Series Six

Chapter Twenty- Eight

Unsolved Mystery

It was a bright, warm day on the down and the air was heavily humid, causing the burrow of packed soil to be stuffy and uncomfortable.

Hazel had come up with the idea of sleeping in the cool caverns. They had made it accessible by digging a tunnel around the large cave in, therefore providing nearby water from the stream.

“Come on you lot! How can you even stick the heat under here?” Campion chanted around the icy walls.

Hawkbit rolled over on his light bed of spring twigs. “Beware everyone, Campion is having a Bigwig moment.”

“Come on! Wide Patrol!”

“Why did Hazel ever put Campion in charge of the wide patrols?” Dandelion muttered sleepily beside his best friend, Hawkbit.

“I thought he would have been better than Bigwig, but turns out he has a thing for a wide patrol,” Hazel mumbled tiredly. “Fiver didn’t see that one coming.”

“Must have been all that time in Efrafa,” Fiver explained, stretching and yawning. “Logical really.”

“That’s all very creative.” Campion smiled, surprising the rabbits be appearing behind them. “But that doesn’t change the fact that it is a lovely morning and I am in charge of the wide patrols, I said it’s time for one so……..”

“Don’t remind us,” Blackavar said. “If we are your friends can we skive?”

“Look, Bigwig is tightening all the security and that includes patrols so up!” Campion started his rounds again. “And unfortunately, no.”

“Well, look at it this way Hawkbit.” Dandelion sat up. “Better to have patrol in this nice weather than have one raining.”

“The way I see it Dandelion, a patrol is a patrol,” Hawkbit said sourly.

“Vervain, are you coming?” Fiver asked the black figure in the corner.

“No, of course not, stupid mystic. Shut up and let me go back to sleep,” Vervain said curtly.

“Oh I’d say you were Vervain, and don’t talk to my brother that way, unless you want to go for a swim down the river,” Campion whispered loudly in his ear.

Vervain jumped out of his fur, colliding with Campion and then squeaking, terrified.

Campion drew himself up to full height and looked down at Vervain menacingly. “Outside, now!”

“Not that I’m complaining Campion, but why do you give Vervain such a hard time?” Hazel asked, as Vervain scarped out of the cavern.

“Revenge,” Campion said, then pretended to screw up his face in concentration. “And fun.”

“Seriously Hazel, you should try it. It’s good entertainment,” Bigwig said, coming around the corner.

“Hey you, I will not be talked about in that…” Vervain began feebly as Bigwig hopped by. He tried to catch up with the large grey buck. “Don’t walk away from me!”

Bigwig casually stuck out his hind foot and retained a straight face while the others burst out sniggering at Vervain who had landed on his face and was now nursing a bleeding nose.

“Form out!” Bigwig shouted across the cavern. While everyone had equal respect for both owsla captains, Bigwig’s threats were more likely to come true.

“Hazel?” Campion whispered as his leader went past him.

“Yes Campion?”

“What about Shadow?” Campion asked hesitantly.

“Oh, if you want to bring him along you can find him in one of the empty burrows to the left of yours,” Hazel shrugged. He had found it strange that he hadn’t wanted to join them in the more comfortable accommodation.

“We’re still no closer to finding out who that rabbit is?” Campion paused before turning to join him.

“No. I asked Fiver and neither of us knows what’s going on,” Hazel admitted.

“But you keep calling Shadow a ‘he’, how do you know?”

“We don’t, I guess Shadow just sounds more like a name for a buck,” Hazel answered. “His voice is rather too masculine to belong to a doe.”

“Do you think we should just ask him? Or her,” Campion added quickly.

“Maybe. We can drop some sort of hint later,” Hazel suggested, and sat back on his haunches, thinking.

“I’ll ask Blackberry, she’ll come up with something.” Campion shook his head in exasperation.

“Oh, and Campion? Don’t forget the meeting tonight in my burrow. You know your story?”

“Yes, I’ll be there.”

“Right, we’ll meet you up top when you’re ready,” Hazel said, going over to Bigwig who had stayed behind to wait on him.

Campion nodded and went even deeper into the caverns to where Blackberry and the kittens were situated.

Blackberry was up and grooming Rosa who was putting up a big fight for her size and age.

“Hey Campion, did you manage to get anyone up yet?” Blackberry laughed and sounded sceptical.

“Why always the tone of doubt? Of course everyone is above ground waiting for me, fancy coming?” Campion lifted Swift off Iris, who was having a play fight.

“Yep, haven’t been out in a while, and anyway I want to see how everyone’s doing under your command.” Blackberry joined Campion at the entrance to the burrow.

“Firstly, you are just back from a huge adventure that you probably wouldn’t want to repeat,” Campion said to her while making their way up. It had been a couple of days since he had returned from the men and her from Darkhaven. They had swapped stories on their first full night back. “Secondly, you don’t need to see how I’m doing in command because you know I’d be fine!”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right about the adventure bit. I’ll make no comment on the second thing you said!”

Campion and Blackberry joined the circle surrounding Bigwig and Hazel. It consisted of Hawkbit, Dandelion, Blackavar, Vervain, Primrose and Fiver.

Before Campion could come up with another witty reply he was called over into the centre of the circle by Hazel.

“Right, we’ll see you later. Bigwig and I are away to the farm, we’re in the mood for carrots.” Hazel smiled before walking off.

At this, Hawkbit started grumbling and Campion decided to quickly cut him off before his negativity spread to the others.

“Right we’ll only go as far as Shadowsky warren,” Campion called around the group. He planned to survey what was left of the cleaned out warren.

“Is that all?” Dandelion sighed sarcastically.

“There is a reason it’s called a ‘wide patrol’ Dandelion!” Campion said cheerfully and started to lead the group down the hill.

“I think you’re missing the fact that it is no longer a warren, and do you really want to go back there?” Blackberry asked him anxiously.

“Don’t worry, there is no one there to give us any bother.”

“Oh, you don’t know.” Blackberry cast her glance down to the grass as they made fast pace.

“Don’t know what?” Campion asked sharply.

“On my way back to Watership Down I ran into several of the Shadowsky owsla, their chief was with them,” Blackberry said hastily, having already decided with herself she would never tell Campion the real reason she had returned to the down. “Sorry, I forgot about that bit.”

“Okay,” Campion said hesitantly, “did you tell Hazel?”

“No, with you returning, I forgot.”

“We’ll tell him later then, no point worrying about it either,” Campion said, surveying her expression.

“It’s not that.” Blackberry shook her head. “You didn’t tell me Shadow was coming with us.”

Campion skidded to a stop. “I didn’t know.” He turned his head to look at the black rabbit, who had been running easily behind the two leading rabbits.

“Hazel said I was welcome to come with you,” Shadow said to Campion as a reply to his questioning look. “I won’t slow you up, I’m pretty fast.”

Campion just nodded discretely and turned back to the coming fields. He started travelling again at a slightly slower pace.

Blackberry gave him a significant look and fell behind to fall into step with Shadow, chatting easily.

Campion supposed it was an opportunity to get to know this new rabbit better and he hoped she would find out what gender it was as he had forgotten to ask her for ideas.

After about an hour’s travel the small band stopped to rest at the river before Efrafa and to relieve their thirst.

Blackberry drew up alongside Campion at the river and started whispering, “I tried to get information out of Shadow, but all I could discover was that he or she never seems to get tired, all exercise seems to be effortless,” Blackberry turned round to look at the group, “and…. he or she never gets thirsty.”

“Well, keep thinking, you always come up with something,” Campion encouraged. From where they were lying in the grass he began to browse for any particularly delicate morsels.

“We are right beside the back entrance to the caverns, why couldn’t we just come out the back?” Hawkbit could be heard moaning to Dandelion.

“I have got an idea!” Blackberry cried. She dropped the docan leaf she had just picked and hopped slyly away.

 “Say, Shadow….” Blackberry began, joining Shadow where he was browsing aimlessly in the grass. “Have you met Dandelion yet?”

Shadow glanced to where Blackberry was pointing to a dun coloured buck. “No I haven’t,” he said rather uninterestedly.

Campion, catching on to her plan, ran over to Dandelion and told him to improvise quickly.

“You what? Campion!” Dandelion cried desperately. “Why would you do this to me?”

“Go on, it’ll be fun!” Campion laughed.

“But I don’t...” Dandelion began, then stopped abruptly and glanced over Campion’s shoulder. “Hi….. hi Shadow.”

“Hello Dandelion,” Shadow said politely.

“Well, we’ll just leave you two to talk, if you know what I mean.” Blackberry smiled, nudging Dandelion.

“Blackberry, I’ll get you for this,” Dandelion whispered. “And you, oh mighty captain of owsla.”

Campion and Blackberry left Dandelion and Shadow standing awkwardly together, glancing anywhere but each other.

“Right, as soon as their done…. talking, we should go back home. The sooner you tell Hazel what you know the better. It’s probably best to avoid Shadowsky now that I think about it. We’ll go through the farm to see if we can cheer this miserable bunch up with some flayrah.” Campion indicted with his head to the rest of the group.

 “Bigwig,” Hazel said between mouthfuls of lettuce, “Keharr told me he spotted a small band of rabbits quite near the down.”

Bigwig looked up slowly from the rhubarb patch and swallowed his delicacy loudly. “For all we know, it is probably some of the rabbits that escaped from the Shadowsky warren.”

“That’s what I thought. Shouldn’t we be worried, you know, in case they could pose a threat or something?” Hazel suggested, pushing away a half eaten carrot at his feet.

“Hazel,” Bigwig answered, struggling to resist the temptation to roll his eyes. “Such a small group couldn’t even take on our junior owsla.”

Hazel looked at him sceptically.

“Look, you stay leader of the warren and I’ll stay head of security,” Bigwig mumbled out of his overstuffed mouth.

Hazel nibbled delicately at his rejected carrot and tried to not laugh at Bigwig.

“Hey, if you had to endure those junior owsla’s pestering and wining you would want to forget and indulge once in a while!” Bigwig defended himself.

“Shh!” Hazel hissed. He dropped the orange root and tensed.

“Don’t shush me!” Bigwig said indignantly.

“Bigwig we should probably……” Hazel began.

“What?” Bigwig asked, catching onto the urgency in Hazel’s voice.

“Run,” Hazel finished feebly and ducked.

The tabby sailed clean over his head and landed with a thud, her face in a pile of half eaten vegetables.

“Bigwig let’s go!” Hazel cried.

“Hazel watch out, the dog!” Bigwig returned.

Hazel skidded to a halt, and stood indecisively between the growling approaching dog and the hissing cat.

Bigwig slammed into the cat, knocking it off its feet. “Don’t dally about!”

But the dog was too fast and speed towards them, its paws sprinting nimbly around the vegetable patches.

Hazel and Bigwig dived for under the barn. They lowered their ears and bellies as they crawled deeper into the dark space.

“We can’t stay here forever you know,” Hazel whispered.

“Look! There’s a gap at that end, we can escape.” Bigwig rose to his owsla captain mode.

Hazel and Bigwig dashed as quick as hares to the other end, but their plan didn’t exactly go their way when they both got stuck in the narrower than they thought hole.

“Damn it!” Bigwig shouted, wriggling frantically.

“Cat!” Hazel cried.

Both rabbits closed their eyes as the deadly predator sprang at them in their vulnerable state, both expecting to meet the rabbit of death, and all for a few carrots.

They felt a great rush of wind across their faces, a shocked yelp and the sound of a great clatter.

Bigwig opened one eye and his heart nearly stopped there and then. A strong and sleek black rabbit with glowing red eyes stood before him.

“Hazel? Are you here?” Bigwig gasped.

“Hazel, Bigwig, you’re okay! Really, you can open your eyes!” Fiver went over to them and tried to prise their paws from their faces.

“But… the Black Rabbit… the Black,” Hazel began stuttering.

“It’s only Shadow!” Fiver laughed in relief.

Bigwig cautiously opened his other eye, and seeing that Fiver was present cleared his throat. “Of course it was, come on Hazel!”

“Thank you Shadow, for whatever you did there now,” Hazel said sincerely.

“You are most welcome.” Shadow nodded, then looked away with a preoccupied look.

"Here, we'll help to get you out." Fiver bent down and began to dig around Hazel and Bigwig.

Blackberry and Primrose went over to help too and soon Hazel and Bigwig were able to slide out and clean their muddy paws.

"Thanks you guys," Bigwig panted.

“We should get along home,” Bigwig suggested to Campion. “I’m sure your patrol is tired and I’ve had enough carrots for one day!”

“Whenever you’re ready,” Campion agreed.

As the rabbits departed Hazel hung back with Fiver. “What did Shadow do? How did he do it?”

“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” Fiver shook his head in amazement.