Watership Down - Blueberry's Tale, Chapter 5

By Skipai (c) 2009-Present

Chapter 5 - Man's Wrath

Authors Note: This is a clean fanfiction story written in the Watership Down universe. There are some scenes of natural violence, ie. predators hunting prey. Watership Down is copyrighted to Richard Adams. All world, references etc is copyrighted to Richard Adams.

This story was written during Nanowrimo 2005 and comprises of twenty chapters, however for the time being I'm only uploading the first chapter to see whether or not there is any interest for a clean fanfiction story posted on here by readers and of course this will be quite different to my usual written works on here.

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Most of the warren was up in arms over what had happened. Carbi was hiding in his burrow, whimpering with Birch who was trying to calm him down. The does were worried about it more than anything so close to the mating season again. And to top it all off, Bracken-Rah and Captain Sando has requested that no one is to go up top for the rest of the day while the whole owsla were having a meeting up there.

Captain Sando was standing up on his hind legs as he addressed the rabbits that were there. "As you know, earlier today we had a visit from man, of which we do not know their attentions. So the question is, what do we do about it?"

Bran spoke up. "Could it be that they are angry over the farm raids that we've been doing lately? We have been doing a lot of them and perhaps we have pushed our luck in not angering man?"

Bracken-Rah sighed and nodded his head towards Bran. "I have already been thinking that and it could be that man wanted to know who was interfering with his food. The question is, was it the farmer or just another that wanted to see us?" He turned to Captain Bracken. "Remember that other one that came about and just sat there quietly with some big white thing, moving his paw all over. He didn't harm us did he?"

Captain Bracken thought for a moment and spoke out. "No, he didn't which was strange as man doesn't like us usually. But that doesn't mean that nothing is going to happen with this man as we don't know what he's after."

Captain Sando spoke next. "All we can do is to be on our guard for the next couple of days and that we are cancelling anymore farm raids. I really do not wish to anger man anymore just in case." He turned to face Bracken-Rah. "Is that okay with you and your mate?"

Bracken-Rah nodded. "It's okay by me and I was just about to suggest it Sando. As for Willowleaf, she probably complain for a bit but she get over it." He saw the frustration in Sando's face and carried on. "Listen, I know that she used to be a hutch rabbit that was left stranded and that she hasn't exactly changed properly yet to the wild life but she is trying." Turning to face Blueberry, he changed the subject. "So Blueberry anything else that you could tell us about what happened before?"

Blueberry thought for a moment and recapped once again on the events that happened. "Well, sir. Me and Hawk were on sentry duty and that Hawk let me rest to have something to eat while he was keeping an eye on the situation. It was Hawk that noticed the scent first and that he, erm." Blueberry turned to Hawk and nodded his head.

Hawk carried on. "Yes, I did notice the smell of man approaching the warren. I knew that Blueberry here would know what to do if it came down to it and I went to fetch one of the Captains of the warren, noticing that most had already slipped back down again. I managed to bump into Captain Bracken just as I heard the thumping from above and knew that the danger was much worse than I had thought. After that I was ordered by Captain Bracken to help the rabbits rushing in to just go to their burrows as he went to get Captain Sando." Hawk turned back to Blueberry who then carried on once again.

"I was checking to see where the smell of man was actually coming from and approached the bush just slightly away from the warren itself. There I saw the leaves part and there was man's face close staring back at me." He shivered. "I had to fight back the fear and then sounded the alarm before running off. This is where I met Captain Sando and we stayed up above until all rabbits had gone back down, there we came to seek you out Bracken-Rah."

Everyone went quiet again as they all turned their attention to Captain Sando and Bracken-Rah. Hopping forwards, Bracken-Rah spoke out. "This is what I will say on the matter. We do not know what man it after or if it is to do with our raids on the nearby farm but we will ensure that we will be duly informed if anything does happen. Sando, increase the sentries for the time being and keep me informed immediately if anything else happens." Bracken-Rah sniffed the air and nodded his head. "And since the smell of man has gone, I will allow rabbits back out again. See to it will you, goodbye for now." With that, he turned around and hopped off.

"Right," Captain Sando spoke out. "I want all officers to double up in sentry duty from now on until we are sure that nothing is going to happen. That'll mean less sleep for a while but it will be worth it. Those that were on sentry duty, please go back to it. Those that were on sentry duty tonight will have to go on now and for those due tomorrow will be on at night time and so on."

By mid afternoon, most of the warren had slipped back to the normal run of things but there weren't as many rabbits up as before. Hawk yawned as he batted away a fly that was buzzing around his head. "I can't wait for this sentry duty to end."

Blueberry nodded his head. "I know what you mean, can you feel it, and the whole place just feels oppressed in some way. Though there was a storm coming our way, like thunder." He sniffed the air again and shook his head. "Not that I can detect a storm coming, there's not a cloud in the sky." Looking up for a moment before he moved his head back down again.

Hawk shrugged. "It's just the whole warren being a bit wary on today's events that's all. You see, it all go back to normal eventually when nothing happens and we'll forget about it." Going quiet again he looked to the group of quiet rabbits just silflaying and thought quietly to himself for a moment before adding. "But I can see what you're getting at. Don't worry about it, the day's nearly over."

Hawk was right when he stated that the day was nearly over as soon, all of the rabbits that had come out had gone back down so the two bucks slowly got up to take a look about while they grabbed a few blades of grass themselves. They both ate quietly as they made their way back into the warren and didn't speak at all. As they passed through the warren, Blueberry felt a shiver run up his body as though something was bothering him that not many rabbits were talking in the burrows. Shaking his head, he muttered to himself. "It's nothing, Hawk is right. It'll be a whole new day tomorrow." Slipping into his burrow he didn't take long to fall asleep.

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The following few days went by without a single incident and the warren slowly went back to normal in it's activity. The chief rabbit, Bracken-Rah had ordered Captain Sando to put the sentries back to normal and the mood of the warren lifted once again.

Blueberry was for once on his own now on sentry duty, the last day one before he had some time off before being switch over to his first night shift. Seeing Carbi come towards him, Blueberry gave a friendly nose twitch in his direction. "Hello Carbi, I haven't seen you around for the last couple of days. How have you been?"

Carbi sat down and looked around avoiding Blueberry's gaze. "Blueberry, sir," he began to sound a bit unsure on what he was trying to say. "I admit now that I won't be any good in the owsla and that I don't want to be part of it anymore. This thing with the man that came a few days ago would've sent me tharn with fear." He looked at Blueberry now and carried on. "I be happy to just live my life as simply as possible and help out the warren in other ways."

"Oh, what made you change your mind?" Blueberry enquired, as he looked about again, listening to Carbi carry on. "Well, I ended up in a burrow on my own but eventually I decided that I didn't like that. Just don't tell anyone about it okay, I know my father was trying to help me on that but he did have a point. Find something I really liked to do and I did. I ended up keeping the young ones happy by telling stories to them." He hopped about a bit. "I've decided to become a storyteller in this warren.

Blueberry sighed and shook his head but he was glad inside of Carbi's decision. "Well, I think that's an excellent idea, you will be able to bring up the young ones to your own ideals. You do know all of the stories, right?"

Carbi shook his head but he replied back to that question. "No, but I am being teached by that old buck, Greywhiskers. You know the old storyteller?" Blueberry nodded as he saw Carbi turn to leave. "Well, I have to go as he wants to tell me another story today for me to learn. See you around Blueberry." Without another word, Carbi ran off again, leaving Blueberry to check on the world around him as he watched two bucks starting to push into each other.

Frowning as he saw the pushing turning out into a full out fight amongst the two bucks, Blueberry ran over to them shouting. "Now stop that!" Charging into them with his head, Blueberry headbutted one of the bucks on the side. He looked about while standing in between them both. "You used to be friends so find a way to settle it without coming to blows." Seeing them both looking down on the ground, he calmed down a bit and carried on. "We have enough problems without causing more amongst ourselves at the moment.

Leaving them both standing there, he made his way back to where he was situated and sat back down again, fuming. He muttered to himself. "Hawk was right; the whole warren is heading for madness again." He flicked an ear and got up again onto his hind legs to get some better view of his surroundings and spotted Hawk on the far side looking back. Settling down again, he continued to talk to himself. "Don't know what I am going to do if I am pushed into it. Just hope the does find someone else to bother."

Perking an ear to the sound of a dog barking, Blueberry turned to face the other way for a moment and flicked his tail up so that the other sentries could see that he had detected something. Crouching down, he moved slowly towards the bush again as he slipped inside.

Hawk spotting the flash, turned to face another of the owsla rabbits and spoke. "I am going to see what Blueberry is up to, keep a watch over here and send someone to get one of the Captains. I'll be right back." Without another word, he ran right across, jumped down from the small hill and raced across the grass, with other rabbits watching him for a moment in confusion.

Blueberry heard more barks and felt the fear rising up again within him as he lay down hidden in the bush. Sniffing, he could detect the smell of oil, the sound of a hrududu moving loudly and the unmistakeable sound of man.

Hawk came alongside Blueberry as he looked at him. "Okay, we need to go check this out." He looked out to the field and then got up. "Come on, we race right across to where the road is and see what is going on." Without another word both rabbits raced right across the open field in broad daylight.

Coming up to the hedge, both rabbits slipped through as they moved to where it ended and the road began just in front of them. Turning their heads around, they spotted a tractor from the farm trundling along the road getting closer and closer.

Blueberry was rooted to the spot as Hawk moved to head back into the hedge again. Seeing that Blueberry hadn't moved he came back again and cuffed him hard. "Get out of sight, for Frith's sake." Blueberry moved into the hedge as he watched the tractor trundled past with such noise that it made both rabbits bodies vibrate.

Blueberry hopped out of the hedge after the tractor had passed and sat down in the road, watching a dog held by a man by a leash was barking right back at him. Then Blueberry saw the tractor stop. Hawk meanwhile came out slowly and looked at Blueberry as he turned his head around to see a man hop down from the back cart that the tractor was pulling to head to where the gate of the field was and began to mess with a padlock.

Blueberry just stared out, oblivious that he was sitting in the middle of the road as he saw the man get back into the cart as the tractor became that little bit noisier as it turned into the field. Hawk turned as he moved to the other side of the hedge and saw that it was slowly heading towards the warren. Turning around, he raced through the hedge, slammed right into Blueberry as he shouted. "Come on, we have to warn them!"

Snapping out of his tharness, Blueberry ran right through the hedge again with Hawk beside him. Both rabbits could see the tractor ahead of them as they race with all their speed across the field. A man saw the two and unleashed the dog as it jumped out of the cart, running towards them. Hawk shouted. "Hraka! We got to go this way!" He turned sharply away from the dog but also from the warren itself.

Blueberry panted as he slammed into the hedge again, feeling the branches grab at his fur as the dog came to a stop outside of the hedge and tried to get rid of the branches with his front paws. A loud whistle came making the dog turn around to head back from where it came from. Hawk panted as he looked back. "We have to keep moving. We go the long way back to the warren. Come on!" He was up and off again as Blueberry followed him.

Meanwhile at the warren, all panic had set in. The owsla had already set off the alarm as all rabbits were heading back under ground again. Captain Sando was shouting at the top of his voice. "Come on if you don't want the dog to rip you to bits!" Several rabbits began to push each other to get underground as he cuffed and bit them angrily. "Do it properly or we be up here all day!" He shouted and turned his head around. "Bracken?!! Where are you?!"

Bracken practically kicked a panicked doe down the hole as he called back. "Here, we need to get to the chief rabbit. I say we leave them here if they're too tharn to go down." He saw a rabbit a bit further out of the warren and then the dog came racing out heading to the stricken doe before she cried out as her throat was ripped out.

Captain Sando had seen enough. "Bracken, head for the other entrance of the warren, now." He didn't waste anytime and pushed the last buck down the hole before running off as the dog threw the rabbit into the air and gave chase.

Blueberry and Hawk heard the deathly scream of the doe and winced as they carried on around the side of the hill and hopped up so that they were running through the copse now. Hawk panting heavily, looked at Blueberry briefly as they made for the rear entrance of the warren underneath a thick bush.

Coming to a stop, they saw Bracken and Sando racing towards them with a dog closely behind. Blueberry didn't waste anytime as he raced off towards Sando with Hawk shouting behind him. Captain Sando looked at Blueberry raced past him towards the dog and then veered off, leading the dog away from the rear entrance of the warren. Catching onto the idea, Sando smiled as he turned to Hawk. "Get another few owsla officers up here. Make sure that they don't find this hole." Seeing Hawk disappear into the hole, Sando turned around and raced to where he last saw Blueberry race off to.

Blueberry was racing around the tree's of the copse, the only thing that was keeping him from the dog catching him to rip out his life from his body. However he was starting to tire out as he could feel that the dog was getting closer. Captain Sando came into his view as he raced towards him, past and sped past the dog enough to make him change his route and went after Sando instead. Running to a bush, Blueberry collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily as other owsla officers came to him. "He's that way with the dog on his heel." He coughed as he saw the officer's move quickly.

At the other end of the copse, man had already began to take down something from the back of the cart, a cage full of ferrets. Ben who knelt down beside the cage, turned to look at the farmer with a smile. "Right, let's get some of the runs closed so that they can't escape. Leave three open. We have one to let these in." He patted the roof of the cage as he continued to speak. "Then with the other one, we set a fire to smoke them out. Any that try to get out from the middle we kill them one by one." He paused for a moment. "Someone whistle for the dog to come back will you?"

Captain Sando saw the dog run back after hearing a high pitch whistle as he stopped panting himself. Looking around, he saw the owsla officers running to him as he called. "Right, let's get back the way we came..." He paused and sniffed the air. "Oh Frith and Inle, I can smell smoke." He ran off towards the back entrance of the warren and saw that Blueberry had recovered and was just getting up. "Stay here." Captain Sando said. "I'll send up Hawk and Captain Bracken to you." Without saying another word, he past him and ran into the hole.

Captain Sando raced into the warren as he could hear all the panic and frustration from within. "Oh Frith help me." He said as he made his way to the chief's burrow and looked at him. "Sir, man has come back; they've brought fire and dogs." He looked towards the run to the sounds of rabbits crying out. "We have to leave the warren now."

Bracken-Rah blinked as he looked stricken with fear, Cloverleaf wasn't anywhere to be seen as he shook his head. "And where do we head to, Captain? There isn't a place to go to. The elil will pick us off one by one." Somewhere else in the warren shouted out. "Ferrets are in the mountain!"

Leaving the chief for the moment, Captain Sando saw Hawk and Captain Bracken in the run. "Go get as many as you can to leave this warren or are willing to do so. Go now, Blueberry is waiting up top near the bush." Leaving them, Captain Sando headed to where no doubt his owsla officers were in their attempt to keep out the ferrets. The smell of smoke continued to grow within the warren as he had to cuff, bite and kick his way through the madness.

Meanwhile Blueberry was shaking up on top, his whole body wanting to go and run away right now but he stayed put, just like Captain Sando wanted him to do. He could smell the thick smell of smoke in the air as he turned to face the hole and moved towards it, sniffing. Looking up, he shuddered and shouted down. "Hurry up whatever you are doing, I think the smoke is going to come up here." Looking up, he hoped that man wouldn't notice. Listening for a reply, all he could hear was the squeals of death before a faint smell of death hit him full in the face. Turning around, he ran for a few paces and stopped turning right around again. The whole warren smelt of the Black Rabbit and he didn't like it one bit.

Deep within the warren, Captain Bracken and Hawk were trying to get anyone that was willing to leave the warren to head to the back where the Chief Rabbit lived. Most of the rabbits refused thinking that there would just be more smoke and ferrets that way and the only way to escape them was to head to the deeper parts of the warren. Hawk growled as he was pushed aside by some mad buck. "Their tharn, they'll never survive if they stay here?"

Captain Bracken nodded but they did get some response on a few that did want to go with them. Carbi was one of them, though it took a few hard cuffs on the head by Bracken to make him change his mind. Three does and that was all that he could manage to get. Coughing, he spat out. "Come on, let's get out of here before we can't. It's getting too thick in here to breathe."

At the other side of the warren, Captain Sando was in the thick of it. There were dead bodies of rabbits lying in the run. Right in front of him was a ferret shadow in the fog that had just killed another rabbit. Speaking as he dropped the dead form to the ground with blood dripping teeth. "Man is angry with you longears, man sends us down to deal with you."

Captain Sando backed up as much as he could and bared his teeth back. "You're not to come any further into this warren. I've been ordered by my chief to protect this warren." He knew he was lying but then again he had a duty and Bracken-Rah would've given the order nonetheless. He had to give his other officers time to get the chief rabbit out.

Hissing the ferret moved forward, walking over the dead body of the rabbit as Captain Sando backed away. He could hear other ferrets within the warren amongst the death cries of the rabbits and he snarled, lashing out with his paw, cutting through the ferret's nose with his sharp claws. "I told you, you're not coming any further ferret." Captain Sando snarled.

Bracken-Rah could see some rabbits moving past his burrow with the sound of Captain Bracken's voice. "Come on now, just keep heading that way and follow Hawk out of the warren." Stopping as he turned into the chief rabbit burrow. "You too as well sir. Captain Sando orders."

Bracken-Rah blinked. "But what about Cloverleaf, I haven't seen her since this all started?" He saw Captain Bracken come in as he started to push the chief rabbit out of the burrow. "I am sure that Captain Sando will do his best to get her out but please we have to leave, the owsla can't keep the ferrets from entering this part of the warren for long and this smoke will kill you if you stay."

Pushing Bracken-Rah, the chief rabbit reluctantly allowed Captain Bracken to take him out of the back way of the warren. Looking back, he coughed from the smoke and heard a rabbit close by squeal as it was killed which made Bracken-Rah run down the run. Outside, Blueberry was helping to keep the rabbits that had managed to get out to be calm as Hawk looked down the hole which was now starting to billow out smoke. "Captain! We have to get going. Man will surely see the smoke!"

At the other side, the men were too busy at the other end as rabbits were coming out dazed from the smoke, only to be met by the wrath of a pitch fork. Seeing a ferret come out, they left it alone as Ben shook his head. "I don't think the ferrets will take much more of that smoke down there. If they don't get out we're going to lose them."

Sam shook his head as he killed another rabbit that had managed to get out of the only hole that allowed them to. "We can always breed more ferrets." He cursed as he missed a rabbit that managed to run in between his legs. "Oh I lost one Sam!" He shouted as he got the other one that tried to follow out.

Cloverleaf had managed to get out of the warren and was running, still blinded by the smoke she ran smack bang into the jaws of the large dog and squealed as she felt the sharp teeth ripped into her side. Sam called back. "Doesn't matter, Benji got it."

Jack walked back to the cart and lifted out a spade, walking back again he began to dig at the place near to the hole and then told the others to move aside as he began to fill up the hole in the warren. "That's enough." He said as he placed his heavy foot down on the mould of earth to pack it in. "They can choke to death from now on."

Underground, Captain Sando heard the hole being covered up as the smoke began to really grow thick in the warren. Knowing it was too late to do anything now, he turned around, kicked out at the ferret full in the face and then ran, clawing his way over the dead bodies in the run as his lungs burnt with each and every breath.

Shaking its head, the ferret hissed with anger as it took flight after the rabbit, being smaller it was much easier for it to go over the bodies of the dead as it gave chase, with only the anger flowing through its veins keeping it from dropping down exhausted.

Up above the ground, the smoke from the rear run was now billowing out thick and fast as Blueberry had to hop away from the hole as he looked at Hawk. "It's no good, you can't breathe anywhere near it." He turned his head back again and shook his head. "If they're not out now I don't think anyone else is going to."

Bracken-Rah looked down, shaking his head in disbelief. "We pushed too far; Frith brought this on us with man. We shouldn't have taken more than we had to." Looking about him for a moment he carried on talking. "We had all the grass in the world, we didn't need to go stealing man's food."

Captain Bracken looked at Hawk, Blueberry and another owsla officer before turning around on Bracken-Rah and cuffed him. "Sir, please come out of it. There's nothing we can do now but we do need your leadership."

Bracken-Rah looked at Bracken with hatred as he backed away. "You're trying to kill me as well, working for man. I won't let you kill me, you hear, I won't let you?!" With that he turned and fled in the smoke as Captain Bracken rolled his eyes. "Oh for..." He turned around and looked at Blueberry. "Wait here, I have to go get him." Turning to a owsla officer next to him. "Come on." With that he ran into the smoke as well.