Chapter one: Sleepless night

Zummi could hardly sleep that night. It had been two days since Igthorn's defeat, and his mind was racing with images of the last night in Gummi Glen. The memories were of beams collapsing everywhere, of running through the dust to find a safe place to hide, and of his friends' yells of shock and horror. If only he had not dropped his guard the other night…

Moving all their supplies to Ursalia was going to be a long and hard chore. They had spent the first day in Ursalia recovering from their ordeals, and then returned to the Glen to prepare for the move. Since the journey was almost a day in itself in the quick cars, the Gummies had decided to camp in a tent for the night and get to work bright and early in the morning. If Grammi had had her way, Zummi would have stayed in Ursalia recovering from the injuries he had received from Duke Igthorn's attack. But Zummi would not hear of it. It was his fault, after all, that they had lost their home; at least he should help his friends as much as possible.

Finally giving up on catching some sleep, Zummi put on his hat and glasses and sat up in his sleeping bag, looking around. A beam of moonlight shined through a small opening in their tent, illuminating his friends' silhouettes. They seemed to be fast asleep, exhausted by the day's journey. But one sleeping bag was empty. Zummi squinted a little through the darkness, trying to discover who was missing. Then it came to him: Gusto was not there. Normally Zummi would not worry about this, since Gusto always had a habit of wandering off when, as he'd say, "inspiration had struck," but they were in the middle of the forest in a very exposed location, and it did not feel right to Zummi to let a friend wander off by himself. As quietly as he could, the elderly bear stole out of the tent and looked around. If he did not find Gusto soon, he would have to tell Gruffi, something Zummi wanted to avoid. Giving Gruffi something to worry about was nasty business even at the best of times. Luckily, it was not long before Zummi had found the young artist. Gusto was sitting on a nearby rock, with a lantern by his side, and seemed to be sketching something. Zummi approached him cautiously, not wanting to break his concentration or startle him.

"Gusto?" he whispered softly.

Gusto looked up. "Hey, Zummerino. Whatchya doing up?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Ah, you know me. I gotta work when the inspiration hits," Gusto answered with a somewhat guilty smile.

"I know," Zummi sighed. "But it's roo tisky, uh too risky to wander off by yourself at night. I know your old enough, but we're out in the open."

Gusto looked back at his sketch and sighed sadly. "I'm sorry, Zummi. But a lot has happened lately, and… well, this is just how I deal with it, you know? With my art. Besides, I wasn't all alone out here, Artie's with me."

Zummi glanced at a nearby tree, and sure enough, there was Artie, perched on a low branch, sound asleep. How the toucan put up with Gusto's "nightly inspiration whims" was a mystery to all the other Gummies.

The older bear sat down beside the young artist, glancing at the sketchbook. His eyes widened a little. "That's Gummi Glen."

"Yeah," Gusto replied. "I drew it from memory."

"It's really good."

Gusto smiled at him. "Thanks."

Zummi was silent for a minute. "Does it really help? Your art? I mean…" He struggled to find the right words. It was never easy for him to let the younger Gummies know he was in pain.

Gusto seemed to understand, though. He put down his pencil and gently touched Zummi's shoulder. "Yeah, it does, Zummers. It really does. I noticed it when I was alone on the island. Before Artie became my friend, my art was the only thing that kept me going." His throat tightened a bit. Gusto quickly grabbed his pencil again and resumed his work. Zummi took this to meaning he should leave, but didn't want Gusto to stay unsupervised. He decided to back off a little so he could keep an eye on Gusto from a distance, but as he started to move away, Gusto turned his attention back to him.

"You never told me why you couldn't sleep tonight."

"I.. uh…" Zummi swallowed hard, staring at his feet. "I'm a little nervous… I guess. I haven't seen the Glen since…"

Gusto gave him a pitying look. "We already told you no one's blaming you, Zum. If Iggy hadn't planted that termite on you, it would have just been someone else. He obviously planned it for months."

"I know, it's just… I shouldn't have given in to that temptation."

"Temptation?"

Zummi sighed heavily. "I wanted to meet the Great Gummies more than anything, and I knew I didn't have much time… I'm not young anymore, and if they don't come back soon, I know I'll never meet them. I guess that's why I let myself believe it was safe too easily."

Gusto was a little taken aback by this. He knew all the Gummies wanted to meet their distant relatives across the ocean, but he never thought of how this was a matter of urgency for Zummi. When the Gummies had taken him in after Gruffi and Tummi had found him on the island, Gusto had always thought of his friend as bears that would always be around. He should have known better after all he had been through, but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind when they came. He quickly cast around for something comforting to say.

"But you will meet the Great Gummies soon. They said they'll be back, and they know about the risk involved."

"Yeah, but what will happen when we try to explain how Gummi Glen was destroyed?" Zummi's voice shook a little. He was beginning to feel chills run down his spine and he trembled a little. "It was hard enough giving them the news through the Gummiscope…"

"Then they'll stay in Ursalia with us," Gusto told him with a firm, brave face. "Or maybe they can help us rebuild the Glen. They hadn't given us a reason to think losing the Glen changes things. I'm sure they don't expect things to be the same after five hundred years."

Zummi tried to compose himself. "I hope so. I mean, I hope you're right. I just can't understand why they've decided to come back now after what happened."

"We'll find out when they get here," Gusto said, looking back at his sketchbook. "I think that enough for now. We'd better catch some zeeze, Gruffamundo while have a fit if we fall asleep while working tomorrow."

Zummi almost managed to smile at this. "Yeah, you're right. Let's go."