AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review :)

Also, following this chapter, I will be taking a short break from this story. The next chapter will come on 4 April 2021.

Chapter 138: The Second Vote.

"No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

-Winston Churchill

Lionel-Hector woke up later than usual. The flood at the junkyard the previous evening had massively delayed him going to bed, but it didn't stop him from having a good time with his girlfriend, Debbie Cane. He turned around; she was still asleep beside him. He would let her sleep a while longer; he got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

He came back 15 minutes later to find Debbie stirring, and sitting up on the bed.

-"Hiya."

-"Hey man," she said. "That was a great night, even if you were late."

-"We should to this more often."

-"The appointment with my lawyer is today. Soon, we'll be able to do this every night, and without having to sneak around behind my husband's back."

LH picked up his phone from the bedside table.

-"What time is the appointment?" he asked.

-"4 o'clock. What time is it now?"

-"Three."

-"Blimey, I'll be late." Debbie jumped out of bed, and walked towards the next room. "I'll go get dressed. You should probably be getting ready for work too."

-"I think I'll skip work today," LH said, browsing the news on his phone. "Sir Fredrick is on vacation, and the junkyard is an even bigger mess than usual. Nothing that can't wait a day or two."

-"How's that children's book you're writing?" came Debbie's voice from the next room.

-"Oh, I gave up on it. The plot was rather absurd, especially the part where the donkey accuses the horse of trespassing and asks to see his passport. Now I'm working on a..."

-"Wait what?" Debbie walked back into the room. "You never told me about that story. What happened to the foxes?"

But LH was no longer paying attention. His eyes were fixed on the screen of his smartphone.

-"Oh my."

-"What is it?"

-"Oh my!" he repeated.

-"Seriously, what's going on?"

-"OH MY!"

-"Give me that thing." She grabbed the phone out of his hands, and gasped as she saw what was on the screen. "Oh my!"

The screen was displaying a BBC News article, with a worrying headline: "BREAKING: hostage situation near Newbury". This was followed by a map, with Nuthanger Farm clearly indicated as the location of the crime.

-"Your husband..." LH said, "is he the villain or the victim?"

Debbie quickly scrolled through the article.

-"I don't know. They say it's a developing story and they don't have all the information yet."

-"What should we do?"

-"I'm going there! If he's guilty, all the more reason to divorce him. If he's the victim...he's still my husband. Not to mention little Lucy."

-"I'll drive you."

-"That would be greatly appreciated."

The Honeycomb was once again filled with rabbits. With the claw marks ruined by the kittens, it was decided to vote again. Alder, being the only one able to precisely count the votes, was tasked with determining the winner.

The burrow floor was once again cleared of claw marks, before voting began. It went by significantly faster than the first time, with most rabbits voting for the same candidates they had previously selected. The kittens cast their votes for Hyzenthlay, this time being careful to only make one mark each. Heather was able to convince the other Efrafans not to vote for Moss again. She voted for Flyairth instead, and most of the other Efrafans did so too, albeit begrudgingly.

-"Flyairth is ahead with thirteen votes," Alder said, after everyone had voted. "Hawkbit has five, Hyzenthlay ten, and Holly eight."

Seeing the confused look on everyone's faces, he continued:

-"You all have hrair votes. Flyairth is far ahead, with Hyzenthlay in second place. Holly is close behind Hyzenthlay, and Hawkbit is last."

-"Does this mean Flyairth is our second Chief?" Strawberry asked.

-"I don't know," the raccoon replied. "Flyairth may have more votes than anyone else, but less than half of the rabbits here voted for her. This would leave many unsatisfied."

-"Well that's good," Hawkbit said, breathing a sigh of relief. "What do we do now though?"

-"I'm...honestly not sure..." Hazel said. "Fiver, can you come with me?"

The two brothers hopped out of the Honeycomb, and sat down in a nearby tunnel.

-"I'm going to need your advice again," Hazel said. "Maybe having a second Chief wasn't such a good idea after all."

-"Only a few rabbits voted against it," Fiver replied. "Backing down now is bound to make many unhappy."

-"But no matter who gets chosen, there will be many unhappy rabbits."

-"The only way out is if some rabbits change their votes. For that to happen, I think we need to get to know the candidates better. I voted for Holly, because he's reliable and I've known him the longest, but I might vote for someone else if I had a better idea what they would do if they were Chief. I'm probably not the only one feeling this way either."

-"That's actually a good point. Thanks for the advice, Fiver."

The two brothers went back to the Honeycomb, where everyone was staring at them.

-"So, what's happening?" Bigwig asked.

-"I'm going to ask all four remaining candidates, why they want to become Chief," Hazel said.

-"Who goes first?"

-"Uh..." Hazel had not thought about that. "How about Hawkbit? He's the one with the fewest votes right now."

Hawkbit hopped over to the front of the crowd. He cleared his throat, before announcing his motivations.

-"I want to become Chief because I am unsatisfied with several aspects of the warren as it is."

-"What are these issues?" Hazel asked. "Even if you end up losing the election, I would be willing to try to resolve them."

-"For one thing, the owsla. If I were Chief, I would put an end to excessive training, and allow rabbits to skip training whenever they wish."

-"I'm in charge of the owsla," Bigwig said menacingly. "I'm not going to let you or anyone else interfere with it."

-"If I were Chief, Bigwig, then I would outrank you, so I would be able to do whatever I want."

-"Hazel never meddled in owsla business, and I won't let the second Chief meddle either."

-"I have a feeling that Hawkbit is only saying this because he thinks he's training too much," Nelthilta said.

-"Ugh fine..." Hawkbit knew that Nelthilta was telling the truth, but was unwilling to admit it. Realizing this was one debate he would never win, he suggested something else. "In that case, I'm going to make a rule forbidding bucks from digging."

This idea was met by a collective groan.

-"Seriously? This again?" Blackberry in particular was exasperated.

-"Why do you still object?" Hawkbit said. "We have a lot of does here now, so you won't have to worry about having to do everything yourself."

-"I'm really not in the mood to debate gender roles," Flyairth said. "There are more important things to worry about than digging."

-"What's so bad about bucks digging?" Bluebell asked.

-"Oh, YOU wouldn't object..." Hawkbit started to say, only to be cut off by Nelthilta.

-"You want to offload the unpleasant tasks on us does. I don't want you as Chief anymore, Hawkbit, I'm changing my vote. Flyairth, you got it."

Most of Hawkbit's voters joined Nelthilta in changing their votes for Flyairth. Two rabbits who had previously voted in favour of no second Chief at all also voted for her. Eventually, Bluebell was Hawkbit's last voter.

-"I really don't see what's so bad about bucks digging, so..." Bluebell too hopped over to Flyairth and made a claw mark in front of her.

-"I can't believe this!" Hawkbit was getting visibly angry. "Bluebell, you traitor!"

-"I'm sorry you consider this a betrayal," Bluebell said. "But I don't approve of your plans to forbid bucks from digging."

-"I can accept that, but this is the second time something like this happens in two days! First, you go back to Blackberry, and now this!"

Bluebell thought for a few moments, trying to figure out what Hawkbit was talking about.

-"Is this about the kissing?"

-"Of course it's about the kissing! And since nobody wants me anymore, consider me out of this silly competition!"

Hawkbit stormed out of the burrow, but not before leaving a claw mark in front of Holly. Most of the other rabbits, unaware of the situation between Hawkbit and Bluebell, were left very confused.

-"Have I done something wrong?" Bluebell asked, just as confused as the others.

-"Probably a good thing he's out," captain Broom said. "He would have caused so much drama if elected. Anyway, what are the current results, now that he's out?"

-"Holly is up to nine votes, one more than previously," Alder said. "Hyzenthlay is still at ten votes, one more than Holly. Flyairth is now far ahead, with twenty votes. If Flyairth gets one more vote, over half the rabbits here will have voted for her."

-"Anyone else want to change their votes?" Flyairth asked.

Bluebell raised his front paws.

-"But you already voted for me..."

-"I know," Bluebell replied. "I was just joking."

Another rabbit was about to raise their paw, when suddenly...

-"Stop!"

Everyone turned towards the rabbit who had spoken; she was sitting in the entrance to one of the tunnels. Most rabbits did not know who she was, but a few recognized her as Meadow, the captain of owsla from Buttercup's warren, and she seemed exhausted.

-"Why stop?" Flyairth asked.

-"The weasels are coming!"