Eritopia

Alive and Well

Not-Bear stared out into darkness. The sound of a nearby stream cascading over rocks reminded him where he was.

Out in the open. Free from the constraints of that terrible tunnel.

He was trying to place it all in time, trying to remember what happened. He looked down at his claws - the hairs around them were burnt. He put them in his mouth and started to clean them.

'We were lucky,' a voice at his side spoke. It was Jod.

Not-Bear struggled up. 'Are we alive?' he stuttered.

'Alive? Of course!'

For a moment Not-Bear had imagined this to be the after-life the animals often spoke about. The place where the dead meet to discuss their journey from life.

'And the others?'

'Alive too.' Jod rested a hand on Not-Bear's back. 'Relax, it's over. You did well. Although for a while there I thought you might not reach the end.'

'I don't remember much. How did we get here?'

'You passed out. Martin dragged you through the flames and he and Beetle carried you the rest of the way. It wasn't too far, as it turned out.'

'Where are they now?' Not-Bear wanted to thank them.

'Ah.' Jod moved off and beckoned Not-Bear to follow. 'There's something you need to see.'

He led the wolf around an outcrop. Not-Bear discovered they were on the side of a mountain, which towered behind them, silhouetted against the sky. Then he smelt something he had smelt before, but this time the scent was much stronger. They turned around the rocks, and he remembered what it was. A few dozen pairs of eyes blinked and winked in front of him. 

Rabbits, lots of them, with one in particular very familiar.

'Oh, thank Reed you are all right!' Map squealed and hopped up to him. A few rabbits followed behind.

Map!' Not-Bear exclaimed, 'How did you get here? Not by that awful river I hope. And what are all these rabbits doing here?'

'We were waiting when you came out of the tunnel. Down there where the stream joins the Great Green River.'

'But how did you find us?'

Map hopped from one foot to the other. 'Oh, that was easy. Finding things is my strong point.'

There were rabbits everywhere, climbing over the rocks or playing together. Then Beetle appeared, with Martin behind him, carrying three of them in his arms.

'Ah, good to see you, Wolf,' Martin said. 'Found these three sliding off a boulder at the back there.' He put the rabbits on the ground.

'But I still don't understand,' Not-Bear said, as the rescued rabbits scurried to join the others.

'There's going to be another battle,' said one of the smaller rabbits, less timid than the others. He came right up to Not-Bear. 'To match that of the One War. The greatest battle we've ever seen,' he said and started hopping.

Map explained, 'This is my nephew, Talin. He's a bit excitable.' To the rabbit he said, 'And you've never seen a battle anyway, Talin. You're far too young.'

'But I will, I will,' Talin said, still cavorting.

Talk of a battle brought Not-Bear's mind back to the present reality. 'We can't fight a battle with only rabbits to help us,' he said.

'Don't worry about us,' Talin responded. ' We could do a pretty good job of it.'

'Hear, hear,' shouted another rabbit voice from the back of the crowd. 'But never mind, you've arrived in perfect time.'

'For what?' asked Not-Bear.

'To see the Riders, of course.'

Since he had woken Not-Bear had been aware of a distant rumbling. He was happy to dismiss it as something happening in the heart of the mountain. But now he sensed it coming from below, and he could feel it too, a quavering of the rock under his feet. They were halfway up the pass, and the peaks of the Crystal Mountains were visible behind them, summits capped in snow. Pine forests held onto the slopes until they gave way to a blanket of white. Then he saw the reason for the noise. A liquid line of black horses was pouring out of the pass beneath them.

Surging along, dirt rising in a storm around their flying hooves, each was ridden by a dark-clad horseman. They plunged past in a manic gallop, an arrowhead of horses and riders, charging on to some purpose on the plain. As they watched, Not-Bear fancied he saw a strange thing and rubbed his eyes to clear them. At the head of the dark tide, the leader seemed to acknowledge them with a wave of an outstretched arm. Or was he spurring his horse on? Then Not-Bear thought he saw something else, sitting astride the neck of the leading horse.

They all stood and watched as the horde flowed past, disappearing through a gap in the foothills. Leaving only an echo of their presence behind as the drumming hooves faded into the distance.

'There must be hundreds of them!' Martin exclaimed. The rabbits were running around and tumbling off rocks into each other. Jod and Not-Bear looked at each other. Beetle sat on the ground shaking his head. Martin stood next to him.

'Are we ready, to move off?' he asked. 'And you, Jod? You look tired.'

'There are worse things,' Jod replied, as he wrapped his cloak around him.

They followed the Riders out of the pass. The light grew stronger as they left the hills behind them, and they were soon on open ground. After a while, they stopped in a small wood on the edge of the plain. The rabbits went off in a huddle, as rabbits do. Martin sat with Beetle and Jod, discussing what they had been through. Not-Bear was thinking about what he had seen perched on the leading horse, in front of its black rider. He concluded his tired eyes must have deceived him.

Why would the Riders be giving a lift to an old, grey fox?