AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :) I have some plans for Fiver; he will play an important part in next week's chapter.

Also, I'm sorry if any of my watchers get two email notifications; the site glitched out...

Chapter 97: Campion the Castaway.

"This stream [...] falls off this ledge here and down to the lake. The salt, that's what we tasted, is in this water for some reason."

-Azerane, The Home of Lord Frith

After falling off the tile map, Campion had landed in a sandy substance. He got up and shook the sand out of his fur. He was on an extremely small island, with a lone palm tree in the middle. Around him, in all directions, the Big Water stretched out as far as he could see. He quickly realized what Prince Rainbow had meant when he had described this reality: there was no contrast in the colours anywhere. The sky was the exact same shade of blue everywhere, regardless of proximity to the sun; the sand was also the same colour everywhere, as was the water.

Campion slowly hopped around the island, looking at his surroundings and trying to think of a way to escape. There was total silence; he could not even hear the sound of the waves. As he paid closer attention, however, he could hear the faint voice of Prince Rainbow, telling a story that he had never heard before:

-"...and then El-ahrairah said 'Seriously, Rabscuttle, you idiot! You can never do anything right, can you!?'; to which Rabscuttle..."

Tired of listening to Prince Rainbow's nonsensical story, Campion decided to take a drink. As soon as his tongue touched the water, however, he spat it back out. This water was salty, and it tasted terrible. He started to lick his paws in an attempt to get rid of the awful taste, when suddenly he heard something behind him. He turned around and saw a piece of wood on the shore, with many rats on top of it. They slowly approached him, squeaking as they went.

Campion had fought rats on several occasions throughout his life. The first one that tried to bite him was kicked away by a swift movement of his front paw. He repeated the motion several times, but the rats surrounded him from all directions. They pinned him to the ground, while they placed bent twigs on top of him, keeping him immobilized on the ground. The rats finally ran back to their wooden board, which floated away.

-"Help! Help!" Campion shouted. "Someone rescue me! Prince Rainbow help!"

-"...and then El-ahrairah smacked...Campion you fool; you're overlooking the obvious; get up right now or I will have to..."

-"I can't, those things are holding me down."

-"...no they are not; get up..."

Campion did as Prince Rainbow had said. The twigs all broke as he got up.

-"Wow. Thank you so much."

-"...please don't bother me again; you're slowing things down; anyway as I was saying El-ahrairah smacked Nur-rama shouting 'How dare you...'"

Campion remained motionless, pretending to listen to the story but not really doing so. This story was extremely depressing: El-ahrairah had insulted his best friend and assaulted his mate. Campion did not notice General Woundwort running on the water behind him.

His mind soon drifted back to Blackberry. Prince Rainbow's explanation of what had happened had been very confusing, yet Aspen had somehow managed to understand everything. But perhaps the most confusing part of Prince Rainbow's speech had been his comments about Blackberry. Campion wasn't even sure if Prince Rainbow had been talking about Blackberry at all, or another rabbit, or even the plant.

As he continued aimlessly wandering across the island, he came across a blackberry bush. He was confused: he had travelled around the island hrair times, and that bush was not there before. He recalled his conversation with the Speaker of the Past several days before, when she had misunderstood his question and ended up telling him about the best way to eat blackberries. Now would be the best time to put this knowledge to good use.

He scanned the bush, until he found what appeared to be the most delicious blackberry. He first licked it a few times, experiencing the sweet taste of morning dew on the fruit. Then, he closed his eyes and sank his teeth in the first quarter of the juicy plant, letting the juice trickle down his tongue, when suddenly...

-"What are you doing?"

Campion opened his eyes; the blackberry bush was gone. Instead, Blackberry was in front of him, looking at him in horror. He was not biting a fruit, but one of her ears; he immediately let go. She was bleeding, but the blood was not red; instead, it was purple, like blackberry juice.

-"You bit me!" she said.

-"No! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!"

-"You bit me..." Blackberry repeated, as she sank below the water's surface. Soon, the entire ocean had turned purple.

In a fit of temporary insanity, Campion climbed up the palm tree. Once on the top, he surveyed the area around him, then jumped off. He crashed on a rock just off the shore, just below the water's surface. Had this been low tide, it would have been plainly visible. That was the worst pain he had ever felt.

-"...and then Rabscuttle said 'I quit, you...' ...Campion you can't kill yourself when you're already dead..."

-"Thanks for telling me now, Prince Rainbow!"

-"...I assumed you were smart enough to understand common sense but clearly I was..."

-"Stop assuming so much."

-"...nobody's perfect; anyway as I was saying Rabscuttle resigned from his position and gave El-ahrairah a well-deserved..."

Campion remained motionless on the rock for a long time, wondering which was more painful: having crashed onto the rock, or listening to Prince Rainbow's story. He did not notice Primrose running on the water behind him.

A while later, Campion started wandering across the island again, when he suddenly noticed a boat pass by in front of him. He waved his front paws, attempting to attract the attention of the two humans on board. One of them pulled a smartphone out of her pocket, and took a few pictures.

-"Oy!" Campion shouted. "Will you two please rescue me?"

As they heard his voice, one of the humans screamed in terror, while the other fainted. They departed as quickly as they could, leaving Campion unrescued.

With a sigh, he turned around, and saw a weird object floating in the water. He swam over to it, and carried it to the shore. It was a cylindrical transparent object, not unlike several he had come across while on wide patrol: a glass bottle. As he inspected it, he got his front paw stuck inside; he was forced to smash the bottle against the ground to break free. Only then did he notice the piece of paper inside. He carefully unfolded it, and stared at it in amazement. On it, there were three symbols. The middle one was shaped roughly like a circle. The first and last ones were identical, and looked like slither things; he shuddered as he remembered the previous summer, when he and Hazel had encountered such a monstrous beast inside a glass burrow.

Campion was too busy contemplating the SOS note and thinking about the past to notice Blueberry running on the water behind him. After a while, he came to the conclusion that the paper would be of little use to him, so he kicked it back into the water. As he turned around, however, he saw several small wooden boards tied together, right on the shore. Perhaps he could use this to escape the island? However, as soon as he placed his front paws on it, it drifted away, causing him to fall in the water. He quickly swam back to the island.

While licking his paws again, he noticed a red spot in the distance, rapidly becoming larger. He then realized it was a huge boat, large enough to completely destroy his island. He was trying to think of the best course of action, when suddenly, everything around him turned black, and was replaced moments later with a forest. Reality had been restored.

-"...having lost his owsla captain, his mate and his warren, El-ahrairah was forced to...I'll continue this story another time Campion; until then please don't crash the universe again..."

Blackberry had been tending to the wounded Efrafans, when suddenly, something knocked her away, and she crashed onto the burrow wall. As she tried to get back up, she felt someone hold on to her ear. She turned around, and saw that Campion had bit her ear. Or, at least, she thought it was Campion. He was even more scarred than during their last encounter, at the iron road. She did not feel any pain, but she was very confused. Why was Campion there? How long had he been there? What was he doing?

Campion soon let go of her ear; she could see his lips move, but she could not hear any sound coming out of his mouth. After a few moments, she sank to the bottom of the Big Water. The sunlight was rapidly fading, plunging her in near-complete darkness. This left her even more confused: there was no place like this anywhere near Watership Down, where was she?

She remained motionless, letting the currents carry her, until she noticed a dark shape appear a short distance away. As it got closer, she realized that it was another rabbit, and she managed to identify him: it was Blackberry.

Blackberry swam over to her and sat down next to her.

-"Hello."

-"Hello...how are we talking underwater?"

-"I don't know. There must be a logical explanation for this, but I do not understand it. And how do we breathe? There isn't any air here. So many questions...so few answers..."

-"I don't understand it either, Blackberry. Perhaps we should go to the surface?"

-"That's a good idea."

Blackberry stood on his hind legs, and with several swift movements of his front paws, started swimming upwards. Blackberry followed him. The area around them gradually became brighter, until they finally reached the surface. The water stretched out as far as they could see; Campion's island was so far away they could not see it anymore. However, the small boat he had pushed away was right in front of them. Blackberry jumped on top of it. Blackberry had a bit of trouble climbing, but Blackberry pulled her on board.

-"Thank you," she said.

-"It's no problem."

-"Late last summer," she said as she looked at the water, "Hazel and a few others went on a trip to the Big Water. I got left behind, as is too often the case."

-"I'm sorry you didn't get to see it." Blackberry pulled her close to him to comfort her.

-"It's nothing bad, honestly. They rarely talked about it afterwards, but from what I heard, it wasn't a good experience."

-"I'm sorry for all the other times you didn't get to participate though."

-"Thanks. But still, it's nice to see the Big Water, especially with...with..."

-"With?"

Blackberry fell awkwardly silent, slightly embarrassed at what she was about to say. Her friend respected her silence.

-"I've always wanted to go to the Big Water too," the buck said. "Boats are fascinating, really."

-"I agree. Some things float, but others don't. Take a look at this pebble, for example." She pointed to a small pebble on a corner of the boat. She kicked it off, and it sank to the bottom of the water. "This boat, with the two of us on top of it, is so much heavier than that pebble. Yet, the boat floats, but the pebble sinks. Why?"

-"I'm not sure, but it's a good thing it's this way, so we can be...er...dry."

-"That's true. Still interesting to think about, though."

The two rabbits continued to look at the scenery, as the boat continued to drift.