AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)
Chapter 111: The Unexpected.
"Now go off and frolic among the daisies and be kittens while you still can."
-Anoush, The Story of How ElArairah Saves His Warren
At Watership Down, a few rabbits were gathered in a small burrow. Bored following his elimination from the game, Captain Broom challenged Dandelion to a storytelling battle. Dandelion had immediately accepted; Hawkbit, Fiver, Pipkin and Vilthuril were brought in to judge.
-"Do the stories have to fit a specific theme?" Vilthuril asked.
-"How about scary stories?" Captain Broom chuckled; he could tell of a dramatic battle against elil at old Redstone, and should be able to easily win.
-"Very well," Dandelion said. "I'll start."
Dandelion dramatically cleared his throat, before sitting down and starting to tell the story.
-"Let me tell you about a haunted warren..."
-"A haunted warren?" Hawkbit shook his head. "I've heard so many stories from you, you can do better than that. How about what you told Pipkin a few days ago? That was rather scary."
-"Not at all," Pipkin said. "It was actually quite inspiring."
-"But this story, unlike the one I told Pipkin, is true," Dandelion replied. "That is why it is scary."
-"Go on," Hawkbit said nervously.
-"As you all know, there is a warren on the other side of the woods..."
-"You mean Efrafa?" Fiver asked.
-"No, not Efrafa, but another warren, now abandoned, with dark secrets," Dandelion continued. "Some say it's haunted!"
-"What warren are we talking about here?" Hawkbit asked.
-"You don't know about it? It was found on patrol, it's on the other side of the wood..."
-"You already said that! Just why wasn't I invited on that patrol?"
-"You were," Captain Broom said. "I was there too. The truth, my boy, is that you weren't paying attention."
-"Oh, THAT warren!" Hawkbit said, pretending to have known all along in order to hide his embarrassment. "There's nothing haunted about that old warren!" he scoffed.
-"In that case," Dandelion replied," I dare YOU to go inside!"
-"Challenge accepted" Hawkbit said proudly. "Do you want to make a bet to make it more exciting?"
-"If you don't succeed, you have to give me two carrots. If you do, you get the carrots."
-"Perfect. But first, you'll have to show me the way to the warren."
-"Follow me," Dandelion said, hopping out of the burrow.
-"But what about the storytelling contest?" Captain Broom asked.
-"We'll finish it after I win this bet!" Hawkbit said, running after Dandelion.
Fiver, Vilthuril, Pipkin and Captain Broom remained inside the burrow for a while afterwards, until Fiver spoke again.
-"Those two have no idea what they're getting into, do they?"
-"Indeed," the captain said, "they most likely don't."
-"We best go and help them, then," Pipkin suggested.
-"Let's go," Vilthuril said, "before they get too far ahead of us."
With that, the rabbits left towards the abandoned warren. Captain Broom, however, stayed behind.
-"If only they knew..." he said.
-"Knew what?" Captain Holly said, as he hopped into the burrow.
-"It's a long story. It all started seasons ago..."
Hannah's attempts at removing the pebble from her ear had only worsened her situation. While she was able to touch the pebble with her front paws, this caused her to lose her balance and land face down into the dirt. Unable to lift her head out of the dirt, she could not breathe, and would suffocate to death. She had been a fool to trust that stupid turtle and her nonsensical ramblings about magic.
Her other ear, the tip of which had been bitten off by Tabitha seasons before, picked up the faint sound of another creature approaching, only for it to suddenly stop. A few moments later, she felt the moist texture of a tongue all over her back. Hopefully the creature would soon swallow her, it would be a less painful death than drowning in mud. This did not happen: instead, the tongue scooped her up and dropped her on the ground, out of the mud, and she was licked all across the face, removing the dirt from her eyes. She blinked a few times, confused at this sudden turn of events.
A young fawn had been wandering through the woods, no particular destination in mind, when he spotted a brown shape in the ground. He looked at it for a few moments, trying to figure out what it was; perhaps a rock of some sort? After licking it, he realized that it was not a gem after all, but a small creature, a mouse or a mole probably, and it was stuck in the dirt. With a few more swipes of his tongue, he managed to dislodge the mouse from its sticky situation.
As Hannah's vision cleared, she realized that the creature that had saved her was a fawn, and it was now staring at her.
-"I tink ye savd mah life. Tank yo."
The fawn kept staring at the mouse, but it remained silent.
-"I'm Hannah. Wat's yur neme?"
The mouse tried to get up, but the pebble was still stuck in her ear. The fawn still did not make a sound.
-"Uh, culd ye get the peebble out o' mah ear plese?"
The fawn blinked a few times, before bending down and starting to lick Hannah's ear.
-"Ooh, stop! Hat tickll!" As she squirmed, however, she realized that she could move. The pebble was gone. "Well, hank ye for removn me peble. Were did ye put it?"
She looked at the ground around her, and while there were a few pebbles, none of them looked like the magic one that was the cause of all this trouble. As she glanced at the fawn again, though, she realized that it appeared to have something in its mouth.
-"Did ye eat the pebble?"
The fawn listened to the mouse as it appeared to try to communicate with him, but he was unable to understand what it was trying to say. Looking around the mouse's body, he saw a weird object in its ear; whatever it was, it was not supposed to be there. With another swipe of his tongue, the pebble was gone.
Now came a difficult decision: what to do with the pebble. Should it be dropped back onto the ground, where it could possibly kill another mouse later on? Or should the fawn keep it in his mouth, where it could never harm another creature again? The fawn decided on the second option. He would keep the pebble in his mouth for the rest of his life, saving countless mice from terrible deaths.
-"Pleas spit it ou. Tis magic."
The fawn lowered its head; at first it looked like it would follow Hannah's command, but its mouth remained closed. Hannah was getting desperate. She had to get the pebble back somehow.
-"Pleas spit it ou! PLEASE!"
She climbed on the fawn's head, placing her front paws over its nose and her hind legs on its lower jaw, and pushed as hard as she could, to try to open the fawn's mouth. This did not have the desired effect.
The fawn was confused: the mouse was quite agitated for no apparent reason, even climbing on his head. Its claws were small and short, but nevertheless caused pain to the tender insides of his nose, which one of the paws had entered. The fawn became furious: he had saved this mouse's life, and now it was hurting him? What a way to thank him! He had to get rid of this troublesome creature. He dashed through the woods as fast has he could, hoping the mouse would soon let go.
As the fawn suddenly started running, Hannah desperately clung to its face, burying her claws deeper into the fawn's nose, causing it to run even faster. Suddenly, she spotted three familiar creatures in the distance.
-"FIVER! PIPKIN! VILTHURIL! HEEEELPP!"
The three rabbits did not even turn their heads: they could not hear Hannah's shouts. Desperate to stay alive, she tried to climb to the top of the fawn's head. As soon as she removed front paws from its nose, however, it stopped running, since it was no longer in pain; the sudden stop caused her to fly off its head, crashing against a nearby tree trunk before falling to the ground.
After what felt like forever, the fawn finally felt the pain in his nose ease. He stopped running to catch his breath, dropping the pebble in the process; it rolled into a nearby hole. He briefly debated whether or not he should pick it up again, but soon decided against it: this entire incident had left him with a poor impression of mice, and he couldn't care less if that pebble went on to kill every mouse in the world. Now that the mouse was no longer on his head, he walked away.
Hannah was in great pain as she landed on the ground. She almost wished the fawn had left her alone in the mud. As she got up, however, she remembered the magic wish she had made before her troubles began: a way to travel fast. Perhaps the recent events were merely the consequences of the magic. This ride was certainly not what she had had in mind at the time.
-"Oof! Well tanks fo the ride Ba..." she started to say, but the fawn was already gone.
Hannah looked at her surroundings, and could not recognize them. The fawn had most likely gone in the wrong direction. In order to get back to the warren, she would have to cast another spell, and make sure it was more precise. But first, she would have to locate the pebble. She took a look at a nearby hole, and realized that it was the entrance to a rabbit warren, although it seemed abandoned. She had seen the pebble roll down there, but it could be in any of the burrows by now. With a sigh, she stepped into the hole, to search the warren for the pebble.