Chapter 29: Darkest hour
My younger self and Luna seemed to hit it off as close sisters immediately. Luna learning so much about gummi bears by pestering the elder bears with questions. It was great to see Gruffi get so flustered by her barrage of questions, even the rest of them were still getting used to her ignorance. It had been three days since we arrived back in the glen and Eric and the gang now had their own temporary rooms within, despite the uncomfortable size of the beds. By the day time they searched for the ancestor that sold Igthorn the location of the time stone and hoped to intercept him before Igthorn, despite my protests of changing the course of the future. During that time, I told stories to Cubbi, my younger self, Gusto, and once in a while, Gruffi. I was afraid to go outside of the glen and risk Calla being confused and realizing her grim fate. Every choice I made constantly hurt me in the heart with the knowledge of the immediate future and the people that I could loose from those choice. I had to make my younger self even hold off on telling Calla any of the stories I recounted. I still had no idea what to do in this unique situation.
Time flew and with no success as to finding Eric's ancestor, I was running out of time to make the hardest decision of my personal existence. It was the day of my eighteenth birthday and my younger self walked around excited, but there was an obvious feel of dread in the back of her eyes. In fact, there was a sense of doom around the entire place even though everyone did their best to put on a brave face. The first birthday party was held in the glen with the other gummi bears, Calla had planned on throwing a second miniature party for her to present her present that night. Everything was turning out nearly exactly like it did when I went to the future. But, I just wasn't sure if I could force myself to go through it once again, yet at the same time, I didn't want to lose my new friends. "Time, you are a cruel thing." I whispered to myself with a sigh.
Little did I know was that eventually, Eric did find his ancestor just a mere mile away from the glen. The merchant almost looked exactly like him with only a few differences such as hair style and clothes. They also persuaded him to give up the secret of the location of the time stone. They proceeded back toward the glen with high hopes that their future could be changed for the better until Rose stopped and began to think about how different it would be. Because of their interference, Eric's ancestor would not be responsible of divulging the secrets to a tyrant and thus he would not feel obligated to help out a lost gummi bear. And without Igthorn, Rose would never have been forced to marry Isaac, and not feel flustered enough to confide in Sunni and thus never paying attention to her feelings and fears. Second guessing their course of actions She was going to regret never meeting and befriending such a beautiful species and such a strong friend.
Selina, simply perched herself in the branches of the glen tree, gazing at the clouds and contemplating on what her life would be like without the events that happened during this time and wondered at the impact that the survival of a single creature had on many lives. She recalled the moment that the little town she had created heard news of a living gummi bear. She remembered the hope returning to the eyes of the adults and wonder shining in the eyes of the children. 'I wish that I could stay here and see how these creatures are so wonderful. We humans really could learn so much from them.'
Ella searched with her brother and found herself wondering whether or not her family would be together if these events had occurred and also wondering if she would have both arms and eyes. She gripped her missing arm the moment the thoughts passed through her mind. Eric himself wondered what his life would be like if he had never met Sunni and began regretting ever trying to stop the events but at the same time, wanted to desperately make her happy again.
Luna on the other hand, thought constantly of her existence. 'Will I even exist if the future is altered? Will the gummi bears, if their species survives, discover cloning technology and strive to create me? Will I even be me?' "Are you alright, Luna?" She heard younger Sunni ask. Luna snapped out of her moment of deep thought and turned to the clueless female gummi with a slight surprise and startle. Her expression relaxed as she made her final decision to not worry about existence and simply make the moments she had here count. "I'm fine. I was just thinking." She answered and then slid off her leather jacket. "Here, do you want to try it on?" Luna asked as young Sunni's eyes lit up. "Are you sure?" The young innocent gummi bear asked whilst reaching for it gingerly. "It might be a bit large but, yah. Go ahead and try it. See how you look." Luna insisted.
It took some time for Eric and them to return to the glen with the news and their decision to traverse to the stone's location and grab it before Igthorn. But when they did, they relayed the news back to me and my heart sank with the thought of losing my new friends, and even Eric. I eventually agreed to accompany them on the journey for the time stone but I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach as I readied myself for the trip. We departed in twenty minutes from then and proceeded eastward to locate the time stone, Eric, Luna, Rose and I. We left Ella and Selina back at the glen to protect everyone while we were gone. It wouldn't help or change anything.
Two hours into the trip, it had began raining heavily and night time had fallen over the glen and the same hell that happened to me happened to my younger self. Ella and Selina were distracted by two ogres that appeared at the glen entrance and then the events occurred once more exactly as they occurred before. The spider machines flooded the halls silently with only minute scraping noises as they crept into the kitchen and the hall of the great book. Gruffi and Grammi never saw it coming. One quick thrust through their stomachs made them both collapse to the ground together and spill Grammi's recent batch of gummi berry juice, the hot broth scalding them as they lie helpless and dying quickly. Zummi being run through as he explained the mechanics of the time stone that was described in the great book to my younger self and her escaping death nimbly and frightened while watching her comrades die in front of her, inevitably making her way to the time stone in Igthorn's clutches and using the quick tunnels to escape. Within fifteen minutes of the start of the raid, we heard Igthorn's defeated outcry echoing through the rolling hills of the English countryside. After which the images of them dead surrounded me once more and my fears over came me. However, I had no time to faint as an ogre jumped us from behind a nearby tree and swung his massive fist, knocking Rose clean off of her feet and careening thirteen feet away from us. Once she skidded to a stop, she simply lay on the ground, unconscious on her back. Seeing the attacks coming, Eric nimbly dodged the massive hulk's fists as I reached into my supply bag for a bottle of my own gummi berry juice. "Eric, catch!" I called to him as I threw the bottle in his direction. Much to my horror, Eric never caught the bottle, instead the ogre plucked it out of the sky moments before Eric could, and he then swiftly pulled out the cork and drank the dark liquid. 'No!' I thought to myself as the ogre felt the massive power flow through his muscles. He then slammed his fist into the ground in front of Eric, causing him to lose his balance by the sheer shockwave let alone the crumbling ground beneath his feet. The ogre then seized the opportunity and planted his super strong fist into Eric's gut and flung him fifty feet.
"Eric!" I called out feeling guilty and worried at the same time. "Come on ya big ugly excuse of a genetic anomaly." I suddenly heard Luna call to the ogre. "Luna what are you doing?" I yelled to her. She then showed me in her left paw the last bottle of gummi berry juice she apparently had swiped from me just before Eric had gotten walloped. It was empty when she showed it to me. "Don't worry sis. I got it all covered." She reassured me. The ogre came in swinging his massive fists and Luna simply bounced away like any gummi bear would have, luring him into comfortable conditions to fight the massive bruit and even the odds. I reached back into my shoulder bag and pulled out my version of the time stone, mostly to reassure myself that it was still there, when Luna flew out of the forested area of where she had led the ogre. She skidded to a stop in front of my feet bleeding from her nose and mouth and lying unconscious. However, the ogre didn't emerge completely unharmed. Buried deep into his heart, was Luna's chain knife. Staggering out of the lightly forested area where he and Luna fought he faced me and finally collapsed after taking his final breath.