Chapter Text
“It's nothing of our business and none of yours. Whatever happens let it be so.”
--Rain of Mystery, The outcome of a queen
Woundwort was feeling deeply frustrated: he had searched almost the entire warren, and still no sign of the Speaker of the Past. At this point, there was only one place that he hadn’t searched: the humans’ main building. It was a place that he had done his best to avoid ever since his arrival in Darkhaven: he fully knew how dangerous humans could be. But as he had not found the Speaker anywhere else, she had to be inside. Unless she had run off like Vervain. Or maybe she had discovered the secret of invisibility; this prospect was terrifying, and Woundwort tried to forget it as soon as he thought of it.
He approached the building’s front door; it was closed, and Woundwort was pondering how to open it, when he saw something in the corner of his eye. It was a rabbit, one he had never seen before. He was much smaller; in fact, since everyone in the owsla had bulky muscles, this stranger might be the smallest rabbit in the warren. Woundwort abruptly turned around to confront this stranger.
Clearly, the stranger was just as shocked to see Woundwort as he was, and nearly leaped away in fright.
-”Who are you?” Woundwort asked.
-”My name is Coltsfoot,” the stranger said, trembling nervously. “What’s yours?”
-”WHAT IS MY NAME!? Is this your idea of a joke?”
-”No, I would never joke.” As horrifying as it was, the stranger seemed genuine in his answer, he really did not know who Woundwort was.
-”OBVIOUSLY I am General Woundwort,”
-”Oh.” Coltsfoot appeared to calm down a bit, although he still remained slightly nervous. “Good to know.”
-”So, Coltsfoot, what are you doing here? Are you some new recruit who only just arrived?” This was the only theory Woundwort could think of, that would explain why Coltsfoot did not know who he was.
-”No, I am not new. I have been living here in Stormhaven for many seasons; my entire life, actually.”
Woundwort could hardly believe this, but judging by Coltsfoot’s body language, a lie appeared highly unlikely. Not to mention the fact that he had used the warren’s outdated name, an obscure piece of information that few would know.
-”How come we never met? As leader of this warren, it is my duty to know every rabbit living here.”
-”I tend to stay away from large crowds,” Coltsfoot admitted shyly.
-”I ordered that everyone in the warren report for owsla training, a directive that you disobeyed. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Coltsfoot was nervous, worried about how Woundwort would react.
-”I didn’t want to join the owsla, I hate violence. And the Speaker of the Past told me that you had no legal basis to force me.”
-”Ugh, that idiotic doe, undermining me behind my back...”
-”Hey!” It was Coltsfoot’s turn to be angry, and it took a lot of strength for him to be able to stand up to the General. “You may be General Woundwort, but that does not give you the right to disrespect this great doe. I have had the privilege to be her student for the past few seasons.”
-”Why does she need a student? One rabbit aimlessly rambling about the law is enough.”
-”Maybe so, but she is not eternal, and she needs someone to take over when the time comes, become the next Speaker.”
-”Frith and Inlé, there’s another one...” Woundwort mumbled, then he remembered what he had been doing prior to this unexpected encounter. ”Would you happen to know where your teacher is?”
-”She left strict orders not to be disturbed.”
-”And I order you to defy these orders.”
-”But I don’t want to betray her...”
Woundwort scoffed at how pathetic Coltsfoot was.
-”She may be your teacher, mentor or whatever, but I am Chief of this warren. I outrank her and you. Tell me where she is...or else.” He uttered these last two words in the scariest way possible, and readied his claws. Coltsfoot considered his options for a few moments; finally, he weakly nodded. Despite the way the current Speaker had brainwashed him, Woundwort thought, he still had instincts of self-preservation.
-”Follow me,” he said weakly.
Coltsfoot did not have to lead Woundwort very far: they simply went to the side of the building and jumped onto the windowsill. What Woundwort saw inside the building horrified him.
The Speaker was lying on her side in the middle of the room, with Lionel-Hector gently strok ing her fur. This was very comfortable for her, as LH scratched all the hard-to-reach spots such as behind the ears, and her abdomen, but Woundwort came up with a completely different explanation for this situation.
-” You coward,” he spat with contempt as he turned to Coltsfoot . “You supposedly admire her, and yet you made no attempt at rescuing her.”
-” That’s because s he doesn’t need rescuing...” Coltsfoot started to say, b ut it was already too late, Woundwort had already jumped through the open window, and was heading straight for LH.. .
Fredrick was sitting in a chair in the middle of the battle pit. H e was getting impatient: i t had not taken him long to gather his own supplies, but Lionel-Hector was much slower. He looked at his watch; LH had been inside the building for half an hour. Wondering what was taking his employee so long, he decided to check up on him.
As he opened the door, he saw LH sitting on the ground, petting a rabbit; he looked up when he heard the door open.
-” Hey S ir Fred! What’s up?” he said cheerfully.
-” LH, what are you doing?” LH was known for his weird and reckless behaviour, but it never ceased to amaze Fredrick just how far he would go.
-” I’m petting this cute little rabbit! Isn’t it cute? Also, by the way, I forgot to tell you, about the crane, I ordered a replacement part online , but I measured wrong, so it doesn’t fit.”
-”LH, that’s a wild animal,” was Fredrick’s simple response, disappointed that he had to state the obvious. He couldn’t care less about the crane, since he would be selling it, along with everything else.
-”Can I keep it?” LH asked, as if he was a naive child talking to his parents.
-”No, of course you can’t, not any more than you can keep the rats. These are wild creatures and they would not do well in captivity. Now cut that out! It will bite you, and it is no doubt carrying many diseases .”
R ight on cue, W oundwort arrived next to LH and bit his ankle; his teeth were sharp enough to penetrate the sock and reach the skin.
-” AAAAAAAAAA”
F redrick raised his arms in exasperation.
-” What did I tell you?”
LH stood up and started screaming incoherently . Fredrick was baffled: he had never seen the usually calm LH act like this before. T he rabbits took advantage of this distraction to flee through the still-open window.
-”WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?” LH shouted in terror. “TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”
Fredrick sighed.
-”You’re not going to die.”
-”How do you know!? You did say that the rabbit was likely diseased!”
-”Follow me, let’s go.”
Woundwort and the Speaker of the Past met back with Coltsfoot just outside the building.
-”You broke the law,” Coltsfoot said.
-”What do you know about the law?”
-”Like I said, the Speaker of the Past has been teaching me.”
-”Indeed I have,” the Speaker confirmed. “And he is telling the truth: you did break the law.”
The Speaker placed her front paws on Woundwort's head. It did not take him long to get angry and kick her away.
-”What were you even doing in the humans’ burrow? Do you have any idea how long I have been searching for you?”
-”That was a fascinating place, many interesting objects there,” the Speaker calmly replied. “And you did not sent any patrols. I was busy thinking.”
Woundwort sighed loudly.
-”What were you thinking about?”
-”The future.”
-”Stop thinking about the future, you're the Speaker of the PAST. Let ME worry about the future.”
-”That is against the law. The law says...”
-”Never mind the law. You’re coming with me.”
-”Where are we supposedly going?”
Woundwort would have thought the answer was obvious, considering his frequent speeches about the need to destroy the outsiders, but clearly these two hadn’t been paying close attention.
-”We are going to the outsiders’ warren, so we can fight them and defeat them.”
-”I don’t know how to fight...” Coltsfoot confessed.
-”Of course you don’t,” Woundwort replied, rolling his eyes. “That doe has been teaching you all about the law and the past, instead of useful skills. But you two are still coming.”
-”No, we are not,” the Speaker said.
Woundwort looked at the Speaker, deeply frustrated. Her eyes were shining red as she looked back at him.
-”Yes, you are.”
-”No. It would be against the law for us to come.”
-”How about I just kill you two instead?” They would be useless in combat, Woundwort reasoned, so he would not lose anything by killing them.
-”That would also break the law,” the Speaker calmly replied, clearly not the least bit afraid that Woundwort would carry out his threat.
-”Did you ever consider not talking about the law so much?” Woundwort retorted.
-”Did you ever consider following the law instead of constantly breaking it?”
-”I AM THE LAW! NOW YOU TWO FOLLOW ME!”
-”We should follow him,” the Speaker whispered in Coltsfoot’s ear. “It is the only way to make him stop shouting.”
-”But what about the law?” Coltsfoot asked anxiously.
-”Everything will be fine.”
With the two reluctantly following him, Woundwort went back to the spot where he had left his owsla; as expected, most of them had fallen asleep in his absence.
-”EVERYONE WAKE UP!” he shouted. “You slept long enough, we must begin our journey towards the outsiders' warren.”
Woundwort's shouts woke up the rabbits in a very unpleasant way.
-”Now,” the general continued, “it is time to fight the outsiders, and KILL THEM ALL!”
This succeeded in waking everyone up and energizing them, and soon everyone was heading towards the path leading out of the pit.
-”Where’s Orchis?” one of the rabbits suddenly said.
-”Isn’t he right here?” another replied.
-”I don’t see him.”
-”Surely he’s here, General Woundwort said that everyone in the warren was coming.”
-”That is all unimportant,” Woundwort shouted. “Stop talking so much and start walking instead.”
As he said these words, however, Woundwort reached a troubling conclusion regarding Orchis’ death. Losing one of his best fighters was already bad enough, but this was even worse. Orchis was the one who had found the outsiders warren, and in fact he was supposed to lead this patrol to its destination. But when he had died, his knowledge had died with him; Woundwort himself did not know where the outsiders’ warren was. Would he be forced to delay the attack? And look like a complete fool in front of his owsla?
Woundwort quickly tried to recall the other rabbits on Orchis’ patrol. Spartina had defected, she would be of no help to him. Shale his head on a tree shortly after the warren’s discovery; his memory could not be trusted. This left only one rabbit; a rather stupid one, but he was the only hope.
-”FELDSPAR!” he shouted.
-”Sir?” Feldspar hopped through the crowd until he stood in front of the General.
-”Please tell me that you know the way to the outsiders’ warren.”
-”I think so.”
-”You THINK? What is there to think about? It’s a simple question: do you know, or don’t you?”
-”I do know...” Feldspar was nervous, worried that maybe he had misremembered.
-”You better hope you do. Now you go out in front and lead the way.”