AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you TheRanger101 :) Glad you're enjoying this :)

Chapter 42: Descent into Madness.

"Then they attacked a town, a small town I'll admit, but nevertheless a town of people, people who died."

-Ed Wood, Plan 9 From Outer Space

The area around Watership Down was not the only place affected by the fog. Some distance away, four rabbits were sitting on the edge of a deep pit; they could hardly see in front of them.

After a while, the largest of the four rabbits stood up on his hind legs and stared in the distance.

-"There it is. Darkhaven. Witness its glory."

The second rabbit shook his head.

-"I can't see anything, sire, with all this fog..."

-"Can't you smell it, Vervain?"

-"The fog masks all scents..."

-"You can't HEAR the fog, can you?"

-"...no, sire."

-"Then hear the glory of Darkhaven!"

Vervain raised his ears. Woundwort had a point that the fog itself was silent, but there was another faint sound in the air. As he paid closer attention to it, however, he was filled with horror. It was the loud noise of human machines, metallic clanging, motors of hrududil, random voices. Vervain desperately wanted to get away from this terrible place. He slowly started walking backwards away from Woundwort, until he bumped into Silverweed.

-"You all right, Vervain?"

-"What do you think? Besides, you can read my heart, can't you? Why do you need to ask?"

Vervain was about to push Silverweed over the edge, but at the last moment he decided against it. He didn't want to provoke Woundwort if it could be avoided.

-"I'm sorry, Vervain," Silverweed said. "I was just trying to be friendly..."

-"Yes...well next time stop trying to be friendly, all right?"

-"All three of you, follow me," Woundwort said.

Vervain sighed; if Silverweed hadn't intervened, he would have run away. Now, he had no choice but to follow Woundwort inside that nasty place. His thoughts were interrupted by Blueberry:

-"Wow, so this place is a junkyard? That's even better, I can find colourful stuff that isn't a berry and not as messy."

This time, Vervain was unable to contain himself, and shoved the smaller buck off the edge.

Blueberry did his best to stabilize himself, and successfully landed on his paws on an old, discarded mattress, preventing any injuries. However, in the fog, he could not see further than the tip of his whiskers. He didn't mind, however; the journey had tired him. With the fog masking his scent and making him nearly invisible, he lied down to take a nap.

The path leading to the bottom of the pit consisted of a narrow ledge with many curves; it took a long time for the three other rabbits to reach the bottom. The area was filled with many different objects of human origin, nearly all of them severely damaged. In the background, there was a large metal structure, although the fog prevented the rabbits from getting a clear idea of what it was. They could faintly see other rabbits, standing on various heaps of trash. Suddenly, another rabbit crashed into Woundwort, knocking him off his feet. The General had not seen him coming due to the fog.

Woundwort angrily kicked the other rabbit off of him, causing him to collide with a rocky wall further away. With that, he shook the dirt out of his fur and walked towards the centre of the pit, where a white buck almost as large as him was standing, staring at him in shock.

-"Oy! Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

-"Don't you know who I am?" the General asked.

-"No, but I should. The patrol who picked you up should have notified me of your arrival."

-"I wasn't picked up by any patrol, I just walked in."

-"Walked in? If the guards are incompetent enough that someone can actually walk into Darkhaven without anyone noticing...anyway, who are you?"

-"I'm General Woundwort!"

-"General? That's pretentious of you, you just arrived here."

-"You don't understand! I am General Woundwort!"

-"Repeating the same words doesn't make it sound any more convincing. If you want to be general, fine. You'll have to defeat me in single combat."

-"Why would I waste any time fighting a weakling like you?"

-"Weakling? I beg your pardon, I'm Granite-rah, the Chief Rabbit of Darkhaven."

-"He's telling the truth, Woundwort," Silverweed said. "I can see it in his heart. He really doesn't know you, and he really is the Chief."

Woundwort turned to Silverweed and spent a while staring at him. He stood up on his hind legs and shouted:

-"Does anyone here know who I am?"

This was met with complete silence. Woundwort looked around him, desperate to find even just one rabbit who knew who he was.

-"Don't any of you remember who I am? General Woundwort! I was born here, when this place was still called Stormhaven!"

-"Stormhaven, eh?"

Woundwort turned to see who had spoken. A dark shape slowly came out of the fog, gradually becoming clearer. It was a grey-furred doe, about Vervain's size, and she had a rabbit's skull on her head. Woundwort was slightly creeped out by this last element, and the other-worldly energy emanating from her. She slowly walked towards him, and only resumed talking when they were standing face to face:

-"Was your father known as Hemlock?"

-"Yes."

-"And your mother was Laurel?"

-"Yes again."

-"Then you're General Woundwort."

-"...that's what I've been trying to tell that pack of fools ever since I arrived here."

-"Wait, wait, wait," Granite said. "You actually know him, Speaker?"

-"Sure, he just happens to be the son of the founder of this warren, that's all. But seriously, General Woundwort, why are you still alive?"

-"Why am I still alive?" the General repeated. "The appropriate question is: why did you think I was dead?"

-"Many seasons ago, you and your mother were face to face with a weasel and neither of you were ever seen again. Draw your own conclusions."

-"She was killed, but I wasn't. I am too strong to be killed by a weasel!"

-"Um, General Woundwort," Silverweed said, "why do you lie? The fact is she sacrificed herself so you could live. You weren't really strong back then."

-"I didn't ask you for your opinion," Woundwort said with a growl, "so keep it to yourself until I do ask." He turned back to the doe. "The fact remains that I'm not dead. Now who are you, and why are you the only one who remembers who I am?"

-"I am the Speaker of the Past. I have been tasked with preserving the history of this warren and passing it down to the next generation. Therefore, I know absolutely everything there is to know about Stormhaven and Darkhaven."

-"You clearly haven't done a very good job passing on this knowledge, since nobody else knows about me."

-"I'm supposed to pass it on to kittens, and I would if there were any kittens. But there are none, since everyone is too busy fighting to worry about m..."

-"Fine. And what's your name?"

-"You don't want to know. And even if you did know, you couldn't pronounce it. So just call me Speaker."

-"Very well, Speaker. I proclaim myself the new leader of Darkhaven! I will make..."

-"It's not that simple. To become Chief, you have to defeat the old Chief in single combat. That would be Granite-rah, the one you've been arguing with."

-"That won't take long."

Woundwort's prediction proved to be accurate. For a while, he and Granite stood some distance from each other. Granite kept mimicking Woundwort's movements, waiting for him to pounce. Woundwort, however, remained calm, and kept moving away from Granite, hoping to exhaust him. His plan was working. Granite was losing patience, until he finally growled and lunged at Woundwort. However, his opponent had anticipated this; just as Granite was about to land on him, he hopped out of the way, causing him to land on the hard dirt ground. Granite tried to get up, but Woundwort had placed one of his hind legs on his neck, pinning him to the ground.

Granite tried to break free from Woundwort, but it was no use; the pressure on his neck made it hard for him to breathe.

-"Please, sir," he struggled to say, "just hit me on the head and get it over with. You win. You're Chief Rabbit now."

Woundwort looked at Granite for a few moments, before finally removing his paw. Granite got back up, gasping for air.

-"No, I'll let you live," the General said. "Not because I like you, but because you can be useful to me. Now tell me: are there any other warrens nearby?"

-"No, sir. Not that I know of."

-"But there could be some that you don't know about?"

-"I suppose so, sir."

-"That's not good enough! Now go to your burrow!"

-"I don't have one anymore, sir. You defeated me, so it's yours now."

-"Then dig another one!"

With Granite out of the way, Woundwort turned to Silverweed.

-"You now have an opportunity to prove that your skills are useful to me. Do you think you could find the location of another warren?"

-"If it's not deserted, maybe I could. I would have to ping the mind of another rabbit and attempt a connection, which, if successful, would allow me to access their mind and location properties, making it possible to..."

-"Don't bother me with all the technical details. Could this allow you to find the location of the warren?"

-"I think so, if..."

-"Very good. You never cease to amaze me. Now get to work."

-"I can't very well do this now. I need to be in a place that is very quiet and free from distractions."

-"I know the perfect place," the Speaker said. "Follow me."

With that, the Speaker walked through a small hole under a pile of trash, with Woundwort and Silverweed following her. At the end of a lengthy tunnel, they finally reached a large underground chamber. In a corner, there was small cushion; it looked soft and comfortable. Silverweed hopped onto it, and lied down.

-"This is perfect," he said. "I'll rest now."

-"But what about finding the outsiders' warren?" Woundwort asked.

-"I need to rest first. But I'll start my mental probing as soon as possible."

With that, he lied down and closed his eyes. Woundwort was annoyed at having to wait for Silverweed to be ready, but until then, he had other things to do.

-"Speaker, I want you to show me around this place," he said. "I want to know everything there is to know."

-"If that is your wish, I shall do so. Follow me."

-"What about me, sire?"

Woundwort turned around and saw Vervain. He had completely forgotten about him and Blueberry, ever since they had entered Darkhaven.

-"Oh, well just follow me, so you can learn about this place too. Also do you have any idea what happened to that half-sized black rabbit we picked up earlier? I haven't seen him in a while."

Vervain gasped. He thought for a few moments, desperately trying to come up with the least suspicious possible answer.

-"I haven't seen him since we arrived here, with all the fog..." Technically not a lie, Vervain thought, but if he figures out the rest...

Luckily for Vervain, Woundwort did not appear to suspect anything:

-"As soon as we have finished the guided tour, I'll send out a patrol to look for him. I don't have time for this, I have more important things to worry about than a young kitten who..."

-"Can you please hurry up with that tour of yours?" Silverweed asked. "I can't sleep with all this noise."

-"Let's get going, then!"

Woundwort, Vervain and the Speaker walked out of the chamber, into another, larger chamber.

-"This burrow is where the Chief Rabbit lives," the Speaker explained. "There is an escape tunnel..."