Inner Gummadoon

Gum, thought Sarrika as the knight-turned-cub darted off. If anything else is to go wrong, please make it next month, or next year for that
matter! Her profession prepared her to the realities of life but being subject to so much at once would weigh on any gummi. She told herself that it wasn't her losing her touch. Just a bad month. Get a grip. Your fellow gummies need you!
More than she knew. Outside the castle's stronghold were the pains she couldn't even think about in order to contain an epidemic here, and the loss of a great knight and friend.
She and Plucki dashed after little Blastus, warning anyone that may be up to get back in their rooms. By now the rumor of Cub's Fever in the castle had spread faster than any virus, and would hopefully stop any outbreaks. It sure got people back in their rooms!
Little Sir Blastus could not go far in his condition. Weak, panting from exertion, and just not fast at this age, the sickness working against him sucked the last bit of strength from the child-knight. He faltered, fell, and did not get back up.
"Quickly! Bring him back!" Sarrika urged, for it was Plucki who reached Blastus first. She nearly ran into Gumlittle in her turnaround. To him, she said, "Bring the herbal remedies I've prepared in the bedding room, the ones on the tray. Plucki?" She called the knight-captain to her side. "Get him in the bath. Now!"
Whatever Sarrika asked for, she received. It didn't matter that she was present for the bathing of a bare Sir Blastus, or that they had to pinch the cub to wake him enough to force the medicine down his throat. Sarrika would not take the fussing anymore. The ordeal left them all nerveless and feeling cruel as the child-knight whimpered in Sir Plucki's arms, a warm dry towel about his small body.
Plucki glanced at Gumlittle, who was feeling it just as he. Like they'd betrayed their little brother. Gumlittle spoke up. "Did it have to be that way?"

Outside Healer Huckleberri's Home

Sir Timothi jogged lightly toward Healer Huckleberri's cottage, careful not to jar Cubbi in his arms. He knocked heavily on the door, trying to manage the cub's weight with one hand. Knocked loudly, too. It was early and he wanted to make sure he was heard. Huckleberri didn't have the best hearing either...
The door creaked open. A pale peach-furred young lady gummi stood in the doorway. She blushed at Sir Timothi.
"Sarrani??"
"...Come in, Sir Timothi."
Timothi stared but entered the dark abode. No lights were lit but he needn't any to see the gummi who haunted his happiest dreams. They'd both put each other on hold to pursue their passions. He, training as a knight, she as a healer. She'd left to seek new medicinal treatments as soon as Gummadoon was a stable city once more and not wandering the zones of millennia. When did she get back??
"I came to see Healer Huckleberri..." He trailed off. How could she have gotten lovelier on her travels? Or was it that he'd simply missed her so?

She smiled. "I can see that. Lay him here."
Snapping out of his thoughts, Timothi followed her instructions. He tried not to stare as she examined the cub, nor fall too deeply into the lull of her comforting voice. Gum, he'd missed her!
"Huckleberri's not as young as we remember him, Tim. He needs his rest. I'll see to this cub. He's not of Gummadoon, is he? No, I don't suppose he is. Open that curtain there. Let some light in, though there's hardly any on this grey day. What was he doing? How did you find him? Like this?"
Timothi told Sarrani the whole of it, including that the rumored outbreak of Cub's Fever was indeed true.
"I've just arrived this morning. Since Huckleberri is my mentor and I am always welcome to his home, I stopped here first. I assume my sister has the rest in hand at the castle main?"
"Sarrika. Yes. There are odd rumors of goings-on in the castle. Magic craft creating the re-emergence of the fever. Sarrika's in the Council's ear about it, I hear."
Sarrani smiled. "As well informed as usual, I see."
Timothi caught her eyes like one might a fine pale moonlight. A bare grasp that might break at the slightest breath. Had she still feelings for him?
Sarrani passed him a final shy smile of affection before fetching the cub some dry clothing from another room.

Gummadoon Woodyard

Toni stared at his hands gripping the axe handle. Bloodied from pulling weeds, he stared transfixed as the redness slipped down the shaft of wood. He stood there mesmerized until the crimson trail touched the cold metal. A jolt shot through him. He heard his mother's voice, yelling at him to get to work. No, not Mother. It was the thunder again. And a drop of rain. And a hundred more as the downpour began. Mist from the late spring began to rise as Toni steadied his hands, took a firm grip, and chose a round of wood. He placed it on the chopping block and the axe rose high. He let it fall.

Tavi's Room

It was her fault. Everything. If only she'd...
Tavi woke with a gasp. The thunderclap woke her with a start. That was all... That, and the bad dream. Again, she'd had the dream. The dreams were telling her things. Things she shouldn't know, and things no one else knew.
The medallion inside of her warmed when she was happy and felt cold when she was sad. Cold and heavy and hard. She knew the stories of Emi. Tavi shivered. She wouldn't end up like her. There was just something wrong with that gummi. Very wrong. It wasn't the medallion that turned Emi. It wasn't!
Tavi curled her knees up to her chin and cried. She was tired of questions. Ones asked from the Council, and those no one asked but she could hear it from their eyes. They knew the stories, too. She didn't want to be around other gummies right now, or yesterday, either. It was getting hard sometimes, pretending everything was normal. It wasn't! Especially not in her dreams.
She was the gummi who'd died at the hands of Merlock the Magician. The gummi who'd risked everything to keep Gummadoon safe. But now... Whenever Tavi woke, it was fuzzy, the dream. And so was the gummi's name! She was so important, so very important. Why couldn't she remember her name?! She wanted desperately to remember, because it was also important, but she dare not leave her room. No more questions!!

Healer Huckleberri's Home

Cubbi stirred, opened his eyes, and gasped at the unfamiliar surroundings.
"Oh-ho-ho! He is awake."
Cubbi swiveled about. He was on a couch in a small, dark room. His arms and legs hurt like he'd been stretched like Grammi's attempts at taffy. There were three gummies in the room, and one was very old. That one had pale green fur and had spoken first. He sat beside him on the couch, a cane clutched in his old paws.
"It's alright. You've exhausted yourself. Just rest." the second gummi said. She was a pretty gummi, and young. He didn't know her either. The last face he knew. His face went red because of it, too. Sir Timothi caught him passed out in the field... Cubbi slumped.
"Just take it easy, Cubbi. You meant well, sure, but even knights take breaks. Now you know why." Sir Timothi smiled. He was trying to be kind but Cubbi could only feel his embarrassment through and through.
"Can I go?" Cubbi muttered. He realized suddenly he wasn't in his normal clothes and blushed furiously. The lady gummi undressed him?! "Uh..."
"Your clothes are drying. It's pouring down rain right now. We think it best if you stay here a bit longer." the old bear said. "You'd best listen, too, unless you'd like to wind up in a muddy field face down again. Exhaustion is not to be taken lightly, young one."
His embarrassment turned to frustration, and anger. He kept his trap shut, but all he wanted to do was run right out the front door.
"A knight's duty is to his people. Listen to them. Learn from them, and teach them."
Plucki's lesson from just days before popped into his head suddenly. Cubbi blinked. Yes, he tended to act without thinking. People generally waited to long to get anything done and then nothing got done. But he wanted to be just like Sir Plucki. And learn everything he taught. Cubbi sighed. Learn as well as teach, huh? The cub forced himself to sit back and relax, which was tough. Even in the giant sprawls of the Glen, he got so bored when it rained! Now he didn't even have the other squires or pages to play with. He eyed the three gummies watching him closely and stuck out a hand to the old bear because he was closest.
"I'm Cubbi Gummi."
The old bear smiled. "I'm Huckleberri." He extended a brittle-looking paw for a good shake of his own.