Chapter 75: The Big Visit.

"He was tired, and his only remaining follower was just talking too much. 'You know our laws.'"

-Kixstana Boxin, Hassel[sic] with Hlessi

Acorn was sitting in front of the warren's main entrance, a crystal through his ear. The mysterious rabbit who had attacked him the previous night had not succeeded in killing him, merely hurting one ear instead. Speedwell was trying to pull the crystal out from the ears, with Tindra and Flesca pushing from the other end. After what felt like forever, they finally succeeded in removing the crystal. Acorn had a big hole in his left ear, but was otherwise unharmed.

-"Now that the crystal is gone," Toadflax said, "we may proceed with the trial."

-"Hang on," Tindra said. "You're not seriously going through with this?"

-"Give me one good reason why not."

-"Someone tried to kill Acorn. It may be the same rabbit who killed Buckthorn."

Toadflax fell silent for a few moments. Then, he burst into laughter.

-"You completely fell for it, didn't you?" he said.

-"Fell for what?" Speedwell asked.

-"Acorn's ploy. He obviously stabbed himself in order to draw suspicion away from himself. Besides, I was guarding the burrow all night, there was no way anyone could have sneaked past me to attack him."

-"That's the dumbest theory I've ever heard," Flesca said, rolling her eyes.

-"Were there any crystals in the prison burrow before Acorn went there?" Speedwell asked.

-"No," Toadflax said, "but..."

-"Where did he get the crystal then?"

-"...from another burrow?" Toadflax guessed.

-"And how did he do that? You were supposed to keep an eye on him. Either he left the burrow, or someone else went inside. Either way, you failed to notice anything. So either YOU made the attempt on Acorn's life, or you fell asleep."

Toadflax gulped, as he realized that his theory had completely fallen apart.

-"I fell asleep," he confessed.

-"Just as I thought. Acorn really is innocent."

-"I did my best to stay awake..." Toadflax said, looking like he was about to cry; it was most likely an attempt to earn sympathy, but nobody was falling for it. "I don't know what happened, this never happened before..."

-"Thanks everyone," Acorn said, hopping towards his friends. "I really didn't expect it to end this way, but thank you for proving me innocent."

-"We're glad to have been of service," Tindra said, "but we're back to the starting point. Your innocence was proven, but we still have to find the true killer."

-"Any idea how we could do that?" Acorn asked.

-"HEY TOADFLAX!" Flesca shouted. "How about you tell us about the evidence you gathered so far, so we don't have to start our own investigation from scratch!"

But Toadflax was nowhere to be seen.

-"Where is he? He was right there moments ago," Tindra said.

-"Did he go underground?" Speedwell asked.

Flesca ran through the warren's main entrance. A few moments later, she returned above ground.

-"He's not in there."

-"I wouldn't worry too much," Acorn said. "For all we know, maybe he is the killer, so he decided to run away before we figured it out."

-"That does seem like the most likely explanation," Tindra agreed. "Let's go underground. It will be great to get some sleep after all this madness."

The rabbits' plan of sleeping all day, however, was soon interrupted. In the middle of the afternoon, Speedwell was woken up by a voice coming from above ground. All his companions remained asleep, and the voice didn't sound like Toadflax; who could it be?

He went above ground to investigate. In the middle of the field near the warren stood a lone buck; Speedwell had never seen him before.

-"Ah, good to see you," the stranger said. "I was starting to think this place was deserted."

-"Who are you?" Speedwell said, getting ready to attack if necessary; Woundwort's training might come in handy after all.

-"My name is Scabious. I am the Chief Rabbit of New Sandleford Warren. Who are you?"

-"I'm Speedwell. New Sandleford? What happened to Old Sandleford?"

-"It was destroyed by..."

-"I'm sorry."

-"But there were many survivors! A few days before it happened, a group of rabbits lead by a runt called Fiver..."

-"All right, I get it, there were survivors." Speedwell did not feel comfortable talking about Fiver, after the previous spring's events. While he no longer approved of the wires, he still had a bad feeling over the whole situation.

-"Fiver's gang left and were never seen again," Scabious continued. "But there were other survivors, who started New Sandleford Warren. It's on the other side of these trees here."

Speedwell remained silent for a few moments, as he made a shocking realization.

-"You mean there's a warren on the other side of those trees, right next to this one, and nobody here knew about it? How long has it been there?"

-"Around one set of seasons. We've known about you for a while, but we were waiting for you to make first contact. When I became Chief Rabbit just a few days ago, I decided that waiting for you was never going to work out: none of you ever venture far from the warren. So, I captured your Chief."

-"We don't have a Chief," Speedwell replied matter-of-factly.

-"Really? The rabbit we captured, a buck called Toadflax, said he was your leader."

-"He was lying."

-"Regardless. If you want to see him alive again, you must surrender to us, and let us annex your warren."

-"I don't care."

-"...what?"

-"You can keep him. Nobody here likes him."

-"Would you truly turn your back on a fellow rabbit in need?"

-"He deserves whatever you have planned for him. Now, if you'll excuse me, Scabious, I need to be getting back to my nap."

Before Scabious could reply, Speedwell ran back underground. The Chief of New Sandleford remained in front of the empty tunnel for a while. This encounter had really not gone as planned: he was expecting a quick surrender and a same-day annexation. He eventually hopped away to ponder the next step. Fighting was not an option: his warren's owsla would not be strong enough to come out on top.

-"I can't believe Woundwort is forcing us to share the same burrow."

Vervain was pacing back and forth across a small chamber in Darkhaven. Earlier that day, Woundwort had announced the new burrow arrangements. Due to the small number of burrows available, most rabbits would have to share. Vervain's roommate was one of the worst rabbits possible.

-"Couldn't he have allowed us to choose who we live with?" Vervain continued his rant.

-"He said we need to put what he calls our 'silly feud' behind us," Blueberry replied. "Whenever we fight each other, we're not fighting our common enemy, those mysterious outsiders he keeps rambling about. Who ARE those outsiders anyway?"

-"Why don't you ask HIM about the outsiders? He's the one who wants them destroyed." Vervain scoffed. "Silly feud indeed..."

-"I really don't get why you dislike me, Vervain. You kept shoving me down into the pit. This could have killed me, you know."

-"You want to know the truth?" Vervain glanced behind Blueberry, at the small object the kitten always carried with him. Then, he hopped to it and sat on it. "This! This is why I don't like you."

-"What's the problem with my Z..."

-"It's creepy. It's noisy. It's annoying."

-"I don't see what's so creepy about it. And I really try not to make it too loud..."

-"Greetings all!" came a voice of another rabbit who burst into the burrow.

Vervain was startled by the sudden appearance, and pounced on Blueberry's back.

-"I think there's more to it than the gadget, Vervain," Blueberry said. "There's another reason you don't like me, and I really don't get it."

-"Orchis!" Vervain shouted, ignoring the kitten. "What are you doing here?"

-"I told Woundwort I thought you two needed help mending your ways. And he agreed. So I'll be living with you two."

-"Three of us in one burrow? It's already cramped enough with that runt..."

-"It's not cramped at all," Blueberry replied. "Look how high the ceiling is, we could hop as high as we could and we still wouldn't reach it."

-"Fine." Vervain sighed. "You'll live with us, Orchis."

With a creepy smile, Orchis lied down next to Vervain; Blueberry was on Vervain's other side.

-"You know, Vervain," Orchis said, "I like you."

Vervain teared up. While he had mixed feelings about Orchis, he was only the second rabbit ever to have told him that he "liked him"; the first was Chibiscuit. He had almost forgotten about her, following Primrose's capture and escape, and Campion's return. It had become obvious to him that as long as he followed Woundwort, there was no way he would see her again. He still hated the outsiders and hoped for their destruction, but reuniting with the doe of his dreams was more important. But his last betrayal of the General had gone horribly wrong, and he didn't feel motivated enough to try again. His thoughts were interrupted by Blueberry:

-"Vervain, did you seriously pass hraka on my Z..."

-"Just go to sleep already."