In the morning, the badgers opened up the entrance to let some sunlight shine through the hole. As the humans woke up, they could see some of their surroundings.
The badger home was an animal burrow. It didn’t have any human furniture or comforts. But it was a spacious room--several meters tall, and wide as well.
Leading out from the room were several small tunnels that led to different smaller burrows where different badger families lived. The badgers showed the humans where the different badger families slept.
Henry, Grace and John noticed that several of the mice were in the room as well. Fulvio and several of his family had entered into the hole with them, and spent the night with the humans in the badger burrow.
In fact, one of the first things that Fulvio did, upon waking, was say his good-byes to Robert and the humans. “Fulvio, my friend, you have saved my life. Consider your debt to my father paid in full.”
Fulvio bowed his head. “Your father saved my life several times, son of Midor. If you ever need me again, just send word.” And with that, the mice filled out.
The badgers brought out some food for the humans, and they all had breakfast together.
“The army of Mora is searching all over these woods,” said one of the badgers. They are looking high and low for you four.”
“If they find us a second time, they will kill us immediately,” said Grace. “They won’t take a chance of us escaping again.”
“It’s almost certain General Graten has sent that order around,” said John. “We are to be killed on sight.”
“It will be difficult to outrun them now,” said Robert. “Even with my guidance. Before, we were ahead of them. But now, they are all around us. If we were to set out from this burrow now, we would be in the middle of their search area.”
“Any chance of them finding this burrow?” asked John.
The badgers all shook their heads no. Robert spoke. “The badgers can cover the entrance and make it so it blends in with the trees flawlessly,” he said. “We should be safe as long as we stay in here. But how long can we stay here?”
“You are welcome to stay as long as you like, son of Midor,” said a badger. “You know this whole entrance was built especially for your father.”
“We’ll bring you all the food and water you need,” said another badger.
“The only problem is boredom,” said John. “I think I shall go crazy staying in this hole for too long.”
“We shall tell each other stories,” said one of the Badgers. “You human children have probably never heard any of our Badger legends. And we have had no news of the latest stories from the cities.”
“The army has come all this way to find us,” Henry said. “They won’t give up after a few days. They will keep searching for a week or more.”
“Maybe. But after a couple days, they won’t be watching this particular area of the forest quite so vigilantly,” said Robert. “We can try to sneak away then.”
“It’s a pity you aren’t a badger,” said one of the badgers. “Our network of tunnels and burrows goes for many miles under the forest. If only you were a little bit smaller, then you could travel underground. But you humans are too tall.”
“We built this entrance room especially big for Midor,” said another badger. “But you’d never fit in our tunnels.”
And so, the humans waited in the underground burrow for two days and two nights. The badgers tried to keep them entertained by telling them badger stories, and singing badger songs. (They sang quietly during the day, so as not to attract the attention of any soldiers that might still be in the area. But they sang louder at night.)
The badgers regularly brought back reports of how many soldiers were in the area. The main force of the army had arrived in the area, and was spread out everywhere looking for the four of them. After two days, the main force of the army had left to search other areas, leaving just a small guard behind to stay in the area. Robert thought maybe it was safe to venture out again, but he recommended staying hidden longer just in case. But after two days, Henry, Grace and John could not be contained anyway, and they were all three of the opinion that they’d rather risk being shot with an arrow than to spend one more day stuck in the hole.
And so, they ventured outside. Cautiously at first.
“Where are we now anyway,” asked John.
“We’re still to the East of the Bear King’s Kingdom,” said Robert. “But if we continue North, we will come to a lake, and then a river. If we follow the river, this will take us around the Kingdom.”
They continued travelling. They had lost their weapons when they were captured by the soldiers. Henry’s sword, and Grace’s bow and arrows, were gone. Henry, however, had gotten a new sword which he had wrestled away from one of the soldiers in the fight in the dark. So they had at least one weapon between them.
As they walked through the woods, a badger came running through the bushes to warn them. “Don’t go this way, son of Midor. The soldiers are straight ahead. Head down to the creek instead. There’s no one there at the moment.”
This continued throughout the day. The badger family, and Fulvio and his mice family, were constantly warning them about which way to go, and where the soldiers were. If General Graten’s army had spies and scouts, then it was apparent that in this forest, Robert had his own network of spies and scouts that rivaled anything General Graten had. “The soldiers will never catch us with this kind of intelligence,” John said.
The big danger of being detected was from birds. Robert knew which birds belonged to the forest, and which birds did not, and so whenever they saw birds flying overhead that Robert did not recognize, they rushed to hide themselves behind trees or under bushes. They were usually successful, but Robert was worried that some of these birds might be catching occasional glimpses of them, and that this was getting reported back to the army.
As dusk fell, they slept in an area where the sky was completely covered by the leaves, and they were careful not to light any fires.
The next day, they came to the lake. Henry, Grace and John had never seen such a huge lake in the forest before. They had gotten so used to the sun being dimmed by the canopy of trees that they were taken back by the pure sunlight sparkling on the water. “It’s beautiful,” said Grace.
“It’s huge,” said John
“Where to next?” asked Henry.
“If we can travel by the water, it will be much quicker,” said Robert. “The only disadvantage is that it is much harder to hide ourselves if we are out in the lake in the open. But if we can make good time down the river, we might be able to get safely out of reach before General Graten’s army finds us.”
“But how can we travel on the lake?” asked Henry. “Do you have a boat?”
“We will again rely on my father’s friends,” said Robert. “The hippocamps owe my father a debt, and they can take us through the lake.
“I’ve read about hippocamps,” said John. “I thought they only lived in the sea.”
“In large lakes and rivers as well, they can be found,” answered Robert. “First, we must let them know we are here.”
Robert led them along the edge of the lake for a while until they came to a family of beavers who had a house of thatched sticks near the lake. “Greetings, son of Midor,” they called out to Robert.
“Greetings, friend Beavers,” said Robert. “I need the help of Stephanus. Can you tell him the Son of Midor needs his help?”
One of the beavers swam into the lake, and disappeared under the water. He was gone for about 30 minutes, during which time Robert chatted with the remaining Beavers, and exchanged news of the forest with them.
Then, the beaver returned. And with him came four hippocamps, or sea horses. They looked like horses as they first emerged from the water. They had the head of the horse, and they whinied just like a horse would. But Henry, Grace and John soon noticed that this horse's head was joined to what looked like a fish’s body, with a long fish like tail.
It was easy to imagine themselves riding the hippocamps through the water just like they would ride the horses through the land. But there was nowhere for them to grab onto.
The beavers noticed the problem, and they started tying some of the water plants together to make ropes, which could be put around the neck of the hippocamps, and give them something to hang onto.
When the ropes were done, they mounted the back of the hippocamps, and set off through the water.
Robert seemed to know the hippocamps as intimately as he knew all the other creatures of the forest, and he talked to them constantly about the other animals in the forest that they both new, or traded news of the latest happenings in the forest.
Henry, Grace, and John just sat on the back of their hippocamp, and marvelled at the water that was speeding by them. Or they looked over at the shore of the lake, and saw the edges of the wooded forest.
The lake was so big that when they were in the middle of it, they could barely see the shore. Although if you looked carefully, you could still manage to make out the shores on each end. “Where are we going?” asked Grace.
“This lake is the beginning of the mouth of one of the biggest rivers of the forest,” said Robert. “We can ride the hippocamps to the edge of the lake, and up the river. That river is one of the borders of the Bear King’s Kingdom. If we travel West along the river, we will eventually pass the edge of the Bear King’s Kingdom, and can safely enter the forest again.
Eventually, they left the lake and entered the river, just as Robert had said. Now the shore lines on each side were much more visible. And yet, the river was still huge, and with a slow but strong current. The hippocamps raced through the river. Henry, Grace, and John marvelled at how quickly the trees on the river bank passed them by.
“We’re exposed here on the river,” John remarked. “There’s no trees to hide under.” And sure enough, it wasn’t long before General Graten’s soldiers spotted them from the river banks. But there was nothing they could do. By the time they had called up to raise the alarm, the hippocamps were already racing by. They tried to shoot some arrows, but when the hippocamps saw that they were readying their archers, they warned the humans to hang on tight. They then dived down under the water as the arrows flew, and emerged later after all the arrows had fallen harmlessly away. And then, they were completely out of reach.
“They’ll send out their birds, and alert any more soldiers who are further up the river,” said Henry.
“We’ll dodge those arrows the same way,” said Robert.
Indeed, there was a small company of soldiers about an hour further up the river who were waiting for them. The river was so wide, and so deep, that the soldiers couldn’t reach them when they were in the middle of the river. All they could do was shoot arrows, but the hippocamps easily dodged those the same way. There were a couple different volleys of arrows this time, so the hippocamps went under the water, and up again, and under again a couple different times. They swam under the water so fast the humans barely had time to remember to to hold their breath, and John came up sputtering. But they were soon out of the range of the soldiers.
The hippocamps travelled so fast that within a few hours, they had gotten to the Western end of the Bear King’s Kingdom. Here, they dropped the humans off. Robert thanked the hippocamps, and they began to walk.
“Where are we now?” asked Henry.
“We’ve successfully gone all the way around the Bear King’s Kingdom,” said Robert. “This forest land is ruled by nobody. The animals who live here sometimes join together to stop the Bear King from expanding his borders, and when they assemble, they call themselves the Free Animal Coalition. But then when the Bear King is contained again, they go back to their normal lives, and no one is in charge.”
“Where to next?” asked Henry.
“We’ll continue travelling Westward. We should arrive at the Elf Kingdom within a day’s walk,” said Robert.
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