AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :) It was a pretty fun chapter to write!
Chapter 96: Hyzenthlay's Hijinks.
"I'm digging the sky and the sea [...] Just no puns.. [...] It's an obscure philosophical theory about the 48th dimension, accessible through a wormhole in the Andromeda Galaxy in 2083."
-Bright Side
Hyzenthlay was carried upwards for a while, gradually slowing down until she finally stopped in mid-air. She had floated above the clouds, and could no longer see the ground. What had happened?
-"Greetings." Hyzenthlay turned to the direction the voice came from, and saw another rabbit standing in the sky further away.
-"Hello...do you know what's happening? Why we're both up here in the sky?"
-"I'm afraid that reality has broken apart. Don't worry, though, it will soon be repaired."
-"You seem vaguely familiar to me...have we met before?"
-"Perhaps, perhaps not."
-"All right then. It was nice talking with you, but I'll be going back to solid ground now."
Hyzenthlay started to hop towards the ground, but the stranger soon spoke again:
-"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Keep in mind that reality is broken."
-"But if I can't go to the ground, how can I help my friends?"
-"They'll be all right. Don't worry too much."
-"How do you know they will? And how do you know reality broke apart?"
-"I know many things."
Hyzenthlay sighed, rather annoyed at the stranger's reluctance to answer any of her questions. She lied down in the sky, staring at the area around her.
-"You should dig," the stranger said.
-"How can I dig, when I can't reach the ground?"
-"Dig the sky."
-"I didn't know the sky was made of a diggable substance."
-"Try it out."
Hyzenthlay remained convinced that she would be unable to dig, but she nevertheless decided to attempt it. She stood up on her hind legs and raised her front paws; she could feel the soft texture of the sky with them. She buried her claws in it, and scratched. A certain amount of blue particles were dislodged, and fell towards the ground like snow. Hyzenthlay stared at it in amazement.
-"You should keep going," the stranger said.
-"I will." She scratched the sky again, causing another blue shower. "Digging is fun. A good way to relieve stress. I think many rabbits have forgotten the simple pleasures of life, such as digging. Back at the warren, I've met a few bucks who seem to be obsessed with the fact that it's supposedly does' work. They're too busy worrying about their dignity to have fun. Hawkbit in particular strikes me as sad. He's always complaining about everything; I doubt he's happy this way."
As she talked, Hyzenthlay continued to dig, and by that point had built a lengthy tunnel through the sky. She had dug so deep that she was no longer visible outside of the tunnel; only the occasional shower of blue particles gave away her presence. The stranger calmly sat just outside the hole, cleaning his front paws.
-"I think you should stop now," he eventually said.
-"Stop?" Hyzenthlay peaked out of the tunnel, pieces of sky dirt clinging to her whiskers. "But this is so fun!"
-"You are dangerously close to the edge of this dimension. Continuing to dig will allow you to access another plane of reality. To stay safe, you need this."
The stranger handed Hyzenthlay a small object, which she took with her front paws. It was a small golden necklace, with a blue gem hanging in the middle of it.
-"I remember hearing about this," she said. "In an ancient tale of El-ahrairah, Prince Rainbow stole..."
-"Put it around your neck. It will keep you safe."
-"Where did you get it?" Hyzenthlay asked, as she did what the stranger told her to.
-"You may now safely continue to dig."
Hyzenthlay sighed. This stranger was clearly not interested in revealing too much about his identity. She nevertheless went back inside the tunnel and resumed digging. She kept digging until she realized that the end was near, just as the stranger had warned. She poked the sky a few times, and the sky dirt fell apart on the other side, revealing a large open space.
-"I found something!"
-"You did, Hyzenthlay. This is dimension one," the stranger said, having followed her inside the tunnel.
-"Dimension one?"
-"There are hrair realities. The one you just left, the one that broke, was the third one. We are now in the first one."
Hyzenthlay ran through the exit to her tunnel, and frolicked through the sky, before finally hopping to the ground, on top of that reality's version of Watership Down. When she suddenly remembered something...
-"How do you know my name?" she asked the stranger. "I don't recall introducing myself."
-"I know many things. For example, that rabbit behind you, that's Thethuthinnang."
Hyzenthlay turned around. The stranger was right: it was Thethuthinnang.
-"Hello! It's so nice to see you again," Hyzenthlay told her. Thethuthinnang, however, remained silent, nibbling the grass in front of her. "Don't you recognize me?"
-"She doesn't see you. It's a side effect of that necklace, that allows you to travel through a foreign dimension without anyone noticing you, and possibly harming you."
-"But I'm among friends here! Nobody would try to harm me." She was about to take off the necklace, but the stranger stopped her.
-"You are your own worst enemy. Go underground, and you will understand what I mean."
The two rabbits went inside the warren. The stranger hopped through several runs, until he finally came across one burrow. He gestured at Hyzenthlay to go inside; she did so.
Inside, two rabbits were lying close to each other. Hyzenthlay could easily recognize the first one as Hazel, but the second one looked suspiciously like her.
-"Yes, it is you," the stranger said suddenly.
-"Can you read my mind or something?"
-"Perhaps, perhaps not. But it would be best if this reality's version of you didn't see you."
-"I see your point..."
Meanwhile, the two rabbits in the burrow slowly woke up, and exchanged a loving nuzzle.
-"You smell wonderful this morning," Hyzenthlay said.
-"And your fur is especially shiny," Hazel replied.
-"Shall we silflay?"
-"Whenever you're ready dear."
The two lovers got up, and hopped out of the burrow towards a run leading above ground, leaving the third reality Hyzenthlay and the stranger alone.
-"I'm Hazel's mate in this reality?" she asked in confusion.
-"Absolutely."
-"Why isn't Primrose his mate?"
-"She doesn't exist in this dimension."
-"That's sad."
-"She's not the only one. Blackberry the doe, Spartina, and Hannah the mouse don't exist in this reality either."
-"I suppose I should be grateful I exist here, a privilege denied to several other rabbits. But I can't help but feel sorry for those who don't..."
-"Don't be so depressed. Come on, let's get out of here."
The two rabbits slowly hopped out of the warren, and spent a short amount of time contemplating the view from the top of the Down.
-"It's a nice view," Hyzenthlay said.
-"It's much prettier in the sky. Just jump."
However, Hyzenthlay hesitated. She turned around, and looked at her alternate self and Hazel nibbling some dandelions together.
-"Forgive me, Primrose. I didn't want to steal your mate, even if you don't exist here. I'm sorry."
Hyzenthlay took a deep breath, and jumped. She lifted from off the Down, and glided through the air. She looked down, seeing the forests, the rivers, and the villages underneath, feeling the soft breeze in her fur. This was the most relaxing experience she had been through in a long time.
After a while, Hyzenthlay's energy began to fade, and she gradually descended through the air, until she finally touched the ground again. She had landed on the Big Water, although she did not sink, remaining on the water as if it was solid. The stranger sat down next to her.
-"So, this is the first dimension," she said. "I come from the third. What is the second one like?"
-"You can find out for yourself. It shouldn't be too hard to access. You looked rather stressed, though..."
-"Do I?" Hyzenthlay nervously scratched her ears; the knowledge of her alternate self's romance with Hazel had upset her. "Perhaps...if that's all right with you I'll dig another tunnel."
-"Digging the sea, eh? Well, it's diggable. Go ahead."
Hyzenthlay scratched the water; she was able to dig it just like she had done with the sky. Soon, not even her tail was sticking out of the scrape.
-"About that second reality..." Hyzenthlay said, causing the stranger to hop over to the hole, only for some water to splash onto his face. This did not appear to bother him: he simply started grooming his face.
-"What about it?" he asked.
-"How do I access it?"
-"You're about to enter it any moment now..." Just as he said that, he heard a squeal coming from the scrape, as Hyzenthlay reached the bottom of the sea and fell out of her tunnel into the second reality. He dove in after her, only to find her slowly descending towards the top of Watership Down.
-"You had me scared for a moment, there," the stranger said sternly. "I was sure you had taken off the necklace and you were falling to your death."
-"I just didn't realize I was so close to entering the new dimension. I'm sorry I scared you, though. Oh look, here I am again."
Near the beech tree, that reality's version of Hyzenthlay was lying in the grass, surrounded by her kittens, entertaining them with a story.
-"Who's the father of these kittens?" the original Hyzenthlay asked.
-"Undetermined," the stranger replied.
-"I see." Under ordinary circumstances, Hyzenthlay would have been annoyed at this non-answer, but instead she felt rather amused. On previous occasions, the stranger had refused to answer her questions, but now it seemed that he honestly didn't know. "Does Primrose exist here?"
-"She doesn't. Neither does Thethuthinnang. Nor Bluebell, nor Strawberry, nor Hawkbit."
-"No..." The fact that so many rabbits did not exist was really making Hyzenthlay sad. "It might be easier to say who does exist here then."
-"Out of your friends from the old warren, the only two are Blackberry and Violet. But even then, Violet has been dead here for a while now..."
-"She's dead where I come from too." Hyzenthlay sniffed, attempting to hold back her tears.
-"No she's not. If you pay close attention, you might be able to feel her presence."
Hyzenthlay lied down in the grass, attempting to concentrate, but the stranger said:
-"It won't work here, since in this reality she's dead."
-"You know what? This reality is depressing."
-"You're not the only one who feels this way."
-"So let's run away."
-"If you wish."
Hyzenthlay ran over to the edge of the Down, and took off. The view was mostly the same as in the first reality, so she simply closed her eyes. This was a nice distraction from the tragedy of non-existence that plagued many of her friends.
When she opened her eyes again, all familiar elements of the landscape had vanished. The sky around her was mostly black, but she could see the stars clearly, much more easily that she had ever been able to. She awkwardly looked down, and saw the Earth. She was floating in outer space, over the Pacific ocean. She looked around her, trying to figure out how that had happened.
-"You jumped straight upwards. This was bound to happen," the stranger said.
-"That makes sense, I suppose, but how do I get back down?"
-"Do you really want to, or would you rather explore this place?"
-"I'm already here, so I might as well keep exploring..."
Hyzenthlay looked around her. One thing that caught her attention in the sky was the bright round shape of Inlé. She jumped towards it, and after a few minutes of gliding through the emptiness of space, she touched down in the middle of a crater.
-"First rabbit on the moon. Congratulations!" the stranger said. "Have fun."
Hyzenthlay hopped away, as high as she could, over entire craters, soon vanishing from sight. The stranger let her explore on her own, and cleaned his ears.
After a while, Hyzenthlay came back, sliding through the moon dust as she landed.
-"That was amazing. I must have run a full cycle across. But I think I'll rest now."
She lied down on the soft lunar surface.
-"You're not digging this time?" the stranger asked.
-"I don't want to. Seriously, just look at the sky. All these stars! It's so beautiful. I don't want to ruin the view."
-"I wasn't talking about digging the sky, but the ground. You have to, in order to access the fourth reality?"
-"I don't know if I want to, honestly. So far, these first two realities have been depressing due to all those poor rabbits who don't exist."
-"In some regards, the fourth one isn't so bad. Several rabbits who had been previously denied existence have achieved it there."
-"Well...I don't have anything to lose, do I?"
Hyzenthlay started to scratch the ground once again. It did not take long for her tunnel to reach the fourth dimension; she exited in a field close to Watership Down.
As she wandered throughout the field, one rabbit in particular caught her attention.
-"Him again?" She sighed.
-"General Woundwort, yes," the stranger replied. "He existed in the last two realities we visited too, but he was dead. It appears that he's still alive in this one."
Hyzenthlay hopped away, as she noticed another rabbit, lying motionless in the grass. She placed her paw on his neck; he was no longer breathing.
-"Is that captain Holly?"
-"Holly!" came another voice. She looked in the direction where it came from, and saw herself, running out of the warren's entrances. The alternate Hyzenthlay was crying in desperation, as another rabbit pulled her back underground.
-"Holly was my mate in this reality?" the third Hyzenthlay asked.
-"Almost. He was brutally murdered by captain Orchis before it could happen."
Hyzenthlay lied down in the grass, silently thinking about what she had just witnessed.
-"I don't know what to say. These realities all feel...sad," she eventually said. "So many rabbits don't exist in the first two realities, and in this one, Holly dies. I haven't talked with him much back home, but he seems like a good rabbit. Is there really nothing that can be done?"
-"Here? I'm afraid not. The third reality, however, is different. It is your home, and you can have a positive impact there."
-"Perhaps I should try to get to know him better, back there."
Hyzenthlay look at the stranger once again, and noticed something unusual. The stranger's ears seemed to blend in perfectly with the starry night sky. She instantly remembered the ancient legend of El-ahrairah.
-"My lord?"
-"I was wondering how long it would take you to notice. Yes. It is me. I am the Prince with a Thousand Enemies."
As soon as she heard this, Hyzenthlay bowed in front of El-ahrairah.
-"My lord, I..."
-"Hyzenthlay-rah, you have been granted the rare privilege of existence. It is up to you to decide what you shall make of it."
-"Rah?"
-"Your reality has been repaired now. You should be getting back to it."
-"My lord...very few rabbits get the opportunity to meet you. Why me?"
El-ahrairah did not reply, and simply placed one of his front paws on Hyzenthlay's forehead. Her entire body was filled with an amazing feeling of strength and power, as she dissolved back to the third reality.