Chapter Text
“’I suppose I could stay for awhile.’ He said. But I really need to find a new home He thought.”
--BluePhoenyx, Run Rabbit Run
Hickory was running. In his exhaustion, he fell in a state of half-sleep, tormented by visions of Silverweed telling him “I can’t help you, only you can solve your problems.” Silverweed had never told him that, but to sleep-deprived Hickory, it felt terrifyingly real.
He had gone back to the place where it had all started: Cowslip’s warren. When he arrived around sunrise, there was nobody above ground, but that was not unusual: rabbits usually liked to sleep in until later in the morning at that warren.
Hickory wandered the fields for a few minutes, searching for a snare. After finally discovering one, he spent a while staring at it. All this because he had wanted freedom. It seemed that it had worked out for Strawberry, so he wanted to give it a try. It had seemed promising at first: he led a successful warren, started a family, formed an alliance with another warren. But after just a few seasons, it had all fallen apart very quickly: in the span of just a few days, he had lost his kits, his mate, his warren, everything that mattered to him. He had failed miserably at being free, and he felt that he was not worthy. He had done everything to avoid the wire, but now, it was all he deserved, he thought. Closing his eyes, he stretched his neck forward and awaited the inevitable.
Rosie, Crackers and Tumbler stayed awake for much of the night: as it was Tumbler’s last night before leaving with her new romantic partner, everyone wanted to make the most of it.
When morning came, it was time for the final hugs. Tumbler had promised that she would visit from time to time, but her friends still hugged her as if they were seeing her for the last time. Every “last” hug was always followed by another one. It took over one hour before Tumbler finally departed, waving her tail as she went away.
-”It’s been real, but also exhausting,” Crackers said with a yawn once Tumbler was no longer visible in the distance. “I’ll be getting some sleep, and so should you.”
-”But I’m wide awake!” Rosie said cheerfully.
-”Rosie, you’re always getting up so early and going to sleep so late. This broken schedule will catch up with you eventually.”
-”Nooooooo.”
Crackers smiled. Rosie’s stubbornness about sleep could be both annoying and adorable.
Meanwhile, Tumbler continued her journey. Her destination was far away, she would likely spend most of the day travelling, with frequent breaks. But she had barely made it out of the woods when she heard an unusual sound coming from a nearby bush. It sounded like someone was in distress.
Going to take a closer look, Tumbler soon discovered the source of this noise: a rabbit stuck in a snare. It was not any of the rabbits living in the nearby warren, it looked like a stranger. But something had to be done before he died. Knowing she could not save him alone, she ran back in the direction of her friends’ home. Her new romantic partner would have to wait: saving a life was more urgent.
With Toadflax and Flesca both dead, Acorn, Speedwell and Tindra were unsure how to proceed. With two bloody corpses, it was only a matter of time before elil came.
-“My heart has joined the Thousand, for my...my...acquaintances, stopped running today,” Tindra said, modifying the ancient proverb: she had never considered Toadflax a “friend”, and while Flesca might have qualified in the past, the reveal that she was a murderer had also marked the end of the friendship. Still, the message was important, she thought.
Acorn, meanwhile, had gone completely tharn. As hated as Toadflax was, he still felt bad for having killed him, even in self-defence. He was only brought back to reality by the sound of stamping; the three rabbits hid in the bush. Elil had finally come: more specifically, the farmer. As he did every morning, he went on his morning patrol around the field to check whether his snares had claimed any victims. Upon finding Toadflax’s body, he was left confused as to how he had died: he was not stuck in a snare, and there were no other predators in the area. It was very mysterious, but he nevertheless took the body with him, as he did with Flesca, placing a new snare to replace the old one, destroyed one.
As the farmer left, the living rabbits were able to leave their hiding spot and return to the open. A few drops of blood on the ground were the only sign that anything had happened. While it had always been clear that Flesca and Toadflax were dead and not coming back, the farmer removing their corpses brought a new sense of finality.
-”What now?” Speedwell asked, voicing the question everyone was thinking.
-”RABBITS!!”
Everyone turned to the direction from which the shouting had come. Tindra recognized the squirrels and hedgehog as the same that had approached her about confronting Flesca.
-”What now?” she asked apprehensively.
-”There’s a rabbit in a snare!” Rosie said. “We need your help to rescue him!”
Acorn’s ears perked up. He had failed with the previous rescue; maybe he could redeem himself this time?
-”Where?” He realized that he had used the forbidden word; if Cowslip was there, he would be furious. But under the circumstances, it was appropriate.
-”We’ll show you,” Tumbler said. “Hurry!”
This time, the rescue was a success. Having learned from their prior mistakes, the rabbits knew right away that they had to dig up the peg, and they were able to do so before the wire had tightened enough to fully cut off its victim’s airflow. But once they removed the wire, they were shocked as they took a closer look at the rabbit’s face.
-”Hickory!?”
Hickory opened his eyes at the mention of his name. Is this what death was like? It didn’t feel all that different from life.
Looking around him, it seemed that his surroundings had not changed, he was still in the same field where he had snared himself. Three rabbits were standing in front of him; while he could not remember their individual names, he knew that all three were from Cowslip’s warren. For some reason, two squirrels and a hedgehog were also present.
At first, Hickory assumed that the creatures around him were ghosts. Then he saw the torn wire and peg on the ground; he had learned from Hazel and the others that this was the only way to save a trapped rabbit. This could only mean one thing: he was still alive. But why had the others rescued him? They had never done anything like that before, it was strictly forbidden, Cowslip would be furious. Unless...
-”Cowslip wants to deal with me personally, doesn’t he?” he said with a sigh. “Take me to him, let’s get this over with.”
-”What are you on about?” Speedwell asked. “Cowslip’s dead.”
-”What are you doing here anyway?” Tindra added. ”We all thought you were happy at that new warren, what’s it called? Bigstone?”
-”Redstone is gone. Destroyed by humans.”
-”Oh.” This was all Acorn could say; he did not know how to properly respond to a disaster.
-”So with your new home gone, you decided to go back to your old home,” Speedwell said. “Welcome back, I suppose.”
Hickory listened silently. He had truly failed at everything, even dying. Although the last one wasn’t entirely his fault.
-”Why did you save me?” he asked.
-”Because it was the right thing to do?” Acorn replied, deeply confused by Hickory’s question.
-”You always said that each time the wire takes someone, everyone else lives a day longer. Why sabotage this?”
-”Instead of thanking us, you’re questioning us?” Speedwell had taken Hickory’s questions as a personal insult.
-”Give him a break,” Tindra interjected, “he hasn’t been here in a while, he doesn’t know the recent events.” She turned back to Hickory. “You see, we don’t live in this warren anymore. We moved to another nearby warren called New Sandleford. We don’t have to worry about snares anymore.”
-”Is it really wise to talk about New Sandleford?” Acorn whispered in Tindra’s ear. “What with Flesca dead and all...”
-”It’s the truth. I have no reason to lie.”
-”I didn’t ask for this,” Hickory said.
-”Ask for what?”
-”Rescue. Now I’ve got to find myself another wire. Please, this time, don’t meddle.”
-”Now hang on just one moment here,” Acorn said sternly. “You mean to say that you didn’t accidentally fall in the trap, but deliberately sought one out to end your life?”
By this point, Hickory had tears in his eyes; he closed them to help conceal this.
-”Yes.”
-”You great big fool!” It was now Acorn’s turn to be angry and insulted. “What were you thinking? You left this warren to have a chance at life! You realized, before any of us, that it was precious, and with the possibility of it ending any day, you had to make the most of it while you could. And now you’re trying to throw it all away at the first major challenge? Yes, it’s true, you don’t have a warren anymore. Details! Other warrens exist.”
Tindra and Speedwell stared at Acorn in shock. He had always been a shy and largely forgettable rabbit, and now he was giving an impassioned speech about the value of life. This was something nobody had ever expected from him, but now that it was happening, it was amazing to hear, and greatly raised both their morale.
-”All this to say: don’t give up,” Acorn finished. “You still have a promising future ahead of you.”
-”What should I do, then?” Hickory was not entirely convinced, but one thing was for sure: as long as these other rabbits were around, they would keep him alive whether he wanted or not.
-”Come with us to New Sandleford?” Tindra suggested, uncertain.
-”I’m not going back to New Sandleford,” Acorn said firmly.
-”Why not?” Speedwell asked.
-”Let’s face it, Celandine won’t be nice forever, especially once he finds out his mate is dead.”
-”The farmer took her away. He’ll never know.”
-”Instead of finding her dead body, he will simply never see her again, she will have mysteriously disappeared. That won’t change anything, he’ll still know that something happened. Not to mention, he and his friends have no doubt already noticed our absence by now. They’ll think WE killed her.”
-”They’ll never be able to prove it.”
-”I highly doubt that would stop them from accusing us anyway.”
-”What should we do, then?”
Acorn hadn’t actually thought about that. Nevertheless, with everyone else relying on him, he had to come up with an alternate plan quickly.
-”We leave.”
-”And go where?” Hickory asked.
-”We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
-”I, for one, think we should go with him,” Tindra said.
Speedwell and Hickory looked at each other; neither of them was fully convinced, but neither of them had any alternate suggestions either.
-”Lead the way, Acorn.”
The four rabbits soon hopped away, leaving behind a deserted field. The Warren of the Shining Wires was now abandoned forever. New Sandleford warren, meanwhile, seemed like it had a promising future ahead. At least until Celandine realized that his mate wasn’t coming back...
-”I really must get going now,” Tumbler said.
-”One more hug first?” Rosie begged.
-”Please?” Crackers added.
Tumbler could not say no.