Watership Down

     

   Watership Down*

In the first nine chapters Fiver gets really scared of something, but he doesn't know of what he is scared.  He and his brother Hazel tell the rabbit king of Fiver's suspicions, but the king doesn't listen.  So fiver and Hazel gather as many rabbits as they can, including Bigwig and Silver, two rabbits from the rabbit army.  After a little skirmish with three rabbits from the army, they are off.   

   They travel for a bit until they come to a river.  They try to figure out how to get the smaller two rabbits, Pipkin and Fiver, across, because they can't swim.  Blackberry finds a board and puts them, on it.  Once they make it across, Hazel discovers a field of beans where they can rest, but on their way there a crow attacks Pipkin.   Fortunately they are able to save him.

      

   After about a day of resting in the bean fields, they are again on the move.  On their way they come to a road.  Hazel had never seen a road before so Bigwig tells him about it.  It grows dark and they still haven't found safe place to sleep and some of them don’t want to go any farther.  By morning, they finally reach a safe place to dig.  Fiver doesn't think it's safe, and wants to go somewhere else.  The others don't listen however, so by nightfall three shallow burrows are dug.  Digging is usually left to the does, although the male rabbits can still dig, just slowly.  While Hazel is keeping watch, Fiver spots a rabbit.  The rabbit comes closer and talks with them.  He invites them to his warren, but because they are suspicious of a trick, they hesitate.  They eventually decide to go.

   They are now at the warren but Fiver is really scared.  The other rabbits get used to the strange rabbits but fiver is so scared that he sleeps outside all night.  The next day they find a lot of carrots all over the ground.  Hazel doesn't notice anything funny about it and neither do the others.  They bring the remaining carrots inside the main burrow.  Hazel then notices that Fiver is missing.  He finds him by himself, not eating anything.  Hazel persuades him to come inside, but he is still nervous.  Dandelion tells a story about El-harairah.  And silverweed (one of the warren rabbits) recites a poem.  Because of the poem Fiver runs outside.  Together, Hazel and Bigwig find him.  That night they sleep together, but in the morning Hazel wakes to find Fiver gone.  He wakes Bigwig and they rush off to find him.  They find him a little way off eating.  Hazel tells Bigwig to tell the others where they are, but on the way Bigwig got caught in a trap.  They are able to help him out and then they all leave the warren, because cowslip wouldn't come to help, when they told him.  They also take a rabbit from the warren, named Strawberry. 

   They finally reached Watership Down, and it is all that Fiver said it would be.  The ground was sandy and there are trees overhead and it`s on a hill so they can see anyone coming.  They started digging right away; they built a great burrow where all of them can be at once.  They also built smaller burrows for themselves. 

   

   Then one day as they were feeding, they heard wailing.  Hazel went up to it and found Holly the captain of the Owsla from their old warren.  He was hurt on one ear, so they helped him to their burrows.  Holly had brought a rabbit with him, his name was bluebell.  Holly slept in one of the burrows with a few other rabbits and the next day he felt better.  He told them that all of the rabbits in the old warren had been killed except for him and Bluebell. 

   

   One day Bigwig and Silver hear a noise and go to check it out.  It turns out to be a seagull, whose name is Kehaar.  He was hurt on his wing and needed help.  Bigwig and Silver go to tell Hazel about him and together they manage to persuade him to come up to the warren.  Kehaar is badly hurt so they have to find bugs for him.  Hazel finally realizes they don`t have any does.  So he asks Kehaar to look for warrens.  He does and brings back news of a warren, called Ephrafa, as well as a bunch of caged rabbits that a farmer owns.  Hazel sends Holly and some others to the warren, while he and Pipkin go and see the caged rabbits.  They talk to them and will come back later to get them out. 

   

   Later, Hazel, Bigwig and a few others went to get the caged rabbits.  On the way there Bigwig met a cat.  He fought it and beat it.  They get the rabbits out of the cage, but they can't move very fast.  With two cats stalking them this is not a good situation.  They have to leave two of them behind but later when Hazel finds out, he takes Dandelion to go and get them.  As they are trying to escape one of the rabbits (a buck) is taken by men and put back in the cage.  The other (a doe) they are able to get to a ditch, but the men are nearby.  Hazel runs out to get the men`s attention, while Dandelion and the doe run towards the others.  The men had a gun and Hazel is shot.  

      

   Meanwhile, Holly arrives back at the warren with his followers.  They are wounded and sick and they don't have any does with them.  The rabbits at Ephrafa were mean to them.  Underground, Holly tells the sad tale.    

    

   Early the next morning, Fiver takes Dandelion, and the two of them go to find Hazel.  Dandelion thinks he is dead but Fiver is not so sure.  When they find him, they find that he is alive!  Fiver and Dandelion run back to tell the others the good news and bring back a few to help get Hazel back to the warren.  Once they arrive Kehaar takes the bullet out of Hazel`s leg and in a few days he is feeling much better.  They still don`t have enough does, so Hazel decides to go to Ephrafa, and try to get some.  They think it is not a very good idea, but they go anyway. 

   Bigwig got into Ephrafa and he is a captain.  He met a doe named Hyzenthlay and talked to her about the plan.  She is sensible, unlike most of the does in Ephrafa, and she will get more does.  There is another buck that tried to run away from the warren and the counsel ripped up his ears because of it.  This made Bigwig mad and he is going to try and get him out.  The next day they are going to leave Ephrafa, That is if everything goes well. 

   Everything did not go well.  The next day when Bigwig went outside with his mark, Woundwart brought him aside and was talking with him so they didn't have time to leave.  
   
   The next day they tried again and they got away.  It was raining hard but Woundwart was very well organized even after Kehaar came.  Thankfully they were still able to get away.  

   They are on the boat and are going swiftly down stream.  Thy can't get off because the current is too strong.  Thankfully they hit a bridge and stop.  They then all get off the boat and start heading back towards home.  They make it back to the warren with only two deaths, (Two does). 

   On their way back they had met captain Campien, who wanted to  kill them, but there were too many of them.  Blackavar said they should kill Campien, but Hazel didn't want to.  Campien went back and told General Woundwart who in turn went with some more rabbits to take over the warren.  They, Woundwort and company , started to dig down into the Honey comb.  Inside, the rabbits started to get nervous, so to keep them from going crazy, Bigwig gets them to help block up the burrows.  Hazel has an idea and goes to carry it out.  Finally Woundwart and several others get down into the burrows.  Bigwig and him fight and both are hurt but do not die.  
 
   Hazel's plan was to get the dog from the neighboring farm and have it chase the Efrafens.  This worked and most of them fled!  General Woundwart got away though, but thankfully was never seen again.  Some of the does had kittins and Bigwig started to make a Owsla with the youngsters.  Captain Campien and Hazel sint rabbits to make a new warren beteen Efrafa and Watership down, so neither warren got overcrowded.  Eventually Hazel died a peacefull death.

The End.

*Before I had a blog, I had a book where I put all my narrations so I have to copy this out of that book.  This story is also long and takes a while to type and fix the grammar, but I will finish eventually.