Vervain's new life Part 3

Next morning Vervain felt like he was ready to leave the burrow. He wanted to see this Weeping Willow warren he was brought in.

As the black rabbit made his way in the tunnels, he felt bit lost. He thought that maybe he should have waited for someone who could show him places, but then again, he felt like exploring this unknown warren alone. He could hear talking, laughing and other voices of life around him. It was weird. In Efrafa, it was always quiet. It was forbidden to even talk to one another if you were not a captain or a corporal. As Vervain looked around, he bumped on to something.

"Oh, sorr-" he started, but when he turned around to see who he had bumped on, his tongue was sealed. It was big, dark brown buck with half-flopping ears, hair covering his eyes. He was half a head bigger than Vervain himself was, but not as quite big as Woundwort had been. Vervain's feet went cold upon seeing a buck of his size, for there was no way he could fight someone of that size alone!

"I'm so sorry! I-I din't mean to..." Vervain shuttered in fear.

But the big buck just smiled at him. "Nah, man. It's cool! No harm done, dude." he said in laid back, little wobbly voice.

"Say, you are that buck my lass Larch keeps talkin' about? Vervain, if I remember correctly..."

Vervain felt his face heat when he heard Larch's name and the fact that she was talking about him a lot.

"Ehehe... yeah. I suppose that's me..."

"Hey man, don't be too shaken by it! Larch is a good lass! She is happy that she stumbled upon ya'! I think she might even like ya' a little bit, dude!" the buck said, still smiling.

"Heh, that is what I have heard." Vervain said, shyly. But he then stood up straight and looked bit sad.

"But she doesn't even know me. How can she like someone she has hardly talked to?"

"True love knows it's place, they say!" The buck said. "What about you? Do you like her, eh?"

Vervain went all red and his ears perked up. "Eh... she is pretty... and kind... and modest... and, and... yeah. Maybe a little."

The other buck laughed. "Well, I hope it works out for ya' two! I say, Larch has never cared about bucks or kits or any other family-related stuff. But you may have changed that for good, lad! Be good to her and everything will go fine!" he said and hopped past Vervain.

"Names Pinecone, by the way! Enjoy yer' say, dude!"

As Pine Cone hopped away, Vervain collected his thoughts. Only after taking few steps himself he remembered Rhizome saying that a buck named Pinecone had carried him here! Vervain took a note to thank him next time they would meet but now he needed to find his way out.

After few minutes, Vervain was out of the burrows. He looked around and saw nothing but pretty nature and happy bunnies all over. And indeed, there were a lot of weeping willows around. Vervain looked around in order to find some familiar faces, Rhizome or Larch, but so far there were only people he didn't know. Some of them turned around to stare at him as he walked around. Apparently they had never seen a black rabbit before. Some of them would whisper while staring him. It made Vervain extremely uncomfortable, and just when he was about to snap at the staring bunnies, he heard the soothing voice of Larch call out at him.

"Vervain! Over here!"

Vervain turned and finally saw the most beautiful doe in his life again. She hopped towards him, smiling and clearly happy to see him out of the burrow.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better!" she said when she finally reached Vervain. The black rabbit was quite smitten about the fact that such a pretty doe showed interest in him, but tried to stay cool. He puffed up his chest and tried to look as good and strong as possible it was for him.

"Well, few weeks of running and some rain never hold someone like me down!" he said, trying to look proud and brave.

"And what about falling from a slope?" Larch played along.

"I must say that it may knock a wind out for some time, but I will get up again, no matter how big the slope or how deep the fall!"

Larch giggled, and Vervain felt like he was going to melt in that voice. But other rabbits were still staring at them. Some were not interested at all and just kept chatting, eating or playing, but few were still interested in who this black rabbit was, and why was the nicest doe they knew with him?

Vervain noticed this and it bothered him greatly. Larch soon noticed this too, and her sweet expression turned into disgust. "Don't mind the others. They are just weary on new rabbits. They say that our warren is over-populated, but so far there has been enough food and room for all of us!" she said, and came to stand next to Vervain.

"Come on! I'll show you around! This warren is the most beautiful you'll ever seen!"

Vervain smiled at the doe and gladly accepted the offer.

After the tour around the warren, Larch brought Vervain into the place where she had found him. The pond, partly surrounded by high slopes. It was quiet, only birds were chirping and crickets were singing. Vervain felt peace and confront in this place. Maybe it was just Larch's presence, but he still felt it strongly in here. Vervain started to think more deeply about the thing between him and Larch. They were about the same age, they were both free and they were now very close due the day they had spent together. Larch was kind, funny and all in all perfect.

But Vervain was not sure about himself. His past itself was a big part of him, and if he didn't tell Larch about it, it would not only bother him the rest of his life but if Larch would find out herself it would be even worse! But if Vervain would tell the doe about who he is and who he worked for, there was a risk that Larch would change her mind about him and he was chased away from the warren.

Vervain sighed. No matter how far he ran, he could not run away from his past. Larch heard his sigh and turned to look at him.

"Whats the matter?" she asked, innocent and kind as ever.

Vervain felt bad. He had to tell. He could not have Larch live in shadows of his past. She deserved to know. If she would turn away from Vervain, then she would. There was no stopping it...

"I need to tell you something... I-"

"Have to leave."

Vervain and Larch were surprised by third voice joining them. They turned and saw grey and black doe sitting on the slope, looking down to them with her sharp blue eyes. Her short ears were pressed on her neck as she leered the black rabbit with hate.

Carefully, yet bold as ever, the doe slide down from the slope and started walking towards the two.

"The warren is quite full enough without wanderers interfering! Leave before we make you leave!"

Vervain was confused by the sudden appearance of this unknown rabbit. And the most confusing part was that he recognized the doe from somewhere! Larch hopped next to him, and stood on her front legs, as if she would be ready to fight just in case. But her voice stayed calm.

"Vervain, this is Thorn. My friend..." she said, slightly pausing before the last two words, as if she was not sure if she was telling the truth.

"Charmed." Vervain said quietly, leering at the doe who was still giving him a stinky eye. Then it hit him! This doe, Thorn, was one of the few rabbits who had stared at him when he had exited the burrows!

"Like-wise. Now scam! Before I tell the bigger bucks of our warren to chase you off!" Thorn spitted, trying to look big.

"Oh shush, Thorn! Our warren is one of the biggest in the area! We are constantly digging for more burrows and there is enough food for everyone! He doesn't need to leave if he doesn't want to!" Larch talked back to her, trying to sound calm. But her voice was shattering. Vervain rose up to his blacklegs to observe the situation.

"For now, maybe! But what about winter? Last winter we almost starved to death! If we get any more rabbits here, we will surely die!" Thorn said, now leering at her friend.

"We almost died because the humans also had a bad farm year! We could not store enough food for winter because of that! But now the humans are doing well, and they have plenty of food for all of us!" Larch said again, now clearly starting to get angry.

"Humans are the main reason I'm worried! The more rabbits there are, more we have to take from the farm! And more we take from the farm, more likely it is that the humans come and hunt us! It is a miracle the amount of food you dragged to this wanderer didn't take their attention already!"

This was where Vervain had enough. No-one would talk to Larch that was and get away with it! He landed on his front legs and hopped between the does, leering at Thorn.

"Listen here. Rhizome is your leader! He told me that I can stay as long as I wish. And if you are so worried about over-population and humans, then why don't you leave the warren yourself to look for smaller one? And before that, why not share your thoughts with your chief-rabbit? I'm sure he would take your words seriously and think for an answer! Either way, don't insult Larch from your own concerns!"

Thorn looked at Vervain, still quite mad. "You think I have not tried? But that old fool doesn't listen to me! But don't you get too cocky there, Wanderer! One day you all will see where over-populated warren will take you!"

With that Thorn hopped off.

Larch let out a deep sigh. "Thank Frith. I'm sorry Vervain, she has not always been like that! We were so close when we were kits. I suppose loosing her mother to humans changed her mentally..."

"She has a point thought." Vervain said. "She is just making a big fuss about it..."

"Yes. Maybe we should talk to Rhizome about it. Maybe if more than one rabbit give him the same concern, he will listen." Larch said and was about to hop away, when Vervain stopped her.

"Wait Larch. I must talk to you first..."

"Oh, okay. What do you wanna talk about?" Larch asked.

Vervain took a deep breath and sighed. "About my past."