AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review! I'm glad you liked the chapter. Sorry about the drama, though; hopefully that will end soon...
Chapter 112: Ghosts and Boats.
"I felt a surge of warmth, a friendly warm light almost."
-Watership-Hazel, The New Captain
Strawberry, following Heather's instructions, had managed to dig a hole into the remains of Efrafa, while Hazel and Bigwig kept a look out for "patrols". From the looks of it, it seemed a few runs were still stable enough for two or three rabbits to navigate.
-"This place really has been massively damaged," Strawberry said. "How did it collapse, anyway?"
-"The tree was struck by lightning," Heather explained. "Then an incompetent officer accidentally caused the rest to fall apart."
-"Are you sure it really was an accident? Look at this root here." Strawberry placed his paw on one of the roots. "Someone chewed through it. It is no accident."
-"Destroying their own warren on purpose?" Bigwig said. "But that makes no sense!"
-"I'll have to tell Moss about this when we get back. But until then, is the flayrah supply safe to access?"
-"I think so."
-"Good job, you two," Hazel said. "We must do this quickly. Bigwig and I will get into their stores, while you keep guard here."
A bit later, the two rabbits emerged, laden with food.
-"Primrose was right," Strawberry said. "There really was flayrah down there."
-"Take this and start heading back to the warren," Bigwig instructed the buck. "Hazel and I need to make one more trip."
-"Please hurry, I've seen the kittens hiding further away. They are probably planning their attack, we don't have much time."
Hazel went back underground, with Bigwig following him. They soon picked up the last batch of edible flayrah; the rest had started to rot.
-"Quickly Bigwig, we must catch up with Strawberry before..."
He was interrupted by loud stamping.
-"Oh no," Bigwig cried, "we've been spotted! Run Hazel!"
The four kittens emerged from behind a bush, and swarmed after them.
-"We'll have to leave the flayrah," Bigwig said as he and Hazel breathlessly crossed the wrecked bridge and hopped along the river. Hazel was about to voice his agreement when Strawberry rushed towards them.
-"Quickly! Follow me!" he said, and led the two bucks and the doe to an overgrown part of the river where there was an old rowing boat. Inside was all the flayrah Strawberry had carried back, along with Heather. "We can use the boat to take all the food, then we'll escape quietly."
As Heather started to gnaw through the rope which tied the boat, Hazel and Bigwig loaded up the rest of the food.
-"Well done, both of you!" Hazel said.
-"This seems awkwardly familiar," Bigwig said. "Didn't we do exactly this the last time we had to escape from Efrafa?"
-"You're right," Hazel replied. "I wonder why humans have been leaving so many boats on this river, where us rabbits can use them."
-"I don't know, and I don't really care," Heather said. "We'll just have to make the most of it."
With that, the rope broke. When the four "Efrafans" arrived, the boat was floating away from the shore.
-"Hey!" Periwinkle shouted. "That's not fair!"
-"You didn't tell us about that trick of yours," Gilia added.
-"And Strawberry, what is HE doing here?" Mallow asked.
-"Always expect the unexpected," Bigwig said with a wink.
At that moment, Hazel jumped out of the boat and swam to the shore.
-"What are you doing?" Heather asked, horrified.
-"I'll guide them back to the warren," Hazel replied, as he reached the shore and shook the water out of his fur, accidentally drenching the kittens in the process. "I trust you can all make it back on your own."
-"We'll do our best," Strawberry said.
Hannah's pebble had rolled very deep into the warren, and it took the mouse a long time to find it again. As soon as she rediscovered it, she started to roll it up the nearest tunnel. As she neared the exit, however, she heard some approaching footsteps. Unsure whether the creature was friendly or not, she ducked into an alcove to remain hidden, as several shadows appeared in front of the entrance.
-"It's spooky. Now I see why Dandelion said it was haunted." The voice resonated through the run; Hannah could clearly identify it as that of Fiver.
-"I'm not going in," Pipkin added.
-"I don't think it's that bad," Vilthuril said. "It's rather pretty, with the sunflowers in the fields all around the warren."
-"Now that we're here Hawkbit..." Hannah cringed: Dandelion's voice sound even worse than usual due to the echo. "...you have to run through all the tunnels and out on the other side."
-"That sounds easy!" Hawkbit said, as he looked into the burrow. "But it's a bit dark in there."
-"No darker than at Watership Down," Fiver replied.
Quickly, Hawkbit scampered into the warren. He did not notice the mouse as he ran past her, but she could clearly see that, as much as he would hate to admit, he really was afraid of ghosts, and wanted to get this over with as soon as he could.
After Hawkbit was out of sight to the other rabbits, Dandelion remained silent for a few moments, before starting to strange noises.
-"Whoooooooo!" he boomed. "That will scare him!"
Hawkbit suddenly rushed back out of the warren, looking very frightened; he almost crashed into the others in the process.
-"There's a ghost rabbit down there," he cried. "I heard a very strange noise."
-"Oooooh noooooooo!" Dandelion said in a stereotypical ghostly voice, making Fiver and Pipkin smirk. Hawkbit sat up, looking really cross.
-"I knew it was you all the time, you silly rabbits!"
-"But the fact remains that you didn't complete the challenge," Dandelion said. "You owe me two carrots."
-"You cheated!" Hawkbit cried. "If anything, YOU should give me carrots, for resorting to such a dirty trick."
Hannah giggled as she listened to the rabbits' conversation. She figured she should join the fun. She made the scariest noise she could:
-"OOOOOH!"
-"What's that?" came Dandelion's alarmed voice.
-"Ghosts!" Hawkbit, Dandelion, Fiver and Pipkin shouted at once, as they raced away as fast as their paws could carry them; only Vilthuril remained. Hannah peaked out of the hole, and giggled.
-"Whosts indead!"
-"Why did you do that?" the doe asked sternly.
-"E juss wented to..."
-"You scared Fiver! That really wasn't nice of you."
-"Twuz juss a jok..."
As Fiver made it past the sunflowers, he looked around him, and saw that Vilthuril was no longer with him. Fearing the worst, he ran back to the warren, where he soon spotted his mate, sitting near the warren's entrance with Hannah by her side.
-"Vilthuril! My dear, I'm so glad to see you're safe. I was afraid that the ghosts got you..."
-"I'm fine, Fiver. There are no ghosts. It was just Hannah pulling a dumb prank."
-"I'm sorreh..."
-"It's fine," Fiver said. "Let's go back to the warren."
-"Ye mine carrin meh? E got is heve peeble!" Hannah asked.
-"I don't mind," Fiver said, and the mouse hopped on his back.
As they made their way through the brambles, however, they noticed something moving nearby. Curious, they peaked out of the bushes, and saw four rabbits. The largest one was lying in the middle of the open field near the sunflowers, and the other three, still kittens, were playfully running around him. It was as peaceful as things could be. But suddenly the oldest rabbit's smile faded, the kittens stopped running and lied down, the sunflowers withered and died, the rabbits became transparent until they were no longer visible.
-"Frith and Inlé, this warren really is haunted!" Vilthuril cried.
As soon as everyone reached this terrifying conclusion, the two rabbits ran away as fast as they could. Hannah found herself clinging desperately to Fiver's ears to avoid falling off his back; this felt annoyingly similar to her ride on the fawn's head.
The boat gently flowed along the stream, with the three rabbits onboard staring at the view. It was the exact same view as during the previous escape from Efrafa, with Primrose and Blackavar; very little had changed over the past year, apart from a few plants having grown taller. However, during the previous boating trip, Bigwig had soon fallen asleep, exhausted following his infiltration of the enemy. Additionally, neither Strawberry nor Heather were present, so the view was new to all three rabbits.
Strawberry noticed an unusual object on the water, slowly getting closer. It was a floating log, and there were two creatures on top of it.
-"Hey Strawberry!" he shouted.
The rabbit at the front of the log was standing on her hind legs, her front paws in the air in order to maintain her balance; she looked at him and a smile appeared on her face.
-"Hey Strawberry! I didn't know you went boating too."
-"That wasn't my original intention," the buck replied, "but there happened to be a boat available, so I decided to make the most of it."
-"That's nice! Do you want to switch boats? I think there's enough room for more rabbits on mine."
-"I don't know," the second rabbit on the log, Blackberry, said worryingly, as he moved his front paws in the water in order to steer the log along the current. "This boat isn't very stable right now, to say the least."
-"How about you two jump to our boat?" Bigwig suggested.
-"We probably should," Blackberry said. "It will be safer this way."
Strawberry hesitated, but soon came to the conclusion that Blackberry was right, and it would be safer to switch. She spent a few moments evaluating the angles and positions, before jumping. However, the changing currents, as well as the instability of the log she was on, prevented her from successfully reaching the boat, causing her to land in the water instead. As she placed her front paws on the edge of the boat, in order to climb on board, she upset the balance.
-"Get off, we're going to..." Bigwig started to say, but it was too late: the boat capsized, sending all three rabbits on board into the water, along with all the flayrah. The sudden splash caused Blackberry to into the water too.