‘Welcome back, Tain.’Alpha happily greeted his return as well.
He was alive andsomewhat larger than he used to be. He moved his arms and legs tosee if they worked. They did. He roared loudly like a large bearand Miranda seemed delighted.
He turned to Mirandaand thought:
‘Thanks Mandy you arethe most wonderful loving friend, the body seems to work okay, butwhat am I?’
Miranda’s facialexpressions changed. She had heard him think. No! He had talked toher telepathically like he did with Alpha. Miranda smiled back andreplied:
‘You’re a brown bear,Tain. The Lady has made you one of the most ferocious beasts in thejungle.’
‘Good,’ he thought.‘Somehow my new brain can work telepathically. I mightn’t be ableto talk with my voice but I can still talk with my mind. I’m nowAquitain, the telepathic brown bear. Sorry, the ferocioustelepathic bear.’ He checked his source. It was intact, and seemedto be marginally larger.
He looked around andbreathed deeply, his mind was swamped with dozens of subtle scents.He felt all sorts of emotions rushing around. It was wonderful tobe alive. He felt like smiling, laughing, shouting, but couldn’tbecause bears can’t show any facial expressions and can’t speak. Inthe end he said telepathically: ‘By the Powers Miranda, I’mhungry!’
She raced to thestoreroom and returned with a box of biscuits.
‘Eat my dear friend,but not too heartily, as we will have better food tonight.’
She called Sanson andAllalanllea.
‘Thank you for helpingme once more, I am in your debt. It seems that we missed the wizardand nothing else happened. What a shame, I would have liked tocatch him. Never mind, there will be another time. You might aswell return to your normal jobs. I will see you later.’ The wizardand the Crin nodded and left.
‘Who are they?’ askedAlpha.
‘Good friends in afight,’ she said. ‘They are two champions that have never beenbested. Now, can you tell me what happened?’
Alpha told her how theassassin wizard had used a power to cast a state of confusion onher and how Aquitain had coaxed her to teleport away, but that justas he had the attacker had disintegrated him. He also told herabout Jaztrix appearing and creating an illusory wall to help buyAquitain time before they could teleport away, and how Jaztrix hadminded their backpack. The assassin had taken Aquitain’s equipmentand after it had left, Jaztrix had reappeared from the wall. Shehad told Alpha that she expected Miranda to come back soon, andleft her backpack against the wall before returning to TwinTowers.
‘Those bastards at TwinTowers have betrayed us. Only Featherdown and Quab knew where wewere. One of them sent the assassin. They will pay for theirtreachery. If Aquitain hadn’t teleported me away, I would probablybe powder on the floor as well. Who would have brought either of usback to life when they didn’t know where we were?’
‘Vengeance will solvenothing,’ Alpha advised.
‘How do you know,stone! I am the one with fire running in my veins.’
‘Then take care lest itconsume you. I would hate to see Aquitain alive and you dead. Youare two sides of a coin, yet he can’t return people to life. If youdie you will stay dead.’
‘Perhaps and perhapsnot,’ she said. ‘But first I will take Aquitain to a safe place. Ifyou wish to come you had better climb aboard.’
Alpha raced upAquitain’s strong hairy foreleg and took up a position on his head.She picked up the ball of chaos matter and said. ‘He will needseveral days rest before he can think normally. Then we will haveto let him come to terms with this momentous change in hislife.’
‘I have known him allhis life. His mind is even tougher than this new body. I think youwill be pleasantly surprised at his rate of recovery,’ saidAlpha.
‘I hope you arecorrect, stone.’
‘Thank you againMiranda, for returning Aquitain to life. You will never live toregret what you did today.’
‘I sincerely hope not,stone.’ And she retrieved the dimension bag, stowed his metalLogicon leg in it, and put it around her shoulders. She grabbedhold of one of Aquitain’s ears and gently said:
‘Tain, we are going tomeet new friends. Remember they are our friends. Please treat themwith kindness and courtesy, and please don’t eat any of them. We’llhave to leave this food, but I promise you more soon.’
Aquitain nodded whilestill munching tough military biscuits, and they teleported to theside of a hill covered only in short grass. At the bottom of thehill was a dirt road, and on it were dozens of the small dog-sizedant-like Crin, carrying wood, food and other items.
‘We come in peace,’ shesaid and held up the palms of her two hands.
‘Why are you equippedfor war Princess Miranda?’ asked a voice in her head.
‘I was equipped thisway to save a friend, this bear, Your Highness. He is not what heappears to be. He is much more. He is the spirit of a great wizardin the body of a bear. The Lady has granted him a new life. He isstill dizzy and unused to his new body, and needs several days ofprotection and rest to recover. I seek refuge for him.’
‘Will you guarantee hisgood behaviour?’ asked Queen Beatrix.
‘Yes, Your Highness,’replied Miranda.
‘Then it is granted.Will you be staying as well?’
‘For a short time only,Your Highness. I have some words to deliver which may take a day ortwo.’
Miranda hugged himaround the neck to show the Crin her affection for him, and askedhim to follow her. She took him down to the road and then followeda line of Crin workers down into the depths of their city, on theway picking up a Crin Enforcer and several Crin fighters, whoguided her to a dead-end passage with a circular six-pace-wide roomcovered with hay.
‘What does it eat?’asked the enforcer using mindspeak.
‘He will eat almostanything. However, give him a couple of buckets of plant food and alarge bucket of water each day. In the water put a sprinkle of thisherb’ and she removed a small packet of powder from her leg bag.‘He needs sleep above anything else.’
‘Tain, lie down andsleep so that you can regain your mind, and we will
