Chapter 9: The Flexibility of Storytelling.

"Creativity has always depended on openness and flexibility, so let us hope for more of both in the future."

-Siri Hustvedt

Hazel, Bigwig and Blackavar arrived at Nuthanger farm soon after they had left the Down. The farm was unusually quiet, and the farmer's hrududu was nowhere to be seen. Hazel slowly approached the doghouse, without getting too close, and looked inside.

-"Duster isn't here," he said. "That will make things easier, with only Tabitha and other cats to worry about."

The three rabbits walked towards the garden, where several rows of fresh vegetables were growing, mostly lettuce and roots. The scent of cat was old; Tabitha was clearly not going to be a problem, at least not at the moment.

Hazel approached the first row of turnips. The smell of fresh flayrah was overpowering. He grabbed one of them with his teeth and pulled as hard as he could. Suddenly, he heard a hissing noise and saw something move in the grass nearby. His first thought was that he had disturbed a snake; just as he turned to bolt, however, a cage fell on top of him. He had fallen victim to a trap of some sort.

-"Hazel!" Bigwig cried as he rushed to the scene. "Are you all right?"

-"I'm not hurt, but I'm trapped inside this cage. How do I get out?"

Hazel quickly examined the cage. The wires were too thick to chew through, and the cage itself was too heavy for even a strong rabbit like Bigwig to shift. The only way out was to dig a tunnel.

Hazel stared to scratch at the ground, with Bigwig and Blackavar also digging from outside the cage. Progress was slow, and Hazel was struggling to get the dirt out of the small cage. Blackavar had no digging experience at all: Primrose had dug the entire escape tunnel in Efrafa herself while he acted as a sentry. His digging was so clumsy that Bigwig eventually sent him away to warn them of any approaching cats.

Suddenly, they heard a sound coming from the direction of the farmhouse. The door had been opened and a young human girl was walking out of the building, staring at the smartphone in her hands. She briefly took her eyes away from her phone, and something caught her attention. She slowly started to walk toward the cage.

-"Bigwig, run!" Hazel ordered.

-"I'm not going to leave you at the mercy of this human," Bigwig replied.

-"You stubborn fool! If you stay here, we'll BOTH get captured."

-"I'll fight to the death."

-"You can't fight a human! JUST RUN!"

Bigwig glanced at the human, then back at Hazel.

-"This isn't the end," he said before bolting into the bush where Blackavar was hiding.

The girl approached the cage and looked inside. She then sat down next to it and tried to squeeze one of her fingers through the bars. Hazel growled menacingly, so she hurriedly took it back out. She mumbled something incomprehensible in a human language, then went back to her smartphone. She sent a few text messages and took a selfie in front of the cage, before putting the phone back in her pocket. With that, she effortlessly removed the cage from over Hazel, but before he had the chance to bolt, she put one of her hands around his chest, and the other under his tail and hind legs. She held onto him firmly, and picked him up.

The girl had some experience in handling rabbits, having picked up the hutch rabbits on several occasions. Therefore, the way she held Hazel did not cause him any pain, but being carried by a human was nevertheless a terrifying experience for him.

Bigwig and Blackavar watch with terror as the scene unfolded before their eyes. After the girl vanished inside the barn with Hazel still in her arms, Blackavar asked:

-"Well, sir, what do we do now?"

-"We have to rescue him," Bigwig replied. "And stop calling me sir! We're not in Efrafa."

-"Yes si- uh...how do we rescue him?"

-"I don't know. We'll have to think of something."

After searching most of the warren, Blackberry finally found Captain Broom in one of the deepest burrows, sleeping on his back and snoring very loudly. She wondered whether she should leave him alone, when he rolled on his side and slowly opened his eyes.

-"I smell something..." he mumbled as he slowly got up. "Oh it's you. You're Blackberry, right?"

-"Yes Captain. I was wondering if you could teach me some owsla tricks."

-"You want me to teach you tricks? Woah. That's the first time in seasons someone asked me to teach them tricks. Young rabbits these days think they know everything..."

-"But can you teach me?"

-"Of course I can. Come outside with me and I'll show you."

Captain Broom slowly got up and walked out of the burrow, with Blackberry following him. He moved very slowly, but Blackberry tried to remain patient. Once they were both finally outside, the elderly captain stopped.

-"All right, so exactly what kind of tricks do you want to learn?"

-"Anything you can teach me."

-"Ooh...so let's take a look at what we have."

With that, Captain Broom grabbed one of Blackberry's front paws and examined it very carefully.

-"Ooh, very nice. Now let me see your hind legs."

-"Why?"

-"I need to know what they are like, to see what I can teach you."

Blackberry lied down and stretched out her hind legs. Captain Broom sniffed them for a few moments, before hopping away.

-"Overall a well-built body," he explained. "Very good for digging."

-"But exactly what kind of tricks can you teach me?"

-"Ooh...tricks...well you can't use your weight, that won't do. You're too light. You'll have to be flexible."

-"Flexible?"

-"Yes. Did you ever notice how does are more flexible than bucks?"

-"I...never really paid attention."

-"Neither did I!"

-"In that case, captain, how do you know they are?"

-"Ooh, the flexibility of does is a well-known fact."

-"How am I supposed to use it to my advantage? I want to do something that will impress Bigwig so he will let me join the owsla."

-"Ooh, joining the owsla. That's always a great adventure. Oh yes."

-"Can you teach me anything that could impress him? I don't think he's going to find this...flexibility useful, or anything."

-"Impressing another rabbit can be really hard sometimes. I remember that day at Old Redstone when..."

With that, Captain Broom started to tell a story, from when he was the captain of the owsla of Redstone Warren, where Primrose was born. He explained how he thought a certain doe, Lavender, would be a useful addition to the owsla, but the Chief Rabbit refused to let her join because she was a doe. A few days later, Broom's patrol was attacked by a badger. Lavender and Primrose's sister, who had been following the patrol uninvited from a distance, managed to distract the badger long enough for the others to get away. The Chief Rabbit was impressed, acknowledged his mistake, and agreed to let both does join the owsla.

While in most situations, rabbits either walked away from captain Broom or changed the subject when he started telling one of his boring old stories, Blackberry listened with interest.

-"That's very interesting, captain," she said once he had finished. "But what can I learn from it?"

-"Sometimes," he replied before walking away, "if you want to get yourself noticed, you have to do something crazy. In the end, you either succeed or die."

Three rabbits were climbing the Down. Pipkin and Dandelion were the first to reach the top.

-"Come on, Hawkbit, it can't be that bad," Dandelion teased.

Hawkbit grumbled. In order for him to look more like the Black Rabbit of Inlé, Pipkin and Dandelion had rubbed mud all over his fur; however, this made him look brown than black.

-"Is there anyone else at silflay?" he asked.

-"No, just the three of us," Dandelion said. "Come on!"

Despite Dandelion's urging, it took a while for Hawkbit to reach the top of the Down. When he had finally made it, he looked around him, and saw Blackberry and Captain Broom further away.

-"I thought you said there wasn't anyone else!" he said accusingly.

-"They weren't there when you asked," Dandelion said, "but you took so long that..."

-"Well, never mind, let's just continue the story. The sooner this scene is over, the faster I can start cleaning myself. So where were we?"

-"I just got killed by a fox," Pipkin said.

-"Oh right. So...what happens now, Dandelion?"

Dandelion hopped over to his friend and whispered something in his ear. A look of horror appeared on his face.

-"Do I really have to do that?"

-"We don't have anyone else to play the Black Rabbit, so you will have to."

Hawkbit grumbled, then hopped over to Pipkin.

-"Pipkin, I'm the Black Rabbit of Inlé. Welcome to the Shadowlands."

-"It's nice to meet you, Black Rabbit. I've heard many stories about you, but we never actually met before."

-"Pipkin, is that seriously the way you would react if I really was the Black Rabbit of Inlé?"

-"Yes. I must not let him know I'm afraid; instead I must use my fear to make myself stronger, like Bigwig said."

Hawkbit sighed. The more the story progressed, the more ridiculous he felt.

-"Anyway, Pipkin...you were the last rabbit to die on the night of the full moon. Therefore, you have to serve in my owsla until the next full moon. You will be the Black Emissary."

-"That sounds exciting! What does the job involve?"

-"Many rabbits die each day, and I can't take care of all of them myself. So, you will have to travel around the world and take other rabbits' souls with you as they die, and bring them to me so I can process them. But be careful, and take the soul only once the body is dead. If you take them before, bad things will happen."

-"How do I take those souls?"

Hawkbit remained silent for a few moments, before turning to Dandelion.

-"Well? How DOES he take those souls?" he said.

-"I don't know. The story doesn't say that..."

-"What?" Hawkbit groaned. "How do you expect me to play a role when I don't have all the information I need about my character?"

-"Well, it's not my fault, I didn't create this story. I'm just retelling it."

-"In that case perhaps we can move on to the next part of the story?"

-"That seems like a good idea. Pipkin, will you go get Clover? We'll need her."

As soon as Pipkin had left, Hawkbit started to lick the mud off his fur.

-"This is the last time I try one of your crazy ideas, Dandelion."

-"Come on, it can't be that bad. It won't take you long to remove all the mud. But until then, can you go and get Strawberry?"

-"I've already humiliated myself in front of you and Pipkin, we're not bringing him into this."

At that moment, Pipkin returned with Clover.

-"Good job Pipkin," Dandelion praised. "We'll need Strawberry too, and Hawkbit here doesn't want to go and get him. Could you take care of him?"

Once Pipkin had gone, Dandelion turned to Clover.

-"All right, we're going to need you to pretend. Just lie down in the grass, and pretend you're dead. Do you have any questions?"

-"Am I a normal rabbit?" she said.

-"What has that got to do with what I just said?"

-"Nothing at all. I was wondering what you think?"

-"Uh...you seem normal enough..." Dandelion said, exactly unsure what Clover was talking about.

-"Thanks. It's nice to see there's someone around here who believes in me. Anyway, I'll take part in this game you're playing."

With that, she lied down in the grass, spread out her front paws and closed her eyes. However, almost immediately afterwards, she started to giggle.

-"Clover, what are you doing?" Hawkbit asked. "Dead rabbits don't make any sounds."

-"It's not my fault you're so cute in that disguise, Hawkbit."

-"Cute? You think I'm CUTE? Of all the words that could describe me right now, I can't think of a single one that would be less appropriate."

-"You're too hard on yourself, I really think you're cute."

-"Hawkbit! Wha-"

Hawkbit turned and saw that Pipkin had returned with Strawberry. The latter was staring at him in shock.

-"Don't ask, don't ask," he warned. "I don't want anything more said about this."

Strawberry held his tongue, but he continued to stare awkwardly at the grey buck.

-"So, Strawberry," Dandelion explained, "you just returned home at the end of the day, and you found out that your sister is dead. She was killed by enemy rabbits while you were gone. You are unable to do anything about it."

-"Clover is not my sister. And she's not dead, I can see her breathe."

-"No! No no no no no!" Hawkbit cried.

-"Just pretend that she's your sister and she's dead," Dandelion clarified.

It took Strawberry a few moments to understand what Dandelion was asking him. Finally, he approached Clover, put his front paws on her side, and turned his head towards the sky.

-"Who could have done something so cruel?" he said in an intentionally overdramatic voice. "Why did they do this? She never harmed a single creature and she did not have anything worth stealing other than a very small supply of flayrah. I can never rest until whoever is responsible for this has been punished."

-"So, Pipkin, you can now harvest her soul," Dandelion continued. "I don't know exactly how this is done, but let's say you touch her head."

Pipkin slowly approached Clover while Strawberry continued his speech. Before he had a chance to "take her soul", however, she started to squirm and giggle again.

-"Clover," Hawkbit said angrily, "you're supposed to be dead!"

-"I can't help it," she said between fits of giggles. "It tickles!"

Hawkbit groaned in frustration. "At this rate we'll never finish the story today," he thought.