Cavin had long since lost his sense of direction. The ground kept rushing up to meet him, uneven, moist and rocky, the somehow familiar turf of the forest. His face was burning with fever and his breath whistled in his own ears.
He didn't know how he had gotten so bad so fast. In fact, he couldn't remember much of anything. It was now dark in the forest and threatening noises told him that he had to get somewhere safe, quickly. He just didn't know where to go.
He knew that he didn't start out in this position, that somehow, somewhere, something bad had happened to him. The daylight was long gone and he headed in a direction that a long-ingrained memory led him, unconsciously.
He was ill, that much was clear. Dangerously so, in fact. His thoughts were mottled and his pain-racked body moved forward with difficulty. It was only the boy's tenacity and strong spirit that allowed him to continue on at all.
He had to reach someone, a friend. Bright colors, not humans but, something else swam in his thoughts but he could not comprehend it. Then, another, even older mental picture. Long blond hair and blue eyes, a slight figure laughing, face alit with intelligence, kindness and hidden strength. He knew this person, knew her very well and unrecognizable feelings accompanied his thoughts of her.
His body followed where his tortured mind told it to go. By dawn, the rocky path gave way to a rutted road with cleared fields on both sides. The sunlight was no blessing, however. A cold wind cut through the boy and he could barely draw each breath in.
Thankfully, a thin line of smoke curled up into the sky, very close to him and a horses' whinny sounded out as the beast caught Cavin's unfamiliar scent. He could no longer register any of it, unfortunately, and finally collapsed, shaking and wheezing.
"Boy, hey, you boy!!" A rough voice called out, but Cavin was beyond hearing it.
Calla stood on the edge of her bed, she had lost track of the time. Her tired eyes saw dawn's rosy glow coming in from the window but she felt nothing from its beauty.
She couldn't remember another time when she'd been so exhausted. Usually it was from something pleasant, like a ball or chatting with the Gummies and sneaking back into the castle late at night. These happy memories brought stinging tears to her eyes and she savagely wiped them away.
They were useless, she had learned that long ago but that didn't stop them from coming. Her father was still out, since he had promised her he would come right to her with news when he returned, if there was any.
She knew that her father was taking a great risk, leaving the castle at night with several of his best knights, including a tense Sir Tuxford. She hadn't suggested it, no one had. The king had organized a search on his.
Cavin, a boy who lived in the castle and whose grandfather was one of her father's oldest friends, had been missing for three days.
Cavin often went out exploring on his own, most boys dreaming of knighthood and adventure did. Cavin was more sensible than most, however, and always returned to the castle, or Gummi Glen, at night. For three days and nights, no one had seen hide nor hair of him.
The Gummi's had searched Castle Drekmore, out of sight of the ogres who resided there of course, with no news. That frightened all of them, especially Calla. Igthorn wasn't stupid and his frequent attempts to get at her might have turned into something else, a less obvious target to lure the royals out of their castle walls.
He was just one boy, but not to her, or to their mutual friends, or to her father. Calla stopped trying to wipe away tears and let them slide down her face. She was too tired to ask herself why she was crying, she had already imagined everything possible, her mind torturing her as she sat and waited for some news. Quiet, steady Cavin who always listened to her, trusted her and was one of the only ones, human at least, who she could be herself with.
She bent over and put her face in her pillow, but she was quiet. So tired, but she still didn't rest.
"Calla?" A familiar whisper sounded from a far wall, making her jump. "Sorry!" Sunni's yellow-furred face peeked out, shadows under her usually bright eyes. Sunni backed away into the hidden tunnel when she saw the tear streaks on Calla's face.
"It's all right." Calla whispered back, beckoning to her friend. Sunni approached cautiously, nervous about the charged tension in the air. It was the same back in her home, Gummi Glen. Everyone was walking on eggshells and Grammi's cooking had been worse than usual, which was saying something. One thing was on everybody's mind.
"Any news?" Calla didn't waste any time and Sunni immediately knew what she was talking about. The yellow bear swallowed painfully. "No, Gruffi thought he found some tracks, but they didn't lead anywhere."
Calla nodded and turned her head to look out the window. Her hair was loose from its braid, framing her tired, pale face. "Calla? Have you slept at all?"
"Calla?!"
"What?" the princess seemed in a daze when she finally answered her friend. "What did you say?"
Sunni hopped up onto her friend's bed and looped an arm around the human's own. The two sat there for some time as daylight stretched farther into the room.
Neither knew how long they had sat there when a sudden pounding on the door caused both to yelp.
"Princess Calla? Princess Calla! I have news for you, your father said to come to you if anything was found concerning the lost paige. Princess, I'm sorry for dis-is there someone in there with you?" The voice went from respectful to suspicious.
"Hide, quick!!" Calla whispered frantically but Sunni was well-prepared. Her friend was halfway out of the room before turning and mouthing, 'tell me if you find out anything'.
Calla nodded once and the Gummi Bear was gone, the tunnel sealing shut after her.
"Enter." She said in her most regal voice. A skinny messenger Calla barely recognized crept in, eyes darting back and forth. "Excuse me? What, exactly, are you looking for?"
Though shorter than the man, Calla scowled and folded her arms defiantly and he backed off when he saw Calla's fierce expression.
"The page, my lady," the messenger's voice softened. "A farmer found him north of here."
"Cavin?!" A surge of joy went through Calla, he was all right, he was…
"My lady…"
Calla felt a trembling deep inside of her at the man's expression but she didn't let it show.
"What, I- what's happened?" Her voice dropped with her stomach.
"Perhaps, princess, you should see for yourself."
Cavin was trapped in a hellish place he couldn't escape from. It was the heat, mainly, the terrible heat that was cooking him alive.
He didn't consider himself weak, he had been through enough pain and fear to temper his way into knighthood easily. A broken leg that he had set himself before he came to Dunwyn. A tooth pulled out that turned out to be the wrong one that needed it. He'd had a light case of measles and various other ailments to be expected from his station and way of life. He'd pulled through all of them.
The Gummis were horrified at what they saw as 'barbaric' human practices for the sick when he'd told them some of his experiences. Gummis? Cavin searched for an image to accompany the thought, but the flames were licking at him and he gave up, moaning as tremor after painful tremor shook his body apart.
He barely noticed, and sadly didn't understand when a soft, cool hand took his own and clasped it. The hand was shaking almost as badly as himself. Then, he was lost to everything except his own torment.
"They found him like this?" Calla's voice shook and she cursed herself for it. She needed control, poise, she needed to be a leader because someday she would be queen. But…there was no training to prepare for this.
Cavin was lying on a bed in a spare bedroom that Calla had instructed the men carrying him to place him in. They were going to just throw him on a straw cot and let it at that. Calla had threatened them with expulsion from the castle, then brought her father's name into it. They'd finally left her alone and two of Gregor's knights entered, both of whom knew Cavin and were concerned.
"According to the freeman, princess, he'd collapsed right on the ground. Nothing could rouse him. The farmer reasoned he'd come from the forest. I would reason the same, judging from the state of his clothes."
Clothes, yes. "Please bring some fresh ones and have the servants draw up a bath."
"Are you sure that is wise, my lady?" Frederick, the second knight, plain with sandy hair and buck teeth but gentle eyes finally spoke up. "His health is already fragile."
Owen of Largess, the first knight whom Calla didn't know and truthfully, didn't care for too well, spoke again. "He is but a page my lady, let the young ones downstairs attend to this."
Calla didn't dignify this with an answer, she took Cavin's thin, dirty hand in her own and stroked it. It was so hot, calloused from his work but hot and dry. The skin looked shiny, as it did on his face. His hair was filthy and matted and there was dried blood around his nose, ears and lips. It stood out starkly against his white pallor.
His breathing was an urgent whistle and he kept arching his back and moaning, sometimes clenching his teeth. This told Calla he was in pain, terrible pain since Cavin did not complain even under awful duress. It sent a lance of another kind of pain straight through her.
"This is beneath you." Calla ignored the snobbish Own and put her other hand on Cavin's head, hoping for some kind of response.
"Cavin?" She said softly. "Cavin, oh, Cavin what happened to you?" Her voice almost broke and Frederick made to comfort her but stopped short, feeling inappropriate.
"Please leave us, and fetch the physician. Why hasn't he been summoned yet?!!." There, anger. Anger was better, it cleared her mind and let her retain some control.
"He was summoned when the boy was first found, my lady." Frederick said quietly. "He was with a young woman who had lost her child but promised to be of service shortly."
"Oh." Calla felt deflated and saddened. "Then, do as I said and have the servants fetch a bath until, until my father-"
"The bath is already drawn. Thank you for your services, you may return to training."
The two knights bowed in the presence of the king and left quickly, Frederick looking at the young page sadly.
"Father!" Calla stood up quickly and dropped Cavin's hand, almost feeling as though she'd been doing something wrong.
The King said nothing however, he merely went over and stood next to Cavin. Calla started when she saw her father's face, looking drawn and, old.
Gregor gently laid a large hand on the boy's forehead and winced at the heat coming from it. "Tuxford will not like this. I need to give him plenty of mead and several days off, in case." The king's face saddened at his own musings.
"Oh my boy, this is only a step better than my worst fears." The King sighed deeply and shook his head. "The servants will bath Cavin and attend to him until the barber arrives." He said over his shoulder. "You need to rest."
"Father, I won-"
"Leave it be, Calla." Gregor didn't sound angry but his voice held command that even a princess responded to.
"What's wrong with him?" Calla asked, relieved that she didn't have to be strong in front of her father. She could act as she felt, frightened.
"A slight fever, perhaps an infection. The phsycian can say for certain."
"A slight fever?!!" Calla gasped out, incredulous. Did her father not see Cavin lying there?
"I don't know what's wrong, dear." Gregor said, finally turning to face her. "But whatever it is, Cavin's a strong boy. He'll be fine in a few days."
Calla didn't reply, she only looked back at Cavin and felt her heart pounding in her ears. She knew her father and it scared her because he didn't believe his own words.
"Out, now. For a little while."
Calla left quickly, her bottom lip trembling.
"They just found him out there, lying down?" Cubbi's young, raspy voice was becoming shrill. He had taken Cavin's disappearance very hard, the two were extremely close.
Calla thought about Sunni and what it would do to her if something happened to the yellow Gummi. She shivered, that was a terrible thought, but it wasn't the same. She was confused and frightened.
Grammi, ever observant, patted her knee. "Are you all right, sweetie?"
Calla started to say yes but stopped, and shook her head instead. "You didn't see him."
Cubbi gasped and tried to dash out of the main hall where they had all gathered around Calla to hear the news. Calla had wished it was better.
Gruffi stopped the youngest Gummi however, and held him in a light hug, while still talking to Zummi. Gruffi, as usual, was all business, but Calla knew that he had slept even less then she had, out searching day and night for the missing human boy.
"What's going to happen?'' Sunni asked, her own voice becoming shrill. "Hush, dear, Gregor will know what to do. He's seen battle after all, and much worse I'm sure."
Grammi tenderly patted Calla's cheek before the princess stood up.
"I, I have to go. He'll, I need to…" All of the Gummis stopped and looked at her, sympathy mixed with sadness in their furry faces.
"Oh honey." Grammi sniffled and took out a flowered handkerchief, blowing her nose slightly.
"I'll check my garden, maybe there's something there, to help, y'know, him to get stronger." Tummi spoke up in his slow, cheerful voice.
"As long as he doesn't get as 'strong' as you." Gruffi snapped, but his eyes twinkled at the large, blue Gummi and Tummi chuckled in reply.
"Princess." Zummi guided her to the door, even though she knew the way and patted her hand. "I've been checking the book."
"Book?" Calla's thoughts wandered. "Oh, right!" There could be only one book Zummi spoke so reverently about.
"Yes, that one." Zummi gave her a half-smile. "I'll keep checking, but I'm a cightly sonerned, er..slightly concerned."
"About what?"
"Well, Cavin's disappearance, then these symptoms, well…it's a large book you see, easy to forget where you've read what, but there's something familiar about this."
"Familiar how, Zummi?" Calla felt a tightening in her stomach.
"Don't borrow trouble princess, it might just be an old gummi's scattered late-night readings coming back to haunt him."
"But?"
"I'm still looking. Just, watch him and remember what we talked about, eh?" Zummi winked at her but even his kind, forgetful old face couldn't ease her fears. As for remembering anything they'd talked about, lack of sleep and fear had driven nearly everything from her mind.
And she didn't understand why.
Calla returned to a horror show.
Cavin, bathed and looking somewhat better, though still terribly ill, lay unconscious in the bed where she'd left him.
To her surprise, her father was also there, sitting in a chair nearby watching the phsycian intently.
Her father was a busy man, always, but here he was. Calla felt something stir inside of her. She didn't think, really, of how her father thought of Cavin. Usually it was the same courteous concern he showed for all of his subjects, but nothing more.
This went beyond that. This was…
Calla's thoughts were scattered by what she was looking at. There were several long, black things on Cavin's face and arms and one arm was over a bowl with…blood?!!
"What do you think you're doing to him!!" Calla screamed, lunging at Cavin and putting herself between him and the so-called doctor.
"Calla!" Gregor said sternly but his daughter ignored him.
"I know what I'm doing, your highness, the boy's blood is obviously contaminated and is poisoning him. We need to drain some out." The barbar's voice was scornful, especially when he spoke her title.
"You're killing him, that's what you're doing! He needs his blood, he'll die if you keep doing this!"
"Calla, enough!"
"No!!" Calla shouted back at her father. "Get those hideous things off of him, NOW!"
"Young lady, I have practiced medicine for years and I studied at all of the fine Universities on the Continent. I assure you that this is for the best now, I say, stop that!!"
Calla was pulling the leeches off of her friend frantically, while ripping off a piece of her dress to wrap around Cavin's bleeding elbow. She accidentally knocked over the bowl of blood that rested on the white sheets.
Blood bloomed everywhere, stopping even Calla's tirade as it soaked the linens under Cavin. He didn't stir at all during the commotion.
"Calla, stop immediately!"
"No!!" Calla shouted back, but her voice broke and so did she. "I don't care what stupid universities he's studied under, this is wrong! Cavin needs his blood, every last drop and he needs something other than what this, man is doing to him!" Tears began streaming down her face and her breath was hitching.
Slowly, carefully, her father came forward.
She backed up until she bumped into the closed door. "It will kill him, please father, please don't do this to me."
Him, I meant don't do this to him Calla shook her head, dazed.
Gregor gently took his daughter's shoulders, seeing her on the brink of hysterics and sat her down on the chair he had occupied.
"I don't doubt your wisdom Calla, but why do you suddenly think that you know better than this man as you said?"
"Excellent question your majesty, why, the impudence.."
"I wasn't speaking to you, and get those nasty things away from here. Always hated leeches myself."
The barber turned red in the face but didn't dare disobey the king.
"I, I-can't say Papa." Gregor raised an eyebrow. Calla almost never called him that anymore.
How could she tell him that it was from a mythological bear who could read and perform spell and had shown her and Cavin the right but mostly wrong methods of modern human medicine? The Great Book had diagrams and long lists of herbs for…
Herbs Something clicked in Calla's mind but slipped away before she could close in on it. Zummi's voice echoed in her thoughts, 'remember what we talked about.'
That could be any number of things. But she still couldn't give away her secret, as though it would be believed anyway. Cavin would defend her and back up her story, if he could.
More tears slipped down. What had happened to him? Why was he gone so long and why didn't he wake up to tell her it would be fine? Funny, sensible Cavin. Always dependable. Always kind. Someday he would be a great knight.
Unless…NO, no unless. That was not a possibility. She missed him terribly and she needed him. Maybe, there was something else too, something that was too old and deep to give a name to right now.
"Calla?"
"I promised, father. Please, it's hurting him."
Gregor's brows knitted in concern and he stood up. He looked at her for a long time and nodded once. "Your services, unless they extend to other healing methods, are no longer needed."
"You mean you believe this rubbish! Why, what kind of kingdom is this when-"
"Hold" Gregor's voice was no longer that of a benevolent father but of the king. "That is my daughter you are referring to, her royal highness and this boy's life is not worth your ego. He is like a son to me and you can take your unbalanced methods and leave. See my treasurer for your payment."
That was enough for the barber who left without a second glance.
"Well my dear, I hope you have