Chapter Twenty- Three

Unexpected Helping Hand

“Here,” Yew said, dropping a mouthful of grass beside Campion. “You have to eat to regain your strength and heal.”

Campion struggled into an upright position before nibbling half-heartedly at the grass. He tried to ignore the smell of fresh blood, his own blood.

“Listen I have something to tell you,” Yew started excitedly.

“Yew, if it’s another apology, really it was my choice to take that risk and not your fault,” Campion forced a smile and picked through the pile of grass sub consciously.

“Actually it’s not that, while you were unconscious we had visitors.”

“What, elil?”

“No, its two rabbits that say they’re from Watership Down, a buck and a doe,” Yew answered, settling down beside Campion to start his own breakfast.

Campion’s heart pounded and he pushed down the hope swelling inside him, he mustn’t get his hopes up. “So where are they now?”

“They went to stand sentry at the iron road, in case the men return.”

“And amm… did they tell you they’re names?” Campion asked, trying to act casual.

“Actually I forgot to ask, what with you hurt and all. Sorry.”

“Oh it’s okay,” Campion bent down to the grass. “Did they say when they would be back?”

“I’m supposed to take over sentry from them around now,” Yew rose, stretching. “Hey, just cause I’m going and I can’t pester you, rest that shoulder!”

“Yes sir!” Campion replied mockingly.

Yew did a pretend frown and exited the patch of brambles they were in.

Campion shifted restlessly, occasionally wincing as he automatically moved his leg, triggering pain in his shoulder.

He sighed and pushed away the uneaten grass, his appetite gone to be replaced with nerves of the coming rabbits.

It’s probably not her or Swift, they would have left the area as soon as they could have, what reason would they have had to come back? The more likely situation was Bigwig had sent out a small patrol to this area, Campion thought, yes that is what would have happened.

There was a snapping of a few twigs and the sound of a small animal making their way through the patchwork of thorns and brambles.

Campion’s ears pricked and he leaned forward expectantly.

Fiver stepped forward cautiously and smiled encouragingly at Campion, trying to hide his horror at once again seeing the huge gash on his shoulder.

Campion returned the smile trying hard to push down the overwhelming feeling of disappointment that had risen into his throat.

“How’s everyone at Watership Down?” Campion asked quickly.

“Let’s worry about you first,” Fiver said hesitantly.

“Please Fiver…” Campion started.

“Blackberry’s fine, or as fine as she could be in her state,” Ivy sighed.

Campion just looked down at the ground and sighed despairingly.

“So do you think your shoulder is broken?” Fiver questioned, hopping over.

“Well I haven’t been able to move it much, because it hurts too much, so probably.”

“It will heal Campion,” Fiver said reassuringly, placing his paw on Campion’s good shoulder.

Suddenly Fiver jumped back as quick as lightning out of the sky, his eyes wide and showing the whites and his nose was dilated and red.

“Fiver what is it, what’s wrong?” Ivy asked, spinning round and looking everywhere for any possible sign of danger.

“Campion…… your fur, it burned my paw!” Fiver cried, still looking in shock at him.

“But how can it?” Campion asked in confusion, bending his head back to nuzzle his shoulder. It remained the normal body temperature.

Ivy was equally confused and stepped forward to test it out, at first she just brushed her whiskers along Campion’s side then becoming more confident she placed her paw cautiously on his back.

“My paw is fine,” Ivy shrugged. “Maybe it has something to do with your seer sight Fiver.”

“Yes… there was something I didn’t tell you,” Campion began nervously. This wasn’t a usual conversation topic and he didn’t know how they would take it.

Fiver froze. “The black shadow of death reaches out once more to his messenger.”

He shook his head to clear it and looked back at Campion with an understanding look. “You seen the Black Rabbit again didn’t you?”

Campion nodded slowly. “Yeah I did.”

“What did he say to you?” Ivy asked eyes wide.

“Ivy maybe Campion doesn’t want to tell us,” Fiver said hesitantly.

“It’s fine really, he just….. gave me the choice to go with him,” Campion said finally.

Fiver and Ivy gasped and looked at him incredulously.

“He gave the choice?” Fiver said to himself quietly. Campion heard  him.

“Yes, apparently it was a reward for Woundwort finally being gone and me helping him.”

Fiver hesitantly hopped over to Campion and once again touched him with his paw.

Fiver did not flinch this time and quietly withdrew his paw and asked softly, “Why didn’t you?”

Campion looked at his younger brother. “I feel I have too much to live for and I’ve been through too many things to give up.”

Fiver nodded understanding and feeling everything Campion was feeling, the despair, loss but hope and happiness.

“We’ll leave you to rest,” he said finally, exchanging looks with Ivy and hopping slowly out of the bramble patch.

Campion watched them go wryly, and then turned his gaze to his stiffening limbs, he had been in much the same position for the last two days and it was making him feel uncomfortable and unsettled, he tried to shift around.

Finally the continuous aching pain ceased his movement and he once again lay still, his only company the chattering birds, the rustling of leaves in the wind and the continuing hurt he felt.

Hazel left Blackberry to her thoughts. Exiting her burrow he made his way back up the warren, his mind whirling, trying to find a conclusion to all the unanswered questions. What had happened to Campion? How much of a threat was this new warren?

Hazel blinked as his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight and he stretched.

“Hazel!?”

Hazel moaned as he heard the strain in Bigwig’s voice, he buried his head in his paws and tried hard not to imagine what had happened.

Bigwig came straight over to Hazel with a determined look on his face while the rest of the patrol split off around the down with a quiet air.

“Hazel, we encountered men at the new warren at the iron roads and we… Hazel? Are you listening to me?” Bigwig asked, for the first time glancing down at Hazel’s figure in the grass.

“Yes,” Hazel replied, his voice muffled under his paws, “continue.”

“Well they cleaned out the warren, we heard a lot of gun shots and they had nets and we aren’t certain if anyone survived…..” Bigwig cleared his throat. “Why are you sitting like that?” he asked incredulously.

Hazel straightened up, removing the grass seeds from his whiskers. “No reason. Now, they cleaned out the warren you say,” Hazel repeated calmly.

Bigwig just looked at him, eyebrows raised and waited for the reaction.

“WAIT THEY WHAT?!” Hazel cried.

“Where’s Blackberry?” Bigwig questioned, scanning the down.

“She’s below ground,” Pipkin replied for Hazel. “She’s still in a bad way. Hazel, what are we going to do?”

“Wait we need to think,” Hazel nearly shouted, his voice strained with stress.

“Bigwig, did anybody see any signs of Campion when you were on patrol?” Hazel asked.

“No, as I said we just heard the men and gun shots and seen the men unload the nets from the hrududo. We didn’t see any other rabbits,” Bigwig repeated impatiently.

“Okay I need to talk to Fiver, see what he thinks we should do. Where is he anyway?” Hazel strained his head around Bigwig.

“He’s around here somewhere,” Bigwig replied.

“Oh Bigwig, we seen him and Ivy on the junior patrol this morning, didn’t you know?” Pipkin said innocently.

“Where were they?” Bigwig replied immediately.

“At the wheat field last time I saw them, why?”

“Those cloth eared twits!” Bigwig shouted angrily. “I told them to stay with the group!”

“They were probably just going back to see if Campion was alright.” Hazel tried to defend his brother.

“Hazel, the men were still there when we left! They could be killed!” Bigwig cried.

“Who could be killed?” Blackberry asked quickly, poking her head out of the warren.

“Oh, just my stupid owsla messing around Blackberry,” Bigwig forced a laugh.

“Sounded pretty serious to me,” Blackberry replied, eyes narrowed.

“Well you know how obsessed Bigwig is with security,” Hawkbit pitched in, grazing behind the beech hanger.

Bigwig just gave him an ‘I’m going to cuff you later’ look.

“Owsla! Training exercises, move!” Bigwig shouted.

“Bigwig we’re just back from patrol!” Strawberry moaned.

Blackberry cocked her head to one side and looked at Hazel waiting impatiently for an explanation. “Patrol?”

“Blackberry, fancy coming?” Bigwig interrupted her fierce stare.

“I suppose,” she said quietly, still suspicious.

Fiver yawned as he stared at the red sky, his fur blowing gently in the evening breeze.

“Fiver, do you think he’ll make it?” Ivy interrupted the silence.

“The Black Rabbit gave him the choice to live or die, so he can’t die,” Fiver shrugged as he explained his theory.

“It’s just… how are we supposed to travel? He can’t move and won’t be able to for at least another hrair moons, that’s if we get that long without trouble from elil,” Ivy debated.

“Something will turn up Ivy,” Fiver sighed. He wasn’t up to discussing all the problems.

Yew came over to the two and yawned. “Right it’s my watch again.”

“We can stand it for a bit longer if you want Yew,” Fiver offered. “You have been slogging all day gathering grass and going on wide patrols.

“No that’s alright.” Yew smiled. “I……. what was that?”

There were heavy footfalls or some sort of animal crushing the undergrowth.

Two bright lights swayed and illuminated the suddenly bright clearing causing the rabbit’s eyes to turn red and flash.

Ivy, Fiver and Yew pressed their bellies to the ground and flattened their ears, trying not to be seen.

“A hrududo,” Fiver whispered.

The tyres crunched the gravel that ran alongside the iron road and pulled up, stopping with a screech.

Two humans climbed out of the hrududo and turned on their torches, running them over the bushes where the rabbits were crouched in.

“One is only a yearling, a doe by the looks of it,” Yew muttered.

“It was around here Granddad,” the young girl said excitedly.

“Let’s have a look and see if we can help any of the poor blighters that might be injured,” the grown man replied.

“Nobody move,” Yew commanded as the humans came closer, probing under every bush with their hands and torches.

“What about Campion?” Fiver whispered, panicking.

“There’s nothing we can do now,” Yew replied sadly.

Campion was dozing again, his injuries preventing him from dropping off into a proper sleep.

He woke with a violent start as a light shone in his eyes. He withdrew into the back of the bush in shock when that terrible smell that was feared by every rabbit reached his nose, man.

“Julie go and get my medical bag from the car, quickly!” the man shouted back, before bending down and trying to reach Campion through the thorns.

Campion knew that he couldn’t run, his only hope was that the men wouldn’t be able to reach him through the undergrowth.

The girl, Julie, returned and placed a large green bag and a large cage carrier on the grass and bent down beside her grandfather to see what they had found.

“He looks terribly hurt,” she whispered in awe.

“Some of that is old injuries that has healed as best as possible, what we have to worry about is that gash,” he replied, pulling on long white gloves. “Now hand me those clippers and let’s see if we can reach him.”

Campion’s heart was beating so fast that it hurt and he dug his claws into the ground in tension, unable to withdraw further into the thicket.

The man’s hands reached him and gripped him round the middle, pulling him gently from his hiding place.

Campion forgot all the terror of being held by a human as the pain in his shoulder reached blazing point, he squealed in desperation, why wouldn’t it just stop? Why didn’t it all just stop?!

“Pass me that needle,” the man ordered, putting Campion gently on the ground.

Campion was panting and recovering from an outburst of pain.  His eyes widened as a long cylinder shaped object with a large pointy end approached him.

He twisted his head, lightening quick and sunk his razor sharp teeth into the warm flesh of the old man.

The man just winced and placed his hand on the rabbit’s neck, preventing him from moving his head at all and pressed the needle into the back of the neck.

“There all done, let’s get him loaded and get going,” he said, removing his gloves and opened the cage door for the girl to lift the rabbit in.

Campion’s vision swam before his eyes and his little energy finally vanquished.  He put up no fight at all as he was once again lifted and place into a small container with a soft blanket.

Yew, Ivy and Fiver watched in absolute horror as Campion was carried away and placed into a hrududo and was driven away as the last rays of sun stretched across the ground.