"Ursa?"
Gritty pressed through the Glen's corridors, seeking out his best friend. She was his leader and generally in moments like this he kept his distance knowing her to prefer to be alone. But while she was his leader, she was first and foremost his friend.
"Ursa?"
He poked his head into the main hall and only saw Grammi.
"Grammi? Have you seen Ursa?"
The female glen looked up and nodded,
"Poor dear, she's worried to an unhealthy level. Gritty, I'm afraid she'll make herself sick."
The smoky furred gummi nodded, "I know Grammi, that's why I'm looking for her. Maybe I can calm her down."
Grammi smiled, "I hope so, for goodness' sake. Last time I saw her, she was headed for the library."
Gritty nodded, "thanks." With that he headed in that direction. He spied her as soon as he walked into the room. She was sitting still in one of the chairs, her face buried in her hands. She looked miserable. He walked in and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Hey Gritty," she said before she even lifted her head. He sighed deeply.
"Ursa? You need to cool it."
Ursa glared at him out of the corner of her eye,
"Gritty, it's been almost two weeks. How can I 'cool it'?"
"Eating would help."
Ursa sighed deeply and gave no reply. Instead she glanced down at her hands. Gritty followed her gaze.
Ursa turned Buddi's flute over in her hands, rubbing the cool metal. She had not known it was possible to feel so much pain. It wasn't physical pain that could be treated; this pain was in her heart. It felt like someone had tore her heart apart. She drew Buddi's flute up to her chest, pressing it into her torso.
"Ursa?"
Gritty turned her face towards his. Her skin was a sickly grey-white. Her eyes had long since turned blood shot. She hardly got any sleep; the sleep she had gotten was disturbed. She could almost hear Buddi calling for her. She was his mother. She was supposed to protect him. And she wasn't there for him.
Ursa looked at her friend and then rose, saying,
"What?"
Gritty wrapped his arms around her, surprising her. Barbics were not big huggers. They had the gesture of friendship, grabbing another by the elbow and squeezing, but they did not generally hug and even more rarely did they kiss. Ursa was six when her parents died but only remembered her mother kissing her once, her father twice.
"You think you're the only one worried?" Gritty asked her simply. "I'm worried about Buddi too. But he's all right. He's got Ola's blood. And he was raised by you."
Gritty paused. Ursa said nothing, so he went on. "Besides, that kid's smart."
Ursa spoke in a monotone, "But he's a child. He doesn't have the experience that we have."
"Of course not. But how do you think he'll get it if he doesn't go through trials?"
"Gritty!" her tone was sharp. "Gum Above, he's just eleven! He shouldn't be alone! The Barbic way is that he is guided through experiences! We're supposed to be there…"
She tugged at her hair. Gritty smiled at her sadly. He grabbed her by her cheeks. Ursa looked at him with empty eyes. There was no life in them; it was as if someone had taken away her reason for living.
"Ursa, listen to yourself. You're hysterical."
"I am not!"
She slapped his hands away from her. Glaring at him, she stormed away and said,
"If you're not gonna help, shut up."
That said she left. Gritty sighed deeply.
"Ursa…"
1420
"See you in a week, right?"
Ursa nodded and stole a glance in the mirror. She was aging. She sighed deeply.
Gritty laughed and plucked some of the hairs around her temples. They were silver, not her dirty blond. Ursa glared at him, not amused. She didn't like being reminded of her age. She was still the Barbics' leader but was getting old, even for gummi standards. They lived about three hundred years but she was almost a hundred. She was just as fast and agile as she had been in her early youth however.
"Tell Tobi hi for me, alright?" Gritty said, shifting the subject. Ursa smiled. Her grandchildren had since grown up. Tobi and Ulisa were approaching their fortieth birthday and Warrio was almost thirty-one. Tobi had waited and had just had her first child. They had named the girl Rei.
Unlike her sister Ulisa, who had had twins at twenty-five and then a second set of twins at thirty-five, Tobi had said she wanted to wait. Ulisa had remained in Ursalia. Ursa now had four great-grandchildren, two fraternal twins a boy and girl, and two fraternal twin girls. The youngest was Jacki.
Ursa chuckled. Ulisa was pregnant again. But she had stated firmly that this was it, no more. She was tired of being pregnant, she said. Ulisa had grown up and decided to keep her Barbic heritage while her twin decided to reclaim her mother's glen heritage. That's where Ursa was headed. She had to see her great-granddaughter. Buddi was already there. Ursa smiled and then sighed. It was hard to believe that her cub was a grandfather.
"I'll tell her hi."
She left the room, giving her friend a wink as goodbye.
* * *
A sharp cold at his feet brought Buddi back to the waking world. He blinked and then sat up. His feet were in the river and had obviously been there quite some time, as he could no longer feel them. The cub pulled them out and started to rub them.
A low growl made Buddi look around. It was dark, about ten PM, judging by the moon. The cub swallowed and slowly stood. It was too dark to see much of anything. Buddi had naturally good eyes as well and yet there wasn't enough light.
That same growl resonated again. Buddi drew his dagger from his belt. Looking around, her spied a cave off to the side. The cub ran into it and then spying two rocks, he swiftly made a small fire, using torn bits of his tunic and a handful of twigs he found around the cave's entrance.
Buddi was used to someone being there to care for him when he arrived in a strange time but now that there was no one, Ursa's lessons on survival kicked into effect. It was late and if he was inside some sort of shelter then he would be warmer.
Buddi looked around and then walked outside for a moment. He spied a sapling and wrenched off one of the thicker branches. He winced as he did so; he hated hurting any tree, as when he was younger in Barbic Woods, the trees were his playmates.
Buddi returned to his cave and tied some torn material off his shirt around the branches' end. Twisting it into the fire, he soon had an active torch. In the time in which most would still be trying to generate flame, Buddi had a torch ready. Ursa had taught him several tricks to make a fire quite quick.
Buddi took a glance backward into the back of the cave. He didn't see anything but walked a bit further back anyway. The cave was dripping. Buddi wiped the water from the back of his neck. It was cold and he longed to go back to his fire but he had to make sure no wild animals were near because he only had a small dagger for a weapon and his wits.
Thankfully, the cub found nothing. He originally thought to go back to his fire but when he arrived saw that it had gone out. The child inwardly hated being so close to the outside. It made him insecure. For some reason, the further back in the cave he went, the safer he felt.
Buddi grabbed some twigs and stones and headed backwards to the very back of the cave. As Buddi walked, he found a small hole in the wall, not very big but it was about the size of a small closet. The cub squeezed through the small opening and emerged into a closet sized chamber. He liked this little 'room' so to speak as he felt even more secure. The boy arranged the stones and swiftly started another fire. He would have to put it out soon, even as near to the entrance as it was.
Lying down by it, he tried to ignore the cold in his body. The fire was a lifesaver but he was uncomfortable. He would have gladly traded his flute for a blanket of some sort. But eventually exhaustion overwhelmed anything else.
* * *
"Jacki!"The five year old turned and giggled. Gritty trailed after her. His once smoky black fur had turned to a lighter black, nearly grey. He was three years Ursa's senior, which made him the second eldest Barbic, after Grubbi.
"Ya gotta catch me first Pappa 'Itty." The cub gurgled before taking off. Gritty sighed out loud. Jacki looked like Ulisa and had acquired her attitude as well. Her twin, Ali, was more like her grandfather.
Jacki pushed her dirty blond hair behind her ears. Unlike her twin who loved her long hair, the second Jacki's hair had stretched beyond her shoulders she had it hacked off. Her hair was a dirtier blond than her mother's and it was uncannily like her great-grandmother, Ursa's. They said the color came from her grandmother, Sunni's roots. Her fur was the same shade as her mother's, a light brown. Like her mother and grandfather, Jacki had darker fur patches but she had one on each eye, rather than one on one eye. She wore a change in outfits from her mother who although a tomboy had wore a dress. Jacki was content with black slacks and an oversized purple shirt. Jacki loved a challenge and despite the rules, few as they were, she never wasted time in breaking them. It was tiring for her parents, grandparents and even her surrogate great-grandmother. But while her mother was very impatient, her grandfather and great-grandmother were always on her side. Oh she didn't hate her mother, quite the opposite but she could better connect with her grandparents and great-grandmother.
Jacki was well known for her Barbic like attitude. She had mostly Barbic blood as had her mother. However, unlike her mother, who like Ursa and the other 'first-generation' Barbics of Ursalia despised humans, Jacki had an opinion of them like her grandfather, Buddi. Both of them saw them as potential threats but also as potential allies. The two did not judge them by their species but rather by the soul of each individual.
"Jacki!"
The girl turned and saw Gritty just behind her. She broke into a run and bounded into Gordon Gulge. Darting from different angles, she thanked the agility she had received from her grandfather. Gritty would eventually catch her but it would take him a few minutes.
Jacki ran down towards her special cave. Arriving she saw that a burned out fire was present. She crept closer, following the small tracks she saw in the dirt. She was already told the basics of tracking. As she went further back, a form leapt down in front of her.
"Hey!"
Jacki swung her fist automatically but a stronger hand stopped it easily. She looked up and saw an eleven-year old child.
"Who're you?"
"Buddi."
Jacki growled, "You are not! Buddi's my grandfather!"
Buddi backed up. He was in the far future and this girl was his…granddaughter?
Immediately Buddi said to himself, "Consider other possibilities." This girl did look like him but…
"Who are your great-grandparents?"
"By blood or by love?"
"Uh…both."
"By blood, Ola and Bilo. By love Ursa. Why?"
Buddi's heart stopped. This was his granddaughter. Buddi felt his knees grow weak and for a minute he thought he would throw up. But he couldn't let her know that he was her grandfather. He took a deep breath.
"You have any siblings?"
"Why?"
"You seem like a neat kid. I want to know more about you. Like maybe your name?"
"Jacki," the girl answered simply. "I've got a twin sister Ali, two older siblings, one brother and one sister. And I've got another on the way."
Buddi whistled through his teeth and Jacki giggled. "I know."
Jacki felt at ease now, she liked this kid.
"How long have you been here?" she demanded. Buddi sighed,
"A few days, I lost count."
Jacki snuck closer and asked, "How old are you? What about your family?'
"I…my mother's…" Buddi paused. He couldn't let her know he was her grandfather. He didn't know what that might do. He finally decided on Ursa's middle name, "Marie."
"Weird gummi name." Buddi shrugged.
"You got any brothers or sisters?"
"No."
"Lucky."
Buddi shrugged, "I guess."
Jacki smiled brightly,
"Wanna go explore the river?"
Buddi smiled, "Sure."
Jacki took off in a run, with Buddi jogging behind her. Gritty was probably telling her mother so she wanted to have some fun before she got caught. She finally stopped by the shore and pointed down stream where the aqueduct was.
"How about over there? The adults were talking about something broken they hafta fix. Wanna check it out?"
"Why not?"
Buddi was just eleven; that sounded fun to him. He decided to try and find out some more about this girl.
"So Jacki, you live in Ursalia?"
"Yep, so did my mother. My grandfather and great-grandmother moved here when Barbic Woods fell. I wish I knew what it was like." Buddi's mind was jerked back several months and tears fell down his cheeks. He was still homesick. The first month after they'd moved to Ursalia, it had been terrible. For the first week, he didn't play and barely ate anything. Ursa had been miserable herself but had snapped out of it to take care of him. Gradually the pain faded but it was always there.
Buddi shook himself from his memories and asked,
"Do you grandparents and great-grandparents tell you about it?"
Jacki nodded, "Yep, Nana Ursa has funny stories to tell me about my grandfather."
"Where did Nana Ursa come from?"
"My grandfather called her Mama Ursa when he was little so we decided to call her Nana Ursa. My mother calls her Nana Ursa too."
Buddi took all this in and followed Jacki up around a section of the aqueduct. She had stopped so Buddi asked,
"Who's the leader of the Barbics?"
"My Nana Ursa. She has been since we came to Ursalia, about forty years ago. My grandfather was just a cub, about your age, I guess. He met my grandmother after he moved to Ursalia."
Buddi was tempted to ask whom his future wife was but decided not to. Instead, he asked,
"Do you have great-grandfather?"
"Not really but I consider Gritty to be. He and Ursa are best friends."
Buddi smiled. So, Gritty would always be there for her. Jacki chuckled,
"I call him Pappa Gritty, same as my mother does. Grubbi's just Grubbi though. Sometimes I'll call him Doc Grubbi. He's still our medic."
Buddi started to enter the broken section of the aqueduct but then slumped down. His hands began to flicker.
"Jacki!"
She turned and screamed.
"What's wrong with you?"
"I'm caught in a spell, I'm being pulled to a different time."
Jacki took this in. "Then if you aren't from this time…you really are my Grandfather!"
Buddi smiled in reply. "Jacki, you shouldn't go in here by yourself. I mean, if I was still here, fine because I know where you are but…"
Jacki crawled out and looked at her grandfather's past self. Asking reluctantly,
"Buddi?"
"Yep?"
"How did you feel when Barbic Woods fell? I'm scared to ask your present self, I think maybe it'll hurt him too much. He doesn't like to talk about when it actually fell."
Buddi shuddered, "I'm reluctant myself. But…"
He pulled air in and knew he only had a moment or so before he vanished.
"It was a blade through the heart."
Tears streamed from his face. "It was someone yanking my soul out. For a week I was in so much pain, Ursa had to practically force food into me. But the pain dulled. Slowly, but it dulled." He looked at Jacki. He smiled,
"Ask him. And ask Nana Ursa too. She saw the battle. She commanded the battle."
Then Buddi took a final glance at his granddaughter, knowing it would be over thirty years before he saw her again. Then he flickered away back into the sea of time.