Watership Down (Watership Down 1)

Fiver gazed back at him with eyes that, like a fly's, seemed larger than his head. 'You think that,' he said.'You believe that. But each of you, in his own way, is thick in that mist. Where is the -'

Hazel interrupted him and as he did so Fiver started. 'Fiver, I won't pretend that I didn't follow you up here to speak angrily. You've endangered our good start in this warren -'

'Endangered?' cried Fiver. 'Endangered? Why, the whole place -'

'Be quiet. I was going to be angry, but you're obviously so much upset that it would be pointless. But what you are going to do now is to come underground with the two of us and sleep. Come on! And don't say any more for the moment.'

One respect in which rabbits' lives are less complicated than those of humans is that they are not ashamed to use force. Having no alternative, Fiver accompanied Hazel and Bigwig to the burrow where Hazel had spent the previous night. There was no one there and they lay down and slept.

17. The Shining Wire

When the green field comes off like a lid

Revealing what was much better hid,

Unpleasant;

And look! Behind, without a sound

The woods have come up and are standing round

In deadly crescent.

And the bolt is sliding in its groove,

Outside the window is the black remover's van,

And now with sudden, swift emergence

Come the women in dark glasses, the hump-backed surgeons

And the scissor-man.

W. H. Auden The Witnesses

It was cold, it was cold and the roof was made of bones. The roof was made of the interlaced sprays of the yew tree, stiff twigs twisted in and out, over and under, hard as ice and set with dull-red berries. 'Come on, Hazel,' said Cowslip. 'We're going to carry the yew berries home in our mouths and eat them in the great burrow. Your friends must learn to do that if they want to go our way.' 'No! No!' cried Fiver, 'Hazel, no!' But then came Bigwig, twisting in and out of the branches, his mouth full of berries. 'Look!' said Bigwig, 'I can do it. I'm running another way. Ask me where, Hazel! Ask me where! Ask me where!' Then they were running another way, running, not to the warren but over the fields in the cold, and Bigwig dropped the berries - blood-red drops, red droppings hard as wire.' It's no good,' he said. 'No good biting them. They' re cold.'

Hazel woke. He was in the burrow. He shivered. Why was there no warmth of rabbit bodies lying close together? Where was Fiver? He sat up. Near by, Bigwig was stirring and twitching in his sleep, searching for warmth, trying to press against another rabbit's body no longer there. The shallow hollow in the sandy floor where Fiver had lain was not quite cold: but Fiver was gone.

'Fiver!' said Hazel in the dark.

As soon as he had spoken he knew there would be no reply. He pushed Bigwig with his nose, butting urgently. 'Bigwig! Fiver's gone! Bigwig!'

Bigwig was wide awake on the instant and Hazel had never felt so glad of his sturdy readiness.

'What did you say? What's wrong?'

'Fiver's gone.'

'Where's he gone?'

'Silf - outside. It can only be silf. You know he wouldn't go wandering about in the warren. He hates it.'

'He's a nuisance, isn't he? He's left this burrow cold, too. You think he's in danger, don't you? You want to go and look for him?'

'Yes, I must. He's upset and over-wrought and it's not light yet. There may be elil, whatever Strawberry says.'

Bigwig listened and sniffed for a few moments.