A Shadow in the Light: Knowledge and Remembrance - Part Five

      "That would be something, eh? Nah, I don't think anyone could take out a joke like that. There must be some truth in it," Sovan shrugged, gently taking his paw away from his formation of firewood.

      "Don't lay on the ground Sovan, there might be Petpetpets down there," Dizzconnie scolded the Lupe, who was lying on his stomach to bask in the glory of his creation.

      "No Petpetpet would go near my firewood," Sovan smirked, tapping one of the sticks. They were placed in a tepee shape, and each of the limbs was roughly around the same width and length. He was truly in awe at what he had done.

      "You do know that we will burn that, don't you?" Frauns asked, fiddling with a small vine and stick.

      Sovan gasped. "No! This is my stick pile! You can't burn it!" He protectively put his arms around the small pile.

      "Alright, suit yourself."

      The Lupe nodded and released his pile, but as his arms drew away, the formation crumbled into a heap. "NOOO!"

      Dizzconnie sighed and shook her head, turning her head toward a rustling in the brush. She waved as Jinni and Xiakil emerged, but was rather disappointed that they were empty handed. "Anything eventful happen?"

      "No, what about here?" Jinni curiously glanced to Sovan, straining to see what he was covering with his arms. "Umm, do I want to know?" Then, from in Jinni's small bag, a tiny Angelpuss poked its crania out. It snickered slightly and disappeared into her bag once more.

      Frauns and Dizzconnie both shook their heads.

      "Hey, let me see that!" Jinni then shouted, catching eye of Frauns's stick and vine. He handed it to her and the others watched as she began measuring, tying, and ripping the vine. "Does anyone have any wire or anything?"

      "I have wire earrings," Dizzconnie offered, handing one to Jinni who then molded it to the shape of a hook and wrapped the vine around it several times before tying it.

      "It's a phishing pole!" the Bori declared, beaming.

      Frauns smiled. "Hey, we can phish in the stream!"

      Jinni slumped her shoulders. "Umm, yes, that's kind of what I was aiming for you to figure out. Anyway, who can phish?" She looked around, no one moved, except for Sovan, who was struggling to rebuild his wood pyramid. She laughed. "I guess we're doomed then," she joked.

      The blacksmith stood and took the phishing pole. "If any of us can learn to phish, it's me," he stated, trudging to the stream. "Umm, don't we need bait though?"

      Sovan finally snapped to attention and raised his paw. "Will a potato wedge do?" He sat up and rummaged in his bag before throwing a potato wedge to Frauns, who then sat and concentrated on getting a catch.

      "Now, can we get back to what we were trying to sort out, Sovan?" Dizzconnie asked flatly before looking to Xiakil and Jinni as they sat as well. "Xiakil, why haven't we learned about the Seven Black Lamps before? I've never heard about a war in these parts since- well never. The recent tension between Meridell and the Darigans is as close to anything like a battle we have had, but that had nothing to do with anything this uncanny." She brushed a few blades of grass from her blue cloak as the Lenny collected his thoughts.

      "After the empire failed, many of the lands wanted to forget about it. Records and statues, tapestries and any other artifact that the royals could find that told the story of the war was destroyed. The only thing left after that would be a rare item missed from destruction and the people who knew about it. No one spoke of it for a long time so they could focus on getting their lives back on track, and soon that generation passed and only then a select few knew about the war. Those select few were mainly descendents from important pets from that time who wished to be known about and those who actually believed the stories of the Seven that they were told while growing up.

      I knew because the population of Direwood saw the rising of the Safe or whatever Chanook calls it. It was about three years ago that he came here and started spreading word of a better world and Direwood's roots to the forest folk. Many of them believed him, but there are still a few left and I am one of them. It's quite awkward... not seeing this place alive with the rest of my people." He looked out into the forest, the late morning sun lighting it to a brilliant dance of verdant and gold hues.

      Sovan felt his tongue go dry, for it hung out of his mouth in his concentration. As he settled the last stick into place he leapt to his feet and gave a cry of success.

      "Were you even listening, Sovan?" the Gelert scolded, then standing and kicking his wood back into a muddled mound.

      "Hey!"

      "Whoa, stop for a moment," Jinni said, feeling the tension grow again. "The doggie duo need to calm down, got it?" she asked, stepping between them. Her Angelpuss then leapt from her bag and picked up one of the sticks. Strategically, it started placing them in formation once more, but this time leaving some of the limbs out so that the cone like formation had an opening. It grinned and stepped through the opening, curling up inside the tepee like structure. "Ok, now it's settled. No one disturbs the wood," Jinni concluded, backing away while trying not to laugh at the awed faces of Sovan and Dizzconnie.

      Soon, Frauns trotted back, his catch in hoof. That evening, they all enjoyed Catamara with fruit, bread, and potato wedges before bedding down for the night.

           "How big is this cursed forest!" Dizzconnie wailed at last, unable to contain her frustration any longer. It had been nearly a week since their first night in the forest as a group, and still she could see no end to the trees ahead. Her wings ached too much for her to fly, and now even Jinni's ever-cheerful attitude was not helping the matter.

      "Oh, we won't reach the edge for days, but I have a friend not far from here who has several Unis. I bet they would help us," Xiakil comforted, craning his neck to see around a large a large tree. "In fact, he lives up ahead."

      Sovan sped up to a fast run until he saw a rather large Neohome set in the woods. In the back were large corrals, with many different hued Unis gathered around. "Xiakil... who is this friend of yours?" he asked curiously.

      The Mutant Lenny grinned. "You shall see my friend, you shall see."

      As they drew near to the Neohome, a Pink Lupe strayed from the corrals, certainly surprised to see them. Her gaze landed on only one of them, however, and a shriek nearly leapt from her maw. "Sovan!" she shouted.

      The Fire Lupe grinned and ran to meet the other canine, suddenly halting about a yard from her. "Shanmei, what are you doing here? You- you were ill not very long ago, I thought you were in Coursett to see a doctor."

      Shanmei shrugged at her brother. "Once I got there I felt better so I decided to come back. I got lost in the forest not very long ago, and this Draik found me. He was going to Ovalon soon, so he said that he would take me there when he went. Heh, a lousy tracker I am you know. I should have sent for help before leaving Coursett I guess."

      The others gathered around and Shanmei darted inside to fetch the Draik, who was said to be Xiakil's friend. When the Lupress returned, with her was a Mutant Draik, who walked feebly and looked quite fragile.

      "Glad to see you, Xiakil," the Draik said warmly, claw resting on Shanmei's shoulder for support.

      "And to you, Sioxet." He told him of their needs, and the Draik nodded slowly.

      "Sure, you may take several if you wish, just be careful when getting them out of the corral." Sioxet watched as they slowly made their way to the back, Shanmei leading them. With a sigh of determination, he set a foot forward and started on his way back to the house without aid.

      The pink Lupress started listing off the Unis' names and ages, giving pieces of other random information every once and a while. When they finally reached the gate, she slipped in and whistled to get to the attention of the Unis. "Any Uni not going on this year's drive come over here!" she shouted, making the others flinch from her surprisingly loud voice. Eight Unis approached, and she choose two, a Shadow Uni and a White Uni. Once they had the Unis outside the gate, Shanmei introduced them formally. "This is Tiger Moon or Ti." The Shadow Uni gave a short dip of the maw. "And the White one is my best friend, Swia."

      Several minutes later, Shanmei and Sovan were riding double back on Swia, and Jinni and Dizzconnie on Tiger Moon. Frauns was able to run on four pillars beside the Unis, and Xiakil flew since he was slightly larger then the Unis.

     "Where are you guys going exactly anyway? I mean, I can bring you further then the forest boundaries if you like," Shanmei shouted to her brother over the roaring wind.

      "Coursett. We have to get to Coursett."

To be continued...