Watership Down

dUfU

I trotted off, throwing Hapy a contemptuous smirk. Serve him right to attack me. Me, of all does. Well, I was the only doe in the Owsla. I felt his glare burn the fur on my back. I turned and shot him a killing look. He cringed, and I bared my teeth. I swung around and stalked off, with him trailing in my wake.

We arrived at the mouth of a vast gaping hole. Captain Rocky squeezed his bulky shape into the hole. I shot Hapy and Draus a Stay There look, and they stopped in their tracks. I heard a murmur of assent ripple around the burrow. After a while, I saw Rocky’s huge head poking out of the entrance. He twitched an ear, signalling for the minor rabbits to enter. I cocked my head, and they loped in, wearing a faked mask of indifference. I could feel their terror and excitement as the Threarah confronted them.

“Ah, Harpy. It is Harpy, is’t it?” he asked questioningly.
“Hapy,” corrected Hapy.
“Hapy, of course. I knew your mother very well. Very nice of you to come and see me. And your…” He trailed off.
“Friend, Chief, friend,” interrupted Draus, with an impatient flick of his thistledown tail.
“Right. So, I am guessing that you came more than to just exchange friendly words with me,” he said, returning to his business-like ways. Draus flicked his tail again and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Danger,” he murmured quietly.
“Sorry? I didn’t quite catch what you said there. As I’m getting older, my hearing isn’t quite up to scratch now,” The Chief said, with a friendly smile. He shifted in his position.
“So, I hear that there has been a dispute recently, and Hapy here has been sentenced to two days of hole arrest. Well, other than that, has there been anything else?” he asked. Rocky opened his mouth to decline, but Draus cut him off. His eyes were wild and filled with fear.
“Actually, there is. There is a great danger coming…”

#Bai

It was vital that I talk to the Chief Rabbit immediately. The horizon glowed, casting a crimson shade which resembled the sight of blood. Yes, it was very important indeed. And so, the next morning, with Hapy and Sky at my side, we entered the Chief Rabbit’s Owsla and spoke to the guard outside, who happened to be our friend. His name was Thornbuck (the reverse of the real Buckthorn) and he trusted the three of us very dearly. And so Hapy asked Thornbuck, “Can we have an appointment with the Chief Rabbit, please? It’s about the end of the world.”
“Alright. I’ll say I trust you, and you know how the Chief reacts to the end of the world messages. I’m probably going to get my head bitten of for this, but anyway. I’ll go ask.”

And off he went. He spoke, “Come in now.”
“Right, right, isn’t it Sad?”
“Hapy.”
“Oh yes, Sad.”
“Hapy.”
“Alright, Hapy.” with a tone that made Hapy argue no more. “I should assume you are telling me about something about the end of our civilization? And yes, you can have some lettuce.” addressing my look on the lettuce in the corner. He handed me some. Hapy restrained.
“Yes. My brother, Draus, has found some very upsetting views of what might happen to us, and I’m sure you can believe him. Everything he said has been true.”
“Right, right. And so, Draus, you can begin.”
“The moods in the skies are shallow. Everyday the colour of the horizon is getting closer and closer to blood and one day, we shall all perish!” I said.
The chief rabbit replied in a stern manner, “Even if Draus is correct, which of course is unlikely, we have a large issue. If we were to evacuate the whole Sandlelord Warren, where would we go? Obviously, we cannot do that, and thus we cannot do this. And if you would stop eating that lettuce – it is the only one I have!”
I stopped. “And please leave!” The Chief Rabbit said. Later, we heard that Thornbuck was right after all – he was going to have his head bitten off.

And yet we could not just leave my predictions unlistened to, for we were all going to die! And thus, and escape plan was formed. We were going to escape, and create a new warren. Obviously Hapy and I were going, and Thornbuck, because he was going to have his head bitten off, another rabbit in the Owsla whom did not like the Chief at all and wanted to escape for a long time but never had the resources, a rabbit named Berrystraw (Another terrible name derived from Strawberry). And even Sky, a self-respecting doe had even joined the team after telling us about her trust in my claims – I had made a claim that she was going down to the river to catch some cowslips and it was true. And so off we went. We did not know at all where to build our new warren – it would have to far away. Very far away in fact. And we would obviously need more does to keep the warren running – we only had one (Sky). Of course to get more does we would need to find them, and so we would have to find another warren.

There were none that we knew of, so we would have to find one somehow…

#Yao

I scampered off in search of another warren who could possibly help us on our journey. I met none, and Berrystraw, who had once been in the Owsla, decided to accompany in search of his peers. He made sure I brought Draus, who was now fidgeting and staring off into space. It was late dusk, and I could see a group of new Oswla recruits sitting across a fire, one was even slowly baking a cowslip on a stick, with a ton more of the valuable plant stored in a bag. Berrystraw cautiously approached the clique, who stared daggers at him at first, but when they saw his rank, instantly bowed down and invited him to their supper. I hid in some bushes, and Draus nibbled on his own fur.

“My good companions, if anybody would like to enjoy liberation, please follow me,” Berrystraw said, coding the message. Because all of the rabbits had been at the seeing where Draus pleaded his case to the Head Rabbit they knew what the message meant. Two rabbits came, a doe and a buck. The doe was named Firey, and the buck was named Wiggy. The two didn’t seem very happy to be involved in this discussion, but they also seemed like the rebellious type.

“Alright, Berrystraw, make it quick!” Firey said. True to her name, she was very full of fire. Sky would adore her. Wiggy was wiggly, fidgety, and the exact opposite of a good, confident Owsla buck. He seemed nervous as he chowed down on some cowslip. Berrystraw explained to them, but they wouldn’t believe it. Firey scoffed, and Wiggy held back a laugh and a wild wiggle. I could tell they needed some convincing. So, I dragged a nervous Draus out into the open for him to explain his visions. Firey and Wiggy quickly laughed the matter off.

“Yeah, right,” Firey said, snickering to herself.

“That vision cannot be true!” Wiggy cried, laughing. They needed some more, so I ripped a kebab of cowslip from Wiggy, who was quite astonished, munched on the crispy plant, and then began ranting.

“Do you want to get out of here or do you want to stay under this tyrant of a Head Rabbit? Would you rather be cramped up in a hole or eat wild grass and dandelions somewhere in a meadow. Would you rather be part of an oppressive police force that abuses rabbit’s rights, or would you rather be a part of a great expedition to start a new colony? Would you rather stay here and take the risk of being killed out completely or would you rather take the chance of believing Draus?” I asked them. These were hard questions to think about, and Wiggy contemplated them, but Firey immediately placed her hand onto Draus’s paw, signaling she agreed. Wiggy then decided to place his paw onto my paw, and then we joined paws and then did a final little shout.

“Rabbits forever!” we cried, and then dispersed.

Two days later, we were ready. Wiggy and Firey had packed the whole stock of cowslip, Berrystraw had managed to scrap together twenty pawfuls of dandelion, and there was a grass pie and a plant tart in my bag. Thornbuck had two giant bags full of cowslip, and when we questioned him, he said he had stolen it. Sky hadn’t brought anything, but she had brought another rabbit. Her brother, Rott, who wasn’t in the Owsla, but was still a highly honored rabbit. Draus had brought his visions, and Rott had a ton of grass stored in his hole which we then brought along.

We had sufficient supplies, and we were ready for our journey. On the night before Thornbuck was about to get his bitten off, we were off and scampering. Although we were carrying quite a lot, bringing 5 Owsla members had been a good idea. They were able to carry so much, I practically didn’t have anything weighing me down. In four hours, we were on the Hill, or the landmark that signified an end to our territory. It meant we were officially in the wilderness.

dUfU

The following day I was pulled out of bed by an angry Rocky. 

” You’re supposed to be on patrol with another three of the Owsla.” he said. I loped out of bed and shook my head. I joined Rocky’s patrol. I only realised the oddity of the situation then. There would not usually be a patrol consisting of only Owsla members. I shot Rocky a questioning glance, but he kept his expression clear, obviously ignoring me. I rolled my eyes, and we set off into the territory.

I only realised rabbit-scent once we were at the edge of our territory. Well, it is hard to detect it when one is carrying a bundle of cowslip. The heavenly scent wreathed around my nostrils. I set the bundle down. Rabbit-scent. I tracked it. I could smell different smells intertwined, but the strongest was Hapy and Draus’. I growled deeply. 

“Those traitors. I knew it,” I turned to Rocky, whose realisation was beginning to dawn over. He turned, frowning. He then suddenly galloped into a clump of lush ferns. I heard tussling rabbits, and I beckoned for the remaining group to run in. I howled a battle yowl and ran into the ferns, trampling the ferns as we did so. I bit and scratched rabbit, my teeth and claws finding flesh and driving pain through their body. 

I walked back, my pelt covered mulch and dirt. I lapped it off and jumped in a stream. I only had a few injuries, a scratch on my haunch and a bite on my flank. I licked them clean and waited for them to heal. Rocky, however, was limping with a bitten ear. His haunches were decorated with lacerations and scars. I supported him and left him to the medicine rabbit. The chief came out.

“This is a battle that we have not expected, child,”

#Bai

And so our rabbits began searching for warren – a place which was perfect for the start of a new warren. Hapy had some rabbits which he had wanted to bring with us, like Sky, but she resisted all ways of persuading her to come. We had walked one single day when we decided it was time to silflay and tell a story. And so Berrystraw began, “Long ago, Frith made the world. He created everything, from the world we know to us, to the elil. But eventually, El-ahrairah, the king of the rabbits, had spread his people too far. And so Lord Frith said, “If you cannot control your people, I will have to find ways to control them myself.”
However, El-ahrairah would not listen, and although Lord Frith could have killed him, he decided he needed somebody to be his jester. And so he ordered a meeting, which would involve every single animal and he would give them their strengths. He gave the blackbird her song, the weasel and the fox their cunningness and their teeth, the cat their ability to hunt rabbits. And when El-ahrairah heard the news, he rapidly began digging a hole to escape the hunts of the weasel, the fox, the cat and all the other elil. But when Lord Frith came to give El-ahrairah his skill, he blessed his hands, so he could dig quicker, and promised El-ahrairah, “I will not let you rule the world, but I will allow your people to survive.””

By now it was getting dark, and we had decided to settle down. We would continue tommorow. The next day, when we woke up, we continued walking, until we hit a forest. Lurking there was a fox. We would have to cross the forest – it was quite narrow, but it was long and would require and extra day of walking to cross. And so we sneaked behind a rock, and hope he would not see us. But our scent led him on our trail, and slowly but surely, he would find us. We continued hiding, and ran for our lives. But he glimpsed us, and came racing towards us like a bull, but just gave enough time for him to see a pheasant which distracted him for long enough for us to escape unharmed. There, we saw it. The perfect place. Right near a farmer’s land, but near to the forest so we could escape. The land was fertile, perfect for growing. But then, we saw a bird, a white bird on the space before us.

Its wings seemed to be injured. Hapy explained to us, “We might need a long range bird. I’ll explain why later. Meanwhile, the rest of you, begin to dig.”
And so Wigbig, another rabbit, joining Hapy to the bird.
“Hungry? Listen. Rabbit do not eat birds. We eat grass. We can help you.”
“My wing is hurting. I cannot fly.”
“Walk, then. Walk over there.”
It took every step slowly; by the time it had reached the place which would be our future warren, we had digged about halfway into the hole. We didn’t need one so big yet – we could expand. Berrystraw explained to Hapy about the structure. “It’s pretty good. There’s lots of space, and the farm is quite near for a raid. In fact, just under here is a perfect meeting room.”
Then, Wigbig entered – it explained to Hapy about the bird, “So, its wing broke when a bird stepped on it. And after I finished with it, it said something very very far away is something called Big Water, like bigger than any river. And it can fly very far. So now, Hapy, tell us why we need this bird.”
“Right. So, obviously, we do not have enough does. We only have one or two, and so this bird can fly long distances to see where the warrens are – we can try to steal does from there.”
So that was the plan.

#Yao

Wigbig and Wiggy both set off on a scouting search for the lake. The bird fell asleep, Berrystraw drifted off, Firey and Sky began arguing about the Owsla’s true motives. Rott and Thornbuck both decided to dig into some of the rations that we still had left. Draus was still very nervous and fidgety, so he began a phase of a trance, repeating over and over: “we need does for digging.”

Well, at least I was able to rest in peace. I began digging a crude, primitive little hole to nap in. A buck’s paws could dig, but it wouldn’t be able to start a warren of tunnels. Soon, I realized I was too tired to continue the movement any longer, and so, dropped dead onto a bed of fresh dirt. Two hours passed, and Sky and Firey had made up and began talking about our food rations. I was still fast asleep, curled up in my little napping spot, but Wigbig and Wiggy still had not returned. A chicken somewhere clucked, and I woke up, ready to run away and plenty alert, but no one was actually there. I could notice two dark figures traveling slowly towards us, making very slow progress, and I thought they were intruders, but in fact, they were our two brave scouts, returning from a mission, and also a scuffle. Wigbig had a giant slash across his snout, and his paws were bloody and torn. His leg was full of teeth prints, bleeding horrendously, and he was very agonized. Because of his leg, he was forced to limp, and his bruised arm didn’t help. Wiggy wasn’t in such a bad state, but he had three claw hacks near his paws, and he was barely able to support the weight of Wigbig on his shoulder, being three times smaller than Wigbig. The two had obviously encountered something, but from the large teeth and claw slashes, it was definitely not an unfriendly rabbit. It had to be at least a fox, or maybe even a lendri (badger).

I knew something was awry.

“We…hiccup!…couldn’t fight…them…” Wiggy managed a small whisper, and then collapsed to the ground, obviously relieved he was in the presence of friends again. I quickly rushed to his side, using some leaves to bandage his cuts and wounds. I hated to say it, but Wigbig looked beyond the condition of repairing. We would need somebody with real medical knowledge. Finally, Rott spoke up, something he hadn’t done since agreeing to the trip because of Firey’s pressure and coercing. I could feel a wave of emotions rising up.

“You can’t do anything, Rott. I know it’s hard giving up a companion, but it must be done,” I said, almost going into tears. Because of the crazy mission me and Draus had developed Wigbig was now dead.

“No! I can actually fix him!” Rott said, making a tiny sliver of hope in my eyes away. But the darkness of forbidding him quickly washed it away.

“No,” I muttered, and Rott pestered me with his assurance. I tried to quiet him so we could have a peaceful funeral, but he suddenly punched me with his left paw, and then gagged me and tied me to a tree. I thought he was beginning a mutiny, but he was really just making sure I would stay quiet. I protested and moaned under the gag, but he ignored me, and set Wigbig onto a tree of leaves. He began sending the other rabbits out for supplies.

“I’ll need plenty of grass, dust from the bark of a willow tree, two leaves from the tallest plant in the forest, and four bird’s eggs. I’ll also need four strips of twigs, and nine ladybugs. I want another two bouquets of flowers, and all the dirt you can carry,” he ordered, and the rabbits scurried after his commands. Wiggy stood solemnly by his friend’s side, assuring him it would be all right, and glancing up at Rott every now and then with a hopeful expression in his eyes. I decided to make the best of a bad situation, and slept, waking every twenty minutes to make sure everything was alright. Soon, I realized it would be for a long time, and after waking up five times, realized everybody was back. They had all of the ingredients, and dumped them into the large cauldron Rott had insisted on bringing with him on the trip.

“Go fetch me ten buckets of water,” he said, and the rabbits quickly obliged, grabbing the pails made up bark and running towards the river. When they were back, Rott had already gnashed enough rocks to create a spark, and a roaring fire was soon underway. After making sure all of the things he needed were there, Rott splashed the water into the cauldron, filling it around three quarters the entire way. Then, using his makeshift ladle (a tree branch) he began to mix the ingredients together into a thick paste that resembled ofsta, a traditional disgusting liquor that was usually drunk when a rabbit was believed to be possessed by a dangerous and evil soul. Soon, he was able to spoon out some of the thick stuff, and then applied it to Wigbig’s wounds, and he hissed with pain, the scorching thing must have done a number on the poor rabbit. Then, leaves were bandaged onto the wounded soldier, and he finally rested in peace, for the paste must have helped his pain.

“Wot happened?” I asked, after Thornbuck and Firey helped to untie me. Wigbig was asleep, but Wiggy had been soothed of his stress and told us.

“We saw a giant beast. A bear, most likely. He thought we were salmon, because were were just floating around the near edge of the waters, right near a waterfall, and he believed we were a delicious treat just waiting to be devoured. Well, the large thing swatted at us, hence the claws, and were en route towards you when the giant thing guzzled some water and turned mad, and began chasing us on four paws. We fought back, and that’s why we’re in scrapes and blood,” he explained quickly and hastily. I nodded along, but somebody cried out. It was Sky.

“I’m going back to my old life. It’s too dangerous here! I was respected, a member of the Owsla, and plenty of good food! I’m going back to the territory I left! Who’s with me?”

And to my surprise and horror, Firey, Berrystraw, Thornbuck, and Wiggy all raised their hands.

dUfU

I shot Hapy a slyly triumphant look. He shot daggers at me in return. I hopped away, feeling the presence of the four rabbits loping away behind me. Well, three. Wiggy was quietly dissuading Wigbig to come whilst Wigbig was intermittently struggling to get up, blood staining the moss around him. I told Wiggy to come. Rott had bound two sturdy oak shoots to Wigbig’s leg, finishing the knot with deft paws. Wigbig gingerly lowered his paw, relieved to find it healed. I had made a mental note of how to make ofsta if Wigbig’s injury flared up again. Rott was busily informing Wiggy of herbs and where to find them. Wiggy nodded absentmindedly, his paws itching to move on. 

When Rott had finished, Wiggy sprang away, his thistledown tail bobbing in the leaves. I leapt after him, bounding into the deciduous woodland. I sensed Fiery, Thornbuck and Berrystraw behind me. I could see Wiggy’s tail, and I increased speed until I caught up. The others emerged around us. We weren’t far from a clearing, and we stopped there for the night. There was a river and two rabbits, and I stooped down to the water level. I lapped up the cool water. We settled down into scooped hollows of earth, and we slept.

I woke up the next day to the bright light of the sun in my eyes. The other rabbits were feasting on a dandelion. I ventured near the stream and found a small, scrubby patch of cowslip. I took three and left the smaller ones to grow. I took the cowslip back, leaving two cowslips for Fiery, Wiggy, Thornbuck and Berrystraw. I chewed on it slowly, letting the juices bathe my tongue. When I finished eating, we carried on into the gentle light of the scenic dawn.

#Bai

A few days later, all the other rabbits and another one, Berryrasp, had come back. When he began talking about the suffering of our previous warren. It turned out I was right (as always). Then, he began speaking. “There was suffering. One day, when the day before’s horizon was especially red, men entered, not unlike King Darzin’s men. They had these kinds of pipes, and they raced up our mountain, stepping on all of the cowslips. Then, they placed the pipes in our holes, and a pungent gas came out. Many rabbits died instantly from the gas, but those that hid inside the holes were shot to death by the people, and all those that tried to escape were also shot dead. Luckily, I ran past one of the hunter’s legs, and he shot his own foot in the process. I even the Chief Rabbit’s death: he tried to run but was shot in the head. Our warren is no more. From that day on, I walked very much opposite where this warren was in, and I met another warren with many does, named Ararfe with many, many does. It’s really squashed. They took me in for a minute, by General Woundwort, but it was very clear that they didn’t like me, and even placed me in prison! I dug my way out of there, and ran the opposite direction. Then, I came across all of these rabbits here, when they were trying to find our previous warren.”
“That’s really great, Berryrasp! We need more does. Can you describe what Ararfe looks like?
“Well, Ararfe is a big warren – much bigger than ours. Everyone is scared that somebody is going to find them out – and so they are very strict. They have an Owsla, as well as a Council. One looks after feeding, one looks after breeding, and staying hidden, and so on. There can only always be a certain number of ordinary rabbits above ground. Every single rabbit is marked when they are kittens. Then, they can always tell who you are by your scar. You mustn’t go above if it isn’t your day. General Woundwort is like a king. He is in charge of many captains, who are in charge of a mark. Each captain has his own officers and sentries – they do work for him. This is so if a human comes, or elil, they can always signal for everyone to hide. This way, they are barely hidden. They prevent anyone from going overground if they are not in their mark, and will silflay no matter the weather. If they cannot silflay for any reason, they’re just unlucky. They simply cannot silflay until the next day. Everyone wants to get to a higher level. An ordinary rabbit, a sentry or an officer, an officer or sentry, a captain, a captain into the Owsla, the Owsla wants to be in the Council. That’s the highest you can get. The warren is overcrowded, and I think we could steal some does from there.”

First of all, we had to get there. We sent our bird, Rrahek, to investigate where this Ararfe was. Now, we could only hope for the results to come back quickly.

#Yao

Berryrasp was a small rabbit, who looked like he couldn’t achieve much. He was always very nervous a hunter would poke his weapon towards him, and fire. I couldn’t blame him. Firey told a different story of his past.

“He was a regular bastard, full of energy, always committing petty crimes. Me and Sky were on duty once, patrolling the warren, only then, she had just joined, and I was just a sentry, so I didn’t know who she was. Caught the little fur ball trying to steal my badge. Yes, he was so lively,” she muttered, but the whole shooting of the rabbits had changed that. Suddenly, Wigbig began fidgeting, and he motioned towards the road, where we could see a parade of hunters. Most had large, black rifles with scopes, but others had two-barreled guns with wide barrels. Shotguns. Draus had described them to me before, when he had seen them in his visions. They were all holding proudly and triumphantly corpses of rabbits. Dead rabbits. I could make out Captain Holly, and the Head Rabbit had his head cut off, but I could see the distinct pattern of his tails.

They all had bullet holes or slashes on their bodies, and we all froze, especially Berryrasp, but he soon began to whimper, and we had to calm him down before he started blubbering on the spot. But the hunters just got into some sort of vehicle that had four wheels, and on the side it read “BUS.” Hmmm, strange. I felt sad for my warren, but not particularly sorry. They had all just decided to ignore us, to scoff, to laugh, and now, they had paid the price. And so, we travelled. One day, we reached a very wide lake, and Berryrasp claimed it was the barrier between the new warren. We sent the bird up to take a look, and she said it was true. Worse, the lake surrounded the meadow like a moat, and we couldn’t go around it. We would need to cross it the old school way.

“THIS IS FREEZING,” Thornbuck said through chattering teeth. The cold water had seeped through my fur, and I could slowly feel myself freezing ever so slightly. I would need a better plan, but right now, I didn’t have one. And so, one by one, spaced four feet apart, we crossed the river, our paws nearly becoming icicles. On the other side, we all quickly rushed in through the open gates, obviously unaware that we were just charging into unknown territory. We bumped into a rabbit holding a tray with four glasses of a thick liquid, and he dropped them when we came into his path.

“Oh sorry!” I cried, and Wiggy, Firey, Sky, Thornbuck, and Rott all hurried to pick up the glasses and the tray. Surprisingly, they hadn’t shattered, and the rabbit, who was a buck, just stood there, staring at us. Not glaring in a bad way, nor in a good way, just too amazed to speak.

“Who are you?” he managed to ask, after finding his voice again.

“I’m Hapy, this is Berryrasp, he’s Draus, she’s Sky, there’s Thornbuck, and also Berrystraw, plus Wiggy, along with Rott, and Firey, and let’s not forget Berryrasp.” I introduced, and he shook paws with all of us. And then, noticing that Sky was sneezing and our noses were all red, he brought us to his hole, where he handed us ten mugs of a hot liquid, taking one for himself as well.

“What is this stuff?” Firey questioned, looking down into the murky darkness of her beverage.

“It’s dandelion tea. I made it with the juice of dandelions, two handfuls of cowslip, four pieces of honeysuckle, and nine bundles of flowers. Tastes good, doesn’t it?” he asked, and as I sipped the hot, steaming drink, I finally felt relieved, for the first time.

dUfU

I lapped a bit cautiously. Finding the ‘tea’ good, I grasped it with my front paws and tipped it over, allowing a thin stream of dandelion tea into my mouth. It had a strong, pungent smell, slightly edged with the scent of honeysuckle. I wrinkled my nose. I drank some more, relishing the calmness and confidence that accompanied the exotic taste.
“Oh, I also added thyme and poppy seed, to calm one’s mind,” he said. Hapy immediately spat out his tea, followed by other retches and groans. I spat mine out, gagging to try and get rid of the tea. I settled back and relaxed.

Hapy was pacing around a thorn bush. Next to him stood a tripod over a fire. A black pot was hanging over it. The strange rabbit, Grasseed, was mixing a substance with a long stick, then spooning it into eight small jugs. I hopped over to Grasseed, and he offered me a cup. It was warm and sweet, with a rich, smooth consistency. It was made of honey and mint, with honeysuckle and snowdrop as well. He’d even found a coconut, presumably raided from a close human house. I sipped at the drink. Hapy and Draus had caught on and were now sipping at the drink. The others were looking for ingredients for drinks and more delicacies to try.

When all the others had returned and were drinking the beverages Grasseed had made, he began to tell his story.
“I was a young rabbit when humans bought me. I was always taught tales about their evilness and how some would roast you and eat you,” a murmur rippled around the fire. “So I kept my distance, and when they tried to stroke me, I bit them. So they put me in a cage. I was let out, and I liked them. They were nice. But one day, the male human left. He left for a long time. When he came back, he was not the same. He was mean and had poisonous fumes hanging in the air around him. He would hit the others, and once, he pointed a long bar at me. It was connected to another bent handle. They were guns. I ran. Now I’m here,” he said, smiling bitterly. We carried on talking. Draus was slowly roasting a cowslip on a long, thin stick. Little did we know, something was watching us. A something with yellow eyes and a ravenous belly.

#Bai

Suddenly, views filled my mind. Views of elil hunting down rabbits – us. And then it prowled out of the woods. The fox. Immediately, the fox was forgotten – all that mattered to any rabbit was escape. Sky, as a rabbit in the Owsla who had enough training to at least ward off some basic elil, ordered us to hide in our warren while she led the fox out. It licked its lips and simply began chasing us, forcing us into our holes. Hapy looked up from the hole and saw the men again with their guns. They aimed at Sky, but her clever wits saved her life. She simply ran underneath the fox (which is something you should never do unless you are in mortal danger like Sky was) and the fox was shot in the stomach. Still, she had a lot of racing around, avoiding bullets which were lifting dirt off the ground – one bullet had smashed into the tea container which meant the tea was everywhere – but she avoided it. The hunters left, which finally left us in peace.

The rest of the day was peaceful – Thornbuck began telling us a story of El-ahrairah’s trial and we were waiting for our scouts from Ararfe to come back, hopefully tomorrow. “So, Prince Rainbow was particularly fed up with El-ahrairah (I have to copy and paste this, it’s too annoying to type.) and so he sent a scout to tell him what was going on in their warren. His name was Afsuh.
“El-ahrairah, I have some news for you. Frith himself has said that you cannot live with Rabscuttle.”
“Why not? We have always lived together in this hole by the river. It is a nice river indeed.”
“Yes, it is very nice. But Frith has still said that if you two live in the same hole you will be causing too much trouble. Everyone knows how good at tricking you are, El-ahrairah, you would simply cause too much trouble. Also, this is Hufsa. I would like you to take care of him. He is from a different place, but he is just like you.”

“Alright, Prince Rainbow. I shall do my best.”

Hufsa was a great friend, and he was always trying to please and join in with the activities that El-ahrairah was setting – trying to join in with stealing food. But after a while, El-ahrairah noticed something was going wrong. His plans were always going wrong ever since Hufsa arrived. For example, he would go and steal some lettuce, but find a hunter, or a snare. And so, because he knew that no one else would ever trick him, he realised that Hufsa must be the culprit. He had to stop Hufsa from interfering. At first, El-ahrairah thought of killing Hufsa. But then he realised that Prince Rainbow would probably think of something worse, which would be the end of him. And so he thought of a devilish plan. First thing in the morning, Rabscuttle and El-ahrairah headed off to different places. First, El-ahrairah went to Tampon, the pheasant. “Here, Tampon. Can you sing?”
“Yes, I can. But us pheasants, we rarely sing at all.”
“Well, if you want these juicy slugs, then you must sing…”
Meanwhile, Rabscuttle had gone to Nopmat, the squirrel. “Here, Nopmat (as you can see, I have an affection for names backwards), can you swim?”
“I can swim, but we usually don’t do it.”
“Well, if you want these crunchy nuts, you simply must.”
And so the deal was struck. A few days later, El-ahrairah and Hufsa were on their way to steal Farmer Remraf’s lovely old cabbages. (Backwards again) This time, they met Tampon on the way. He was singing, 

“Slug, O Moon.
Slug, O Moon.
When will you give to me, 

My lovely slugs?” (As you can see I am a terrible song writer.) And what a horrible sound it was. El-ahrairah and Hufsa quickly ran away.
Then, they met Nopmat. He was swimming in the lake nearby, and Hufsa commented. “I didn’t know that squirrels would swim?”
“But we do it all the time, you know Hufsa. It’s to make our tails grow longer.”

But after the pair stole the cabbage, the next day Prince Rainbow came. “El-ahrairah, you will be punished.”
“What for?”
“El-ahrairah, stop playing your tricks. Where are those cabbages?”
“For goodness sake, Prince Rainbow. What are you talking about?”
“Alright, I will tell you. Yesterday, you went to Farmer Remraf’s place and stole many cabbages. Where are they?”
“I want a jury, for I never did such a thing.”
“Alright, El-ahrairah. You will have a jury, a jury of elil, that is. For a jury of rabbits would never ever admit what you did.”
“Of course. So let us begin.”
When the trial had begun, the jury called the witness, Hufsa. “Now, say what you saw.”
“So, last night El-ahrairah and I went to steal the carrots. On the way, we met a pheasant who was singing.”
“Singing?” called the fox, who was very avid about hunting. “That’s ridiculous.”
“And then, we saw Nopmat the squirrel who was swimming in the water.”
“What?” said that cat, “That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s true! He said it was to make his tail grow longer!” shouted Hufsa, who was desperate by now. “If you don’t believe me, then look down the hole.”
Everyone looked. It was empty. The truth was that Rabscuttle had been sneaking them all day. “See!” said El-ahrairah. “There were never any cabbages.”  
The cat said, “Prince Rainbow, I hate all rabbits, but I just don’t see how on earth El-ahrairah could have stolen these cabbages. The witness is obviously mad, mad as the rain, and so El-ahrairah must be released. Also, we must take away this rabbit.”
And so El-ahrairah was released, and Hufsa was taken away.”
Then, the scouts had come back with news. Would it be good or bad?

#Yao

They did come back with good news. They told us that in order to get to Ararfe, we had to come to another warren first.

“We just saw a rabbit, and his name’s Slipcow (thanks, Bai). He didn’t even try to attack us when we began to talk with him, and apparently, he’s as big and healthy as a fat king, and he says there’s plenty of food in his warren for all to share,” the crow told us. We were quite happy and content to hear this, for our stomachs were grumbling, and Wigbig was almost on his wit’s end. We left the kind rabbit’s hole and journeyed forward, our snouts beginning to detect a smell that was unlike anything we had smelled before. I couldn’t quite make it out.

“Wiggy, do you smell that?” I inquired, and Wiggy nervously twitched in anticipation, while Wigbig was almost chewing his own ears off; after all, we could not see an elil in sight. Our scouts guided us to a meadow, where we saw a lone rabbit feeding, his figure so large and fat we could barely tell is he had been a rabbit or a cat. Soon, I got the courage to speak to him, but first, I invited Sky and Rott to accompany me.

“Hello!” I shouted, and the rabbit didn’t even seem very scared; but instead, dropped the grass he was chewing on, and waved a cheerful good morning. I waited a few moments for him to reply, but he said nothing, and so, I continued awkward conversation.

“How do you do?” I asked, and then, when Sky nudged me and Rott kicked me, I got straight to the point.

“My name’s Hapy, and Sky and Rott over here are my companions. We believe that we have stumbled upon your territory. Might we settle here? Our warren’s under a terrible curse,” I said. The rabbit studied this for a moment. Sure enough, he was Slipcow.

“Who’s head rabbit in your little company?” he asked, and then quickly changed his question. “Actually, you can first tell me how many rabbits you’re traveling with?”

“I’m traveling with six other companions other than the three you see in front of you, and a crow. Now, where-”

“Ten! That’s not a big number. Can you describe your companions?”

“It’d be easier for you just to see them. Oh, and by the way, where are-”

“Oh, wonderful! It’s nearly ni-Frith, and you must be hungry. Do you normally silfay or eat underground?”

“Both, but where-”

“By Frith! Kingcup’s not in his-”

“Where are all of the other rabbits?!” I blurted out, tiring of his little evasion game. Sky beared her teeth, and Rott stood up to his full height. Berrystraw and Berryrasp, along with Draus wandered up. Thornbuck, Wiggy, and Firey followed suit, and the crow hobbled over.

Slipcow looked at me like he was almost daring me to ask the question again, but it was just a brief glance, and soon, he began taking us to the vast underground sea of holes. We were all instantly captivated by the population of rabbits in the main tunnel, and they crowded all around us, with some jostling us about, some staring at us, and some minding their own business. Occasionally, we’d pass an especially old rabbit, but that was very rare. Something about these rabbits wasn’t right. They were either too big, too good-smelling, or too few. Something was up, but I didn’t dare complain, for a feast of vegetables, grass and dandelion tea was being laid out for us. Wigbig practically did martial arts on the food. And by Frith, carrots! Lettuces! Cabbages! Apples! Pears!

The sumptuous food was so delightful, we almost cried. I had only tasted carrots once before, when an old farmer hustled by my family’s hole, and he had dropped a carrot. It was at night, and we had discovered it only in the morning, so it was rotten and droppings of maggots were displayed. But I had eaten it up, and the flavor, despite being mingled with foulness and ill flavor, was so delicious cowslips had no taste to me for an entire week.

Our teeth had become so used to eaten moldy and soft foodstuffs we had completely lost track of how to crunch a vegetable or fruit. And so, we forgot all our table manners, and almost had a food fight if it weren’t for my hasty prevention methods, which involved allowing Wigbig to kick every rabbit, which he had been waiting for, a very long time.

And even then, Draus attempted to be excused, but I would force him to stay at the table, or else I would make Firey angry at him, which was nothing short of being as dangerous as a bullet, but with one exception: a bullet kills you quickly, Firey does it slowly.

“Something about this warren is just too good to be true. I refuse to be part of this little ‘thing’. I don’t know if you can feel it, but it almost, well, I mean, there’s some sort of evil beneath this layer. Something we don’t know about. I just can feel it. It’s so annoying, but I know it’s there. We have to move, Hapy. We have-” he began, but I cut him off.

“I don’t see anything in this warren that doesn’t resemble a fat, happy, content rabbit. Now shut your snout or I’ll personally give introductions with Wigbig,” I threatened. I had noticed the few number of rabbits long before Draus had, and how Slipcow would refuse to answer any questions beginning with the word ‘where’. But we were happy, we had good food, and we probably could find shelter. We were ready for a new life.

That evening, after we had stuffed our bellies silly with delicacies, and I thought carrots would be bland forever, every rabbit congregated in the main hall, and they wanted entertainment. Slipcow, who was obviously unofficial head rabbit, suggested music or dance, but they all chanted one thing.

“Stories! We want stories! Stories! Stories!” they all cried, and a thunderous banging of paws echoed through the warren.

“How about something from Silverweed?’ Slipcow asked, and even though we had no idea what he was talking about, we heard most of the crowd thinking, but then booing again.

“That chap just does poems that describe things. We want stories!” one rabbit in the center of the hall said, and they began to chant again.

“Stories! We would like some stories! Stories! Stories!”

Slipcow looked embarrassed, but I told him that we would show our gratitude by providing him with a story to satiate his rowdy subjects. And so, Rott, the natural storyteller of his group, weaved together a tale of the theft of the King’s cabbages.

dUfU

“You see, once, Prince Rainbow was particularly fed up with El-ahrairah. So he sent a scout, Hufsa, to…” and it went on like that. I loped away with Slipcow to find our holes. When he showed me to my hole, we saw different rabbits trundling past, each carrying a bundle consisting of three carrots, two lettuces and four cowslips. I asked him the whereabouts of the warren, but he cut me off with a cheery,
“So that’s sorted then? Okay, well, I’d like you to meet Silverweed. He’s the best poet in all of the warren, and I’d like you to hear his poetry. I trotted over to my hole, narrowly avoiding a young rabbit charging along the corridor. Slipcow cuffed him over the ear, and he set off again, a cloud of thick smoke billowing behind him. I walked over to a small mosaic carving on the wall.

“What’s this?” I asked after tracing the shape. He seemed to ignore me, so I spoke louder.
“What’s this?” I repeated. He ignored me again, babbling away at Silverweed. I went into my hole. It was scattered with hay, and there was a small hollow filled with leaves. I curled up into a small, tan ball and squeezed my eyes closed.

It was morning when I woke. I lifted my body out of my hollow and groomed my pelt. I went to Hapy’s hole and woke him. Slipcow was waiting in the big room, with a feast laid out on the floor. I suddenly realised that Wigbig was absent. I asked Hapy, but he was still as confused as me. I realised that Wigbig was called to go gathering. That explained a lot. I started chewing a carrot. Draus was on the opposite side to me, and he was slowly nibbling a dandelion. I then realised that Wigbig’s patrol was late. Oh no.

#Bai

There definitely was something off about his warren. Everything was too good, absolutely amazing to be true. And so I began suspecting what on earth Slipcow (thanks for respecting my method) would be doing. He seemed to be, well, acting a bit suspicious. And every now and then he would call a messenger and send him into the direction of Ararfe, which was a bit strange. So once, to see what he was actually up to, I, with Hapy, followed the messenger into Ararfe, where he met the tyrannical ruler, General Woundwort. We would have to leave quietly and secretly. After telling all the rabbits what had happened, we knew we had to run away to avoid capture, and so we decided to enter Ararfe ourselves, and bring back some does to our new home, Watership Down, as it was called by our people. We would be there in an hour’s walk.

By now, we had arrived. The plan, after being argued for long, was finally set. Wigbig, as the strongest in us, would go to Ararfe and show off his skills, as Woundwort would definitely take him in. We gave him a fake name, Liglig, and that he was from the very far away warren of Scotland, where there was much richer grass. He would occasionally have the chance to speak to us, when he was out, and would ultimately launch an escape for many does. We would have to be ready to take them in, and make a run for our base nearby. Then, we discovered a river, which we could set our place in. Hapy and I sent the next day digging a hole for all of us as a temporal place Wigbig could meet us in, and so we were ready for our plan.

I saw Wigbig, ready, speaking to a bemused Woundwort. “Who are you?”
“My name is Liglig, and I would like to join your warren. I have heard your warren is great, and so here I am.”
“Not just anyone can join my warren. You must demonstrate your skills. Here, attack this rabbit.” He pointed at the nearby officer, whose group was just beginning to silflay. Although Wigbig did lose, I could tell Woundwort was impressed.
“Very well done, Liglig. You now have the permission to join Ararfe. I would also like you to become an officer, a rank that is higher than many of the rabbits. Please enter.”  

The first part of our plan was ready. The second was for Liglig to report to us, and then for him to get some does out. That would ultimately be the end of our plan. From then on, we were getting more information quickly. Liglig had been shown about the whole warren, and he had spotted a few weak points, which could be under fire. If Liglig could create pandemonium and group the rabbits to the centre of the whole warren – that was their technique, and so Liglig could grab a few in the middle of that and escape unharmed, and we would run back to Watership Down. Of course, it would not be so simple. If Woundwort caught Liglig in the middle of everything we would be done for, but I had predicted stormy weather across the next few days and so I hoped Liglig would have a single chance.

dUfU

As soon as the three does and Wigbig shored, we ran. I could see a sodden Woundwort yelling violently at different warriors in a blind rage. Under his fur, he was a brilliant red, as if his whole body was covered in blisters. He looked angry enough to have them. He was sending swarms of rabbits through the water, shouting negative names such as,
“Traitor! Betrayer! You won’t see the last of me, Liglig!” Wigbig took no notice. He was reassuring everyone. We ran to Watership Down, and Hapy hurried us in. He took Dandelion, the first doe, to her hole, and I took Plum, and Wigbig escorted Petal. Then we all slept peacefully.

The next day, Hapy sent me to get some food. I found twelve stems of cowslip and twenty-seven stems of parsley. I also managed to find a few stems of aged lettuce. I returned my haul of food back and then chose a few stems of lettuce and cowslip. I had finished a bite of cowslip when I was called to patrol the border of our territory. I hastily shoved the rest of my pick into my mouth, chewed it thoroughly and left. I was in a patrol with Wigbig and Draus. We had a promising day ahead.

I neared the clump of nettles signalling the edge of our border. I sniffed at it, careful not to sting my nose. No scent, except for the smell of this morning and yesterday’s patrol. Nothing new. Then I neared a small hornbeam sapling, checking for intruder scent. Like last time, There was nothing except for this morning and yesterday’s patrol. Nothing new. I had checked all of the markers except one when I hear Wigbig’s snarling close by. To add to the clamour, I could hear Draus’ squeaking growl. I hurried over. There was a stranger pressed there, looking unfazed, despite Wigbig’s fangs inches away from her throat. She looked at me.
“I wish to join your warren.”

#Bai

Now, we had some serious problems. First of all, we didn’t know anything about this rabbit, so it could be a spy sent by Woundwort to spy on us. That was the first major problem – and now we were in a predicament of whether to accept this rabbit into our warren. Hapy, seeing our problem, came to ask us some questions. “Which warren have you come from?”
“I have come from Afarfe, where I was treated very badly. So, I managed to escape and found this warren.”
“Have you ever talked to Woundwort?”

“Yes. Once only, and afterwards I have never wanted to speak with him ever again.”

Hapy had made his decision. “We will provide for you a place to live in, but you will not leave the warren without a member of patrol. If you attempt to leave, there will be serious consequences.”

So, Sky spent the whole morning digging a hole that branched away from the rabbits we had taken from Afarfe, and the new rabbit (who claimed to be Lettuce) settled down. The next day, during silflay, something terrible happened. General Woundwort moved into sight, with many of his officers. They were preparing to storm us and attack while we were not prepared. After I had reported this to Hapy, he began to think of an idea. If we could somehow dig a hole and stay hidden, nobody would find us. And so we all began, hoping sincerely that Woundwort would not find us. 

Just a few hours later, Woundwort charged. With his group of soldiers, they began raiding our warren. By then the hole was complete, stuffed with the food (cowslips) that could last for a couple of days at least. Everyone held their breath as Woundwort barked orders about. At that moment Lettuce showed who she really was. Rushing towards the entrance (we didn’t stop her because we thought she was getting food), she barged at the door and shouted, “They’re here! They’re here! Stop them!”
Now, the fight was inevitable. First of all, Wigbig bit Lettuce, forcing her into a patch of dirt. When the officers began rushing this way, there was only one thing I could do. I could not fight, and so I lay down on the floor, and pretended to be dead.

There was a lot of fighting coming from the hole. However, the truth was that they were driving us back faster than we could dig, until Wigbig made a brave move. He jumped forward, shocking the others and giving enough time for the others to place forwards a thick layer of dirt. There was an unpleasant silence. Then Woundwort spoke, “Liglig, you are brave and strong. Why do you want to throw your life away? I can offer you places of great ranks, and yet you decline my offers. Why do this?”
“I am simply following my chief rabbit’s orders.”

I could tell what Woundwort was thinking about a rabbit stronger and better than Wigbig, although it wasn’t always strength that determined who was the chief. But the question was still who was going to win the battle.

dUfU

Water seeped through my fur, icing my blood and freezing my veins. I was lying in the mud of the riverbank, blood staining the puddle around me. I half-closed my eyes, hoping half-heartedly that I would pass as dead. I saw a blurred officer brushing past my muddy-puddle-full-of-weeds. 

“This doe’s dead,” I heard him say to Woundwort. Show some respect! Even if we were your enemies, we are still the dead! I thought. They left, ragged but cheering. I roused and went to find the undead. I gathered the warren around. All three of the first does had staged death, like everyone else. I saw that our fire had been extinguished, and our food stock had been somewhat dented. This was going to be a long day.

I woke up with a start. I remembered I was scheduled to do a territory patrol and a food-gathering patrol. Busy. I joined Draus and Firey on a food patrol. I found a clump of dandelions, and Draus found four aged carrots. Firey found a new silflay area and immediately tested the grass. It was juicy and dewy and had a smooth consistency. Nice. We deposited our haul and reported the new silflay territory. I then went to my den and slept. 

I woke up at midday and started a border check patrol. I took Grasseed, Dandelion and Wigbig. We inspected the territory perimeter, and then Wigbig and Grasseed went to silflay in the new grassy region. I went to double-check some old scents and then heard shrill shrieks rip the air. I hared towards the source of the sound, and my stomach plummeted. It was the silflay area. Oh no. Woundwort was holding Wigbig down, and Grasseed appeared to be unconscious. 

“Someone, move Grasseed.” I ordered. Firey and Plum carried him to his hole and lay him in his bed. I ran over to Woundwort and ripped him from Wigbig. I pummeled him in the belly, and Wigbig raked his back. He fled, gone. 

#Bai

Uh, Dudu, I think you mixed up who wrote what. Because your first two paragraphs were written by me. 

Now that Sky had forced Woundwort away, we were possibly just awaiting another few attacks, because Liglig knew that Woundwort would not give up so easily. But now his pride had been ruined, and everybody would be laughing back home. And so we continue our usual life, once retelling the story of the King’s Lettuce. “Prince Rainbow was ordered by Lord Frith to keep watch over El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle during a period when there was no food. And so El-ahrairah complained to Prince Rainbow, “We have no food. If I am able to steal the lettuce from King Darzin’s garden, can you allow us to multiply and eat as much as we wish? If I am caught stealing the lettuce, I would almost certainly be killed by King Darzin’s soldiers.”
“Of course. You may try.”

Rabscuttle befriended King Darzin’s son in order to get into the castle. Every night, Rabscuttle secretly entered into the royal storerooms with many juicy foods and spoiled all the food there and the King became ill. Then, El-ahrairah disguised himself as a doctor sent by Prince Rainbow and went to see the King. He asked the guard, “I am here to cure the king, sent by Prince Rainbow himself. Let me in!”
“I’m afraid I cannot.”
“Really? You want me to report a bad business to Prince Rainbow? He will be furious.”
“No, no. I will let you in.”
He entered and said that the lettuce had all been spoiled by the dreadful Lousepedoodle after testing it on Rabscuttle, who began to become sick and froth at the mouth. 

“My king, this has been infected by the deadly Lousepedoodle, a serious disease. If you do not believe me, test it on somebody.”

King Darzin delivered all the lettuce from his garden to the rabbits thinking to poison them and destroy them. “I shall destroy all the rabbits!”
“How clever you are, my king.”

When Prince Rainbow saw the lettuces in the fields of the rabbits, they were released from their imprisonment and allowed to multiply. To this day no rabbit can be kept out of a vegetable garden, for El-ahrairah prompts them with a thousand tricks. From that day on, the rabbits were always lush with food.”

Then, Woundwort began to attack. He first rushed in with all of his men, which had now increased with Captains and their chosen  Officers, which were deadly with fury in their eyes. Now, we couldn’t fight back, we were outnumbered by far without good training at all. And so we began the only way we could, by retreating. And we retreated to the farm, which we had tried to raid beforehand without any success. And so when we rushed, the cat, which was very hungry, leaped out of its pen, and began attacking the rabbits, which scattered. 

But how would we attack them?

sorry, I put my name in the wrong place.

We couldn’t fight them, not with half the warren out of the camp. Then, there was a loud yowl, jerking me out of my thoughts. I spun around, dreading what I saw. It was the colossal ginger cat, the tail waving around like a vast feather plume. I sprang out of the way, raking it in the back. Blood rolled down its spine, and it ran off, spitting. I saw a wave of rabbits rolling down the hills. I let out an uncontrolled string of curses. Wigbig, who was unfortunately next to me, had heard my swearing and cuffed me over the ear.

I couldn’t quite remember the next period of time. It was like a stretch of blankness where I was floating in a bubble, far away from the violence. I could only remember sinking claws into fur, driving teeth into flesh, and hearing screams of mercy. I then found my fur bloodstained, my pelt ragged and my claws stiff with congealed blood. I saw Firey licking a wound tenderly, and Plum was inspecting a wrenched claw. I saw three dead bucks, all from Woundwort’s side. Wigbig sniffed them and turned away with a dismissive flick of his tail. “Officers. Closest to Woundwort.” I rolled the officers into my muddy puddle-full-of-weeds and left them there. With luck, a fox may mistake them for carrion.

A few days later, the ginger cat returned. It, however, did not notice us and went to the muddy puddle-full-of-weeds and started pawing at the water’s surface. “It’s going for the officers,” I breathed to Wigbig, who was starting to eye the cat suspiciously. Then, I breathed in a new scent. A weird scent. An unfamiliar yet familiar scent. A peculiarly canine scent. A scent with blood on its breath. Wolves. And they were hungry.

#Bai

I was getting scared. Wolves, hunting us down? The wolves would hunt us down, or the cat would hunt us down. Or the wolves would hunt the cat. I hoped it would be the latter, although I wasn’t sure at all what would happen. We would have to wait and hope. Suddenly, the cat smelt something different – it lunged for us. Immediately, we scattered, and then each headed for our own place. The wolves prowled over, and it sensed the cat, which then began fighting, but the cat was rapidly outnumbered, and began to run off, leaving us safe.

Hapy decided that a good story would do us all some good, and so he began the story of El-ahrairah and the black rabbit of Inle.
“So, one day King Darzin was furious that El-ahrairah had taken his food, and so he sent his men to hunt down every single rabbit in the whole kingdom. And now El-ahrairah’s men were starving and hungry, and the best he could do was bring a nibble of grass for a doe or they would all starve. And so El-ahrairah decided to find the black rabbit of Inle, who would spread disease to all of King Darzin’s men. After a long journey with his friend Rabscuttle, El-ahrairah came to the dwelling of the Black Rabbit and tried to bargain with him, but the Black Rabbit would not accept his offer. El-ahrairah tried to trick the Black Rabbit, but he lost his whiskers, his tail, and his ears in playing the game, rabsticks. Finally, the Black Rabbit told El-ahrairah to leave, and said that he had already gotten rid of King Darzin’s soldiers. Rabscuttle and El-ahrairah made their way home, getting lost and having many adventures on the way, of when he had to climb a tree to cross a river. When they finally returned, the warren was bigger and the younger rabbits knew nothing about the war with King Darzin. In fact, they thought war itself was foolish. El-ahrairah sat to think, and Lord Frith came to talk to him, telling him that wisdom is not easy, and brought him a tail, whiskers, and a pair of ears with starlight in them.”

And there might have been another story, had there not been a fox standing right near the warren, prowling and coming very close to us, ready to pounce. Its fiery ears were facing up in trepidation, as he prepared his attack on us. His glaring looks told us he was hungry, and was ready to hunt own his favourite dish, rabbits. Slowly, he bounced, until he leapt into attack. We all fled, but what would happen to us now?

dUfU

I ran, thinking of nothing but to flee. Hapy and Draus were not far behind me, and my heart pounded in my ears, drowning out the screams of terror. I heard paws on hard earth. Heavy. Resilient. Wolves’. I risked a glance behind me. There was at least a small pack behind me. I jolted sharply to the left, where only half followed. I ducked, running into the roots of a tree. The wolves circled the tree, occasionally shooting a paw in, groping around for me. I dug a small pit in the tree and curled up in it, hoping the wolves would be gone by morning.

They were, thankfully, gone by the morning. I stalked out, still wary of my surroundings. I was in a large glade. Dappled sunlight swam across the ground, gracefully sweeping the ground. Various fungi and plants sprouted from decaying bark, and the ground was springy with moss underfoot. I bounded over to a clump of dandelion and started to eat. I tagged along with the border patrol and returned to camp, ragged but happy. 

I spent the rest of the day sleeping. My flank was torn and bloodstained, needing a good groom. I lapped at it tiredly. I’m not fighting any more battles. I thought. A muffled thump of food against earth announced the arrival of the food patrol. By the sound of it, they had found an abundance of food. I ventured out of my hole and took a carrot, a small piece of lettuce, a bit of something called ‘cucumber’, a piece of dandelion and a cowslip. I carried my pick to my warren and slowly ate it. The cowslip, as always, had the beautiful taste of spring, the carrot had a sweet flavour of flowers, the lettuce tasted merely delicate but had a sweet aroma. The cucumber, however, was watery and juicy. Juice and seeds ran down my chin, and I licked them up, not wanting to miss any. Seemed to be a peaceful day.

#Bai

So, everything seemed peaceful. We had escaped from the wolves and were back in the warren. But there was still one more thing we had to do – that was very crucial. Recently, our food supply had gone down. And soon, it would get to winter, when there wouldn’t be much opportunity for silflay. We had to back up and keep it going, so Sky, Hapy and I were going to have to invade the nearby farmer and hope he had some food. We had all done it before. The first step was to crawl under the hole in the fence. The food storage was on the right side, across the plants. But we had a streak of bad luck. The farmer was out, and he was ready to hunt us down. And so we were forced to run like mad, this way and that while he chased us. Finally, we came to an intersection with three exits, and we could do nothing but run. He chased after Sky, which gave us a chance. Sky was clever enough to know that she could buy us some time.
We made our way to the storage room past the vegetables, taking a nibble every few metres. Soon, we were there. I could still see the farmer chasing the relentless Sky, which gave us about thirty seconds to enter and dig a hole down to the warren. That was the plan. So, we pulled the carpet on the floor with all our might, and it gave way. Then, the farmer entered, his beady eyes glaring at us like a bullet. We jumped down and dug, but he pulled the carpet. There was nothing we could do. I threw dirt at those beady eyes, but he raised his foot, ready for attack. Sky came in and bit his leg, which gave her time to hop in, pull up the carpet and place a load of mud over it. Then we dug and dug and dug and dug and dug and dug and dug until we finally arrived back in the warren. The mission was a success.
Hapy sat us down for a story. “Once, Frith created everything including rabbits. And then, there was a rabbit, El-ahrairah, who was very naughty. Frith could have killed El-ahrairah at once, but he had a mind to keep him in the world, because he needed him to sport, jest and play tricks. So he determined to get the better of him, not by means of his own great power but by means of a trick. He gave out that he would hold a great meeting where he would give a present to every animal and bird, to make each one different from the rest. So all the creatures set out to go to the meeting place. However, they all arrived at different times, because Frith made sure that it would happen that way. When the blackbird came, he gave him his beautiful song, and when the cow came, he gave her sharp horns and the strength to be afraid of no other creature. When the fox, the stoat and the weasel’s turn came Frith gave the cunning, the fierceness, the desire to hunt, slay and eat the children of El-ahrairah. So they went away from Frith full of nothing but hunger to kill the rabbits. Now all this time El-ahrairah was dancing and mating and boasting that he was going to Frith’s meeting to receive a great gift. And at last he set out for the meeting place. But as he was going there, he stopped to rest on a soft, sandy hillside. And while he was resting, over the hill came flying the dark swift, screaming as he went ‘News! News! News!’ For you know, this is what he has said ever since that day. So El-ahrairah called up to him and said, ‘What news?’ ‘Why,’ the swift replied, ‘I would not want to be you, El-ahrairah. For Frith has given the fox and the weasel cunning hearts and sharp teeth, and to the cat he has given silent feet and eyes that can see in the dark, and they are gone away from Frith’s place to kill and devour all that belongs to El-ahrairah.” And he dashed on over the hills and began to dig.”

Like us, he was wild, hungry and rogue. But we were being chased by a farmer who probably had a gun. I found a turned patch of soil and began to dig. Hard. The others joined me, scraping away stones and clay where I needed them to. We tunnelled until about midday. Then, we started a gradual upwards incline. We ended barely inside our borders. We joined the midday silflay patrol and took our fill. Then, when we returned to camp, we dropped off our tiny bundle of rich farm food. I was rewarded with a tiny, juicy red ball called a “cherry tomato”. It was juicy and packed with seeds. Yum.

After eating another “cherry tomato”, I nibbled a fragment of lettuce and then curled up in a small ball. I slept until dusk, when I was woken up to lead a scent patrol. Nothing much. So When I came back, we dropped off a small haul of “cherry tomatoes” that we “stole” from the farm. What we did was Plum, being black, small and slight, snuck in and harvested enough tomatoes to keep us going for a few days. After all the harassment this morning, it was peaceful to be home.

I lead the morning silflay patrol, and when everyone was satiated, we headed back, stopping to steal a few crops (we even managed to sneak a few mini “cucumbers”). Life should always be as perfect as this. We ran into a couple of troublesome birds, but we chased them away and headed home. I took a cucumber to my den, nibbled away at it, but placed the rest in a small rock hollow that I had unearthed after enlargening my den. I also stored a good amount of food in there, primarily luxuries, but I hope I’ll never have to use it in desperate need.

#Bai

We continued to steal more food (which was desperately needed throughout the warren). We could only pilfer the food via the entrance we built a few days ago, leading straight into the food storage. However, when we entered there today, there was something different. In a pot, was some lettuce with powder on it. Powder which we had never tasted before. And, standing before us was a cat. A deadly cat it was indeed, with its extremely powerful claws, and fierce hunger in its eyes as we stood helpless in front of it. There was only one thing we could do – that was to trick it. Whatever the powder was (it was not good) – it would be a good idea to make it eat the food, which was probably poisonous. Suddenly, it lunged towards Sky, who jumped into the food and she jumped out as the cat swallowed the food whole…

Suddenly, it collapsed on the floor, dead. Avoiding it in fear of the poison, we carried yet more cabbages and cucumbers and many tasty fruits which hopefully would do us some good in the next few months. The next day, when we went there just for a robbery for luck and to ensure our winter would be safe, we were not lucky at all. In fact, it was the complete opposite. There, waiting for us was a farmer, with a gun. And as we came through, it began shooting bullets everywhere, and there was nothing we could do except hide behind some plants. Many times it came inches away from us, yet we were never seen. He came prowling like an angry wolf, looking for us. When I began to chew nervously on a carrot (my bravery had never been of the highest level), Hapy had leapt forward onto the man’s chest and in trying to shoot him had shot himself. Now he was lying eagle-sprawled on the floor, and we had all the food we would ever need. 

So, we decided to tell the story of the King’s Lettuce – of how El-haraih’s brilliance had led him to success, and how we should all be like him – worthy of trickery, when he was disguised as a doctor and had instead poisoned the food and stolen one of the lettuces and then managed to become the best and most powerful being – it was to vanquish over humans, and every other species. And our warren, in particular, had done well to deserve this – victory was great.

dUfU