W. S. GILBERT, "Captain Reece"
As it happened, however, the Efrafan messenger, despite Bluebell's fulsome welcome, found that he had no choice in the matter of a Chief Rabbit. Hazel was not in the warren that afternoon, having taken Silver and Blackberry with him for a cautious look round Nuthanger Farm. Since the defeat of Woundwort, Hazel had always retained, at the back of his mind, an irrational--indeed, a superstitious--idea that in some way or other the farm was of lucky import for himself and his rabbits. Of course, this did not mean that he disregarded the ever-present danger from the cats and the dog, but he felt intuitively that the whole place, treated with proper and knowledgeable respect, welcomed him, much as an experienced sailor might feel that the sea, regarded as it ought to be, was beneficial rather than hostile: a potential for good. He liked to see what was going on at the farm, even though most of it was beyond his understanding. In summer he used to pay it periodic visits, taking with him one or two reliable rabbits and always returning with the notion that the time had been well spent and had tipped some sort of recondite balance in his favor.
That was what he was up to this afternoon. He had left Hyzenthlay in charge--not that anything was likely to happen--and gone down the hill in carefree spirits. Consequently, it was Hyzenthlay to whom Bluebell conducted the visitor.
His message was not really one of any particular moment. Efrafa was once again getting rather overcrowded with does, and Campion had picked out a number who had actually told him, of their own accord, that they would welcome a chance to broaden their horizon and see what life was like on Watership Down. As far as Campion was concerned, they could stay there or come back, as they pleased. Feeling sure that Hazel would have no objection to the idea, he had told them to set off from Efrafa whenever they liked. It then occurred to him that none of them knew the way. There was, however, in Efrafa a young buck named Rithla, who had come to Campion a few months before with a message from Hazel and had remained there, having found a doe with whom he had mated happily and fathered a litter. Campion had now seen in him a guide for the emigrating does. He had also, on second thoughts, felt that it would be only polite to let Hazel know in advance that the does were coming. He had therefore told Rithla to guide them as far as the Belt, from where it would be easy for them to continue on their own to Watership, and then, leaving them to rest and feed, himself to press on and tell Hazel that they were on their way.
All this Rithla explained to Hyzenthlay, sitting with her in the Honeycomb, together with Thethuthinnang, Bigwig and a few more who happened to be about.
Hyzenthlay, not having been a Chief Rabbit for very long, was anxious to act conscientiously and to make a really good job of anything that came her way. Accordingly she told Rithla, on her own authority, that the does would be most welcome (more especially since a considerable number of does had gone off with Flyairth). Upon learning that he had left them all on the Belt, to come on in their own time, she said that she thought this was rather dangerous. In spite of Campion's instructions to Rithla, she thought, first, that they might mistake their way and get lost and, second, that in the open they were in danger from elil. She would therefore go out herself to meet them and bring them in before nightfall. No, she would not need Rithla to guide her. The way was plain enough. He was tired and ought to silflay and then sleep.
Bigwig, who had overheard most of what she said, at once began to protest. How could she be sure of meeting the does? More important, there was any amount of danger from elil for a rabbit alone on the Down. Rithla had been lucky. He should never have been told to come on by himself. Hyzenthlay ought to remain where she was.
Hyzenthlay replied that if the does were already on their way, there would be no difficulty in finding them. There was only one way, and it was plain enough, a humans' footpath. As for elil, she could run faster than they could, and anyway she did not expect to meet any by day.
Bigwig then said that he and Holly would go with her, but this she declined. She did not want any other rabbits to risk themselves.
At this, Bigwig lost his temper. "You call yourself a Chief Rabbit and then say you're going out traipsing about by yourself for the sake of a few miserable Efrafan does. Is that what you call weighing one thing with another? If Hazel were here, he'd certainly forbid you, and well you know it. A stupid, fatheaded doe calling herself Chief Rabbit! Chief Field Mouse more like."
Hyzenthlay went up to him and looked him squarely in the eye. "Bigwig, I've said what I'm going to do, and that's all there is to it. If you reject my authority over this, there'll be no authority left in the warren by tomorrow, as you must know perfectly well. Now please let me get on; and have some clean burrows ready for the Efrafan does when they arrive."
Bigwig, fuming, stormed out of the Honeycomb and began cursing the first rabbit he met, who happened to be Hawkbit. Meanwhile, Hyzenthlay, leaving Thethuthinnang to tell Hazel, as soon as he returned, what had happened, set off toward the Belt.
She was surprised not to meet the Efrafan rabbits on the way and wondered what could possibly have happened to them. It was now early evening. What breeze there had been had dropped. The air was still. The shadows of the tall cow parsley were growing longer, and the sun was dropping toward a cloud bank in the west. With a certain misgiving she pressed on. After quite some time, she found herself approaching the Belt, with no sign of rabbits anywhere. She began searching to right and left, but found no trace in the twilight. As she was wondering what to do, she came upon a female hare feeding its leverets in the form. The hare spoke first.
"Are you looking for some stray rabbits? Does? There's a small crowd over there, by that beech tree."
A few moments later Hyzenthlay was among them.
"I'm a Watership rabbit come to look for you. Rithla told us you were going to make your own way to us. What's happened?"
"It's Nyreem here," answered one of the does. "She's hurt one of her back legs and can't use it at all. We've stayed with her. We weren't going to leave her out alone all night for the elil."
Hyzenthlay examined the injured rabbit. She was in a lot of pain and could barely stand, let alone walk. The upper part of the leg was swollen and very tender. However, there was no wound, and Hyzenthlay thought that all she needed was rest. She said so.
"Rest? Here?" said another doe. "How long for?"
"Until she's better," answered Hyzenthlay shortly.
"But it's nightfall now. If an enemy comes, she can't run, can't defend herself--"
"I am going to stay with her," said Hyzenthlay. "The rest of you are all to get on as fast as you can, up that track--that one over there. That will take you straight to Watership, where they're expecting you. No arguments now! Get on with it!"
The does, none of whom had ever been a hundred yards beyond Efrafa in their lives, obeyed her with no more than a show of reluctance, and Hyzenthlay settled down beside Nyreem in the long grass. Pathetically young and totally inexperienced, the poor little crea
ture was almost beside herself with fear, and it was all that Hyzenthlay could do to calm her and give her the reassurance that she by no means felt in herself. She told her all the stories she could remember and finally settled her to sleep, pressed up against her own warm flank. Soon she felt drowsy herself, but struggled against every inclination to drop off. Owls began calling, the moon rose, and from the grass came all the tiny noises of night--rustlings, susurrations, minute tappings and quick little here-and-gone sounds that might never have been at all, might have existed only in a pair of long ears strained to the limit with listening. She prayed with all her might to El-ahrairah for his protection and shelter, and tried to feel his presence with her among the moon shadows.
Now began one of the most frightening nights of her life. Cramped, and trying not to move for fear of disturbing Nyreem, despite herself she began to think of all that she had ever heard of the elil, of the silence with which they moved upwind, stalking their rabbit prey so noiselessly that the victim knew nothing until the pounce and the grip of teeth in the flesh. She had seen worms and beetles writhing in the beaks of the blackbirds, had seen thrushes cracking the shells of live snails on stones. Would it be like this for her? She had seen, too, the scavenger beetles that dug cavities and laid their eggs inside, together with bodies of small dead creatures for the hatched young to live on. Bats and owls, too, she thought of, hunting moths and mice, their living prey. Moles, she knew, would fight each other to the death when they met in their underground passages. Were rabbits the only creatures that did not hunt and kill? So it seemed in her dismal thoughts. Woundwort had done all he could to confer ferocity on rabbits, and little good it had done him in the end. She thought of all the Efrafans whom he had sent to their deaths. She wished with all her heart that Woundwort were lying beside her now. And if that was not desperation, what was?
The young doe beside her slept on soundly. If only, she thought, she could get her alive and well to the warren, she would have justified her own insistence on coming here alone. But in order to do that, she must herself survive, and there was nothing more she could do to bring that about.
She saw with surprise that the moon had almost set. She must have slept without knowing it; and nothing bad had happened. This was encouraging, and spontaneously she began to feel herself in a more cheerful frame of mind. El-ahrairah, she thought, would not leave a loyal rabbit helpless.
After a while, she had the notion that they were being watched. Even as she realized this, the long grass parted and there, before her eyes, was a rat.
For long moments in the fading moonlight they sized each other up. It was not a very large rat, though quite big enough. Also, it was plainly foraging. She could see on its bared teeth fragments of some sort of flesh. It blinked once or twice, twitched its whiskers and moved nearer. It was still undecided.
Hyzenthlay spoke in hedgerow vernacular. "This young doe mine. I mother. You come to kill, I fight till you dead." Instinctively she stood up, to bring home to the rat her superior size and height. At this, Nyreem woke and began to whimper.