AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you for the review Anonymous Guest; glad you liked the chapter :)

Also, this week's chapter will be the last of 2019. I will resume posting one chapter per week in early January. I hope you all have a merry Christmas and enjoy the holidays!

Chapter 81: Recursiveness.

"And I know you well enough to know that this plan may be the death of us both?"

-Mistymaple, Elahrairah [sic] And The Hole In The Sky

It was just after sunrise. Vesper had been the first rabbit to wake up. Violet, Hickory, Marigold and the kitten were still sound asleep; they were clearly exhausted, they needed rest, he had no reason to wake them up just yet.

He hopped out to silflay, but didn't stray too far from the hole, so he could quickly alert his friends should elil come. The Milfoil was still on the riverbank where he had left it the previous evening; it would be very useful to get his companions to the other side of the river, as they were in no shape to swim. But they would still have to walk the rest of the way to Watership Down.

Vesper was deeply absorbed in his silflay, until he noticed a shadow appear in the forest further away. At first, he thought it was elil, but as he took a closer look, he saw who it was. He ran over to them and tackle-hugged them instead.

-"Acacia! It's been so long!"

-"You're still the best hugger Vespy-bunny," Acacia said, unable to get up, but nevertheless nuzzling Vesper.

-"How have you been doing all these seasons?"

Vesper finally hopped off Acacia, allowing the desert rabbit to get up.

-"Busy, so busy," Acacia replied. "There is so much evil in this world. I do my part, but it still feels very insignificant at times. I wish I could do more to help. Like find out who is responsible for my sister's death."

-"Still no progress in this investigation?" Vesper said sadly, as he hugged his friend once again.

-"Nothing. But they can't run forever; one day, I'll get them. But enough about me; how is your water-rabbit training?"

-"It's finished. I have my boat, right there on the river."

Acacia glanced at the river, soon spotting the boat.

-"Can I hop on?"

-"Go ahead."

Acacia did so, carefully sniffing the sail and the hull.

-"This is awesome."

-"At some point," Vesper said, "perhaps we could go on a ride together."

-"Yes! We could also bring Nicole, and sail the many seas and storms and waterfalls, it'll be so exciting!"

-"Well...maybe not the waterfalls, but yes, it does sound very exciting."

The two rabbits were too absorbed in their discussion to notice Marigold hopping out of the burrow. She was profoundly disoriented, and confused by her surroundings. She had gone above ground to find some soft grass for her kitten, but by the time she was there, she had forgotten about this. Instead, she found herself aimlessly wandering through the woods. After a few minutes of this, she stumbled upon a large group of creatures. She stared at them for a few moments; when she realized they had spotted her, she bolted away.

-"EVERYONE GET UP IT'S TRAINING TIME!"

Vervain lowered his ears and covered them with his front paws. He had hardly gotten any sleep at all during the night: Blueberry had spent several hours with his noisy device, practising fighting moves. By the time the kitten had finally stopped, it was fu Inlé. And now, despite the sun being barely visible on the horizon, Woundwort was already up, and ordering everyone to report for training.

Woundwort kept shouting, but Vervain still did not get up. He would ignore the General as long as possible, treasuring his current state of dream-free half-drowsiness. The burrow was much more comfortable than he had expected it would be. It almost felt like another rabbit was lying against him.

Only then did he realize that this was exactly the case. Captain Orchis was pressed tightly against him, his front paws wrapped around him. Vervain abruptly got up and jumped across the chamber, kicking Blueberry away along the way.

-"Vervain," the kitten said with a yawn, "I was trying to sleep..."

-"What were you doing!?" Vervain shouted, ignoring Blueberry.

-"Who, me?" Orchis said, slowly waking up.

-"Yes, you!"

-"Sleeping, obviously. What did it look like?"

-"You were hugging me!"

-"The burrow is cold, and your fur is soft and warm."

-"You ever hear of personal space?"

-"Vervain, you make me sad. What would Chibiscuit think?"

Orchis' words filled Vervain with sadness. Chibiscuit would indeed be disappointed in him. However, these thoughts were soon pushed away by more pressing concerns.

-"What do you know about Chibiscuit?" he said accusingly.

-"You kept mumbling her name in your sleep."

-"Will you three come out already?" came Woundwort's voice; the General entered the burrow moments later. "Everyone else has already reported for duty, except you."

-"We're coming," Vervain said with a loud sigh, as he and the other two rabbits slowly hopped out of the burrow and made their way towards the battle pit. Along the way, Woundwort pulled Vervain aside.

-"What's wrong with you? You look like you haven't slept all night."

-"How could you expect anything else, sir? Blueberry was..."

-"I know you two will never be good friends, but could you at least tolerate each other's existence? Is that too much to ask?"

-"No sir, but could you at least stop him from training in the burrow?"

-"If we're to defeat the outsiders, my owsla will need all the training they can get."

-"How can we defeat the outsiders if we're too tired to fight?"

-"Enough excuses. If you don't get enough sleep, there's nothing I can do about it."

Acacia and Vesper had spent a while discussing the recent events in their lives. Acacia had been particularly excited upon learning that Vesper had been invited to join a warren, and expressed interest in possibly joining too, along with Nicole.

-"Oh, I almost forgot," Acacia eventually said. "I've got something for you."

Acacia shook his head. Hanging from his ears had been a necklace; it fell off. He pushed it in front of Vesper.

-"I took care of it just as you asked," he continued. "I hope it wasn't accidentally damaged."

-"It hasn't. Thank you so much for protecting it."

Vesper carefully inserted his head through the string. It was rather tight against his neck, but it didn't hinder his breathing, and the feeling of the gemstone resting against his chest was very relaxing. He eventually held the rock out into the sun; it shone brightly, in many different colours from each angle.

-"It's really beautiful," Acacia said. "Where does it come from?"

-"I've had it nearly all my life. When I was still a kitten, my guardian went..."

-"Dew!"

Acacia and Vesper were taken aback by the sudden cry. They turned around and saw Marigold, by the scrape's entrance.

-"DDEEEEEWW!" she shouted again.

Vesper hopped over to her in an attempt at figuring out what she was talking about. Thankfully, she did not appear to have suffered any further injuries. However, this made her sudden change of attitude, from absolute quiet to loud screaming, even more confusing.

-"What happened?" he asked.

Marigold raised her head to look at Vesper. As she did, however, a look of horror appeared on her face, and she fainted.

-"Oh no!" Acacia said, as he ran over to the other two rabbits. "What happened to her? Do I need to arrest someone?"

-"I honestly don't know. I met her and a few others last night, but none of them were in any shape to tell me anything."

-"Who could have done something so cruel to an innocent young doe?"

-"If I ever find out who's responsible, I'll let you know, Acacia. Until then, I have to get them to Watership Down safely. That's the warren I told you about earlier."

-"I'll come with you. I will protect you all from anyone else who might try to harm you."

Woundwort stood on top of an old car, staring down the battle pit as his owsla trained. He was not very pleased with the results: most of the rabbits, despite their huge size, proved to be highly incompetent fighters. Even the rabbits he had recruited from Cowslip's warren had done better. The only rabbit who had managed to defeat all his opponents was Blueberry, a major accomplishment for a small kitten. Vervain and Orchis had also done surprisingly well, but this revealed more about their opponents' ineptitude than their own skills.

The more Woundwort looked, the more it became obvious to him that further training would most likely be of little use. With a few exceptions, these rabbits would remain horrible fighters, their size being their only advantage. Hopefully that would be enough to defeat the outsiders.

-"Enough!" he shouted; everyone immediately stopped fighting and looked at him. "You're done training for today. Now is the time for war!"

This was met by loud cheering, and several of the rabbits started chanting "war!".

-"Everyone, follow me!" Woundwort continued. "The outsiders won't stand a chance!"

-"The law says you are breaking the law," came a faint voice. Woundwort immediately spotted the rabbit who had spoken: she was standing on a rock at the other end of the pit, staring directly at him.

-"You again!?" he shouted. "What do you want now?"

-"I just want to remind you that the law..." the Speaker continued, but was cut off by Woundwort.

-"Never mind the law, I have a war to win!"

Woundwort jumped off the car, hopping towards the only way out of the pit.

-"Speaker, you stay here. Everyone else, follow me," he ordered, before starting the climb. The other rabbits obeyed.

The Speaker remained motionless on top of the rock as the other rabbits slowly left. Eventually, once everyone else was gone, she picked up the skull on her head and threw it as far as she could. There was a heart-shaped patch of deep black fur on her forehead; the skull kept it hidden under ordinary circumstances.

-"This is bad news for this dimension," she said, but nobody was around to hear her, or head her warning.

Fiver hopped inside his burrow. The kittens were still listening to Dandelion's story, and Fiver was looking forward to getting some sleep. As he was about to lie down, however, he saw that another rabbit was already present.

-"Silverweed. What are you doing here?"

Silverweed did not reply, instead hopping over to Fiver and hugging him tightly.

-"Thanks...but why?" Fiver asked.

-"Fiver, I've been thinking. I've made some troubling discoveries."

-"What did you discover?"

-"Several things. Woundwort will be back."

Fiver shook his head.

-"I know. I've been wanting to tell Hazel about it, but I just can't seem to find a good time. He was busy most of the day with the interviews, and then Primrose came back. But it can't wait much longer."

-"You're right, Fiver. Until everyone knows, we're all living in a state of false security, believing everything is fine when it most definitely isn't."

-"I really will have to mention it today. There's just one thing I don't understand: Campion told us he was dead, how can he still be alive?"

-"Campion really believed he was dead. But the truth is while Vervain tried to kill him, he failed."

-"Vervain? I would never have expected him to do something like this."

-"Vervain may project the image of a violent and angry rabbit, but deep beneath this shell lies a profoundly unhappy creature."

Fiver and Silverweed remained silent for a few minutes.

-"You said you discovered several things," Fiver eventually said. "What else is there?"

-"Woundwort is not the only threat out there. I was outside earlier, looking at the stars, when suddenly a butterfly flew by."

-"A butterfly? I've never known those to cause any trouble in the past."

-"Neither have I, but I don't know, Fiver...I still have a bad feeling about this."

-"I'll make sure to keep a close eye on any butterflies that may fly near the warren, so they don't cause any trouble."

-"Thank you. But there's something else."

Silverweed placed his front paws on Fiver's and stared deep into his eyes.

-"There is no easy answer to life and death, Fiver. What can you tell me about the blade of the sky?"