Chapter Forty – Six

Whatever it Takes

“Blackberry, eat your sage,” Primrose ordered in the dark burrow. It was night and Blackberry hadn’t been allowed up to silflay that evening nor any other time. She had been presented with the same excuse over and over. She was recovering from a bad chest infection and the night air would be dangerous. Like they actually cared, there had to be another reason.

“I’ve had enough Primrose,” Blackberry answered back. She was dreading her appointment later with Robin for a check-up though first and foremost on her mind was her next session with Cloud. It had been many sunrises since the last one. She assumed the chat Robin had said he was going to have with them had postponed the next session a little but she knew it would never stop them completely.

Dogwood poked his head in and signalled bluntly for Blackberry to follow. She hid the nettles and other herbs from his view as she got to her feet. Acting aloof she kicked them to the back of the burrow and hopefully not near enough for him to recognise. Even though the owsla buck was no healer he might realise nettles weren’t the right medicine for a cough. Under no circumstances should he find out about the coming kittens. He would kill her and Campion because Hemlock would be so angry that someone had defied him and his rules, though this was an unsaid one.  They are not of Shadowsky blood at all. We want the next generation to follow on in our path. These young are worthless to us and with your does and our bucks, we will have half bloods. His voice repeated in her head. Unfortunately Campion was not a Shadowsky buck, nor any of the hlessi bucks that were picked up. He was from Watership Down and that out them in so much more danger.

Blackberry shuddered at the thought and swallowed her fear. Yes, Hemlock would be very angry indeed. They had killed his vision of the future for his warren.

“Listen, Blackberry…” Dogwood started suggestively once they were alone.

Blackberry nearly stumbled over her own feet as she heard the gentle tones in which Dogwood was speaking to her. They were moving along in the corridor on their way.

“I…realise I haven’t been the nicest rabbit to you lately but… I want you to know if you were to put that aside I would be willing to take you under my wing in this warren and make it a home for you.”

Blackberry stifled a squeak of surprise, instead her eyes flashed and she said clearly, “Not if you were the last buck under Frith.”

“And I suppose its still Campion for you?” he asked sourly.

“Live with it Dogwood,” Blackberry snapped back.

“Well. I won’t have to!” Dogwood snapped. “Last time you were here I let you leave without calling the owsla. I followed you all and saw you together in the middle of the forest and still I didn’t tell the owsla your position! I cared about you!”

“Cared? I wouldn’t call forcing me to let someone enter my mind as caring. You looked in my mind yourself even though I refused!”

“I just wanted to know more about you!”

“Well now you know everything!”

“I know.” He stopped in front of Hemlock’s burrow and sat, waiting for her to go in.

“Ah Blackberry, it is lovely to see you again. Tonight we will be trying something different.” Hemlock sauntered over.

“I’ll never do any of this willingly.” Blackberry grit her teeth.

“Fortunately we don’t need your co operation with this.”

Cloud hopped over slowly and Dogwood’s pulled Blackberry’s arms behind her back again. She spared a moment to glance at him with hate. He actually looked sad when he seen her expression.

“Tonight, you are going to enter someone else’s mind.”

Blackberry was fleetingly stumped. “Me?”

“Using Cloud of course. Whose mind do you think it will be?”

The silver doe kept her mouth closed.

“Yes of course you are right. We are going to enter his dreams, of course I will be watching….for, well… my entertainment.” He smiled sadistically and whispered to Cloud, “Cause him as much pain as possible.”

“No!” Blackberry shouted. She was pulled into the darkness and into another world where she had little control.

……………

Campion

Bigwig was insistent to get me to talk. I know I must have not been great company to him and Yew but I needed time to think. It had been around a quarter of a moon since the confrontation in the burrow and there was no more mention of me by Hemlock. What was he planning? I huffed in frustration and Bigwig muttered sleepily, “Campion, mate, try to sleep.”
 It’s all right for him; he had actually seen Spartina at silflay whereas I was totally in the dark about Blackberry. Deciding finally that Bigwig was right I closed my eyes, it would do no good to think of better times.

It was a clear autumn night and there was a full moon and twinkling starts to light up the mining warren. I watched her from under one of the hrududos. I couldn’t see her expression because her back was to me but I knew what I was going to end up doing. I came up behind her and covered her mouth with my paw in case she should make a frightened noise and wake the guards. She looked at me in surprise but I quickly filled the awkward gap saying that we needed to talk.

I went ahead of her into one of the old machines that man had abandoned. We should have some privacy to talk here. The rabbits in this warren tended to stay away from the most pungent smell of men.

“Blackberry, you’ve got to get back to Watership Down. Now,” I heard myself say firmly and I hopped she didn’t hear the denial in my voice.

“Why?” She asked with a tinge of despair. She actually thought I didn’t want her near! Such ignorance boasted my confidence a little.

“To warn Hazel. Woundwort is using Silverweed to see through Fiver’s eyes, if he finds Watership Down everything is lost.”

Blackberry frowned at what she thought an excuse and then said determinedly, “Warning Hazel isn’t enough. What if we get Silverweed out of Darkhaven? Away from Woundwort?” Evidently she had decided to compromise, stay here but solve the potential problem.

I felt my face portray my surprise at the word ‘ we’. I knew it was silly. She had said it because we were the only two rabbits in this warren that held loyalty to Watership Down so I hoped she mistook my reaction for the intelligence of the idea. “Alright, we’ll do it, somehow.” I agreed. She smiled encouragingly at me as if sensing my doubts. I couldn’t help smiling back.

 Before I knew what I was saying words came blurting out. “Before I saw you again Blackberry I felt so lost, so hopeless.” Realising what I had said I turned to look out at the night so she couldn’t see my embarrassed face.

“There’s always hope Campion, as long as we are alive there is hope,” she said softly.

And before I knew it she was beside me, so close.”I’m glad you’re here,” I admitted. “Even though I wish you were safe at Watership Down.”

She gave a happy smile and leaned in closer. I threw away my nervousness which would get me nowhere, so I pulled her closer. A few seconds passed and then she shrugged my arm off angrily. Pulling away, she backed up and shot me a dirty look. My subconscious mind knew this wasn’t what was supposed to be happening and a bit of hurt lodged in my chest.

“Blackberry? What is it?” I asked nervously. I honestly didn’t know what I had done wrong. If she didn’t want to be that close why did she imply that she did?

“Don’t touch me,” she spat. “You said you wanted to talk, we did. Now I want to get back to my burrow.”

“I just...”I began desperately.

“Don’t make excuses Campion. I don’t ever want to see you again. You had imprisoned rabbits in Efrafa as slaves! Nothing and no one deserves to be treated like that. I used to think I knew you, loved you even but I was wrong because you weren’t that rabbit.”

It hit me like a dagger right through my heart and I knew that I wanted to wake up. Now.

I woke up kicking and struggling against nothing, thin air.

“Oy!” Bigwig jumped up indignantly. “Campion, what are you doing?!”

He received nothing but silence, so waking Yew they held me down so that I would stop thrashing. My heart beat started to slow and I opened my eyes in a flash. “Bigwig? Yew?” I questioned. It was a big jump back into sharp reality.

They released me slowly and I sat up, shaking a bit. “What in Frith’s name happened?” Bigwig exclaimed.

“I wanted to wake up, so badly,” I panted.

“You could say that, you gave us quite a scare. We thought you were being attacked!” Yew said worriedly.

“It felt like it.” I was still shaking and my heart had not yet returned to its normal pace.

“What was your dream about?” Bigwig demanded.

I recalled it and winced. “Darkhaven….”

“Well, that would be enough to give anyone nightmares,” Bigwig confirmed.

“I think I’m going to go for a walk,” I said. I didn’t bother to correct him. In truth I felt a little ashamed at having let a dream affect me so.

“Unless you are sick they won’t let you out,” Bigwig said.

“I’m sick then.” I improvised.

“You actually do look it,” Yew said with brows furrowed. “You’re shaking.”

I looked down at my legs as I stood; it was true, they were trembling. “I don’t know what is wrong with me. My head hurts.” I sounded like I was in denial.

Bigwig went out to the guards and soon returned with my old best friend, Moss.

“Nightmare?” Moss asked. The grey rabbit peered at me anxiously.

“It not just that, I really don’t feel very well,” I said with a tinge of annoyance. It was not just the dream at all! I kept telling myself that same thing.

“Do you want to go to the healer?” Moss hopped over to me and helped me to steady myself.

“No...” I started, then a sharp pain in my head made me crouch down and quieten.

“I’ll take him,” Moss said firmly. “Robin is very good, he’ll find out what’s wrong in no time.”

I gave in as I was ganged up against. “Fine, fine! But I’m sure it’s not something he can help me with.”

Surprisingly, it took longer than I expected to get to our destination as I had to stop to bunch up in pain a couple of times.

At the opposite end of the warren we stopped at a large burrow that contained a buck not unlike myself. He had the same sienna coloured fur but had calm grey eyes that surveyed me curiously.

I closed my eyes again as the pain repeated and I heard Moss explain for me.

“Come in Campion, I think I know what I can give you for the pain.”
I followed the unknown voice and stumbled the last few steps to sit on the bed of dried grass.

As I let my eyelids gradually close I automatically took in the scents around me. One in particular made me sit bolt upright and I instantly regretted it. My vision swam and I lowered myself again.

“Here’s some Willow bark, chew it,” Robin instructed. “And here’s some cowslip to make it taste better.”

“What’s wrong with Blackberry?” I asked loudly. “She was in this burrow. What was she being treated for?”

Robin froze and exchanged looks with Moss, who cleared his throat nervously and said, “You can tell him Robin, he’s hardly going to tell anyone. His life depends on it! You told me!”

“You’re a good friend Moss but…”

Robin went to whisper something but I wouldn’t have overheard anyway, I just clutched my head.

“He is,” Moss insisted.

“Oh okay!” Robin caved. “Campion can you hear me? Chew that will you? I’ll tell you.”

I complied and tried the bitter bark, it wasn’t so bad.

“Best to say it blunt I think. Blackberry is pregnant, going to have kittens, going to kindle, she’s with kits. Whatever way you want to put it, it won’t make it any less true. But you are not to tell anyone because Hemlock will kill you, her and them.”

I nearly choked on the leaves in my throat at the unexpected information. “I need to see her!” I knew that much at least.

“I don’t think that is possible,” Robin started doubtfully. I resisted the urge to throw my leaves at him. Did he have to be so difficult? True, he had no idea what I was feeling, but could he try and understand?

“Yes it is Robin!” Moss put in. “Blackberry is coming around later for a check up, keep Campion here until then!” I felt gratitude towards my friend.

“You are going to get me kicked out of the warren at this point Moss,” Robin sighed. “Very well, stay where you are Campion.”

I thanked Robin if not a little coolly and decided to catch up on a bit of sleep since it was still the middle of the night. Hopefully the experience earlier would not be repeated.

….

Ivy listened intently to Hazel as he explained what had happened on that fateful night once again. She couldn’t get her head around it and wasn’t sure she ever would. Between her paws lay her week old son. He was the same chestnut colour as Fiver though he had a mixture of markings, sort of like a piece of every of his family in him. It was most unusual, but then Ivy always knew he was special.

He had Ivy’s bright green eyes with Fiver’s coat. The markings from the top of his muzzle down to the back of his neck were the same as Hazel’s but the colour of Campion’s fur. But his most prominent feature was that he had Fiver’s face and therefore, instantly recognisable as his son.

Mallow, Gillia, Pipkin and Snowdrop were out on patrol since they were the oldest of the owsla unit apart from the adults. Wish crawled out from his mother’s protective paws and went to play with his cousins. Swift was gentle with Wish and let him play on his back without being rough.

Fiver smiled at his young kit. Though he would never admit it to Ivy, he was glad Wish hadn’t been showing anything unusual about himself apart from his appearance and gene variation. Having a foresight was a burden.

“Be careful Wish,” Ivy said quietly. The little buck was jumping from Swift’s back to Spring’s to Rosa’s, fill with the energy of youth and free from the sagging world of worry.

“I wish there were more young ones around to play with,” Swift said wistfully. “We’ll have to talk to Bigwig and Spartina.”

Fiver chuckled lightly, he was glad of the young one’s optimism. “Going to add a few more to your empire by being head of the kittens Swift?”

Swift smiled coyly and puffed his chest out and arched his neck. “Just practicing for when I’m chief, uncle Fiver.”

“Is that right?” Spring teased, if not challengingly. “It’s not like Gillia or Mallow exists, is it?”

“Being the chief’s sons do not make them chiefs.”

“It is usually the strongest buck, or one that has another special talent that the warren admires,” Hazel explained. “It could be Swift. He is already bigger than Mallow and they are about one full circle of seasons apart.”

“That settles it,” Swift said. “I am going to make a few changes to this warren.”

“I’ve got one,” Iris put in. “How about a feminist chief, a doe?”

“Every idea will be considered sister, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to refuse. As chief…”

“As not-yet-chief-but-small-kitten,” Fiver corrected. “Anyway Hazel, any plans for getting everyone out?”

“As I was saying,” Hazel continued. “Hemlock is more sadistic than Woundwort but I’m not sure he is as clever. For example, he left me at the bottom of the down when I was injured because he thought I would die a more painful death by the elil. He didn’t consider the kittens that he left behind, or that he might not have gathered everyone at the down. Consequently, I was rescued by Fiver and am no worse off for my ordeal.” Hazel finished and looked from face to face for possible suggestions.

“So are you going to get mummy and daddy out?” Swift asked hopefully, all childish playfulness gone.

Hazel hesitated then asked, “How old are you Swift?”

“About three and a half full moons.”

Hazel frowned. “I don’t know if Blackberry and Campion would like you to participate in any plan we had, you’re awfully young.”

“My dad was in the big owsla at my age!” he protested.

“Campion tells him too much,” Hazel mumbled. “That was under different circumstances Swift.”

“How is it? You’re injured Hazel, Ivy is in no fit state to fight. There is only Fiver, your young ones and my brothers and sister and I able to fight. You need us!”

Hazel looked imploringly at Fiver who nodded slowly. “We will be one big family again Swift, I accept.”