AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review!
Chapter 119: It Never Fails.
"Dreams are silly. They are deceptive and can turn out either bad or good. You have little control once in a deep sleep. But you can control the events and consequences in real life. It does not do well to depend on dreams, and forget to live in the real world."
-Pipkin3, Brindle 3: Part 1: The Fellow Traveller
The sun was slowly setting below the horizon. Thethuthinnang was singing, while Fiver and Pipkin were stamping nearby, more softly than earlier, in order to avoid disturbing the others.
-"You really are a great singer, Thethuthinnang," Hazel said, hopping over to the others. "And I appreciate the efforts you three are making, but I think the time has come to stop. It doesn't appear to be working."
-"I wouldn't be so sure, of that," Fiver replied. "Look in the sky."
Hazel did so; dark clouds were gathering in the sky. It was only a matter of time before rain would come.
-"It's working, Fiver!" Pipkin shouted, hopping about madly. "The rain is finally coming!"
-"Well done, everyone," Hazel said, nuzzling Pipkin and Fiver.
-"We need to celebrate," Pipkin suggested. "How about tail tag? It seems like a good way to have fun."
-"We could do that." Hazel smiled, as a first drop of rain fell on his nose.
Violet sighed loudly. In the previous day phase, she helped get Thethuthinnang voted out, only for her to turn out to be yet another outskirter. When the next night phase came, Violet herself was evicted.
-"That was a very disappointing conclusion, just like everything else in life," she said. "I'm going."
As Violet hopped out of the Honeycomb, Flyairth looked at the group of rabbits still present. Very few players remained in the game, including three of the four members of the owslafa. She had never hosted a game with so many players before, and it was taking much longer than she had initially thought it would. She had not had any opportunities to silflay since the game began, and was getting hungry. She was hoping the game would end soon, and the fastest way to accomplish that would be with an owslafa victory. However, she was merely the hostess; she had no say in who the players would vote out in the next day phase. She therefore came up with another idea to take a break.
-"You know what to do now," she said. "I'll be out at silflay, let me know when you make up your minds on who you're voting out."
As Flyairth hopped outside, she was greeted by rain. She did not mind it; after spending the day in the stuffy burrow, she welcomed the opportunity to go outside even if she would be soaking wet by the time she finished her silflay. As she started to nibble the grass, however, something else caught her attention: the sounds of other rabbits. As she peered over the edge of the Down, she saw several rabbits playfully hopping through the meadow, chasing each other. They were probably involved in a game of some sort, but she did not care to join them. She just wanted a quiet break, an opportunity to relax.
As she nibbled a dandelion, however, she smelled someone approach; it was Vesper.
-"Uh, we decided who we're voting out," he said shyly. "Cornflower. It's a shame, she's a nice doe, it really hurt to vote her out, but Vilthuril made some valid points about her behaviour, she seemed really suspicious."
Flyairth abruptly stopped chewing. Cornflower was a member of the owslafa, the second one to be voted out. This would no doubt prolong the game even further. She really would have to host a game with fewer players next time.
-"All right, I'll go announce the news to everyone," she said, before hopping back underground, carrying the dandelion with her.
Vesper, however, did not immediately go back underground. He had seen the other rabbits in the meadow, and he was eager to join in on the fun. He hopped towards the bottom of the Down and looked at the others from a distance. While he had met many other rabbits during the game of owslafa, most of those playing nearby had not taken part in the game. However, he could still recognize a few. Blackberry, who Bluebell repeatedly tried to kiss, but for some reason didn't enjoy this. Cute little Fiver and his mate Vilthuril, who had welcomed him to the warren the previous evening, and who were totally devoted to each other like all rabbits in love should be. Bluebell, the one who was obsessed with inappropriate jokes and kissing. Hyzenthlay, the brave and beautiful doe who didn't have a mate, but maybe in the future. And another rabbit, a beautiful doe, whose appearance totally amazed him.
-"Hello." The voice snapped Vesper out of his thoughts. He turned to look at the rabbit who had addressed him, and recognized him as Hazel-rah, Chief Rabbit of Watership Down. "How are you liking it at the warren so far?"
-"It's..." Vesper struggled to find the best word to describe the feeling that filled his mind. "...it's amazing!"
-"I'm glad you like it here. We were thinking about going to the river for some fun in the water, would you want to join us?"
-"I would love it!"
Hazel smiled.
-"Come with us then."
The crowd of rabbits slowly approached the river. It seemed larger than they had ever seen it before, with a new waterfall coming from on top of some nearby rocks; Blackberry quickly explained that it was due to the rain.
Some rabbits were more interested in the river than others. Pipkin was the first to jump in, while Hazel slowly made his way to the waterfall, followed by Fiver. Hawkbit kept staring at the river, not wanting to get his fur wet, but Hyzenthlay pushed him in. Primrose appeared to be doing her best to splash everywhere. Dandelion remained near the shore, not wanting to explore the river. Bigwig stayed behind a nearby tree, in order to keep a look out for elil.
Vesper looked at the scene unfold with amazement. Blackberry and Blackberry were sitting by the shore closely together, splashing water on Pipkin who did his best to dodge, although he seemed to be having fun. Hazel was scrubbing Fiver's back; while Fiver was clean, he seemed to enjoy the gentle touch of his brother's paws. Bluebell suddenly jumped out from behind the waterfall in a failed attempt at scaring the others. Hawkbit, while initially uninterested in the river, seemed to be having a lot of fun, periodically jumping out of the river and shaking himself, dumping lots of water onto everyone nearby. Vesper could not contain himself anymore: he would have to join the fun. With a powerful leap, he landed in the river.
Hazel was enjoying the peaceful time he was spending with his brother. Recently, it seemed to him, they had not spent as much time together as in the past; instead they were with their respective mates. Cleaning his brother's fur brought him back memories of similar events back at Sandleford Warren.
Suddenly, a terrible scream broke from Fiver.
-"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pull so hard," Hazel started to say, although he soon realized that what had happened was much more serious than that. Fiver grew limp and sank below the surface. Hazel immediately dove in to save him. Vilthuril, who had been silently observing from the shore for a while, also jumped into the water.
From the surface, the river appeared to be clean and a bright shade of blue. However, this was merely an illusion. Below the surface, the water was murky, full of dirt and dead plants, greatly reducing visibility. Hazel and Vilthuril struggled to locate Fiver below the surface, until Vilthuril stumbled upon his tail, purely by luck. She and Hazel each grabbed one of his hind legs, and dragged him upwards as fast as they could.
Suddenly, they realized that Bigwig had also dove to rescue Fiver, and the two rabbits bumped into him, dropping Fiver. Luckily, Blackberry and Blackberry grabbed him by the ears and dragged him the rest of the way to the shore.
After Hazel, Vilthuril and Bigwig had made it back to the surface, they hopped over to Fiver. He remained motionless for a few moments, before coughing up some water and weakly opening his eyes.
-"We all have to run," he said weakly.
-"You must rest, Fiver," Hazel said.
-"I can't, we all have to run!" Fiver abruptly got up, staring desperately at Hazel, who realized what was happening: Fiver had had a vision, and it would be dangerous not to listen.
-"You heard him, everyone run!" he shouted. "Where DO we run though, Fiver?"
-"Away from the river, back to the warren!"
-"But we were having fun!" Hawkbit complained.
-"Nobody will be having fun ever again if we don't run!" Fiver shouted, before dashing away. The others soon followed, apart from Dandelion, who had remained motionless ever since Fiver had sunk. Hawkbit was forced to run back and bite his tail to bring him back to his senses.
The rabbits ran a long distance, stepping through puddles nearly all the way. Some of the puddles were surprisingly deep, and on several occasions their paws couldn't even reach the bottom. As they reached the bottom of the Down, they heard a deafening noise. A pile of rocks near the waterfall had collapsed, unleashing a torrent of water through the forest.
As they reached the top of the Down, the rabbits saw the full extent of the damage: it seemed that all nearby fields were covered with water. The trees, along with the farmhouse and the barn at Nuthanger Farm, remained visible, but the water was rising rapidly, and it was only a matter of time before they would be submerged.
-"I saw it all in a dream last night, Hazel!" Fiver said. "It's a gigantic flood, and unless we can stop it, it will destroy Watership Down."
-"How did we stop it, in the dream?" Hazel asked.
-"That's the problem: we didn't, instead we drowned. I'm sorry, Hazel, I don't know what we can do."
Vesper was the only rabbit who had not run towards the Down when Fiver had told everyone to do so. As he realized what was going on, he went in the opposite direction, further downstream, towards his boat. It could prove to be very useful in this storm.