The Home of Lord Frith

[Azerane]

This is a very short piece of fan-fiction which I wrote back in 2007. It's a story of Rabscuttle and El-ahrairah but with a connection to the rabbits of the down.
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It is said that El-ahrairah is not one rabbit alone, but is in fact every rabbit who has ever walked the earth. And the stories told about him and his closest friend, Rabscuttle, are stories from warrens far and wide. This is one such tale.

Why El-ahrairah had brought them here, Rabscuttle did not know, but they had spent all day searching for a burrow that seemed just like any other, and now he was peering curiously into the sandy opening, his nose twitching repeatedly. Behind him, outside the burrow, El-ahrairah danced impatiently on his hind feet as he watched Rabscuttle's cottony tail bob about the entrance to the tunnel.

"Oh do hurry up Rabscuttle, Lord Frith will rise and my winter coat will drop before you are done sniffing about that hole" El-ahrairah stated with agitation. Shuffling back, Rabscuttle sat down and flicked out his forepaws, licking them thouroughly before running them over his nose.

"Well, it is a rabbit burrow, and though I'm not entirely sure what you wanted me to look for, there was something different." Rabscuttle reported as El-ahrairah crouched next to him.

"Different. What do you mean? In what way?" El-ahrairah asked, his eyes brightening.

"Well," said Rabscuttle, "there was a river"

"A river!" Exclaimed El-ahrairah, "what in Frith are you on about? A river in a burrow." He questioned, hopping about Rabscuttle in circles before pausing. "Then again, you may just have a point." he stated with a flash of his tail. "Come on Rabscuttle, you can clean yourself after we've gone swimming." El-ahrairah said plainly before hopping down the entrace to the burrow.

"Swimming?" Cried Rabscuttle, "why would you want to go swimming?" He asked as he followed El-ahrairah into the burrow.

In the dimness of the burrow, El-ahrairah made his way to the end of the tunnel and paused, sitting up on his hindlegs as he reached a large open area where sure enough, there was a river. It was not large, more a small stream, but it cut through the burrow, dividing it in almost equal halves. As Rabscuttle entered the burrow, El-ahrairah was sniffing along the bank, first upstream and then down.

"There is a smell I do not know." Said El-ahrairah, "it acts like water and it looks like water, yet it smells different" Rabscuttle hopped up beside him and peered over the stream to smell deeply before drawing back in confusion.

"You are right, but is it safe"

"I'm sure it's safe," El-ahrairah said. "See here." He said as he dipped his front paws into the water before drawing them back again and flicking the water off them. "Come on then Rabscuttle, what are you waiting for?" El-ahrairah called as he dived into the water, letting the flow of the stream take him, kicking with his powerful hindlegs to keep afloat.

As El-ahrairah's form dissapered with the stream, Rabscuttle thumped the ground with a hindfoot, unsure of the strange water. He hesitated before following El-ahrairah. As the water began to seep through his fur from head to tail, Rabscuttle struggled to stay afloat, his fur heavy. As he drew in a breath, the taste of the water shocked him as he accidently swallowed some.

It wasn't long before Rabscuttle found himself being urged to stand up quickly from the bank of the stream. As he shook the water out of his fur he turned to see El-ahrairah sitting on the edge of the world.

"Frith and Inle! Where are we?" He exclaimed.

"I was never sure it existed, but I was told of a vast blue lake, made of salt and sky, and here it is, we found it." El-ahrairah said with wonder. As Rabscuttle sat, he saw that what he initially thought was all sky, was infact a vast endless lake. A lake the same colour as the sky, and reaching halfway up it.

"This stream," stated El-ahrairah, indicating with a paw, "falls off this ledge here and down to the lake. The salt, that's what we tasted, is in this water for some reason. But listen Rabscuttle, it is said that Lord Frith himself bathes in this water when the day comes to an end, and he emerges from it each morning, refreshed and shining brighter than the evening of the day before"

"But how did you know where to look?" Rabscuttle questioned curiously. El-ahrairah gazed at his friend with smile.

"A great white bird told me." He said, before settling down to watch Frith set in the evening sky.

[Blackavar]

I love it! In fact the tales of El Ahrairah were come of my favourite parts in the book, and this was just like one of them. Thanks for sharing!

[Azerane]

Thanks so much. The tales are some of my favourite aspects of the book too so it was a lot of fun to write. Much appreciated

[Tima]

Nice, I really liked how you did things here :)

One minor thing I disliked a little bit about Watership Down's ending was the story that Vilthuril told to her litter. I mean, it was a really cool thing to find out that stories about El-Ahrairah are actually based on adventures of some long-gone rabbits, and I'm happy that Hazel's legacy will live on in rabbit lore, too. But the thing that bothered me about the story was that it was very blunt and vague, distorting some of the best adventures of Hazel's gang pretty far away from what they had been. Of course, if Vilthuril had actually told the whole story with detail, it would have been way too long. There was a real need to summarize and just get to the point. Besides, Vilthuril joined the group very late; maybe someone who had been there to witness everything from the beginning (like Dandelion) could've told the whole stuff with more detail, and some better storyteller than Vilthuril could "canonize" it into a story about El-ahrairah's and Rabscuttle's quest to find a new burrow.

Aaaanyways, my point is that I think I liked better your take on this stuff than Vilthuril's story! Your story had similar summarizing and rearranging of plot elements as Vilthuril's, but I feel it was handled way better. Wonder if there are more of these kinds of Hazel&Fiver/El-ahrairah&Rabscuttle fanfics; I've never before actually read or looked up Watership Down fanfics.

[Azerane]

Thank you so much. I have always loved the tale of El-ahrairah. I'm not sure how much WD fics there are out there either, I've never really looked them up. There is a lot to explore though. Since you mentioned Vilthuril's version of their adventures, it has intrigued me to perhaps make my own translation of the story into an adventure of El-ahrairah's. Although I imagine it would have to be several stories. It has been so long since I had written anything though. I think that perhaps her version was vague because to tell the whole tale would be very long, and including all the details it wouldn't be concise, however the sense of adventure would still be there.

I agree with you and imagine that Dandelion would certainly tell it as a very fine tale. Perhaps Vilthuril had adapted from Dandelion's version of the story.