3. King's Companion

Quili couldn’t resist the temptation. She snuck back to the garden, quickly planted the second seed, and ran back to safety. A terrible foe walked these parts. A spy you never saw—probably more of that magic—but who always left behind a superseed. On purpose? On accident? It didn’t matter much, because she certainly didn’t want to disappear.

She subconsciously walked to the king’s tent to, accidentally, sleep close to him.

The next day, she immediately visited her garden. No, the crazy seeds hadn’t blossomed in a single night. Plants took years to do that—but they didn’t have that time! She did find Epoh, who sheepishly looked around in the center of her garden.

“I, erm, wanted to take a look.”

She nudged her friend with her snout. Her day already started great, feeling complete now that her friend was here. “I knew you’d come back.”

“That, that, that I didn’t say. It’s still a silly idea. We will be searching all day.”

Epoh trudged away. That Gossin with a phobia for blood walked through camp and talked loudly. Apparently, he had no phobia for annoying others.

“And that weird, crazy Equid over there thinks she’ll get a garden within a week! With plants that grow meat!” Half the army laughed at her. Gossin ran at Epoh, then ran past her, to the place where the first seed had been planted.

“Huh? Where is it? I can’t see it? Maybe I need to make some space.” He smashed the wooden fences and started digging. Anger rose and Quili felt like biting his tail.

An eagle descended and grabbed Gossin. Soon, the Gosti wiggled in a random treetop. It wasn’t the same eagle as yesterday: this one had a shorter beak and one red stripe on his wings. He spoke with a voice that seemed carried by the wind. “Everyone leaves her alone. We are one camp, one group, behave.”

Tibbowe saw it happen from a distance and didn’t interfere. Of course niet. She was just a worthless fighter in the eyes of this arrogant king. He’d let the animals do the work. Stupid king.

Quili repaired her garden and walked to the eagle to thank him. He, however, immediately took off in a hurry. In his place, he left a group of five animals. Four rabbits and … a badger?

“We,” a rabbit started, “have been asked to help you find the magical seeds.”

One moment you never hear the word. Then suddenly everything is magic!

“Thanks. Let’s not waste time.”

Epoh still stood at the edge of her garden. “Sorry,” she whispered, walking away. “What do I know, what do I know.”

As they entered the overgrown rainforest, Quili hesitated. What if she was right? There was an attacker who accidentally left behind a seed each time? Then she was walking straight into danger. Then, at the end of the day, somebody from this group would have disappeared.

Was that a worthy trade for a seed? No. Only a king would do something so bad. She actually cared for the animals. And for her friends—who apparently didn’t always reciprocate. Anger rose, rumbling in her belly, but was interrupted by the badger.

“Is that your plan? Aimlessly walk around? Look, my little horsey, I’m the last one to tell you we need a plan, but—”

Horsey? What was that? She studied his shining fur. “Did the honey badgers from Paraat come to help here?”

“Nope no, I am a sun badger. I came myself.”

“… but not to help fight?”

“I choose no side. I help where needed, but I am not for Tibbowe, or this army.”

She stopped abruptly, forcing two rabbits to bump into her hind legs. “So you are against Tibbowe!? You’re our enemy?”

“No. I am not for or against. I am help where needed.” He made himself tall and extended a single paw. Quili didn’t understand the posture. The badger ended up taking her front paw and shaking it a few times. A gesture she’d seen the Gosti do several times, she remembered now. “I am Didrik, a Companion without King.”

Weird being. And they called Quili insane? Though Companion without King did sound great. His muscular body showed he could live and eat well.

Noises. Crispy leaves and breaking twigs, a tree length or two at her back. She sighed—she let it happen again.

When she turned around, a rabbit had disappeared, leaving a shiny seed in its place.

She had to tell Didrik—where did he go? Two vanishings at once?

Of course not. She was naïve: Didrik was the attacker! With his pretty words about companions and what not.

The three rabbits looked at her anxiously. “If you don’t mind,” said a white one with black dots, “we’ll return to camp and stop searching.”

“No! Yes! Wait!” The rabbits hopped away with surprising speed. She had to gallop to catch up. “We go back, of course. But I need you. We shall find a way to get the seeds without disappearing.”

“And do you have such a way?”

Quili stayed silent.

Back at camp, she planted the seed. Her garden smelled and the ground was soaked. Sure, it was always wet and clammy in the rainforests, where the Clouds of Rampaging Rains could do what they wanted, but this was absurd. The floor was almost quicksand and she couldn’t stand the smell for long.

When night fell, Epoh and Gossin returned with meager results. Just a few piles of nuts and berries, and two dead mice this time. It was too little to even share, so it was stored with yesterday’s food, in the king’s tent.

Gossin comforted everyone by saying his species had learned to roast the meat above a fire. They discovered you’d get a lot more food this way, and it tasted even better. The others were just scared the Gosti would set on fire the little food they had.

Midnight came, and Quili was still wide awake. She searched a solution. She found only anger at Epoh, who called her crazy, and the others who destroyed her garden. Her best friend! Just walked away! Were they ever such good friends as she thought?

And then Didrik was—

Two animals calmly walked back into camp. Or, well, one walked graciously on four legs, and the other hopped. Didrik waved with his claw. Only the Gosti understood and waved back. It was a kind of greeting, but why not just bump your snouts into each other then?

He had brought back the rabbit. The vanished rabbit had unvanished. Didrik was a mystery, but surely interesting.

“Where did you find her?”

“I followed the attacker, for many miles through the jungle.”

“What is a mile?”

Didrik froze. “Ah, sorry, I meant like a hundred tree lengths.”

“And then? Who is it?”

“I didn’t see the creature. But they are smart and strong, or they wouldn’t be able to stay out of the hands of a Companion like me. At some point, it just gave up and let the rabbit go. And …”

He spit another seed into the ground.

Tibbowe greeted Didrik as if they were old friends. Their bodies bumped into each other and the nails on their claws clashed like swords. “Glad to have a Companion help us. And for sending someone so quickly!”

“Well oh well, I am always close.”

“Weren’t … weren’t you a companion without king?” Quili demanded, reminding herself she needed to learn when to shut her mouth.

“I am also a companion for some of the demigods. Long story. It would break your brain if I tried to explain.”

Pff. Insulting.

Tibbowe secretly pushed some food from his tent to Didrik. Of course, very kingly. They also invented words for that: unfair favoritism.

The sun badger refused.

The king smiled. “Since the conflict began, all animal species have picked one side. All lions are behind the gods. All wolves are against us. As far as I know, only one exception exists: the Companions. The gods told me many times. If you meet a Companion, forget their species, and trust them.”

He smiled at Didrik once more, then walked away satisfied. Quili planted the new seed and looked at the state of her garden. Just five more days, then they needed their “solution” ready. All soldiers had hunger in their eyes. The chance they’d win the next exhausting fight shrank by the day—like the chance she’d be allowed to stay in camp.

A new battle had suddenly erupted, when she was away looking for seeds. New wounds were the consequence. Some soldiers had sunk through their knees at the camp border, others were only kept upright thanks to a tent. Even the group of sheep always bumbling through the camp, without ever fighting, had stopped bleating and playing.

Only now Quili saw the sheep’s purpose. Tibbowe tried to catch their milk, as food. He tried to carefully remove their fur with his claws, to make more cloth for more tents. But it was far too little. The wool was raw, itchy, unusable. Tibbowe had no choice but to throw away the few plucks of wool he gathered.

The goal of this mission, however, was still a mystery to her. The two armies kept colliding at different locations in the rainforest, but none of them made progress. What were they looking for? What was that “magical place” for which they came?

She turned to Didrik. Now that she’d seen his sharp claws, his otherwise friendly appearance—like a pillow with a face—seemed suspicious. Still, she had no better idea than to involve him. Even if he was great friends with the stupid king.

“Can you repeat this?”

“I can try, horsey-borsey.”

“We need to get those seeds … without anyone else disappearing.”