Warren Delta | Activities | Do Not Post

[EchoVoyd]

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Warren Delta


Writing Thread for Activities.
Warren Thread Here

[EchoVoyd]

First Digging - Lilith-rah
A harsh scraping sound filled Lilith-Rah’s ears, threatening to drown out any other noise around her as she dug deep in the tunnel. The stifling heat of summer was still felt, even in the depths of the tunnel she was digging, one of the farthest from the surface in the entire warren. She dug in silence, mind wandering from one thought to the next, her digging speed varied as she bounced from thought to thought. She grew frustrated with her lack of concentration, slapping the bottom of the tunnel beneath her. She stood in silence for a few minutes, gathering strength and concentration, removing every trace of frustration from her mind.

She sighed, turning back to the surface she was digging. The scraping growing more rhythmic as she dug and a small tune escaping from her lips. A sense of calm settled in her, the tune gaining in volume as she continued digging. It was familiar and friendly, a last memory of the simpler times of the past. A small smile placed itself on her face, her digging speeding up, paced to the tune of the old song. Her small, fluffy body soon began to wiggle with the music, her humming bouncing off the walls and filling the tunnel with music as she dug.

Just as she began to start the tune again and sing the words as well, she came upon an old, familiar blockage stood in her path. The deep scars in the ancient wood of the fallen tree, the tree that both trapped and saved her warren. She glared at it, trying with all her might to just make it go away. Not only did it bring terrible memories, it was also just an annoyance. It blocked their passage to the larger warren on the other side, forcing them to dig under or around in order to link the two. The warren needed more space, more tunnels and the abandoned tunnels on the other side of the tree could help the warren so much. She glared again, pooling all her glaring experience and might into one, terrifying glare. The tree did not move, because trees are not affected by glares, no matter how powerful. They are trees. And this dead one is doubly immune, dead creatures and plants are also unaffected by any form of glare.

She grumbled but started digging the path under the pesky tree, going slowly and carefully to avoid the walls collapsing. She packed any gaps tight with the dirt she cleared from the path, occasionally glaring up at the wooden pest above her. It didn’t move, it just stayed there, as if it was smug in its victory. Lilith-Rah was no longer motivated by happiness or friendship, she was powered only by hatred and a need to prove to this stupid tree that she was better than it, that she could do more than destroy. She scratched a long trail across the trunk as she dug under it, a vicious grin passing over her face. She had beaten the stupid tree, now it was finally time to open the first tunnel into the larger warren.

[EchoVoyd]

Second Digging - Jeremy and Bracken
The gentle sounds of the mid spring morning were overshadowed by the hard work of Jeremy and Bracken. The two rabbits were redigging and patching a collapsed bedroom chamber, it was tough work but the two were half way done with their task. Each worked from a different side, digging inwards to the centre before heading back out to the edge, zigzagging across the chamber and removing the dirt and mud that had filled it. Along with the normal sounds of digging, quiet grumbling was coming from Bracken, the only one of the pair who protested being volunteered for it.

Bracken paused, turning to where Jeremy was digging, “Why did you volunteer for this anyway? And why did you volunteer me of all people?” He grumped onwards with his digging, not exactly expecting a response from the other rabbit. Rather unsurprisingly given her love of talking, Jeremy gave an answer, “Why not? We all need to help out around here and someone was using this chamber to sleep in. I bet they’d like it back.” She shrugged, not having paused in her digging until then but the interruption was brief and the pair dug in silence once more, carefully scraping away at the collapsed walls.

Bracken attempted to accept the answer his digging partner, despite the fact that Jeremy’s answer didn’t fit in any way, shape or form with his opinion on the mattered. He continued digging in a rather concerned silence, trying not to let the gnawing sense of confusion distract him from his task. Jeremy was right in one sense, this chamber was used by someone and they would want it back. At least, he didn’t want to have to share with anyone if it came to it. It was probably for the best they got it done now, he was sure it was a miracle the rabbits who lived here weren’t squished.

The issue of Jeremy’s answer wouldn’t leave Bracken’s mind, it bugged him more than he’d like to admit. A few more minutes of silence passed before he gave into the urge to ask the question, “Jeremy, why do you want to dig? Us bucks shouldn’t have to! Digging is a doe’s job.” There was a rather large silence between the two of them, even the digging had stopped. Jeremy poked her head round to stare at the buck on the other side of the chamber. “But… Bracken.. I am a doe. I thought you knew,” she replied, her voice was laced with confusion. How had someone gone so long without realising that she was, in fact, a doe?

Bracken began digging again, mostly out of the need for something familiar and comforting. How is Jeremy a doe? He could not comprehend how this was possible, it shattered everything he thought he knew about the doe he was digging with. A small whimper of confusion escaped him, his brain was overloading. He looked ready to cry. Everything was too hard to understand, too confusing, he just wanted it to go back to normal.

[EchoVoyd]

First Gathering - Lilith-Rah, Jeremy and Bracken
A cooling spring breeze drifted over the hill of Warren Delta, a rather spread out trio of rabbits hopped slowly across the surface of the hill. In a roughly triangular pattern, they scoured the ground around them, looking for any edible plant to take back to their warren. Out in front of the other two was Lilith-Rah, who was mostly concerned with watching for any elil who wanted to try their luck for a tasty snack. The two behind her, Jeremy and Bracken, seemed to be trying to avoid each other. Or rather, Bracken was trying to avoid Jeremy. After previous revelations about Jeremy being a doe, Bracken was still rather confused about the whole thing and decided staying away from the cause of his concern would be a good idea. Jeremy, however, kept trying to hop closer to the buck, concerned about what was wrong and so, the pair zigzagged across the hill in an orderly looking fashion that was, in fact, them not talking about their problems.

As the trio continued, Jeremy and Bracken’s zigzagging grew more frequent. It was filled with concern, confusion and general annoyance. The weather was rather peaceful, songbirds chattering and singing, the sun shining and barely any clouds in the sky. Frith knows that today would be perfect to spend outside with friends and family having fun. But despite all that, Jeremy and Bracken were still not talking to each other, even the normally talkative doe was quite silent as she got on with her task, pulling up what she could find from the grass beneath her. She tried not to pay too much attention to Bracken, after all, he wasn’t talking to her so what could she say to him? Bracken himself was caught up in twisting and turning thoughts of confusion, his gathering was mostly done automatically and his brain tried to fight itself over what to do. He cried internally, the confusion was overwhelming. He just wanted it to stop.

As time continued, a need to talk to Jeremy rose within Bracken. In his infinite wisdom, he attempted to shove it aside and ignore it, deciding to deal with it later. It gnawed at him, the need to know more about this strange doe was almost irresistible. The chattering of the birds grew louder in Bracken’s ears, almost seeming to be laughing at him, though he hoped it was just his imagination and went back to mindlessly picking plants. Soon, Jeremy paused, looking right at Bracken with a question on the tip of her tongue. Bracken paused in his task, staring right back at Jeremy.

“What? What is it?” The rabbit shaped grump ball asked. “Well, you haven’t said a word this entire time, not even to Lilith-Rah! This isn’t like you, you’re normally grumbling about something. Are you okay?” Jeremy’s face was filled with friendly concern as she stared directly into the soul of the grump named Bracken. “Oh… Yeah, I just wanted to ask you a question… Where’re you from?” He tried to smile, but Jeremy’s stare made him feel rather uncomfortable. Her eyes bore into his soul for a few more moments before her face broke out into a friendly smile, “Oh! Me and Janet came from a hutch pretty young. Janet mainly kept me alive on the journey here, I owe him a lot.” Bracken nodded with a more relaxed smile.

It took a little while before what she said really sunk in. He stood in the same spot for a few moments. FIrst, a doe named Jeremy and now a buck named Janet? Oh no… A small whimper threatened to escape before he was saved by a sentence uttered from the mouth of the warden, “Come on, you two! We don’t have all day!” The pair hopped quickly after their leader, gathering up what they could as they went.

[EchoVoyd]

First Healing - Bracken
The gentle steps of Bracken’s three good legs were rather quiet when compared to the loud clomping and dragging noises made by his rather injured one. He grumbled at the useless thing, a slightly stained trail marking his path through the quiet tunnels of the warren. It was already quite late in the night, most of the warren were fast asleep and only a handful of Guardians were still wandering around awake. The injured leg was a bother to Bracken, having gained the injury during a rather confusing and concerning gathering trip with his friend Jeremy and the Warden. Of course, the two of them immediately asked if he was fine and in his endless knowledge and wisdom, he said he was. He, in fact, was definitely not alright. He’d managed to scrape his hind leg on a rather pointy and splintery stick that was laying conveniently where he fell. But, in the interest of not having his stupidity spread around the warren and to keep his honour as a rather talented liar, he needed to deal with this himself.

A short hop away was the whisperer’s chamber, rarely used by the whisperer herself due to the rather eerie feeling it had. Filled with the crushing feeling of death and hopelessness, of futures untold and ended too soon. Of bad omens and murder. The whisperer’s chamber was the least favourite place of any rabbit in the warren and anyone who did happen to like it was either a whisperer or crazy. Still, Bracken the idiot needed something to reduce the pain and maybe start to heal his injury of clumsiness so here he was, at the gaping mouth of the most uncomfortable place in the warren.

He slipped inside, his pelt shivering before his last leg had even crossed the threshold. His fear and distrust almost made him turn around but unfortunately for them, his stubbornness was much, much stronger and was powered by his need to not have his friends worried about him. He scurried over to the pile of herbs the whisperer kept, careful to not disturb anything he came across, barely touching the floor where he could. Eventually reaching the pile, he quickly dug out what he needed and reassembled the pile back to how it was, roughly. He turned to slip out of the warren and there, in front of him, was his worst nightmare. The one thing he wanted to avoid, the worst possible outcome for this mission. He stared at it for what felt like an eternity before two words slipped from his mouth, two words that made the nightmare real, “...Hi, Jeremy…”

The doe across from him had a rather strange expression, quite similar to a disappointed mother face mixed with betrayal. “Bracken I thought you said you were okay!” Jeremy cried, probably waking up the nearby chambers but right now that wasn’t the first thing on either of their minds. Jeremy ran and hugged the dumb buck, crying quietly into his fur. “You’re an idiot, Bracken. Let me help sort that for you, okay?” Brack nodded in silence and let his friend do what she needed.

[EchoVoyd]

First Hunting - Jeremy and Bracken
The late autumn wind was bitterly cold against the two rabbits’ skin, clawing and biting through their fur, scraping against their skin. Making them shiver for as long as it could. The late autumn wind was not kind or friendly or soft or gentle, it was powered by the coming winter and spite, wishing to bring the warren’s continued survival to an end as quick as it could. That was the whole purpose for its existence, yet it was far too great a reason for the pair of rabbits, rather lacking in intelligence for their age, on the hillside below.

Jeremy shivered, the soggy leaves on the floor only flipping up and down at the winds onslaught. Any earlier in the season and they’d have whacked her in the face by now, so that was a positive part of the otherwise rather negative outing. While there was still no frost or snow, Jeremy and Bracken were tasked with finding more patches of tasty plants for the warren to store for the coming season of frozen death. While it wasn’t a nice task at any point, it was time he got to spend with her best friend. The one rabbit who actually puts up with her other than Janet.

Off in the distance, much further down the hill, was a lush patch of grass and shrubs, almost begging to be picked by their rabbit teeth, they looked so delicious even this far away. Jeremy started heading towards them, with little care for the world around her. All she wanted was the deliciousness, the freshness of those gorgeous looking plants. She sped up, aiming like an arrow towards the patch of food. Drool dripping from her mouth at the thought of eating it and of the praise she’d get for finding such a good patch. Her thought was interrupted by the terrified squeaky scream of Bracken behind her.

She stopped, almost mid hop and whirled around in annoyance. “What? What’s wrong?!” She was rather concerned by his behaviour, it was out of the ordinary for him to make such a sound, despite the fact his sound library was very extensive for such a creature. Bracken was stood quite a distance up the hill, shaking so much even Jeremy could see it from her decent distance away. She approached him again, “Bracken? What’s up? You haven’t hurt yourself again have you?” All that was in her voice was concern, the annoyance of earlier long forgotten and replaced with concern for her friend.

Bracken pointed at the forest edge, which was actually rather close to the patch Jeremy spotted. “Th-that’s where the elil live… You could die if you go there…” He whimpered slightly as he spoke, the fear dripping from his voice. Jeremy gave the frightened rabbit a hug, trying to reassure him it’d be okay. She nuzzled and supported him until he calmed down. “Look, why don’t we just try, okay? We’ll run like lightning if we sense any trouble,” Jeremy said, slightly more nervous about the idea than she was earlier. Bracken nodded and the two shivering bunnies hopped ever closer to their prize, fear still adding to their shivers.

[EchoVoyd]

First Patrolling - Jeremy and Bracken
“I can’t believe Lilith-Rah wants to make us Guardians! I mean, look at us, we’re barely nobody let alone Guardian material!” Bracken chuckled, the pair were hopping slowly along the mid-hill patrol route, a rather uneventful route on most days and the one used to train new Guardians for their job. Jeremy nodded along, truly enjoying the mid spring air and the idea that she may eventually be someone truly important in the warren. It never occurred to her and her silly human given name that she may eventually become someone special - become someone even her family back home would look up to, even if they had no idea what it meant. She was beaming, the world was so perfect this day. She had friends, she was respected and liked, she was loved by someone she loved back. She grinned at Bracken, truly pleased with this day and the brilliant realisations it brought with it. She was so, so ha-

The floor collapsed around her. Swallowing her whole, she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t scream, she was trapped. Dirt was sucked into her mouth, it filled every crevice in her body, she was trapped. Her breathing sped up, or what counted as breathing under the circumstances. Dirt pushed to head deeper down her throat, choking her. From the clumps in her ears, the shouts of Bracken seemed so very, very far away. She was going to die. She was going to die with such potential left in her life, today was an awful, horrible day of death and disaster. She closed her eyes, trying to accept what fate would come for her. She could barely breathe, she was choking on dirt. Whatever help could come would come too late by this point. She sighed internally, rather peaceful with the whole mess. Death was coming and she accepted it with open arms.

A dazzle of light swarmed her closed eyelids, almost forcing her to open them, but as soon as it appeared, it was gone. Shadow claimed what light was there once more. Perhaps more dirt had fallen in. Just as more thoughts crowded into her mind, a strange feeling grabbed her neck and she felt herself being pulled. She struggled, unsure whether she was going up or down, whether it was friend or elil. Fear gripped her once more. If she had any air left she’d have screamed. Her eyes closed tighter, scrunching together in the hopes that whatever gripped her would give up and go away.

A strange mumble came from around her neck, presumably from what gripped her. It had a rather familiar, calming voice, one that made her stop struggling. One that made her open her eyes. Above her she saw the miraculous sight of a familiar pelt, her best friend in the world had not run when she fell. He had stopped, he had dug. He had saved her. She was freed from the dirt and dropped on the ground, coughing up trapped dirt from inside her. She gave Bracken a weak smile as he chuckled and said, “I’m glad you’re alright, come on, we better tell Lilith-Rah what happened and get you some rest.”

[EchoVoyd]

Third Digging - Jeremy and Bracken
Jeremy and Bracken were back at it again, clearing another collapsed part of the warren. This time, both were rather on board with the idea and were working swiftly as a team, mostly because of their part in the collapse of the tunnel. This was the same tunnel Jeremy fell into just recently, staying uncleared because no one else wanted to do it and Lilith-Rah decided it was the perfect way for them to fix their mistake, plus most of the warren enjoyed listening for what crazy things happened between them which usually spread quite quickly once another member of the warren gets their hands on it.

The pair dug in relative silence, a few quiet tunes being hummed as they worked but most were quiet enough to be drowned out by the scraping on the dirt. They worked side by side at roughly the same speed, though Bracken was ever so slightly ahead. There was no competition between the two in the dark tunnel, they worked in sync and the only difference being the amount of dirt one could clear at once. They were the perfect digging pair and Bracken was seemingly enjoying it, despite his views on the subject of bucks digging. Everything was calm and efficient in the tunnel.

Or it was, Bracken was starting to get agitated. Something was gnawing at his mind, something rather important to him and perhaps his and Jeremy’s friendship. If he was alone and not busy digging, he’d be pacing whatever room he was in and probably grumbling. As it was, he was trying very hard to keep it undetected by his friend next to him until he could find a more appropriate time and place to say what he wanted. He didn’t realise, but this attempt at hiding what he wanted to say had made him tense up a fair bit which was rather noticeable to his friend next to him. The complete opposite of what he wanted.

Jeremy paused briefly, looking over for any indication for why her friend had tensed so much for seemingly no reason. It was such a brief pause, Bracken barely noticed it. But he still noticed it. His heart sank, he knew what was coming. The question he was dreading, the que- “What’s up, Bracken?” That question. He stumbled for words, was there any chance he could get out of this? No, there wasn’t, was there? Jeremy was persistent if nothing else. “Uh… Um.. Well…” He sputtered, trying to find a decent way to phrase it. There was none to be found, his heart sank further, down to his paws. As if it was hiding from the pain and embarrassment waiting for him when he next spoke.

“I.. Jeremy.. I, um, I kind of like you? A lot? LIke a lot a lot?” He smiled sheepishly, oh Frith what was she going to say? It was all going wrong, this was not how it was meant to happen. To his surprise, Jeremy started laughing. He started to have hope that maybe, just maybe it was going to be alright. The shock at her reaction was spread across his face, written across even the smallest corner. Jeremy noticed and stopped laughing. Rather abruptly, “Oh, Frith, you were serious? Bracken, I’m sorry, but I’m already with Janet.” His heart plummeted out of his body, he nodded mutely and went back to digging.

[EchoVoyd]

Second Healing - Jeremy
A loud scream echoed through the warren’s tunnels. It sounded like the tortured cry of a young kit and someone may blame the echo of the tunnel for distorting it to that point. However, that was not the case. The scream kept its distinctive sound even through the echo and sounded exactly the same as when it started. It started in one of the least alarming places it could, the Whisperer’s chamber, the least liked or trusted place in the warren. Many injured rabbits went there for treatment so it was no surprise that there was screaming. Unfortunately for the ears of the warren’s rabbits, the Whisperer was not the one in charge of this healing, instead they had let a rather well known trio loose inside their chamber to try and heal one of them unsupervised. So far, it was going about as well as anyone could have ever expected it to go with three untrained rabbits in charge of all the herbs.

At the origin of the scream was Jeremy, the doe had Janet and Bracken stood over her, staring intently at her injured foreleg. Jeremy herself was whimpering a sniffing, gingerly holding her foreleg up and barely moving it. She was barely looking at it, though to anyone else in the room, the injury wasn’t too severe. All the fuss was about a splinter, a rather tiny one that most other rabbits of the warren wouldn’t have thought too much about. Jeremy was making it a rather big deal, so big that anyone could have thought she’d badly broken that leg.

Janet and Bracken were whispering to each other, trying to decide the best course of action to remove the splinter without having the guardians set on them for torturing someone. There were a few head shakes and sighs, the problem seemed to be much larger than either of them anticipated. Actually, how could you anticipate how much of a cry baby your best friend could be? Especially over something so tiny. The two of them had already complained over how much of a fuss she was making and there as little else left to be said on that matter now.

Bracken grinned and eagerly whispered an idea to Janet, nodding over to Jeremy. Janet shared the same grin when Bracken quieted and shifted into a position behind Jeremy’s head, Bracken positioning himself beside the injured leg. Jeremy had not seen or heard the two of them move, she was still whimpering and sniffling with her eyes tightly closed. There were a few moments of this, both Janet and Bracken mentally preparing themselves for what was to come while Jeremy was still oblivious to it. Bracken nodded to Janet, “On three. One, two.. THREE!” Janet clamped his paws round Jeremy’s mouth, muffling her screams while Bracken bent and yanked the splinter from her leg. Once the splinter was free, he wrapped the tiny wound for Jeremy and nodded for Janet to let go. Once freed from Janet’s grasp, Jeremy was rather annoyed. “What was that for?!” She yelled, huffing at the two of them. Both Bracken and Janet shrugged. “Well you wouldn’t let us do it any other way,” Bracken replied, Janet nodding in agreement. Jeremy just huffed and smoothed her ruffled fur.

[EchoVoyd]

Second Gathering - Jeremy and Bracken
The air was rather still for the season, the awkwardness between the two gathering rabbits staying rather close to them as they hopped across the hill. There were a few attempts at talking made by both parties, yet all died before they reached the open air. Each glanced at the other yet not when the other was also looking in their direction. They weren’t separated like their last gathering mission yet there was still a severe lack of communication that could solve their problems, as usual. The outing was a rather useless attempt by Lilith-Rah to get them to be friends again after she and the rest of the warren noticed them severely avoiding each other. Everyone decided this was the best solution, everyone being Lilith-Rah and people within earshot oh her screaming, and so, it was executed. They would do things together and only together until they talked or killed each other. Whichever came first. And hopefully the first option.

While everyone stupidly pinned their hopes on this outing, Jeremy and Bracken were still not talking. While there had been slightly more successful attempts at communication, they mostly died at the first syllable if the two were lucky. They were mostly content with just picking their plants to take back to the warren. In silence. Though anyone with half a brain could tell they wanted to talk, they just either couldn’t find the words or genuinely thought not talking was actually the better idea. Sure it avoided an argument. For now. Though the future still held onto it in its argument bank.

Eventually, they both stopped and stared right at each other. Each waiting for the other to speak. There were picked plants all around them and each knew they had to hurry before they were too inedible. But still, they stared at each other, each with a sentence on the tip of their tongue. The first to speak was Jeremy, “What’s up Brac-” Who was half interrupted by Bracken, who’d chosen to speak almost immediately afterwards, “I’m sorry about befo-” Bracken stopped almost as soon as he realised he’d interrupted Jeremy. Both apologised at the exact same time before falling back into an uncomfortable silence. It took a rather long time before Bracken finally had the courage to speak again, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you had Janet. I’m an idiot, sorry.” He smiled nervously, hoping she wouldn’t be too mad. To his surprise, she grinned, “It’s perfectly okay, Bracken! I’m sorry I reacted so poorly, I hope it doesn’t ruin anything.”

Bracken grinned back, shaking his head. He nodded towards the pile of plants they’d gathered. “I guess we better get on with this, then,” he chuckled. Jeremy laughed and gathered her plants up, bouncing onwards towards more plants to collect for eating and healing. Bracken soon followed after her, almost at a run to keep up with his speedy friend. They were friends again, much to the relief of everyone else in the warren. Having such happy rabbits not happy was bad for the morale of the warren overall. Plus, everyone wanted Bracken and Jeremy to be the best friends they could.