It was an early summer day at Watership Down. The weather was peaceful at the moment, although there seemed to be a thunderstorm on the way. A large number of rabbits were at silflay, eager to get some grass before the storm would force them back underground.
It had been a few months since Campion had died on a wide patrol. Since then, there had been chaos in Efrafa, over who would become the next Chief Rabbit. Finally, an owsla officer called Knapweed became the new leader. Knapweed had assured that his warren would remain on good terms with the Watership Down warren, and Vleflain. However, they had not heard from Efrafa since then.
Hazel had been on a trip to Vleflain for a few days, when a messenger arrived at Watership Down. Most rabbits realized she was an Efrafan due to her smell, but Hyzenthlay, who was at silflay with Fiver and Thethuthinnang, recognized her immediately.
-”Nelthilta?”
-”Yes, it's me. It's been a while, hasn't it?” Nelthilta replied. “Sorry I almost ruined your escape.”
-”It's nothing to worry about,” Thethuthinnang said. “What brings you here?”
-”It's something quite weird. And unnerving, honestly. I would have to tell the leader of this warren about it.”
-”There are two of us,” Hyzenthlay explained. “The first one is Hazel-rah, but he is at Vleflain at the moment. I'm the second one.”
-”All right then. Hrair days ago, Knapweed was supervising the digging of a new burrow, when suddenly the diggers reached a large, deep cavern that nobody knew about. He decided to explore it, alone, but he never came out.”
-”Did anyone else go after him?” Thethuthinnang asked.
-”Loosestrife went there the next day, but he too didn't come out. Afterwards, nobody ever dared to go inside.”
-”I have a feeling,” Fiver said suddenly, “ that Loosestrife and Knapweed are still alive, but they're not alone in there. There's someone else with them, but I don't know who...”
-”We should probably go investigate,” Hyzenthlay said.
-”You're not going alone,” Thethuthinnang said. “I'm not letting you do something so dangerous without me by your side.”
-”And I'm coming too,” Fiver said.
==========
The trip to Efrafa was mostly uneventful. Throughout the entire journey, Fiver had the vague feeling that they were being followed. The rabbits did not find anyone else following them, but the feeling persisted.
As they reached the warren, Nelthilta led the Watershippers to the cavern's entrance, which was guarded by several owsla officers. The hole looked dark and mysterious; the rabbits could not see anything beyond.
-”I can't feel anything,” Hyzenthlay said. “Fiver?”
-”Me neither. But we can't stay here all day. We need to go in.”
With that, Fiver cautiously hopped into the hole. Hyzenthlay came next, and finally Thethuthinnang.
After a short tunnel, they reached a small burrow, and it was clearly ancient. There were cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, and many more on the ground, presumably taken down by the previous visitors. There was a hole at the far end of the burrow, and it was too narrow for two rabbits side-by-side. Therefore, they entered one at a time; it was so small that Hyzenthlay had to flatten herself in order to fit.
The hole was clearly a run, and it seemed extremely long. The rabbits were plunged in complete darkness as they progressed. There was no end in sight, and the run was too small for them to turn around; they had no choice but to keep going.
Thethuthinnang was at the front of the line, and had it worse than the others. The tunnel had been cleared of cobwebs a few days before by the previous visitors, but most cobwebs remained on the ground, and clung to her paws. To make things worse, the spiders had started making new webs, which got stuck to her face.
After what felt like forever, the three rabbits finally finally reached another burrow. The ceiling was high above, and had a small opening, allowing light to filter through. Hyzenthlay jumped in order to reach it, but it was too high. She simply collided with some cobwebs, which clung to her ears.
-"You look like you could use some help cleaning that up," Thethuthinnang said.
-"You would need some grooming help too," Hyzenthlay replied.
Suddenly, they heard a squeal coming from the tunnel. It was clearly the sound of another rabbit. After a few moments of silence, there was another squeal.
-"You two stay here," Fiver ordered, "I'm going to take a look."
Fiver ran into the tunnel, until he saw the rabbit who had squealed. In front of him was a huge spider, larger than Fiver's head, probably venomous, and it was slowly approaching. Fiver acted quickly: he scratched the ceiling, causing a large rock to fall right on top of the spider, crushing it. Several of the spider's limbs fell off the rest of its body in the process. The threat neutralized, Fiver turned to the rabbit.
-"You all right, Pipkin?"
-"I'm all right, I wasn't bitten," Pipkin said, shaking. "Thanks for saving me, Fiver."
The two rabbits nuzzled each other.
-"What brings you here?" Fiver asked.
-"I overheard your conversation with Nelthilta, and I decided to join you."
-"I had the feeling that someone was following us. Why did you do it secretly, though? You could have just asked to come along, and we would have accepted."
-"I don't know, honestly. I'm sorry, Fiver..."
-"You didn't do anything wrong, Pipkin. No reason to apologize. I'm honestly glad you're here with me. Now let's go back to the others."
The two rabbits returned to the burrow where Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang had stayed; the two does had finished cleaning themselves.
-"No need to worry," Fiver said, "it's Pipkin. Does anyone have any idea what this burrow is?"
-"It feels vaguely familiar," Thethuthinnang said, "but I can't quite remember..."
-"I know!" Hyzenthlay suddenly said. "This used to be a prison burrow."
-"A prison burrow?" Pipkin repeated. "How do you know?"
-"I remember Blackavar telling me about these burrows, and this matches his description exactly," Hyzenthlay clarified. "As far as I know, nobody has been here since Woundwort's death."
-"That would explain why the burrows are in such a state," Thethuthinnang said, "but that doesn't explain why Knapweed and Loosestrife vanished."
-"Maybe they got lost?" Fiver said. "It doesn't seem too implausible, considering how dark it is in here."
-"I..." Hyzenthlay started to say, "...have the feeling there's someone else in here, and it's not a rabbit..."
Everyone fell silent and raised their ears, trying to hear the stranger. Suddenly, they heard some unusually high-pitched sounds, and a dark shape moved from one end of the burrow to the other, before hanging on the ceiling.
-"Darkling, is that you?" Pipkin said cautiously.
-"What you doing here Pipkin?" Darkling replied.
-"I didn't know you were friends with a bat, Pipkin," Thethuthinnang said. "That's amazing."
-"I came here with my friends to search for a few rabbits who mysteriously went missing here," Pipkin told the bat. "Did you see anyone go through here?"
-"I did. A few days ago they stop here and someone else capture them."
-"Which way did they go?"
-"That hole over there."
Darkling flew over to a small hole at the far end of the burrow, even smaller than the one the rabbits had entered earlier.
==========
The hole led to another run, which was even longer than the previous one, and had even more cobwebs. It also appeared to be leading even deeper underground, and it was getting harder for the rabbits to breathe. After a long time, they heard a voice coming from the end of the tunnel. While they couldn't understand the exact words, they could still recognize who was talking, and it terrified them.
-"Should we go back and alert the owsla?" Thethuthinnang said. "The four of us might not be able to defeat him."
-"Fiver once defeated him all alone!" Pipkin said.
-"I did, but the circumstances were different," Fiver said.
-"I would say yes, but it's impossible," Hyzenthlay said. "This is just too narrow for us to turn around, or even walk backwards. We'll have no choice but to fight him ourselves."
The four rabbits continued walking forward, until they finally reached the end of the tunnel. The chamber they had entered was much smaller than the previous one they had visited, and they saw instantly that they were not alone. There were two other rabbits nearby, huddled together in a corner of the burrow. They were Knapweed and Loosestrife; there was no sign of the rabbit they had heard.
-"You all right?" Hyzenthlay asked.
Knapweed raised his head and looked at the doe.
-"You've come to save us. Thank you."
-"What's happening?" Thethuthinnang asked.
-"He keeps us imprisoned here, and anyone else who will come will meet the same fate. He refuses to allow us to silflay unless we pledge allegiance to him, which we refused."
-"Why don't you escape?" Fiver asked.
-"He told us that if we try that, he will destroy the other chamber further away and trap us in the tunnel."
-"We don't have the strength to run anymore..." Loosestrife added.
-"Where is he now?" Pipkin asked.
-"He went out to silflay moments ago. He's got the exit well-concealed. We tried to escape through it once, but he almost ripped my eye out."
-"Look out, there he comes," Knapweed said.
At that moment, the wall seemed to start moving at the end of the burrow. Fiver, Hyzenthlay, Thethuthinnang and Pipkin positioned themselves right in front of it. Moments later, the ground opened entirely, and Vervain calmly hopped into the burrow. Before he could realize what was happening, he was pinned to the ground and kicked violently several times, until he stopped moving.
-"Is he dead?" Hyzenthlay asked, hopping off him.
-"No, just unconscious," Fiver said.
-"I wouldn't mind killing him right here and now," Thethuthinnang said, "but I have the feeling that we should bring him out and let the council decide his fate."
-"Let's do that," Knapweed decided.
==========
It was impossible to carry Vervain through the tunnels, so it was decided to carry him above ground instead, all the way back to Efrafa. Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang dragged him by the ears, with Pipkin sitting on top of him, ready to cuff him back into unconsciousness should he ever awake. Fiver, meanwhile, assisted the two former prisoners and helped them return to the warren. By the time they arrived, it was in the middle of the night, and everyone went underground to sleep. Vervain, meanwhile, was kept in a small burrow under strict owsla supervision.
The next morning, the council had a meeting over Vervain's fate. While several rabbits wanted to kill him, or put him through a predicament similar to that inflicted on Blackavar after his escape attempt, these proposals were rejected. Instead, it was decided to have a wide patrol escort him far away from the warren. His eyes would be covered by leaves the whole time, so that there would be no way for him to ever be able to make it back to Efrafa or Watership Down.
Satisfied by this outcome, the four Watershippers began the journey back to their own warren, which they reached in the early afternoon. It was that evening that the storm broke, and Hazel returned. Fiver was the only rabbit outside in such terrible weather, and as Hazel reached the top of the Down, the two brothers nuzzled each other.
-"So, did I miss anything?" he asked.
-"There's been quite an adventure. With spiders, a bat and returning villains."
-"You'll have to tell me all about it, dear brother."
THE END
Topic: Writing event #1: Halloween (Read 2033 times)