Chapter Eleven: Old Friends & Goodbyes

Old Friends and Goodbyes

It was a long and quiet walk toward the Veil of Darkness that separated the Land of the Oak from the rest of the world. At one point in time Dagney asked me what Eli meant when he talked about the consequences of Hojan going into the Eternal Desert. I told her the truth; the consequence of going into the Eternal Desert is spending eternity there, hence the name. If, however, Hojan were able to win his war, and topple the lion who has reigned there since before the Great War—well, we aren’t entirely sure what would happen. 

“What do you mean?” Dagney asked as she lapped up water from a stream. 

I shrugged my shoulders, “Just that. We don’t entirely know what would happen. According to the Sentinels the lion would be set free from his bondage—all creatures would be. While that would allow them to return to the Oak, it would also start a new war.” 

Dagney didn’t look up from the water but asked, “Because the Oak wouldn’t want them?” 

“The lion would want his revenge,” Bailey whispered as she was staring into the water and silently pawing at the glassy surface, disturbing it ever so slightly. I nodded in agreement toward her.

Dagney got up to stretch her legs and woke Atrix up who offered a loud yawn before also getting up to stretch. “What are we going to do then?” Dagney asked. 

I looked over to the wall of darkness that seemed to loom just over the next hill, “Well, for now we go into that, and we hope we find a way to stop Hojan, or the lion, or both. Or find some clue that can help us.” 

Dagney asked, “Why isn’t the Oak sending anyone?” 

I locked eyes with her, “It did.” 

We heard a splash and turned to see Atrix in the water with a small fish in his mouth, “Look what I caught!” he excitedly said as the fish wiggled free of his mouth and jumped back into the water. Atrix took another jump but came up empty pawed. He sank his shoulders and skulked back to us. “It got away,” he whispered. 

Dagney and I looked at each other attempting to stifle a laugh while Bailey walked over with some berries, “Here Atrix try these,” she said as she pushed some toward the small fox pup. 

He gobbled them up and spun around, “Those are great!” He beamed with satisfaction, “I bet I could catch that clumsy fish now!” Spinning around he jumped back into the stream. I glanced toward Bailey who was looking warmly at Atrix, which made me smile involuntarily. 

“What are you smiling at?” Dagney demanded. “I don’t know what’s so great about walking through the darkness to find something that may or may not be there!” she said, sullenly. 

Bailey quickly looked over at me and I awkwardly chuckled, “We won’t be getting many more moments like this. It’s important we embrace them.”

Dagney cocked her head, “What do you mean?”

I tightened my lips and looked toward the Oak and the purple glow emanating from it, “No one has ever returned from the darkness, Dagney. I don’t know if we will either.”

Dagney took a step back and barked at me, “Well then why are we going there? What happened to going to the shed to meet the Sentinel!”

“I’m right here,” a voice said as we heard a biped from a nearby path. 

Dagney wagged her short tail, and Atrix hid behind me as Sentinel Eleven approached us with Sentinel Thirteen at his side. Dagney rushed toward him nearly bowling him over. The long sleeves of his thin coat rolled up as he tried to balance himself and we saw a stump where his left hand used to be. He quickly hid it and began to pet Dagney with his right hand. 

I narrowed my eyes wondering what happened to his hand. He must have noticed me staring at it because he cleared his throat, “Thirteen said we could find you here.”

I nodded, “We were going to meet you at the shed, but...”

“The songbird?” Thirteen said as her eyes glistened and she elbowed Eleven in the side. “See, I told you we could trust them,” she excitedly whispered. 

Eleven softly chuckled, ‘Yea, yea, you were right this time.” He then turned his attention to me. “Is that a fox I see with you?” he said with a quiver of excitement in his voice. 

Atrix poked his head out from behind me and then softly growled, “A big scary fox! You’re lucky Storm is stopping me from getting to you or you’d be in big trouble!”

“Is that so?” Thirteen asked while trying to stifle a laugh, “Well you must have grown a lot since I last saw you.”

Atrix nodded with a little more confidence as I stepped aside exposing the fox pup. Looking at him I could tell he had grown since we first met. He was becoming taller and his muscles were becoming more defined. When Atrix noticed he was exposed he scrambled to get behind me, “What are you doing Storm? I had them going!” he attempted to whisper with a strained voice. 

When the laughter died away, Eleven asked, “What did you need from me, Storm?”

“What can we expect to find from beyond the Veil?’ 

He sighed, “Our history doesn’t say much about it. We know the First Sentinel went through the veil after we defeated the Dark Sentinel the first time. We know before the Great War, when creatures were sent into exile they were sent through the veil. As far as we know, there are no creatures who have returned from the veil. There are stories told of dogs crossing the it. In the stories the dogs viewed it as a way to redeem themselves. That’s all we know.” 

Atrix huffed, “So we don’t know anything useful, do we?’ 

Eleven shrugged, “Not particularly, no.”

“What about how it was formed? Why do we call it the Dark Coast?” 

The Sentinels face lit up, “Excellent question Storm! When one approaches the veil not only can they smell the salty smell of what we would think is an ocean, but also they can hear waves crashing against what one would presume to be a shore! As for the formation of the darkness—.” His voice trailed as if he was trying to figure out the best way to say what was on his mind, similar to a child trying to place the last piece of a puzzle together. “Well the stories differ.”

“They differ?” asked Dagney who had now laid down again next to the stream as she dipped her head in the water to blow bubbles. 

Eleven nodded, “The dogs of the Oak don’t know when, or how, or why the Darkness arrived. In every story the darkness is there, as if it was always there, just like the Great Trees. The elephants oldest tales say the Darkness was created in the last days of the Great War by those creatures who refused to lose, and so created a force that would consume them, but be able to continue waging their war against the trees. The cats, from what we know, believe the Darkness was always there, just like the Trees were always there. Both forces are eternal and equal, and neither can survive without the other.” 

Dagney, who had listened just long enough to be thoroughly confused, spoke up. “Right…” she took a long pause as she thought, “but what does that all mean?” 

A flash of annoyance swept across Eleven’s face before he was able to pull a tight toothless smile up for Dagney, “It either means the Darkness is very, very bad, but something that could be defeated, or that the Darkness is very, very bad, but cannot be defeated.”

Dagney shook her head, “Neither of those sound particularly good, you know?”

“I know,” the Sentinel said, “But that’s all we know about it.” 

There was an uncomfortable silence until a quiet voice asked, “What if we found the First?” Bailey had this look in her eyes it was the same look Bonnie had when she rode in on the elephants to save us. I glanced off in the direction of the Plains. 

“The First has been gone a long time. We don’t even know if she’s still alive,” Eleven said coldly. “I wouldn’t even know where to start, to be frank.” He stared off into the darkness. 

“Does anyone have a better idea?” I asked the group. Everyone shook their heads. I nodded and waved my tail in a circle. “Well, then it looks like we are going to go find the First.”