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Watership Down - Blueberry's Tale

Chapter 3 - Doing what El-Ahrairah did when in trouble.

Authors Note : This is a clean fanfiction story written in the Watership Down universe. There are some scenes of natural violence, ie. predators hunting prey. Watership Down is copyrighted to Richard Adams. All world, references etc is copyrighted to Richard Adams.

This story was written during Nanowrimo 2005 and comprises of twenty chapters, however for the time being I'm only uploading the first chapter to see whether or not there is any interest for a clean fanfiction story posted on here by readers and of course this will be quite different to my usual written works on here.

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Blueberry came to a stop at the edge of the grass where it was just moist dark soil in front of him with patches of leaves sticking out from the ground. He sniffed the air and felt his stomach rumble a bit as he felt both Captains moving alongside him.

Captain Sando smiled and looked about the small vegetable patch as he spoke. "Well, here we are. So what do we need to get again?" He looked at Captain Bracken who replied back. "Well, we need some lettuce for the chief rabbit and his mate and then he said that we should get what we wanted to get which was carrots, wasn't it?"

Blueberry blinked. "What we wanted to get? Surely this lot is for the chief rabbit only?" He turned his head side by side and then looked down. "Sorry if that was a wrong question to ask. I know I had this flayrah before."

Captain Sando smiled and replied back. "Don't worry about it. The chief has given us permission for all the help we did to feed his young and mate when she was carrying. That and dealing with that troublesome hlessi last season, remember that Bracken?"

"Remember it?" Bracken snorted. "Uptight little brat it was. He lied to us as well, not to mention stealing flayrah from our raid before we even got back to the warren, which really annoyed the chief." He looked at Blueberry and explained. "He didn't actually stay in the main warren, just on the outskirts of it but he caused quite a bit of bother."

Blueberry blinked as he stepped onto the soft soil and muttered. "I think I heard something about it once when I was passing a group of does. They were discussing about how angry Cloverleaf was that her young ones or she didn't get the right food that night."

Both Captain Sando and Captain Bracken looked at each other for a moment and then back at Blueberry. "I didn't know you eavesdrop on doe conversations?" Captain Sando said as he came up to Blueberry. "Well, they did miss something out, she was livid with me for even allowing it to happen." Captain Bracken hopped over to a lettuce and began to pull the leaves out carefully. "Well you did pass on that anger though?"

Not replying to that one, Captain Sando went back to the task in hand. "Blueberry, come here will you?" Captain Bracken noticing that the conversation was at the moment over with, went back to his work. "Now, look here, this is a carrot that is in the ground. I want you to try and dig it out without breaking the carrot. Try to dig around it to loosen it and then pull it out gently."

Moving over to where the carrot lay, Blueberry lowered his head and began to carefully scrape away the soil from where the leaves where. Eventually he could see the hard orange root under the ground and carried on to work at it as Captain Sando went to work on another one next to Blueberry.

With no time, Captain Sando had managed to get away enough soil so that he could get a good grip on the carrot itself and began to pull. Blueberry eventually thought that he had enough of the soil away and began to bite into the root gently, tugging at it. Feeling it slowly move out of the ground he turned his head and dropped it. Captain Sando nodded his head and then looked about. "Okay, now get another one and then we're going to leave, we've spent far too much time here."

Nodding, Blueberry worked on getting out another carrot from where he was standing, digging out the soil around the next carrot. This time it didn't take him as long but he did pull his head up to wipe soil from his nose, wrinkling it and going back to work again. Soon there were three carrots lying on the ground next to several leaves of lettuce. Captain Sando picked up a carrot and headed off to where Hawk was, leaving Blueberry with Bracken.

"So, how you enjoying yourself doing what El-Ahrairah did, steal from others?" Bracken looked down at their small catch. Blueberry nodded his head and looked about him, checking to see if there was anything nearby and sniffed. Moving his gaze back to Bracken again he replied. "Never felt so good in my life, scared though but it does beat staying in a burrow."

Captain Sando came rushing back and he looked a bit worried. "Right, get what we came for and get back to the gate right away, we have trouble." Picking up a carrot, he was gone again and heading back quickly to the gate. Without saying a word, Captain Bracken was placing the leaves of the lettuce and was off. Bending down, Blueberry placed the carrot in his mouth and was soon in hot pursuit of where the other two had gone.

Hawk was staring out from around the wall, looking through a small gap of where the opened gate would let him and he could see that there were two cats prowling about, sniffing at the ground outside. Captain Sando was the first to arrive and he placed the carrot down onto the ground gently before whispering. "What have they been up to since I went back to warn the others?"

Blueberry and Captain Bracken arrived as Hawk gave his report. Speaking quietly he looked out at where the cats were sniffing. "They arrived back along the road from where we came from, they weren't carrying anything at all. Rats must be too quick for them tonight. They seemed to have picked up our scent, but I think the scent of other animals here is masking ours so they don't know where we are yet."

Nodding his head, Captain Sando looked about and sighed. "There isn't another way out of here except through that yard and what with those out there. We can only hope and wait that they will give up, take the rats someplace and eat."

Captain Bracken frowned. "So we're trapped basically, well that's all very well and good but I don't like to be sitting about all night so near to man in case they do figure out where we are and come into this garden." He looked about and muttered. "It's too small, at least we have a better chance out there in the yard."

Frowning Captain Sando nodded his head. "Alright, but let's just do this right and get out of here, okay?" Without saying another word he turned to face Hawk and Blueberry. "While me and Bracken distract the cats, keep coming in here to get the flayrah out and hide it in the field down the road. Be quick, I don't want to be hanging around." He went to move but stopped. "Oh and keep in the shadows, if they spot you and work out what we're up to." Sando turned to face Bracken. "Shall we?"

Nodding his head, both he and Sando moved out from around the gate and hopped into the yard, leaving just Blueberry and Hawk alone in the garden, staring out to see what happens. Hawk whispered. "We move soon, they just need to get them away so that we can move this lot out quickly. I'll deal with the lettuce, you grab a carrot. Then we come back and get the other two but we have to be quick. If the cats wake the dog then we have to leave the carrots alone. Be too risky to get them."

Blueberry nodded as he watched as both Captain Sando and Bracken made for the gate and slipped through it to the main road. Captain Sando frowned and stamped his rear leg on the road. "Hey you, smelly fish breaths. You look really stupid sniffing about like that?"

Blueberry blinked and whispered. "What on earth is he doing?" Hawk smiled as he began to arrange the lettuce leaves into a pile for picking up quickly. "I think he's had a better plan and wants the cats to chase them away from the farm. It'll make our job a bit easier to be honest, but not much."

Both cats turned around and hissed as they began to stalk towards the gate itself. Captain Sando didn't move as he spoke out again. "Oh come on, what's the matter, rats too quick for you tonight then?"

Hissing, one of the cats spoke. "Don't dare speak like that, longears. We run fast enough." Both cat's tails were waving side to side in annoyance and anger. Taking a step back from the gate, Captain Sando and Bracken looked at each other and began to speak. "I don't know?" Sando began. "Don't think they're fast enough to catch us, what do you think?"

Captain Bracken turned back to face to two cats and shook his head. "I don't know, they seem thin enough but that could mean that they can't catch anything at all." He paused for a second, then carried on. "Oh I have to agree with you, they're not that good at all." He didn't have time to say anything else as the cats screeched with anger and charged them. However, both rabbits were running down the road with both cats on their tail.

Hawk picked up the lettuce leaves as Blueberry picked up the carrot as they ran out of the gate into the farm yard. Moving to where the gate was and staring out into nothing but blackness, both rabbits slipped out and ran down the road for a short while. Hawk turned into the hedge and dropped the leaves, with Blueberry beside them. Panting heavily, Hawk spoke in between breaths. "Come on; let's go get the other two carrots before those cats give up?" Without another word, both he and Blueberry ran back towards the farm.

Captain Sando and Bracken were slowing down a bit to keep the cats in sight behind them. "How long can we keep this up?" Bracken panted out heavily, looking behind him. "They'll give up soon and head back to the farm."

Panting heavily himself, Captain Sando replied back. "As long as we can and hope that it has given them enough time to go get everything. I am not risking my life for just one carrot to share with the four of us." Turning his head back again he muttered. "They're not very committed are they, they've given up?"

Captain Bracken looked behind him and sure enough, the two cats had stopped running, going about licking their front paws as though the rabbits didn't even matter to them as they tried to save face. Slowly they got up and started to head back to the farm. Both rabbits came to a stop and slipped through the hedge into the field. "Well." Captain Sando spoke. "Let's hope we gave them enough time. Come on, we got to head back to where there should be some flayrah waiting for us."

Back at the farm, both Hawk and Blueberry had slowed down and headed back into the garden again to pick up the two remaining carrots lying near to the gate. Carefully they headed back out and ran over to the main gate and stopped. In the far distance they could see two cats slowly walking back. Hawk dropped the carrot and spoke quietly. "Right, follow me and don't drop what you have. We may get out of this yet." Picking up the carrot again he slipped out of the yard with Blueberry behind him.

Hawk slipped into the hedge alongside the road and waited there with Blueberry as the cats were complaining to each other as they walked past. "Stupid longears, why can't prey don't play nice anymore. It's not as though our pets play fair and feed us properly." Eventually both cats slid back into the farmyard and began to head towards the garden. Sighing, Hawk looked back at Blueberry and smiled. "Well, look on the bright side. You can't say that your first raid was boring. Come on let's go catch up with the others." With that, he picked up his carrot and left the hedge into the field side, heading to where they had dumped the first load of flayrah. Blueberry looked back and nodded his head, he hadn't had so much fun in his entire life. Life was good at this moment in time and he ran without a care in the world alongside Hawk.

They both arrived where both Captain Sando and Bracken were waiting for them, looking quite relieved to see the Hawk and Blueberry. Captian Sando smiled and looked about. "Well, I am glad to see that we all got through that without anyone being harmed. So what happened?"

Hawk replied. "We had a lucky escape as the cats were heading out way just as we were heading out of the farm. I thought you said you could keep them going for a bit longer?" Captain Bracken shook his head. "You know cats, they get bored if they know they can't catch us, should've seen them though, licking their paws as though we didn't mean anything to them." Captain Sando looked at Blueberry for a moment. "And you, still want to go out on these raids then?"

Blueberry nodded his head. "I haven't had so much fun in my entire life. Yes, I love to keep on doing this." He looked down at the carrot and heard Captain Sando speak again. "Good, well that carrot belongs to you. Well, shall we get going again?"

All of them nodded their heads as they began to pick up the cabbage and carrot in their mouths and began to head back across the field. Blueberry enjoyed the weight of the carrot in his mouth as he ran for a bit then walked alongside Captain Bracken. Hawk had take to being with Captain Sando again as they came to the long grass in the field and stopped.

Dropping the carrot to the ground they all sniffed the air for any signs of elil and rested for a short while. Captain Bracken looked about a bit more as he muttered to himself. "I just hope that owl has fed enough tonight."

Blinking his eyes, Captain Sando replied back as he heard the comment. "Now, now, Bracken, elil don't stop going out just because you want to be safe." Captain Bracken replied back. "I know that sir, just that sometimes you just feel like you want just one day without having to be on alert all the time." Slowly he moved his head about again to scan the field once more.

Replying to that one, Hawk nodded his head. "I feel the same sometimes but it's the way we have to live by Frith's orders and we do what we have to do and survive." Captain Sando chuckled. "Well, said Hawk." He turned to face Blueberry. "You're quiet?"

Blueberry came out of his thoughts and nodded. "Yeah, was just thinking about what happened that's all." Pausing for a moment, he yawned. "You know, I cold do with being back underground again."

Getting up, Captain Sando agreed. "Yeah, it is getting late, we should head back. Let's get going." With that he picked up his carrot again as the others got themselves ready and they carried on their way back to the warren.

After a short while, the small hill was visible that had the copse on top. Feeling better, Blueberry began to speed up a bit that he was so near to home, as did the rest of them. Seeing one of the rabbits at the entry of a hole in the warren, they nodded to him as they filed past and headed back down into the warren itself, leaving the cold night air and arriving into the dark warm and safety of the warren itself.

Neither of the rabbits said anything to each other as they each went their separate ways down the runs, wanting to get to their burrows and settle down for the night. Blueberry sniffed about to get around without touching the walls of the warren and eventually smelt his thick scent and turned into his burrow. Dropping the carrot to the floor, he looked about and then began to settle down, tired from all of the running about. Gradually he fell asleep.

Elsewhere in the warren, Hawk stopped and saw Captain Sando in front of him without the carrot now. He spoke quietly so that he didn't wake any nearby sleeping rabbits. "Okay, Hawk. I left a carrot in your burrow. Bracken and I will be sharing the bigger one between us. I'll go and take that lettuce to the chief, you go get some rest."

Hawk placed the lettuce down onto the floor of the run and nodded his head. "Thank you, sir." Turning around, Hawk went back down the run leaving Captain Sando alone in the run as he carefully picked up the leaves and turned around himself to head back to the deepest part of the warren where Bracken-Rah and Cloverleaf lived.

The deepest part of the warren was warm. The walls of the runs and burrows were smooth, having been dug so long ago. Moving further down, Captain Sando turned around a corner and saw a rabbit lying in a shallow burrow who sniffed and looked at him before letting him pass as Captain Sando turned into the run that had the Captains as well as the chief rabbit of the warren lived.

Passing his own burrow, he slowed down and stopped right outside Bracken-Rah's burrow. Turning to head inside, he carefully placed the leaves down on the soft soil and began to turn to leave. "Sando, is that you?" Bracken-Rah spoke quietly as he stirred awake.

Captain Sando nodded his head and whispered back. "Yes it is sir. Sorry for waking you up." He saw Bracken-Rah turn over so that he was lying upwards again and looked at the Captain. "No, it's okay. Let us go someplace else to talk." He turned to look at Cloverleaf still asleep and gently got up to head out of the burrow with Captain Sando.

Slipping into Captain Sando's burrow, both rabbits settled down as Bracken-Rah made himself comfortable before speaking again. "So how did the farm raid go?" Captain Sando replied back. "It went well enough, we did run into those two cats again though, not that they've managed to catch anything for a while. It really didn't take long to rile them up."

"And how did Blueberry get along on his first trip?" Bracken-Rah asked thoughtfully. "You didn't think he would be up to it before you set off this evening?" Captain Sando thought about this and lowered his head. "Well, I did think he wasn't up to it but I have oto admit that I was wrong. He took the whole thing as any newcomer would but he did it better."

Pausing, Captain Sando looked about the burrow for a moment before continuing on. "He spent some time with Captain Bracken but from what I have saw, he coped well in heading into the far but was a bit jumpy on some of the noises."

Bracken-Rah chuckled. "As we were when we were young and were taken for the first time by Captain Yew, remember him?" Bracken-Rah closed his eyes as he carried on. "It's been a long time since he got taken away from us with that homba."

Captain Sando nodded his head. "Yeah I do." He coughed and carried on. "Anyways, he did okay, didn't flinch when we were trapped by the cats for a moment and did his task in getting all of the flayrah out with Hawk while me and Captain Bracken dealt with the cat problem."

"So do you think you want him as a full fledge officer?" Bracken-Rah asked.

Captain Sando nodded his head. "I think he's ready for it, if it's okay by you we should call on him tomorrow and make it official. We need to make him a new burrow though so that he's part of the owsla. He's done well lately in his training, so yes, I think he will do fine."

Bracken-Rah nodded and got up from where he was lying and looked at Captain Sando. "So be it, I will let you arrange things. We will do it when most of the rabbits are up tomorrow for morning silflay. I will let you get some well earned rest." Captain Sando smiled and nodded his head. "Thank you, sir." With that, Bracken-Rah left the burrow as Captain Sando fell asleep.