Chapter 3: Feel the Freedom.

"How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?"

-Pliny the Elder, Natural History

While Campion was visiting Watership Down, Vervain was tunnelling through the rocky soil at Efrafa. He was supposed to dig a new storeroom for General Woundwort's flayrah, but progress was slow, partly because the soil was unstable, but also because Vervain was not particularly good at digging. To make things worse, he was digging in the wrong direction, and soon broke into an existing burrow.

"I can't believe I'm forced to do does' work all day long just General Woundwort can have fresh flayrah," he thought, filled with anger. "I find the location of the outsiders' warren and he doesn't even believe me, trusting that traitor Campion instead. Was I ever rewarded for my loyalty? Of course not, I got nothing but trouble! Sometimes, I wish he was dead..."

Suddenly, it dawned on him: why couldn't he kill Woundwort? The tunnel he had dug was connected with the main Efrafa burrow system, which he could navigate by heart. The guard outside the chamber had only been recently promoted to the owsla and was not paying close attention. Vervain could easily sneak into Woundwort's burrow, kill him, and return to the tunnel without the guard, or anyone else, noticing. And that, he reasoned, would be the end of his problems.

Vervain cast one last look outside; the guard was still not paying attention to him. As silently as he could, he sneaked out of the chamber. He spent a long time wandering through the most obscure (and least frequented) passages, until he finally came to the great chamber. Woundwort, as usual, was on his rock and, luckily for Vervain, sound asleep. He climbed on top of the rock, and sneaked up behind Woundwort when, suddenly, he was filled with fear. While he had set up a perfect alibi, he didn't know how to actually perform the murder. He had executed many prisoners while he was in the owsla; in most situations, a single blow to the head was enough to kill them. But the General was much larger and stronger; killing him would be a massive challenge.

Vervain remained there, sitting next to the General. He had to make up his mind, and either act or flee. The longer he stayed on the rock, the higher the chances of him getting caught were. Eventually, he decided he would have to try, and bit the General's neck as hard as he could.

At that moment, a terrible sound broke from the General, louder than anything Vervain had ever heard before. He completely panicked, clawing the General's neck, praying to Frith the noise would stop. And eventually, it did.

Vervain stared at the body for a few moments. Woundwort was covered with blood; he looked dead, but Vervain didn't have time to check. With that terrible scream, the entire owsla would probably be there in just a few moments; he had to get away. Vervain tried to retrace his steps back to the chamber he was supposed to dig, but in his panic, he couldn't think properly, and got lost. To make matters worse, his teeth and his claws were covered with blood, and he had no idea how he would be able to clean them.

Meanwhile at Watership Down, Campion was walking through the various burrows and runs, amazed at how large the warren was: Efrafan burrows were much smaller, and served the needs of more rabbits than there were at the Down. But what amazed him the most was how happy everyone seemed. He had never seen such a cheerful bunch of rabbits before in his life.

For many months, he had been taking advantage of his position as captain of Woundwort's owsla to protect Watership Down, his rank keeping him above suspicion. As he visited the warren, which he had been fighting to protect for almost an entire year, he thought back on all the events that had caused the war in the first place.

After a long time, he finally made it above ground, where he saw Primrose lying in the grass, with her eyes closed and a large smile on her face. As he lied down further away, she opened her eyes and turned at him.

-"Feel the freedom, Campion," she said.

-"What?"

-"Feel the wind of freedom blow through your fur."

Campion closed his eyes too. It was rather windy, but he didn't really focus on "feeling the freedom". He had something on his mind, and he felt obligated to tell Primrose about it.

-"Primrose," he asked, "why did you run away?"

-"What do you mean?"

-"Why did you choose to escape from Efrafa?"

-"Campion, you know what life is like in Efrafa. I vowed that I would have freedom, or welcome death. Besides, I love Hazel, and I wanted to be with him."

-"Primrose, why didn't you mate with me instead? I would have tried to make you happy. You would have earned a few privileges granted to the families of officers, and Vervain couldn't have bullied you anymore."

Primrose remained silent. She had never seriously considered the possibility of mating with Campion; Hazel was the only rabbit she had ever been in love with. But it dawned on her that if she had stayed in Efrafa and mated with Campion, the war between the two warrens would probably never have happened. Suddenly, Campion said:

-"Hey, it's getting late. I should probably go back to Efrafa before Woundwort starts suspecting anything."

With that, he got up and made his way toward the warren's main entrance. Before going underground, he cast one last look at Primrose; the cheerful expression she had earlier had completely vanished. Campion briefly wondered whether he had made a mistake, but nevertheless went back underground, toward the caverns.

-"Leaving so soon?" Hazel asked him.

-"I have to, unfortunately, before anyone gets worried back at Efrafa. But I'll come back."

-"You will always be welcome, here at Watership Down."

Campion nodded, and entered the caverns, with Hazel following him. Slightly further away, he bumped into another rabbit.

-"Oh, I'm sorry, I..." she started to say. "Oh, hello. You're new here, aren't you?"

-"Blackberry, this is Campion," Hazel said, introducing the two rabbits. "Campion, meet Blackberry, our digging and healing expert."

-"I've heard a lot of stories about you, Campion," Blackberry said.

-"Yeah...and you did a good job digging this warren..." Campion said, rather awkwardly.

-"I wasn't the only one. But it did take a while to convince some of the others to participate..."

Blackberry and Campion continued to stare at each other, with Hazel awkwardly watching the scene unfold. After a while, Blackberry said:

-"Well, it was nice meeting you Campion. And be careful in the caverns. I was just inspecting them, and the ceiling seems rather unstable in some places."

-"It was a pleasure meeting you too. And thanks for the warning, I'll keep it in mind."

With that, the two rabbits went their separate ways, Blackberry going toward the Honeycomb, with Campion returning to the river. Hazel followed the nearest run leading outside, and along the way met Primrose, her ears drooping to the sides of her head.

-"What's the matter, dear?" he asked. "You look like you have something on your mind. You know I'm available if you want to talk about it."

-"No, it's all right, Hazel, I'm fine," she replied, without even looking at him.

Hazel looked at Primrose as she walked away deeper in the warren. He was sure that she wasn't feeling very well, but he didn't know how he could help. Hopefully she would accept to talk to him about it later...

When Campion returned to Efrafa, there was a large crowd gathered in the central chamber. He squeezed his way through the crowd, trying to locate Moss. He finally found him near the rock.

-"What's going on, Moss?"

-"The General is dead! Someone killed him!"

Campion gasped in shock. He looked up at the rock; Woundwort's bloody corpse was still there, where Vervain had left it.

-"Oh Frith help us..."