Eritopia

Reunion

'Not-Bear, I can't believe it, what are you doing here? Where have you been?' Bear babbled. The two of them hugged, as only a bear and a wolf can.

'All in good time,' the wolf said. 'Meanwhile there are others who would like to meet you.'

To Bear's delight, familiar creatures emerged from the shadows of a nearby tree. There was Anya, walking towards them with Calypso, who ran to him as to a long-lost friend. He hugged Bear's leg before vaulting up his body to sit on his shoulder. The deer nuzzled him with her wet snout.

'How are you, dear?' she asked softly, while Calypso chattered in his ear. 

Bear thought hard through the emotion. Was he still dreaming? He had dreams like that, when you believe until the last moment of sleep that reality has altered. Only in a dream would Not-Bear introduce his friends as if he knew them.

I know what you're thinking,' Not-Bear told him, 'but we met on the eve of the Battle. A rabbit introduced us.'

Anya whinnied. Calypso leapt up and down like a crazed thing.

'What happened to you, Anya?' Bear asked. 'I woke up and was talking to some horses. I thought that was a dream. Then all the animals came from the Inside and I couldn't find you.'

'They were coming all the time,' Anya said, 'but we never knew. We lost you in that terrible fog. I slept for ages, and only woke when a donkey started licking my eyes.'

'Ugh, a donkey,' Calypso chattered. 'Me too, or was it a mule?'' He jumped down, loping off to join other monkeys in the nearby trees. Then he appeared again, carrying wood in his arms, helped by some others. 'We are going to build fires,' he told them.

Anya continued. 'Some very nice squirrels brought us food,' she said, 'and then we joined–'

'Wait.' Bear held up a paw. 'Sorry to interrupt, but you need to start from the beginning.' He was still half expecting to wake up. Then he noticed another figure, some way back from his friends, a small man wearing a cloak. Not-Bear noticed his gaze and said, 'Bear, I would like you to meet my friend, Jod.'

'Delighted to meet you, at last,' Jod said, stepping forward. 'You have earned yourself quite a reputation here.'

Bear flushed beneath his fur.

'I met Jod in the Circle, after I hid from you,' Not-Bear told him.

'Where were you hiding?' Bear asked. 'I searched and searched.'

'Behind a fallen stone,' Not-Bear said. 'I heard you calling and it was hard, but I had to leave then. Do you understand?''

'Perhaps I do, now,' Bear said. 'But at the time...,' he paused. He remembered being less than happy. 'Is there anyone else with you?' he asked, peering into the gloom to see if he had missed anyone.

Calypso and Anya looked at each other.

'If you mean Van,' she said and shook her head, 'no-one has seen him.'

'There was talk of a fox fighting in the thick of the Battle, up front with the Riders,' Calypso said. 'But nothing after that,' and he hung his head as if in remembrance.

Bear knew he should have made it to the front sooner. He could have helped him, for what chance did an old four-legs have against those knives and cudgels?

Jod remembered something. 'I saw a fox,' he said as Bear looked to him eagerly. 'But that was this morning,' he added.

It was not what Bear wanted to hear, but he also knew that Van wouldn't want him to mope around. They were sitting in a circle now and the monkeys were busy lighting a fire. It burst into life as daylight faded. Bear began to tell of his return to the Inside from the Occasion, meeting Anya and Calypso. Not-Bear in turn told of Jod's home, the hyenas, his escape, and making it to the Outside. 'We met a hyena as well!' Bear exclaimed. 'On the edge of the Forest. Calypso snared him,' he added. 'He seemed to know of you, Not-Bear, which made me mad.' Yes, that time he had become very angry.

'He was following us up to the City,' Jod said, 'although who knows what happened to him.'

'Probably died of exhaustion,' Not-Bear said. 'He didn't seem that strong to me.'

'Have you been to the City then?' Bear wanted to know.

'Yes, straight in and straight out,' Jod said and the others laughed.

'We met the King,' Not-Bear told Bear, 'and someone else.' He looked around then, but could see no sign of Martin.

'It was a young man,' Jod said. 'I think he went off, following the Riders to the City.'

'Ah, yes, the Riders.' Bear wanted to know all about them, and their passion for Reed.

'I'll tell you what we know of them,' Not-Bear said, 'and of our own part in the Battle.' So, as dusk fell, friends old and new sat talking round the fire. Calypso rushed off every now and then to the trees to get some more wood. Not-Bear began to tell of their escape from the City.

'First of all, I will say that I was not happy going into that tunnel.' Not-Bear spoke grandly, as befitting the start of a story.

'Dog's breath,' Jod said. 'If anything, I was the one with doubts.'

'Humph,' said Not-Bear, and that imitation took Bear back to the earliest days of their adventure. 'Well,' the wolf continued, 'That isn't is true. But it turned out all right in the end.'

'Shouldn't we start even nearer to the beginning?' Jod said. 'After all, I don't know anything of those adventures. The journey to the Occasion, for example.'

Not-Bear thought about it. To tell all the separate stories would take a day, and then another day after that. Even then they would fall asleep before they'd got from the Forest to the Outside. His description of Jod's home alone might take up the whole evening.

'Let's start at the end,' Anya said, 'and work our way back. That way all the interesting things will come first. Or last, I think.' She stopped in careful consideration of the gibberish she had spoken.

'There is only one way,' Jod said, 'and that is to take a vote.'

'A vote?' the cry went up in unison.

'Yes,' Jod began once the questions had finished. 'We all decide which part of the story we would like to hear first.'

'The Battle,' Calypso cried.

'Shush,' Jod reprimanded him. 'I haven't finished.'

'Sorry,' Calypso said.

'Once we have voted, whichever subject has the most votes will be told first. Then we will vote on the next story.'

Bear thought hard about his choice. 'I want to hear about the Riders,' he said, without hesitation. 'But I want to hear of the City as well,' he added for the benefit of Not-Bear.

The events of the past days flew by in the wolf's mind. 'The Riders,' he decided.

Jod looked at each face in turn. He was not too bothered, being cold and quite tired. A vote was a vote, however, and he had initiated it after all. The Riders were his choice too.

'The City,' Anya said, because it fascinated her.

'Riders,' a few more cried and so it was decided. 

Not-Bear cleared his throat. 'As I was saying–'

'Hr, Hr, Hrumph!' There was a loud noise behind them, out of view of the circle of friends.

'Who is it?' Bear asked gruffly. He was fed up with all these interruptions.

A figure stepped into the light, or rather swayed, faltering, out of the gloom. There was a man to its left and a noble-looking badger on its right. Bear thought that joy would never leave his life again. It was Van, whom they had believed lost in the thick of the Battle.