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Watership Down - Blueberry's Tale

Chapter 4 - Starting a new life at the warren.

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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The warren was slowly beginning to wake up as Frith was slowly beginning to rise up into the sky. Most of the rabbits that had been on sentry duty had finished their task and were heading off to get a well earned nap, as others went to take their place or to go about to silflay or to chew pellets.

Carbi was an early riser as he was wandering around the warren, wanting to go see Blueberry. The young buck was interested in hearing just what happened that night before as he pushed past a buck that looked annoyed but shook his head as Carbi carried on his way, ignoring the buck's cries of annoyance.

Blueberry was still fast asleep, curled up in a tight ball within his burrow as Carbi arrived and hopped about all over the burrow, sometimes his paws landed on Blueberry hard and fast. Waking up quickly, Blueberry was beyond himself. "What?! What?! What on Frith's name is going on here?!"

Carbi was still bouncing about in the burrow while he was talking quickly. "So what happened last night, did you get to fight cats, foxes and stoats. See Prince Rainbow or the black rabbit himself?"

Blueberry blinked and frowned before getting up quickly, pushing Carbi to the burrow wall and cuffing him on the head. "Just what are you doing, barging in here like that?" He saw Carbi sit down with a look of fear in his eyes as Blueberry relented a bit and shook his head as he backed away. "I am sorry. But you frightened me."

Carbi swallowed. "What was I doing?" He looked at Blueberry for a moment and spoke again. "I over reacted again, didn't I?" Blueberry nodded his head and sighed. "Don't worry about it, here have some of this carrot." He rolled it across the burrow and watched CArbi pause before continuing on again. "It's okay, really." Blueberry wanted to get Carbi to calm down again as he watched him begin to nibble on the carrot.

"You wanted to know what happened last night?" Blueberry said and saw Carbi nod his head as he bit off the thin pointed end of the carrot. "Well, it was an adventure to remember. Cold night air, as Inle looked down on us as I travelled to the farm with Captain Bracken. We met up with Captain Sando and Hawk met us further down."

Carbi had calmed down and had finished having the carrot which was now left alone on the burrow floor. "So what was the farm like? I haven't seen it before."

Blueberry began to explain what he had seen the night before. "The farm is big and full of really weird smells from man, animals and elil. Plus it's really loud place, lots of strange noises but I had to remember not to be scared as they were noises and I had to listen out for the important ones like a cat moving."

Carbi blinked as he watched Blueberry talk. "Must've been a really scary place, don't think I could've gone there." He looked down before letting his ears flop to the side of his head. "Why won't the let me into the owsla, I could just do sentry duty."

Blueberry looked at Carbi for a moment and spoke gently to the younger buck. "You didn't try hard enough in your lessons, always being distracted with something else. You could try again with the training but I don't know if Captain Sando would want to risk anymore time on it."

Carbi sighed and then looked up. "Could you teach me?" He saw Blueberry blink a few times and carried on quickly. "I won't be any bother; I love to know more about what goes on from outside of this warren. I'll do my best in everything."

Blueberry felt sorry for the young buck and he nodded his head. "Okay but only if and when I'll have the free time and only if I am willing to teach you." He said. "So you want to go up to chew on some pellets?"

Seeing Carbi nod his head, Blueberry got up and allowed Carbi to head out first as he followed him. Coming up to the top with the fresh clean crisp morning air, Carbi hopped out as Blueberry shook his head and took the more cautious approach in sniffing and checking if it was safe.

When he was satisfied, he called out. "Carbi, would you come back here please." He sat there looking a bit cross as Carbi came hopping back. "Carbi, you just don't go rushing out like that, you should know this by now. Your first lesson is now, get back into that hole this instant and turn around."

Bluebery waited until Carbi had popped his head out and he shook his head again and then pushed it back in with a fore paw. "Now look, you have to check to see that things are okay before you even attempt to put a head out. What you have to do is sniff the air, listen for anything outside and then carefully and slowly head out, and to make sure that you are going to do that, I want you to tell me exactly what you can hear and smell." Hopping a bit further away from the hole, Blueberry laid down in the grass and looked about him again as he turned his attention back to what Carbi was up to.

Carbi carefully looked out of the hole, seeing Blueberry lying on the grass as he looked around him. He saw the view of the field and several bushes, a few birds hopping about on the ground to pick up some berries that had fallen onto the ground. Sniffing the air, he could sense the smell of Blueberry very strongly, grass, faint scent of cow dung in the distance and something else far off which he couldn't tell but there wasn't anything at all to say that there was anything bad out there. He slowly came out and looked about him again before hopping over to where Blueberry was. "Sorry, keep forgetting to do that."

"So, what did you smell then?" Blueberry asked as he took a sniff of the air himself once again to make sure he had the scents fresh in his mind. Carbi answered back. "There was you, the grass, birds collecting berries, cows in the field and something weird coming from the farm as usual for this time of the day." He blinked twice before continuing on. "Did I miss anything out?"

Blueberry nodded his head. "You forgot the sheep but that doesn't matter right now, it is safe for the moment." He took a look up to the sky and got up onto his feet. "Right, lets go get something to eat." Without saying another word, both he and Carbi headed towards where most of the pellets were near the holes in the shallow hill.

While Carbi and Blueberry were eating near one of the warren entrances, Birch and Snowdrop came out to silflay themselves as they looked about and looked at each other while staring at Carbi eating pellets with Blueberry. Birch hopped a bit away and spoke to Snowdrop. "Well, would you look at that, it seems Carbi is taking a liking to Blueberry now and looking up to him."

Snowdrop nodded her head. "Well, maybe it be for the best. Maybe Blueberry will be able to get Carbi to grow up a bit more and calm down." She hopped a bit further ahead and then took a nibble of moist morning grass. Birch just kept looking as both Blueberry and Carbi talked while they were eating and turned his head back to face Snowdrop. "I hope your right. Maybe he's telling Carbi all about what happened the night before on the farm raid."

Snowdrop flicked an ear as a ladybug landed on it before replying. "Well, we know Carbi wants in the owsla anyways. We find out what he's been up to once Carbi wants to tell us." Both carried on talking while turning to watch the two rabbits from time to time.

Blueberry had noticed the attention and spoke to Carbi. "You're parents are up." Carbi took a look at them and turned his head back as he finished chewing what pellets he needed. "Do you mind if I'll go see them. Want to tell them what you got up to last night."

Nodding his head, Blueberry watched Carbi run off to the other two rabbits and stood up on his hind legs, sniffing the air again. The smell from the farm had faded away, bringing only the faint smell of cat, dog and other animals.

Hopping away from the entrance, Blueberry stretched as he worked out the sleepiness from his body, lifting one of his back legs up and behind before wriggling his toes. Seeing something move from the corner of his eye, he turned his head in alarm and calmed down as he saw it was only Hawk coming out from below.

Spotting Blueberry, Hawk hopped over and cheerfully called out. "Morning, what a nice day, isn't it?" He looked up and sniffed the air before turning his head back to Blueberry again. "Had a good sleep?"

Blueberry snorted and turned to look at Carbi who was talking very fast to his parents before moving his head back to face Hawk. "Hardly, I was woken up rudely by Carbi, you know how he is sometimes. I had to promise him I'd help to train him so that he could impress Captain Sando." He looked down. "I didn't like cuffing him; he does look up to me for some reason or another."

Hawk shook his head. "Well, I don't know. If you think it's worth trying to get Carbi right for owsla duty. I've tried, everyone has tried but for some reason his mind wanders off or he just forgets what he's learnt. It's your neck."

Blueberry frowned slightly. "Oh, don't say that please. Maybe I'll have better luck than the rest, who knows. Carbi must be useful for something, I mean, Frith had to have put him here for some reason or another."

Munching on a blade of grass, Hawk just shrugged and chewed the juicy blade slowly. "Well, like I said, it's your neck but good luck anyways." Turning his ear slightly, he turned around and smiled. "Ah, there's Captain Bracken."

Stretching himself, Captain Bracken hopped over to where Hawk and Blueberry was and nodded his head. "Morning, both had a good night sleep?" He saw both nod their head as he continued on. "I just saw Captain Sando who is talking to Bracken-Rah, they wanted me to make sure that you stay around where they can find you Blueberry. They want a word with you when they come up."

Blueberry blinked and looked down. "I suppose this means that they're coming up with a decision to see if I am good enough, right?" Hawk replied back. "Of course you're good enough, you did okay last night during the raid." He turned his head around to face Captain Bracken again. "Please tell me we're going to lay off on the farm raids, there's only so much luck we can press on that and I don't want to annoy man anymore than we have to."

Blueberry nodded his head. "I have to agree with him. From what I saw of that place, there was a bit of death in the air." He felt himself shudder slightly and swallowed. "I didn't want to say anything at first in case I was imagining it but you could definitely smell it."

Captain Bracken nodded his head. "Yeah, the farm does smell of death as well and I don't think we be risking anymore raids on the farm. The chief rabbit isn't willing to make it anymore for a long while yet. Best to leave it for a while until man forgets about it, besides too much flayrah would spoil you." He chuckled slightly and coughed.

Slowly and eventually, most of the rabbits from the warren had slipped out for silflaying, having talks with friends about what had been happening in the warren or talling stories. Captain Sando was with Cloverleaf and Bracken-Rah who were heading in their direction.

Hawk smiled at Blueberry. "Well, good luck, mate." He nodded to Bracken-Rah, Cloverleaf and Captain Sando. "Good morning Bracken-Rah, Cloverleaf and sir, nice day isn't it?"

Bracken-Rah nodded his head as Cloverleaf spoke gently back. "Yes, it is a pleasant morning. Thank you for the lettuce you brought to us last night, it is very much appreciated." Turning to Bracken-Rah, she spoke again. "Mind if I go and talk to the other doe's dear?" Seeing him nod, she turned and left the bucks to carry on talking to themselves.

Bracken-Rah looked at Blueberry for a moment and coughed. "I have heard all about you and your adventure last night from both Captain Bracken and Captain Sando and Hawk. They all speak very highly of you Blueberry."

Blueberry sat there and replied back. "Yes sir, thank you sir." Bracken-Rah continued. "Therefore it is my duty to allow Captain Sando to make you a full owsla officer. Congratulations." Giving them all another nod, he turned to Captain Sando. "I'll leave you to your duties Sando." Nodding again to all, he turned and hopped off to catch up with Cloverleaf.

Blueberry was lost for words as he looked to the others as Captain Sando smiled. "Well, lad, looks like you're fully one of us now. Which mean more training, more sentry duty and other tasks that'll need to be done, okay?"

Blueberry nodded his head back. "I understand sir." He looked to Captain Bracken who was the next person to get a word from Captain Sando. "Bracken, help Blueberry with his first sentry duty. It is your time to do that now, isn't it?"

Captain Bracken nodded his head. "Yes it is. Come on Blueberry. I'll show you the ropes on what to do, though you probably remember anyways." Both he and Blueberry left, leaving Captain Sando and Hawk by themselves. "He be okay." Hawk said as he went back to silflaying.

Moving to the outskirts of the warren, Captain Bracken stopped and looked about the area as he spoke. "Right, tell me what you remember about sentry duty?" Blueberry replied back. "Sentry duty is to keep an eye out for any elil that comes nearby. Our duty is to warn the rest of the warren of approaching danger so that they can all get back underground safely. We're the last ones to go down or to try and keep any elil from catching the slow ones."

Scratching the earth and grass with a paw, Captain Bracken replied back. "Good answer. Now, let's keep an eye out for anything, shall we?" With that for the rest of the day, both Blueberry and Captain Bracken kept watch while the rest of the warren silflayed and did their business up on top before eventually Frith was starting to go down to end another day.

In the evening, Captain Bracken called for the sentry duty to be ended for the day as they both made their way into the warren with the last of the rabbits, passing two which were on duty for the evening. The two owsla officers gave a nod to Blueberry and wished him good luck and well wishes for getting into the owsla. Slipping down, Blueberry went to go down one of the runs where he was stopped by Captain Bracken. "No, you're burrow is going to be used by someone else now Blueberry. You have to move into one of the owsla burrows nearer to the chief. It was arranged during the day, you should find your carrot has been moved there. Follow me, you will be next to Hawk."

Blueberry nodded his head and followed Captain Bracken through the warren where he reached another part of the warren and came to his burrow. Sniffing it, he could tell that it hadn't been used for a while and that there wasn't any scent to it at all. Captain Bracken spoke again. "You and Hawk are on sentry duty tomorrow. You will find yourself being given orders and it would seem that Captain Sando wants you and Hawk to take sentry duty for the next few days. Anyways, I must be off, have a good night."

Blueberry watched as Captain Bracken left and vanished from sight as he turned his head back to the opening of the burrow and slipped inside. Looking about the burrow, his new home within the warren, he sighed and began to rub his body on the walls to leave some trace of his familiar smell. He moved his feet against the ground as well as his neck against the walls and the floor. Eventually he was satisfied enough for the time being and laid down on the soft earth. Looking to where the carrot was lying, he grabbed it with a fore paw, pulled it towards him and began to nibble on it again. All the time he wondered on how life would be like now that he had managed to gain the rank of an owsla officer. Eventually he fell asleep with the carrot resting underneath his chin as he dreamt of things that may happen.

The next morning, Blueberry slipped out of the burrow in time and saw Hawk was just getting out himself, half asleep. "Morning Hawk, nice day for it I hope?" Hawk muttered and then stretched, popping something in his back. "I hope so, you haven't experienced rain sentry duty yet have you?"

Blueberry shook his head on that one and shivered. "You're kidding? I thought all rabbits would've stayed underground if it was raining?" Hawk turned to leave as Blueberry followed him and replied back. "No, some still have to go out to pass pellets and all. It will be our duty to go out with them and keep a watch for any trouble. But you get used to the rain."

Both coming out of the warren carefully, they looked about and nodded that there wasn't anything wrong at all apart from the ground being cool and moist once again from the morning dew. Both took up their posts away from each other but close enough to talk to each other if they wanted to. They began to look all around them again as they checked the ground for any signs of anything that had passed throughout the night. Blueberry looked at Hawk and muttered. "Can't smell anything, the grass is too wet. Looks like it did rain during the night though, can't remember hearing it however."

Hawk replied back. "I did, was up at the time when it started." He turned around to look behind him and carried on talking. "I was worried that it would've still be raining when we came up but it's just cloudy today." He finished while looking up.

Their conversation ended as they saw other rabbits that were on sentry duty come up followed by the normal populous of the warren that were heading up to either pass pellets, eat pellets or to eat the grass. Most of the morning went without any incident as Hawk nodded for Blueberry to silflay as he kept watch for him.

Nibbling on some grass, he saw Carbi in the distance, sticking close to his parents that were starting to get annoyed with him. Blinking, he saw Birch push Carbi away before telling him off, then headed off with Snowdrop. Hawk broke the silence. "Looks like Snowdrop is expecting new litter again. Carbi will have to admit that he can't hang around them anymore."

Blueberry blinked. "Is it getting near to that time again? Great, that's all the warren needs. There be more fighting amongst us. Over does as well." He bit on a blade of grass and pulled it up and Hawk laughed. "Oh I don't know, you have gone up in the warren now. Probably some does have already decided to keep an eye on you."

Blueberry spluttered as he spat out half chewed grass from his mouth. "You're kidding. You mean I may not have a choice of avoiding any fights this time around?" Hawk replied back. "Afraid not, it's one of the perks of the job as well as a hazard but as long as you've been keeping up with your fighting training, you shouldn't get too beaten up."

Blueberry pulled a face of disgust and shook his head. "Maybe one day I'll find a mate but I ain't that interested at the moment, besides, what about you?" He looked at Hawk before turning his head again back to the task in hand.

Hawk just grinned. "Well, you see that doe over there. I think she's interested in me. I think her name is Blossom but I don't know?" Blueberry got up as he stood on his hind legs and sniffed the air. "You don't know? Haven't you liked, asked her name yet?"

Hawk shrugged. "I've tried but anytime I get anywhere near her, she ends up meeting another buck or doe." He sniffed the air again and looked in a general direction. "Er, can we discuss this another time, something's not right."

Blueberry came alert and stopped eating just as he was about to again and came right up to where Hawk was. Speaking a bit urgently he asked. "What is it?" Hawk sniffed the air again and looked at Blueberry for a moment. "Stay here, I have to go get one of the Captains. If you think it's too dangerous for anyone to be up here. Sound the alarm." With that, Hawk ran off towards the warren quickly.

Moving about slowly and carefully, Blueberry sniffed the air and stopped mid step. Raising his head higher, he shivered as he could smell the scent of man. Hopping a bit towards the bush he stopped again and felt a cold shiver running up his spine as he saw the bush move slightly. Staying absolutely still, he saw a pink hand slowly brush aside the leaves as a face was looking directly at him with a cap.

Instantly Blueberry went into action. He thumped the ground quickly with his hind leg repeatedly, making every other rabbit look up before running towards escape tunnels. Turning to run, Blueberry came up with Captain Sando who had just come up and out as he met Blueberry in the middle of the field. "What?"

Blueberry didn't look back but he reported quickly. "Man, man is in that bush behind us, I could only smell one but there are three different man scents." Not saying anything else, both he and Captain Sando ran into their holes.

Looking through the bush Ben pulled back and made his way back to the other two men. "Aye, found it. Looks like the warren has grown a bit too much, you're going to have problems with that unless you deal with it right away."

Jack rubbed his beard for a moment with a nod. "Aye, flipping bunnies and all, I had my missus complaining this morning about the vegetable part of the garden being ruined again by them. I shouldn't have left the gate open to the garden when I came back from the pub." Ben brushed down his pants as he replied. "Well, let's head back and arrange things. We discuss this more on the way as well."

Staying by the edge of the hole, Captain Sando sniffed the air and turned his head back to where Blueberry was standing. "Looks like they are heading off, probably just wanted to see us but we have to go talk to the chief about this. Come on." Slowly he edged out of the run with Blueberry alongside him as they ran to another part of the warren and down into the hole again.

Bracken-Rah had already heard reports that the owsla had sounded the alarm of a danger to the warren and he was moving in and out of his burrow with worry. Cloverleaf looked at him with a frown. "You know, you keep on doing that and you will sink without a trace." Bracken-Rah gave Cloverleaf a frown. "If this had anything to do about getting more lettuce for you and your doe friends and this warren is in danger, it's on your back." Seeing Cloverleaf huff slightly to that one, he sighed and moved away from his burrow.

Captain Sando and Blueberry met Bracken-Rah outside of the run that led to his burrow. He looked at them both before asking. "Was it man?" He saw Captain Sando nod his head before replying. "Blueberry sounded the alarm, there were three of them but he could only see one. We need to talk, Bracken-Rah, sir with a meeting with the owsla sir." Seeing Bracken-Rah nod, all three rabbits headed off to a burrow to discuss matters. Blueberry followed behind them, still shaking from the experience.

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Next chapter... Chapter 5, Man's Wrath...