Ready For Drowning

As Lotte padded off into the distance, Matt and Phump locked the office up. The two conies looked tired after their day frantically searching for Cola both inside the burrow and outside in the bright sun.

Matt rubbed a forearm across his forehead. "Drink?" He asked Phump.

"I could drown a battleship." Phump said as slowly as you've ever heard him talk.

"That won't be necessary." Matt said as they trotted off pub-wards. "Probably."

---*---

To get an idea that this is a few hours later we will start off with a shot of the clock on Cola's bedroom wall. It's a Peter Rabbit clock. From the look of attachments at the top and bottom it was a human child's watch at some stage. It's ticking round to nearly half past ten. Which, as we all know, is rather late for a rabbit that has been trying to swim a fast river all day.

Cola shrugged her dressing gown off and slid under the covers of her bed. She took a quick mouthful of water from her ever-present glass and reached under her bed for the Journals.

Mumble-mumble.

She stopped still. Her ears twitched up.

Mumble-mumble.

There was talking outside her door! Who was visiting at this hour? She slid carefully out of bed and back into her dressing gown. She tip-toed towards her front door. There were definitely voices outside but she couldn't make out what they were saying.

She took hold of the handle and yanked the door open to see her handyman Fudge talking closely with that ebony buck of magnificence, Gilchrist.

"Madame," Gilchrist said in his most ponderous of tones, the sort of ponderous tones that would tickle the heart of the iciest doe. "Madame, your servant here was telling me you had decided to call lights out for the night." His smooth bow was transformed into a kneeling motion and he looked up at her. "I apologise for making such noise as would wake you after the hard day you have had." He took her paw as if to kiss it.

"Its alright, sir Gilchrist, I was not yet asleep." She took her heart out and asked, "Would you join me for a quick glass of wine?" Cola nearly spat the words out. It wasn't betraying Gorden's memory - just asking a buck for a drink. It wasn't.

Gilchrist looked pained. Cola's stomach turned cartwheels and she tried to keep a straight face as he spoke. "Alas, my dear, I have such work ahead of me that I dare not tarry." He stood up straight and leant down to her ear, "However my very heart pounds fit to burst at the offer." He whispered. "But, mayhaps another day, say, when we could allow Fudge a night off to himself.." Cola's insides turned up and down.

She asked him in. The yet-unborn litter in her belly seemed to be staring up at her in dismay.

He'd refused.

But what a refusal!

"I must admit, sir Gilchrist, I feel quite tired." She stepped back into the bedroom.

"To another day!" Gilchrist said, punctuated with yet another flowery bow.

"Another day." Cola said shutting the door behind herself. She closed her eyes and pushed her back against the door. She wasn't going to cry! She wasn't!

She felt such attraction to that black buck and she'd actually been able to ask him in, for a drink! Her heart was pounding in her chest. She squeezed her eyes and strangely Gorden's face came to her. A flickering image of the young buck as when they first met, in her schoolroom with him waving his staff to impress the school-does, mixed in with her last view of his face, bloodied and misshapen from David's attack.

Her eyes watered and she held back a sob, whether for herself or Gorden or Gilchrist, she didn't know.

She dare not move, she held her composure by the thinnest of threads and it would be very easy to lose that composure.

She counted to ten. Before reaching "three" however she realised that she could hear footsteps outside her door. She immediately thought that it was just Gilchrist leaving, but she realised that there seemed two sets of footsteps! Fudge was leaving his post! He'd never done that before.

Fear crept in to mix with the other emotions spiralling around her, finally battering down her self-control. She slid down the door to sit on the ground. Tears streaming down her face, sobbing.

---*---

Cola woke with a start. She seemed rather uncomfortable and it took a while to realise why. She was still sitting by her front door. She had cried herself to sleep! Outside the door she could hear a gently snoring sound. Fudge was back! She felt stronger now. She felt safer now (not in the least part because she could hear Fudge's reassuring snores) so she, quietly, padded off to bed.

---*---

Knock! Knock!

Lotte was just finishing her bowl of soup and was surprised by the sound. She caught her bowl before it hit the ground and thanked Bugs that she had emptied it.

Knock! Knock!

"Just a minute!" She called and she tidied her place setting up. She smoothed herself down. She had an inkling of who would knock her up at this hour.

She tugged the door open with a smile on her face and was greeted with a huge smile back. "My Lady." Gilchrist said, bowing low. Lotte beckoned him inside.

"I hear you had a rather eventful day.." He said as he walked in.

---*---

"So you are going to make the attempt tomorrow?" Gilchrist asked over the top of a teacup. Lotte nodded. "It sounds rather dangerous to me." Gilchrist said with such concern that Lotte's heart skipped a beat, "You say that Cola tried all day long and couldn't find anything?"

"Cola's not as good a swimmer as I am." Lotte said, staring deep into the depths of Gilchrist's eyes. "The river is quite deep there and finding something that has been buried for over ten years could take some time."

"Isn't that part of the river home to some carp? Dangerous creature the carp."

Lotte shook her head, "I don't really know. It's where the Swans used to live. So we didn't go near that section as a rule."

Gilchrist finished his tea, he put the cup down and reached behind himself. His eyes widened. "Oh my!" He exclaimed, "I must apologise, I have not brought a bottle of wine"

Lotte started to say, "That's okay." But Gilchrist was up on his feet. "I'll be back in a few moments, my dearest." He smiled that knee-weakening smile at Lotte and she smiled back.

---*---

"I feel a-feared for you," Gilchrist said as he poured the wine. "I am not a swimmer myself, or I would offer to go in your place, but it seems a very dangerous thing." He placed a glass in front of Lotte, "and you say that don't even know what is in the treasure?"

Gilchrist sat opposite Lotte and raised his glass. She raised hers.

"To tomorrow. To Luck." He toasted. His eyes locked onto Lotte's as she lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip, then a deep swig of wine.

---*---

Morning. Cola sat at her desk. In front of her was a piece of paper with lines ruled and numbers written all over it. The figure at the bottom has a large, bold negative sign. She pushed the paper away from her and took a hold of her cup. She sipped some tea and looked up. It was nearly ten o'clock. She shook her head and padded over to the door, opening it a crack. Outside, framing the doorway were Matt and Fudge.

"Matt."

"Yes Miss."

"No sign of Phump or Lotte?"

"No Miss."

"Hellfire and Damnation." She said quietly to herself, then, louder, "Matt."

"Yes Miss."

"Would you mind visiting her burrow for me?"

"I'm not supposed to leave here, Miss."

"No, but Fudge would still be here.."

"I suppose so, Miss." Matt capitulated.

"Of course, M'Lady." Fudge added.

"Go on, Matt." Cola said, pushing him. "It's only ten minutes away. You'll be back in no time."

"Yes, Miss."

"Thank you, Matt." She said as he hightailed off.

As Matt disappeared around the corner, Gilchrist come into view, striding purposefully towards Cola. Her heart bounced around at the sight of him.

She stepped back into her office and Gilchrist followed her in.

"Fine morning, Madame!" he exclaimed as he shut the door behind himself.

"I'm none too sure about that." Cola said offering a seat to Gilchrist. He sat down and turned his head this way and that, looking around the room. "On your own this morning?" He asked.

"So it seems. Neither Lotte nor Phump have turned up for work yet."

"Strange," Gilchrist said, "However, I did bump into Lotte last night and she seemed on edge, as if she had something to do that she was frightened of..."

Cola closed her eyes. Maybe Lotte had not meant what she'd said yesterday and had just said it to stop Cola trying to get the treasure. Now that Cola could look back objectively at her swimming attempts yesterday they were quite scary.

"Oh Lotte. Where are you?" Cola said to herself. There was a sharp knock on the door. Cola stood up, "Thank Bu.." She was interrupted by the look on Matt's face as he popped his head in.

"Miss, there's a disturbance at the South Gate!"

Cola jumped up and headed for the door. Gilchrist picked his hat up and followed her out.

---*---

Cola reached the South Entrance to see a scene of utter chaos. Five monks were being pelted with eggs and tomatoes by a group of conies. Cola recognised some of the conies as workers from the Mashed-Potato fields. She recognised some of the monks too.

The conies were chanting: "Strike Breakers Out! Black-Legs Out!" Cola was expecting the next line to be "Black-Legs In" or "You shake it all about" when she was spotted by the conies.

"It's her!" One screamed and a tomato flew straight at her. Fudge got in the way and took the fruit face-on. It nearly knocked him out. The monks fared better. They were a miasma of limbs - their legs flying up and down and intercepting the missiles before they hit, they seemed to be dancing at the same time. The monks appeared to be defending themselves only. She could see from their skill at that task that they would make short work of the rabbits if they went on the offensive.

Gilchrist put a hand on her shoulder, "I'll deal with the conies." He said then strode off towards the protesters. Cola helped Fudge to his feet again in time for him to intercept an egg. He turned to her - his face sopping wet with raw egg. "Can we get about of this, M'Lady?" he asked through the mess.

"Let's get the Monks." She could see Gilchrist standing in front of the protesters, holding his arms out menacingly. He seemed to be making some headway as the barrage of projectiles diminished immediately. She rushed towards the nearest monk.

"Come with me." She said, then realised that she knew the form, "Come, on Curly." She beckoned at the five moles and took them into the burrow.

---*---

She handed up cups of tea to the monks herself. There was still no sign of Lotte and Matt wasn't back.

Curly seemed to be in charge, he carried a large rucksack.

"Thank you." He said as she handed him his cup, "I must admit we were surprised at this turn of events. When Larry visited last time Herbert was head buck."

"A lot has happened since then."

"The reason we came is because of Gorden's Quest"

Cola's eyes hit the floor.

"You don't know anything that happened?"

"Larry's visit was our last contact."

Cola's mouth tightened. "Herbert and Gorden were killed shortly after Larry was here."

"David." Curly said quietly.

Cola nodded but confused asked, "How did you know?"

"There was a vision. We could not be sure it's meaning, but we gave Gorden a note explaining what we thought it was."

"Oh." Cola said. "Gorden could barely read his own name."

Curly cast his eyes at the floor. "If we had known that..."

Cola's insides shook from side-to-side, her arms and front paws began to shake. "Hang on. You knew it was David? So we could have saved him?" she said, "You knew but didn't say?" Her rag was lost, "YOU BUNCH OF USELESS FUCKING IDIOTS!" She stepped towards Curly, still shouting, "HE WAS A RABBIT FOR BUGS SAKE! HE LEFT SCHOOL NEARLY BEFORE IT STARTED!" She closed her eyes and tears streamed down her face, "He couldn't read." She collapsed to the floor. "He could have asked me." She buried her head in her hands.

"We came because of his quest." Curly said quietly. "We knew he was looking for a golden carrot." He started fiddling with his backpack. "A week ago we uncovered something in our basements that seemed related." He lifted something heavy onto Cola's table, there was a tinkling noise as the Head Bucks own personal and private marbles rolled off the desk onto the floor. "We had always had a cockroach problem in our basement, but they are the lord's creatures too so we stayed our hands.

"Until Laurence has a vision. Oh lord, there's one" There was a crunching noise as Curly stepped on something. "Urgh! We cleansed the basement and found this half-buried at the bottom. It seems to be the brother of the carrot, in many ways."

Cola looked up. Her tear-drenched face went to her desk. Standing on the desk, about three inches high, shining in a glossy silvery-white was a metallic model of a pear.

"The Platinum Pear!" She breathed. Curly nodded.

"We thought you, or rather Gorden and Herbert, would have some idea what to do with it."

Cola made to get up, however as she pushed at the floor with her right hand she realised that it was over one of the marbles. She screamed in pain as the marble cracked under her pressure. Her paw felt wet for a second then pulsed. She picked it up off the floor quickly and shook it.

Pieces of a hollow marble flew around.

Hollow marble?

She looked at her hand. There was a small cut, but there seemed to be a large bruise already. As she watched the bruise softened and disappeared. A shiver raced up her spine. What was that?

Cola crawled to her desk and pushed herself up into the seat.

"What was that riot about?" She asked of the monks, her eyes were locked on her hand. She didn't dare look at the Pear.

"We truly don't know." Curly said, confused, "As soon as we got within distance of the warren a couple of rabbits came alongside us and started insulting us. When we reached the entrance we found nigh on twenty rabbits ready to throw abuse and other things at us.

"We defended ourselves as best as we were able. We wanted to find out what was going on before we decided to hurt anyone.

"If I may ask, who is the black coney who went to calm the crowd?"

"That was Gilchrist, he is one of my advisors."

"A dangerous looking rabbit. I just thought I'd seen him before, that's all."

"He used to live here, but has been travelling for the past couple of years."

"Maybe he visited the monastery then." Curly said, thoughtfully, "Those rabbits seemed to think we had black-legs. It seems strange that they should care about the colour of our appendages?"

"I think," Cola said, her mind starting to work again, "That they thought you were here for another reason."

Cola explained about the strike and the pay problem.

---*---

Lotte's eyes opened and she immediately shut them again. "Urrgh!" She groaned. "I must have had a really good time last night." She said quietly. She made an effort to get up. "Really good."

She tottered to the curtains and tugged them open.

"Oh Bugs." She said as she saw the clock. "I've overslept a little." The clock said that it was after midday.

She looked at the room and the empty bottle of wine and the glasses. "I wish Gilchrist had woken me when he left" She said to herself as she tried to get ready for work. She stopped. "I really can't remember anything about last night." She looked at the solitary empty bottle. "That must have been some wine!"

---*---

Lotte tottered out of her door and made her way towards work. As she reached the offices Gilchrist caught up with her. "Good afternoon young lady." He said, sprightly, "Are you alright?"

"Not really," She said, then she stopped. "I can't remember anything about last night."

Gilchrist looked shocked. "I remember every little detail. Every little moan and groan. Every little touch and kiss."

"Stop it!" Lotte said with a little tap on his arm. "Someone might hear."

Gilchrist smiled the smile. "We'll be alright." He started towards the offices, "You have missed some excitement already today."

---*---

Gilchrist was just finishing telling Lotte about the "disturbance" as they reached the office. Matt and Fudge were on duty outside. "She still inside with the Monks, Sir." Fudge said as they arrived. Matt knocked and opened the door.

Gilchrist stepped into the room and was halfway through his bow when he saw the Pear on the table.

"What is that?" He exclaimed. His eyes seemed like wide black plates, staring at the object.

"Gilchrist," Cola said, standing up from behind her desk, "Meet some representatives of the Order Of the Dancing Monk, this is Curly, Laurence, Maurice and.." She looked to Curly.

"And Oliver and Charles." Curly finished.

"And this," Cola said pointing at the object on her desk, "Is the not-so-fabled Platinum Pear." Cola scratched at her palm as she was talking.

Gilchrist was captivated by the Pear. "Magnificent!" He exclaimed as he stepped towards it. He held out his hands to almost touch it, as if he was feeling it's aura. "You owe me money, my dear Cola." He said, his eyes not wavering from the Pear. "I'll take this as payment of the loan in full."

Cola continued to scratch her hand. "I'll have to think about that, sir Gilchrist." She said slowly. "I'll have to think."

Cola turned to Lotte, "Firstly, where have you been? Secondly, have you seen Phump anywhere?"

Lotte came over, close to Cola.

"I'm sorry Cola. I had a little to drink last night and..."

"We'll talk once everyone has gone." Cola said quietly. Lotte nodded. She felt that she was told off already.

"Gilchrist," Cola said, turning to the black bunny, "Did you quiet the crowd?"

"Yes my dear," he said, his eyes kept flicking to the pear, "But I think it would be a good idea if the monks did not stay long."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because the crowd thought that the monks were here to take their place in the fields. They thought you had brought in an outside labour force."

Cola shook her head.

Curly stood up and motioned the other monks to their feet. "It seems that we outstayed our welcome even before we arrived." He picked his rucksack up. "The pear is yours to do with as you wish. We don't wish to have it back again." He seemed cold to her. She had shouted at him.

"Thank you. "She managed to say, standing up "You are welcome back at anytime."

"I fear we will be keeping our distance until you bring your warren under control." Curly said, not meeting her eyes.

The monks trooped out the door and Cola sat down, scratching at her forearm.

Cola looked at the Pear. This has to be the pear that Herbert had found on that space ship. What should she do with it.

"Oh Bugger." She said to herself, then, "Gilchrist, did you mean that about taking the Pear in payment?" He nodded. His eyes were drawn irresistibly to the pear. "Take it." She said. "Just take it."

Gilchrist wrapped his arms around the Pear. "Thank you my dear. It's what I've always wanted."

"Just keep it away from me." Cola said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Far away."

He nodded, "May I take your leave?" She waved at the door. He tottered out with the Pear. Before the door shut behind him Phump slid quietly into the room.

Cola glared at him in a "what-time-do-you-call-this" glare.

He looked at his feet. "'m sorry, Miss. I had a bit too much to drink last night."

Scratching her arm, Cola muttered to herself. "My entire staff a bunch of alcoholics!"

She looked up at Lotte. "We still don't have any money to pay the workers. You'll still have to dive for the treasure. Don't think you got out of that!"

"Cola, I'm sorry." Lotte said quietly.

"Sorry doesn't pay the bills." Cola said stonily. She looked from Phump to Lotte and back again. "The pair of you - off to the river. Go and find that treasure so maybe I can get a good night's sleep!"