Chapter Eight: The Five Friends, Part Two
This chapter is dedicated to (the slightly parish) Sarah (Amry), who slept the entire six hours from Camp to home, woke up briefly to tell me to stop talking about the fanfiction before she read the story, and has really, really funny jokes, the best that not even Morgan can keep a straight face at.
For the ties that bound The Friends,
Lasted the longest while.
And when two of them vanished,
The remaining would only smile.
It was two hours after sunset when Barikah finally stumbled into the clearing. "Sorry I'm late," she apologized, "That idiot Karsu keep following me around. I couldn't get away till now."
"S'alright, Bari," Canis reassured her, "Pan and I spent the last two hours reminding these lovesick songbirds we're doing this."
"Any luck?"
"No."
Panthera had worked out a rough plan. They would all go into the mountains, and if they were followed, Canis and himself would split off from the other three to try the lure the Elementals the wrong way. "But hopefully it won't come to that," he said, grinning innocently at their worried faces.
They took off, galloping towards the mountains before looping over to follow the river. There was a path through the mountains, but it was hard going. The skidded on pebbles and loose stones, and when they reached a series of switchbacks leading up the rocky face of a mountain, Panthera finally slowed to a walk. The others followed after him, forced by the narrow trail to go single file. They mostly traveled in silence, but Panthera, feeling the mood ought to be lightened, finally broke into song.
"Hey-a diddle dally,
Hey-a dally da;
Hey-a skilly milly
Killy lilli lally la.
"Hey-a fiddle faddle,
Hey-a fuddle fa;
Hey-a funni lunni
Kunni hilly hally ha.
Hey-oh great."
"What is it?" asked Spoonarah trying to see around both Chinawksul and Panthera. Canis, who was in the rear and hadn't gone around the next switchback yet, could see what was wrong quite clearly and he groaned aloud. "The path's out."
Chinawksul peered around Panthera. "It's not too bad…we might be able to jump it."
"It'll be tough – the path's narrow."
"Do we have another choice?"
"Uh, no, not really."
"My point."
"Here goes." Panthera gathered himself. He made to the other side safe enough, and the trail did widen out, so it wasn't as bad as Panthera had feared. It'd still be close, though. The lovers followed after the yellow stallion. Barikah took a running start. As she jumped Canis looked up from diagonally underneath of her. He started to laugh. Barikah wheeled around, indignant. "What?"
"Well, from down here," Canis replied somewhat sheepishly, "it looked like you jumped over the moon."
Barikah's ears flicked opposite directions before turning to follow the others. What was that supposed to mean? But, in truth, she was almost at the point of agreeing with her half-brother. Maybe the Land wasn't so bad after all.
They reached the clearing in the meadow with the round pool of water without a hitch. It was now Barikah's turn to take over the show. When she had said that she could send her two friends through, she wasn't sure if she really could. While it was true she could call up any image she wanted, Barikah had never actually tried to go through the water for one simple reason: What if she couldn't get back? When Panthera had unveiled his great plan, she had been pretty confident, but she had had several hours to think about it and with every step, she had lost more confidence. She glanced sideways at Chinawksul and Spoonarah. She couldn't give up. Not yet anyway.
Barikah stepped carefully through the ungrazed grass. She reached the pool hesitated, then lowered her horn and hit the water with it. "Mortal Realms," she said, being sure to enunciate clearly. In the same way it always did, a clearing came into view, looking calm and innocent in the water. She turned to her friends, "I think you can go through." She held her breath as Chinawksul and Spoonarah nuzzled their friends one last time. Barikah saw the tears on Spoonarah's face and then broke down into tears herself. When she opened her eyes again, they were gone.
olo
Those remaining returned to their Herds just before dawn, celebrated with their families, then bedded down for the night, wondering who when the word would sneak around.
olo
Judging from the sun, it was almost midday when Panthera woke up. Anria, his golden mare lay beside him, and he moved carefully to keep from waking her. Panthera was almost at the spring when Solaris confronted him.
"Where's Chinawksul?" The Sun Stallion was almost accusing, as if he suspected (although not without probable reason, Panthera supposed) that Panthera had to do with China's vanishment.
"I haven't seen since three hours a'fore dawn," Panthera said, hoping that he could fool the Stallion (although it wasn't really a lie, Panthera thought ironically). Solaris glared at Panthera a little while longer, then galloped off; Panthera thought he was aiming for Orcinus's Herd, as if he was going to find out who else was missing. Although he knew Solaris would watch him far too closely for the stallion to sneak into woods to meet his friends, Panthera couldn't resist a last jab at Solaris's retreating tail.
"Hey-a diddle dally,
Hey-a dally don,
No one in the Valley,
Will tell you were they've gone."
Canis's friend, Tetrico, ambushed him almost as soon as the small stallion woke up.
"Missed ya last night. 'Twas a blast."
"Hmm?"
"Yah, really fun. The mares sang bunches of songs."
"Cor."
"Hey, Cane. Creta was asking after you."
"Really?" The last line was the only one that Canis actually spoke with interest. Creta was a young mare who was being envied by two stallions, Canis and another named Ceterus. Canis had figured that he hadn't had a chance against Ceterus, but this could be a good sign.
"Say, pal, When yur gonna ask her? Elsewise Cet'll beat ya to it."
Canis paused. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe I won't."
"Why not?"
Canis didn't answer. Tetrico assumed there was one reason, but really, there were two. The first was that most mares want a stallion that they could lean on, and Canis was too short to offer that.
The second reason, the one that Canis didn't tell Tetrico, was that, in his mind, Canis kept seeing an almost white, almost black mare with her mane and tail streaming out behind her.
Barikah, to her great relief, passed almost the entire day with her friend, Wanip, and, to her much greater relief, without any sight of her would-be suitor, Karsu. Unfortunately, to her sheer disappointment, Karsu located her about an hour before sunset. Before he approached he studied Barikah. It was funny, he thought, but there seemed to be something different about her. It almost seemed as if she had finally grown into herself. It was true: Barikah had stopped being a filly and instead became a mare. Karsu cared not for why it had happened, but he hoped it meant that she would pick a mate, and if not him, also descended from a noble line, then whom?
She looked up as he approached. "Karsu, if you are even thinking about asking me what I think you are, I will set my father on you." (In truth, Barikah knew Orcinus actually approved of Karsu as a suitable mate, but what Karsu didn't know, couldn't hurt him.)
Karsu may have prided himself on being noble, fit for the daughter of an elemental, but he was certainly not brave. He hightailed it out of Barikah's eyesight, and, if he had his way, would have kept running straight to the other end of the Valley.
Wanip and Barikah laughed long and hard. When they stopped, it was Wanip who spoke first.
"Honestly, Bari, are you ever going to pick a mate?"
Barikah hesitated, then spoke. And while her mouth was saying 'no', her mind was thinking of a small, brown stallion who thought she could jump over the moon.
China and Spoon were Lovers. They did what all Lovers did; they loved.
The tale of the Five Friends is still known in the Mortal Realms, if in a slightly abridged version. It goes as follows:
Hey diddle diddle,
The Cat and the fiddle,
The Cow jumped over the moon.
The little Dog laughed
To see such a sight,
And the Dish ran away
With the Spoon.