AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you TheRanger101 :)

I was unsatisfied with the limited role of the Speaker in the official series, so I decided to give her a more expanded role here; she'll show up again soon.

Chapter 43: Hold Those Ears.

"One must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times. In art nothing must resemble an accident, not even movement."

-Edgar Degas

At Watership Down, a few rabbits were gathered around a large rock. Flyairth was standing next to it, addressing the others.

-"Since none of you seem to be interested in fighting, it looks like we'll have to do almost the same thing we did yesterday."

-"Not again," Hawkbit mumbled.

-"To make sure nobody complains again, I'll make this even easier than yesterday. All you have to do is jump to the top of the rock, look around, and jump off on the other side."

With that, Flyairth effortlessly jumped on the rock. She spent a few moments sniffing the air, feeling the wind in her fur, before jumping off.

-"All right, everyone go ahead."

She hopped away, and found Spartina standing on her hind legs further away.

-"Do you want to participate?"

-"Not at the moment, thanks. I'll just watch, if you don't mind."

Hyzenthlay was the first rabbit to tackle the course, and completed the task rather well. Then came Nyreem, who managed to make it near the top of the rock, but slid back down. Thethuthinnang came next, and she nudged Nyreem, allowing her to finally make it to the top. The smaller doe turned and smiled at the other doe, before jumping down herself. The next rabbit was Nelthilta, and while she made it to the top rather easily, she spent a few moments there trying to catch her breath before finally jumping back down.

Then it was Hawkbit's turn. It took him two attempts to reach the top and, once there, he mumbled something about how painful training is. Suddenly another rabbit crashed into him; he fell head first off the rock. Everyone rushed to the scene of the accident.

Hawkbit slowly opened his eyes. As he had landed on his head, it appeared to him that the sky was upside down. After a few moments, he fell on his side, and soon got back up, shaking his head.

-"Hawkbit, you all right?" Strawberry asked.

-"I'm all right," he replied, when he suddenly noticed something unusual in his field of vision. He raised his front paws and placed them on the sides of his head; he could clearly feel his ears. He groaned and kicked them back up, but they fell back down. "My ears. What happened to my ears?"

-"They're falling down, Hawkbit," Strawberry replied matter-of-factly.

-"So I'm going to be stuck as a lop-eared rabbit for the rest of my life? Oh Flyairth, mate, you are not getting away with this!"

-"Stop implying that I meant for this to happen," Flyairth replied.

-"Oy Hawkbit," Dandelion said, "if you're going to get angry at anyone, get angry at me. I'm the one who crashed into you. Sorry mate."

-"You did? You fool, why don't you watch where you're going? This isn't the first time this happens, and now I will have to suffer the consequences for the rest of my life."

-"If it makes you feel better, you can ruin my ears too."

-"No point in doing that, mate, one of us being lop-eared is enough."

-"Wait a moment, Hawkbit," Thethuthinnang said. "I might be able to do something about your ears."

She hopped over to him and raised his left ear to look inside. Hawkbit remained motionless as she examined him; while he was annoyed at having someone else touch his face, if it made it possible to straighten his ears, he would tolerate it.

-"Hyzenthlay, get me a few twigs," the doe said.

This request made Hawkbit start to feel nervous.

-"Twigs? What do you want to do with twigs?"

-"Do you want your ears back up or not?"

-"That all depends! I don't like this..."

With that, he started to squirm violently; Thethuthinnang struggled to keep him motionless.

-"I'm going to need someone else to make him stop moving."

-"I'll do it," Bluebell said, as he walked up to Hawkbit, and lied down on the latter's back.

-"Ow ow ow, you're heavier than you look!" Hawkbit said with a moan.

Finally, Hyzenthlay came back with the twigs. Thethuthinnang lifted Hawkbit's left ear with her nose, and carefully placed the twig underneath, before repeating the process with the right ear. After both twigs were safely in place, she slowly moved away, as Bluebell jumped off Hawkbit's back. The grey buck slowly got up; his ears seemed to remain in place.

-"It works! I can't believe it actually works! Thank you so much!"

He made a single leap of joy...only for both twigs to fall out and both his ears to crash back down on the sides of his head.

-"Well, you will have to be a bit more careful than that," Thethuthinnang said. "Hold still while I put them back..."

-"Oh no you don't!" Hawkbit shouted. "I'm not going to let Bluebell sit on me again. Blackberry knows a lot about healing, she can fix this, I'm sure."

-"I'll go get him," Bluebell said.

-"Yeah, well thanks a lot for...wait. Blackberry isn't supposed to be at the warren at the moment. You mean she came back? Why did nobody tell me?"

-"You wish to see me?"

Hawkbit turned at the rabbit who had just spoken. It was a buck, slightly larger than him, and with black spots at the tips of his ears.

-"Who are you?"

-"I'm Blackberry. Didn't you want to talk with me?"

-"I'm going insane."

With that, Hawkbit ran underground, his ears moving up and down with each step. Blackberry turned to Bluebell.

-"What was that all about?"

-"Apparently there's another rabbit living here, also called Blackberry," Bluebell said. "This other Blackberry is a doe."

-"I like my name," Blackberry said with a chuckle. "I should be honoured to share it with someone else."

-"How about you share something else with me?" Bluebell smirked as he leaned in for a kiss.

-"How about...no."

-"After what just happened, I don't think anyone is in the mood for training anymore," Flyairth said. "How about we dig instead? We do need more burrows than we have now."

-"That sounds like a good idea," Hyzenthlay said. "However, we should probably ask the Chief Rabbit what he thinks, before we start anything."

-"I'll do that," Vilthuril volunteered.

Fiver was lying in the grass near the beech tree, half-asleep, when he suddenly felt someone nudge him. He opened his eyes; it was Vilthuril.

The two rabbits spent a while awkwardly staring at each other, each waiting for the other to speak. Vilthuril turned out to be the first:

-"We've been talking about digging some new burrows, and we want to know if that's all right with you."

-"Oh, uh...you are free to dig if you want. Just don't take out any tree roots, Blackberry says that might cause the warren to cave in."

-"All right then. We'll be careful. Thank you."

Vilthuril turned and walked away, but Fiver ran after her.

-"Wait! If you're going to dig...I want to help if I can."

-"The more rabbits who participate, the faster the work will be finished."

The two rabbits made their way back to the warren, and soon there were no rabbits visible at the top of the Down.