Watership Down - Blueberry's Tale, Chapter 10

By Skipai (c) 2009-Present

Chapter 10 - The Patrol

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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Blueberry, Hawk and Carbi carried on sitting there by the strange railway tracks in front of them. Blueberry looked about for a moment. "We can't say here, it's too much in the open and I am sure I can hear something..."

Hawk flicked an ear as he turned his head to the noise. "What is that?, it sounds like it's moving really fast." He turned his head to Carbi. "Get off that this instant, you don't know what it is."

Muttering, Carbi followed Hawk's orders and hopped back to where they were sitting. Blueberry sniffed the air as he looked in the direction of the noise that was starting to make the ground rumble. "I don't like this?"

Hawk or Carbi didn't reply as they looked out to the distance, a small black dot In the horizon had suddenly appeared, growing louder with each passing moment. Blueberry turned his head around to look at the track that had started to tremble and shake with a rattling noise. "I really don't like this. Come on, let's get down the hill quickly!"

They didn't have time to move as the huge object reached them with a huge gust of wind that blew all three down the hill with a thunderous roar. Blueberry saw his world topple upside down a few times before he arrived at the bottom of the hill, aching.

Hawk got up from the ground and shook his head a few times as he saw the object had long gone and was only a small speck in the distance. "What was that thing?" He sat down and shook his head, his ears still ringing.

"What?" Carbi said as he sat up to scratch at his ears with his hind paws to get rid of the ringing sound. "I didn't quite hear that?" Blueberry was on his back, staring up into the sky as he saw the smoke still floating in the air, left behind by the fast moving object. After a time, he got up and looked at the other two as his hearing came back to him. "Carbi?" Blueberry turned his head to face him. "What was that thing?"

Hawk muttered. "I asked him that a while back but didn't get an answer, I don't think he knows what it is?" Carbi frowned as he replied back. "Well sorry, but I did have this awful ringing in my ears that wouldn't go away." He turned his head back towards Blueberry again and replied. "It was Frith's messenger."

Hawk blinked. "What? That was Frith's messenger? What makes you think that?" Hawk turned his head to look at Blueberry before going back to his ear again to get rid of some remaining ringing in his ear that had returned.

Carbi nodded his head. "Yes, I head it last winter while a lot of stories were told from one burrow to another. Frith uses it to send a message to one of his creations from time to time. No one knew what it looks like but it could move faster than anything and well." He turned to look up the hill again. "That moved faster than anything I ever seen so it must be Frith's messenger."

Blueberry looked at Hawk. "Well, you have to admire his thinking that one out. So where do you think this messenger is heading to?" He moved his head back to face Carbi again.

"How should I know what goes on with Frith's mind, I can't read it. But who knows, probably none of our business anyways. Frith hasn't spoken to us for ages now." Blueberry nodded as he looked up into the sky and frowned. "Great, looks like he was asking for someone to come and make it rain then. Just look at those clouds, we best go find someplace to shelter from it before it arrives."

Getting up as the sky continued to get darker with each passing second, Blueberry could feel a cold wind starting to build up as he looked about again, stopping to check a hedge as they entered a field full of crops. "This is different..?" He said quietly while hopping to one of the stalks and sniffing it for a moment."

Hawk muttered. "No, it's just more farmland, I think man wants the whole world to himself. Shame Frith can't do something like he did with El-Ahrairah and sort them out." He gave a stalk a sniff and pulled his nose back. "Got a un-natural smell to it as well." He looked about on the field and turned his head to Blueberry. "Noticed anything?"

Carbi hopped about as he sniffed one of the plants in the field as Blueberry looked up and felt that the sky was getting to be too depressing to look at it anymore and lowered his head back down again to face Hawk. "Nothing, there's not to notice here, it's just a field."

"Exactly, there is nothing in this field apart from these plants." Hawk said as he looked about. "Just listen and you won't hear a single thing in this field, it's like there isn't anything at all here." He looked down to the ground and frowned. "There isn't even any bugs walking on the ground or on the leaves of these plants."

Eventually, small droplets of rain began to fall onto the ground as Blueberry looked up again and frowned. "Oh this is just great. Look, we have to find shelter or we end up catching our colds and I already got thoroughly went enough for the rest of my life, thank you."

Moving on again through the field, the rain continued to fall down as Carbi sneezed, causing droplets of water to fly off his head before more water fell down on top again. Hawk was keeping his head down low as Blueberry looked ahead and called out. "There, we can hide in there until the rain has past." The other two looked up to see a hole in the hill as Hawk blinked. "Is it safe?"

Blueberry replied back. "It better be as I don't think a bush will give us that much protection in this downfall." Slowly all three of them headed towards the iron road again but instead of climbing up the hill, they slipped under the wooden fence and entered a path that led towards a tunnel.

Running up to the earth, the rabbits slowly came to a stop just inside the tunnel and sniffed the air. "It smells of man, but it's very faint and old." Hawk said as he placed two paws onto the cold stone wall and sniffed again. "I think we be safe here."

Blueberry nodded as he looked through the tunnel and spoke out. "I agree, there's another opening on the other side, it's like some huge run. We should be fine here." He turned his head to where Carbi was and motioned for him to get inside.

Carefully they moved down to the centre of the tunnel and moved towards the edge where it was dark and dry. Huddling together, they all began to doze off while the sound of running water came from both ends of the tunnel. It wasn't long before they had all fallen asleep.

---

Elsewhere not so far away from where the iron road lay, Efrafa warren was going through their daily business. In the run where the near hind mark was to go out, Captain Campion went passed the small shallow burrow which had two large rabbits with a small buck in between them. He nodded his head at them and turned to look out to the open. "I don't think we be needing him today? I'll let you know in a moment." Seeing the guard nod he moved on to the edge of the run and looked out. Hearing two other rabbit's head his way he saw Captain Vervain and another officer. "Vervain." He looked out of the burrow again. "We can't go out on patrol, not in this weather and I am cancelling this mark's silflay as well." He turned to the other officer. "Could you inform the officers of this mark and inform the General that we won't be able to track in this weather."

Vervain nodded as he turned his head back to look at Blackavar with a frown before he turned his head again back to Campion. "Well, I don't think we find anything in this weather anyways and any rabbit out there would've taken shelter until it's over. We find him." He saw Campion frown with a slight growl on that and Vervain quickly changed the subject. "So we're heading out again to search for that newcomer that escaped? Heard that the General wasn't too pleased the patrol couldn't catch him?"

Campion looked down to the wet grass just outside of the hole. "Holly? Yeah, it's not good for moral and keeping the others under control if a rabbit can escape from our control. We have to get out there and find him, Vervain." He looked out of the burrow and sighed. "But I wish that it wasn't raining, it's going to get rid of any sign of him from around here." Campion went quiet again and waited until the rabbit that he had set off a short while ago came back panting. "Sah, the General said for you to rest but he really wants you to head out as soon as the rain stops to find Holly."

Campion nodded his head back and started back down the run, before he turned his head to Vervain. "We best get some rest as we have a lot of searching to do tomorrow. We be heading towards the iron road and start from there." Vervain nodded back and he stopped just beside the rabbit sentry. "Let us know immediately once the rain has stopped." The rabbit nodded. "Yes, sah." After the rabbits had left, the two owslafa guarding Blackavar pushed him out as they headed back into the warran again.

Vervain caught up with Campion. "So? Do you think that we will find him tomorrow?" Campion replied back. "Well, we better find him or one of the other patrols or a few other rabbits as if we come home without anyone, then how do you think the General will take it?" He saw Vervain shake his head before they nodded to each other and made off for their own burrows. Campion stopped and looked at a small doe hiding in a dark corner of the mark. He stood there for a moment and then carried on his way.

Hyzenthlay held her breath as she saw Captain Campion looking at her and she backed away a bit into the burrow. She turned and vanished as Campion watched her for a moment and headed off down the run in thought. Hyzenthlay found what little space she had in the burrow and curled up in thought. She wondered if they suspected her of helping Holly to escape. She sighed softly and wished on her heart that she could change their minds about how bad it was with overcrowding or escape but her hope was dying slowly.

---

It was still raining with Blueberyr, Hawk and Carbi lying close together in the middle of the tunnel. Blueberry slowly opened an eye as he lay awake, giving off a small yawn that woke up Hawk.

"Still raining?" Hawk said while keeping his eyes closed. Blueberry replied back. "Yes, but it's not as much at the moment I think it's night as well now." He looked at Carbi in between them, sleeping soundly. "Well, I have to say that even though we're inside a man made burrow in the ground, I do feel a bit safe at the moment. First time in a few days of complete tharness though."

Hawk nodded. "So you want to go straight through this run then and pass that thing above us? It be easier to do that than to cross it you know?"

Blueberry nodded his head as he looked back the way they came and then to the way that they haven't gone yet. "Yes, as soon as the rain stops we head that way, maybe there be a warren we can find. I really want to find one now where we can be safe and settle in."

Hawk muttered. "If they accept us enough to take us in, nevermind allowing us to be part of their own owsla, we may not be allowed." Blueberry sighed. "Well, it's the risk we have to take and I don't know how it goes with hlessi, apart from that one that Bracken and Sando knew about that they had to push away once to leave again. But I don't think we would cause any trouble. I just want to lie low and get along, that's all."

"Well, we all need that, but you get some sleep." Hawk said. "I'll keep an eye out and wake you up a bit later or when this rain stops. Besides, one of us should really keep an eye out in case anything else decides to take shelter from the rain." Blueberry nodded his head as he rested his head on his front paws again and slowly drifted back off.

The next day brought the end to the rain as Frith shone down brightly. Blueberry woke up as he looked at Hawk looking at him. "Come on you two, it's a lovely day out there and I don't know how often this place is used by man."

Blueberry nodded his head as he nudged Carbi on the side. "Come on, time to get up and moving. You never know, today could be the day that we find a new home." Carbi opened an eye and yawned. "Okay, I'll get up if you promise not to start saying that this will be the day that we find a home." Getting up, Carbi stretched before hopping a few places. "So what are we going to do now?"

Blueberry got up as he hopped over to where Hawk and he had discussed earlier that night which had come and gone. "We're going to head this way, away from those bad smelling fields." He hopped a bit further ahead as he came to the edge of the tunnel and sniffed the air. "I smell, fresh grass, wheat." He turned around and smiled. "I think we're past the worse. Come on you two."

Venturing out of the tunnel, the trio of rabbits looked about the new area and saw the same wooden fences again with crops. "Well, it doesn't look any different but it does smell better." Hawk said as he hopped out and looked down the path.

"So which way do we go?" Carbi asked as he looked from Blueberry to Hawk and back again to the path in front of them. Blueberry replied, while looking in the direction that suited him. "We head this way to the left field and see where that will bring us. Come on."

All three of them hopped along the path as they made it to the fence and through it with hight spirits in their heart. Blueberry felt relaxed for the first time since he had come back home from the farm raid. Hawk was chasing Carbi about after the young buck had said something and as he looked up to the sky, there wasn't a hawk to be seen. All that was looking down was Frith that slowly kept on rising into the air. "Hawk." Blueberry said. "So how do you feel today?"

Hawk had caught Carbi and knocked him to the ground before replying. "Better than I did yesterday." He rolled over and sniffed the clean air. "There's not a single bad smell in the air at all and you know what? I am actually hungry?" He stopped and sniffed again. "I can smell cabbages over that way." He looked through the tall corn and hopped a few places before confirming it. "Yes, fresh cabbage and not a single bad smell in the air." He turned his head to the other two and smiled. "I tell you what?" He began to run. "I'll race you there."

All three rabbits crossed over the field that they were in a very short time. Hopping through the fence they ended up within a field full of cabbages. Everyone came to a halt panting heavily as they looked about the field, seeing just rows and rows of cabbages sticking out of the wet soil ground.

Blueberry panted as he looked at Hawk. "You cheated, running off before you finished saying what you were planning to do." Hawk hopped over to a cabbage and sniffed it before he turned his head back around and replied flatly. "Hey, you two are younger than me, I have to have some advantage if I am to win, you know?"

Carbi chuckled. "Well, we have to let you have the first bite then, old one." He ran off with Hawk chasing him again. "I'll give you old one, you little rip, come 'ere" Blueberry shook his head and hopped over to one of the lettuce, taking a small nibble as he tasted the leaves, which tasted fresh and moist from the rain the night before.

Flicking an ear he turned to the other two and coughed. "Listen, do you two really want to chase each other, or rest and get something to eat, these cabbages are fine. Come on, stop messing about now." He watched as both Hawk and Carbi ran up to where he was as they tried the same cabbage that he had nibbled on a moment before.

---

Nearby, making their way across the field, a small group of rabbits were running across the field led by Captain Campion and Captain Vervain, the patrol stopped from time to time to get a sniff of the land. Campion frowned as he looked about and muttered. "I thought so, the rain has washed away any sign of anything that would've moved through this way." Vervain added as he looked towards the hill where the iron road lay. "Perhaps we will have better luck once we cross that and check around the field there. We can do an arch and go back through the tunnel."

Campion nodded his head as he looked at the other two rabbits. "Right, you heard him, we go across the iron road and see if we can track any signs since he headed that way." He pointed to one of them. "You were on the patrol after him, show us exactly where you saw him cross." Without saying another word the patrol ran off in that direction.

They arrived at the bottom of the hill as Campion placed a front paw on the slanted slope and looked up. "So you were chasing Holly up here then?" The officer nodded his head. "Yes sah. It was dark and we could hear something loud coming but we kept on chasing him. When we got to the top we saw him for one moment and then this thing rushed by and by the time it had passed, he was gone. We didn't find anything of him at all, so we headed back."

Campion frowned. "So I had heard." He turned to the officer in question. "Well, since you were here before, you can lead us up the hill and over the iron road. Vervain, he's one of yours, go up with him."

Vervain swallowed. "Me?"

Campion nodded his head. "Yes, you Vervain, who do you think I mean? Come on, I don't intend on wasting time while Holly could be alive or dead. We need to know which." He watched as both Vervain and the officer in question headed up the hill in front of Campion and the last remaining party of the patrol. Coming to the top, Campion looked about from side to side as he hopped forward and gave the iron road a sniff. "Nothing, not even a very faint scent left." He turned to the officer. "You should've done a thorough check on the area before heading back." He paused as he hopped right across the tracks. "Come on, let's search on the other side.

Quickly the patrol headed across the line and made their way slowly down the hill, unable to run down it quickly without pushing themselves over to tumble down over their heads. Reaching the bottom, the patrol entered the field and split up into two as they began their thorough search.

Moving through the field, the patrol met up again without a single success in finding anything at all to say that Holly had died or came through the field. Vervain shook his head. "Well it's a loss for me on where he could've gone? We may as well head back to the warren."

Campion took a step closer towards Vervain and shook his head. "No, we were ordered to find Holly or at least find out what happened to him. Do you really want to give the others hope that they can ignore our laws just to have an easy life? We are out here until we know otherwise." He turned around and looked for a moment. "Let's try the other fields on the way to the tunnel."

As the day got on, the search continued as Campion was beginning to realise that they're chances of finding anything after the rain wouldn't come to pass. He was more annoyed with Vervain than anything for not going across the iron road that night but what had been done, had been done and he had to sort it out. The last field before the path that led to the tunnel running under the iron road showed that nothing had come through it. He hopped over the fence and sat down in the path. "Vervain?" Campion looked at him. "Tell the officers to rest for a moment and we will search that field before heading back through the tunnel to give the search of the fields on that side." Vervain nodded his head and allowed the officers to nibble on some of the grass growing under the fence.

---

Blueberry was full as they carried on walking through the field of cabbages now. He turned to face Hawk who was looking a bit full himself and he himself turned to face Carbi. "Okay, let's not do that again shall we." Blueberry had to agree as he nodded his head. "Well, no, we won't do that again but it was nice anyways. At least we won't have to eat for a while at least." He stopped and got up, rising his body into the air as he stood there sniffing the air. "I can smell a badger." He looked in the direction where the smell was coming from. "Seems that the wind has changed and is blowing the scent from that small bunch of tree's. I think we should avoid that area completely."

Hawk muttered. "Lendri, so this area isn't as safe as it was on the other side we left." Carbi hopped a bit forward as he heard another rumble in the distance and turned to face where the iron road was hidden from view of the hill and saw another train rush by, heading the other way than it did the night before. "Looks like whoever Frith sent a message to is going to get his reply."

Blueberry and Hawk turned to look at the train moving away very quickly and shook their heads. "Well, I am glad that not one of them came over last night, that thing could wake up anything that tried to sleep near it." Hawk said as he looked at Blueberry. "So where do we head to now?"

Blueberry looked about and chose another clear way. "We head through the fields, we should find a warren in one of them. There has to be another warren nearby, I just not that sure when we will hit one." Slowly they began on their way across the field, looking at the small group of tree's from time to time in case they could see a badger come out. Blueberry muttered. "Sando told me once that they only come out at night, so I wouldn't worry about it but keep an eye out for any other elil. I know homba come out during the day, so do hawk as well." After saying this, he gave another glance up to the sky but didn't see anything. Blueberry looked at the others and saw that they to had moved their heads up to give the sky a check and smiled inwardly.

---

Giving them enough time, Campion got the rest of the patrol tog et back up again as they made their way across the path to the next field. Stopping from time to time, Campion sniffed the ground and got up as he shook his head. "Nothing, there's absolutely no trace of him anywhere. This is your fault, Vervain."

"My fault, what do you mean, this is your fault?" Vervain sneered back at Campion who was frowning back as he walked through the field checking for anything as he stopped to inspect one of the stalks. "You should've crossed the iron road, not come back because of signs of rain. Of which if I recall it didn't start at all, did it?"

Vervain swallowed. "It looked like it was going to but it was too dark to see anything, I thought that he had died being run over by whatever runs on that iron road." Campion shook his head. "So where is the body, Vervain? I admit that something would've took it if they found it but there hasn't been report of any elil in the area for a few seasons. Our way of life has made it look as though there isn't a warren about for elil to stay around."

Vervain looked down. "I forgot to look, I already been told off by Woundwort on it, do I really need you to get on my back." Campion just huffed and stood up again to give the field another look as the two officers came back. "There's nothing here, no scent or marks." One of them reported as Captain Campion came back down again. "Okay, we head to the tunnel and search the other side." He turned his head to Vervain. "You best hope that we find him." He gave the same look to the other officer and as he walked towards Vervain and spoke quietly in a whisper as he stopped next to him. "As I only spoke friendly to you last night in the warren. I didn't want to see the non owsla rabbits seeing officers fight." He moved on and began to make his way back towards the path again.

Frith was riding high in the sky as Campion and the three other Efrafans reached the tunnel entrance. Standing still, Campion sniffed the air as he slowly walked over to one end of the tunnel and placed his nose closely to the wall. "Someone's been here, there's a rabbit scent."

Vervain spoke excitedly. "Is it Holly?" Campion sniffed again as he shook his head. "No, it's not Holly, this is a whole new scent." He turned around and hopped back to the centre of the tunnel again before slowly walking in as he spoke quietly. "It looks like we have a new hlessi, which has ventured near to our warren. We have to find him or her as quickly as possible."

Walking slowly in the tunnel, Campion stopped again as he sniffed the air and then moved over to a spot to the side and moved his head for the others to come near. "There, this is where they slept last night." Vervain sniffed and looked back up. "There's more than one of them, three I think, bucks as well." He sounded very pleased with himself, perhaps Woundwort would forgive him if he helped to capture them. Campion was sniffing the ground and lifted up his head. "I have their scent, we shouldn't have problems tracking them now." He turned his head to one of the officers. "I want you to go back to Efrafa and bring back another patrol and head here. You should be able to track our scent. Follow us." He hopped right across the tunnel with the other three and stopped, sniffing the path. He nodded his head as the three ran off towards the field to sniff out a section of the fence and hopped into it. The Efrafan officer turned around as he ran back towards Efrafa.