Even as Fleg descended into the dark tunnel, away to the east Bear and his companions were struggling.
The land lay flat and open, damp and yielding under paw and hoof. Small streams and rivulets crossed the landscape. Ponds fringed with reeds formed where they met. Water rails chattered, while the occasional heron rose into the air as they passed.
They walked in silence. Anya carried the monkey, who clung to her back. Bear stayed ahead with Van, picking a path through the soggy pastures. They waded knee deep into pools and ditches masked by reeds and swamp loosestrife. It was slow, cold progress. Bear's fur was wet and matted and his feet were numb with the damp. The wind was keen, with no warmth to dry them.
'You're not helping,' he heard heard Anya say to the monkey behind them. 'I can't keep my balance with you shifting about.'
'It's you that's the problem, I can't sit upright on a wobbly back.'
Bear looked at Van, who showed no reaction. Bear slowed down.
'I'll carry you for a while,' he said to the monkey.
Calypso transferred himself, then goaded Anya as they walked.
'Much better up here,' he said.
He sat with his legs either side of Bear's neck, holding on to Bear's ears.
'Much better for me too,' said Anya.
Bear put up with twisted ears for the sake of the deer. She seemed to be struggling the most, and had fallen behind.
'Keep up, dear,' Calypso kept saying. For all his taunting Bear sensed he cared for her.
To add to their discomfort, as the afternoon went on a mist started to rise from the ground and swirl around them. It shrouded the sun but in any case the day was fading fast. They would need to find somewhere to spend their first night on the Outside.
'Van?' Bear shouted ahead to their leader. 'Are we stopping?'
'He wants to go on for ever,' Calypso said from his perch.
Bear worried about Anya. She was slipping further behind, while Van strode on ahead. Bear looked back, and Anya picked up her pace for the duration of his glance.
'I'm coming,' she said, but a few minutes later she dropped behind again.
'Van!,' Bear shouted. Van stopped. They came up to him and waited for Anya.
'I know,' said the fox. 'I know.'
'Very well, but what are we going to do?' Bear was scared, he didn't mind admitting it.
'I've been watching some crows for a while,' Van told him. 'They are heading for their evening roost. It will be on solid ground, some way ahead but we should get there before dark.'
'Good thinking, Van,' said Calypso. He looked down to Anya. 'How does that sound, dear? Firmer ground for the night, and I'll give you a massage.'
Anya smiled.
'Well, if you are sure,' Bear said to Van.
'Nothing is sure,' Van replied.
Bear looked at the ground. Calypso tweaked his ears.
'I know crows,' he said. 'Van is right, firmer ground it will be.'
'And a massage?' said Anya.
'Oh yes,' said the monkey.
***
There is a prophecy,' Jod was saying. 'It concerns the ending of this Cycle, and the beginning of the new one. I think it is relevant to our situation.'
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.