Giving Way to the Light

Chapter Twenty

"A Wanderer?" Bunny asked, shuffling nervously from one foot to the other. "As in, The Wanderer?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I only know that there's a Wanderer. Like I said, I can't tell the difference between them just from sensing them."

"So we should start searching for him, right?" Frank said. "Just in case?"

I nodded in confirmation. "Yes, but we can't all go on this wild goose chase. Someone needs to go look after Christopher Robin, and the sun will be out before too much longer, so the Draculas should probably go back to the castle. You can keep an eye out for trouble there." Mavis looked like she was about to object, and insist on helping us search, but the Count held her back.

"You know we won't be much help if the sun burns us Honey-Fangs," he said. She hesitated, before agreeing grudgingly, and in little puffs of purple smoke, they were bats, taking off into the night. Mini Bat, as Jack F. had apparently named her, screeched in delight and took off after them.

"Sandy, Phil, and I vill take Reindeer back to Pole and check on Christopher," North said. "I must let Reindeer rest, Sandy can keep any of Christopher's nightmares away, and Phil.... He needs a shower, dah?"

I nodded. "Right. Tell Christopher Robin that I'll be there as soon as I can, alright? We'll meet up again after this Wanderer is taken care of. If it's not the wanderer we're looking for, we'll start re-planning from there." He nodded in understanding, and after a brief goodbye, started down the trail back towards the castle.

"As for the rest of us," I said, turning to everyone that was left. "We'll have to split up to search more ground. This is the center point; everyone will move out from this point, traveling in different directions, for no more than a mile. Try to cover as much ground as you can, and if the sun rises, and you haven't seen anything or heard from anyone, come back to this spot. Please try not to get lost; the more time we spend looking for you, the less time we spend looking for the Wanderer."

"Sir, yes sir," Jack F. snarked good naturedly with a mock salute my way. Everyone was already moving away, and it wasn't until Jack had said something that I realized how bossy I must have sounded.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Nah, he didn' mean it like that," Bunny said as he passed by. "Someone needs to take charge, an' yur the most qualified out've all of us. Jackie's jus' bein' a git"

"I'm not being a git," Jack F. pretended to whine. "You're being a git."

"Rack off, yah bloody show pony."

"Make me Kangaroo."

"Twit."

"Stick-in-the-Mud."

"Snowflake."

"Cotton Tail."

"Frosty."

"I am not a snowman!"

Their amiable bickering faded as they both headed in the direction they were going to search before spitting off to search their designated area. I smiled fondly after them before I realized what I was doing— and then I remembered what had transpired earlier, and I had to resist a shudder.

These people were being a bad... er... good influence on me.

I unfurled my wings, and took to the sky, flying low and scanning the forest from above, heading southwest. The further I went, the more frayed my nerves felt, and I knew I was on the right track. Still, I couldn't see hide nor hair of the Wanderer. All there was to look at were trees, bushes, ferns, the occasional brook or stream and— there!