"Is there some reason you want to come with us so badly?" I asked Reynard as we followed the large hare through the brush.  The rabbit kept looking back every three hops or so as if afraid we'd suddenly disappear on him or something.  A concern that didn't seem to be too misplaced in this neck of the woods.

"Are you kidding?  I know what's going on here.  He'll take you to the place where a bunch of treasure is buried or a major potion that will help the quest is and you'll come back with it and all the other boys'll say you're a hero and stuff like that.  It isn't fair.  Why should you get to be a hero?  Aren't you already the 'champion' of this whole stupid thing?  Why do you get to do this too?"  He ended with a soggy exclamation point of stomping into a boggy place and covering me with scummy water.  It might have just been that he didn't see it in the moonlight, but I had a feeling such wasn't the case for some reason.

"Don't you get it?" I said, beginning to get a little annoyed with Reynard.  "I don't want to be a hero or a champion or anything else.  I just want to be a Lost Boy and have some friends and not have to worry about all that screwy stuff that went on with me in the 'real' world I used to have to go through.  I'm a scaredy cat.  Ask any of the other boys and they'll tell you the same thing.  If this rabbit leads us somewhere that has any of the stuff you mentioned or anything else, you can say you found it.  Okay?"  By the time I ended I was practically yelling which seemed to be giving the hare a nervous breakdown.  It had stopped and was staring at us and looking like it wanted to make shushing noises but afraid of what might happen if he did.

Reynard looked at me in surprise.  Sometime during my yelling, the fox pelt's hood had slipped down and hung behind his head.  It made him seem very, very young for some reason.  I couldn't really read the expression on his face because of the shadows caused by the moonlight and the swaying trees.  Looking at him like that, I felt very ashamed of myself for yelling at him.  It's not like he'd been a Lost Boy very long and was familiar about all this stuff.  I still wasn't half sure about most of it.  "I'm sorry I yelled at you," I started.  He shook his head to stop me from talking.

"You don't have to be sorry.  It's mostly my fault.  I don't know why it was such a big deal.  I guess I've just..." he stopped and shook his head.  "It doesn't matter.  I should head back and you should get to where you're supposed to be and back before the unicorns get all bent."  He started to turn and head back the way we came.

"Reynard, you can't go.  Who's going to watch my back?  You know how good a fighter Surefoot says I am.  Anything bigger than a snail and I'm doomed."

Reynard turned back towards me.  "You sure?  You don't mind me coming?"  A stray moonbeam lit up his face for a second and I thought I caught a glimpse of a sly grin on his face.  I wasn't exactly scared by it, but it seemed really weird.  It had only been for a second though and he did wear a fox pelt, so would a sly smile be that unusual?

"Yeah, sure.  No worries.  C'mon."

"Wow, that was incredible, furry dudes.  It's no wonder you all are friends to make up your differences so copastetically.  You know there's this lion and this owl I know who should have seen this sort of harmony because they are like sooooo discordant when they are around.  But hey, guys, we need to get totally moving because this place is over the next hill and she'll be waiting for us and she is like so not patient and she gets mean with me if she thinks I didn't do so totally good.  Deal?"  Without waiting for an answer, he started hopping off again.  I was a little concerned because I thought we were going to see a 'he' but wasn't sure if the hare had actually said that or I'd just assumed it.

We went up a slight rise and then descended into a valley behind it.  There didn't appear to be any trail that the rabbit was following, and even if there had been it would have been hidden behind the low fog-like mist that was slowly rising from the woods and billowing into the area that we were trekking through.  There was a rush of water somewhere, but it was too dark and foggy to tell exactly where it was.  I was totally unsurprised when my left paw shoe suddenly filled with icy water.

"I thought you said it was only over a hill," Reynard said as we got to the other side of the valley and started to climb again.  "This is the second hill you've taken us over."

"Oh dude, that wasn't a hill we went over, that was just a hummock.  A hill is like totally huge, dude.  It's got a certain personality and a ruggedness that practically screams that it's a hill.  Have patience my most honorable little dude.  All will become clear as it was foreordained in the days before the dove patted the hawk."

"Is this a hill?" I managed to puff out between breaths as we reached the top of the next rise.  Below us the valley, or whatever it was, was covered in the misty fog.

"Oh, not you too." the hare said in a sorrowful voice.  "That's just another hummock type thingy."  My breathing and my legs begged to differ, but he was already hopping through the mist below.  Reynard grumbled about something that sounded suspiciously like rabbit stew as we followed in the wake of the hare.  After what seemed like a couple more hours spent hiking up and down hills, getting scratched by thorny plants and being 'discovered' by millions of bugs that had stingers, I was ready to collapse on the ground (muddy or not) and go to sleep.  "This is crazy," I said.  "I don't think I can go too much longer."

"You'd better.  There ain't no way I'm going to be able to carry you.  You should cut down on those blueberries you keep chowing down on."

I sighed as I pushed forward.  I didn't really eat that many blueberries.  There weren't that many on the island and they were supposed to be good for you.  My paws hurt and I was tired of being teased like it was the 'real' world and...

"We're here, little dudes," the hare said, gazing down from the top of the rise we'd just climbed to the area below.

"That was a hill?  It wasn't as tall as any of those other things we went over?  How can it be called a hill?"  Reynard did not appear to be at all thrilled, even though we'd arrived.

"Dude, everyone knows that hummocks are taller than hills.  How could you ever think otherwise?  Everyone knows that furry person.  C'mon, she's right there waiting for us."

I couldn't see anything, but the mist was as thick here as anywhere.  By the time we got to the bottom of whatever it was, we could only see the top of the rabbit's ears as he hopped, hopped, hopped.  They finally came to a stop and we closed in behind him.  "Okay bearish dude, here is she which gives important words that will help you on your quest."

As if on cue the mist parted and the moon came out behind a cloud.  There standing before us with a totally unconcerned look on her face and chewing cud was a cow."  She seemed to look at each of us for a moment, gave a contented burp or something and put her head down to crop grass.

"A cow?  You brought us all this way to see a cow?"  Reynard said through clenched teeth.  "I don't believe this.  There's no treasure here.  I thought you were taking us to hear something really important."  Reynard took a step towards the hare and I grabbed Reynard's arm.  The cow, completely undisturbed by the whole thing, simply looked up and let loose with a long drawn out moo.

"I found you, I found you, I found you," the hare said in a sing-song voice while he clapped his paws together in time to his words, seeming to have forgotten that he was trying to make sure things were quiet a moment ago.  I gently grabbed his paws to keep them from still because I hadn't forgotten the words of the black unicorn and didn't feel like being 'dehorned' even if I didn't have one.  "We have to be quiet," I reminded him gently.

"Well of course we do.  You know, you're pretty hard to find.  I followed you for a long time today, but you suddenly got lost and I couldn't find you anymore.  I did see a dragon type talking to a fox type.  That was sort of strange because you never see fox type dudes talking to dragon type dudes.  They just don't hang together, little bear dude."  He looked around the clearing, one ear flopped over his face and the other sticking straight up.  "Then there you were with a bunch of unicorns.  It's hard to find things when they're unicorn encumbered."

I don't think I'd ever heard the term 'unicorn encumbered' before but it seemed to fit pretty well with this particular group of 'corns.  "So what are the important words you have to tell me?"  I whispered to the rabbit who was now sitting on the ground next to me and rocking back and forth humming under his breath.

He stopped rocking and humming and once again looked around.  His ear that had been standing up fell to mirror the other one as he turned his head back and forth.  After determining that no one was eavesdropping on us, he lowered his voice so low I had to move closer to his mouth to hear what he was saying.  "Stew.  Green.  Rocks.  Troll.  Dragon.  Big dragon.  Very big and huge dragon.  Elf.  Run."  He stopped speaking and looked very confident of himself in a rabbity sort of way.  I waited for him to say something else, but he simply sat there, looking at me in an expectant manner.

"Is that it?" I asked him when it was obvious nothing else was going to be forthcoming.

"Is that it?" he repeated, loudly enough that I heard someone's snoring falter for a moment before it started in even rhythm again.  I held my breath hoping it'd been one of the other boys and not one of the 'corns.  "Those are very important words, little dude.  Some of the most important words I bet you've ever heard."

"But what do they mean?"

He gave me a wink and a nod and for a moment it looked as though he was trying to be some sort of skinny Father Christmas in white instead of red.  "I know.  It can be very hard to understand such things.  I can explain it to you, but it's top secret, furry one."  He did the look around thing again and then, after wiping a paw across his forehead, began to speak again.  "Stew.  It's like soup only a lot thicker and doesn't taste as good.  Green is the colour of grass.  Rocks are hard things that grow in the dirt and..."

"I understand that part.  I just don't get what they mean."  I rushed in before he started speaking again.  "I mean I do know what they mean, I just don't understand why you're telling me them."

"Ooooohhhh, Now I see what you mean."  He gave a laugh that was remarkably deep and rumbling for such a skinny animal.  The snoring faltered again and I couldn't tell whether it started up again or not because two or three others chose that moment to let loose with a chorus of sawing wood.  "Yeah, little dude, I guess it could be pretty confusing.  But they are really important words.  They could help you find things like shooting stars, pixie dust and maybe even a certain gem."

My ears perked up when he mentioned a gem.  "What type of gem?  How do I find it?"

"Easy, little bear dude, easy.  I can't remember how the words go together, just that they have to go together somehow.  There's like a 'the' and somewhere there's a 'foot'.  Oh man, I can't remember what all those words are.  There were like so many of them.  And now you're not going to know what you have to do because I can't remember."  The hare looked so crestfallen that I got a lump in my throat just by looking at him.  He looked as though he was on the verge of tears when suddenly both his ears popped straight up in the air and he jumped into the air.  "I know!  He can tell you all the words that I forgot.  It'll be great.  He'll know exactly what needs to be done."  He started clapping his paws together again and I gently stopped him.

"Where is this guy?"

"Just over the hill.  Not far at all.  Man we can be there in almost an instant and then you can get back super fast and no one will know that you were gone.  You'll be a hero with all these words."

I had no clue how anyone could possibly consider me a hero where the word 'stew' was concerned.  "I dunno.  I should wait until tomorrow or something.  You know, when it's daylight."

"Oh it'll be way, way, way too late by then.  Believe it.  Pleeeeease?  I'd feel much better about things if you did.  I promise."

I was beginning to wonder if he was part puppy or something when he gave me a look that would melt stone.  "Okay, okay.  If it'll only take a couple of minutes.  And please don't start clapping again."

The hare nodded agreeably, stood up and managed to pull me to my feet in the same motion.  "Thank you, thank you, thank you.  You won't regret it.  You'll be a hero and everything will be totally copasetic, little dude."

I had serious misgivings about this whole thing, but couldn't seem to talk myself into listening to them, which for the most cowardly Lost Boy was decidedly strange.  The hare pulled on my sleeve and with a shrug, I started following him.  I hadn't gotten more than a few meters when I tripped over someone's leg and went tumbling.

"Hey, Cubby.  Where do you think you're going?"  the owner of the leg asked.

"What'd you trip me for, Reynard?"

"Would you have stopped otherwise?"

"Yeah.  You didn't have to trip me.  All you needed to do was say something."

"Oh.  I'll remember that from now on I think.  So where are you going?"  There was an impatient snort from someone as I explained to Reynard what was going on.  Reynard thought about that for a moment and then got up.  "C'mon, I'm coming too."  He leaned down, grabbed my arm and pulled me up.  Well, he tried to pull me up.  He gave up after the second attempt and I got to my feet myself, brushing the mud off from the puddle that I had managed to fall into even though everything else was bone dry.

"What's he doing?" the hare asked as Reynard joined us.

"He's coming too."

"You got a problem with that furball?" Reynard demanded.

"No," both the hare and I answered together which caused Reynard to break out in laughter.  "I knew you knew you were a furball Cubby."

Before I could say anything, the hare descended on Reynard in icily controlled anger.  "You need to be quiet or you'll wake up the unicorns and that will be a totally ungroovy thing to have happen mate."  I raised an eyebrow at that sudden change in his attitude, but didn't say anything.  "This is going to be very interesting," the hare said as he led us away from the sleeping Lost Boys and unicorns.

There's something I've always wondered about quests, aside from the requirement that they always begin before the sun has started to rise.  Why is it that any time you have to travel farther than a few leagues, it will always be on foot?  There's never a valiant steed around if there's any distance at all to travel.  As the sun started to slip down behind the trees, my paws were reminding me of the fact that they didn't appreciate all the traveling that they'd been called on to do lately.  Okay, sure it was only the second day, but still.

"Shouldn't we think about stopping soon?" I asked Surefoot as I trudged along beside him.  "It's getting dark and you never know what might be out there."

"Are you kidding?  You know that Lost Boys like to dream all day and then at night we play."  He cleared his throat and opened his mouth.

"Don't even think about singing that song.  Besides, I didn't get to dream all day, remember?"

"Well neither did we," Tig said stepping up between us.  "Besides, since when have you needed sleep?  I haven't forgotten all the times that you woke us up in the middle of the night for some reason or another.  You didn't hear me complain, did ya?"  Surefoot was nodding his head in agreement.

"Aw, c'mon.  That was so Peter wouldn't find out that you'd filled his hat with mud."

"Me?  It was you who did it.  I just happened to be the one who'd fallen and gotten the mud all over me and made it look like I had done it.  But it was really you."

We walked a few more steps as I thought about that.  "Oh, yeah.  That was pretty funny, wasn't it?"  Both of them looked at me as though I was crazy, and perhaps they weren't far from the mark.  "Anyway, it's not that I want to sleep.  Well, yeah it is.  But my paws are killing me.  I've been walking all day and I didn't get to have that nap that everyone else took or even anything to eat but stew."

"Poor Cubbs.  It's just a little while farther and then you won't have to worry about it anymore." 

That sounded ominous, since the last time I had heard that was when Hook was hurrying me along the plank off the Jolly Roger at the point of his sword.  "Whatdyamean I won't have to worry any more?  Worry about what?"

"Your feet of course.  The map told me when we stop tonight, Bing will be there to provide us with something to carry us for the next couple of days because Plethora thinks we're going too slowly."

I did some more pondering as Tig dropped back to tell Ursa, Reynard and Leo about the news.  "I don't suppose the map told you what that something was going to be?"

"What what is going to be?"

"You know, the thing to carry us.  Did it tell you what it's going to be?"

Surefoot looked at me as though I was crazy.  "How should it know?  It's only a map."

"Only a map?  ONLY A MAP?  I'll have you know I'm one of the most magically enhanced and advanced products this world has ever seen.  I can locate your position within a twet of where you are.  I can tell you the exact best tree to use for... well, you know.  I can tell you when to speed up and when to slow down and the sort of dangers you might encounter on the paths that you travel.  And you have the gaul and audacity to call me only a map?  This from a kid who thinks he's some sort of raccoon on steroids or something and is wearing gray and black before the beginning of the Fordathianonic Season?"

"So do you know what Bing is going to use to carry us?" I interrupted as the map paused for breath.  I hadn't been aware up to this time that maps had to breathe and wondered if it were just magical maps or just our magical map.

"Of course I don't know.  Why would I?"

Surefoot looked at me and I simply nodded.  He quickly folded the map up and shoved it in his pocket.  "Hey Leo, I need the other map."  Leo pulled the other half of the map out of his pocket and handed it to his brother while giving a curious glance towards Surefoot's pocket from which a lot of muffled sounds were coming from.  Surefoot unfolded Leo's map and gave it a shake.

"Unicorns," the map said promptly without even being asked.  "They'll be unicorns waiting for you."

"Unicorns?  That's awesome!  I love riding them.  Well after I manage to get on," I said with a goofy grin on my face.  This quest was beginning to look up after all and my paws even felt a little better.

"You're going to ride a unicorn again?" Reynard asked from where he was walking.  "Didn't you get stabbed last time when you did that?"  I couldn't see his face, but was pretty sure he was smirking.

"No, I didn't get stabbed.  That was just the wolf pelt and it was an accident anyway."

"Yeah, it was an accident alright.  The Lavender Queen certainly thought so."  There was a chuckle from back there.

"What?" I asked as Surefoot stared at me.  "I didn't get stabbed and I don't want to talk about it."

Whatever Surefoot was going to respond with was lost in the hale greeting that Bing gave us as we rounded a curve in the trail.  A curve that the map started swearing shouldn't have been there.  "Greetings my champion and legions."

"Don't you mean Plethora's champion?" Leo asked quietly.

"Well of course," Bing said, ducking his head.  "As I serve Plethora to the best of my ability, though, I like to look upon you as my charges as well as I do my utmost to make your task pleasant and rewarding for all of you.  We're all in the service of the greatest dragon who will ever live, and personally..."

"Enough of this idle chatter fox.  Far have me and my brethren come to lend our support to this journey.  Now let us meet these so called heroes of yours and then bed down for we needs leave before the morning sun."  Naturally I let out a groan at that, but no one paid it any attention.  The speaker turned out to be a pure white unicorn and was in the company of a gray unicorn, a blue unicorn, a black unicorn and a green unicorn with red markings.  The other unicorn...

"Hey, there's only five unicorns.  There's six of us," I said as I counted on my finger just to be sure there really were six of us Lost Boys.

The white unicorn looked at the fox.  "You said there would only be five.  I also told you there would be no double riding like you did last time to try and save your coin.  In point of fact, I ought to charge you more for those two," he said as he gestured with his horn at Ursa and I.  "You said they'd be boys."

"Now calm down.  Calm down.  It's just a communication failure, that's all.  I thought when I talked to you at midday there were only five of them.  Something must have happened.  I'm sure that I can get this straightened out before the morrow.  Just leave it to me."

The black unicorn mumbled something while the red and green one started laughing.  "Fine, you do that," the black 'corn finally allowed.  "For now it's time to sleep so we can get an early day's start.  Those on the trail first survive the dance of the morning sparrow."

"What?  The sun's not even down yet."

"I ain't even tired.  What is this?"

"I'm not going to bed yet.  I still have stuff to do and I'm hungry."

The black unicorn didn't take kindly to the objections and let out a yell that even silenced the map who had still been complaining about the missing curve.  "Enough!  Those who are not in slumber in the next parsing will wish they'd been born hornless."

"But we were born hornless," Tigger said right before Leo tackled him and put his hand over his mouth.  In record time, all of us had picked our sleeping places and were pretending to be asleep.  The unicorns were also silent, although they were standing.  I guess they were asleep because the blue one started doing something that sounded suspiciously like snoring.  I had managed to choose a place with a rock that stuck in my back.  I started to shift when the black unicorn snapped out, "No moving."

I really did want to go to sleep, but was too keyed up for some reason.  I watched as the stars came out and made a wish on the first one to appear.  I finally drifted off and remember dreaming about pie or something when I was awakened by something being placed over my mouth.  My eyes snapped open and I was ready to defend to the death, or at least start screaming and seeing if my time for running had improved any, when the figure made a hissing noise.  "Hey little bear dude.  I have some important words for you that you, like, really need to listen to because they are so important that I have to tell them to you before something else happens which I can't remember."  My friend, the hare, had returned.

"Morning?" I exclaimed.  "It's late afternoon.  How come everyone's asleep and why don't I ever get to take naps when everyone else does?  I miss all the good stuff."

"Better not tell him about that huge grove of blueberries," Tig said in a mock whisper as he opened his eyes with a yawn.

"Blueberries?  Where are they?  I want some."

Surefoot stretched and rolled his eyes.  "C'mon Cubbs, you know that he's just fooling you.  Besides don't ya think you'd have gotten some if we passed by a bunch of blueberries?"

"Yeah. If I'd been with you.  How come no one came to find out what happened when we crossed the river and my vine broke?  I waited forever for someone to come make sure I was okay."  I was a little upset over that and added a tiny bit of hurt in my voice just to be sure the point got across.

"What are you talking about?" Leo asked as he and the rest of the boys came up to join the conversation.

"You know, the river.  Right after we left that stupid restaurant where I had to sit at the stupid baby table and eat stupid stew."

Tig put his forefinger next to his head and started rotating it as though doubting my mental abilities while Surefoot looked confused and Leo shook his head.  "I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered crossing a river by vine and uh, a restaurant too."  The lion pelt clad Lost Boy looked skeptical.  "Besides if you needed us to rescue you and all that, how'd you end up here?"

"Up through tha..." I turned and pointed towards the canyon thing I had been stuck in most of the day.  The canyon thing that was predictably gone.  "But it was there a minute ago.  There was this elf and he was sort of weird and he played a flute and then the canyon sort of rose to here and then the elf vanished..."

"Sort of like your canyon?"  Tig asked with a smirk.  He gently patted me on the back.  "It's okay, Cubbs.  We'll get you some stew and you'll be good as new in no time."

Thankfully Leo and Ursa seemed to give me the benefit of the doubt, with Leo looking strangely pensive about the whole thing.  He didn't really say anything, but sort of gave me a nod as though he figured my tale wasn't completely impossible.  He always seems to get that way whenever elves get involved in stuff.

"So now that we've had a nap in the middle of the afternoon, what do we do now?"  Strange as it may seem, since us Lost Boys usually spend a great deal of the night playing, exploring or being scared of our shadows, it's not that unusual for us to flake out at some point during the day and sleep for a few hours.  What was unusual is that it's not normally done during a quest nor do we do it all at once.

"Are you kidding?"  Surefoot asked.  "It's obvious.  Time to continue on the quest so I can save the elves."

"Don't you mean Cubby?  He is Plethora's champion after all," Leo said quietly.

"Well yeah, but I'm leading him to where he needs to go, right?"  Surefoot said this so plaintively that I felt kind of sorry for him.  I didn't know exactly what he was hoping for, but it was obvious it was something that meant a lot to him.  "Well, duh.  No way I'd be able to figure out where I was going without you to lead me there.  Everyone knows I manage to get lost just chasing my tail."

Ursa shot me a look of approval as everyone started to get their stuff together.  "Whoops, I can't forget the map," Surefoot said as he leaned over and snagged it.  As he picked it up, it made a loud ripping sound because a corner of it was stuck under Tig's foot.  I'm not a mean spirited type of kid, but the look on Surefoot's face when he saw that the map was now ripped in half was so horrified that I wanted to start laughing out loud.  As awfully good as that expression was, though, it didn't come close to matching the expression on Surefoot's face when both pieces of the map suddenly started yelling at him asking what he thought he was doing.  Both 'new' voices were now a bit higher pitched than the original had been and were about as soothing as claws on a blackboard.

"Cool, now we have a backup map," Tig commented as the two maps yelling at Surefoot ended up becoming an argument with each other.  When they both started using words that I don't even think orcs knew the meaning of, Leo grabbed one, folded it up and shoved it into a pocket.  There were a few moments of muffled yelling, but that died away before too long.  I was pretty sure it probably had something to do with the fact that I had persuaded Leo there were vampire mice in Hangman's Tree and that he should keep garlic around at all times.  A number of cloves had ended up in his pocket.

The remaining map thanked Leo for getting rid of the 'imposter' and started giving directions as we took off once again on our merry quest.  "So what are you going to do with your share?" Tig asked, walking beside me.  The path we were on meandered through woodland that was varying between thick and almost non existent.

"My share of what?" I looked at him.

"Why the treasure of course.  Everyone knows if you save the world or a town or whatever you get a treasure.  It's in all the stories."

I thought about that for a moment as we trudged along.  "Yeah, but these are elves.  You really think elves are going to give us treasure?  Elves?"

"Sure," Tig said with supreme confidence.  "It's part of the rules.  Geeze, Cub, don't you know anything about saving the world?"  Ursa slowed down so he could join us as we pulled abreast of him.  "Hey Ursa, tell Cubby about the rules.  You know, the one that says if you save the world you get treasure."

Ursa pondered on that a second.  "You really think elves are going to give Lost Boys treasure?  These are elves we're talking about."  I burst out laughing.

"They have to.  Everyone knows that.  If they don't they'll be cursed.

Ursa pondered on that for a few more seconds this time.  "Yeah, you're right."  Tigger gave me a 'nyah-nyah look that slowly faded as Ursa continued.  "But you know they'll probably put any reward into some sort of annuity and invest it at 3% interest and create a trust account that you can't have until you grow up and if you were to ever get it, you'd only be able to get the earnings and none of the principal."

Tig and I looked at each other, both of us with confused looks on our faces.  I scratched my hair and he bit his lip.  In tandem we both declared, "Nope, no treasure."

I actually felt the ground rumble beneath my feet and being more scared of the unknown than seeing the orc swing at my head, I opened my eyes in time to see the orc rush past me and head towards Cleak.  The elf was still sitting on the log, incuriously watching the orc race towards him.  I dropped the wooden sword and went galloping after the orc, while screaming at the top of my lungs to try and get Cleak to move, run, look a tiny bit concerned, anything.  Instead he just continued to sit there and it almost looked as if he were smirking at something.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I managed to reach the orc before he got to Cleak.  Not thinking of anything better, I jumped and tried to tackle the orc from behind.  Not surprisingly, all I ended up doing was careening off his back and landing on the floor behind him.  I breathed a sigh of relief that quickly turned to a bleat of fear as the orc took his attention away from Cleak and focused on me.  It came to a stop, turned, and looked down at me.  "You've got to be kidding," he said in very un-orc-like precise words that I had no problem understanding at all.

My feet threw up huge clouds of dirt as I tried to scrabble backwards while lying down as he started towards me.  He got next to me and with a strangely pitying look, gently lowered the club he was holding until it touched my skull.  As soon as it touched my head, it was though I was looking at millions of stars that were pinpricks of light.  In another moment they all went supernova and it got so bright that everything suddenly went black.

I don't know how long I was out for, but when I opened my eyes it was still daylight and Cleak was still sitting on the log, although he was playing some sort of flute.  I looked around, but didn't see any sign of the orc.  The river was back to sounding as though it was made up of people talking again, and I grew frustrated because I simply knew if I could listen more strongly somehow, I'd be able to understand what they were saying.  Just as that thought crossed my mind, it turned back to the sound of running water.

"What happened?"  I asked, slowly sitting up.  My head didn't hurt at all, and I didn't fell any sort of bump on it when I explored it with my fingers.

The sound of the flute stopped as the elf looked up.  "You fell."  He frowned in concentration, put the flute back to his lips and began to play again.

"But what about the orc?  Where'd it go?"

He lowered the flute again and stared at me before replying, "He left."  The flute music resumed playing again.

"He left?  What?  Where'd he go?"

The elf irritably shook his head at the interruption and this time put the flute in his tunic before standing up.  "C'mon, we should be going.  Especially if you're going to be asking irrelevant questions."

"But..."

"Don't forget your sword."  He nodded towards it as he started walking beside the river.  I galloped over and picked it up and then fell in beside Cleak.  "You tried to tackle an orc, you know."

"Well, yeah.  But..."

"Just wanted to make sure you knew."  We walked about 100 more meters to where the ravine made a sharp turn to the left.  I turned the bend to see the ground rose, almost like a ramp, to the area above while the river seemed to simply emerge from the ground and begin flowing.  "Just keep going 'til you get to the top and you'll be where you need to be."

"What about you?  I thought you'd never been here before?"

He took out the flute and played it for a moment.  "There's here and then there's here.  You know how that goes, right?"

I actually didn't know how that went and wasn't even sure where to begin pondering it when he played a quick, complicated tune on his flute and simply vanished.  I spent a couple of minutes looking around and even turned a rock over just in case he'd managed to squirm underneath it.  Not finding hide nor hair of the elf, I slowly walked up the incline.  At the top I stared in surprise at the sight of the other Lost Boys who'd apparently chosen to take a nap in the clearing I found myself in.  Surefoot's eyes popped open as I stepped on a twig causing a snapping sound to echo across the clearing.  He let out a yawn and said, "Is it morning yet?"

"How could they forget about me?" I sighed, holding my head in my hands.  It had been a couple of hours since I had tumbled into the river ravine and I had sort of figured that the cavalry wasn't going to be poking their heads over the edge above to come rescue me.

The elf shook his head sorrowfully.  "I told you.  You've been forgotten as though you've never been, my bucco."

"But they're my brothers."

"Brother, sister, aunt, mother, father, dog.  It doesn't matter.  Your own twin will forget about you.  Do you have a twin?  A brother?  A sister?  Someone who thinks about you when you're leagues away and the sea stands as a barrier between both of you?"

"Naw, it's just me, no brothers or sisters.  Of course there are the other Lost Boys.  We're sort of like a family."  I looked around at the ravine we were in.  It didn't look much different than any other stretch of river I'd seen except for the fact it seemed almost ancient here.  The place was dripping with moss and fern and had a feeling of extreme age.  "What is this place, anyway?  Why is this place so different than above?"

"Different?  Oh, yes.  Very different.  You aren't even in the same place that you were where you are now.  It's a different place.  A different dimension.  A different everything.  Nothing comes together and nothing merges.  This is the place where time begins and time ends and time flows like the running water of yon river.  This is where everything and nothing happens at the same time, if you get my meaning."

I didn't get the meaning at all, but had a feeling mentioning it wouldn't do any good.  I tried something else.  "Who are you?"

"My name is Cleak.  I was a ranger until I fell down into this place.  Now, I'm just, nothing.  It's impossible to climb up the cliff.  So I just stay down here, drink water from the river, catch fish.  The basics.  What do you do?  Why are you down here?  Do you have any friends?  Why are you dressed like a bear?" As he asked the last question, he seemed to just run out of steam to ask anymore questions and turned away from me and picked up pebbles to throw into the river.  "You can't throw too many rocks in the river, or it might dam it up."  He nodded very solemnly as he provided me with that advice and then continued to throw pebbles into the river.  It was as though he'd totally forgotten the questions he had asked.

"Have you ever tried going down the river to see where it goes?  Maybe there's a place farther down where we can get back."

"I thought about it once, but I'm scared because I don't know what's down there and I'm scared that if I get back up there, no one will know me or remember me and..." he came to a complete stop and looked up at me.  "Did you say we?"

"Uh, yeah.  You think I'm going to leave you here?  I wouldn't do that.  I mean, not 'less you wanted me to for some reason."

"Why would you do that?"  Unlike when he'd asked the other questions, this time he looked intently at me as he waited for the answer.

"Cuz no one should be forgotten.  It's not something that anyone should ever have to go through, no matter who they are.  There's nothing..." I stopped there deciding there wasn't any need to rehash a bunch of other stuff.  Sometimes I think one of my biggest problems (besides being a coward and having a sweet tooth, and worrying about dorky stuff) was being overeager about stuff.  I didn't even want to think how many things had gone awry because of that wonderful trait.

He looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded.  "Good answer.  It's very important that we leave now.  Are you positive you're up for this?"

I was a little confused with his apparent change in attitude, but was ready to get out of whatever this place was.  The river rushing by had begun to make me increasingly nervous for some reason.  It didn't make any sense, but I've sort of learned that a lot of my feelings don't make sense.  "Yeah, let's go."

He gestured upstream and I started off with him following me.  Aside from the sound of the water rushing by, there was very little sound at all.  There was no breeze down where we were and the sun was riding the sky above the ravine.  I was beginning to get warm and decided getting some water from the river might not be a bad idea.  I dropped to my knees and was ready to bend over and drink when I felt the elf's hand on my shoulder.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

"But you said you drank from it before," I pointed out.  "Besides, I've already fallen into it once and nothing happened."

"Getting submerged in the liquid and imbibing it are two very different things as even you should be able to figure out.  As for my drinking it, that was me.  I'm an elf and you're just some dumb human kid who doesn't have any clue as to what's going on or what could happen.  Take your chances, if you want, but don't come whining to me when it starts to precipitate on your mobile gathering."

I looked at him in shock, not believing he was saying stuff like that, and feeling sort of hurt by it.  I thought about simply standing up and running down the river bank, leaving him far behind.  The idea was tempting, but wasn't something I thought I could do.  Worse was the fact that now I was afraid to drink the river water.  I knelt there practically feeling waves of cold rising from the surface and knowing how good it would taste.  I stood up and practically fell over because I suddenly got very dizzy.  The noise of the river rushing past seemed to change from that of water to one of dozens of people chanting something and then back to the sound of water over and over.  I thought I was going to black out, but then things cleared as the sound of the river became water and stayed that way.

"How come you almost fell over?  Does that hood come off the rest of your body?  How come you're fat?  Can you carry me the rest of the way?  What if we can't ever find a place to climb out of here?  What if we're on an endless loop that never ends?  Do you have any ice cream?  Why can birds fly?  Does that sword really work?  If it does, don't you think you'd better draw it before that thing attacks you?"

I was beginning to wonder if elves had multiple personalities or something, until he came up with the last question.  I looked up to see a huge orc grinning at me and thumping a club in one hand.  He was wearing a matted fur of some sort, had horns and lower fangs that jutted through his upper lip when he closed his mouth.  I drew the wooden sword and stood there trembling with fear.  The orc seemed to find this amusing and its grin widened.  I chanced a quick look back to see the elf sitting down on a fallen log and looking like a spectator at some sports event.

"Tallyho!"  I looked back at the orc to see he had taken advantage of my stupidity in looking back.  He had covered half the distance he'd been standing from me, was approaching at about the same speed as your average locomotive, and had swung the club back as though getting ready to try and knock a ball (in this case my head) out beyond left field.

I held the wooden sword sort of in front of me and closed my eyes, waiting for an explosion of light to occur as the club connected with my head.

I picked up the wooden sword and quickly licked off a big glob of blueberry filling that had gotten stuck on the handle.  It was actually quite delicious with the splinter I got in my tongue only being mildly distracting.  We finally left the field with panted gopher profusely thanking us for honoring his humble establishment.  Each person received a mint, except for me.  I was given a piece of folded paper.  "Take this and guard it with your life.  It contains the mysteries of the ages.  It is most powerful and there will be a time when you will need to use that power."

"But..."

"No, Master Bear.  Ask me no questions.  All will become clear once the skies of knowledge rain down on top of your head carrying the drops of understanding.  Just keep that close to your heart and you will be okay."  The panted gopher gave me a smile, a nod, and a gentle push towards my comrades you had already started to wander down a path that led through some scrub growth.

As I started to gallop after them, I took a look at the folded paper I had been given.  It was neatly folded and had been sealed with tape.  On the front of it someone had written, "Don't open until your need is great and all seems doomed."  The whole thing seemed sort of contrived, but I simply shoved it into a convenient pocket and kept galloping after my friends, happily splashing through the mud puddles that were scattered over the trail.

"Cubby?  Where have you been?" Surefoot demanded, as he caught sight of me.  "And what's that all over your face?"

"I was just talking to the gopher.  He gave me this..."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's fascinating and all, but what's that all over your face?  It looks awful."

I reached up to my face and didn't find anything the first two times.  The third time, after he told me exactly where to place my finger, I found a small glob of blueberry below my lip.  "Is this what you were talking about?"

"Yes.  Finally.  You really need to take better care of your appearance.  You always want to make a good impression."

I was so surprised by those comments that I actually stepped over a mud puddle without splashing in it.  None of the other boys seemed at all surprised and that bothered me more than a little too.  "What'd ya talk about at lunch?"  I finally asked Tig.

"Same ol' stuff.  Adventures, Indians, pirates.  Where were you at, anyway?"

"I was at that stupid table next to you.  You know, the small one?"

"Really?  I didn't see you.  Course I wasn't looking for you either.  How was your milkshake?"

"Milkshake?  What milkshake?"  I wasn't going to believe it if someone had gotten a milkshake too.

Whatever Tig had been ready to answer was lost because of a warning from the map.  It intoned the fact that there was a large river to cross and that the usual bridge was out.  "I knew it!" Surefoot said.  "Someone knows about this quest and is trying to stop me from fulfilling my destiny."  The map went on to mention that there was a detour route accessed by swinging on a vine across the wide ravine that contained the river.  "That sounds logical.  Lost Boys, follow me!"

For about the next ten minutes, we searched for the vine.  While the map could tell us a detour existed, it wasn't real good about directions for finding it.  Ursa finally found what the map described, and we all gathered around to take a look at it.  It was just your garden variety (maybe jungle variety) vine that looked very flimsy and fragile.  Deep inside the first stirrings of self-doubt began to awaken.

Surefoot decided he should be the second one across, so we all watched as Tigger went flying across the ravine on the vine.  He landed, tumbling on the other side and sprang up laughing.  "C'mon guys, that's awesome."  Surefoot actually ended up third across as Leo simply went across second.  One after the other, the rest of the group made it across without incident.  Ursa was the next to the last one across and made it look easy, but not easy enough that my feelings of cowardice weren't beginning to make themselves known to me.  I grabbed the vine when it came back across and took a deep breath.  I started galloping and shut my eyes as I leaped into space, my hands in a death clutch on the woody vine.

There was a distinctive 'sproing' sound as the vine parted and I felt myself begin to fall.  It wasn't a real long trip to the bottom, but ended in spray of mud.  "Hey guys.  I need some help here."  I waited a moment and then listened in disbelief as the rest of the boys talking started fading away.  "Tig?  Ursa?  Surefoot!" I yelled up, but there was no reply and their voices faded away.  "Leo?" I asked, almost to myself.

"'tain't there fault, me bucco.  Everything that end up down here, with the disinclusion of the river, is forgotten.  To them, they may not even remember ya in a turn or a cycle."  I turned to see a wild haired elf looking at me.  He looked grungy, dirty, and his hair needed trimming, combing and washing badly.  If there were ever a 'Cubby' elf, this would be it.  "You'll be completely forgotten by everyone who ever thought about knowing you and your closest friends as well.  I hope you like raw eggs.  Isn't that water cold?  You don't have any blankets with you, do you?"

I jumped up as I realized I was sitting in the river and was now soaked.  I stood there and sort of halfway listened as the elf bounced between telling me I wasn't even a memory anymore to anyone, to asking if I had stuff that would be obvious I didn't have, such as a boat or a case of crackers.  None of this made any sort of sense and I finally sat back down waiting for the rest of the boys to notice I was missing so they could come back and rescue me.

I figured, when I asked for the chef, that I might be able to find something out about the note that had been floating in my stew.  Just because there were gophers as waiters didn't mean there might not be a hare in the kitchen.  Seeing Noxious Nicky sort of made me give up on that idea and caused the long scar on my back, that he had gifted me with, start to itch tremendously.

I stood up so fast that the other boys would have been shocked had they seen it.  Yet they were still busy at their table talking, laughing and eating.  None of them appeared to have noticed that there was a pirate approaching.  The pirate laughed at me as I pulled my wooden sword out and prepared to do battle.  He drew his cutlass, which scarcely made a whisper of sound as it eased free of the scabbard.  I glanced back over at the others, but they were still unaware of anything that wasn't happening at their table.  Panted gopher had vanished, but pantless was watching with his mouth slightly ajar.

Noxious Nicky swung his sword at me and grunted in surprise as I managed to get the wooden sword up in time to block it.  In the 'real' world, I'd have ended up holding half the sword and probably missing an appendage.  In Neverland, the wooden sword had a healthy dose of wishes, luck, and of course a ton of pixie dust.  I couldn't cut with it and stabbing was sort of problematic, but I could use it to block and it was almost as good as my club.  Nicky recovered quickly and swung his cutlass in the opposite direction towards my head.  Once again I managed to get the wooden sword in the way of his swing (saying I blocked it would be a huge overstatement) and my teeth rattled from the collision.

"Hey, guys.  A little help here?  Pleeease?"  I was too busy to look and see what effect my plea had, but from the lack of commotion I figured there was none.  I tried swinging the wooden sword towards Nicky's head.  Being big and ungainly, all I succeeded in doing was adding a new cut to the bear pelt and a slash down my arm as he neatly parried and cut me on the backswing.  As Leo kept telling me, I'd be better off hurling my sword at someone than trying to fence with it.  I stumbled backwards out of his sword's reach just in time to avoid being skewered.  Nicky grabbed the plastic cup of water off my table and hurled the contents in my face.  Sputtering and trying to push the hair out of my eyes, I tumbled over the miniscule chair and fell flat on my rump, my wooden sword flying somewhere on the other side of the table.  With a cry of glee, Nicky swung his cutlass towards the general vicinity of my neck.  I closed my eyes and waited for my life to pass in front of my eyes.  I was a little disconcerted when all I saw was a test pattern.

"Die scum," Noxious Nicky hollered out.

"Pardon me, Mr. Baltocrimethiangrengle?  Unless you plan on using that knife to cut this boy some lettuce for his salad, you had better put it away posthaste," panted gopher said in a quiet voice.  "You are fully aware that we do not carve up our patrons, no matter how they are dressed."

I lay there waiting for the gopher to be cleaved in two and was shocked when Nicky seemed to wilt under the gopher's gaze.  "But... but he's a Lost Boy."

"And you think you're a graduate of the Cordon Bleu, perhaps?"  My shock deepened when Nicky let out what sounded suspiciously like a sob and quickly sheathed his cutlass while staring down at his feet.  The panted gopher reached over and hauled me to my feet with what appeared to be very little effort.  "Are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah.  Just a bit startled I guess."

"Please let me apologize.  Mr. Baltocrimethiangrengle has issues he is working through and every now and again he tends to backslide a bit.  Of course there will be no charge for your meal because of what happened."

Great.  Now my free meal wasn't going to be charged for twice.  I did perk up on hearing his next statement, though.  "I do believe you might be entitled to a complimentary desert as well because of this dreadful event."  He clapped his hands and pantless gopher suddenly appeared.  "Do we have any of that pie left?"

The pantless one thought a moment and then slowly nodded.  "Yeah, we have a slice of blueberry and a scoop of vanilla ice cream."

"Please bring it out to our young friend with the sweet tooth, then."  The pantless gopher nodded once and sped off.  I wondered for a moment whether I had been subtly insulted or not.  No one ever seemed to accuse Ursa of having a sweet tooth, but my teeth seemed to always be open to discussion.  However blueberry pie with ice cream was not to be sneezed at so I ignored it.  Thinking of Ursa, though, I looked over at the big table to see the rest of my group carrying on as if nothing had happened.  I was wondering what that was all about and how they could have missed me being attacked by a pirate when I was brought back to the here and now by panted gopher clearing his throat.

"Was there some reason you requested the presence of Mr. Baltocrimethiangrengle?" the gopher asked.

"Oh, yeah.  I wondered if he knew where..." I stopped as I looked down at the table and found both hair and note missing.  I glanced over at Nicky, but he still looked like a puppy who knew it'd done something very bad and didn't want to risk being noticed again.  "Uh, I just wanted to compliment the chef on the wonderful stew.  That's all."

The whole meadow seemed to glow with the smile that Nicky gave when he heard me praise the stew.  "Thanks, scum.  I... Well, thank you.  No one's ever complimented me before.  I don't know what to say.  It's... well, thanks."  I was a little embarrassed because he looked as though he was ready to start crying from happiness.  It was approaching one of those 'awkward moment' stages, but was broken as pantless gopher suddenly popped up from the ground with a tray holding a very large piece of blueberry pie and a huge scoop of ice cream.

Okay, I'm not proud.  I'll admit I may have been drooling just a tiny bit as he came marching around the little table with the tray.  I will not, however, admit to howling in intense despair as I watched his feet get tangled up in the wooden sword causing him to fall to the ground, face first in the pie a la mode.  I could have sworn there was an elven giggle from somewhere that sounded very familiar, but it could just has easily have been the breeze chasing pine needles.

The panted gopher looked down at the pantless gopher who now wore a mask of crust, berries and ice cream.  "Oh dear, and that was the last piece."  The panted gopher gave a tsk of dismay and then looked up at me.  "I apologize for this inconvenience.  Naturally there will be no charge for the meal."

I simply shook my head and watched as the other boys finally began standing up and stretching.  Tigger looked over at me in surprise.  "Hey, Cubbs.  Where ya been?  Didn't this meal rock?"

I think rock would be an appropriate word to use with this meal, but probably not the way in which Tig used it.

We followed Surefoot from left field into the field on the right.  They looked identical to one another and I held my breath waiting for another tornado to appear and start flinging wooden soldiers at us.  Such was not to be this time, though.  Surefoot had gotten only a couple of meters into the field when there was a sodden cracking sound and he found himself face to face with a gopher of the same height as himself.  He was wearing a maroon jacket, maroon pants and had one of those pillbox type hats that bellboys wore at one time.  At first I thought it was a Lost Boy or something, but this was a true gopher, albeit one of above average height.

"Ah, good day gentlemen.  We are so pleased to have you here.  Table for five?"

Surefoot stood there like some sort of antlered animal that had gotten caught in a fast moving artificial light source.  Tigger strode forward next to Surefoot.  "Yes, please.  That would be most excellent."

The gopher frowned at Tigger for a moment and then gave a brisk nod.  "Excellent indeed my good sir.  I will be most happy to arrange that."  The gopher clapped its paws together and created a sound a lot louder than it had any right to be for originating from two paws.  Almost as if it came out of the ground, another gopher appeared.  This one had on a maroon jacket too, but no pants and no hat.

"If y'all would follow me this way please."  He led us to the middle of the field where two tables popped up.  "Now we only have a table for four or a table for six.  We don't have a table for five, so you're going to have to split your party up.  This is a table for four," he said as he pointed out what looked to be your average run of the mill square restaurant table.  "That there, is a table for one."  The table he pointed to this time was considerably smaller than the first one, both in table area and in height.  It looked as though it stood about a meter off the ground.  Next to it was a flimsy chair that looked like it might have been part of a doll's table set at one point.  Before anyone could say a word, he neatly segragated Tig, Leo, Surefoot and Ursa around the big table and gently pushed me towards the small table.

"Hey?  Why do I have to sit at the kid's table?" I protested.

"Because, Master Bear."

"Oh."  I supposed that made as much sense as anything else did.  I looked at the chair and knew it would never survive an encounter with my rump, so with a sigh I dropped down to my knees in front of the table."

"Hey Cub, I think a simple grace would do.  I don't believe you actually have to say a formal prayer before the meal begins."

"Ha, ha, very funny.  You're more than welcome to switch places with me if you'd like, Tig.  I'm sure this table is just your size."

"I'm so sorry, sir.  We can't allow people to switch seats.  Once you've been seated, you must continue to use the assigned and appointed seating section until you are no longer seated and wish to move along.  It's part of the charm of the place." The gopher with pants had wandered over in time to provide that useful bit of information.  "Now, would you like to order?"

Surefoot seemed to come out from wherever he'd been at this point.  "Just a minute.  What is this place?  And why are you offering us a meal?"

The two gophers exchanged that universal look that service industry employees have that roughly translates to 'Why must we always be the ones to suffer the most idiotic simpleton questions?'  The gopher with pants spoke carefully, as though afraid he'd be misunderstood.  "This is a restaurant, sir.  It is called the Blue Hollow with Purple.  We are offering you a meal because that is what they do in a restaurant.  Do you have any other questions?"

"Yeah, how much is this whole thing going to cost?"

"Why, sir.  What do you mean?  This is free, of course.  It's our way of thanking the great company of adventurers and their leader without peer who are boldy going to go and save the world.  It's the least we could do."  I noticed we had gone from saving the elven race to saving the world.  That probably paid a bit more, although it might irritate the elves if they had to share being saved with anyone.

"Oh, well, sure.  Why not?  Go ahead and order men.  It will be a good change from the iron rations we've been on," Surefoot declared.  I found the words he used a bit bothersome and was also curious about these 'iron rations' we'd been on for all of a day.

The gopher with pants repeated his offer of taking our order and started at the big table.  Chicken seemed to be a popular choice, along with fish and chips.  Stumble ordered a steak medium well and a baked potato.  The gopher finally got to the small table and asked what I wanted.  I figured fried chicken would be nice and ordered that along with french fries and biscuits with jam.  The nutrition elf was going to have a fit if she ever found out, but how could she?

The boys at the big table began talking.  It was weird.  Although I was only a few feet from them (and a foot or two below), I really couldn't make out what they were saying.  I could catch a few words every now and again, but nothing that conveyed any sort of meaning.  This went on for several minutes and I was beginning to feel very lonely for some reason, when both gophers appeared carrying trays.  Quickly they set up the large table's orders and I watched as the boys got down to eating.  The pantless gopher assured me my order was on its way.

Another few minutes went by and I watched as the boys devoured their food.  I tried calling out a couple of times, but they either ignored me or made 'shooing' motions with their hands as though they were busy and didn't want to be disturbed.  I was about to give up hope when 'pantless' appeared once more.  "I'm so sorry sir, but there was a problem with your order."  He put down a bowl of stew in front of me and a plate of waybread next to it.  "I'm afraid your comrades cleaned us out of most provisions.  I was able to find some of this stew and fresh bread.  Please forgive the inconvenience.  I'll be sure that this meal is free because of the problem in the kitchen."

I just sighed and nodded.  After all, they weren't going to charge me for my free meal.  What more could I ask for?  For about a second I had the wild urge to pick up the bowl of stew and hurl it at the other table.  The moment passed and I picked up a spoon to begin eating the wonderful stew in front of me.  As I put the spoon in the bowl, I noticed a bright red hair floating among the unidentifiable ingredients of the dish.  I was pretty sure I hadn't lost any hair and with another sigh used my fingers to grab it.  I pulled it out of the bowl.  Or at least I tried to.  I kept pulling and pulling and in a moment figured I'd probably pulled about half a meter of this one strand of hair out of it.  Suddenly a huge glop of something appeared at the strand's end and fell on the table in front of me as I let go.  I carefully picked it up and found out it was a folded sheet of paper that was about a centimeter square and very thick.  I unfolded it again, and again, and again and until I finally had a very thin sheet of paper about 20 cm by 20 cm.  Scrawled on the paper was a message in what looked like reddish crayon which read:  "Dear Little Dude.  How are you?  I am fine.  Don't let your little dude friends eat any of the food they serve here.  The stew is alright and so is the bread.  But if your little dude friends order anything else, don't let them eat it.  Hey, did you play soccer today?  I'll see you soon little dude.  Your friend"  I couldn't make out the name because the crayon, or whatever it was, had been leached away by the stew.

After removing a half meter of red hair from the stew, I was willing to take exception to the statement that the stew was alright.  I looked over at the big table and saw that they had basically cleaned their plates.  Great.  I wondered what sort of enchantment or poison or whatever had been added to their food and what I could do about it.  None of them looked like they were suffering from anything, but I knew there were a lot of things that didn't show signs of anything before they struck.

"Something amiss, sir?" panted gopher asked me with a look of concern.  I wondered if it were real concern or feigned concern.  Maybe concern that I'd had stew and not something else.

A sudden thought struck me.  "Could I see the chef, please?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to tell him how good the food is."

The panted gopher gave a relieved look and clapped his paws together, summoning pantless gopher.  "Please have Baltocrimethiangrengle come out to this table.  Our little guest would like to have a word."

Pantless nodded and seemed to vanish.  A moment later he reappeared about 50 meters away and walked towards my mini-table.  Striding along beside him was a figure I hadn't seen in ages.  He was a human with a gold earing in his left ear, a patch over one eye, a bandana over his head and a cutlass strapped to his side.  Over the typical pirate garb was an apron that said "Property of Mrs. Crocker".  I was pretty sure this was the pirate from Hook's ship known as Noxious Nicky.

We decided to leave as quickly as possible before the dwarven children decided to start practicing again.  About a kilometer later we came across a shallow pond.  I knelt down in front of it to see if I could figure out why my left eye was bugging me.  I was pretty sure it wasn't hanging out of the socket, since the others would have gleefully mentioned it to me, but maybe I could find out what was going on.  It was no wonder my eye was sore and I had trouble looking through it.  "Man, I can't believe that.  Why didn't you tell me I had a black eye?"

"We sort of figured you'd know," Leo said in explanation at the same time Tigger mentioned that I hadn't asked to be informed of such an occurrence.

"Man, those soccer balls are lethal, aren't they?"

Leo looked uncomfortable.  "Yeah, soccer balls.  Ya see, there's this thing.  It really wasn't a soccer ball that did that to your eye."

"One of the dwarfs did it?  A dwarf who is still a kid?"

"No, not exactly.  When you got knocked out by the soccer ball, you began to fall over and Surefoot kind of caught you with his elbow."

"Surefoot?  He gave me a black eye?"

"I was only trying to catch you and then I had to duck when someone started shooting off soccer balls again, and well, things get a little hazy after that.  I didn't mean to.  It was all a most unfortunate accident.  Really." 

I didn't have any trouble believing the accident part, but I'd have felt better about the whole thing if Surefoot hadn't been trying so hard not to grin.  I wondered if the black eye made me look daring and dangerous.  Looking back at the reflection, I decided it made me look really clumsy.  I laughed out loud as I got back to my feet, though, because Surefoot wanting to laugh at the whole thing gave me hope that he might not be growing up after all.

We continued following the maps increasingly querulous directions.  The map let us know that our pace was too slow, that it was being jostled too much, that the relative humidity was too high, and that Surefoot's hands smelled sort of funny.  "You should smell the rest of him," Tigger commented, getting a dirty look from our fearless leader.  It eventually led us to where the path seemed to dead end in a narrow, but thick barrier of trees, brush, and bush.  On each side of the wild growth was a large field.

"Which field to we go into?" Surefoot asked the map.

"I'm sorry, programming is flawed.  The information you are seeking is not available at this point in time.  Please feel free to try your request again at my convenience."  The map refused to say anything else.

"Great, now what do we do?  The picture portion of this map doesn't show almost anything."

"No problem, Tig.  We'll just go to the left.  It's never failed us before, has it?"  Personally I could think of several times it had, but my definition of 'fail' was probably a lot more encompassing than Leo's was.  I happened to glance over at Surefoot and saw his lips purse at Leo's decision, but he didn't say anything.  With no other comments forthcoming, we wandered out to the left.

There was nothing special about the field until we got to about the halfway point.  It was then that the sky in front of us grew very dark, very quickly.  A huge gust of wind blew over us, and then everything became hot and still.  Both Leo and Tigger looked up into the clouds.

"I don't like this.  It feels..."

"...too much like it used to feel when we were..."

"...at that other place, right before a..."

"...tornado hit," they both finished together as a finger of cloud slowly made it's way to the ground in front of us.  It was a smallish tornado and unlike most of them which seem to suck things in, this one seemed to be throwing things out as it slowly spun and danced in front of us.

"What the heck are those?" Ursa asked, more in wonder than in concern.  The tornado was disgorging dozens of wooden soldiers.  They looked to be about 15 cm tall and were dressed or painted in red livery.  Each one had a musket with a bayonet on the end.  As they tumbled out of the tornado, they quickly got up on their wooden legs and formed ranks in front of us.  A couple of small cannon landed and the final figure out was a soldier painted in deep blue with gold braid on his shoulders and holding a cutlass.  He was astride a black horse with rockers attached to its hooves.  As he hit the ground, the tornado dissipated and the sky cleared.  The temperature retreated back to where it had been and the breeze began to blow again.

We all looked at each other.  "What the heck is this all about?" Tigger finally said.

"I dunno, but I wish I had some Lego.  Imagine the fort you could build with all these guys and the battles you could fight.  I'd never stop playing."  The look in Leo's face could only be described as joy mixed with awe.

"He might have something to say about it," Ursa commented, pointing to the blue soldier on the rocking horse who was galloping (rocking?) towards us.  I think it was Tigger who muttered "cool" and Surefoot who said "uh-oh".

The toy soldier stopped in front of us and looked around with as stern an expression as wood allowed.  He stared at each of us as though determining each of our strengths and weaknesses.  For a minute I had the wild notion of asking him to tell me what he had seen within me.  He finally straightened up and in a voice that would have done a platoon sergeant proud bellowed out, "Who's in charge here?"

I came close to laughing as both Leo and Surefoot stepped forward.  I was very glad I hadn't, when I saw the dark look that Surefoot gave Leo.  I'm not sure if Leo saw it too, but he took a quick step backwards with a rueful shake of his head.

The blue soldier let out a sigh.  "So you are the leader of this pack of..." He frowned, again as much as his wooden visage would let him, as he tried to figure out exactly what we were a pack of.  He apparently couldn't figure it out, so he let it drop.  "What is your purpose in our field?"

"Your field?  I don't see your name on it anywhere," Surefoot said, exaggeratedly looking around for some sort of sign.  "Anyway, we're on a mission.  I have to find the gem that will destroy the elves and keep it from happening."

"I find it hard to believe that a pack of ragamuffins have been entrusted with the fate of the elven race."  I have to admit, he did have a point.  I found it hard to believe myself.  "Regardless of that fact, we cannot let you pass.  This is a sacred field."

"Sacred to what?" Tigger called out.

"Sacred to what?" the soldier repeated.  "Sacred to what?  I'll tell you who it's sacred to."  He turned and looked at the soldiers, still standing in ranks.  "Men?"

Us boys watched as the wooden soldiers broke ranks, formed three circles within each other and started moving about and singing about some sort of giant mouse that was crowned king or something similar to that.  It was a pretty impressive dance, but it was very hard to make out the words to the song which seemed to consist of a verse that went on and on followed by a chorus that seemed to consist of 'great grey mouse'.  "I thought this ended a lot differently," Ursa whispered to Surefoot.

"Yeah, and didn't the solider have funny mouths or something in the original?"

The dance was getting more and more manic.  We attempted to pass on the edge of it, but it simply couldn't be done.  "You know if we roll Ursa and Cubby through the middle of them, we could probably get by."

"Hey!  If you're so eager to get perforated by a bunch of bayonets, feel free.  I think I'll pass though."

We continued watching as the dance went on without any sign of stopping.  Finally Surefoot shook his head.  "That's it, this is getting us nowhere.  It's time for plan b."

"Plan b?  I didn't even know there was a plan a,  What a remarkable thing."  Tigger shook his head in mock disbelief and we started back the way we had come.  We left the field and started towards the one on the right.

Surefoot seemed downhearted.  "My first battle and I'm defeated by a company of ballet soldiery."

"Hey don't worry about it," I absently remarked.  "Let's face it, that whole thing came out of left field."

"Guys, c'mon.  It was an accident.  I really didn't pay any attention to what I was saying.  Really.  C'mon, let me down.  I can't feel my feet anymore."

They finally cut me down from where they had tackled me and hung me from the tree limb upside down.  Who knew they'd get so upset over such a good pun?  Surefoot unsheathed his sword and raised it above his head.  "Onward to the right field.  We march to victory."

March?  I had enough problems walking.  With a sigh we followed our leader into the alternate field to see what havoc could be wreaked upon us.

I was becoming majorly disenchanted with these early wake up times.  Sure, it might make you healthy, wealthy and wise, but it didn't do much for the bright eyed and bushy tailed thing and caused me to yawn most of the day.  From some of the comments I heard, I wasn't the only one who wasn't exactly thrilled with this waking up before noon thing.  We ate a delicious and filling breakfast of waybread.  I had planned on skipping it, but was thoroughly admonished by Surefoot who reminded me I would be skipping 'the most important meal of the day.'  This was, of course, the same person who not a week ago wondered aloud how I was able to put away so much for breakfast.  Life is confusing.

Bing had risen with the rest of us, had eaten some waybread and declared it one of the most delicious things he'd ever put in his mouth, and then asked if we had any questions before he took off to rejoin Plethora.

"How come the dragon isn't traveling with us?" Tig asked.  "It seems to me if we're supposed to be on this quest, it would be helpful to have a dragon travel with us just in case we run into some trouble."

"You mean like if we were to run into a herd of kerikians and one of us tried to attack them on their own or something like that?" Leo asked.  Tigger looked as though he was ready to protest, but chose to look embarrassed instead.  It wasn't a look he seemed really familiar with.

"Plethora decided it would be better if we traveled apart in order to throw off the purpose of your quest.  Naturally an interested party, given a choice between following a mighty dragon and his loyal retainer and a group of bedraggled boys is going to choose the former, would he not?  It would be a natural reaction to follow one who will end up being on the grand council rather than a group of unknowns."  The fox looked infinitely pleased with this logic as he glanced around at us.

"That makes sense," Surefoot said, nodding.  "Will he be making his way to the village we're going to as well?"

The fox looked unsure of himself for a moment and then shook his head no.  "I don't think he will.  That way the path that is being trod won't be immediately apparent and the ones working against us might have to dilute their forces, creating an opportunity for you to sneak by and win your way through undetected.  My liege is brilliantly cunning when it concerns matters such as that."  Surefoot nodded again, but didn't make any statement concerning how much sense it did or didn't make.  Personally the whole thing seemed sort of weird to me, but that was probably just me.

"What about rabbits?" I asked.

"Rabbits?" Leo said.  "What've rabbits got to do with anything?"

"I dunno," I said lamely.  "I just want to know if they're involved in anything.  You know, just in case we should run across some or something."  I sort of trailed off mumbling at the end.  The whole thing didn't even make sense to me."

"C'mon Cubbs, surely you're not scared that we're going to be attacked by blood thirsty rabbits, are you?"

"Yeah, those claws of theirs can be pretty brutal.  Plus I've heard if you're not careful, those floppy ears they have can do some real damage."

"What about those teeth?  When they aren't ripping lettuce to shreds, I'm sure they are probably capable of trimming your fingernails or something equally horrible."

There was some laughter and a couple of comments concerning the most cowardly Lost Boy and his sudden concern for rampaging rabbits.  I did notice that Bing didn't ever give me an answer concerning rabbits.  Not that it proved anything.  It was a strange question to ask.  Bing asked if there were any other questions, and everyone's eyes swiveled towards me in curiosity.

"What?" I squawked.  I definitely didn't plan on asking any other questions at this point.  One was more than enough.

"Very well.  I will return to Plethora and provide him with an up to the minute report as to what is happening."  He turned to address Surefoot.  "You should have a plan for when you reach the village.  You might only have minutes to execute a course of action before the discovery of your true intentions are winnowed out and a defensive action is taken against you."  With that, he gave a flick of his tail and vanished into the undergrowth.

There were a few more comments about my apparent new found fear of bunnies as we started off down the trail, the interactive map telling us exactly where to go in a tone that made it sound exactly like it was telling us where to go.  I didn't pay much attention to the woods around us, instead wondering exactly what was going to happen today.  I wasn't sure how much I should believe from a rabbit wearing a mohawk.  Of course I'd listened to unicorns in dreadlocks before.  At the same time, my overactive imagination was busy assembling all sorts of delightful things that could happen to me while my courage was being tested.  I rolled my eyes at that particular thought, pretty sure how that would turn out.  The soccer thing was sort of interesting though.  I'd heard a lot of things to be wary of on the island, but soccer hadn't ever come close.

"So what's the thing about rabbits all of a sudden?" Tig asked as he came up beside me.  "I thought it was chipmunks you were scared of."

"Ha, ha.  Hey, what do you think of Bing?"

"He's okay, I guess.  I always seem to get a headache when he talks though.  Like he's trying to cram tons of words into something that should only hold a few."

Sometimes life wasn't fair.  Tig didn't often leave himself open that way, and a few dozen responses sprang to mind, but I decided to be good.  "Do you think maybe he's trying to..."  I tried to figure out exactly what I was trying to say.

"Trying to what?"  Tigger looked at me with an interested look on his face.  "You figure out something that the rest of us haven't.  You're sort of good at that sometimes."

"Last night I had someone come and give me a message."

"Who?"

"He didn't tell me his name, but it was a rabbit with a mohawk.  He said my courage was going to be tested or something and that I shouldn't play soccer."

"A rabbit.  With a mohawk.  Telling you not to play soccer."  I nodded.  "I think you'd better take it seriously.  Especially the part about soccer.  I've seen you play."

"What's that mean?  I can play soccer.  I scored a goal last time we played."

"Yeah, but it was for the other team."  Couldn't anyone simply remember that I had scored the winning goal and not the details behind it?

"What are you two arguing about?" Leo asked as he came up behind us.

I waited for more courage about rabbit jokes, but all Tig mentioned was that we were arguing over my soccer playing abilities.  Leo nodded in serious manner.  "Cub plays pretty good, but he gets a bit over-exuberant sometimes.  You should learn not to start running before the stars in front of your eyes clear and that you're not supposed to tackle people in soccer."

"But..."

"Even if they do use their tusks to spike the ball."  He nodded at us and increased his pace to catch up with Ursa and Surefoot who were being yelled at by the interactive map.  Tig had a serious look on his face when he looked at me again.

"You sure you didn't have too many blackberries last night and dreamed about this rabbit messenger?  Leo should have know if something had wandered by last night.  He really does sleep very lightly."  Tigger sighed.  "There's a reason for that."

I nodded, pretty sure I knew the reason for that and not liking it at all.  I thought about the possibility of the visit being a dream.  "I don't think so.  It was about the time that Surefoot started bellowing at us to get up.  It seemed really real, but maybe it left because I was waking up or something."  I was beginning to feel less sure of myself.

"Maybe, but some of your dreams have ended up a bit differently too."  The fact that Tig was taking this as seriously as he was began to bother me a little.

"He also told me some stuff about Bing, but I can't remember all of it.  It was sort of confusing like he was good, but might be making his own plans or something and that we should or shouldn't worry about it.  That's why I asked about the rabbits this morning."

"I figured you were just being you and trying to make people laugh or something cuz you never ask anything serious."

"Yeah, I know.  It's not like I do it a lot.  Hey, tell me something.  Do my ears look twisted?"

"Not twisted, they look as though they've been shorn a bit too close.  Way too close."

"What's going on up there?" I said as I saw Ursa and Surefoot throw themselves to the ground.  The map was screaming something about not having given any instructions to lie down.  Both Tig and I watched in horror as Leo went flying backwards, having been hit by... a soccer ball.  A second later the air was saturated with mini soccer balls zooming towards us.  Tig acrobatically threw himself to the ground showing extremely good form.  I, on the other hand, tried to throw myself to the ground, but managed to trip over my own paws and stayed upright.  I caught a stinging glance to the arm by one of the mini-soccer balls.  One came flying straight for my face and I managed to 'head it' back in the direction from where it came.  I was able to kick a third one away just before it struck me.  But there were too many of them.  I was quickly overwhelmed and took a jarring blow to the forehead.  Stars swam in front of my eyes and I managed to take one staggering step before darkness closed in around me.

I opened my eyes to see Peter Pan floating above me with a frown on his face.  "I thought you weren't going to play soccer."

"Peter?"  I tried to look around, but couldn't move my head.  All I could see was Peter and the gray sky behind him.  "You sent the rabbit?"

"Rabbit?  What rabbit?  You been eating dreamberries again?  You know they give you nightmares."

I'd never heard of dreamberries before and didn't know whether they gave me nightmares or not.  The whole thing was a little strange and confusing.  "I don't understand.  I wasn't playing soccer, I was attacked.  We all were.  I saw Leo get hit by one and he... Then Tig and I tried to dodge them, and I tripped..."

"C'mon Cubby, it's okay.  Just keep your chin and your courage up and you'll see daylight before you know it.  You're sort of brave you know, just in a squirrely sort of way."

I wondered if squirrels were brave and closed my eyes a moment to chase after that thought.  I opened my eyes to see Ursa looking down at me with a relieved expression on his face.  "Glad to see you're back with us."

I looked around to see the rest of the boys gathered around me.  "What happened?  Where's Peter Pan?"

"Peter?" Leo said.  "I dunno.  He's not around here."

"I guess I must have dreamed it," I said as I slowly sat up.  "What was the deal with all those soccer balls?"

Leo and Tigger exchanged embarrassed looks.  "We, uh, sort of blundered into a dwarven soccer camp.  They were practicing free kicks and didn't know we were here."

"Free kicks?  In the woods?"

"Apparently doing it that way makes them better when they're not trying to kick through trees.  It's some sort of mind over matter thing."

"Yeah, if you don't mind, it'll matter when they hit you," Tigger said.  There were a few seconds of stunned disbelief and then a chorus of groans.

"So I was knocked out by a bunch of dwarven children who were practicing soccer and didn't even know we were here?"

"Yeah, but it sounds silly when you say it like that," Surefoot said.  "They're really very, very good at it."

Being knocked out by a bunch of dwarflets playing soccer didn't build a lot of confidence when I thought about what was supposed to happen when we got to this village we were headed to.  I slowly got to my feet and listened to the map ask Surefoot if he was sure he had gotten all that foolish lying down stuff out of his system.  I also wondered how the rabbit, or whoever had sent him, had known about the soccer debacle.

The stir of excitement over making a fort quickly died down.  There wasn't enough deadfall to make a fort out of and none of us had been insane enough to bring shovels with us.  I sat down and began gnawing on some waybread.

"We don't really need a fort anyway, do we?" Ursa asked.  "We've been in this area before and nothin' has ever bothered us.  Well nothin' except the occasional pirate."

"Yeah, but we've never been on an important quest like this either.  We need to be prepared for anything that might happen.  The world is depending on us."

"Don't you mean the elves are depending on us?  And even that's not for sure.  I don't think elves would ever depend on Lost Boys for anything," Tigger said, beginning to chew on his own waybread.  "Anyway, we don't need a fort.  Cubbs can climb this tree and if he sees anything try to sneak up on us tonight, he can just drop on it.  End of problem."

"Oh yeah?  And you're going to carry him tomorrow while he's sleeping?" Leo said in a dry voice.

"Are you kidding?  Cubbs is the champion.  He can go days without sleep.  Maybe not without food, but when it comes to going without sleep, he's a tiger."

"I thought you were the tiger," I said as I choked down another piece of waybread.

"Just a figure of speech, don't get too excited about being called a tiger, furball.  You'll always be a bear.  Well, maybe a wolf."

"Excuse me!"  All of us turned towards the querulous voice.  "I am trying to sleep here.  It has been a very vexing day and I require the opportunity to rest and recuperate.  Is that really asking too much of you boys?"  Bing shook himself, causing his fur to stand out in all directions.

Tig and Leo exchanged looks, grinned, and moved towards Bing.  Bing's expression went from irritated superiority to worried frown.  "Uh, boys?  Let's not do anything hasty." He started backing away from the two. "I was only kidding, you know.  Boys?"

"Okay guys, that's enough.  Leave him alone," Surefoot said in a loud, very confident voice.

Tigger looked back at Surefoot and scowled.  "Man, you're taking a lot of the fun out of this.  You sure you aren't part elf or something?"

There aren't a lot of insults that us Lost Boys hurl at each other that 'require' a response, but one of them is calling someone an elf.  Even part elf.  Not that elves are bad or anything.  In fact a few of them are pretty cool.  But calling someone an elf is like saying they are beyond grown up.  After hearing Tigger say that to Surefoot, I held my breath figuring that Surefoot would make an 'active' response.  It was in doubt for a moment as Surefoot simply stared at Tigger in disbelief, but then he took a deep breath and shook his head.  "We have a duty to Plethora and to Bing.  We can't be fighting amongst ourselves or with those we have a duty to."

"Whoa," Leo muttered under his breath.  Everyone except Bing looked a bit surprised at that speech.  Bing simply nodded in a knowing way.  "As impossible as it is to imagine it ever happening, I do believe Plethora may have made a mistake in who he chose as his champion for this quest.  Of course he is a young dragon and still had a bit of the rough edges to work off.  Once this quest is completed, the bards will be singing his praises at the highest courts and Plethora will be invited to advise on all boards of importance."  He looked at Surefoot.  "I feel that you have things well under control and I will inform Plethora of your handling of the situation."  He gifted us with an insincere grin and seemed to instantly drop into slumber once again.

Ursa surprised me my stating, "That guy is really becoming irritating."  He turned towards Leo.  "You weren't going to hurt him or anything, were you?"

"Naw.  I'm sure there's a creek or stream around here that we could have accidentally dumped him into.  Just like we do with Cubbs all the time."

"Don't get me involved in this.  Last thing I want to do is wake up tonight with Bing stalking me or something."

"Are you kidding?  He wouldn't do that.  You're the champion.  Maybe not the champion he wanted, but still the champion."

"Don't start that stuff again.  I ain't no champion"  There was a lot of laughter at that comment.  The rest of the early evening was spent gathering something to eat besides waybread and dragging water up from a nearby spring.  I ended up getting totally covered in mud somehow, even though the spring wasn't very large at all.  It was finally decided not to post a watch since Leo said there was no way anything would be able to sneak up on him, even if he was asleep.

I found a tree with a nice pile of pine needles under it and was asleep within thirty seconds of lying down.  I don't know whether I dreamed or not.  I probably did because I usually do, but don't remember anything about what it might have been.  Instead, sometime after the moon set, I was awakened by someone shaking me.  I opened my eyes, sat up, and was ready to start complaining about Surefoot's sudden love of early mornings.  Instead, standing in front of me on its hind legs, was a rabbit with a mohawk, whiskers twitching.  He grinned when he saw that I was awake.

"Anyone ever tell you, you're a very hard person to wake up?  I spent forever trying to get you out of slumberland little dude."

"Who are you?" I finally got the presence of mind to ask while blinking sleepily at the rabbit.

"That's not important little dude.  What's important is the information I need to impart to you.  You know the message and not the messenger is the issue.  Everyone will always remember the message, but as for who messages it?  Man, that'll be lost in the mists of time, space, and surreal dimensional mist.  You know what I mean, little dude?"

I sort of knew what he meant with the last part, but I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about as far as important messages meant.  "For me?  What message?  Why?"

"Very good questions indeed, little dude.  You must be quick on them paws of yours to figure out the important questions that need to be answered so quickly.  I for one would be proud to answer those questions for you, provide you the message, and let you know what the future might hold for one such as yourself."

I sat there waiting for him to provide me with that stuff, but he simply sat there on his hind legs, twitching nose and whiskers.  Silences don't normally bother me, but this was beginning to get ridiculous.  "Uh, so can you tell me?"

"Sure, little dude, what would you have me impart to those fuzzy ears of yourn?"

I was beginning to wonder if this guy may have sold hats when he wasn't busy running around the island carrying messages.  "That stuff you told me about.  You know.  The message, important questions, all that stuff?"

The rabbit's nose began to twitch more quickly.  "Oh, that stuff.  Sure.  I know exactly what you mean.  The important stuff you need to know.  Okay, here's the scoop my furry friend.  You know this fox you've been following around?"  I nodded.  "He's got his own stake in this whole thing.  It's not like he's bad or anything, he just isn't telling everything he knows.  Even when he says he does.  You know what I mean?  And he knows this dragon.  A dragon that has scales and a tail and all that other stuff.  You need to take care.  Heed what I'm saying, little dude?"

"Yeah.  I know he knows a dragon.  We know the dragon too.  His name is Plethora, right?"

"Oh, man.  I'm just the messenger.  I don't know complicated stuff like that.  I just give the message they want to message you with."

"Why me, though?"

"Because you're the bear with the twisted ears.  It's in all the stories.  They tell me those things, little dude.  It's really important stuff."  I was getting ready to ask what stories and who 'they' were, when the rabbit interrupted.  "I gotta go, little dude.  It'll be daylight soon and I don't get thrilled by the light.  Too many things to run into when the sun is shining.  You can trust the fox, though.  Okay?"

"But you told me he had his own thing he was doing."

"I did?  Oh, man.  That's not the message.   The message is that today when the sun is high you will be truly tested and your courage... uh,  well truly tested two.  Sort of like two tests.  Keep an eye out and don't play soccer.  I'll be back come the next nightfall with more information for you.  Remember, it's not always rose pie."

Before I could even think about thinking of a response to 'rose pie', the rabbit twitched his nose and took a bounding leap into the undergrowth.  I sighed and shook my head trying to figure out what that was all about.  I lay back down on my bed of pine needles, took a deep breath and concentrated on trying to get some more sleep in.  I was just beginning to drift off when I hear Surefoot's voice ring out, "Okay guys, time to rise and shine.  We have a big day ahead of us and gotta make tracks."  I wondered if he'd had any rabbits visit him during the night as well.  Somehow I didn't think so.

The next afternoon dawned bright and early sometime after noon, just like it was supposed to.  More importantly I dawned at the same time along with most of the other Lost Boys.  Surefoot wasn't in the best of moods for some reason and shot me a dirty look.  I was able to repel it with my 'look of innocence' though.  "This is awful," Surefoot said.  "We should have started out hours ago.  It's already the afternoon and we're still here at the Tree."

"Well we can always go real early tomorrow," Tig said earnestly.  "That way we'll be getting an early start a day late."  I personally thought that made perfect sense and held my breath in an effort to urge Surefoot in that direction.

"I dunno, we've already lost a day and this quest probably has to be completed as soon as possible."

"There aren't any timelines on it," Ursa observed.

"Yeah, but didn't someone say it had to be done as soon as possible so no one would get hurt?"

"I dunno.  I think it was that pushy fox who said that.  The dragon didn't seem to care exactly when it got done as long as it was done."

"Wait a second, Reynard wasn't there, was he?"

"Not Reynard, the other fox, you twip.  The dragon's friend or servant or whatever he was."

"Who you calling a twip?  Uh, what is a twip anyway?"

"Who cares?  It has an interesting sound to it."

"Hey guys?  Why is Cub turning blue?"

Ursa had glanced over at me and I guess I had been holding my breath so long that it was beginning to show.  He bounded over and started smacking me on the back.  "Breathe, Cubby, breathe."  I shook my head 'no', refusing to take a breath before Surefoot announced his decision so I wouldn't jinx it.

"I think we'd better go ahead and leave now.  Obviously Cubby is so eager to get started, he can't even breathe."  He turned a nasty smile in my direction.  I'd forgotten that I'd let the fact I did that sometimes, slip.  I explosively exhaled in disappointment.

"Aw, c'mon Cubby.  Say it, don't spray it." Leo said in response to my slightly damp exhale.

"But he didn't say anything," Tigger pointed out.

"Doesn't matter.  He was thinking about it."

About twenty minutes later we took off through the woods.  We had left most of the packs and bags behind, after reminding Surefoot once more about the perils of growing up.  It was a beautiful day full of blue sky and fluffy clouds.  A perfect day for daydreaming while staring up at the sky.  Some small motivated voice inside of me, immediately took issue with that, reminding me if I wanted to be a hero or a knight, I needed to put such things as daydreaming behind me and act like a hero.  Fortunately the much larger voices of cowardice, laziness, and 'not growin up-ness' came to my rescue and quickly subdued this strange and bizarre hero voice and I continued to daydream about daydreaming.

It wasn't long before we heard the roaring of the river and came out below Great Bear Falls, the starting point for our journey.  Surefoot unfolded the 'interactive map' and studied it.  "It's just an ordinary map," he said with a shrug.  "It looks like we're supposed to follow the river for awhile and then cross it and head into the thickets."

"Is the turnoff marked?" Leo asked.

"Doesn't look like it, but it's sorta hard to tell.  There isn't a whole lot of detail on this.  It's all straight lines and stuff.  The river curves but on this it's almost like a square or something.  The only thing I can tell for sure, is that we're supposed to cross the river before the trail to the apple orchard."

"The apple orchard?" I said, the ears on the bear pelt practically perking up.

"Down, boy," Tigger said.  "He said before we got to the orchard."

"Well maybe it's next to the orchard and it would only take a minute to get some apples.  You know, just in case."

"Yeah, I know what in case you're worried about," Surefoot said.

"An apple a day..."

"When did you ever stop at one?"

There was enough truth in that, that all I could do in response was stick out my tongue at Tig.  He took it very well and didn't cry at all over it.  We started walking alongside the river, towards the orchard trail.  Birds sang in the background and there were a few bugs buzzing along.  The river gurgled happily to itself and we boys were talking to each other.  The whole thing became a sort of happy noise mixture that we were all used to when journeying through the woods.  Maybe that's why the Germanic voice shocked us so much.  It was like a voice screaming in stillness.  We all came to a stop and looked around in confusion.  "What was that?" Ursa asked.

"Did you hear what it said?"

"Where'd it come from?"

"You suppose Peter's playing a trick on us?"

"More likely it's Tink cuz of what Cubby did to her flat."

"Aww, leave me out of that.  That was months ago.  She already forgot about it."

"Really?  Is that why you had to sew up the 'trapdoor' she cut in your bear pelt last week?"

"That was just a misunderstanding.  Besides, that wasn't Tink, it was some guy."

"Well she'd disguise her voice, d-uh."

"She doesn't have a voice, she has a bell."

"Does not, that's how she..."

"Enough!" Surefoot thundered.  He continued in a quieter voice.  "C'mon, we're already late.  We'll just keep an eye out so no one can sneak up on us."

"Doesn't seem like anyone was trying to sneak up on anyone if they were yelling out loud," Tig observed.  A look from Surefoot quickly ended that train of thought.

"Can we go now?" Surefoot finally asked.  Us Lost Boys nodded in agreement.  "Very well."  We followed as he started walking again.  We hadn't gotten more than a couple of feet when the voice returned.  Since we weren't talking anymore, this time we heard what it said.

"Left turn coming up in fifteen steps."  It was the same Germanic voice with a sort of mechanical tone to it.  Almost like the singers they featured at the Bucking Star.  We all came to another stop.

"Nice try, Surefoot," Ursa said.  "I know that came from you."

"Did not," Surefoot replied heatedly.  "Why would I do that?"

Normally we'd probably figure that the one accusing Surefoot was pulling our legs.  Ursa, however, was a different case.  He was following right behind Surefoot, and while he'd been known to pull the occasional odd practical joke, he'd have refrained from pulling one while we were doing something as 'serious' as this quest.  We pretty much figured that Ursa had heard the voice from where he claimed to.

We got in a circle around Surefoot and moved with him as he started forward again.  He took three steps and the voice chanted, "Left turn coming up in twelve steps."

"The map," Surefoot screamed, throwing it to the ground.  "It's the map that's talking."

We realized he was telling the truth when the map hit the ground and the voice said, "Ouch.  Possible obstruction in direction of travel.  Please place in upright position and continue navigation."

"Cool!  A talking map."  Leo reached over and picked it up.  He turned towards us and grinned.  The map responded by stating we had passed our turn twelve steps ago.  "I want to be navigator."

"Fine with me," Surefoot said.  "All great leaders had their own navigators.  Lead on."  With the map to guide us, literally, we quickly found the turn to cross the river.  The map told us which stones to use to ford the river, which branches to grab to climb the opposite bank, and the fact that there was a spring 193 steps ahead on the left and was the last spring for 4928 steps.

"I don't think I want to be navigator anymore." Leo said after the thousandth pronouncement from the map.  "Isn't there a way to turn this off?"

Any answer that would have been provided was quickly drowned out by the appearance of two kerikians that came bounding out of the undergrowth next to the path, screaming a challenge.  Kerikians look something like a unicorn that's been out in the sun too long and melted a bit.  They were vaguely equine shaped, had a horn or two, hooves with claws and a thoroughly nasty disposition.  In addition, instead of hide they had scales, and a set of rather nasty fangs.  The good news is that they were even lazier than I was and didn't normally chase anything for very long.

Tigger planted his feet in the middle of the trail and yelled out his own challenge which served to confuse the kerikians immensely, not being used to such a thing.  Ursa and Surefoot were already sprinting down the trail, away from the kerikians.  Leo was about twenty meters away from where Tigger and I stood.  "Please, Cubby," Leo almost begged me.

I nodded, knowing what to do.  I turned towards Tigger, grabbed him around his middle and threw him over my shoulder as I turned back in Leo's direction and started galloping after him.

"Hey, what're you doing?  Put me down.  We can take these horses."  There was a squeal of outrage from behind me at the horse comment and I tried to gallop faster.  Knowing Tig, he was probably sticking his tongue out at the kerikians.  I was actually keeping up with Leo (which surprised us both) and was able to hear the map give directions faster and faster.

"Turn left here.  Go down hill.  Be careful of beehive.  Do not drink water.  Bear left at fork.  Scenic route will take longer.  You may not use tree as rest area in this vicinity.  Stop, you have reached first night destination lodging."  I was glad to hear that because I simply collapsed on the ground with Tigger landing on top of me, and lay there gasping for breath.  I had a stitch in my side that was part of another stitch, it felt like.

"Excellent," a voice said.  I forced my head up to see who was talking this time.  The dragon's fox wandered into the area where we were all collapsed.  "You've arrived.  It took you longer than I thought it would.  Is the map giving you trouble?"  He didn't seem at all concerned that we had been running away from something and apparently thought we were simply trying to get here quickly.  Before anyone could say anything, the fox continued.  "I think I've done a good job in planning to get you here so far.  I will be going to sleep now.  Questions tomorrow if you have any.  Good night."  We watched as he walked in a circle three times and then lay down under a shrub, his nose covered by his tail.  Within seconds he was snoring.

"I didn't know foxes snored," I said.

"I dunno about foxes, but bears sure do.  I want to sleep on the other side of the grove from you so I'll be able to get some sleep."

"We'll worry about that later," Surefoot said.  "It's still a few hours until dark.  Perhaps we should make a fort of some sort."

That created quite a stir of excitement.  The only forts Lost Boys generally make are those constructed of snow.  I really wondered, as the rest of the boys 'gently' changed Surefoot's mind, if the raccoon was beginning to grow up.

Surefoot had found his element.  He had list prepared and tasks assigned.  Items were gathered, examined, discarded, and furtively snuck back into packs when Surefoot wasn't looking.  "What weapon are you going to be taking?" Surefoot asked me as if he was a census taker of some sort.

"My club of course," I said, hefting its weight in my hand.  "Oh, and my wooden sword too.  That's probably all I'll need."

He shook his head in amazement.  "Cubbs, you're getting ready to join the big leagues now.  You should be carrying a steel sword and maybe a dagger like Peter."

"Are you nuts?  Don't you remember what happened last time I carried a real sword?  I still have the scars on my leg and Leo still has nightmares about it.  Besides, I'm a Lost Boy.  I'm not supposed to be carrying a real sword.  It's like being a grown up or something."  Surefoot put a determined look on his face and opened his mouth.  I figured he was getting ready to start arguing about my method of weaponry, so before he could say anything, I yelled across the room.  "Hey, Leo.  Surefoot wants me to take a sword."

"A wooden one?"

"No, a real one."

"No way."

"But Leo," Surefoot began.

"NO WAY.  You should remember what happened the last time.  I'd rather you give him a bow than a sword."

"But he's supposed to be the champion."

"I ain't no champion," I muttered, although no one was listening to me anymore.

"He can be a champion with his club," Leo said.  "You know Cubbs.  His luck works when he uses his club and wooden sword.  You want to risk getting stabbed?  Repeatedly?  Over and over again?  Until all the blood leaks out of you?"

"Do you really think it's necessary to go that far?" I asked.

"It is until he figures out he doesn't want you to carry a real sword."

Apparently Surefoot finally remembered the last sword incident because he got a look of intense painful remembering on his face.  "That was Cubby, wasn't it?  Maybe it would be best if you used your club and wooden sword."

Leo breathed an unnecessarily loud sigh of relief.  He'd only had to have me put ten stitches in him.  I'd needed twenty myself.  Of course that could have been because the thread kept coming off the needle, but it still hurt twenty times.

By the time twilight fell, there was a huge pile of packs, bags, and assorted other stuff in the middle of the common room floor.  I couldn't believe it.  Tigger and Leo looked at it and just shook their heads.  "Are we really supposed to carry all this?" Tigger asked.  "We've never taken this much stuff on a quest.  Why are we doing this?"

"Because we must be prepared for emergencies and occurrences," Surefoot seemed to recite.  "There are times you'll be glad that you're carrying these items."

"Shampoo?" Ursa asked, picking up a bottle from one of the sacks.  "You sure you're not growing up or something?"

Ursa's comment caused immediate silence to fall.  If one of us was suspected of growing up, Peter Pan would 'test' us to see if we really were.  Once you grew up, you were lost to Neverland unless you became a pirate.  There were only a couple of boys who had done that and the story went that they grew so depressed over it that they did themselves in pretty quickly.  Pirates couldn't be buried in Lost Boys' Field, so they ended up going to some other adventure that probably wasn't as nice.

We all watched Surefoot wrestle with this latest challenge.  For over a minute no one spoke or said a word.  I felt sorry for him because I knew he wanted to show he could lead, but didn't want to lead like a grown up would.  He finally let out a laugh that sounded more hysterical than humorous.  "Yeah, we don't need all this stuff.  We can find plenty of stuff to eat on the way.  Besides, I'd never make Cub shampoo."

There was a lot of laughter and backslapping as Surefoot made his decision, as well as the feeling of something horrible that had been narrowly avoided.  The rest of the evening was spent telling tales of previous quests, happenings and narrow escapes.  It was around midnight when yawning started to occur and thoughts of sleep began to intrude.  I crawled into my usual spot under the common room table and drifted to sleep with a piece of waybread in my mouth listening to Tigger explain how to steal a pirate's handkerchief.  I hadn't thought most of them carried them and wasn't sure why you'd want to steal it if they did.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I felt a sharp pain on the top of my head.  I was dreaming that I was on the pirate ship and Mr. Grace was hitting me over the head again and again with a heavily starched handkerchief.  I couldn't figure out why he was calling my name over and over again, though.  I finally opened my eyes.

"Cubby, I need to talk to you.  Wake up."

I came awake in spectacular fashion and sat up quickly.  Unfortunately the table is even shorter than I am and I added a knot to the collection on the top of my head.  "Ouch!  What d'ya want?" I asked whoever it was who had wakened me.  "That's my head your hitting."

"Really?  I'm sorry.  I thought it was your foot," Surefoot said in a whisper.

"My foot?  My foot doesn't have red hair or a hood on it."

"I said I was sorry.  It's dark in here.  Anyway, I need to talk to you.  Please?"

"Fine, whatever."  I was a little bit grumpy because of my aching head and the fact I was a tiny bit sleepy.  I almost sat up again, but remembering the low clearance, started to crawl out from under the table instead.  That was how I ended up shoving my face into a chair that was sitting by the table and biting both tongue and lip.  "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.  Since when did someone start putting stuff where it belonged?" I asked as I tasted blood.  I finally managed to get my rump in a chair without further incident.  Surefoot took a chair across the table from me, without any incidents at all I might add, and started talking.

"Cubbs, do you think I'm growing up?"

"Growing up?  Why do you think that?"

"Because of this afternoon.  You heard what Ursa said.  If he thinks I'm growing up, what's Pan going to think?  I don't want to grow up and have to leave.  It's not fair."

"C'mon Surefoot, you're just excited and stuff.  No one really thinks you're growing up.  At least not yet.  You just have to lighten up a bit.  It's just a trip to find a gem, no big deal."

"You sure?" he asked anxiously.  This really appeared to be bothering him for some reason and that made me a bit curious.

"Yeah, I'm sure.  I'm the dumbest, clumsiest, silliest kid here which means the sandman doesn't come around me.  If he doesn't come around me, then I'd know if you were growing up and I can see that age can't even find you."  I realized that statement made absolutely no sense and wanted to see what Surefoot would do with it.

Surefoot laughed.  "Yeah, you're right.  Nothing can get past the lostest Lost Boy when it comes to time."  I nodded.  Surefoot making 'sense' of that sentence would mean he wasn't growing up like he thought.  At least I didn't think so until he yawned and said, "Guess we'd better get to sleep.  We have an early start tomorrow."  I watched as he padded to his hammock and got in.

Early starts bug me.  I'm just a tad bit lazy and like to sleep in.  Early starts tend to disrupt that train of thought.  I've also found that in most cases, nothing good ever came of an early start.  Usually you go on an early start and arrive at meadow 352 just as hungry dragon arrives at the same meadow and devours you.  If you'd slept in, the early wyrm would already have eaten the birds, cows, and whatever else it wanted and wouldn't be feasting on us Lost Boys.  I sat at the table and waited a few minutes until I heard snoring coming from Surefoot's hammock.  I snuck over to where it was at and found the shelf where he kept the alarm clock.  It wasn't hard to find, because of the ticking.  (Of all the things to wash up on the beach, why did we need one of those?  Of course it had been fun to use it to torment Captain Hook on our pirate raids.)  I carefully pushed down the button turning off the alarm.  I went back to the common room table, crawled back under it and once again fell asleep.

There's a knothole in Ursa's trapdoor that lets the light through when the sun is high in the sky.  I can usually tell when it's midmorning because from under the table, the light hits the floor about a foot away.  I was wakened by a howl coming from Surefoot's hammock.  I opened one eye to see that the light was there on the floor, letting me know what time it was.  Apparently Surefoot had overslept somehow.  Grinning to myself, I drifted back to sleep knowing I had another few minutes before he'd be able to rouse the rest of the boys, if he even tried.

Ursa and I got to Hangman's Tree in record time.  We tumbled down our separate trapdoors and arrived at the same time in the common room.

"Wow, Cubbs.  It looks like you might have actually been running.  The world getting ready to end or something?"  Surefoot asked as he studiously ignored a bowl of stew on the table.

I was too winded to answer, so Ursa did.  "Who else is here?  Some dragon's getting ready to send Cubby on a quest and we need some help."

"A dragon?  What dragon?  Who said he could send one of us on a quest?"

"What quest?" Tigger said as he tumbled through one of the half-doors into the common room.  "I want to come!"

"Don't you think you'd better find out what's going on before you volunteer?" Leo asked him as he stuck his head through the ceiling hatch to see what was going on.

"It's that dragon I was telling you about.  Remember?  The one that stole Cub and brought him back?"

"I thought you were making that up."

"Wait a second, a dragon stole Cubby?" Surefoot asked in confusion.  "What was that all about?  Did he fly away with him or something?"

For the next five minutes there was a sort of verbal free-for-all as everyone asked and answered questions.  When the discussion deteriorated into a discussion of why some lizards were purple with no signs of stopping, I shook my head, stuffed myself through my trap door, and took off for Whispering Falls.  I was pretty sure it was what I knew as Great Bear Falls.  I suppose I could have waited for the others to quit arguing, but I didn't want to put anyone out.

I was about 50 yards from the falls when a voice yelled, "Tally-ho" and I fell to the ground as something fell from the tree I was under, and on top of me.

"Get off!  Get off," I started yelling.  I wasn't really sure why I was yelling that.  I have to figure that anyone who fell out of the tree while yelling 'tally-ho' probably did it on purpose and asking them to 'get off' was more than likely a waste of breath.  But some habits die hard.

"And where do you think you're going, furball?"  Tigger asked from his perch on my back.  "Thought you were going to get all the fame and glory, huh?  Not this time."

"I don't want fame and glory," I explained to him as Surefoot, Leo and Ursa dropped out of the tree and joined us.  "But you all were busy talking about lizards and everything and I didn't want to interrupt.  Besides, I'd have waited for you."

"Sure you would have," Leo said as though he believed anything but that.  "We just wanted to be sure that we didn't miss you or anything."

"How'd you get here so fast, anyway?"

Tigger laughed.  "It's not like you're the fastest one of us.  Besides I knew a shortcut."

"Yeah, yeah.  Whatever.  One of these days I'll be able to run like you wouldn't believe."

"I don't believe the way you run now," Surefoot said with a friendly laugh.  "So now that everyone knows how good everyone else is at running, shortcuts and sneaking away, shouldn't we go find this dragon?"  There was general agreement to this suggestion and we all trooped off to the falls.

The bottom of Great Bear Falls empties into what is almost a lake rather than a river.  It's an awesome place for swimming and there's a small sort of cave behind the falls good for pondering, conversing, or pretending.  There are a couple of small islands in the middle of the river a few yards from the falls that are good for camping as well.  On one of these, the dragon Plethora lay.  The fox and the pony were next to him and the fox was busy whispering in the dragon's ear.  Curiously, it appeared the pony, Greengum, was extremely put out by the whole thing.  I wondered if it was because the fox was still standing on its back or because the two were whispering in front of it.

"Yo, dragon," Tig sang out.  "Come here and tell us what this quest you want Cubby to go on is all about."

"Greetings, honored warriors and champion," the dragon said in a voice loud enough that the fox was blown off the pony's back and ended up on the small island's beach.  I could have sworn the pony was snickering, but the sun was shining off the water, so it was probably my imagination.  "As much as I would like to accede to your request, it would be better if you would make your way to this protrusion form the river.  Through diligent research I've found that the one whom we shall not speak about cannot hear if conversing occurs in a location surrounded by hydrogen hydroxide."

"Water," Ursa murmmered to Tig in response to his questioning look.

"Don't worry, Cubbs, it's not like it's a bath or anything," Leo said with a grin.

"Ha, ha," I said.  I hung back and when the rest of the boys were halfway between shore and island, took a running start up the slight rise before the river and cannonballed into the water causing it to splash all over my friends.  "Don't worry," I said after I stood up, "it's not like it's a bath or anything."

"No, but this is," Tigger said, followed by a whoop as he tackled me and bore me under the water.  The next few minutes were spent splashing one another in great sheets of water.  I have to give it to the dragon.  He did wait several minutes before he finally 'harumphed' loudly enough to cut through all our yelling and yelping.  Somehow the fox had gotten soaked and I noticed the dragon's left paw was suspiciously wet.  I managed to get a ton of mud in my hair somehow as well, but it did tend to stop the critters inhabiting it from itching me.

"If everyone is finished trying to drown each other..."

"Aw, we weren't drowning," Tig said, interrupting the dragon, "we just like to get close to the water.  Some of us more than others," he continued, grinning at me.  I simply stuck my tongue out at him.

"Be that as it may, the time has come to tell you of the quest.  For this quest I need a team of adventurers stout hearted and true.  Ones who can face danger without flinching and don't know the meaning of despair."

"And you chose Cubby?  This must be your first time doing this or something."

"That's no way to talk to Plethora," the fox said in an indignant manner.  "You should show him the greatest of respect as is due a future member of the dragon elders.  For soon you will see him do marvelous things and create the greatest of stirrings among his peers.  Yes, while others may take the trail of places that have been, Plethora will take the massive trail of, uh... good stuff."

The dragon had the good grace to look uncomfortable with the whole thing, although it was sort of hard to tell if it was because of all the praise or because of the fox's inability to end on something besides 'good stuff'.  "Yes, well, thank you Bing.  As I have told my Champion, this is my first time initiating an important quest so it is quite possible that I am not up on all the various conventions and protocols necessary for establishing the parameters of such an endeavor."

"Hold it," Surefoot said.  "Your Champion is... Cubby?  I thought he was someone you talked to so he could talk to us and you'd get us to go along.  I mean, Cubby's okay and everything, but, well, you know, he's not exactly the bravest Lost Boy.  Leo is a great fighter and then there's Tig who can shoot an arrow like nobody's business and..."

"And yourself?" the dragon said in an amused tone.  "Perhaps you're looking to become a champion?"

"Well, yeah, I could be one.  Why not?"

I had to agree with Surefoot on that one.  He'd sure make a better champion than I would, although I guess I was a tiny bit hurt about his comments, even if it was nice to know I was 'okay'.

"Why not, indeed?" the dragon mused.  "Mayhap I have been a bit hasty in determining who will fill the roles in this endeavor.  That, however, can be corrected later.  Now I will fill inform you of the essentials for the quest.  As I told Furball here the other day, there is a gem of great power that was created by a group of rouge elves.  The gem was 'lost' for thousands of years and was slowly forgotten and believed to have been a myth.  Until recently."

"Hey, how come all these things always get lost?" Tigger suddenly spoke up.

"Eh, what?"

"It's like that in all the stories.  Someone creates something powerful and evil, then it gets lost.  What's up with that?"

"It doesn't always get lost," Ursa said.  "Sometimes it's in plain sight disguised as something else.  Like a milking pail or a book."

"Yeah, I've noticed that too," Bing said slowly.  "But it's never something that you can eat."  In the background a breeze blew, breaking the sudden silence that descended.

"Okay, thank you for that.  The gem has once again stirred and made its presence known.  It is located in a village of trolls in the fifth realm.  They know a little of its power, but have not come to realize its full potential.  You should be aware as well that he who cannot be named is also aware of it and has dispatched minnions to deal with it as well."

"Minnows?  Can you really use fish for something like that?" I asked.

There was a lengthy sigh that bent trees, grass, and shrubs, from the dragon.  "Minnions, minnions.  Those that do one's bidding."

"So we're your minnows?" Tig asked in such an innocent voice that it was obvious he knew the difference between fish and lackeys.  At least to those who knew him.

"So we need to travel to this village, grab the gem, and then do what?" Surefoot asked in a very serious manner.

"I will take the gem and place it in a genuine imitation polymer gem which will negate the power of the original gem and create a decorative paperweight that can never be used to perform magic again."

"How will we find the village?"

"You're just full of questions, aren't you raccoon boy?" He handed Surefoot a scroll.  "This will lead you to the portal on the island that will take you to the realm populated by those that have the realm.  It will also show you how to get to the particular village as well.  It's interactive," he added proudly.

"When should we go?' Surefoot asked.

"I'd leave at dawn tomorrow.  That's always the best time to begin a quest.  About the time the sun rises."

"Dawn?" I said.  "Why does it always have to be dawn?  Can't we think outside of the box for once.  Maybe a nice noon start or something?  Maybe create a tradition that legions of adveturers will thank us for later?"

"Nice try, Cubby, but I think we should start out as soon as possible.  We should go back to Hangman's Tree and decide what sort of supplies we need to take with us and plan our strategy.  There's a lot of things we're going to need to figure out."  Surefoot talked to himself as he slowly left the island and walked across to the main shore.  I wondered why no one else thought it odd.

"How does this always happen to you?" Ursa asked as he looked critically at my face.  I had spent the past few minutes trying to scrub the gum off my face and felt as though most of the skin was now missing from it.

"I dunno," I grumbled.  "How's it look?"

"Didn't you used to have a bunch of freckles on your left cheek?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked alarmed.  It wasn't that I was particularly fond of that set of freckles, but..."

"No reason, they're still there.  I just wanted to make sure you hadn't grown any while you were scrubbing or anything."  He looked at me with an attempt at innocence.

"Ha, ha.  Did any of the gum come off?"

"I guess a little of it did.  You can still see where it was though.  I bet if you fell out of a tree, leaves would stick to it."

"I'm not doing anymore scrubbing.  I can tell you that right now.  This'll just have to do.  Besides it's not nearly as bad as the dragon snot was when I got sneezed on."

"That's true, but that came off a lot easier and this stuff smells almost as bad."

On that account, I had to agree with him.  The whole gum thing wouldn't have been too bad if it had simply smelled like bubble gum, but that gum had been like 'skunky-swamp' flavor or something.  If that was the type of gum they chewed, I could understand why there was a legend that one should never kiss a dragon.  I picked up the bear pelt and shook it out.  For some reason, the gum had practically fallen off of it when it was placed in the water.

"Course it would.  It never reached the pelt, just the things living on it," Ursa had decided.  The only thing that kept me from being irritated by it was the fact he might have been right.  I shrugged back into the wet pelt.  It was always a pain trying to get into it when it was wet and Ursa simply shook his head and grinned as he watched me hop across the riverbank trying to keep my balance and get the pelt on at the same time.

"Oh my gosh, what's that?" I heard him exclaim.

"You'd better not be talking about my stomach again," I said without turning.  "Your's isn't exactly small you know."

"Not that.  What's that?" he said again, pointing on the other side of the river.  I looked up to see a small fox riding on the back of a small pony.  We both watched as the horse entered the river and swam across to where we were standing.  The fox reigned in the pony and jumped to the ground in front of us.

"Pardon me, young masters.  Are either of you Master Cubby?"

"Uh, I am," I said, wondering what on earth a fox could want with me.  I briefly wondered if Red had sent it as an emissary of some sort.  That thought was quickly disproved, though.

"I have been sent by Plethora to find you, and a long and harrowing journey it has been indeed.  Do you know that no one seems to know where you reside?  I have found that numerous beings are aware of your existence and the existence of your cohorts, but they do not appear to have any idea where you live.  I find that totally fascinating.  Even the art of magic was unable to discern your location."  He looked at both of us expectantly.

"Who's Plauqra?" I asked.

The fox's smile seemed to falter a bit.  "Young master, I cannot believe you do not know who Plethora is.  He is a rising star among the dragon world.  I give him another cycle before the elders name him as one of their own."

"Wouldn't he have to be older to be an elder?" I asked.  "I mean he seemed pretty young and everything."

"That simply goes to show what you know about the dragonific hierarchy.  Age has nothing to do with being an elder.  Just consummate skill, daring, and the ability to manage a problem to it's fruitful conclusion."

"Are you sure you're not talking about elves?" Ursa broke in.

"Oh my, no, young master.  The elves are reckless folk and act before they fully understand the consequences of their actions.  Dragons weigh the risks and choose the appropriate action after making a careful analysis of all possible outcomes."  He finished with a nod and a look of supreme satisfaction.  "Why I could tell you stories from the high council of the..."

"You had a message for Cubbs?"

"Oh, well, yes, that is.  Ahem.  Lord Plethora requests the pleasure of your company at Whispering Falls within the nonce.  May I advise him of your intention to attend this momentous meeting?"

"Whispering Falls," I said, scratching my hair.  "Where the heck is that?"

"They are located about a league from here."

Ursa and I exchanged looks and we both shrugged.  "Sure, why not," I said.  "Does this involve the quest thing?"

The fox looked around and whispered.  "It would be best not to be mentioning the quest out loud, young masters.  There are those around who would be most interested in hearing what hero has been chosen for this quest.  Those who might not have his best interests at heart, if you know of what I speak," he said as he tapped his snout with a paw.

"I ain't a hero," I said.  "I have no idea why he chose me for this."

The fox's look seemed to agree with my assessment.  "There are reasons that us simple folk will never be made privy to I'm sure.  Plethora will be the greatest of dragons and you should never doubt his plans.  Until our paths cross again, young masters."

The fox made a leap towards the pony's back, and against all laws of physics and possibility made a perfect four point landing on it's back.  "Come Greengum, we are off to bring tidings to the most benevolent and greatest of dragons."  The pony glanced over at Ursa and myself, projecting an equine equivalent of embarrassment, and then plunged into the river.  We watched as the pony swam across the river, clambered up the opposite bank, and disappeared in the woods.

"What do you think of that?" I finally asked.

"I think we'd better go see who else we can round up before we meet this dragon.  I'm pretty sure Tigger will want to be there as well as a few others."  He started off and I followed him towards Hangman's Tree.

"Hey," I said.  "You don't suppose this whole thing is some practical joke that Cat is playing, do you?"

Ursa looked back at me, almost ran into a tree, and then started laughing so hard I thought he was going to choke.  "That would be brilliant."  He laughed all the way back to the Tree.

Over the course of the next week I began to forget about the dragon.  Not that I was used to them appearing out of nowhere and throwing me around in the air.  It was just that I had a lot of other stuff to do.  I had trees to climb, mud puddles to splash in, and a couple of afternoons of swinging over the Little Bear River on the odd vine and letting go when I was over the middle of it.  I was never able to figure out how Ursa could dive in with barely a ripple, yet whenever I did it, I normally covered both banks with splashed water.  There were a lot of things involved in being a Lost Boy.

On this particular sunny afternoon I was tracking Tig over field and stream.  It was a much better day for swimming, but he had kept ragging on me about my tracking abilities and finally challenged me to follow his path across the island.  I had looked over at Leo while he was calling my ability into question.  Leo looked considering for a moment and then finally grinned and nodded.  "You're ready.  Go for it."

So now I was on my hands and knees examining every twig I came across for any orange fur that might have been left behind by him.  I was covered in mud from my head to my toes after falling into a swamp I had managed to miss because my nose had been practically buried in the ground.  Normally mud wouldn't have bothered me, but it had all dried and itched like anything now.  I wondered for the thousandth time why I had decided to do this.

The sky above me darkened and I looked up to see what was going on, because it had been a cloudless day.  Before my mind could register anything my eyes told it, I was grabbed around my middle and plucked from the ground.  In an instant I was about 30 meters off the ground.  A faint voice from below demanded that I be let go immediately.  Part of me pondered briefly why it seemed the first thing demanded when someone was several dozen meters up in the air was to be released.  Hearing the voice, I laughed and yelled back to the ground, "I found you.  I win!"

There was a sharp pain in my left side and I looked down to see Tig with his slingshot bending over to get some more ammunition.  A moment later there was another pain in my right foot.

"A friend of yours?" the dragon asked in obvious amusement.  I was sort of pleased that Tig would put himself in harm's way to try and rescue me.  Another pain in my right leg, though, had me begin to rethink that.

""It's okay," I yelled down to Tigger who had moved almost right below us.  "He won't hurt me.  You won't, will you?" I asked the dragon.

"Yogurt?  How can you think of food at a time like this?" Tig yelled back up, shaking his head.

The dragon ignored all this and flew a few yards to an outcropping where he placed me.  He stood next to it so that his head was at a level with mine.  He appeared to be chewing something and I wondered what animal was currently being ground up by those huge teeth.  "Have you made a decision yet?" the dragon asked.  Waves of fruit scented air issued from his mouth.

I shook my head.  "I appreciate it, but I don't think I want to be a hero.  I mean I'm not the hero type.  I get scared easily, I can't run real fast and even Surefoot says I'd be better off throwing my sword at someone rather than trying to stab them.  I'm just not hero material, I guess."

"You take that back," a voice from behind the dragon demanded.  The dragon turned around to see who had spoken and we both saw Tigger  standing there with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a very pissed off expression on his face.  "I don't know why you keep saying stuff like that.  You're a Lost Boy and that makes you just as heroic as any of the rest of us."

"Uh, Tigger?  The dragon?"

"Stuff the dragon.  Who was it that brought Reynard back and helped Roo and made sure Ursa was okay and always listens no matter what's going on?  Just cuz you only use a wooden sword, doesn't mean you don't do good stuff.  You help and that's what counts."

I looked at Tig in amazement.  He normally spent his time laughing at how clumsy I was, the fact that I had literally been scared of my own shadow before, and my ability to create havoc out of the most common forest utensils.  I opened my mouth to say something, but his look quickly silenced me.

The dragon continued his manic chewing while staring at me.  You could almost see him considering things.  "I doubt I could find armor for you anyway, but it's not a knight I need.  It's someone who feels empathy towards others, who wants to help, and whos' not afraid to get dirty."  Tigger stifled some noise as he climbed the outcropping to join me and I wasn't sure if it was a groan or a laugh.  "Will you at least listen?  The well-being of several could hinge on your decision."

That wasn't really fighting fair, I decided, but knew I had to listen to what the dragon had to say now.  "Okay, I'll listen."  Tigger shook his head in mock disgust, but had a grin on his face as if he knew all along that I was going to agree to listen.

"A long time ago," the dragon began, "there was a group of elves who desired magic and power that was forbidden to them.  It was a craving that could not be tamed.  A craving that would be like... like..."

"Chocolate," I said.

The dragon looked confused for a moment as if he'd lost his place.  "Yeah, chocolate.  Sure.  Anyway, nothing could satisfy this longing and eventually the elves made an overture to that which cannot be named."

"You mean Ryoma?" Tigger asked.  "I thought he was a myth.  I didn't know you weren't supposed to say his name either."

"Ryoma?  Who's that?" the dragon asked.  "I've never even heard of him... or it."

"Oh, yeah," Tigger said.  "The Woodland Elves tell stories about how he wanted to rule the world and created clouds of purple-gold moths that would destroy on command."

"Moths?  What did they destroy?  Clothing?" the dragon asked in a sarcastic tone.  "We're talking big league here.  I don't think moths are something that one is going to get all panic stricken over.  It's not like they could take out whole villages or something."

"Hello!  These moths were about two meters long and were heavier than Cubbs here."

"Hey!" I said.  "What's that got to do with anything?  I don't make fun of the fact that your pelt is striped."

"Big deal!  It's a tiger pelt, of course it's going to be striped.  And furthermore, I think..."

"Boys.  Boys!  I think we're getting a bit off the subject here.  The quest.  Remember?"

I wondered if I looked as embarassed as Tig did at the moment.  The dragon looked at both of us as if to make sure we had finished our discussion and then continued.  "The one who cannot be named simply can't be named because he doesn't have one.  Anyway he created a gem that harnesses a lot of yucky stuff..."

"Yucky stuff?  What kind of a threat is yucky stuff?"

"Stuff like having whole cities destroyed with the snap of one's fingers.  The ability to cause plagues to occur at whim.  To make rivers dry up and plains flood."

"Oh," Tig said.  "Well that's more like horrible stuff.  Yucky stuff just doesn't describe it well enough.  I mean yucky makes it sound like Cubby's pelt or something."

"Yes, well, be as that may, I think we've all settled on the fact that it would be an undesirable outcome, have we not?" The dragon said with studied politeness.  I figured I probably wouldn't be making anymore comments for awhile.  "So if I may continue, the gem gives the holder all sorts of power to destroy, rend, and make life generally miserable for others."

"Is this your first time doing this?" Tigger asked the dragon.

"What do you mean?"  The dragon's jaws were flying faster than ever and I could almost imagine I was able to hear a crunching noise coming from its jaws."

"Well most dragons, in my experience, tend to overstate what will happen and talk about epic disasters and cataclysmic doom.  You mention yucky stuff and making life miserable.  It just doesn't seem quite, I don't know, dragon-ish."

This time is was my turn to stifle laughter becuase of Tigger's comment about his experience with dragons.  I was pretty sure it amounted to a couple of encounters, however he came across as if it was an everyday thing.  The dragon managed to look embarrassed, annoyed and defensive all at the same time.  "This is sort of my first assignment doing this," he finally admitted.  But I really don't understand what that has to do with anything.  I can also assure you the realm is in total danger."

"So the well being of several could be interpreted to be several thousand?"

"It's possible," the dragon hedged.  "The future of the elves definitely hinge upon it."

"Oh, well in that case..." Tig began.

"We'll do it," I said with a sigh, giving Tigger a look because I knew how he had planned on ending his sentence.  "Was that the gem you showed me the other day?  What do we need to do with it?"

The dragon rumbled a chuckle, although still managed to keep chewing.  I was beginning to wonder if dragons were like cows and chewed cud or something.  The whole thing was distracting.  "Nay, Furball, that was simply a sample gem made of plastic."

"Really?  it looked so real."

"It's a new polymer that the dwarves have developed.  It can carry most of the magical power a regular crystal does, but with half the weight.  It's perfect for long quests and when there are no horses or pack mules."

"I guess that's progress," I allowed.  I wasn't sure I wanted magical elements to start being made out of plastic.  It sort of offended me for some reason.  "So what do I have to do?"

"You mean what do we have to do," Tigger cut in.  "This sounds too important and dangerous for one of us to do it.  I think this is something we're all going to be going on.  Not that I don't think you couldn't do it on your own, but you know it's always easier when you're with your friends."

"Very well.  I accept your terms and conditions," the dragon says, "but can't promise armor for Furball."

"I don't need armor and my name is Cubby, not Furball."

"Exactly.  I will have the details of the quest delivered to you shortly.  Until then, may the wind always whistle at your back."  As if to demonstrate, he stopped chewing and blew a huge wad of bubble gum into a massive bubble.  It took only a moment for it to burst and I ended up covered from head to toe with bubble gum over mud.  "Uh, you can keep that if you want," the dragon said as it leapt into the air and clawed its way into the sky.

Tigger poked the gum and made a look of disgust as a long string of gum followed his finger away.  "That is gross."  He shook his head as he tried to wipe the gum off on the rock we were on.  "Looks like we get to save the elves once again."

I walked down the trail, slashing the heads off of the 'evil' dandelions with my trusty wooden sword as I wandered towards the cliffs that looked out over the sea.  I was in one of those pondering moods where I wondered about things that had been and things that were.  Things like my reputation as the clumsiest Lost Boy.  Being the clumsiest wasn't exactly something I had strived for, although it did have its moments sometimes.  I knew it got a lot of laughs and helped to make people comfortable and seemed to improve morale and make everyone forget that it had been raining for a week and was now sleeting.  The fact I was clumsy and larger than normal and played both for all they were worth, probably didn't hurt the end result either.  Most of the time that it worked out nicely.  I took an inordinate amount of pleasure in making people laugh, especially when it appeared that it's what they needed most.  Making people laugh and simply showing up at the right time when someone needed a friend and then drifting away when their problems were resolved and they were ready to return to their course seemed to be what I did best.  Yet sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be known for accomplishing things.  Great Things.  Being the hero like Leo, Tigger and Surefoot were.  Planning things like Stumble, Cat and Reynard did.  Acting as the solid rock and anchor that Ursa was.  Compared to what they did, the things I eked out didn't seem very much of anything at all.  I didn't think any of the others took me real seriously and wasn't really sure I wanted them to, but still...

I got to the cliffs and climbed a convenient tree that overlooked the water.  Maybe part of it was some of the stuff I did, I thought as I hung upside down from a branch by my knees and watched as the waves moved towards the island over the sun.  "Why can't I be the hero for once?" I asked out loud.

The day grew dark as a cloud drifted in front of the sun.  That wasn't too surprising since it had been raining on and off most of the morning.  The sudden grasping of a claw around my middle as I was yanked up into the air had more of an effect on me.  I struggled against the iron grip until I suddenly realized that I was a couple hundred feet above the ground and that managing to escape from whatever at this moment might not be the brightest move I'd ever make, although it would probably be one of the last.

I turned my head back as far as it would go and looked up to see that I was in the clutches of a dragon,  one of the long sinuous types.  It was aquamarine with purple highlights, had long whiskers, and didn't blink at all as it studied me.  "I have come for you," it said loudly enough that my ears started ringing.

"Thank you, but I don't want to put you to any bother," I managed to squeak out.  For some reason I didn't feel like searching for a sarcastic response at all.

"It's already a bother.  I had things to do today, important things.  The things that are lived for and savored.  The things that cause the blood to sing and the mind to be in awe.  Know you what these things are like, boy?"

I'd had stuff like that happen in the past, of course, but figured that what might occasion a dose of adrenalin in myself might not cause the same in a dragon, so I simply said no.

"No?  No?!  Expect me to believe that, do you?  Well then perhaps it's time we put that to rights.  Are you brave, boy?"

"I've done a few things that terrified me.  Like being grabbed by a dragon."

There was a slight rumbling and I looked back, fearful that I'd somehow insulted him and he was getting ready to incinerate or freeze me, depending on what type of dragon he was.  It looked more like an expression of amusement, though, and I gathered he was laughing, no... giggling at me.  "Very well, let's see how brave a furball such as yourself can be."  He opened his claw as he finished and I found myself falling towards the sea.  I closed my eyes, but discovered that didn't stop me from falling.  I tried screaming, but my throat was apparently busy with something else and all that came out was a whisper.  The dragon planed along in the air next to me.

"Is it singing yet?  Are you in awe?"

"Yessss, I am.  I'm ready to stop now.  Please."  We were getting close enough to the ocean that I could start seeing individual waves.

"You could get a better look if you wanted, I wouldn't be too put out."

"No, that's okay.  Please.  I want to stop now.  Please.  I don't want you to go to any trouble or anything.  It's okay really.  I've seen enough."  I was beginning to babble as I watched the sea begin to fill my whole field of vision.

"Seen enough?" he asked along with the rumble.  "Never can anyone see enough.  There's a whole world out there to explore.  However perhaps you are correct in regards to this spot.  I would mislike causing you to get bored."  He gently placed a claw under me, made a quick movement, and the next thing I knew I was somersaulting through the air.  The ground became sky and then cloud, sea and then ground as I spun around.  Suddenly there was a glimpse of blue and I landed on the dragon's back, right behind his head, causing the breath to be knocked out of me.

"You'd better grab hold," he advised while I did my best to catch my breath.  "It's a long way down.  You might want to hold on tighter than that too."

I thought I was already holding on as tight as I could, but grasped tighter.  The dragon, apparently satisfied, pointed towards the sea again and sped towards it.  I wasn't sure whether drowning would be any better than falling to death, but didn't have time to voice an opinion.  I was advised once more to hang on tight and to lie against the dragon's neck.  I hunkered down right before the dragon's head broke the surface of the water and the rest of him followed.  We zigzagged under water for a few minutes, before the dragon shot up into the air again, water streaming from both of us.

"Get it off.  Get it off," I started screaming as I felt a demon writhing under the bear pelt against my chest.  I knew any moment it would take a bite out of me and spit my still beating heart out, or something equally inconvenient.

"What's wrong," the dragon demanded, faltering in the air a moment and slowing down.

"It's a demon, it's killing me.  It's going to bite me."  I pulled the front of the bear pelt away from my neck and reached in with my other hand, while I hung on to the dragon's back with my knees.  The fear of falling was way overcome by the fear of the thing eating me alive.  It didn't want to let go, but after a mighty struggle I pulled out the fish that had somehow gotten swept up during our trip underwater.  I stared at it in my hand as it struggled back and forth and then dropped it so it would fall into the water below us.

There was a shift as the dragon moved to examine it and then a rumbling so great it almost threw me off his back.  "That's a demon?  The mighty Lost Boy slayer?  The thing that was going to eat you alive?"  I found out for the first time that apparently some dragons do snort while they are laughing.  "Oh the horror of it all.  Long will I be scarred thinking of the demon codfish that would sunder a Lost Boy limb from limb."

"Hey," I said.  "I know of at least one codfish who wouldn't hesitate to rip out the throat of a Lost Boy.  They can be pretty scary things."

"I am sure you know of what you speak," the dragon replied as if it made no difference to him.  He had discontinued the mad dash through the sky and was currently circling above the cliffs in a calm manner.  For some reason I had a vision of someone doing the backstroke through the water.  "So you want to be a hero, eh?"  he finally asked.

"Not really.  I don't think I'm the hero type.  I just want..."  I paused as I decided that anything I ended the sentence with would probably sound silly.

"You just want to be sure they spell your name right when they tell your tales, aye?"

"I don't think anyone has ever misspelled Cubby before, have they?"

The dragon looked back at me as if deciding whether or not I was trying to make a joke or not.  I simply stared back.  "Perhaps I was wrong, perhaps you're not the one I've come for.  That would be a pity, I would think."  The dragon landed on the cliff above the ocean and waited while I slid off unsteadily.  As I stood there trying to keep my balance it gave me a considering look. 

"Le me show you something, furball."  It 'snapped' it's claw and was suddenly holding a green crystal looking thing in it's claw, about the size of a small rubber ball.  It wasn't a clear, clean green, but a type green that looked as though it could make one sick to their stomach if they looked at it too long.  It didn't glow in the sun, but looked sort of sullen laying in the dragon's claw, as though it was irritated by being in the light.  "This is the magical orb that can make you a hero.  It can help you do great things that will make the bards take notice.  Think about it furball.  I have important things to do now, but I'll be back in a couple of days to see what your decision is.  I might even be able to scare up a suit of armor you could squeeze into."  He gave me a toothy grin and then leapt into the air and vanished into the sky.