Eritopia

'Met in a Circle'

They were sitting in yet another cave, having negotiated another tunnel between quarries. Map insisted it would be one of the last. Afterwards they would be back in the open and at the northern fringe of the Seven Hills. This information concentrated their minds on what lay ahead.

'What's a prophecy?' Not-Bear asked.

'It's a kind of poem, Jod said. He began to recite:

Two matched in size and form

Met in a Circle, round like the worm.

Two ends meet in a Cycle of change:

When one is coming, the other is going.

One dances, the other sings;

Two enemies become friends.

Not-Bear didn't understand it at all. 'Is there a tune to it?'

'No, it's a poem,' Jod said.

'I would have added a tune.'

'I've never heard that one,' Map interrupted, 'but I've heard others. Why do you think that concerns us?'

'It has been on the minds of the Elders for a long time.'

'It's very vague,' said Not-Bear.

'Cryptic, I would say,' said Map.

Not-Bear didn't know what that meant. 'Wouldn't it mention us by name? No mention of a wolf in that.'

'Or a man, or a fox, or a rabbit,' Jod continued. 'But here we all are, going on our merry way, to whatever fate holds for us.'

'A fox?' Not-Bear exclaimed. Mention of the fox confused him further.

'Never mind,' Jod said. 'You may mock tradition, but that is what brought you here.'

'I'm not mocking. I don't understand.'

'No.'

'Look, Jod,' the wolf said in his most exasperated tone, 'I came out here because I wanted to find something. Because....' He tried to frame it in his mind, '...there were no answers on the Inside.'

'To what?'

'My questions. I gave them to Bear, but he didn't have the answers. He didn't know them, that's clear. But I know it wasn't a poem that dragged me all this way. And I still haven't had my answers yet, from you, or the rabbit. Or the Outside.'

Map kept quiet and let them talk. He knew his role, which was to take them where they needed to go. The fact they didn't know where they were going, or why, amused him. But their mission was more important than their awareness of it.

'I didn't have to come here, myself,' Jod said. 'I'm tired of the constant walking anyway.'

'Why did you, then?' but Not-Bear knew the answer straight away. 'You believe the prophecy.'

'I don't need to believe it,' Jod replied, 'I don't even understand it. But there's been an element of our situation in it right from the start.'

'You mean the Circle? I recognised that. Tell it to me again.'

Jod repeated the lines:

Two matched in size and form,

Met in a Circle, round like the worm.

Two ends meet in a Cycle of change:

When one is coming, the other is going.

One dances, the other sings;

Two enemies become friends.

'We met in the Circle,' Jod added, finishing the verse.

'But we are hardly alike, what was it, "In shape and size"?'

'"Size and form." No, but you and the hyena are,' Jod said. 'And perhaps a fox.' Not-Bear grimaced. He remembered waking to the sight of a hairy muzzle topped with little red eyes staring into his in the Forest.

'I never met a hyena in the Circle. Or a fox.'

'Knowingly,' Map added. He couldn't help himself.

'Wolf,' Jod whispered, 'you want answers, I can't give them to you. All I know is, I felt compelled to help you, to come with you. Now we are here we have to keep going till the whole business comes to its conclusion.'

'But where are we going?'

'You decided that already,' Map squealed. 'To the End of the World.

'But I don't know what that is,' Not-Bear pleaded.

The rabbit shrugged his small shoulders. 'You'll find out soon enough.

'Not-Bear had another question. 'Why do you keep talking about a fox?'

'He's with your friend,' the rabbit told him.

'Bear?'

'The fox is looking after him, and keeping an eye on us as well.'

'Does he know about the hyena?'

'Certainly. He may have met the hyena already. You see, the fox has the help of many creatures at his disposal.'

'Can they help us too?' Not-Bear asked.

Jod looked at Map. 'They already are,' he said.

'But...' Not-Bear continued, until Jod held up a hand. Not-Bear looked across at the rabbit, seeking an ally. 'Can you help?'

Map shook his head. He wasn't interested. He had his orders, and he would execute them to the best of his ability. What they were, and where they came from, he thought it best not to say.