face to face. Then, he opened his eyes and uttered a word that none of the other rabbits had ever heard before:

-"Balse!"

The look on Cowslip's ghost's face suddenly became one of absolute horror.

-"This is so sloppy. Don't you make backups?" were her last words as she dissolved into nothingness.

Everyone stared at Laburnum in amazement. Was he a mystic like Silverweed? Was it just a coincidence that the ghost had left at that moment? Either way, everyone was glad to see it gone.

-"There," Bluesky said, turning to Toadflax. "Forgiven?"

-"No," was all Toadflax said. "Now you heard the buck from New Sandleford. Go."

-"Can we at least stay the night, and leave in the morning?"

-"No," Celandine said. "Leave now, before I sic my lover on you."

Celandine's smirk left Bluesky and Raincloud unsure whether the threat was serious; nevertheless, not wanting to risk it, they ran away as fast as they could.

-"Good riddance," Toadflax mumbled.

-"Do you think they really will go straight?" Tindra whispered in Acorn's ear. "Live an honest life without exploiting others' superstitions?"

-"I doubt it," Acorn replied. "They may perhaps give it a try, but at the first challenge, they will revert back to their old ways."

-"You're probably right..."

-"Now that we're rid of all the troublemakers," Celandine said, "otherworldly and otherwise, the time has come for you to make your decision. Are you coming to New Sandleford or not?"

One by one, the rabbits stepped forward to accept the invitation. Acorn and Tindra were the first, followed by Speedwell, and finally Toadflax. As dangerous as it would be to admit this publicly, it would be appealing to be free from the wires. Not to mention, Flesca had threatened to kill anyone who chose to stay behind; while this was possibly a joke, nobody was willing to risk it.

-"All of you?" Celandine smiled. "That's good. Follow me. I had some of our diggers prepare new burrows for you. They may not have finished yet, so some of you may have to share for tonight, but more digging could be done tomorrow. I will also introduce you all to..."

Tindra quickly tuned out Celandine's rambling. She chose to stop by the bush where the squirrels and hedgehog were hiding, to speak with them one last time before her departure.

-"Thanks for the help. Now we know who the murderer is."

-"It's good to see this story has a happy ending," Crackers said with a smile.

-"Is it really happy?" Tindra sighed. "Knowing the murderer's identity doesn't bring her victims back, and we still have to live in the same warren as her."

It was with this negative statement that she went to follow Acorn and the others.

-"I'm afraid she's right," Rosie said sadly. "In situations like this, there are no winners."

-"We still did our best," Tumbler said optimistically. "No matter what, we could not have saved Buckthorn's life; it was his murder that first tipped us off that something was wrong and led us to investigate."

-"Maybe that's exactly the problem," Crackers interjected. "It took a murder before we actually did anything to help the rabbits, despite the fact that they have been dying almost every day for seasons now. Positive thoughts can only get so far; if we want to have an impact, we actually have to ACT."

-"That is true. However, there isn't much that can be done to help those who don't want to be helped, as was the case with these rabbits for a long time," Rosie pointed out.

-"All we can do now is hope that, now that they have found this new warren, they will be able to live happy and positive lives without any more pointless deaths."

-"Hopefully. But anything can still happen..."