Chapter 5

When Lynx had left Ratatosk jumped up on Tina's shoulder and whispered in her ear, "fay's a good person. Fay really is. Fay doesn't mean to be like this. Fay's just changed."

"Why?", Tina said.

"Fay escaped from the mines!," Ratatosk whispered.

"What mines? And why was fay there?"

And at that moment Lynx came out of the bedroom and said, "Because I trusted someone who fell from a tree."

Ratatosk looked at fair. "But you saved us! Both me and the others!"

"Yes, I did." Lynx said nothing else, but fay seemed restless. In the end, fay just gestured towards the bedroom and said, "Let's go to sleep. It's a long way ahead of us tomorrow."

And so they went to bed. But Tina couldn't sleep. She lay on the bed Lynx had made for her on the floor and thought about everything that had happened. She felt lonely in this strange world and lost and confused. And Lynx scared her a bit.

And then there was Ratatosk... Yes, Ratatosk was nice, but Tina understood why Lynx said that she'd fallen from a tree. There was nothing bad about her, but definitely something different. Tina suspected she was one of a kind among talking squirrels.

So Tina lay there in her bed and cried. After a while, she heard the door open and Lynx came in. Fay went over to Tina and lay down next to her. "It's cold," fay said.

Tina smiled to herself. It felt so good to have someone next to her, even if that person was a bit strange. It was less lonely, and she felt better already. She wanted to ask Lynx about this world, but Lynx pretended to have fallen asleep. Tina knew fay did because fair tail tickled her legs, but she decided not to say anything. She could ask fair more tomorrow. And in the end, Tina fell asleep.

In the morning, she woke up and went to the kitchen. Ratatosk and Lynx were already there and Lynx must be in a foul mood in the morning, Tina thought, because even Ratatosk was quiet around fair. They ate breakfast, and then Lynx began rummaging through fair wardrobe, looking for clothes for Tina. When fay found them, fay threw them to her and said, "Put them on. It's a long way ahead of us and it will be cold."

"Where are we going!? Where are we going?", Ratatosk asked excitedly.

"We need to leave this place. The wolves will find it."

"But where are we going!?"

Lynx took a deep breath and then said, "We're going to Old Bear."

"To Old Bear!?," Ratatosk asked hopefully. "For mushrooms!?"

"You will not eat mushrooms with him."

"But why then to Old Bear!?"

"We'll need supplies for our journey."

"So where are we going!?"

Tina just looked between them, confused. It felt like she was missing something in all this.

"We're going to the palace," Lynx said in the end.

Ratatosk stopped what she was doing. "To the..!? Palace!? Why!? She'll be looking for her! Why are we going there? I don't want to become a collar on her coat!"

Ratatosk sounded like she would cry.

"And she'll take us to the mines!", she added miserably.

"She will never expect us to go there. She'll think we'll hide," Lynx said.

"But why!? Why to the Palace!?"

"But Ratatosk.." Lynx's voice softened to a mock. "You told me, she's the hero! She's our savior! She will defeat the Queen. This is your story! This is your dream! This is what we've been fighting for, for so long and now the time has finally come! To overthrow her, once and for all!"

And Ratatosk looked at fair with admiration, tears forgotten.

"You are back Lynx! You are our hero! You're back."

"Let's go.."

They left the tree hut shortly after that, and after walking the whole day Tina finally went up to Ratatosk and said, "What am I supposed to do?"

"You'll overthrow the queen, just as the stories said! You're the savior! You come from the land of the Sun!"

"But I don't know how to..."

Ratatosk went silent for a moment, as if this realization had just occurred to her when Tina said it. She jumped up on Lynx's shoulder and said, "Lynx, maybe she'll need some time to practice?"

"But on whom should she practice?", Lynx said in a mocking voice.

"But maybe start with something simpler? Maybe she just could try her magic here."

"Don't be stupid. If she'll use her magic now, the queen will know where we are."

And as Tina heard their conversation, there was a growing worry in her stomach. "But I don't have any magic," she said. "What if I fail?"

But Lynx just looked at her and said, "You will not fail. You are our hero. You come from the Land of the Sun."

And fay turned and began to walk again. Tina followed, confused, and they kept walking the whole afternoon.

When the sun had almost set they arrived at an old tree trunk that was made into a house. It was Old Bear's house. It was a special place, with special magic, and not even the wolves dared enter here.

He stood by the door as they arrived, having sensed them coming. "I'm glad to see you. Come in, come in."

His house was full of herbs and jars and different potions. Tina saw pots boiling on the stove and she was happy to be warm again.

"So you finally came to visit an old friend," Old Bear said to Lynx. "It's been a long time."

"Yes." Lynx said. "We need supplies for our way."

Old Bear looked at fair. "You don't even say hello to me, in a proper way? Lynx, what happened to you?"

"You know what happened.", Lynx said.

"And who is she?" Old Bear gestured at Tina. "She seems so different from you, Lynx. She seems happy. Almost like Ratatosk. She is happy. You should learn from her."

But Lynx ignored Old Bear and went to sit down by the table. Old Bear shook his head and instead said, "You must be hungry! I will bring some food."

And he brought plates and pots to the table, and as they sat down Lynx whispered to Tina, "Don't eat the mushrooms." Tina giggled and then began to eat.

When they had finished, Old Bear sat down by the fire and began to tell them stories. They were stories about the sun and the flowers and the blue sky, and Ratatosk listened to them as hypnotized. But Lynx stood up and just said, "I'm not a kid. I'll go to bed."

When fay had left, Old Bear turned to Tina and asked, "Who are you? I've never seen you around." Ratatosk began jumping up and down excitedly and said, "She came! She's the hero! All the signs were there, just as you told me and she came!" Old Bear looked at Tina surprised. "Really? Did you come from the land of the Sun?" Tina nodded, not sure what to say. "So the old stories are true then..." Bear said and he went silent for a while, contemplating. "I almost stopped believing in them," he said in the end.

"What stories?," Tina asked.

The Bear smiled and said, "Stories about the Queen of Summer coming back."

"But I'm not a queen," Tina protested.

"Maybe you just need some time," Bear said.

"But we don't have time, we're going to the palace!", Ratatosk said anxiously.

Bear looked at her with worry. "To the palace? Why?"

"Lynx wants her to face the queen!"

"Is that so?," Bear said. "But she's just a girl."

"I know, I know!" Ratatosk said. "But Lynx, fay saved us! Fay saved all of us!"

Bear nodded. "Yes, fay saved us.."

"What happened?",TIna asked.

Old Bear leaned back in his chair and said, "It's a long story. It started when the King of Wolves rebelled against the Queen. That day we saw the sun shining in the sky for the first time in a long time..."

"Yes, yes, we saw it! It was a sign! It was a sign!", Ratatosk squealing voice chipped in.

"Yes, Ratatosk, it was a sign", Old Bear said patiently. "But there are many signs and they can mean many different things." He turned to Tina and continued. "Many followed the King Of Wolves and refused to obey the Queen. Lynx joined the fight and fought side by side with the King of Wolves, uniting all of us. For the first time in a very long time, there was hope. The snow melted and the sun shone from a blue sky."

"So what happened?," Tina asked.

"The Queen called on the goblins, and they came from their mines to fight for her. One night they broke our fortification and took many of us back with them. And then the Queen sent Ravens with an ultimatum. We either surrendered to her, or our friends and family would never see the light again."

Tina gasped and leaned closer to Bear.

"We were all so worried", he continued. "What should we do? Give up the fight or give up our loved ones? We met and talked and discussed the options, but couldn't agree on anything.

"Then, in the morning after, Lynx and the King of Wolves were nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere but no luck. Soon afterwards our friends and family came back, and we realized what they'd done. They had gone to the Queen and surrendered to her. Shortly after that, the Queen forced the wolves to follow her as well, and they did, for fear of what would happen to their King if they didn't. And since that day we've never seen the sun again."

"Tell her the rest!," Ratatosk peeped.

"Yes, Ratatosk," Bear said patiently. "I will tell the rest."

"You see," he said to Tina, "one day, many moons after they had disappeared, Lynx returned. Fay must have escaped, but no one knows how. No one escapes from the mines. But fay's never talked about it. But one thing we noticed was how fay'd changed. Fay wasn't the same Lynx as before, and I'm afraid a part of fair is still in the mines."

Tina felt sad hearing what had happened to Lynx. But Old Bear just said, "I'm happy fay's found a friend. Maybe you will help fair find what fay's lost."

"But Lynx, doesn't fay have any friends?," Tina asked.

Bear laughed, "No, fay pushed them all away. Only Ratatosk can stand fair, but she is special, you know that. There's an old story too, about when she fell from a tree. But you look tired. Maybe you should go to bed. There will be other nights full of stories that will bring more light into your heart. Come, you can sleep safely here. Neither ravens nor wolves dare come to my place."

So Tina went to bed, feeling a bit sad after Old Bear's stories. She lay down next to Lynx and said, "It's cold." Lynx didn't reply, but Tina could feel fair flickering tail tickling her legs. She smiled to herself and fell asleep.