Post 10 ; Chapters 43-45

Woundwort with his sentries

Chapter 43: The Great Patrol

At this point, the story goes backwards a little to show how Woundwort reacted to Hazel and the group's escape. He felt that the reputation of his authority has taken a huge dent, and was obsessed with finding the group. After their escape, he assigned patrols out to the area where they had run into the fox before. Eventually the patrols found out where the Honeycomb warren was, and that's when he was going to go to the warren until Hazel showed up and offered a peace agreement between the two sides. Part of the agreement included making a warren between Honeycomb and Efrafa with rabbits from each side living in it. Woundwort likes the idea at first, but realizes that he is a dominant leader of his warren, and balks at the idea. He then tells Hazel to go back and return all the does they took, or else he will kill him as well as the rest of the bucks.

Chapter 44: A Message from El-ahrairah

Woundwort and his sentries begin their assault on the Honeycomb warren. He orders two sentries to dig out the holes blocking entrances. The sentries are worried that Keharr may attack them again, but Woundwort insists he is not nearby. Inside the warren, a sentry is mauled by Blackavar and left injured, and Woundwort realizes that they have to dig through the warren from the top. Meanwhile, Fiver screams as he becomes lost in another trance; he talks about a dog running freely outside. Hazel realizes that there was a dog back at the farm, so he tells Blackberry and Dandelion to come with him to go back to the farm.

Fiver becomes lost in a trance

Chapter 45: Nuthanger Farm Again

Outside the Honeycomb warren, Woundwort and his sentries hear Fiver's unearthly scream. They become frightened and think there may be something else down there with them. They stop digging, and tell a story about a great bird who once turned into a rod of lightning. Woundwort is barely able to keep the sentries on the job. Meanwhile, Campion spots the three rabbits running away, but Woundwort tells him to let them go. He also tells the sentries to keep digging. Meanwhile, Hazel and the others reach the farm and spot the dog leashed to a pole. They take turns gnawing the rope and looking out for other predators until Dandelion stamps the ground to warn Hazel that the cat is nearby. The cat pounces at Hazel, startling the dog, and breaks free from the leash, chasing Dandelion. Unfortunately, the cat has captured Hazel.

Hazel is captured by the cat

Questions/Comments

It was interesting to find out that Woundwort at first liked Hazel's idea of having a warren between Honeycomb and Efrafa. In theory, it would have been; a warren mixed with rabbits from both warrens would have created a bond between the two sides and possibly no violence. Instead, it looks like there will be a huge fight in the bear future. To me, it's a shame that they couldn't come to terms with each other.

I wonder why Woundwort's sentries got frightened when Fiver screamed? If I were them, I wouldn't have thought there was something else inside the warren. I would have thought the scream was because of the digging outside by the sentries. I can't think of anything that could have been underground to scare Fiver like that.

Woundwort telling Campion to let the three rabbits go was interesting to me. From Campion's perspective, they were clearly up to something suspicious but it was weird to see Woundwort let them go so passively. Woundwort must be confident with his abilities and his sentries to win the battle.

I think that letting the dog free is a huge risk for the group; it isn't fighting for either side and could even go for the Honeycomb rabbits. They must think that it would go for Woundwort out of everyone since he looks the most fierce and dangerous.