It used to be everyone’s job to gather food; now it was everyone’s job to fight.

Not long after Bella—Goddess of Wisdom—was taken, the gods were attacked again. And again. Until the gods could do nothing else than declare war on their enemies. The gods had many friends in these woods—but their enemies apparently had even more friends.

The two armies had raced to Traferia. An area that had been unreachable until the fall of the Loveline, which meant is was still untouched rainforest. The trees were so close together they could hug each other’s trunk. The leaves shook hands overhead and kept out sunlight.

Nobody knew what the rainforest contained exactly, because nobody had been there before.

Two small Equids—horses before they were horses—waited in the dark, surrounded by lions, elephants and eagles. That was fine, because they were on their side.

The problem was the other army, who could hide behind every tree and contained animals they had never even seen before on Origina. For all they knew, they had scary cats who looked exactly like trees and were standing next to them right now.

Quili nudged Epoh with her shaking snout. She wanted to be home again, around the Heavenly Flowers of Eeris. “Please tell me again why we didn’t say no to the gods?”

“What do I know, what do I know.”

“Because the gods protect us,” an elephant nearby said. Quili could barely see the red stripes on his tough, gray skin. Three stripes: he was one of the highest commanders. “And they commanded me to come here immediately. Do you doubt me?”

“No, of course not, but—”

“Stop talking,” a lion growled softly.

It had to be midday now, but they trudged through an area as dark as night. The only sounds were snapping branches and crackling leaves. And of course two whispering creatures who would later evolve to become horses, but now were no larger than rabbits.

Two eagles suddenly left their branch. Most weren’t soldiers but explorers, their eagle eyes famous for their incredible sight.

Quili only heard one of them come back.

To her left, twenty voices roared. Before her eyes, a lion reared up and caught a wolf in his claws. The elephant lowered his tusks and pushed two incoming jaguars aside.

The eagles all left their trees, creating a rain of leaves and twigs, to collide with an endless horde of doves.

Quili and Epoh froze on the spot. They looked down at their useless hooves without so much as a sharp edge.

Something heavy landed on Quili’s back. She pranced, but this creature held on skillfully and yelled they belonged to her.

She looked over her shoulder. A Gosti, an ape-like creature who had grown too large to call a Ghost Creature by now, pointed somewhere.

The chaos and the noise delayed her understanding. She was supposed to take him there. She jumped over Epoh, ducked underneath an elephant, and swung between two eager yellow-dotted claws. Then the Gosti jumped off her back.

He was better off: he had a weapon. He fought with two spears, crossed before his body, twisting them round and round. The resulting whirlwind frightened the enemy without even touching them.

A wolf slid past the spears, but the Gosti quickly switched and pricked the spears into the tree like a ladder. As he jumped out of reach, the wolf turned to Quili.

The grey-brown beast made a huge leap and opened his mouth.

A spear came from above and killed the wolf before it could reach her.

Quili knew one thing for sure: she’d search her friend and run far away from this warzone.

And so they did.

One of the commanders had stayed in camp, together with a group of sheep. This lion, named Tibbowe, stood in a tent made from rough cloth, held up by Gosti-spears diagonally stuck into the dirt. It was a new invention. The camp could not hold more than a hundred animals with the few tents they had.

The gods had one rule: you do not hunt other animals within your camp.

That’s probably why Quili and Epoh had said “yes”. While they stood here, they were protected from meat eaters or other dangers.

Tibbowe looked fearful. “You … you are the only ones left?”

He quickly realized the truth. His manes shook wildly. “You ran away from the fight! You have deserted your brothers! Out of my sight. Leave this camp, now.”

“But … but … we can’t fight!”

“That is true,” a voice behind them spoke.

The lion who silenced them earlier walked into camp, dirt all over her fur and deep cuts in her sides. She greeted Tibbowe by licking his cheek and cuddling up to him. “These are truly the most worthless fighters of the entire army.”

Some called them king and queen of the rainforest. Quili found it a strange word and didn’t understand why it was invented. Weren’t the gods at war because other animals were angry they were bossed around? Wasn’t too much power the entire issue?

“Stupid king,” Quili whispered. “Stupid animals wielding power.”

“Yes, erm, yes, what you say,” Epoh whispered back.

She didn’t know if the king had heard. Maybe she should think before—

Tibbowe looked even angrier and she had to suppress the desire to spit in his face. He looked down on two shivering Equids. “Then I’ve made my choice. Disappear!”

The remainder of the army stumbled into camp. They were exhausted.

Some fell asleep immediately after setting foot on the camp border. The others looked at Tibbowe. Their bellies rumbled in unison, like a single roaring animal, and Quili briefly thought the enemy had infiltrated camp.

“My apologies, soldiers. I also have not been able to hunt for food.”

“This is untenable,” the elephant said. “We can’t fight and gather our own food. Certainly not in Traferia, where almost nothing walks or grows outside of this camp. And where are the gods? Is not a single one available to help?”

“The gods are busy putting out fires all around the world,” Tibbowe said sternly.

Quili let her surprise escape out loud: “The entire world is on fire?”

Tibbowe pushed the Equids out of camp with his soft claws.

“Figurative fires. I mean fighting is happening everywhere, which requires the gods’ attention. The honey badgers from Paraat, who started this army, are fighting at the Impossible Wall. To prevent anyone from crossing. If you don’t even understand that, you may surely leave this—”

“What about the sheep!?” Quili yelled. “Why don’t they fight?”

“They have another purpose! How dare you speak like that to a king—”

“Wait,” the queen said.

Tibbowe kept pushing a little longer, until they were at the border. Only then he turned around.

“They are worthless fighters, yes,” she said. “But maybe they can prove their worth by solving the food issue.”

“Yes! Yes! Sure!” Quili said, stepping inside camp again. “Give us a day—”

“Three days,” Epoh added.

“A week,” Quili decided, “and we have your solution.”

“A week!?” a Gosti screeched. “Another week without food?”

Tibbowe studied the group. Roughly fifty animals were left who could truly fight.

“Whoever thinks they aren’t an addition to our army,” he said, “joins these Equids in searching and gathering food.”

He looked somber and nudged his queen. “For a solution is necessary.”

Quili and Epoh were joined by two rabbits, one Equid who repeatedly told them his name was Samson, and a Gosti. His name was Gossin and he said he was a worthless soldier because of his phobia for blood.

As the camp behind them fell asleep, they had to come up with something.

Quili walked with Samson. Surely because the others were tired of hearing him talk.

How could they feed an entire army? If you were hungry, you found a plant. They just … appeared or something. That’s how it had always worked.

Though … Eeris, Goddess of Nature, could make plants grow whenever she wanted. There had to be a way—Quili didn’t know it.

So she hoped to pluck enough berries for the plant eaters and catch enough insects for the meat eaters. That hope disappeared as she scoured every part of the woods without result. And when she wanted to return to camp at night, she turned around and saw … nothing.

Samson was gone.

In his place, on the floor, lay an unnaturally huge seed.

Quili met Epoh on the way back to camp. Her answer to the question of where Samson had gone was predictable.

“What do I know, what do I know.”

She held the large seed between her teeth. She only knew tiny seeds, light enough that the wind could carry them to other places. But this one? It was larger than a piece of fruit—and heavy. As if she had to carry the weight of an entire Equid in her mouth.

Didn’t Eeris also carry seeds like these sometimes? She would blow them away or spit them into the ground. Quili almost accidentally swallowed the seed. Was that how Eeris made new plants grow?

“We must put this seed in the ground,” Quili said.

“What would that ever do?”

Quili snorted. “I’m just trying things! Maybe this one creates a plant that also grows meat!”

“Are you going to tell that to Tibbowe? He’ll laugh at us and send us away for good!”

“It’s an idea we have to try.”

“It’s a bad idea. A crazy idea.”

Epoh had received a basket from Gossin, which she carried around her neck. She used it to collect all food she could find: berries, nuts, and one dead mouse. Not even enough to feed one soldier.

“Yes”, Gossin said, as he suddenly stepped out of the shadows. “We will hunt and gather. That’s what we have been doing in forever, so it works! I don’t understand why other species refuse to follow our example.”

Quili did understand. De Gosti lived in large groups, cooperated, and ate both meat and plants. That allowed you to collect and store food for a while. All other animals were alone or in small herds. If they grew hungry, they’d just find food on the spot, and that was that. Maybe these camps would change that. Ever since Amor was founded, the gods were even starting to call them villages.

They entered camp. Tibbowe spoke to a group of eagles.

“We haven’t won a single battle,” he roared. “How? Are your eagle eyes blind?”

The eagles shook their heads. “The enemy hides well. They walk clever routes and sometimes seem to magically grow invisible to us. We really try, but we always see the enemy far too late.”

What did magic mean? She heard the word perhaps for the third time in her life. When she asked her parents, they claimed it didn’t even exist when they were young. This time, it was apparently bad. Bad enough to scare Tibbowe.

“If it’s magic … what hope do we have left?”

“The gods,” the eagle spoke confidently. “They’re our hope.”

Tibbowe sighed. “Then we move on. The Pricecats and their traitors may not settle here. My own home camp is already plagued by wolf dens because we were too slow to react. And keep looking for the place.”

“The place?” Quili let the question escape. Maybe Epoh was right and she had to stop doing weird things, before she was banished from the only safe camp in Traferia. To her surprise, the king responded.

“We raced to this place because something important might be here. Something the enemies may never get. If you find an odd place during your searches, one that feels magical, immediately let me know.”

The eagles frowned upon seeing the superseed in Quili’s mouth. She enthusiastically yelled: “We have a plan!”

“That one has a plan,” Gossin said. “We have a different plan.”

“So two plans,” Tibbowe said with a sigh. “Explain.”

“I will put this seed into the ground and then—”

“We have a seed under the dirt. Congratulations.” Gossin showed his half-filled basket to Tibbowe. “No worries, oh royal highness, we are actually looking for food and a solution.”

Epoh stood between them. Her eyes crossed those of her friend. “Sorry,” she whispered, as she joined Gossin instead of her. “What do I know, what do I know.”

As everyone walked away, a single eagle hopped to her. “What’s wrong with them, right? It’s a great idea! Maybe this is truly a seed from the gods. Each god has one Heavenly Object that contains part of their power—maybe this is the one for Eeris.”

“No, her Heavenmatter are the Heavenly Flowers. I lived there.”

“Then this must be a seed from that garden!” The creature, five times as tall as her, studied the seed from all angles with his sharp eyes. Sometimes it seemed as if they could see through objects. “Maybe it grows all kinds of food.”

“Yes! Exactly!”

“But you shouldn’t just throw it in the dirt anywhere,” the eagle said. “Where I come from, in Garda, Feria works on the Legendary Gardens.” Quili had heard about it. It was supposed to be beautiful, even though Feria had made them secretly, hidden from the other gods. She thought Feria might have hidden her Heavenmatter there too. “If we believe the gods, you have to create a garden for plants. With a fence around it, controlled.”

The eagle scratched his chin for a while with his wing. Then he wrapped it around Quili and drew even closer, as if he was about to reveal his biggest secret. But he didn’t—what he said was common knowledge. “Except Darus, of course, who still hasn’t found his Heavenmatter. What do you think it is? I heard he is much stronger than Ardex, the eldest god. Maybe his Heavenmatter could transform the entire planet!”

“Oh, but Ardex has the Firering. Surely that is stronger than all?”

“Some say … he has lost the Firering. And corrupted his Flamefeaster. Yes, sure, if he still had them, we would have already won the war long ago, right?”

“That would have been nice,” Quili mumbled. She was glad somebody supported her. Together, they found an area just outside of camp, where the trees could let go of each other for just long enough to create a clearing. It wasn’t much. But if this superseed made a superplant, it now had enough space.

The eagle smiled and winked. “So, hey, if you see a magical firey ring, also let us know.”

“But I’m not searching anymore. I’m making that garden.”

“Dear Equid, it’s only a garden if you have multiple seeds! Come, I’ll gather more animals, and then you can all search for more seeds.”

Quili agreed. They dug a small hole, spit the seed inside, and then closed it again. They remembered the location through a fence of vertical twigs. Midnight had come and Quili was exhausted. She planned to walk back to camp and fall asleep at the entrance. If the eagles were behind her, surely she could convince Epoh too. They were supposed to do this together, as always.

The forest had other plans.

Rustling sounded overhead. A pile of leaves fell down, as if a roof collapsed at once, and obscured her sight for many heartbeats. Two thuds. A bang. A withheld groan. When her world finally stopped rustling, and she had chewed away the leaves, she looked around her.

The eagle was gone. In his place, on the floor, lay an unnaturally huge seed.

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.”

The eagles kept their word. When Quili awoke, another one was protecting her garden. Now that she knew eagles could hardly see the enemies, though, she felt less safe. The other army could be nearby at any moment, and they wouldn’t know!

How did they do it? Eagles had the best eyes of all animals, right? She hoped Cosmo would come help. The God of Air and Space, in the shape of a giant bird, had to be able to spot the enemy.

Or did he also lose his Heavenmatter? The Windgustwing sometimes replaced his own wings, if he wanted to be really fast and strong. Why wouldn’t you always carry it? Why were gods losing their most valuable possessions?

And what was that, sticking out of the ground?

She wanted to visit her garden so badly that she tripped and rolled to it like a wheel. The eagle smiled at her. She only had eyes for a tiny stalk that broke through the earth. The very first seed she had planted.

“See! It works!”

Epoh and Gossin walked past, but neatly stayed out of her space. Gossin stuck out his tongue. “I will tell everyone they can eat a single thin stalk. Oh, oh, we have been saved!”

“Yes!” Epoh said. “Go … go do something useful for once!”

She looked at her friend. She looked away. Why … why was she saying this? Had she always secretly hated her? Tears welled up behind her eyes. Even with the eagle between them, she very much wanted to bite Gossin’s tail.

Didrik grabbed Quili to calm her down. He walked through the garden to check if any other seed was blossoming. The eagle was in no hurry this time and studied the tiny stalk with eager eyes.

The sun badger gave the taunting Gosti no attention. “Come, don’t let yourself be angered by those beings. We have things to do.”

Four rabbits followed him. “Didrik promised we’ll be completely safe.”

Then Didrik promised too much. But if that was needed to get the rabbits to join, she accepted it.

The plan was simple. Didrik and Quili would purposely walk faster than the rabbits, leaving them behind. As soon as one was taken, Didrik started the chase. Quili would run back to camp with the rabbits on horseback.

The plan also entirely depended on Didrik’s strength and if he could be trusted.

“Do you know why we’re here?” she asked him.

“Yes. But I can’t say.”

Ugh. All those beasts who knew more and said nothing. What did the soldiers think? Fight for their life without knowing what they’re fighting for? Her anger returned at full force.

“Why!? You don’t even belong to us! It’s a miracle you aren’t sleeping in Tibbowe’s bed already! What does Companions without King mean, truly?”

Didrik looked amused. “It means that, if Tibbowe does something stupid or unfair, I’d say something about it. Because I am not for him at all times, like … like a blind fan.”

“Fan?”

“Ah, yes, sorry, like a follower. Like those animals who are now starting to all follow the same faith. Juraism, I believe.”

His claws scratched a tree trunk to sharpen themselves. “Exactly because the Companions are honest and don’t belong anywhere, Tibbowe has a reason to be a good king. For if he isn’t, I will not come when he calls.”

“Well, well, then I don’t understand why you came! A good king does not send Equids away into a dangerous rainforest.” Quili snorted and looked away. Not alone. She would have been sent away with Epoh. But if things went wrong now … she was truly alone.

The sun badger looked pained. He surely considered leaving her behind and crawling back to Tibbowe. Secretly eat the only food and talk about how they were such good friends.

“You are right. We are here to find Heavenmatter, more specifically the object of Darus. The gods have searched high and wide, and never found it. This is the only area that has been inaccessible all that time. So where will it probably be?”

Quili looked around. The endless rows of trees became a green-brown blur. The woods felt like a suffocating tent, while being too open and vulnerable at the same time. If the camp moved again, it was likely they’d be the first to place their paws on fresh ground. And what happens to my garden? she thought. How do I move it along?

“Somewhere, somehow, this rainforest must hold a very powerful Heavenly Object.” She thought back to the conversation with the eagle. If somebody had answers, it would be Didrik. “What do you think it does?”

“Oh, I know what it does. But I can’t explain. It would break your brain.”

“Can you please stop—”

The now familiar sounds reached her ears. Breaking twigs, rustling leaves, always in the darkest parts and when you least expect it. Quili and Didrik pretended they heard nothing for several heartbeats. Then they turned around.

All rabbits were still there and looked back equally surprised.

“Maybe we’re scaring the … monster?” Quili whispered.

“Look!” A seed lay on the floor, on the hill ahead of them. Without vanishing, without attack. It stuck partially into the ground, flattened by some heavy paws. Probably been there a while.

The rabbits smiled and hopped to it, far outside of Didrik’s safe reach.

Quili realized the truth. The seeds didn’t appear on accident, they were now used to lure animals.

“No! Come back!”

The rabbit at the front was pulled from the hill. Quili immediately jumped in front of the others and grabbed the seed. Didrik pushed his claws into a tree, as if they were spears, and used them to climb up. Once among the leaves, he swung after the attacker while somersaulting. The rabbits clung to Quili as she galloped back to camp.

She returned safely. Didrik did not.

Epoh and Gossin returned hours later with a new food basket. Their search and gather skills were improving, almost filling the entire basket now. Still, that meant about five dead animals to feed an entire army of carnivores. But Tibbowe dubbed it a feast and decided they would have enough to eat tomorrow.

Quili waited and waited, until the sun set, and until it almost rose again.

Nobody knew she was still awake, checking the entrances for a sun badger. And that’s how she discovered why her garden smelled so badly.

A lion trudged to it, found a nice spot, and … pooped on top of her plants. Quili thought she heard an eagle approach. The gardenpooper quickly disappeared as soon as he was done.

They are using my garden as toilet! a voice in her head screamed. Forget lions are much bigger. Forget they could kill you in an instant. I want SO BADLY to bite the tail of that beast!

Did they not see she was trying to save everyone? Even if Epoh became the Master of Finding Food, it would not be enough and it would not be reliable. But plants? They were reliable—if her idea was right. If she’d learned the right lessons from watching Eeris all those years.

Grow the plants, collect more seeds from them, plant your next garden. And Traferia was full of untouched ground! This is how they gained an advantage over their enemy! But no, kings are stupid and only think about fighting.

At the same time … what would the soldiers do otherwise? They still need to poop and pee, and they’d just do it somewhere else, on top of other plants. Maybe some plants therefore evolved to use those particles to grow faster.

Even so. This was clearly meant to insult her.

She chewed on all these angry thoughts, time and time again, until with the sun rise a sun badger also returned.

Quili had never been this happy to see someone. Didrik had brought back the rabbit, but at a great cost. He had fresh cuts in his side and sank into the first tent he saw. She now believed Tibbowe’s glowing words about him—why he’d sacrifice so much of himself for creatures he barely knew was unbelievable.

As the camp awoke, she guarded Didrik, who had fallen into a deep sleep.

Epoh and Gossin walked past, this time carrying three empty baskets.

“Man, she really does nothing all day,” the Gossin said loudly.

Epoh looked disgusted. Her friend’s voice sounded different. “While we work hard, she is sleeping against another animal’s tent.”

“Puh.” Gossin maakte een gebaar met zijn vingers dat ze niet kende, maar het was vast niet aardig. “Maybe it’s time somebody shows how useless her garden is.”

Everyone around them suddenly looked at the garden. As if they’d forgotten it existed or thought Quili had given up by now.

And they all saw multiple stalks growing from the dirt. Quili jumped and happily ran to it. Gossin looked frustrated and swung after her, from tree to tree.

He beat her to the garden and landed exactly on one of the plants. The crack sounded to her ears like a bone breaking. Gossin was fine—her plant was note.

“Oops! How silly I am. I just walk—” He tripped again, his body flattening another plant.

“Stop! Go away! Stupid ghost.”

Quili pushed him aside and tried to bring her plant back to life. As if it would remember how to connect the two broken pieces back together. She hoped Didrik would calm her down, but he slept like a stone.

The worst was yet to come. Epoh also walked into her garden and “tripped” over a plant near the edge. Her best friend, her only friend, happily participated in killing her dream. Happy and nervous.

“Why!? Why are you doing this!?”

Epoh’s voice was almost inaudible. “What do I know, what do I know.”

If she felt guilty or not, it didn’t matter. It was about what you did. And even though Quili understood, her anger broke her brains for just a moment.

She jumped at Gossin, kicked her strong hind legs backward, and hit him square in the face. As he yelled from the pain and rolled backwards through the garden, she bit his tail. The screams by the Gosti sounded wonderful to hear ears—and woke up Tibbowe.

An eagle dove from the heavens and pushed the two apart.

The royal lion took over. Gossin bled heavily, but rapidly hopped to Tibbowe to complain. “She attacked me! It was like she tried to eat me! That is against the rules, which say—”

“I am familiar with the rules,” Tibbowe said calmly, “which I instated myself.”

“Well, then, you know she must be banished!”

“No! I … I …”

She had attacked him. He had never hurt her, only her garden. Didrik was still asleep and couldn’t help.

It was done. This king had never liked her. She lived, and was allowed to collect seeds, only because of his sweet wife. And now her life was over.

“The same rules,” Tibbowe said, “that forbid destroying another animal’s property.”

“Wa … wa? I tripped.”

“Me too,” Epoh squeaked.

“Multiple times? Simultaneously? And what were you doing here? Or were you secretly walking to the enemy, who aren’t far from this garden according to the eagles?” Quili suppressed a neigh. The eagles could have told her sooner!

“But oh royal highness, my tail! Attacked! Blood!” He held up his tail with black rings, though they were mostly red rings by now, and nearly pushed it into Tibbowe’s nose.

Quili frowned. “Did … didn’t you have a huge phobia for blood?”

Gosti already had large eyes. Gossin’s eyes now seemed too large for his head. In a flash, Tibbowe lunged for the animal, but it slipped through his claws, climbed a tree, and swung away from the camp. Five eagles immediately took off to chase him down.

“That explains,” Tibbowe growled, “why we lose each battle. Spies lived among us. So all Gosti must actually stand behind the enemy!”

“Not true!” the other Gosti in camp immediately said. “We stand behind the gods! We have proven that, believe us, please.”

Tibbowe considered. Quili saw a flash of anger in his eyes, an eagerness to kick out all the Gosti, but he contained himself. “Then you are a Split Species. The only animal that is not entirely on one side.”

“Is that … is that good?”

“I am not sure.”

The stern eyes of a lion looked down on cowering Quili. “Make no mistake, Equid. Attack once more and you are banished for good.”

It might have sounded fair, dear reader, but banishment just meant the other soldiers would eat her. As soon as she wasn’t part of camp anymore, all those lions and eagles did not have to follow the one rule. And she could never win from those creatures.

She had to learn how to contain her anger.

Tibbowe walked away.

“Thank you,” Quili said softly. He still heard and turned around for a faint smile.

“I want to question all the Gosti in our camp. Visit my tent at once.”

As a river of ape-like creatures streamed into the king’s tent, Quili studied her garden. Only a few plants remained. And she was doing so well! They grew far more quickly than regular plants. It seemed … it seemed there were more plants than she even had seeds. Could they really be magical? Once that grow a hundred plants at once?

Epoh walked to her with a basket between her teeth. “I … erm … can I join you?”

“No.”

Quili searched for her rabbits and planned to find ten seeds today, to repair her garden. That Epoh was now afraid to go alone, well, well, that was her own big fat fault. Traitor. Her act with the tripping was laughably bad.

Epoh exited the camp on the left, Quili on the right. Didrik was impossible to wake up, so she had to go alone. Something that made the rabbits very nervous. Bu now that she knew seeds were used to lure planteaters, she hoped to do something clever.

Namely, not touch anything. Remember where they were, then send someone else, like Tibbowe. Would he do that? For her? A few days ago, the answer would clearly have been no. Now she saw a world in which the king helped her.

A tap behind her. Another tap, dull and numb, which made a rabbit on her back squeal. As she turned around, she received a tap on the back of her own head. It hurt, but not enough to knock her unconscious. Whoever attacked—

Nobody attacked. The next tap came from her hooves, loud enough to make something crack.

It rained eggs.

Eggs larger than she’d ever seen. Admittedly, she hadn’t seen many eggs—as she was no bird and did not eat them—but she was sure these were oversized. She felt the same weird energy as with the large seeds.

The world turned black.

Two heartbeats later, all sunrays returned.

Overhead flew a giant bird. His two wings mixed with the color of the foliage, but won when it came to size. Was that …

“Cosmo! Cosmo!”

A beak turned downward. The god had to descend in a spiral around the trees, for he had no space for a regular landing in this overgrown rainforest. When he finally stopped, the rabbits were blown from her back due to the gusts of wind.

“Pardon me.” He had two normal wings. So no Heavenmatter for him.

“Where is your Windgustwing?” Quili asked. Ugh, she should’ve said her name first, or bow to him or something.

“If I am right, dear beast, then it is held by the wrong paws.”

Screams sounded from camp. Two eagles sang something, which other birds copied like a trumpeting melody. Quili felt the ground shake and a nasty wind pick up. That happens when hundred animals run at each other and play with their powers.

The next attack. This time, the enemy seemed to have found their camp.

My garden! My garden! Cosmo took her and the rabbits in his claws and zoomed to the camp. He was fast, and still most of camp had already been destroyed. Several elephants didn’t fight: they carried whatever tents and weapons remained in baskets on their back.

Fifty hungry soldiers, with barely any power left in their paws, had to divide their attention. A part kept the enemy at bay. The other part tried to sneak away. Far away enough that they could build a new camp in the dark woods without being seen. Quili saw it all happen from up high—she hoped the enemy soldiers below did not notice.

“Put me down! There!”

“Pardon? Why?”

“My garden!”

“Your …”

Cosmo landed in the middle of a stirred-up patch of dirt. Quili could only recognize her garden through a part of the fence that was still upright. The running and digging had brought the seeds back to the surface. Now they lay scattered like marbles that had collided and then rolled away.

Cosmo grabbed one and studied it. “This confirms it,” he muttered to himself.

“Confirms what?” Quili tried to talk through the growing pile of seeds between her teeth.

A pack of wolves had seen them and came for them: the biggest in front and the others in a V-shape behind it. She put her entire trust in Cosmo and continued gathering the final seeds.

And indeed, the God of Air waved his wings once—and you’d think the wolves had suddenly become birds. Their surprised squeaks completed the imitation.

When she was done, she climbed back on Cosmo’s wing, like a mountain made of feathers, and ended on his back.

This was why they fought for the gods. Cosmo allowed it, without hesitation, and took the weight of her and the rabbits as if it was nothing. The gods just wanted more life. Why did the enemy’s only goal seem to end and waste as much life as possible? Who would do something like that? Cosmo would protect everyone and—

“There! More seeds!”

“A battle rages, dear Equid.”

“Doesn’t matter!”

Cosmo dove. He fit precisely between a fighting elephant and a group of eagles on the other side. A trunk almost hit Quili in the head. Cosmo turned elegantly, grabbed the two seeds, then took off again.

“And there! And there! Why are there so many seeds here?”

Of course, Cosmo saw them too. He had eyes just like the eagles. Quili was still too happy to stop yelling. They repeatedly dove at frightening speed, as if Cosmo was crashing, only to pick up a seed with incredible precision.

Two Gosti threw spears at other Gosti. Confusing. She wasn’t sure who was on whose side. Tibbowe thought so too, as he’d distributed some sort of bracelets. Some Gosti now wore a colorful ring of leaves around their paw: they belonged to her.

A flock of doves came for them. Always so many. Hundreds of doves tried to bring Cosmo down. No help from the eagles came, or other birds in her army. Probably because they assumed Cosmo could do it alone. Beaks jabbed at her fur, paws, nose, ears. The rabbits were able to chase away doves with their long, sharp teeth. But for each dove that vanished, three new ones seemingly appeared.

“Hold on tight,” Cosmo said, as he spit white feathers.

“How?”

Cosmo suddenly turned upside down. Quili clung her hooves around his thick neck to stay put, but she wasn’t sure for how long. The rabbits formed a chain below her, their long ears the only way to grab each other. Most of the gathered seeds flew out of her mouth, forcing her to loosen her grip and reach out to safe them.

The doves registered the turn too late. Cosmo’s wing batted them away, as if playing a sport, to the other side of Traferia. Cosmo flapped his wings once more. Because he was upside-down, this made him go down, which surprised the doves again.

He twisted below a surprised elephant as Quili saw the world in the usual way again. Four wolves were about to kill the grey, giant beast. Cosmo landed between them in a whirlwind, which bent the trees backward until they broke and fell on a group of snakes.

The gap in the foliage finally revealed the sun, whose rays illuminated Cosmo precisely. He caught his breath and waited until Tibbowe was with him.

Quili saw a basket in the distance. She and the rabbits ran for it, threw all their collected seeds inside, and jogged back to Cosmo.

Wait. A basket. Isn’t this exactly …

She looked back. Exactly at the location where they grabbed the basket, a seed revealed itself.

They took Epoh too.

A new whirlwind, this time of the feelings within her. Her friend! What if they did something horrible to her? What if she was dead?

No. Her “friend” had made very clear that she wasn’t her friend. And she had destroyed her garden!

Cosmo spoke his final words to Tibbowe. When the sunlight dimmed, Cosmo flapped his wings again, but in a different way. Leaves, twigs, dirt, and even insects all took off and created a suffocating, dark brown mist. Quili could see nothing. When she was grabbed and placed on somebody’s back, she could only trust it was alright.

It was alright.

They soon left the mist. Their army had been prepared for it and used it to sneak away. A new camp had been built, close to a stone formation which spiraled towards the sky. Its path was wide at the bottom, but the further you turned upwards, the more it all came together in a singular point.

The enemy still roared and tried to find their way through the mist.

Tibbowe bellowed at the eagles. “How can this happen again and again!?”

“We don’t see them coming! They must have magic. Something special.”

“They do have something special,” Cosmo said. “My Windgustwing.”

The king frowned. “How can you be sure? Are you sure?”

Cosmo held up a few superseeds, and then a few of the supersized glowing eggs. “These items are not normal, of course. They come from animals under the influence of my Heavenmatter.”

“I thought the wing only allowed you to fly faster.”

Cosmo shook his head and placed the seeds in Quili’s basket. “Why do you think we made our Heavenmatter? I made mine before I was banished and became a bird here, which means it does far more than bird-related magic. It contains powers I don’t have without it.”

“Such as … make large seeds?”

“It enlarges. It strengthens. It works for all, though it is most potent with airborne animals. Whenever a bird eats a plant or fruit, it will poop out its seeds a while later. That’s how plants normally spread to different areas. But if that bird is under the influence of my Windgustwing …”

“Superbig seeds,” Quili said in awe.

“Frankly, its magic is still much of a mystery to myself. It’s so strong that I can’t even be close to my Windgustwing for too long.”

“That’s why you don’t wear it all the time!” Quili interrupted him. Gods must have incredibly patience to allow her all these interruptions. A bit like kings.

“I have to be away from my Heavenmatter part of the time. Don’t touch it, don’t come close. Otherwise my body, my brain, maybe my magic breaks. Like … like a Gosti who can be strong thanks to a spear, but if you take it with you to bed, you will accidentally hurt yourself badly.”

A soft paw nudged Quili’s side.

“See? You don’t want to break your brain,” Didrik said.

Tibbowe entered his tent and came back with two baskets of food. All that was left after their rushed flight.

And nothing was left.

Oh, yes, the baskets were filled with things. Bits of meat, some berries, lots of dead mice. But it had been stored for several days now, so it had started to rot. Mold grew over the pieces of fruit and Tibbowe couldn’t even smell it without pulling away and dropping it. Epoh wasn’t even here to bring fresh food today.

The army sank to the floor, defeated. They were exhausted. Their bellies rumbled like thunder, all equally empty, singing the same song of impending doom.

Quili sought a new location for her garden. Somewhere halfway the spiraling stones, protected by some pointy rocks, she found an empty patch of land. Didrik and her replanted the seeds.

The eagles quickly came to help.

“How did you find so many?” one asked.

“During the battle, the ground was littered with them.”

Maybe the secret spy did accidentally leave them behind. All soldiers of the other army were under the influence of the Windgustwing. They couldn’t help leaving behind magical things regularly.

“Maybe … maybe tomorrow you need to go back to find more. You have no idea how our stomachs ache.”

“We will need it,” a Gosti sighed. They also helped rebuild the garden.

“They are plants!” a lion complained to Tibbowe. “We can’t eat those. We need meat. Have you ever seen a meat garden?”

“Have you ever seen magical seeds? Would you like to walk back to enemy territory now to hunt?”

The seeds were quickly replanted once the elephants also came to her aid. And the queen. At the end of the day, an exhausted Quili looked out at a flat garden, wishing stalks would appear.

Tibbowe and Cosmo walked back to the only tent left. “We can’t take this any longer. I will not watch as every animal, every single one, dies of hunger. We will pull back and let the enemy have Darus’ Heavenmatter.”

Cosmo clacked with his beak. “You have now seen the power of these objects. They can not have Darus’ object, or the war is over.”

“But—”

“I might know where to find it.”

Cosmo and Tibbowe had spoken for a long time, sometimes loudly and sometimes in whispers, as they pointed at maps of the area. Quili slept with a worried heart, but no longer for her garden. For Epoh, who had been taken, maybe already eaten. Yes, she was mean to here. Yes, she dropped her friend when she needed her most.

But surely, a few mean words were not on the same level as dying. Maybe she could get her friend back. She wanted to try, if only to say the mean things back to her and then smile and hug again.

And she worried for the mission. Tomorrow morning, the army would race to the place that was supposed to have Darus’ Heavenmatter. Didrik could not—or did not want to—explain, but they all spoke of it like a turning point in the war. The weapon with which the gods would win in less than a week. She anticipated such an object would not be easy to find.

“Let’s hope,” Cosmo said as he exited the king’s tent. “We did not even want to start this war. It has already taken too long. Each life lost is one too many.”

Yes, Quili had chosen the right side, she was sure. Though it was not really a choice, as she was born on the continent ruled by the gods. The only reason all these predators did not eat hear, was because she was born on the right side of an arbitrary line. Would the gods still help her if that wasn’t the case?

She tapped Didrik’s shoulder. “We have to look for Epoh tomorrow.”

“Can’t,” he said sleepily. “I go fronty-front in the search for Darus his object.”

“Don’t!” Quili said, much louder than anticipated. “I mean, what if something happens to you? What if we’re unable to spot hte enemy again, and you’d be the first to …”

“Oh, ah, don’t worry, I only die in the distant future.”

“What?” Quili sighed. “Let me guess: it would break my brain to—”

“Yesso.”

“Then choose a side! Choose our side. You’ve seen how peaceful the gods are. How they do not want to fight. And you—in some weird way—know you’re not dying anyway …”

“Peaceful?” Cosmo suddenly appeared. She had forgotten his hearing could, according to legends, even hear whispers on another continent. “Don’t want to fight? We are more than eager to fight. We have exterminated many species in the past, ask Didrik.”

“Nah, rather not, it would break your—”

“We understand you must sometimes fight to prevent future pain. The problem? This is exactly what those Pricecats want.”

She had to admit: her brain was broken. They had to fight to defeat the Pricecats, but that’s what they wanted for some reason, so they had to not fight them? No wonder the gods hoped the war was over tomorrow.

“Can’t the Chiefgod come and help? Juraism shows that—”

“Stop that! Juraism is an invention! We are your Chiefgods.”

“… all of you?”

Cosmo sighed. “It is insane! You are surrounded by real, living gods every day, and still the animals believe in made-up gods they cannot even sea!?” He nervously picked crumbs and dirt from his feathers. “In the old days, when you wanted plants to grow and blossom, you’d visit Eeris. Goddess of Nature, always ready for you in the Rainbow Forest. Now they sing songs and prays to a made-up God of Fertility. And when the plants start to grow after a while—which would have happened anyway—they think their prayers have been answered!”

“Is it true that her Heavenmetter are the Heavenly Flowers? In the Rainbow Forest?”

Cosmo flew away. “I think we need to tell fewer animals about the Heavenly Objects and where they are.”

Camp fell silent. Everyone slept to recharge energy for tomorrow. Energy that had to come from somewhere, because they lacked food. She was about to dream herself when she heard noise from her garden.

A clear stomping and scraping noise. The group of lions that stomped through her garden didn’t even attempt to be secretive. Was it that bad? Why were they all against her? Was her garden the worst idea ever?

She ran to them, unsure what to do.

“Stop! Or I will get Tibbowe!”

“Sure, he’d love that,” a lion said after trying to split a seed with his sharp nails. He succeeded after many attempts. “Losing precious sleep. And when he looks … we’ll be gone.”

“Why!? Why do—”

One of them suddenly dashed forward. Quili staggered in fear, but the lion stopped just before his teeth grabbed her throat. The lion remained underneath her hooves, making it hard not to hit him.

“We need meat! Like most of the army. This is all a waste of energy and space.” They walked through her garden, again, to destroy every single part. Half the army had helped her plant many seeds and protect them with fences. It didn’t matter against five giant lions.

They licked their teeth. Quili’s right paw dug into the dirt, preparing a leap, powering up her anger. They all treat me like garbage! the voice in her head screamed. Shall I treat THEM like garbage?

She really wanted to bite in his tail. Yes, the one in the front, now eating two seeds at once.

At least half the camp must have woken up from the noise of these not-so-subtle criminals. She sprinted at the first lion, staggered, ready to smash a hoof into his face, to bite his tail, to scratch wherever possible, before—

They did this on purpose.

The lion smiled. As if a wild near-horse didn’t charge at him with red eyes. He’d accept any wounds, if it meant Quili was banished and allowed to be eaten.

She roared and fought the anger. Her paws fell down, stuck to the ground. She made herself tall and did not move again.

The other soldiers came looking for the source of the noise. They saw a group of lions flee the place. They tried to hide their faces, but enough animals had seen the perpetrators.

“These lions have purposely destroyed my garden and threatened me,” Quili said. Her voice had trouble staying calm and clear. She knew this was the right choice.

To her own surprise, she trusted Tibbowe. Her king.

Tibbowe left his tent lazily. His expression was dark. This had really upset the king.

“Stop them!”

A few elephants were enough to create a wall. The Gosti used their weapons and ropes to arrest the lions. Tibbowe studied the damaged to the garden, which meant he mostly studied a patch of dirt that didn’t represent anything anymore.

“I thought I was clear about our rules.” He sniffed. “With a pained heart, I banish my own lion brothers from camp.”

“Your own family!?” the foremost lion yelled.

“A king does not discriminate. You are all my family,” he spoke.

“No.” Quili again spoke before thinking, but her feeling was certain. She could only think about Epoh and how she was wasting time before saving her friend.

The lions had challenged her and eaten a few seeds. That was not the same as being sent away, almost to a sure death in the hands of the enemy.

“I forgive them. They may prove themselves in the mission tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Didrik yawned. “In a few sleepless hours, you mean.”

“Stop whining,” Quili said with a laugh, “you apparently have all the time in the world.”

Didrik grinned. “That I do, that I do.”

Tibbowe looked around, taking in every soldier face. “If … if everyone agrees with that decision?”

Quili nodded. Most of them nodded. “Then I retract my banishment. And now no more—”

All eagles descended from the trees at once. “They found it!”

“Pardon?” Cosmo had seen them much earlier and landed in their midst.

“The enemy! We’ve finally learned how to spot them, thanks to Cosmo. And they have been trying to break a door in a cave for hours. While preparing to run into the place when the door opens.”

“A thousand manes!” Tibbowe yelled. “Ready yourself! You have until sunrise, then we leave at once.”

When the very first sunrays appeared, they indeed left. The entire army ran away. Not blood-thirsty or full of adrenaline, but tired and done with this war and hungry bellies. Quili was one of the few to stay behind, joined by the rabbits.

This time, however, they didn’t need to look for seeds. They were scattered around camp itself. Had they fought a battle before, right here? She didn’t understand and looked around suspiciously. Once she had gathered more than twenty seeds, she was quite certain nobody hid in the bushes to attack her.

Her garden had to restart again. Only one, thin stalk stood upright. The eagles were the only ones to support her from the start. Big, strong beasts. Rulers of the skies. And even that wasn’t enough to save her garden.

Wait …

Of course it wasn’t enough.

The eagles didn’t really help, they only told here to collect more seeds all the time. And what appeared in camp after all eagles had descended? Seeds.

“Say rabbit creature—”

“My name is Hop. I risk my life for you, and you don’t even learn—”

“Hop, sweet Hop, what exactly is the eagle diet?”

“They are pure carnivores.”

“Pure … carnivores. So no plants? They can’t eat plants?”

“Yes, yes, that’s what it means to—”

The rabbits realized too.

And if the eagles worked for the enemy, then …

Quili raced out of camp.

“The message is wrong! Don’t listen to the eagles!”

The eagles came back with empty claws, which made Epoh both happy and sad. It meant they hadn’t snatched Quili. It also meant she was the next one to be eaten. What could she do? What did she know, what did she know.

Kajar, a Pricecat who frightened her just by breathing, looked hopeful. “And?”

“They believed it immediately. They will leave at dawn.”

Kajar’s grin flashed his long hook teeth in the moonlight. “That is quickly. Then we must be ready at the cave. Bunjo!”

The brown bear was barely visible in the rainforest. He reluctantly walked to Kajar. A leaf bandage wrapped around his left paw and forehead. He didn’t want to use his damaged paw, so he walked a bit askew.

“Is the door ready?”

“You said I had one more day?”

“Is—it—done?”

“Yes, yes, yes. Not such a pretty door, but it will work.”

Sheeps walked past, stolen from Epoh’s camp. Even the enemy couldn’t use their terrible wool or meager milk for anything. Now that they had become useless, Kajar was about to slaughter them all for their meat.

For now he pushed them aside. “Nobody said it had to be a pretty door.”

“I am the Biggest Bearchitect. I make no ugly objects.”

Kajar pushed him on his back in an instant. Bunjo was unable to save himself with only three paws, so the sheep softened his fall.

“You were the Biggest Bearchitect. Now you are my slave.”

Epoh had seen it happen. In his haste, Bunjo had accidentally hit his own paw with his hammer. Something a bear builder—especially the Biggest Bearchitect—should never allow to happen. Still she hoped he’d keep Kajar busy as she searched a way to escape.

The rising sun brought salvation instead. The army left calmly, in a long column, for the cave. Bunjo carried the door they’d place in the opening. They were all just as hungry as Tibbowe’s army, except the strongest fighters. Predators and meat eaters, all of them.

Each time the eagles had made somebody vanish, they fed their prey to those soldiers. But they were clever enough to keep you alive until they wanted to eat you, to prevent your meat from rotting and spoiling.

Epoh now stood at the front of this hastily built wooden prison.

A prison that was quite beautiful and nice to stand in. At least she knew who must have built it. It didn’t change her terrible fate, nor that of her imprisoned companions: one depressed Gosti and a rabbit, the latest catch.

Epoh had been gathering her courage for days. She hated it. Being so uncertain, being afraid of everything, so she always let others decide what happened. She responded to everything with “what do I know”, when, in fact, she often did know. She did not want to be weird, and Quili’s garden idea was weird.

When she saw this army was trying the exact same thing, she realized weird ideas could be good ideas.

Almost dying had the strange effect that she could step over her fear for once.

“Bunjo!” she whispered. He did not turn around, but stepped backward as if the door was growing too heavy to carry.

“Say it?”

“Free me, please. You must know a way.”

“Kajar would kill me.”

“If he finds out.”

“We just placed an infallible trap. Tibbowe will open the door, be stuck, lose his whole army. Kajar wins this battle—and when he returns to see the empty cage …”

“Then we must also make sure he loses.”

“BUNJO!” Kajar yelled it from fifty tree lengths away. “You should have made a less heavy door! Without wooden decorations of wolf heads and flowers! Walk!”

Bunjo sighed. He threw the door on his back, as if it weighed nothing again, and trudged away. You see, a little voice in Epoh’s head spoke. Even when you act, it doesn’t change a thing.

In the dirt, where Bunjo’s injured paw had been, a twig with a weird shape caught her attention. Square bits, sharp corners, and a round branch containing bite marks. She had seen Bunjo carry this around. What did he call it?

Key. Epoh pushed herself from the edge of the cage and reached for the branch. She could touch it, but not grab it. She could only press it to the floor and shove it closer to the cage. When the key finally entered the cage, a Gostihand quickly snatched it from her.

“Give back that—”

With his flexible fingers, he could hold the key easily and push it in the keyhole. Three rotations later, the cage opened with more screeching than she wanted.

The Gosti gave back the key. “T-Thank you.”

“For what?”

“I was afraid they’d immediately eat me if I talked to Bunjo. If I tried to escape. But you …”

“No time, no time.”

Epoh ran out of sight, which was easy in overgrown Traferia. She searched for another route of camp. Away from the army, but close enough to perhaps warn Tibbowe.

She walked past their “garden”. Ten animals were left behind to work it. Epoh pushed herself behind a tree, then felt for that Gosti, but he was gone. He swung between the trees, going the other way. Away from both armies and probably Traferia.

Instead, those sheep were suddenly behind her. Their wool was thin and prickly; she quickly pulled back her paw.

Pricecats walked through the garden to … poop on it? The caretakers of the garden, mostly smaller catlike creatures, did not mind or even notice. They … they even nodded? As thanks?

These seeds had almost become full-grown plants. Since her arrival, this garden had grown to five times its size, all thanks to the magical seeds the eagles dropped. Some stalks received a yellow ball at the top, while others were yellow-brown with a pointy top.

Mais. Grain.

In this time period, dear reader, plants were much smaller. Most of it was inedible, just shell and seeds. Of course, the animals did not know that grain and mais would grow much larger and more nutrient later. Epoh had never seen this much food in one place—and they had grown it themselves!

She salivated and considered running into the garden to steal some. Against ten guards though, no matter how small, she didn’t dare.

The animals started singing. A prayer for which they all knew the words and movements. The Goddess of Fertility was asked for help. If she could please keep the weather mild, the dirt fresh and fertile, and certainly not send fires or floods. If she could please send good fortune and strong seeds, wherever she was.

Animals had been praying like this for centuries. They’d ask the forest for berries or nuts. For a multitude of healthy children. It had been a habit for a while to ask nature for fertility and fortune.

But she’d never considered applying this to your own garden. Neither had the enemy, she realized. The mais and grain alternated with other plants. Loveroses, the new plant you’d collect if you asked for many healthy children. Violets of Fortune, the classical plant to use if you wanted to ask the Goddess of Fertility for something. Even Turnbacktulips, a plant rejected by Origina because it would supposedly bring misfortune.

This garden was a ritual. They had made this to ask their gods for help in this war, for help in finding food. They had done this every season, for centuries.

That this accidentally yielded food they could control—that, they only realized when they saw Quili try it.

What Quili didn’t know, dear reader, is that the animals had helped her. Poop particles are incredibly helpful to plants. For the same reason as always: what survives, stays. Animals need to poop anyway, every day, so any plant that could use those particles had a huge advantage over those who couldn’t. And so, after a while, the world only contained plants who liked this fertilizer. They grew faster and stronger from it.

By trying to destroy her garden, they’d actually made it work—though the magical seeds did the rest. Nature often works like that. The animal who persists will turn a bad situation into a good one. Let’s see if Epoh and Quili could also do it this time.

Quili followed the army’s trail, hoping she was in time to warn them of the eagles’ deceit. The trees hugged each other so tight, however, that most soldiers were forced to walk in each other’s trail. Traferia pressed them all together until their fur scratched trees and snapped vines, creating an even larger mess of leaves and branches.

She couldn’t find the army; she could find a few stragglers. Some Gosti leaned against a tree trunk with eyes closed, which looked like crumbs of sand amidst the much larger lions around them. One heard Quili come and cracked open one eye.

“Oh. You.”

“Has Tibbowe sent you? Like … like …” Their silence betrayed the truth. Tibbowe didn’t know this.

“We can’t,” the Gosti whispered. “This is mad. I’ve eaten too little to raise an arm, and we’re supposed to fight?”

She tried to help the Gosti up with her hooves, then her snout. The only result was that they now slept on top of a lion.

“Listen! Wake up! They are walking straight into a trap!”

More of them opened their eyes. “Why do you think—”

“The eagles are not on our side! They make animals vanish and leave behind a seed, because they secretly have the Windgustwing!”

The Gosti studied each other. “But that is great news!”

“What?”

“Then we have an excuse for staying behind!”

Quili swung the Gosti on his feet. “Which of you is the fastest? Go back to Tibbowe and try to warn him?”

“That would be me,” said the largest lion. “Mane oh mane, being commanded by an Equid, the world is going insane.”

He still listened. Suddenly, he reached top speed, which was dangerous, because he was too tired to run straight. After two almost-collisions with trees, he tried a new running style: push off trees and zigzag just above the ground.

“Does one of you know the path to Darus’ Heavenmatter? Or other details about our actual mission?”

Some Gosti nodded. Tibbowe had taught them formations: if you had enough soldiers, you could make a clever square such that everyone protected each other. They all instantly made that formation; at least their training had been effective.

It was less effective when everyone was too tired to stay in formation.

The group meandered through the woods as if they were all sleepwalking. The lions on the outside kept walking inwards, flattening the Gosti who then had to roll away. When Quili wanted to up the tempo, her paws also gave in and she dove headfirst into the sand. The other creatures had a delayed reaction, so they joined her on the floor soon after. This formation was great at stirring up dirt, but if they met an enemy …

And what if Darus’ object had protection? A monster guard? She’d heard other magical places usually had some tough test you had to overcome.

This was a disaster. “Is it far?”

“I thought we were already there?” a Gosti said, surprised. “Why else are we digging?”

“Because I can barely lift my claws.”

Het werkte minder goed als iedereen te moe was om de formatie aan te houden.

De groep slingerde door het woud alsof ze allemaal slaapwandelden. De leeuwen aan de buitenkant liepen steeds naar binnen toe, waardoor Gosti werden geplet en halsoverkop naar buiten moesten rollen. Toen Quili het tempo wilde verhogen, begaven haar voorpoten het en dook haar snuit als een schep in het zand. De andere dieren reageerden natuurlijk veel te laat en schepten even later met haar mee. Deze formatie kon de grond geweldig omwoelen, maar als ze een vijand tegenkwamen …

En wat als Darus’ hemelvoorwerp beveiliging had? Ze had gehoord dat andere magische plekken vaak een test hadden die je moest doorstaan.

Dit was rampzalig. “Is het nog ver?”

“Ik dacht dat we er al waren?” zei een Gosti verbaasd. “Waarom zijn we anders aan het graven?”

Their bellies rumbled so consistently, that it took a while for Quili to notice that the sky was rumbling too. A thunderstorm was coming. The first raindrops fell. It would turn into a heavy rainstorm that could last for days. The name Rainforest, which some animals used, was used more and more by her as well.

“Almost there,” the lion bellowed over the patter of raindrops. The roar was answered by someone far away. They must have drawn close to the other army, but the curtain of heavy rain made it impossible to see further than one lion’s length.

The rain washed away the dirt they just stirred up.

It revealed a purple-blue plate.

As if a cave was built underground, then covered with earth. The discovery recharged her. She ran over the stone path that appeared, looking for a way in. The other animals were recharged too and spread out to reveal more of the plate. This had to be a giant cave, just below the surface. No matter how far they ran, or how much dirt washed away, it kept going. She felt like she walked in a large circle, back to camp.

Thunder struck. The plate took it. No, the plate absorbed it, as if plucking the beam from the air. The stone grew a yellow-red ring, which grew and grew, until it became visible below the surface.

Another roar sounded shortly after.

The ring had reached the other army too. They must be close.

Very close.

From the rain drops, the heads of wolves formed. Two shiny jaws opened right before her snout. A lion’s claw pulled them shut again, and two Gosti bound them with rope.

More thunder. More flashes. It briefly illuminated the entire battle field.

Tibbowe and two other soldiers had walked into the trap. They were now trapped inside that tiny cave, together with Pricecats, though the door had been ripped off its hinges.

The others had heard the warning in time. Didrik zoomed over the battle field and helped wherever soldiers were outnumbered. With Tibbowe locked up, he automatically became the new commander.

Now that the eagles had shown their turn colors, their army had a distinct lack of air soldiers. The elephants pulled entire trees out of the dirt to hold overhead like a shield. The Gosti always kept the sharp ends of their spears pointed upward. Cosmo was the only guardian amidst the clouds.

Quili looked back and forward. Between the trap … and the cave below her feet which had to contain Darus’ Heavenmatter. The very powerful magical object. The thing Cosmo assumed would win them the war.

She made a choice.

“The king! Save the king!”

She jumped on a lion’s back. The tired group was able to find their formation again and race to the cave entrance. Other soldiers, of both armies, dodged this sharp arrow as it came to the rescue. Quili hid in the lion’s manes when an eagle descended—Cosmo snatched the animal in his beak just in time.

The cave was nothing more than three large stones that stood close together. This made a tiny, dead-end room. From the outside, it might seem the hiding place for the God of Stone, but from the inside this was a laughable idea. The Pricecats surrounded Tibbowe in the center, but that forced one feline to stand with his back to the opening. He heard the formation come, looked behind, and could not react in time.

Quili’s army stomped over the first two Pricecats. Tibbowe’s own guards had already died. The king stood alone, wildly kicking and scratching. The encirclement stood strong. The Pricecats were formidable creatures, certain and blood-thirsty.

Now they had also surrounded Quili.

“Appreciate the gesture,” Tibbowe said through clenched teeth, “but save yourself.”

“I do. By saving the animal that keeps me safe.”

She sounded so sure. She was merely sure she’d be eaten by a Pricecat any moment now. The circle around them shrank and shrank. Tibbowe was the center of a pile of soldiers who could no longer flee.

I hope the gods also rule the heavens where dead animals go, she thought. And they see, in the end, that I was really on their side.

Something hard and unyielding scraped her head. A dull thud was followed by more dull thuds. She didn’t dare open her eyes. Yes, she was a worthless fighter. What soldier closes their eyes when—

Somebody pulled her away. She felt raindrops again, on her fur and her face, opening her eyes by instinct.

A bear, roughly the same size as Tibbowe, used a door as a weapon. One that was far too pretty for such use. Pricecat after Pricecat received the flat, unbreakable wood to their nose, jaw, ribs or hind leg. And on his back sat a familiar Equid.

“Get them! Yes! Let them feel the strength of Beardoors!” Epoh yelled, soaking wet, but her eyes fresh and sharp. Wolves leapt for her. Eagles bit into her skin, an ant’s length away from being taken.

She is alive! She is alive! When it truly mattered, she risked her life to save Quili. It made her earlier actions easier to forgive.

She felt she was just glad animals were alive—anything else barely mattered.

Her group was quickly commanded by Tibbowe to fall back. Lions complained about “more running”. Not all soldiers got away, for as they fell back, they were chased by the remaining enemies.

Another thunderstrike. A red circle grew below the surface—the purple-blue plate had been hit again. The beer placed the door on his back to allow carrying smaller soldiers. Epoh too.

Quili did not hesitate and jumped next to her.

Their eyes met. Without a word, they bumped snouts, and Epoh gave her friend a quick kiss on her forehead.

“This is Bunjo!” Epoh yelled. “He will—”

When they reached the top of the hill, Bunjo threw the door onto the floor like a sled.

The journey downwards was bumpy and painful, but at least twenty soldiers were safe now.

Or so she thought.

Eagles circled their camp from the sky, with Pricecats and wolves in their claws. Did it never end!?

A few small creatures on a door were, fortunately, not their main interest. Once the others followed Tibbowe down the hill, the two armies clashed again.

Unfortunately, Quili’s garden stood between the two.

The battle moved to the stone spiral, upward, where animals had to fight diagonally and mostly tried to shove each other off the edge. Didrik climbed to the top and slid down, as if it was a playful slide, while kicking away enemy legs as he passed by.

She and Epoh jumped off the door as it passed the garden. They jumped in a dirt square full of … strong stalks and blossoming plants.

How did it grow so fast? This was … this was food!

Quili wanted to take a bite, but Epoh nudged her. They dodged the first stampeding horde passing through her garden. She stood protectively before the stalks, as if her body would stop an entire army.

“Stop it! Place your paws somewhere else!”

An elephant nearly destroyed the whole thing. Epoh pranced to force him the other way.

Two wolves ran for the elephant, plant stalks stuck in their nails. Quili bit every which way to send them around the garden. Each stalk that survived was a victory.

“Stop fighting! Stop fighting here!”

Epoh repaired the wooden fences and pushed them deeper into the dirt. Quili wished for the quick fingers of the Gosti, instead of massive hooves.

Venomous snakes slithered through her garden and took some more seeds with them. Quili really wanted to bite their tail. This time, she found it warranted.

Epoh and her chased away all intruders from their home.

Her army was losing. Her garden survived, yes, but if this continued, everything else would die anyway.

Nobody had expected that the enemy would suddenly flee.

A whispered message was passed on. All enemies turned around. Away from this camp, away from their own camp, possibly away from Traferia. Just … gone. They gave up? What?

Their army was too tired and surprised to cheer or congratulate each other.

Tibbowe looked skeptical. “Calm yourselves. Don’t be too happy just yet.”

All meat eaters jumped on the deceased enemy soldiers. They devoured the meat with no sense of limits or modesty. It was the first time Tibbowe’s commands were ignored entirely. The king was too hungry himself to do something about it.

All plant eaters looked at the garden. Quili’s garden. It had stayed alive, holding enough food for all. In all the chaos, two friends had kept the garden alive. Smiling, they fell into each other’s paws.

“I am sorry,” they said simultaneously, after which a rumbling belly took over the conversation.

They attacked. Rabbits, sheep, Gosti, but mostly Equids devoured the mais and grain. Entire fields disappeared and still Quili felt hungry. Not so strange after lacking food for a week. The horse-like creatures ate so quickly and enthusiastically, that Didrik invented a new saying: “Ha, I am hungry like a horse!”

They made a careful expedition to the enemy camp, but found it spookily deserted. A wooden circle awaited Didrik there, who had to move on immediately. He did ask Quili if she didn’t want to join the Companions without King. She didn’t have to think about it. She had found her place—her king.

Tibbowe was disappointed about the Stone of Destinydust, which is what Darus had named his own object. Still he rewarded Quili for saving his life. He promised to expand the territory around his palace, giving all prey animals in a wide area a safe haven. He created a new group who were now tasked with tending the gardens and filling food storages.

Never again, he vowed, kings had to look on as their subjects starved. Quili and Epoh, as first Advisors of Agriculture, would help him.

Arlar wished he had never touched the Windgustwing. Yes, his eyes were great, good enough to always find his way in Traferia. Or the way back to Garda, joined by the Pricecats. He was faster, bigger, stronger than other birds.

But he pooped gigantic seeds. His eggs were so large that he couldn’t build a nest for them. And he felt now what Cosmo meant: the object was so strong that it broke your brain. With each day he spent close to it, he had more trouble thinking, talking, living. As if he increasingly stopped understanding how life worked.

He had chosen this, however, because these powers would help them defeat the gods.

“So why did we flee? We could have won!”

Arlar knew his tone was too loud and angry. Pushing his sharp beak into Kajar’s face would not help his mood either. But in a fight, Arlar knew he had a good chance of winning, and the leader of the Pricecats knew it too.

“We have won.” Kajar’s nails scratched three stripes into a stone. “We now own three Heavenly Objects.”

Arlar’s beak fell open. “You did it? You found it?”

Kajar laughed sharply. “Tibbowe found the right spot. His soldiers washed away the dirt. Well, well, I don’t say no to gifts like that. After some searching, we found Darus’ Heavenmatter.”

“And then …”

“I gave the command to fall back.”

“But if you had slaughtered them all, which we could have done, they would never—”

“Which of us knows the secret? The way to defeat the gods?”

Arlar took a step back, eyes cast down. “You. You, oh great Kajar. And the wolves? They did not return.”

“The wolves will go underground … to come back up at the right time.”

Kajar sauntered away. Here, in Garda, they had no mais or grain. A quick chain of experiments, though, had revealed something else they could harvest: rice.

It demanded cutting down quite some trees and flooding large areas. Oh well, Kajar didn’t mind some destruction.

Arlar could see it now. They could have an army of thousands, until the end of the war, as long as they ate plants. In the old days, everyone had the same job: find food. Since the war, everyone had a new job: fight for your army.

For the first time, however, jobs could now be different. The most worthless fighters stayed behind to take care of the Gardens. They still had to find a good name for it, because Faraway Makers of Rice wasn’t it. Perhaps it could be shortened to farmer.

Of course, they couldn’t take the gardens with them to every battlefield. Arlar still hoped to convince Kajar to not race to another continent again to wage war unexpectedly.

Kajar counted his golden coins and threw some of them to Arlar. “We need to go back to Origina.”

Arlar sighed. Since he touched the Windgustwing, his sighs had become whirlwinds that pushed animals aside.

“They also have agriculture now. And they don’t have to move, because Origina is their homeland. I heard they’re building a large palace in Traferia for Tibbowe, planning to turn it into something they call a city. Thanks to your abduction of Bunjo, the bears how now officially declared themselves on the side of the gods! This is madness!”

“So we go back to take revenge on the Bearchitects,” Kajar said instantly.

They didn’t understand exactly what the Heavenmatter did. During the fight, each time thunder had struck it, it had changed things around the world. Plants grew more quickly. The ground could take more seeds. Even non-magical seeds now blossomed in at most months, not years or centuries.

Some time ago, a merchant even passed through their territory who claimed they now grew potatoes somewhere. But, alright, he also claimed to have come from Compana, a continent he had never heard about.

Kajar had tried and tried to create plants that grew meat, but the Stone of Destinydust was incomprehensible. For now.

“Even more reason to go now. While they don’t live in solid homes yet. While they haven’t invented some powerful weapon yet. Before more Split Species appear, such as the unpredictable Gosti.”

“Can you at least tell the secret? Why we do it like this?”

“You really think I’d just give away this information … for any price?” Kajar’s nails tapped Arlar’s feathers. “The first step: collect all the Heavenly Objects. The second step: make sure this war is dragged out for as long, long, long, long, long as possible.”

Arlar was desperate for more information—Kajar turned away. “All this talk of food makes me hungry. Hungry like a horse!”

And so it was that life continued …