7. Walking Wood

Even if Behdo couldn’t see the herd, he still knew exactly where they were. The tapping of Himnib’s walking cane could be heard everywhere. Even in his dreams and nightmares. He subconsciously followed the sound, from a distance. Himnib had to be on the border of Foenix now; Behdo stood a little further among the trees.

He threw the Companion Necklace to the floor. Without their official seal, the leopards wouldn’t be able to vote. Was that enough? If Himnib didn’t arrive in time, would one of the other three Bear Shepherds do?

He’d heard all the stories. He listened whenever Himnib told something and knew that his own grandparents were there when Jorib, Bellib and Solong left … never to return. Maybe, if he was smart, he could still be useful to the herd.

But what was smart? Run to the Council? The necklace would just be taken away and given back to the leopards. And Behdo would be marked a criminal and jailed. Nobody steals a Companion Necklace without feeling the Council’s wrath! Merely faking one had put several jackals in jail for life. From which they escaped easily, time and time again, after which the Council changed tactics and decided to banish animals instead.

Would Himnib help him then? He didn’t know. After the meeting with the weird panda, he also wasn’t sure if he wanted to be someone’s “possession”. Even though the ba-bear had always taken good care of him.

Of course, that was partially thanks to his walking cane. Himnib only used it when it was truly necessary, otherwise the secret would be given away, but Behdo had seen him that night, yes. That night on the Great Wall of Kina in which he defeated an entire pack of wolves all on his own, even ending the fight before taking a second breath.

Himnib walked along the Foenix fence. He complained and poked the wall, looking for a weak spot. Behdo mirrored his movements from a distance. He already missed the herd; they did not seem to notice he was missing at all!

They’d found their spot. The first sheep jumped over the fence, but a deer guard had spotted them and approached screaming.

Behdo still felt part of the herd, though. If they were caught, it would feel as if he was caught as well. So his eyes studied the surroundings. Plants? Useless. Tree? Could never break it free.

Stone? Yes! Behdo took a large stone between his teeth.

The deer now stood beside Himnib and tried to pin him to the fence with his antlers. Then use your walking cane, silly bear! He didn’t.

So Behdo leaned back, gathered all his strength, then shot forward like an elastic snapping back. He threw the stone out of the ba-bushes and across the plains.

Baaah—even aiming was not a skill of his. Fortunately, Himnib was quick and swapped places with the deer. The guard’s eyes rolled in their sockets as he tried not to fall down. It was enough to let the herd escape.

Behdo breathed a sigh of relief. It was obvious to him now. He belonged to the herd, for now and forever. But he had to make himself useful, had to prove himself to Himnib. Otherwise they’d never let him back.

He had to make sure the leopards never got their necklace back and that the panda voted the right thing.

Himnib made good pace, which set Behdo back. It had taken him a while to find his own path over an even lower part of the fence. His tiny, weak legs also didn’t help. Half the time, he lost the sound of the tapping walking cane, and at other times it was merely a whisper on the wind.

Behdo noticed other whispers on the wind too. Whispers he couldn’t place, which grew louder, which growled and talked, until two stalks of grain were pushed aside and a snow leopard appeared before him.

“Peekaboo.”

Behdo bleated until all the farmers were deaf. One tried to push him away with his pitchfork, then turned the weapon to the leopard instead. Behdo stole the pitchfork from the raised flamingo paw and swung it forward.

The leopard received two nasty scratches on his belly.

“You have something of us. I’ll get it back, even if I have to pull it from a sheep carcass.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Why did Behdo even try? He had no satchel like Himnib, which meant the necklace dangled in plain sight. “Leave me ba-lone!”

Behdo sprinted through the field of grain until he’d created a flat path of crushed stalks. I am stupid. I am stupid. I should not have left the herd. I am stupid. I am ba-stupid.

The single leopard turned into a duo, who chased him gleefully. His short legs worked overtime and even granted him a small lead.

But to where? Why? Who? How?

Subconsciously, he targeted the friendly taps of Himnib’s walking cane again.

But he couldn’t stay ahead of the leopards forever. And now he actually led them to the herd! He had to go the other way!

The “other direction” held four leopards by now. The farmers walking the fields stayed out of this fight, neither helping nor blocking Behdo, only complaining about their destroyed grain.

Behdo bleated and bleated, until he decided to put all energy into merely running as fast as—

The sound behind him died down.

He carefully slowed down until he was able to look behind: the leopards had caught wind of Himnib too and decided to pursue him instead. That was the tastier target: if Himnib died, he could surely not vote.

Even from a distance, the herd protected him.

Behdo hesitated once more. He could continue his journey now without fear of being chased. But what was the point of reaching the Council, if it meant leaving his herd to die? Who leaves alone, is left alone.

He quickly ate all the grain around him, hoping for another burst of energy, and ran after the leopards.

Soon he spotted a wooden wagon in the distance. Two leopards turned it upside-down. An army of raccoon dogs scattered like water droplets, while a handful of unlucky ones were bound to the wagon instead.

Himnib lay on the floor. Dead? No, no no. He breathed, right?

“End it here, coward,” a leopard yelled.

“No. He is still a Companion. I am a Companion.” Lazpard didn’t even allow anyone to touch the raccoon dogs. He bound them, but left them healthy and alive. The herd had been driven apart, some sheep even ending up in a field behind Behdo. “The previous Companion that killed another was mercilessly thrown into the Fearvolcano. We merely need to delay Himnib.”

Lazpard trudged back to Himnib, who held his walking cane tight, even as he was knocked out.

“And steal his Companion Necklace. If we explain his sheep had stolen mine, we have an excuse.”

If that cane does what I think it does …

Behdo took a step. The leopards heard.

He circled the place, bleating and shrieking, with two leopards at his heels and a trail of broken twigs and torn leaves. He jumped on top of Himnib and grabbed his cane.

What was it again? Tap twice and then twist it? Tap once and say the magic word? Tap three times and do the dance? Behdo tried it all at once.

Something must have been the right combination.

A purple flash of light grew inside the walking cane. Energy came from within the wood, as if a living creature grew up rapidly inside the object. The leopards ran forward, but did not actually move forward. Their fur was shaved and their face frozen in terror. A bang. A second flash of light. Popping and shocking.

Behdo felt his body lurch upward, thrown into the sky. Judging from the cacophony of yells and growls, everyone else experienced the same fate.