Tales From Watership Down (Watership Down 2)

But the old rabbit seemed as though he hardly knew he had spoken. He bobbed his head to El-ahrairah, turned and limped slowly away.

"We generally just leave him to himself, my lord," said Henthred. "He's quite harmless, but I sometimes wonder whether he knows night from morning. I'm told he was a dashing gallant of the Owsla in his time."

"But what did he mean by the Hole in the Sky?"

"If you don't know, my lord, I'm sure I don't," replied Henthred, who, truth to tell, had felt rather nettled at having two of his Owsla shown up for a couple of blighters.

El-ahrairah didn't refer to the incident again. He stayed two or three more days and behaved as though nothing unusual had happened, and, when he left, wished the warren good fortune and prosperity, as he was accustomed to do.

He puzzled a lot over what Themmeron had said, and everywhere he went asked other rabbits what they could tell him about the Hole in the Sky. But no one could tell him anything. At last he realized that he was beginning to be thought a little odd on account

of this preoccupation, so he gave up inquiring. Privately, however, he wondered more and more. What could old Themmeron have meant? He came to the conclusion that although he was the Rabbit Prince, he must be missing something really splendid and rewarding: some sort of secret thing. Probably a number of those he had asked knew perfectly well but weren't giving anything away. It must be marvelous, the Hole in the Sky. If only he could find it and somehow or other get through it to the other side, there must be the most miraculous things to found. He wasn't going to fell contented until he had discovered it.

Well, as you all know, El-ahrairah's journeyings take him everywhere, far beyond the range of ordinary rabbits like ourselves, who are happy enough with green fields and elder bloom, or clean bracken and gorse. High hills and deep woods he was quite accustomed to, and could swim across a river as well as any water vole. But of course, with such wanderings as that, he was liable to encounter some curious and unusual creatures, some of whom were distinctly dangerous. And the story tells that one evening, getting on for nightfall, he was going along a narrow path in some lonely hills when he came face-to-face with a creature called a timbleer--one we know nothing of, Frith be thanked, except that they're fierce and aggressive.

"What are you doing here?" asked the timbleer in no friendly tone. "Get back where you belong, you dirty rabbit."

"I'm doing no harm," replied El-ahrairah. "I'm simply going along this path and not bothering you or any other creature."

"You've got no business here," said the timbleer. "Are you going to turn round and go back, or aren't you?"

"I'm not," said El-ahrairah, "and you've got no right to tell me to."

Then the timbleer rushed upon El-ahrairah grappled with the timbleer among the ragwort and nettles, and there was a terrific battle up and down the path. The timbleer was strong and very agile, and it wounded El-ahrairah badly, so that he lost a lot of blood. But El-ahrairah gave as good as he got, and in the end the timbleer was glad enough to break off the fight and go limping away, cursing El-ahrairah as it went.

El-ahrairah felt weak and dizzy. He sank down where he was on the path and tried to rest, but his wounds were hurting so badly that he couldn't find any position in which he could be comfortable. Night came on, and still he tossed and turned in horrible pain. He must have slept at last, for when he next looked about him, it was becoming light and a thrush was singing from a nearby birch tree. He tried to stand but at once fell down. The pain of his wounds was still bad, and since he couldn't walk he was forced to stay where he was on the path He began to believe that he would die there.

Soon he became delirious, and lay all day without noticing the passage of time. Sometimes he slept, but even in his sleep he was aware of the pain. He fancied Rabscuttle was with him and begged him for help. But Rabscuttle slowly faded and became a hunched juniper bush on the down where El-ahrairah thought he was lying. Then he thought he was Hazel, telling Hyzenthlay to take good care of the warren while he was gone with Campion on a special Wide Patrol. But all these figments either dissolved or else blended with one another, to be glimpsed as elil seen in the tail of his eye. All day he was turning his head this way and that to try to see them clearly. And meanwhile, some rabbit was whispering jokes in his ear, only he could never quite catch what they were about. He was worn out with pain and fear. He heard a rabbit begging for Rabscuttle to come, and after a while realized that it was himself.

He nibbled at the grass where he was lying, but he could not taste it. "It's special grass, master," said Rabscuttle, out of sight behind him. "Special grass to make you better. Go to sleep."

Next morning he saw, quite plainly, a green fox approaching along the path. Again he tried to stand, but just as the fox disappeared his legs gave way, and he fell on his back and lay there, staring stupidly up at the sky.

Then he began to tremble with fear. In the blue curve of the sky he saw a great rent, a cleft which, he perceived, was an open, gaping wound. The two irregular edges were jagged as though it had been made with something blunt, something which had first cut and then ripped and torn. Here and there shreds of flesh, still attached to the edges, stuck out across the wound, obscuring whatever was behind. All that he could see in the suppurating depth of the wound was blood and pus, a glistening, viscous, uneven surface like a marsh. The edges were messy too, fringed all along with blood and yellow matter on which flies were walking. As he stared in horror, the dead body of a rabbit fell out of the wound, but disappeared as it fell.

To El-ahrairah's distraught eyes, the whole gash seemed to be slowly moving, two parted lips descending to close over him and draw him in. Squealing, he fell from the edge of the path, rolling down the slope several times before he lost consciousness.

When he came to himself he was clear in his head and his wounds were less painful. He felt, now, that he could probably get back home, so that his doe, Nur-Rama, and the faithful Rabscuttle could look after him until he was himself again. He went a short distance rather slowly and then lay down in the sun to do his best to clean himself up.

It was while he was thus resting on the hillside that he became aware of Lord Frith speaking to him in his heart.

"El-ahrairah, you should not undertake any more dangerous adventures; at least for the time being. You don't need to impress your people with more great struggles and journeys. You've done enough. They already love and admire you as much as is good for them or for you. Be lazy and enjoy the summer like an honest rabbit. You have already shown yourself equal to anything likely to come your way."

"My lord," replied El-ahrairah, "I have never questioned your ways, dark and mysterious though they often are. But how ... how can you suffer to exist in your creation that terrible horror, that wound, that horror past bearing?"

"I don't, El-ahrairah. Look up at the sky. It's not there, is it?"

El-ahrairah looked fearfully up. The Hole in the Sky was no longer to be seen.

"Yet to allow it even for a moment, my lord--"

"It was never there, El-ahrairah."

"Never there? But I saw it with my own eyes."

"What you saw, El-ahrairah, came out of your own delirious mind. It wasn't real at all. I had no power to stop it."

"And that old Themmeron, in Parda-rail--"