Chapter
Six: Journey for Answers
Ursa sat in her room, polishing her
sword. While Buddi played, she and the other adults had gone to the other huts
and repaired what they could. They had to remake the furniture but that was
fairly simple. They had made the quilts first which was what Ursa was sitting
on.
After a long debate the night
before, Ursa and the others agreed that since there obviously was no trap or
magic that some of the others should return. Ursa decided half would return and
half would remain in Ursalia. So the others were coming but they wouldn't
arrive until late that night.
Ursa rubbed her blade and then ran
her finger near the blade's edge.
"Ursa!"
Ursa's hand slipped and she slit her
finger open. She stuck it into her mouth and cursed,
"Mijet,"
Sunni looked at Buddi. "Say what?"
Ursa intervened before he could
answer, "Something I really shouldn't have said."
She looked at Buddi who had been
getting ready to tell her, "And something Buddi shouldn't be repeating."
Ursa washed the extra blood from her
cut at her washbasin and wrapped it. Turning back around, the two cubs were
still there. She put her sword back up, on a high shelf. It was a habit from
when Buddi was younger. He'd been about two and three-fourths and had gotten a
hold of it because she had left it low. He'd gotten such a bad cut on his hand;
Grubbi had nearly had to amputate it.
"What's up, kids?"
Buddi walked over to her and handed
her a slip of paper, "Can you translate that? I couldn't get all of it."
Truthfully, Buddi hadn't understood
any of it. It was something he'd never seen before. All he could tell was that
it was Barbic. It wasn't words that he could read but little symbols.
Ursa smiled and sat down on her
quilt. Buddi sat on her left side, Sunni on her right.
Ursa smiled at Buddi and asked, in
Barbic, in a whisper,
"You couldn't understand any of
this, could you?"
Buddi blushed but had to nod. Ursa
smiled.
"I'm not surprised, this is Formal
Barbic."
Buddi looked at her, "What?"
"The talk we use in ceremonies. I
haven't taught it to you yet. Ya want me to start?"
Buddi nodded. Sunni gazed curiously.
Ursa looked uncomfortable. Sunni took a hint,
"Aw, it's your own special language,
huh?"
Ursa and Buddi nodded. Sunni smiled.
"No problem, I'll wait outside."
That said, she left.
Ursa turned to Buddi and held it out
to him. "You have to memorize the symbols."
Buddi nodded. Ursa pointed to the
first symbol. It looked like some sort of berry plant.
"That's ulises. It means,
poisonous."
Buddi nodded. Ursa went through all
the symbols with him, translating it a word at a time. By the end Buddi knew it
read,
"Poison flows through evil's blood.
Evil hides in the room in the far closet. Evil. Knowledge best forgotten. Never
underestimate her."
Ursa smiled, as Buddi whined, "This
is hard."
Ursa shrugged. "Not really it's just
because I'm throwing all these symbols to you at once. Tomorrow I'll give you
less."
Buddi nodded and got up. "Thanks."
Ursa nodded and watched the cub run
out. She shrugged and pulled her sword down. She wiped her blood off it and
then started to sharpen it.
* * *
"Evil in the far closet?"
Sunni mused over that. "It must mean
that trapdoor I found."
Buddi nodded, "You said it was
locked."
Sunni nodded. Buddi smiled. "Maybe
we can get over there. And we can try it, with this."
He held out a silver key.
Sunni smiled. "Yeah, let's see if we
can arrange that. Grammi won't mind."
Buddi smiled. "You've gotta convince
Gruffi and I've gotta convince Ursa."
Sunni nodded.
"Buddi?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think there's a reason they
locked that room up?"
Buddi nodded. "I read in a book that
they wanted to forget that she was once a Gummi bear…"
"Once was what?!"
"Yep, she used to be a Gummi called
Emi. When she got her powers she changed her name and fled into the time
stream. That's about all I know."
Sunni grinned, "Then let's find out
more."
Buddi nodded. He made it his goal
then and there that if he couldn't arm himself with weapons, he'd arm himself
with knowledge.