Reunions

In the few weeks that I had been in this world, I hadn’t observed the stars and the moon closely. The moon waxed and waned in my world, but here, in this world, it had a different cycle. From the previous times that I had looked at it, it was a full moon. Yet when I travelled with the animals, the part of the moon that wasn’t lit from the sun, the umbral part, didn’t look like the classic crescent shape, but instead looked like the side profile of a different animal each night. I had seen a dog, a pig, and a monkey since I started noticing this phenomenon. The shadow on the moon was a horse last night.

The stars moved without a discernible pattern. I had a passing familiarity with a few well known constellations, so I knew where to look in the regular night sky. However, in this world the constellations oscillated between west and east, north and south. The erratic behaviour made me glad I wasn’t travelling by ship and had to navigate by the stars.

Our navigation was done with the magical compass the shrew had. He had to change the direction we were headed in every few kilometres today. How many kilometres had we travelled? Not all the animals were built for long distance travelling, and when they became tired, they would rest on the back of another animal or on the caravan with me. The animals’ rotation system allowed them to keep up a steady pace for the majority of the day.

The dog, I believed to be a Rottweiler, turned around from leading the caravan and said, “Ferdinand, I smell elemental beings up ahead. I think they’re your companions. Shall I go fetch them? Huh, shall I fetch them?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Oh! You better show them this medallion, it’ll prove that I’m alive and should get them to trust you.”

I took out King Eulerich’s medallion and handed it to the dog.

Woof

He bit down on the medallion and carried it off with his mouth. I got down off the caravan and walked ahead of the animal pack. I wanted to be the first person Luna and Marisa saw. How should I tell them about my adventure with the witch? I had forgotten the reason I even got separated from the two of them in the first place, but now I remembered the fight I had with Marisa. Both nervous and excited apprehensive thoughts filled my mind.

“They’re past that hill and then half a mile north,” the Rottweiler said when he returned. “I showed them the medallion like you told me and they were shocked I had it. They couldn’t believe that you were still alive.”

“Good boy,” I said as I patted him on the head. He returned the medallion to me and I wiped it down before putting it away.

We climbed the hill, the horse putting in extra effort to pull the caravan up. Looking over the crest of the hill, I saw them. Disbelief. Shock. Happiness. The three of us moved towards each other. First walking, gradually increasing in pace, until at last we broke into a full on sprint. We hugged. An awkward tension came over us. No one knew what to say. The animals, in all the excitement, came rushing over and dashed around us.

“It’s good to see you again, Ferdinand,” Luna said.

“Yeah, good to see you guys, too.”

I looked at Marisa and smiled and she smiled back and then averted her gaze. “These animals, tell us about them, Ferdinand,” she said.

“I ran into these guys a few days ago and they happened to be going to the land of the gnomes, so I tagged along with them.”

“Not just that, he saved us, he saved us!” the animals repeated. In their excitement, they talked over each other. It wasn’t possible to understand what they were saying.

The shrew made a dampening motion with his hands and all the animals quieted down.

“What do they mean you saved them?” asked Luna. “Did you run into some kind of danger on the road?”

“I’ll tell you the rest of the story later, but we had an encounter with an alp and I killed it. It tried to fool us by wearing the disguise of a forest nymph.”

Oink “Not even I could smell that the alp was wearing a disguise,” said the pig.

“Hmph. I guess you are not wholly without skill,” Marisa said in a haughty tone while crossing her arms.

“I couldn’t leave you guys. If I wasn’t around, who would you argue with?”

“Fool. I had no worry you would come back.”

“She is stubborn, Ferdinand, but my Lady was completely beside herself for days when she thought you’d perished,” Luna said, winking teasingly.

“Luna! You swore an oath not to tell him!” Marisa yelled in embarrassment. She turned to me. “Look, saddened as I was, the grounds for my mood stem from the thought that we would not finish the task that was laid before us.”

“Speaking of which,” I said. “We will have time to talk about what happened, but we don’t have time to idle around.”

“Yes, indeed,” agreed Luna. “Let us be off.”

Luna and Marisa and I had no time to discuss our time apart. The animals were very excited about meeting the High Priestess of the undines, asking her many questions and if they would be allowed to perform for the undines. I enjoyed watching them talk to the animals and answer their questions.

The shrew climbed up the caravan and sat next to me. “We are coming near to our point of departure,” he said, holding out his compass. The needle pointed northeast. “Fate brought us together and now it separates us. I wish you good luck with the rest of your journey.”

“Thank you, Mr. Shrew. And I wish you good luck with yours. May your roads be safe.”

We shook hands—or hand and paw. I stepped off the caravan and said goodbye to the animals. They were sad to see us go and said that they hoped we would meet again soon. We waved goodbye and headed northwest.