Part III
Memories
Next morning Jasmin woke early and got dressed. She could hear noises and hushed voices from down the corridor so she knew someone must be up. She took a brush off her table and combed her golden hair before opening her door and stealthily creeping her way down the corridor to the Great Hall. Upon entering she found the hall empty and dark, so she crept over to the fireplace and sat down in one of the chairs. In the serene darkness she sighed and began swinging her feet like a young cub when the sound of something breaking could be heard not far away her head snapped up and looked in its direction. She began shaking violently and whimpering and her eyes were unblinking making her look like she was in a trance. Blurred visions of two happy little cubs came into view, one had light pink fur while the other had a sandy yellow fur and both were wearing white, plain dresses. They were sat by a fire giggling when a crash came from the other end of the room they swung their heads round to look at the source.
The vision clouded over and appeared again showing herself though a lot younger in chamber placing what looked like a clear crystal ball into her leather bag. Once fastened and placed on her back she turned round to look at the door with an expression of fear on her face. Seconds later a blurry figure just noticeable as a man walked into the room and shouted something making her grab her bottle of Gummiberry Juice and run towards the window.
Once again the vision clouded over but now it showed the two cubs from a previous vision grown up and sprinting towards a forest with men on horses in pursuit. The two gummi's reached the forest and seperated. The vision followed after the gummi she recognised as herself running through the forest with most of the men following after her. She was panting heavily when a clear scream could be heard through the forest her head turned in its direction. The vision for a while became very blurry until it reached a clearing and she saw herself flying through the air towards a tree screaming, but a voice interrupted the vision making it again go blurry.
"Jasmin, dear are you all right?" said a familiar voice.
The vision swirled and returned to darkness leaving Jasmin scared and confused when she felt someone touch her she snapped back to the present situation and was relieved to see Grammi by her side. Tears streamed down her face and she continued to shake.
Moment's later Zummi walked into the room followed by Gruffi to see what was going on when they saw Jasmin shaking uncontrollably on the floor in Grammi's embrace.
"What happened?" said Gruffi dashing over.
"I don't know" answered Grammi.
A few minutes later Jasmin had calmed down and stopped shaking and turned to look at the others.
"What happened? " said Grammi when Jasmin looked at her.
Jasmin hesitated just staring at her at first wondering whether to say anything. After thinking for a minute she answered " I saw things".
"W-what dit oou sey, I mean what did you see?" said Zummi.
Jasmin explained what she'd seen as best as she could since she was already forgetting some things and then went on to say how it had occurred. Afterwards the others began to reassure her she'd be okay and tell them if she remembered anything else to, which she agreed then the others went about getting things ready for breakfast.
An hour later everyone was seated at the table and nearly finished breakfast when Gusto walked in.
"Sorry, I'm late" he said walking to the end of the table and sitting next to Jasmin.
Once the meal was over Gusto offered to take her to his home and show her some of his masterpieces, which she accepted.
The two reached Gusto's waterfall about half an hour after leaving the Glen and went inside. Once inside Gusto gave her a little tour of the place then left her to look through some of his paintings. Jasmin flickered through his paintings with growing interest, until she moved to the back of the room and started looking through some of his very first creations. She didn't know why but somehow it felt like she'd seen these pictures before and it puzzled her.
"Strange" she whispered to herself.
"What's strange?" she heard Gusto say.
Jasmin reached the last picture and gave a small gasp, but not louder enough for Gusto to hear. The portrait was of two young female cubs running through a field, one had light pink fur and the other a sandy brown.
Gusto stopped what he was doing when he noticed Jasmin was just staring at one of his pictures with keen interest and a look of deep concentration on her face.
"Are you ok?" he said.
"Yeah, its just this picture looks familiar" she muttered.
Gusto walked over to her and looked over her shoulder to see which picture she was looking at then said " I painted that when I was a kid, but I don't remember who they are" he said pointing to the two cubs.
Silence then filled the room for a few minutes with both gummi's staring at the painting until Jasmin looked at Gusto and said, " What do you remember about your childhood?"
Gusto stared down at the floor not wanting to meet Jasmin's gaze and whispered "Nothing".
Jasmin's eyes softened and she lifted Gusto's chin with her finger to make him look at her and said, " Don't worry Gusto I don't remember mine either"
Gusto took her paw from under his chin in his and moved closer to her whispering so that only she could hear " This might sound silly, but the first time I saw you it was like I already knew you. You know like meeting an old friend"
"It's not silly at all" she replied wrapping her arms around his waist and embracing him surprising herself and Gusto.
Gusto stood there stunned for a moment before responding and returning the embrace.
Jasmin sighed and rested her head on Gusto's shoulder with her eyes cast down on the painting of the two cubs. As she stared harder all sound surrounding her seemed to be blocked out and the scene of the painting playing over in her mind. The two cubs were running through the field laughing and playing, when the cub with sandy brown fur ran a few feet infront then turned round and shouted ' Come on, Jasmin'. But the other cub didn't move instead she turned round and shouted to another gummi who was blurred but she could just make out had blue fur sat high upon a hill with what appeared to be a sketch book in his paw. The image began to fade until she was just staring at the painting again in Gusto's embrace. She looked away from the painting and buried her head in Gusto's chest hugged him tighter and them let go looking up and smiling at him.
Gusto smiled back with a dazed look on his face before Jasmin took his paw in hers and
led him to a seat placed infront of a canvas. She seated him down in it and took a pencil off a table behind her and said, "Do you mind if I try?"
Gusto just shook his head allowing her to continue, watching every move she made.
Jasmin smiled then turned to the canvas and began humming something vaguely familiar from one of her visions and started sketching an outline of what she was going to paint.
Gusto listened to her humming a tune and unconsciously began humming it too. It was similar to one he remembered someone singing to him when he was a cub.
Jasmin placed the pencil down on the table and picked up a brush and pallet and began painting occasionally glancing over her shoulder to see Gusto staring at her.
A couple of hours later the painting was complete and she looked over at Gusto who was staring at her and the painting.
"You seem pretty good at this," he said signalling to the painting.
Jasmin nodded still looking at the painting. The painting was of three cubs, the two she usually saw in her visions and the blurry blue cub she saw in her last. They were in a dark room all sat on the floor infront of a fire and laughing.
"What made you paint that?" said Gusto.
"I saw it" she answered.
Gusto was just about to speak when Artie woke up and squawked from his perch "Gusto, shouldn't you be at the Glen"
Gusto jumped out of his seat and ran to the entrance of the cave. The clouds had gone shades of lilac and white with bright rays of sunlight shining out from behind them, the sun was setting.
"Yes, we should" he said to Jasmin and Artie and the three set out for the Glen.
*****
The sun was beginning to set when Cavin and Cubbi sat down on the grass near the tree where Jasmin had hit. They had been out there nearly all day searching for clues and possessions of Jasmin's hoping to find something since they had found her necklace yesterday.
"We better go back to the Glen," said Cavin getting up.
"Yeah" replied Cubbi getting to his feet.
Cavin had only gone a few paces when he tripped over something and fell flat on his face.
"Are you ok?" said Cubbi.
"Yeah" said Cavin looking down at what he'd tripped over.
Cavin reached down and placed his hand on something a brown square.
"What is it?" said Cubbi looking at it.
"Don't know," said Cavin trying to pull it out of the ground.
With a bit of force the object slid out of the ground revealing a picture frame. Cavin turned it over and wiped away some of the mud uncovering a picture of two cubs about eleven or twelve years old.
"Hey, isn't that Gusto" said Cubbi pointing at the young boy cub.
"Yeah, I think your right Cubbi " replied Cavin looking at the bottom of the picture. "And look who it's by"
At the bottom of the painting a small signature was written and just recognisable as Jasmin.
"Wow, Jasmin must have painted this," said Cubbi.
"Yeah, and there's something else" said Cavin using his sleeve to wipe away some more mud.
"Look it says Taffiney (Taffi) and A," said Cavin.
"What's A for?" said Cubbi.
"Don't know," said Cavin shrugging his shoulders.
Cavin stood up with the picture in both hands and Cubbi looking up at him. He looked down at Cubbi and said "We better get back to the Glen and show them this"
*****
Artie had flown on ahead to the Glen leaving Jasmin and Gusto running along behind. When they came into a clearing Jasmin stopped panting heavily and doubled over holding her stomach.
"You ok?" said Gusto coming into the clearing.
"Yeah" she answered collapsing to her knees.
Gusto walked over to Jasmin and placed a paw on her shoulder while placing the other on top of her paws on her stomach.
"What's the matter?" he said.
"I don't know" she answered.
A tear slid down her cheek and she heaved and threw up. Her cheeks were now flushed scarlet and warm and she felt drowsy.
"What's happening?" Jasmin said before passing out.
Gusto caught her in his arms and picked her up, whatever caused this wasn't good and he needed to get to the Glen as quick as possible so he began walking as fast as he could towards the Glen.
TBC…
Please R&R and tell me what you think.