Previously on Watership Down

"We march on The Outsider's Warren today. They will pay for all they have done," shouted Woundwort, finally breaking the silence.

"We won't attack Watership Down, and you can't make us Woundwort," shouted back one of the Redstone rabbits.

"I'll make it easy for you. Obey me, and the youngsters live. Help Hazel, and I'll make sure they suffer on a long journey to the Black Rabbit of Inlé!" he finished.

Everyone moved back in silence towards the Efrafan entrance, apart from Vervain, who approached the General, keeping low to the ground as usual.

"F...forgive me for asking sir, but I thought you wanted to attack at dawn.", stuttered Vervain.

"I have had time to think about that. An all out attack has failed before, so it could still fail again. Which is why I have another little job for you.", started Woundwort.

"Sir?", replied Vervain in confusion.

"Go now with a small group of our best diggers to the caverns underground the Outsider's Warren. They found places they could dig down, so you should be able to find places to dig up. I want you through by the time we attack overland," smiled Woundwort.

*************

"Come on!", shouted Bigwig, running first as Hazel and Fiver followed. He stopped as soon as he left the field and entered the clearing in which Redstone stood. The warren lay empty and still. All around him faint signs of blood could be seen on the grass.

"Hickory! Marigold! Where are you?" Bigwig shouted frantically, disappearing underground

"Everyone's gone," he continued popping up again, as Hazel caught up with him.

"Woundwort," continued Fiver. Without sniffing any of the grass, Fiver somehow already knew.

*************

"What are you all doing!? Get back to the digging," he shouted, turning to face the other Efrafans who were all standing watching.

"If we dig any further under that thing, the whole place is going to collapse," replied one of the others.

Vervain looked around. The cavern walls did seem to creak with stress with small stones falling from fresh cracks in the rocks. He snapped his attention back to the others.

"The General gave us an order. It's our duty to complete it," he shouted.

"If we follow those orders, we'll all be killed," replied the other buck, "No, we're going round to join him overland."

"Y...you can't do that! It's against the General's wishes," shouted Vervain. Just then a large rock shifted, bringing a cloud of dust down with it.

"Come on, let's get out of here," shouted another of the group. They all turned to run, apart from Vervain.

"They're all wrong. The General is right. Oh, he'll thank me for this," laughed Vervain to himself. He frantically kicked dirt away, as another rock shifted.

*************

"Attack!" shouted Woundwort leaping forward. Rabbit after rabbit burst into the warren after him.

"There are too many," whined Hawkbit, two of the Efrafans pinning him to the ground.

"Bigwig," Woundwort growled, finally fixing his eyes on the captain stood next to Hazel. Everyone fell silent and seemed to freeze as Woundwort slowly moved towards Hazel and Bigwig.

"I have waited for this moment for a long time! The time when I can finally send you to the Black Rabbit where you belong. Where all traitors belong," he shouted.

"Die!" he continued. Hazel instinctively jumped backwards, into the run of the back burrow, as Woundwort collided with Bigwig. They crashed to the ground sending an echo through the warren. Strangely though, the echo didn't disappear, soon building up to a loud rumble!

"Run!" shouted Hazel, "This whole section is going to collapse!"

The words had barely left Hazel's mouth as he found the rocks below his feet crumble.

As if expecting this, Woundwort jumped off Bigwig. Bigwig slowly lifted his head, to see Woundwort's hind leg.

"This time it's your turn to visit the Black Rabbit, Bigwig!" he growled, before sending the Owsla captain backwards with a powerful kick, narrowly missing the cowering Vervain.

"Sire... help me," squeaked Vervain, crawling to try and climb what was left of the slope up to the back burrows. Woundwort glanced briefly at Vervain who was within reach, before continuing to speak, "Everyone pull back into their grand chamber"

"What about Vervain?" asked Mudwort, looking over the General's shoulder.

Woundwort paused to look at the unstable trail between himself and the cowardly black rabbit.

"Leave him! He's of no more use to me now!" he spoke.

---

The Honeycomb, Watership Down

As the sound of the collapsing back burrows settled, he slowly turned back to look over the now silenced Honeycomb. His voice was slow and thundering as he spoke, designed to send shivers up the spine of every rabbit there.

"Watership Down is mine!" he started.

None of the Watership Rabbits dared reply to that, although they tried to hide their fear as Woundwort stood upright on his hindlegs, extending himself to his full height.

"From this day forward you will all follow me, and live through me. Do that, and this will be one strong warren again; A place that is safe from man. A place that none can stand against," he thundered.

"We'll never surrender our freedom to you," shouted Fiver, breaking the silence, and surprising most of the Watership rabbits by daring to speak up.

"He's right," said Dandelion, "Hazel didn't bring us all this way to safety just to give it up to the likes of you!"

"Fools," replied Woundwort, stamping his front feet to the ground again.

"I'd have expected better from a mystic such as yourself. Haven't you realised what happens to those who argue against me. I am unstoppable," he growled at Fiver, before turning to face the rest with a sickening smile on his face, his red eye almost appearing to glow, "As for Hazel, he lies buried deep within the lair of the Black Rabbit of Inlé now; your illustrious captain of Owsla loyally by his side, both of them little more than a precious memory to you all now."

The two rabbits sank back miserably, whilst Pipkin turned and buried his face into Clover, sobbing.

The Caverns, deep beneath Watership Down

Hazel coughed, the thick clouds of dust that still filled the air catching the back of his throat. He shook the dust from his face, bringing him back to his senses, before blinking to try and focus, eventually making out the uneven outline of the collapsed caverns in the darkness.

"Hello," he said, awaiting a reply as his voice echoed, however predictably none came. He slowly tried to pull himself out from the pile of rubble about him, before wincing as he felt a sharp pain in his backleg. He paused for a second to look back over his shoulder, his back covered in a mix of blood and dust, before pulling himself free.

"Is anyone there?" he continued. Looking around, he suddenly heard Bigwig moan softly from nearby, and limped across to him.

"Bigwig," he started, digging at the half buried captain with his front paws and nuzzling him, "Wake up"

The Owsla captain groaned again, slowly opening his eyes, and blinking in the dusty darkness.

"Wh..what happened?" he asked.

Hazel coughed again as he looked around him.

"The underground caverns must have collapsed," he said, as Bigwig pulled himself free from the rubble, still looking saw from where the General had kicked him earlier.

"We've got to get back up there. Before it's too late!" shouted Bigwig, running towards the direction of the back burrows, but stopping as he saw the path no longer existed.

"The tunnel is gone Bigwig,", said Hazel, kindly stating the obvious.

"We'll have to find another way out,", he continued, looking around him. Everything looked different after the cave in. Existing tunnels were no longer present, whilst others had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

"But which way," he sighed quietly, thinking.

"We don't have time to think about this Hazel," started Bigwig, "Let's just follow a tunnel and see where it leads"

"Shh..." interrupted Hazel, much to Bigwig's annoyance, "I hear something"

Back in The Honeycomb

Woundwort looked at the walls of the warren with distaste. Granted, they weren't the same as before, due to the cave in below, however even when he'd first come in he hadn't been too impressed with the place. The way the Outsiders had talked it had been painted as the Garden of Frith. Instead it was little more than an open invitation for elil; no organisation, no structure. How could rabbits ever want to live in a place li... "What are we waiting for? I'm booored," whined Bushthorn sneaking up behind him.

"Bored? I'll give you bored you emb..." growled Woundwort, swinging round and raising his paw to strike the young buck. Pipkin jumped inbetween them, his eyes still damp from sobbing over the loss of Hazel and Bigwig.

"He's just a kitten sir," he sniffed. Woundwort hesitated, before lowering his paw. He wasn't too concerned by the fact that Bushthorn was a kitten; Kittens had always been a distraction to order in Efrafa. He did, however, still hold high regard for Pipkin from his time spent as a prisoner in Efrafa, "Get back to your mother, and don't bother me again," he growled to the youngster, who disappeared teary-eyed. Pipkin watched as Bushthorn moved away out of earshot, before speaking.

"Don't you remember, he lost his mother on the waterfall. It hasn't quite sunk in that his father isn't coming back either. He's not even the same age you were General," he whispered. Woundwort paused and looked away, regretting for an instant what he had just said, before snorting.

"He'll get over it. We always do!"

Pipkin cautiously moved nearer to the General who didn't look back.

"Excuse me for asking sir. But what are we waiting for?" said Pipkin. Woundwort didn't reply.

"You don't really know, do you sir? You said war was the answer..." he started, as the General sighed quietly, "But now that you've won the war, you don't know what to do next. It's never over is it?"

"Enough!" shouted Woundwort swinging round, "Get back with the others before I lose my patience"

Pipkin hesitated, before moving away, walking past Hawkbit and Dandelion who lay low to the ground under guard of three Efrafans. Hawkbit was carefully nursing an injury to his left ear.

"Ooh, somebody sounds a little annoyed," Hawkbit whispered to Dandelion, a little amused at the youngsters managing to irritate Woundwort.

"How do you suppose he managed that?" replied Dandelion, smiling back.

"Probably scared of his tail again. I've heard power can do funny things to old rabbits," giggled Hawkbit.

Dandelion sniggered a little, before Woundwort interrupted, addressing the warren in general.

"If any other rabbit wants to talk like that, I'll gladly tear you apart!" he growled angrily, as Hawkbit and Dandelion tried to appear innocent.

"Dear Sweet Woundwort, you never change. You still let them bring up the tempestuous winds of anger with breathing of mere words of nothingness," interrupted Cowslip, appearing from behind Woundwort.

"Coming from someone who changes completely at any mention of The Warren of the Shin..." started Woundwort

"What do you plan to do, before the evening dances across the sky like sweet poetry?" interrupted Cowslip quickly, flinching at the mention of the old warren.

"I've been thinking about that," started Woundwort, starting to wonder why everyone was questioning him about it suddenly.

"The first thing to do is get everyone out of this warren," he started, looking around at the unstable walls, "I don't know what those outsiders ever saw in it. It's has a good tactical position, but it's a horrible sorry excuse for a warren."

"So we're going to go back to Efrafa. How lovely," smiled Cowslip.

Woundwort paused and lowered his head, for a brief second looking defeated.

"No. Efrafa failed because it became weak. I see now the order and fear wasn't strong enough. The holes were starting to appear long before the Outsiders started this war," he said, before raising his head again.

"Never again!" he shouted, stamping his foot suddenly, "I'm going to start a new warren. A new place where order and discipline will reign supreme once more. A place where everyone will obey me. I will make us strong again, so that none can stand against us"

"Oh, delightful General. And just where does one plan to start such a magnificious warren?" replied Cowslip, bringing Woundwort back down Earth with a thump. The general clearly hadn't thought that far ahead.

"We shall find out when we get there," finished Woundwort.

Below Ground

Bigwig fell silent at Hazel's command, straining his ears to pick up any sound. Besides the occasional dripping from the water running in the caverns, there was silence.

"I don't hear anything," he started, before Hazel interrupted.

"There," he said sharply, hearing a faint cough from somewhere nearby.

"Who's there?" he shouted out, his voice echoing round the caverns. As they paused to listen for a reply, whoever it was coughed again.

"It came from over there," shouted Hazel, running ahead as Bigwig followed close behind.

As they neared the source of the noise, the dusty form of Vervain shivering and sniffling came into view.

"W...what's taking him so long?" he muttered to himself, not hearing the Watership rabbits approaching.

"Vervain," started Hazel, at which Vervain squealed and covered his head with his front paws fearfully.

"It.. it's alrig.." Hazel continued, before Bigwig interrupted him.

"You!!" he growled angrily. He would have leapt on the cowardly black rabbit and tore him to pieces there and then had it not been for Hazel grabbing the long fur around his neck and holding him back.

"Hold on Bigwig," he said, much to Bigwig's annoyance who, after struggling for a few seconds, fell back begrudgingly.

"We'll get you out of there," continued Hazel gently, digging at the rubble surrounding Vervain's back leg.

"No! Get away from me outsider!" he squealed, pulling his leg free of his own accord. He looked towards Hazel, staring not at him but through him with glassy eyes, before continuing, "The General will have you for this. W... Woundwort is all powerful! Ahahahaaaaa..."

At that he leapt forward, pushing Hazel aside, before bolting into one of the cavern tunnels.

"Come on Bigwig! Let's get after him," said Hazel, dusting himself down.

"Have you gone moon mad Hazel?" replied Bigwig, staring at the brown rabbit incredulously, "He's the enemy! He was trying to kill us all remember, or is all that dust going to your head?"

"He's still a rabbit Bigwig. He's still one of us,"

"He's never one of us," Bigwig growled in reply, "And anyway, what's he still doing down here? It's his own stupid fault. He's probably trying to get back up there now to help Woundwort tear the warren to shreds. We should be worrying about how to get back up there, not about mad rabbits like him."

"No, something doesn't feel right. Didn't you see his eyes?" replied Hazel, heading for the tunnel. He stopped and turned round as he sensed Bigwig still wasn't budging.

"And if you're right then he's obviously going to lead us out of here and back to Watership Down isn't he?"

"Yes, alright. I'm coming," groaned Bigwig. He didn't try too hard to hide his resentment.

Soon, above ground

After some minor scuffles, Woundwort had soon managed to organise everyone into a travelling formation. He smiled contentedly, as seeing them in strict formation reminded him of the old ways of Efrafa. The Watership and Redstone rabbits were positioned in two lines in the centre, with the true Efrafan guards strategically placed around them.

"What about the youngsters, sir?" asked one of the Efrafans.

"I dont think they'll stay in line," he continued.

"Fine! If they step out, leave them to the elil. That's one fewer of us that will die. I'm not having anyone going after them," growled Woundwort, before addressing the prisoners, "So you'd better not let them step out of line had you."

With that, he motioned the captains to move out.

"Honeysuckle, " whispered Hawkbit, as he walked alongside her, half expecting her to cuff him behind the ears just for saying her name, before continuing, "Look at the way he has his guards watching us. If enough of us were to break at once, there's no way he could stop us all getting away"

The doe nodded before whispering back, "I'll see if I can get a message passed to the others".

"Good, as this is our best chance yet to get away,", replied Hawkbit, before squealing. The line of rabbits stopped abruptly as Woundwort pinned the two rabbits to the ground by their throats.

"What was that?", he growled as the others looked on.

"er... I said to...er.. get more hay. As bedding for yourself," choked Hawkbit.

Woundwort lowered his head, staring at Hawkbit with his good eye.

"I'm going to let you go this time, but lie to me again..." he growled, before scratching him hard across the shoulder. Hawkbit winced as the General's claw drew blood.

"...and I won't stop at that."

Woundwort stood up again, before addressing the rest of them.

"And that goes for the rest of you too. Anybody step out of line, and I'll deal with you myself! Captains, move out."

Without another word, the large group of rabbits began to descend the Down in strict formation, an all-too-apparent air of misery hanging over them; an air which made Woundwort smile a little, as he considered it one of order.

"Do you not wonder if this many rabbits could not prove troublesome, General? Like the tree with too many apples, it becomes difficult for the branches to hold them," spoke Cowslip, appearing beside him.

"As long as I am here it won't."

*************

Later, somewhere in the maze of underground caverns

Hazel paused to sniff some tracks, allowing Bigwig who was wandering along slowly behind to catch up.

"He went this way," said Hazel, moving off quickly again.

Bigwig groaned before replying, "Who cares! We should have been back above ground long ago."

"But you don't know any better than I do how we can actually get back above ground."

Bigwig looked around him. Hazel spoke the truth. All around the surroundings of the cavern looked unfamiliar; a cold, dismal and unfriendly place.

"Anything would have been better than following him around all day," he replied.

"There he is," shouted Hazel suddenly slowing, as he spotted Vervain cowered in a dead end up ahead.

Bigwig flexed his claws as he spoke, "Right, I've had enough of this. I'm going to deal with him for once and for all! Maybe then we can get back to what's important."

"Bigwig, wait," shouted Hazel.

"Sorry Hazel, but I've waited long enough for this already," snapped Bigwig

"That's an order!"

"I'd like to see you try to enforce it," growled Bigwig, surprising Hazel by angrily pushing him to the ground, and running forward. He stood up to his full height. Vervain simply cowered, and covered his head with his paws.

"This is for all the suffering you've caused. Go back to the Black Rabbit where you belong embleer hraka. There's no general to protect you now," he shouted angrily, smiling with satisfaction, as Hazel stumbled to his feet.

Vervain didn't reply, but instead started to sob loudly and painfully; a weak shivering ball of fur. Bigwig moved his paw to strike, but instead hovered it there. He blinked at the sorry excuse for a rabbit in front of him, before finally dropping his paws back to the solid ground, and turning to face Hazel, "I...I can't do it Hazel. What am I thinking?"

"You're thinking just like General Woundwort," started Hazel, seeing the words prick at the captain who deep down knew them to be true, "He's the enemy Bigwig; not Vervain, not any of the other Efrafans," he continued, walking across, and placing his paw on the confused captain's shoulder. Vervain winced and began sobbing louder at the mention of the general.

"He... he abandoned me. After all I've done... he... he still abandoned me," squeaked Vervain, the fur under his eyes wet, with tears soaking his beard which rested on the cold rocks. "You see! I told you something wasn't right," whispered Hazel.

"What are we going to do with him?" Bigwig sighed.

"Vervain, Come on. We have to get out of here now," said Hazel gently, crouching down next to Vervain.

"Go! Leave me in peace," he squeaked.

"You heard him Hazel," chipped in Bigwig.

"We... " started Hazel, before glancing back at Bigwig, "I won't abandon you down here!". Vervain still didn't move, causing Bigwig to groan.

"GET MOVING! NOOOW!!" he shouted. Vervain squeaked and jumped to his feet.

"See. He just needs a little bit of motivating."

*************

Just inside the woodland, near the foot of the Down

Kehaar struggled to move along the branch, hoping for a clearer view of the Down, his wing still throbbing in pain. Although from his new position he could just make out the image of the Down, he could neither see nor hear any movement from it.

"Is quiet. No good! Is very bad! Where Hanyah," he muttered to himself, before noticing the small furred figures of rabbits emerging from the warren. He strained his eyes, trying in vain to make out who they were, before suddenly hearing the scuffling of tiny feet behind him.

"Hanyah?" he started, as the teary-eyed mouse buried herself into his good wing.

"Oh, it's terrible Kehaar. I couldn't get there quick enough to warn them," she wept.

"What happen? Hazel and Bigwig stop him, ya?" quizzed Kehaar.

"Oh, they're gone Kehaar. Woundwort killed them. He's destroyed the warren! He's destroyed everything!"

"No," Kehaar said disbelievingly.

"It was already over when I got there, but I heard them say they were buried beneath the back burrows," she sniffed, "Oh what are we going to do Kehaar".

Kehaar paused miserably for a second, before replying.

"We go; get help from other animals. They stop Woundwort," suggested Kehaar, trying to comfort her, whilst holding back his own tears.

"But how? You can't fly with your wing like that, and I wouldn't be able to get very far before Woundwort moves out," she said.

"You mean he take everyone back to Efrafa?"

"He didn't say where he was going!"

*************

In the caverns

Hazel stared at the large stones surrounding him on two sides. He couldn't tell if they'd been past it before, the scent revealing little either. Despite his uncertainty, he decided to press on. The last thing he wanted to do was further antagonise the already irritated Bigwig; that was Hawkbit's job.

"I'm sure we'll be out of here very soon now," said Hazel optimistically. Bigwig sighed.

"We'd be able to find our way out quicker if he didn't keep slowing us down," he grumbled, indicating towards Vervain who followed behind miserably. Hazel wasn't entirely sure how much longer Bigwig would put up with things.

"Hurry..." he started as Hazel interrupted.

"I can smell fresh air," he said. Bigwig stood next to Hazel to smell the air.

"You're right! And fresh water too! That must mean we're near the outside. Come on!" he shouted, running forward. Sure enough, as he reached the end of the tunnel, he found himself looking out from an overhead side tunnel at the open chamber where the stream left the underground caverns.

"We're out! By Frith's tail, we're out!" he shouted, jumping excitedly into the water. Hazel followed close behind, and Vervain even further back, cautiously dipping a toe into the water first.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," shouted Hazel, as he joined Bigwig at the entrance to the tunnel to look out at the sun shining through a clear blue sky. Bigwig smiled alongside him, before a single grey cloud reminded them both that not all was well yet.

"Come on! Let's get back to the Down!" he shouted running ahead, Hazel following.

"Wait for me," squeaked Vervain. Although neither Bigwig nor Hazel paid any particular attention to him, Vervain followed, as the cloud moved in front of the sun once more to cast a long shadow over the land. After all, he didn't know no-one else he could follow now; and perhaps this way he would still get his chance of revenge on The Outsiders.