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Watership Down - Blueberry's Tale

Chapter 9 - The Iron Road

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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Hawk blinked. "Where is he? How did you meet him? Is he okay?" He blurted out the questions thick and fast. Blueberry bit his lower lip before replying back with the answers. "He is back in the field that we were at before we were attacked by the homba, man and the dogs. He tracked us there after digging himself out of the warren. Man blocked all the entrances and even left a ferret in there. He's dead Hawk, he didn't survive much after finding out that me and Carbi was okay, just that he wanted me to go and find a safe place again to live."

Hawk thumped his front paw hard on the ground. "Well, that's just great. All we're good for at this moment in time is losing rabbits and our friends and comrades. It's not on Blueberry. How much do we have to give to satisfy inle and his army of elil?"

Blueberry replied back. "Not anymore, I won't allow it. We carry on as we do, we find someplace that we can call home and live in peace." Carbi finished eating as they carried on their way along the river, stopping from time to time to check for any signs of danger.

Eventually the river began to turn away from them as they could see a hedge in the distance. They all arrived at the hedge, the sound of the river now a bit far behind them as they looked through it to see a road in front of them again. Blueberry frowned. "I don't like it, we're heading back into man territory again. They seem to be everywhere."

"So what are we going to do then?" Carbi asked as he looked quickly to the side to see a hrududu rushing towards them. Everyone backed back into the hedge as it roared by with Hawk looking at Blueberry. "Go back to the towards the river and see if that will lead us away from this?"

Blueberry nodded his head. "I don't want to go anywhere near man for the time being, so yes. Let's go back and follow the river for a bit longer." Turning around they came back to the river and instead of going back the way they came, they went down the other way, hearing hrududu's passing from time to time to the left of them. Hawk looked at Blueberry as he whispered so that Carbi couldn't hear. "I hope this is the right way?" Blueberry replied back quietly. "So do I, Hawk. So do I..." The thee rabbits rested under the undergrowth near the river bank edge as they saw in the distance the bright light of the hrududu move along from time to time. Blueberry was sitting out with Hawk as Carbi fell asleep a long time ago. "So when you going to get some sleep?" Hawk asked Blueberry while staring up at the night sky.

"Soon," Blueberry replied back. "I hope anyways." He slowly laid down on the grass and began to silflay, dealing with his hunger. "Still think I am doing the right thing here?" He bit some more grass and chewed slowly.

Hawk pondered for a moment as he flicked an ear to get a moth away from it. "Does anyone know what they're doing in a situation like this? Being an hlessi isn't as relaxing as those that came to us from time to time, is it?"

Blueberry shook his head. "No it's not but for some reason I've had more excitement than all of my days at the warren. I mean, when was it the last time you saw an army of dogs led by a fox, with man riding, what were they again?" Hawk replied back. "Horses but yes, that's something you don't see that often at a warren."

Blueberry yawned as he looked at Hawk. "You don't mind taking watch do you? I was up all last night." Getting up, he moved into the bush as he left Hawk looking at him before turning his head back out again to stare out to the cloudless night sky with the moon shining down. "No, I don't mind at all." He was about to say something else but decided against it for the time being.

Hawk woke up Carbi in the middle of the night and made him take some first sentry duty. He sat down next to him as he explained. "What you have to do is to keep alert for anything. Move about if you need to get another view but you have to remain quiet, listening, sniffing and seeing if anything of danger comes."

Carbi nodded his head. "Yes sir. And if I see anything that is dangerous?" Hawk replied back. "You stamp your back foot on the ground quickly, don't worry we owsla have that drummed into us so much in training that we be awake before the third thump. Wake us up before dawn." He turned to go and stopped, looking back. "Good luck and don't let us down or Blueberry, he has faith in you." Carbi nodded as he sat still letting Hawk catch some sleep as well.

The next day, the three rabbits carried on in fits and starts along the river as the hrududu passed by from time to time. Wrinkling his nose, Blueberry sneezed as he rubbed his nose to the smell. "Ugh, they do sure leave a nasty smell in the air. Hang on." He looked up ahead and blinked. "Hawk! Grab Carbi and get to this bush, something is coming along this bank up ahead."

All three ran to the cover of the hedge, knowing that the road was just behind them as they saw a man walking a dog along the bank with a leash in one hand and a fishing rod, bag with the other. Hawk whispered. "You know, I'll give anything to just not see man again for a while. What on earth do you think this one is doing?"

Keeping quiet, they watched as the man walked down the bank until he had found a place. Letting the dog go off the leash, Blueberry was nearly ready to turn around and bolt across the road there and then. But he could hear another hrududu in the distance. He turned his head to Hawk and Carbi. "Okay, this is getting tiresome, let's just slowly move along the hedge so that we can get away without being detected. No noise though."

Carefully they began to move through the hedge, slowly as to not disturb the leaves or make any noise to attract the dog or man. Stopping from time to time to check on them, they saw the man was now sitting on something while flicking a long pole in the air. Carbi shook his head. "You know, I love to know what he's doing? It could prove to be an interesting story to tell one day."

Both Blueberry and Hawk frowned at Carbi as they shook their heads and began to move off leaving him behind. "Fine, you stay then." Hawk said. "We make sure to include you ending up inside the dog." Blueberry carried on. "Or that the man grabbed you. Come on, Hawk, he has a story to investigate."

Carbi blinked as he saw both Blueberry and Hawk vanish from sight amongst the thick leaves of the hedge and moved to follow them. "Hey, come on, it was only just a thought, wait up." Eventually they managed to get away from the danger and had slipped back out of the hedge again to be within the fresh air once more. Blueberry looked behind him from time to time as Hawk noticed. "What are you doing, we left man behind there ages ago?"

Blueberry gave another look back as he replied back to Hawk's question. "Look, I know but usually where man has come from he goes back the same way? I thought it would be the same if it was if the farmer went back from his fields to his home?" He saw Hawk nod and he muttered. "I can't believe I forgot about that, my apology on the matter." He started to look back as well. "I've had a lot on my mind lately what with climbing the ladder with my friends being lost."

"I know, so where do you see yourself right now then?" Blueberry asked Hawk as he looked at Carbi a bit ahead of them, sniffing about. "What is he doing?" Hawk grinned. "Well, he's following the trail of the dog, it give him training for following a scent or to at least learn it to know about what a dog smells like to keep well away from it." Blueberry nodded his head. "That's a good idea, but you didn't reply to my other question, so where do you see yourself now?"

Hawk looked away. "That depends on how you take it." Blueberry blinked back at Hawk. "And what does that mean, exactly?" Stopping in his tracks, Hawk looked at where Blueberry was and then Carbi who hadn't noticed that they had stopped. "Blueberry, listen. I ain't ready to move right to the top, so I am staying just as a Captain. You've got your mind, mostly on what has happened and I trust you as a friend. I am not going to fight or anything, I've decided to let you lead from now on."

"Me? Are you serious?" Blueberry blurted out. "Come on, I hardly been a owsla officer and there you are putting your trust in my decisions?" Hawk lifted up a paw and poked the chest of Blueberry. "Exactly, none of us at this moment has even been through this situation. All we had to do was sit about looking about what was going on around the warren, make sure that no one disturbed the chief rabbit and to go fetch some flayrah from time to time. This is just so new and I haven't a clue on what to do."

Blueberry frowned. "Like I do, but we can't just run into a hole or that." Hawk nodded. "Exactly, but you knew that the field wasn't safe when we decided to stay, forced the issue and that made us go back to scout and we had an early warning of approaching danger." Hawk began to move again. "As such, I am happy to let you be in charge." He looked ahead. "Come on, Carbi is starting to get really small now."

Running up, they both caught up with Carbi who had stopped to sniff at the ground again, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Don't dogs ever clean themselves, I don't know what you want me to learn the smell. I could smell a dog coming from far away. It's disgusting." Sitting down he rubbed his nose with his front paws. "I'd rather lose my nose like El-Ahrairah did than keep on smelling this."

Hawk chuckled. "Oh it's not that bad, you get used to the smell eventually besides dog is easy, just try smelling cat. It's much harder since they tend to groom themselves more than we do." He paused for a moment. "We take you to a farm later to see if you can cope with one."

Carbi shuddered as he shook his head. "No thanks, I'll stick to telling stories like I am thinking of one now. The day the dog started to stink." Both Blueberry and Hawk laughed as they carried on their way.

Much later as the sun was starting to go down again, Blueberry could hear something from behind him, the same sound he heard that morning and he looked at Hawk who was already looking behind him. "We best get hiding again, that man looks to be heading our way again." Without hesitation, they ran up again to the hedge and slowly entered it, disturbing a sleeping fieldmouse that squeaked in annoyance and moved along the hedge. Hawk flattened his ears as he heard it complain, muttering. "Language, like we didn't know it was sleeping here."

Blueberry whispered. "I need to brush up on my hedgerow at some point." He went silent as he saw the man walking back along the bank with the dog on the leash again while carrying something that stank horribly more than the dog. Carbi was looking really disgusted as he muttered quietly. "What on Frith is he carrying?"

Hawk muttered right back. "I have absolutely no idea what it is." He looked to Blueberry. "Do you?" Blueberry just looked at Hawk as if though he was mad. "Do I look like I can fly?" Carbi responded back. "No but you did swim, did you see anything at all under that water, that looked what that man is carrying?"

"No I didn't, I was too busy trying to stop you from tearing me to shreds under there as well as not swallowing more water than we should have done." He went quiet as he watched the man slowly got smaller in the distance and sniffed the air again. "You're right about the smell though. What you think? Dog or whatever that was?"

Carbi snorted as he replied flatly back. "None of them, I'll settle for a nice, warm burrow thick with rabbit smell thanks you very much." Blueberry and Hawk laughed as they slowly slipped back out of the hedge again and looked about the area. "You know." Hawk said as he looked about. "We haven't seen any elil today, maybe they're afraid of the road?"

Blueberry had to agree to that one. "Well, at least that gives us some room to relax but I ain't going to relax that much." He hopped over to where the man and the dog had been a short while ago. "Don't think we're meant to relax much anymore, not until the black rabbit takes us anyways?"

Carbi shuddered as Hawk went a bit pale in the ears. "Now, let's not start thinking about that. I think we should rest here for the night and carry on during tomorrow, what do you think?"

Blueberry looked about and nodded his head. "Fine but I am not going to sleep on hard ground again so we may as well try to dig our own scrapes for once." He looked about and nodded to the shelter of another bush again. "We arrange it so that we're facing out all the time."

Carbi blinked. "Are you kidding me? Dig our own scrapes?" He turned away a bit disgusted. "Never heard anything like it before, next you be saying we have to dig out our own warren." Hawk gave Carbi a cuff on the head with his paw. "It's an owsla thing and we have to do it if we can't get back to the warren. You don't have to do it but if you don't mind another uncomfortable night again."

Grumbling, Carbi followed the other two as they began to find a suitable place in the bush before scraping away the hard dirt to leave back a nice soft shallow hole in its place. Slowly they began to settle in as Hawk carried on about why they needed scrape. "Look, it lowers ourselves into the ground, makes it harder for any elil walking past to see us, unless they're heading in our direct way but we can run away faster than them so it's in our favour." Eventually Carbi didn't complain much anymore and fell asleep.

"Hawk, give him a bit of slack, he doesn't know our ways, he tries to but it's going to take some time." Blueberry said, looking out of the bush to scan the area that was quickly darkening. Hawk sighed. "Well, he better get used to it soon or he won't survive long Blueberry and you know it. Mind you, I am beginning to think we're not going to survive much longer pressing our luck while we stay by this river. I think we should cross the road tomorrow and head up that way. Just in case we meet any other men that want to take a walk in the same place as us." He shuddered. "That and I don't like being trapped between a road and a river anymore."

"Alright, we cross the road before dawn then and make our way across the field." Blueberry turned to face the river and he spoke quietly. "We're really leaving the area aren't we, our home and everything. I thought things lasted forever but I know that's not true." He yawned and settled down. "You can take the first watch Hawk, wake me up sometime later and I'll take over." Hawk nodded and allowed the other two to sleep as he thought quietly to himself.

The next day, all three slowly headed to where the road was and slipped under the hedge to get through it. Moving to the outside they saw it just a bit away from some tall grass and hopped until they were right at the edge of the road. "Hawk, quickly remind me again of the road?" Blueberry said as he looked up and down it.

Hawk replied. "Oh this, well it's not that dangerous, the hrududu usually just ignore us but I wouldn't risk hanging about on it to find that out though." Blueberry nodded his head as he turned to face Carbi. "I want you and Hawk to go across together and wait on the other side for me."

Carbi nodded and moved behind Blueberry so that he was next to Hawk. "Off you go now." Blueberry said as he saw the two race across the road and into the next hedge, disturbing a small bird which flew up into the air. Bracing himself, he gave a last look and then raced across himself as he tore through the hedge and ended up in the field on the other side.

"Now we're definitely out of the way." Hawk said as he looked to the sight of sheep sleeping or just grazing the grass. "Would you just look at that, they're pulling the grass right out from the root. It will never grow back that way." Blueberry began to move. "Well, it's their loss if they eat all the grass in the field and starve. Let's get moving. Where there's sheep, there's usually a farmer."

Moving quickly they left the field as they carried on through another empty field, that smelt of cows but there weren't any to be seen. "Funny, place smells of cows but there aren't any?" Carbi said, looking about the area. "Wonder where they went?"

Blueberry replied back. "Who cares, we have to leave this field, I remember Captain Sando saying something about man taking the cows away very early before Frith came up and they were back in the field a short while after Frith does come up." He looked to the sky which did have Frith slowly coming up again. "And that's about now."

Hawk nodded on that one. "You're right, I remember being with Captain Sando at the time we saw that happen. Come on Carbi." They had left the river far behind as they were crossing the field diagonally. Blueberry came to a halt as he came to another road, Hawk running into him. "Watch it!" Blueberry shouted as he scrambled back into the hedge again. "What's with all these roads!" Blueberry's voice was now clearly getting on the anger side of things.

Hawk shrugged as he sniffed the road again. "I don't know, maybe they're tests for us. That or man is lazy and don't walk or run like we do but ride in those monster hrududu things." He frowned at Blueberry. "Could we at least calm down about it though?"

Blueberry nodded. "Okay, Lets just get over this one and hope we don't come to any others." They ran across the road just as they were hearing one of those hrududu coming down the road as they entered another field that was just grass. They carried on forwards through the smaller field until they found yet another road in front of them.

Hawk just blinked. "Okay, man is lazy." He said in disgust. "Can't they like walk like anyone else, what they afraid of, wearing out their paws or something?" That cheered up Blueberry no end as they ran across the road again, the hard surface was really starting to hurt their paws now and they were glad to get back onto soft grass once again. Blueberry panted as he rested for a moment. "Maybe it hurts their paws to walk on that." He lifted up a front paw and licked it. "I wouldn't want to run on that all the time I can tell you."

Moving at a slower pace now, all three decided to turn so that they were heading northwards as they didn't want to risk meeting another road again. The group paused from time to time. Blueberry stopped and looked about the whole area again while sniffing the air. "Something different in the air, not sure what it is?" He turned to Hawk who shook his head without saying anything.

A slight breeze came over him from the side as he sniffed, stamping his foot to the ground instinctively. "I can smell a homba." Blueberry turned his head after saying that to the side and sniffed again. "Yes, I can definitely smell a homba, it's back from where we were."

Hawk frowned. "Oh great, that's just flipping great. Here we are in the middle of a field and we have a homba on our tail. All we need now is a hawk or something to.." He didn't get to finish as there was a loud bang in the air that made all three of the scatter apart. Each of the three managed to find a place of hiding really quickly from each other as it took them a while to calm down and slowly find themselves back together again. Hawk was looking worried. "Man used a bang stick."

Carbi blinked. "A what stick?" Hawk repeated it again. "Man used a bang stick. It's what he uses to kill something from afar." Blueberry looked to the hill in front of them a bit further ahead. "Let's get over that then. Maybe the other side will be a better place to be right now."

Moving to the bottom of the hill, they began to climb it, Carbi finding it harder than most as he had to stop a few times to catch his breath. Eventually they all managed to get to the top of the hill and stopped where they were, looking open eyed at the sight before them. Hawk looked at Blueberry before he could even ask. "Don't ask me what it is? I have absolutely no idea." Blueberry moved a bit forward and placing a paw on one of the wooden planks, he gave the thin silver line a sniff and pulled back. "It's got me stumped, what about you Carbi?" Carbi shook his head. "I don't know, don't think any of the stories I have heard and they're not that many have mentioned anything like this from our warren."