Watership Down - Blueberry's Tale, Chapter 6

By Skipai (c) 2009-Present

Chapter 6 - The Aftermath

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.

---

Bracken-Rah kept coughing as he talked to himself, the tharn-ness was fully with him now. "I won't let them kill me, they're all against me, I..." He stopped as he heard a familiar sound reach his ears as he cried out. "No, Willowleaf!" Without any fear, he ran for the sound of the stricken doe with Captain Bracken and another rabbit beside him. Bracken was beside himself with anger. "I don't believe this, of all of the times to go lose your head." He muttered, then stopped. "Hang on, where did he go again? I can't see in this hraka smoke." He moved about a bit, then stopped as he could hear the fire itself and voices of man. "They can choke to death from now on." Shivering slightly he moved a bit forward as he heard another voice ring out. "Hey, there's another one. Let go of the ferret."

Captain Bracken stopped and moved in front of the other rabbit. "Leave it, our chief is lost. We best get back and get away from here." Without saying another word, both rabbits turned around and ran back the way they came. Bracken-Rah could see the dead form of the rabbit, his mate Cloverleaf and then laid down beside her body. "Oh please, don't leave me." He said softly. "I didn't mean to shout at you before."

Stalking through the smoke, a ferret came into view as it spoke softly. "Longears, how touching. I'll send you to meet her if you want." Without another word, the ferret leapt as it savagely killed Bracken-Rah there and then, before lying on both the bodies, licking at the wound it had fatally inflicted on the buck.

Hawk and Blueberry listened to Carbi as he told a story to the other rabbits that they had to keep them calm. "Well he's definitely found something useful to do." Hawk said softly. "You were right, I think he should be our official storyteller now, make him part of the owsla."

Carbi heard that as he paused in his story, coughed and continued on talking. Blueberry nodded his head. "We need all the help we can get right now." Hearing Captain Bracken return with the officer in tow, coughing, he sighed. "No luck on Bracken-Rah then?" Captain Bracken sat down and replied back. "No, we couldn't find him. He probably find us at a later time. Has Captain Sando come up yet?"

Both Hawk and Blueberry shook his head. "No sir, he hasn't come back up again." Blueberry looked at the hole and carried on from what Hawk had just said. "I don't think anyone else could survive in that sir." The thick smoke still carried on up into the air. Captain Bracken nodded his head and looked about. "Right, we're heading away from this place right now. Let's go south, away from the men and the farm and see if we can find a safe place to set up scrapes before Frith goes down." Moving towards Blueberry and Hawk he whispered. "Hawk, teach Blueberry everything that you can, I'll be doing the same." He moved his head to look at Blueberry. "You have to work a lot harder now, we have to look after the rabbits we got out."

Slowly, the owsla rabbits got the non owsla rabbits into formation as they began to slowly move them through the smoke away from the warren. Each rabbit was down in spirits as a few turned to look back at the place that they have called home all of their lives but were pushed on by someone else. Blueberry and Hawk were at the rear as they carried on using their front paws to gently push the does onwards again.

Back at the warren, Captain Sando was having difficulty trying to get one of the larger fat rabbits out of the way, he cursed as he sank his teeth in pulling backwards to get the dead rabbit out of the way. "Come on, move." He muttered through the fur as he cursed. "If I die then I am so putting you on a diet if I'll ever meet you again."

Up on top, the men had noticed the smoke rising up at various other places in the copse and began to make their way over to the sources. Finding the open hole in the middle of the bush, they cursed and began to pull away at the branches so that they could to it quickly. Jack quickly filled up the hole with his spade while muttering. "Should've looked, seems some had escaped as well."

Ben looked about but couldn't see anything with the smoke. "Well, they're gone now; they won't last long without being able to get underground quickly. Let's get that fire put out and fill in that hole before heading home. Tell you the truth. I wouldn't mind getting a drink, how about you?" He saw the others nod as they began to head back towards the still burning fire.

Down below from where the men were walking past, Captain Sando could feel that something else was wrong, the smoke was getting thicker but he couldn't smell the fresh air from behind the fat rabbit. Slowly he let go as he opened his mouth and turned around to see the ferret coming towards him slowly, shaking its head side to side. Tensing up, Captain Sando muttered. "Well, it's come down to this then, has it?"

---

Under the guidance of Captain Bracken, the group of rabbits slowly moved through the edge of the copse. They slowly hopped down the small hill again as they cleared the smoke. Breathing easily now, they all looked about as they could hear the sound of the tractor in the distance as it began to move away, growing quieter. Hopping a bit forwards, Captain Bracken called out. "Hawk, Blueberry. Scout ahead for us and find us a suitable place to rest for the night, we will be following you behind."

Leaving the main group, both Blueberry and Hawk ran ahead as they had time to talk to each other now. Hawk shook his head. "Do you think that Captain Sando made it out?" He looked back at the group moving again slowly as he turned his head back again to the front.

Blueberry thought for a moment and replied back to his friend's question. "I hope so but I really can't see how, the smoke in there was just so thick that I think most would've been killed."

Hawk lowered his head and nodded. "Why does man want to do such things? I mean, I know we took a tiny bit of food from time to time but it's not like they didn't have enough, there were huge fields full of carrots or cabbages."

Coming to a hedge at the end of the field, both rabbits slowed down as they began to move through it. Seeing farmland again, they frowned and looked at each other. "I'll go." Blueberry said as he turned and ran back to where Captain Bracken was.

Reaching him, he saw Captain Bracken run a bit ahead so that the two could talk. "Sir," Blueberry said panting a bit. "There's another field that looks to be owned by man, it's like the other fields near the farm we raided from."

Captain Bracken nodded his head. "It's to be expected, we have to travel by night then and rest during the day. Okay, we settle up in that hedge and set up sentries to make sure nothing comes out way. Find a suitable place in that hedge for us to hide out." Blueberry nodded and ran back towards where Hawk was as Captain Bracken waited for the group to catch up with him.

Arriving where Hawk was, Blueberry gave his orders. "We have to find a suitable place to rest in the hedge for the night, somewhere where we can put scrapes in without being detected by elil. Let's find a place where it's away from any noticeable elil paths."

Hawk nodded his head as he looked about. "Okay, I'll go this way and you go that way. Make sure you check everything." He looked at the late afternoon sun and looked back again. "We don't have that much time either." Without saying anything else, he slipped out of the hedge and ran down the field.

Moving alongside the farm land area, Blueberry stopped from time to time to find a suitable place for the his comrades to rest for the night. It took a while but after what had happened, he was being over cautious on what he could smell from rat scent, a few fox hairs that had a fox brush past through the hedge at one point. Sighing he wasn't coming up to anything as he carried on his way.

It wasn't until he had come to a part of the field right near to the corner that he had found a decent place to stay for the night, the hedge had thickened out a bit more as it had a tree growing in between the four fields. Sniffing the area, Blueberry couldn't detect anything and looking about he nodded his head and stepped back out of the hedge in the field that Captain Bracken and the rest were at. Standing up on his hind legs, he stayed there until he saw that Captain Bracken turned to head his way. Hawk on the other side was running towards him along the edge of the hedge.

Captain Bracken nodded his head as he inspected the area. Looking at Blueberry he gave his approval. "This will do for tonight, I want shifts that everyone will do no matter what. Two owsla and two non-owsla and then we swap middle of the night. I suggest that those who aren't on for the time being, to get some sleep." Captain Bracken chose who he wanted on now and it was that Hawk and Blueberry were to take the first shift. Nodding their heads, they moved to their own areas to keep an eye out while the others slept.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening went without any problems at all. Blueberry was watching on the side, facing towards the old warren, which only showed the faint whisper of smoke now. Lying down on the grass he stared out across the field and wondered just what was going to happen from now on, where would they go? He didn't know, all he knew is that they had no home at the moment and that they would have to find a new place to set up again or see if another warren would want to take them in.

Later on in the night, Captain Bracken came to relieve Blueberry. "Anything of interest happen?" Blueberry shook his head. "Nothing, it looks like everything has calmed down but then the night is young and I don't know which elil would come around here."

Captain Bracken looked about. "Well, I be keeping out of sight just in case and hope that nothing catches our scent or we be in trouble." He looked back at Blueberry. "You best get some rest." Blueberry nodded but didn't move. "Sir, what about Captain Sando and Bracken-Rah?"

Captain Bracken replied quietly. "Captain Sando has stopped running; there isn't anything that can be done about it. Same goes for Bracken-Rah, I couldn't stop him from running towards man while he was tharn. I would like for you to keep this quiet for the time being, don't want any other rabbit to know. But you can tell Hawk but quietly. Now go."

Making his way back to where the others were sleeping, Blueberry met up with Hawk as he laid down next to him and whispered into his ear. "You heard, we lost both Bracken-Rah and Captain Sando. This doesn't look good at all, how are we supposed to survive?"

Hawk looked down as he replied back very quietly as though no one else could hear them. "We do what rabbits did long before us and what rabbits will do long after us, we carry on surviving, no matter what?" He looked up to the star lit sky and smiled. "There is the way of things that will always go on, they can't get rid of us completely, Frith made it that way but he also made sure that we cannot rule this world of his ever again." He turned his head back again and yawned. "Let's get some sleep shall we?" Blueberry nodded back and slowly they drifted back to sleep. Carbi though opened an eye slightly before closing it again and he to fell back to sleep.

The next morning, all rabbits were up and about again within the safety of the hedge. Captain Bracken was concerned about something that had come through the field that he wanted the group to move as soon as daylight came once again. Captain Bracken arranged a meeting to discuss such matters.

"This is how I see it at the moment." Captain Bracken began. "We need to find a safer place to move to but there isn't much I know about what is past this field. No one has ever ventured out this far before. Maybe their will be another warren or a decent place for us to start a new one. But we have to keep moving and hope that nature doesn't start making us think about mating as we cannot afford that right now and it would definitely kill the does if they had to travel while they are expecting, so mating is fully off marks for now, is that understood?"

He saw all the bucks nod and he got up. "I repeat, we are the only bucks in the owsla that are in this group apart from Carbi but I will keep an eye on him, you can try and explain it to him Blueberry since he takes so much interest in you. But I will not have any squabbles about mating. Now onto the other thing, it would seem that we had a fox check out the hedge last night which I was keeping an eye on from where you two were." He looked at Blueberry and Hawk. "I know we agreed on not to move until nightfall but I do not want to risk meeting it again when it is out for the next hunt, so we are going to move now. So let's go get the others ready and head down south, I want to be far from here by the time Frith goes down again."

Moving under Frith's gaze, the rabbits continued to move along the hedge of the field, keeping under cover as much as they could. The journey was slow after Cpatain Bracken had to tell the does off for trying to get a buck to mate with them. "Are you tharn? Just look at where we are at the moment, we don't have a warren or a burrow for you to bring up your kittens properly. You want to kill them and eat them?"

Captain Bracken had to do it a few times during that day and he was getting a bit fed up of it. Eventually they all rested amongst the tall grass in a empty field and looked about. "This place smells of man." Blueberry muttered as he settled down to nibble on a blade of grass and spat it back out again. "And this grass tastes awful."

Hawk tried the grass himself and spat it out as he looked at Captain Bracken. "Sir, this grass is poisonous, we can't stay here. This is a man thing and we already angered him a bit too much."

Captain Bracken nodded his head to the situation as he saw one doe continue to eat the grass as he shook his head. "Well, she's not complaining too much." He coughed however as he looked directly at her. "Daisy, stop eating that, you don't know what is on that stuff."

Daisy muttered. "But I am hungry and besides, you've walked us for a while now without any such thing as a rest." She backed up as Captain Bracken hopped towards her. "What do you call this?" Hawk hopped in front of Bracken and looked at him. "Sir, this isn't helping any matters with the situation, sir."

Backing up, Captain Bracken turned away as he hopped a bit away from the group and sat back down again. Blueberry hopped over to him as he sat down next to him and spoke. "Sir, it's okay. We all know you're trying your best to keep us alive under the dire circumstances. Do you want me and Hawk to go ahead and scout to see what else is in our way?"

Captain Bracken nodded his head as Blueberry turned to Hawk as they both headed off to see what else the land lay ahead of them. Hawk ran alongside Blueberry as he spoke. "Blueberry, I don't know what to do if Captain Bracken loses it as well. He's the only high ranking officer that would know what to do in any given situation."

Blueberry replied back to Hawk. "Well, you're one as well. You may not be Captain yet but you have been in the owsla for a fair many seasons so you should know what to do but he's not going anywhere, none of us are..."

Hawk frowned. "Oh Blueberry, just look at what is going on around here, it won't be long before we're picked off one by one or more if elil find out that a group of rabbits are wandering the countryside without any place to stay safe." He looked back to where the group of rabbits were hiding in the grass. "I don't think some of the does will last much longer either, they're not up to the situation at the moment, they've never left the warren at all. They wouldn't know what to do except run into a hole if a homba came."

Blueberry sighed as he replied back to Hawk. "I know but what can you do about it but do our job and keep them safe as much as possible. I just hope that they don't complain too much to set Bracken off again." Hawk nodded. "He was about to retire at one point but I don't think that's possible anymore to be honest. I just think that he's like everyone else and I can tell you that at the moment even I am starting to worry on what is going to happen. I don't like the unknown, Blueberry."

Blueberry looked ahead as he replied. "Neither do I but you can't say that owsla life has been boring since I've been promoted to an officer." He went quiet for a bit as Hawk blinked at him. "What?" Blueberry sighed and replied back. "It was all my fault, if I didn't win that stupid bobstone contest to go on a farm raid then none of this would've happened."

Hawk rammed into Blueberry and made him roll onto the ground until he was on his back. Blinking as he saw Hawk stand over him, looking down as he spoke sternly. "Now you just listen to me." Blueberry went to say something but Hawk placed a paw on his face. "I said listen to me and keep quiet, understand?"

Blueberry tried to nod his head but he could only manage a small nod that Hawk felt with his paw. "Good," Hawk said as he looked directly into Blueberry's eyes. "You're a good friend but you have to learn a lot and a lot to learn very quickly. The farm raid would've carried on that night regardless of you being there or not. We would've got another officer to go with us and it would've sent the same fate to the warren and you wouldn't have become part of the owsla. Me, Captain Sando, Captain Bracken and every other owsla officer knew that you did your training and are good enough to be in it, so stop this silly self pity and guilt and remember your job as I don't want to end up being the only rabbit in this group that won't be tharn, do you understand?"

Blueberry mumbled something and Hawk lifted his paw off the face of Blueberry who repeated what he had just said. "Okay, just don't do that again, alright?" Watching Hawk move back, he twisted his body around and got back up. "Remind me never to get in a fight with you." Stretching his back to get rid of any discomfort the knock Hawk had done to him. "Right, let's get going?"

Hawk agreed as they both ran off again due south. Blueberry began to notice the smell of fresh water, moist grass as he looked to see that Hawk had noticed the very same thing. Coming to a stop, they both made their way to the hedge of the field and then slowly pushed their way through to a whole new experience. There in front of them was an untouched area with long grass, flowers that ran down a hill to the sound of running water. Blueberry smiled. "You know, maybe things won't be that bad after all. Let's go back and report this, I think they need some good news."