8. Always Another Plan

Didrik and Ismaraldah paid it no mind. They remained entangled in an intimate embrace, even forgetting that someone had been pounding on the door all that time.

“She’ll surely come to her senses,” said Didrik. “Now we need to prepare for tomorrow. The fighting will finally stop.”

He unlatched the door. A hyena and snake entered. “Castela asks if it worked out.”

“Jacintah isn’t cooperating, but we have a replacement!”

Ismaraldah tried to present Didrik as if he were the best thing that had ever happened to them. He smiled awkwardly.

“And who might this be?”

“He … um … is a—”

“Didrik. I’m an old friend of Castela’s. We were in the CWK together.”

The hyena looked surprised; the snake looked cross-eyed. “The what?”

“The Critters without Kale. Not to be confused with the Cucumbers waving Kaleidoscopes. Never visit those.” Didrik grinned and gestured as if this were very wise advice.

“Ah. Yes.” His tongue fell out at the sight of all that untouched food in the room. He sighed. “But I’ll take you to the sleeping quarters.”

That night, Didrik lay awake for a long time. Ismaraldah fell asleep the moment she stepped into the bedroom. No one blamed her—the carpet was deliciously soft. And let’s not forget that she was a panda.

He often glanced sideways, hoping to see Ismaraldah awake with the same doubts as him. Halfway through their journey to the bedrooms, he remembered what happened earlier that day. He had made a promise to the apes. The promise to go back in time and stop the fight before it began.

Now he was about to do the opposite: defeat the apes. I shouldn’t have let Jacintah go. Maybe she was right.

He lifted his head and turned it the other way. He always slept flat on his belly. On his side, he was more vulnerable, and couldn’t run away as quickly in case of danger. As far as he knew, no creature slept on its back. Looked ridiculous too.

His train of thought about sleeping positions stopped when he heard metal clatter. Sounds like two ferrets lifting weapons that are far too heavy.

He sat upright. No, I have to stay with Ismaraldah. He lay back down again. The silence returned and his eyes slowly closed. Finally he could rest.

Something pressed against his throat.

His eyes shot open and he tried getting up. He couldn’t breathe. Above him hung two shiny snake eyes. Castela stood beside him, holding a sword to his throat.

I don’t understand. He wanted to say it, but the heavy snake body pressed too hard. Ferrets held down a white panda.

“We know what you’re planning. Jacintah couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

Didrik shoved the snake aside. “I’m not planning anything,” he puffed. “She’s lying through her teeth!”

“She was pretty convincing, though.”

“What did you do!?” Didrik now looked at Jacintah.

“Told them you planned to kidnap Castela tonight and let the apes in.”

“But that’s not at all—”

Didrik was punched in the stomach.

“Any last words?”

“No! Stop! I demand a chance to defend myself. Castela, you wouldn’t murder a comrade, would you?”

“I’m no longer a comrade. Haven’t been for a long time.”

Castela raised the sword.

“Peekaboo!”

Everyone froze and looked at Jacintah. She winked at Didrik and placed her paw on his head.

The room spun and everything went black.

In the blink of an eye, Didrik lay on ferns and daisies under the starry sky. Jacintah lay beside him. Castela, the snake, and four ferrets lay there too.

Didrik felt nauseous. Jacintah quickly kissed his cheek and he was wide awake in an instant. The snake lay coiled up, even more cross-eyed than usual. Castela couldn’t find her balance.

“Sorry it had to go this way,” said Jacintah. “You okay?”

Didrik nodded. His stomach still hurt and he struggled to breathe.

An alarm went off. Twenty owls hooted an endless “whoo” from the trees. At once, the ground shook.

“Where are we?”

“The Apire,” Jacintah proudly stated. “If they capture Castela, this battle ends.”

“… or you just smuggled Castela inside where she can cause a lot of damage!”

Four apes emerged from the nightly darkness and grabbed the ferrets. The snake attacked, but in his dizziness missed the apes and hit a tree—which knocked him out.

“Castela, you alright? Who let you in?”

“These two,” she shoved Jacintah roughly aside, “had kidnapped me.”

A fifth smaller ape appeared. Everyone threw the ferrets into his arms. The four ape guards walked toward Jacintah and Didrik.

“Now hold on a minute. This is the badger who warned us about the pigeons today! You saved our lives, buddy!”

Didrik received shoulder pats left and right. Oh yes, he thought. They’ve “forgotten” I freed Ismaraldah from prison, because in their eyes that never happened.

He felt like he was getting the hang of time travel.

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome.”

“Didn’t you promise the Ape Lord you’d go back in time and—”

The four apes quickly silenced the fifth. The damage, however, was already done.

“I knew it!” Castela yelled so loudly the owls flew away. “This badger kidnapped me and broke his promise to the Ape Lord. He’s the villain! Arrest him!”

“Don’t listen to her. Didrik’s a good guy. She’s the villain!”

The apes didn’t know who to grab, so they firmly took hold of them all.

“And I can prove it!” yelled Jacintah, her shrill voice an alarm through the silent night. “Go to her castle and you’ll find all the enemies, asleep.”

“Is this true?”

Castela looked away and said nothing for a while. “Fine. Go to the castle then, slay your enemies while they sleep. Very honorable, very noble. I have a better proposal: let me go back and I’ll persuade everyone to sue for peace before noon.”

The apes looked at each other and nodded. They even let Castela go. “We are honorable. Let no one say otherwise! We’ll tell the Ape Lord—”

“You can’t be serious. You’re letting her go?”

“Don’t interrupt me! Castela, if you break your promise, we will show no mercy. Before noon I want a declaration of peace and—”

“You’re making a big mistake. Peace is not—”

“Silence, loud panda! Castela, turn in your weapons before noon. If not, we storm the castle.”

“Agreed.”

The apes wanted to shake her paw, but she already turned around and ran off.

“You two come with us to the Ape Lord. And you keep your beak shut! Understood?”

“No. I won’t do that. I have freedom of speech. Or, well, you guys will adopt that rule sometime in the future.”

She looked at the sky, as if trying to deduce the exact year it might happen. “Anyway, you’re ruining this for yourselves! Castela returns to the castle, gathers everyone, and attacks you.”

Didrik puffed himself up. “Our friend is in that castle. They’ll do terrible things to her after this betrayal.”

“This is war. We can’t save everyone’s friend.” The apes stomped away. Didrik wanted to yell something, but Jacintah pushed his mouth shut.

“Just leave her be. She’ll save herself. We’ll solve this together.”

“How can you say that? Why do you sisters speak about each other like that? You two belong together. You see how tough her life is.”

“Yes, and you also see how she treats me.”

“If you want to change that, you have to start with yourself. Show her how much she means to you. She needs a nudge.”

“Hmpf. I’m starting to understand why she’s been gossiping about you for centuries like a smitten little girl!”

“Okay, stop, just stop. Enough with the time travel jokes, I can’t follow.”

They trudged after the apes and quickly reached the main road. They only had to follow the broad path to end up at the palace, walking through open grasslands, without cover, until tall conifers appeared.

Jacintah immediately pulled Didrik behind one of them. The apes didn’t notice.

“I counted on this outcome,” she said with a mischievous grin.