Chapter Forty- Nine

Revelations

Campion waited for her to talk, and waited, and waited. His eyes pleaded with her as she recovered herself, but she still hadn’t moved from where she was lying on the flooded forest floor.

Just then an owl flew low, peering at the ground for a most needed meal. The rabbits weren’t the only ones that had trouble eating in this weather.

The two rabbits remained frozen and were almost level with the water as they pressed down low.

“I think the owl thought we were mud,” Campion broke the silence. He looked down at himself and saw the now familiar coating of sticky brown.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any of what I said.” Blackberry forced herself to look around at him.

“You don’t have to apologise to me. I’m just relieved, I thought you were saying that we…”

“I have just been so stressed and I have really missed you.”

Campion gave a shaky smile and placed a paw on her back. “I have too, but we could have had it worse. We’re both still alive and to tell you the truth, I’m a bit excited, despite everything.”

“Excited?” Blackberry sniffed.

“Yes, you know…. the kitten?” he asked slowly. “She is alright, isn’t she?”

“Sorry, I forgot for a second.” Blackberry shook her head in amazement. “She’s fine. Robin checked yesterday.”

“That’s good, I’m glad. Come on, let’s get you out of the rain. You must be freezing by now.”

“I have to tell you now, or else I’ll never get the courage.” Blackberry closed her eyes in anguish.

“Tell me,” Campion whispered back. He felt the cold dread.

“The nightmares you’ve been having…” Blackberry spoke so low that it was almost inaudible. “The first one in Darkhaven…then Watership Down….”

“How can you possibly know?” Campion asked in surprise and embarrassment.

“Because I was in them, I altered them and caused the pain you have been hiding. I couldn’t stop him, I couldn’t stop him Campion!”

Campion paw dropped from her back like a stone and a strange shudder of shock ran through him. “You were in them? Why would you…” he stuttered. He felt embarrassment tugging and his cheeks heated up. Then he felt hurt and betrayal.

She twisted around and pinned his paws to the ground so he couldn’t leave like he desperately wanted to. “Just listen to me. Cloud is a mystic. Hemlock and Dogwood made him invade my mind. He saw all my memories.” She released his paws. “As did Dogwood and Hemlock.”

“Dogwood?” Campion growled angrily. “Everything? All of your memories?”

“Yes,” Blackberry whispered. “Please don’t make me talk about it.”

“And then… the dream thing?” he continued on with difficulty.

“Cloud possessed my mind, and forced me to change the events in your dream so that you would feel pain. Please understand that I would never have done it if I had had a choice!”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Campion whispered. He wasn’t sure if he felt relief towards the fact that he wasn’t going mad as he thought he was, or embarrassment towards the fact that his private dreams had had spectators.

“I suppose Dogwood watched them as well?” Campion asked bitterly. He had never felt so exposed in his life. He wasn’t sure if he would have been able to talk to Dogwood the way he had earlier if he had known.

Blackberry’s nod wasn’t really needed. She hesitantly placed her head under his. “Can we find somewhere dry now?” she asked timidly.

“Yes, follow me,” he said and worked to keep his voice pleasant. It hadn’t been Blackberry’s fault, he reminded himself. He hoped it wouldn’t be long until things were normal between them again.

“Here,” he said, clearing a couple of big branches from under a nearby bush. She crawled in first and he lay by the front, keeping out the rain that the wind blew in. He laid down his head in exhaustion, facing the interior of the bush, those sleepless nights had not been kind.

“Are you not going to talk to me anymore?” Blackberry whispered.

“I’m just plain exhausted,” he answered tiredly. He attempted to tuck his paws under his stomach but not before her sharp eyes spotted it.

“Hold out the paw,” she ordered. He stifled a yawn and slid his paw towards her. It was filthy and coated in dark red and brown. He felt himself drift in and out in a doze despite the pain as his paw was cleaned.

“There, it has bled as much as it is going to,” she spoke quietly and he withdrew the paw.

“Hazel,” Blackberry murmured. She sat up, though her head was bent under the shrubbery.

“What?” Campion asked, more alert now.

“And Swift.” Blackberry’s nose twitched excitedly. “Swift was here, how did we not smell this before! Why were Swift and Hazel here? Don’t they know how close they are to Shadowsky?” Blackberry said incredulously.

Campion made himself last a little longer with a slight groan and put his well trained nose to the floor. “Fiver too,” he confirmed.

“Are you not as exhausted as I am?” he questioned, his eyelids were half concealing his eyes.

“I am,” she said sincerely, “but don’t you see? The shortage of guards, us being able to just walk out of the warren without too much trouble, Hazel and the others here. They all add up.”

“You think Hazel and Fiver came up with some idea to get everyone out of the warren?” Campion asked. He returned to the front of the bush to where she was sitting.

“What other explanation is there?” she said excitedly.

“Do you want to go back to the down?” he guessed wearily. He did want to see the kits and his lovely dry, warm burrow but right now anywhere would do.

“I want to go back to Shadowsky!”

“But… we don’t know where we are,” Campion realised.

“If we follow these tracks, we’ll be there in no time,” Blackberry encouraged. She began forward at a run and Campion limped after her quickly.

“Sorry, I forgot about your paw. Here lean on me.” She slowed and dropped her shoulder slightly. When she seen that he was going to protest she said sharply. “If you say one thing about me being a doe and not being able to cope, try giving birth to hrair kittens!”

Campion snapped his mouth shut. That was him told. Still, he tried to put as little weight on her as possible when travelling her rapid speed.

……

Hazel had a bad feeling about this, a very bad feeling. “Fir, you said your name was fir didn’t you?”

Dogwood smiled widely to himself at his choice of name. “Fir, yep. What is it?”

“I’m not sure about this and I’m not all that fond of heights.” As Hazel said this he looked uneasily over the edge.

“I’m telling you, Bigwig, Dandelion and that other small grey buck…”

“You said you knew them well,” Hazel said, narrowing his eyes.

“Hawkbit! Yes him, were all around here.”

“Remind me again why they were, or are, here?” Hazel asked questionably.

Dogwood’s pleasant smile vanished. Crap, what now? “They went down to the bottom of this cliff wall to get away from our owsla. You see the trail just below you?”

…..

It was about midnight when they reached the fighting ditch again, and the place was silent. “They were here recently or are still here,” Campion said. He crawled along the ground, following the scent. He nearly had heart failure when a figure emerged from one of the warren runs.

“Great Frith! Fog, you almost gave me a heart attack,” Campion panted and rose from the ground. The dirty coloured grey doe looked behind him, into the night. “Sorry, I noticed my guard was absent and I thought I’d check it out,” she said quietly.

“Blackberry and I are doing the same. Perhaps you could help us out?” he asked.

“Blackberry?” she questioned. She sniffed noses with the other doe when she came over and they silently stared back at Campion, waiting.

“Oh sorry, Blackberry this is Fog. She’s from Efrafa.”

Blackberry nodded her head politely and then hopped over to the burrow entrance from which Fog had come. She sniffed frantically. “Campion! They are down here.”

Campion wordlessly left Fog and followed the silver doe down. “All of them?” he said.

“Didn’t stop to check for long enough,” she replied.

“How in Frith’s name…. are you able… to go so fast with a kitten?” he asked desperately. The comment was meant for himself and he hoped she didn’t hear, if she did she hid it well. His strength was lagging and his legs were heavy. Why had he put so much effort into digging?

She suddenly halted, and in his state of fatigue he skidded into her. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“Marli! Parli!”

Swift nuzzled Blackberry affectingly, then the same to Campion. “How much have you grown in three quarters of a moon Swift?” Campion exclaimed. The younger rabbit’s ears reached the tip of the adult buck’s markings on his chest when they both stood on hind legs.

“Fiver,” Blackberry breathed. “What has been going on?”

“We had a plan to avert every owlsa member in this warren. It worked,” Fiver spoke rapidly. “We came here planning to tell everyone so that they could get out, but we can’t find anyone!”

“To start, you’re in the wrong run, this is a solitary one away from the main network,” Campion said, he stood up and backed up the narrow tunnel.

“Where’s Hazel?” Blackberry asked.

“I don’t know.” Fiver shook his head in dismay. “We got separated outside. The rain, and the noise it makes made it all so confusing.”

Fiver suddenly stopped and swayed on his feet. Underground, his eyes seemed to take on a glow.

“A fool, a fraud, a false friend, though one rabbit’s trust he cannot mend. These two rabbits will never see eye to eye so they both must plummet into the sky!”

Swift blinked in confusion and helped Fiver up. “I pray that your vision does not include me, Fiver,” Blackberry said wryly. “Do you remember anything?”

“Yes, I saw Hazel with another rabbit, I don’t recognise him. Then it was a bit of a blur and the earth seemed to disappear. That’s all I can remember.” Fiver reached a paw out to rub his head. “Why did I ever complain about not having visions recently?”

Campion turned to look up at the moon that slid behind the clouds. The world outside was pitch black and the rabbits were struggling to see. Unlike some other prey species, they didn’t possess night vision, instead they are gifted with the ability to see almost directly behind them. But the four rabbits at the start of the run didn’t think that would to them much could when they couldn’t see anything.

“Okay, who is that?” Fiver asked timidly. He crawled slowly forward, minimising the chances of injuring himself on things unseen.

“That’s me Fiver,” Blackberry whispered back.

“Fog, is that you?” Campion said. In trying to replace his sight he had focused on his whiskers, which he had begun to use quite frequently in the unknown warren of Shadowsky. His whiskers had felt Fog near and he started to listen for a nearby heartbeat.

“Campion, are you with others?”

“Yes. This is Fiver, my brother and Swift, my son,” Campion replied, turning his head to the left.

“I gather that formal introductions can wait until later,” Fog said. “For this moment though, hello you two. Now, can anyone offer any plans?”

Campion had always known her as a timid doe so was surprised at her taking charge. Blackberry could be heard giving an indignant huff. “Fiver?” Campion turned to the small buck that he thought was behind him. The light russet coloured seer heard the hint for leadership towards him so he tried to step up. “First, we get all we can out, then we find Hazel and go.”

Just then the sky gave a roar and all the rabbits froze until a bright flash illuminated them for an instant. “Typical,” someone said over the noise. Blackberry hated thunderstorms, she didn’t know why and assumed it was buried in her kitten hood. She sat there shaking even when she felt a warmth at her side. “Are you up to this?” Campion asked gently. “Maybe you should stay here, I’ll stay too if you want.”

She shook her head and said a determined no, though still quivering. Campion nodded at the rest and they proceeded to follow Fiver until they heard a shout.

“Sounds like Hazel,” Fiver mused. He made a sharp left and continued on beyond the warren to what he thought was more wood and trees. Instead, there was a sheer drop to a raging river. It looked about seventy feet. “Oh my.” Fog steeped backwards.

“There’s Hazel!” Fiver pointed. “And… who’s that?”

“Dogwood,” Campion hissed. “What are they doing?”

Hazel was peering over the side with a doubtful expression whilst Dogwood was chatting with an animated look. It happened slowly, Hazel leaning over further, Dogwood’s pleasant smile turning to cold stone, him reaching out with his paws.

“No!” Fiver yelled. “Hazel!”

Campion saw it to, with one massive leap, he flung himself forward and slammed into Dogwood. With a sickening sliding of the earth around them, they fell. Campion released his claws from Dogwood in his shock. A terrible scream could be heard beside him, it made his blood run cold.  Then he saw the water come up at him and at the last second he snapped his eyes shut.

It felt like hitting stone as his body broke the icy top. The force pushed the air out of him and he sank to the bottom until he started to push up. All he could see was water, rock and lightning. The current was furious and very fast. He hoped fervently that there was no waterfall. He tried to relax and just concentrated on keeping his head above the water.

Every so often he would use all his strength to swim across the current. He quickly made a last leap when he seen a mossy bank. The very last ounce of energy was used to look back the way he came. Where was he? Then sleep.

…….

Hazel made sure he had a good grip on the slippery rock before he started to extend his neck. He seen Dogwood sidle forward and quickly jerked back. He felt air rush by him and an angry growl. He snapped around when he sensed a couple of rabbits join him at the cliff edge. “Campion!” Blackberry shouted. The moon had slid out from behind the clouds again and he saw silver fur.

It suddenly ticked in his brain what had occurred and he gasped in horror. At that moment two sharp sounds came drifting up, a painstaking scream and a heavy splash in the water.

He felt other paws at his back and he flinched. “Hazel? Hazel, are you alright? Get back from the edge.” He recognised his younger brother’s voice and tried to comprehend.

He allowed the paws to drag him back and prop him up on his elbows.

“Is he insane?”A new voice whispered.

“No!” Fiver snapped back.

“Fiver, what happened?” Hazel whispered hoarsely.

“Dogwood was going to..” Fiver started.

“Wait, who is Dogwood? If you mean that rabbit I was just with, he was called Fir,” Hazel blabbered uselessly. “Campion jumped him, didn’t he?”

“Yes.” Fiver nodded. “I suggest we split into two parties, one to get the others out of the warren and one to search for the two rabbits.”

“If you think that is best,” Hazel agreed, forgetting that he was the leader. “He tricked me….”