‘So, what happened?’she asked, getting a little worried.
‘He revealed his truenature. He is a chaos beast. The Queen could not in all conscienceharbour a chaos beast within our city, so she gave him safe conductout but warned him not to stay within our territory.’
‘What! You threw himout? He is my friend. How could she do that?’ shouted Miranda. ‘Itrusted you to look after him and you banished him into the junglewithout assistance. He could die.’
‘I’m sorry PrincessMiranda. Queen Beatrix is quite upset that you would bring such acreature into her city, and endanger her and her people. As aresult you are banned from entering the city until further notice,but you are free to traverse our land as always. Your mother hasbeen notified and she concurs.’
‘I might have guessedthat my mother would be involved in this,’ said Miranda angrily.‘Which way did he go?’
‘He asked fordirections to your mother’s place and headed in that directionseveral hours ago. I should imagine that provided he doesn’t getlost or waylaid he will arrive some time tomorrow.’
‘May I say, Princess,that I personally liked him and he caused no problems while in thecity, but was considered by all the senior hierarchy as toodangerous considering certain prophecies that have beencirculating. I hope everything turns out right for you.’
She knew that all theCrin knew exactly what was likely to happen if he reached hermother. She had never expected Queen Beatrix to do this to her.They must be really scared, although perhaps more of her motherthan of him.
‘Thank you, Xentos. Hedoes look rather dangerous but I can assure you and Queen Beatrixthat he is a good friend, and those are hard to come by in toughtimes; and I have a good memory.’
Miranda changed to hersea eagle form and flew off, heading back to her mother’s gully.Had she been only an hour behind him she would have been tempted tochange into cat form and follow him on foot, but at night it wouldbe dangerous for her as night was hunting time and she would becrossing other creatures’ territories. He was big and tough enoughto be left alone by most creatures. The main questions were, wouldhe get lost, and if not, when would he arrive? She had to catch himbefore her mother did.
She flew back to theentrance to the gully and changed to her cat form to guard thegully entrance. She stayed awake all night just in case he turnedup early, then meditated in her newman form as the sun rose,praying to the Lady that she would find him before her mother andthat he would survive the day. During the night her mother had comeout briefly and asked if she was expecting company, but she hadtotally ignored her. She knew her mother was enjoying thisimmensely, and couldn’t wait to get her claws into him. If it cameto another fight with her mother, Miranda would win this time.
As the sun rose higherin the sky towards midday she became more anxious. Where was he?Did he get lost? Maybe she should look for him. He said that he hadnever been in the jungle alone before. Perhaps he had restedovernight and wouldn’t be here for hours. She couldn’t tolerate thesuspense so she decided to take a quick flight around the nearbyjungle; but before she left she would ask Genevieve her mother’sowl familiar to stop him, and ask him to wait at the mouth of thegully if he managed to get past her. What the owl said shockedher.
‘I’m sorry Miranda.Your mother the Queen has given me strict instructions to informher immediately any creature arrives at the gully. I am not to takeany instructions from you at all until further notice.’
Miranda screamed andbecame a little panicky. Her mother was taking the situation veryseriously and preparing for a confrontation. She decided she had tofind him and stop him before he arrived. She shape changed and flewoff into the sky, heading downhill to check out the nearby ravinesthat he would have to traverse to reach the gully. She didn’tnotice as a bear emerged from the underbrush to the left, headingfor her mother’s gully.
**
Aquitain trudged forleagues through the jungle after he left the Crin city, continuallyheading in a north westerly direction. He often encountered wildanimals of all sorts, but his large size and fierce look quicklydissuaded all from blocking his path or interrupting his progress.He stopped on a couple of occasions to eat his fill of exotic wildfruits that fell from tall trees in the jungle canopy, whilespidery brown apes watching from above screamed with alarm.
The jungle along hispath was relatively open, consisting of tall tree trunks thatascended sixty paces into the sky and blocked out the sun, leavinglittle but shade and the occasional spear of light plunging intothe ground. The ground was covered with leaf litter and alive withthrongs of small creatures, including a myriad of coloured insects,beetles, spiders, scorpions and ants. Occasionally a small snakeslithered out of his way, or climbed up the vines wound around thebase of the huge tree trunks, ascending to the leafy green canopyabove.
As he walked hewondered what he would say to Miranda. Perhaps something informallike: ‘Hi Miranda, sorry but I got kicked out of your Crin friend’splace because I looked a bit too much like the Lord of Chaos’; orsomething more formal like ‘It’s so good to see you again Princess,I’m extremely pleased that mommy let you out again to play with thewizard of chaos.’ Later he worried that she might not want to seehim at all.
When it became dark hecreated light upon himself and continued on his way, lighting upthe jungle like a giant luminous apparition, and causing countlessnocturnal animals to flee in panic at his approach. He continued onuntil morning and he hit a stream that rose into foothills; afterfollowing it for a league found that it originated from a U-shapedgully. He worked his way around to the right of the gully entrance,and finding a small overhang amongst thick bushes that providedgood cover, crawled under it and rested.
Just
