I'd like to talk with you.
I'm in the Mark and under your orders, sir.
Do you remember a pale grey rabbit called Holly you helped escape some while ago?
You've made a mistake, sir.
Listen, Hyzenthlay. Listen carefully. I'm from a warren where life is free. Where you can do is as you wish. I've come to bring you all out of Efrafa.
You might be a spy, sent by the Council.
You know I'm not. Will you join us? And persuade your friends as well, trust me. My friends are not far away.
[Voice is breaking]
My courage, my... spirit is so much less than it was.
We can escape Efrafa. Believe me.
EA El-ahrairah
Hazel... Hazel... you know me, don't you?
I don't know. [The apparition reveals himself to be El-ahrairah, and Hazel gasps] Yes, my lord. I know you.
EA El-ahrairah
I've come to ask if you'd like to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you'd like it. You've been feeling tired, haven't you? If you're ready, we might go along now. [Hazel looks at all the younger rabbits of Watership Down] You needn't worry about them. They'll be all right, and thousands like them. If you come along now, I'll show you what I mean.
[they believe Bigwig to be dead]
You pay for it! The food, the warren! But no one must ever ask where anyone was or speak of the wires! The whole placed is snared! Everywhere, every day!
Let's drive them out, take their warren and live there ourselves!
Yes! Yes! Yes, back to the warren!
Embleer Frith, you fools! That warren's nothing but a death hole! Yes, let's help ourselves to a roof of bones!
[waking up, still choking]
I'll kill them.
You were one of those on the riverbank. Did Bigwig send you?
I'm a friend of Bigwig's.
What was left unfinished on the riverbank will be finished now.
It would be better for both of us if we could come to terms.
Terms?... Very well. These are my terms. Hand over all the deserters immediately.
We couldn't agree to that. But I can suggest something better, for both of us--
[dangerous]
You're in no position to bargain.
We shouldn't be fighting each other. We have enough enemies as it is. Perhaps we should be together. A joining of free, independent warrens.
[considers this]
Ah, I have no time for this nonsense!
No. [to Hazel] You take back our terms. And you tell your chief, Bigwig, that if he and Hyzenthlay and the others aren't waiting outside when I come for them, I'll tear out every throat in the place!
I'll be frank with you. You're safe here. Well, get on with it!
Sir, several of us propose an expedition for...a new warren. Somewhere else.
A new warren?! Out of the question!
Oh, but you don't understand. The system is breaking down.
Some of us can't produce litters; we're overcrowded.
I want no further discussion about it!
We'll go as far as you like!
I... [she is approached threateningly by Captain Campion] Thank you, sir. [leaves]
Campion, have her watched.
Did you find anything on your flight?
Many rabbits. Too many rabbits.
H Holly
A lot of us wouldn't be enough to fight one of their wide patrols.
H Holly
[shows Bigwig the scar on his shoulder]
You see this? They did it to me. It's an identification mark. Tells you when you can be above ground.
What do you mean? Who's to stop you?
H Holly
Their Owsla. Their chief is called Woundwort. General Woundwort. I don't think even you'd match up to him, Bigwig. Under him are his captains, each one in charge of a Mark. If you're found above ground at the wrong time, they take you before the Council for punishment.
Some of them must get away.
H Holly
They caught one trying to run away when I was there. Blackavar was his name. When they'd finished with him, both his ears were ripped to shreds...worse than this one of mine. He was lucky not to have been killed. There was another one, a doe, Hyzenthlay. I couldn't have escaped without her help.
Why didn't she go with you?
H Holly
She wouldn't go without the others.
Then there are some that might be persuaded to leave?
H Holly
Oh, yes. But you'd never get them out of Efrafa.
H Holly
Only because Lord Frith sent one of his great messengers. [a flashback shows Holly running away from two Efrafans, the Efrafans are run over by a train and Holly rolls down a steep slope] I didn't see what happened to them. It must have cut them down.
Well, it's not going to be easy, but I'm afraid we don't have much choice. We'll start off as soon as I'm fit to travel.
H Holly
I don't like this idea of yours at all, Hazel.
Holly, I want you to stay here. You're known to them and it could be dangerous for you.
H Holly
I've been in Efrafa, and I tell you you're making a bad mistake that might very well get you all killed.
Lord Frith, I know you've looked after us well, and it's wrong to ask even more of you. But my people are in terrible danger, and so I would like to make a bargain with you. My life in return for theirs.
There is not a day or night when a mother doe does not offer her life for her kittens, or an honest captain of Owsla his life for his chief's. But there is no bargain. What is, is what must be.
