Chapter XIV

WAR

Outside, it was chaos.

Drums sounded with their dull thump from the Plains below. “Thurr-rrrump. Thurrr-rrrrump.” That sound made the hair on the back of Snotty’s neck stand on end.

And there was that rumbling, even closer than before: BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“What’s happening?” Snotty shouted, running here and there. “What is it? What do I do now?” Melia, as she ran past with Tia, Fia, Fion, Mion, and Lui, said over her shoulder, “See you after the battle, Snotty.” Her mouth trembled as she smiled.

“It’s my turn to tell the next story, Snotty!” Lui called, and she blew him a kiss from her crimson paw. But Snotty saw her paw shake, and saw her steady it as she disappeared with the others down the rocky Path he had flown up with his Idea.

“Wait!” Snotty called after them. “Wait for me!” He ran after the Bears, but brought his foot down on the edge of a flat rock that skidded out from under him. His foot went one way, his ankle another, and a sharp pain made his teeth clench as he went over and down.

Nevertheless he hobbled on.

At the top of the Path the Dog stood, conferring with three figures. And Snotty saw these figures were the Monsters that he had refused to pardon in his glorious days as the Sun God.

“Is it you?” Snotty said. The Monsters looked completely different to him now. The Monstrous Woman was a large, startled Doll. The Tusked Boar was a worried Piglet with a runny nose. And the Polar Bear was a white fluffy Teddy with a pink ribbon around his neck. He gave Snotty an anxious smile.

“Yes,” the white Teddy said. “It’s us.”⁵⁰

Snotty saw that the group circled something that bounced heavily on the ground. Coming closer, he saw it was an Idea. Only this Idea was more garishly colored than the others.

“What is it?” he said.

“It’s a False Idea,” the Doll said with a tight smile.

“How did it get here without an audience?” the Piglet squeaked. “A False Idea can’t travel far on its own.”

There was a moment of silence while everyone thought about what that meant. The Dog’s expression said, “No. It hasn’t come here on its own. And there are more to follow.”

A black shadow covered them. Looking up, Snotty saw a Dragon flying overhead.

“Is that...?” he said. Then he stopped, ashamed. The Dog nodded grimly. Yes, it was the Dragon Snotty had pardoned. It had joined the Gnomes as their advance guard.

“It’s not your fault,” the Piglet squeaked consolingly. “You couldn’t have known.”

“Everything looks different when you have the Fever,” said the fluffy white Bear.

They all looked at Snotty with sympathy as he hung his head. The fluffy Bear patted him on the arm.

“The Dragon never could have joined us anyway,” the Doll said. “Dragons hate to look small. They can’t live without thinking they’re Big and Strong.”

“But the Dragon IS Big and Strong,” Snotty said, astonished. The others looked back at him, just as surprised.

“Nobody’s as Big and Strong as they look,” the Doll said matter of factly. “I thought everyone knew that. ”⁵¹

“But... but...,” Snotty stammered, not knowing what to say. To cover his confusion, he kicked at the False Idea as it spun and sputtered on the ground. “What do we do with THAT?” he said.

The Doll pulled him back. “Don’t touch it,” she said. “If it doesn’t get attention, it’ll die on its own.”

The Dog agreed with this and turned to lead them all away.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The dull noise filled the air. But Snotty couldn’t see where it came from.

He hurried after the others, but the pain in his ankle made it hard for him to keep up. “Wait!” he said, and the Piglet, who was just in front of him, turned around. “What Idea was that, anyway?”

“That?” the Piglet said in its worried way. “That Idea is called Only the Strong Survive.”⁵²

“Oh,” Snotty said. The pain in his ankle got worse. He had to stop.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The sky turned red now, filling the air with an eerie light. Smoke from the Plains rose up and blotted out the sky. The creatures broke into a run, following the Teddy Bears heading in a grim stream down the mountain. Snotty sprinted to keep up, but came down again on his hurt ankle. He fell with a little cry. He pulled himself up painfully, but it was no use. For now he couldn’t go on.

As he watched, helpless, the Teddy Bear Brigade marched down the Mountain to War. A trio of stiff Brown Bears with matching tartan bows around their necks ran by, holding rifles at a diagonal against their plush brown chests. The Dog, leading a platoon of brightly colored Kites, disappeared down the mountain’s side. Melia marched behind the Girl Bear Cadre, shouting orders to Tia, Fia, Fion, Mion, and Lui as they went. And Tuxton, silly-looking as ever, but with a grim, determined expression on his silly face, brought up the rear.

“Tuxton!” Snotty called. But in the hubbub, the Bear couldn’t hear. “Tuxton! Wait!”

Snotty tried to run after his friend, limping past the marching groups as they formed and followed the others to the battlefield. Beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead and dripped down his face. He put up his hand to wipe these away. A fierce wind began to blow.

Snotty lost sight of Tuxton in the crowd that streamed out of the Teddy Bear Camp. Then, just when he had given up hope, he spotted the Bear standing alone at the edge of the meadow. Tuxton’s head was bent. He murmured a few words to himself. Snotty struggled to get to him, but the Bear was too far away. And there was something more. Something pulled at Snotty’s ankle. Something that hurt.

Looking down, Snotty saw it was the False Idea. It was caught on the edge of his purple plush boots. It was the Idea that slowed him down.

Frustrated, Snotty tried to shake it off, but it clung to his bad ankle, and the movement only caused more pain. He jammed his hands in his pockets and gritted his teeth as the pain washed over him.

To his surprise, he now heard Tuxton speak—as clear as if the Bear had spoken right in his ear.

Snotty had forgotten the Key. But he touched it now with his damp hands. And he could feel again what Tuxton was and what Tuxton felt.

Tuxton said a prayer. And Tuxton’s prayer was this: “I know that I am only a silly-looking stuffed Bear and that silly-looking stuffed Bears are not meant to fight. I know that I am going to lose and that everyone I know and love will lose with me. But now I am going to fight for one reason: because someone has to. And there is no one left but us who will.”

That was what Tuxton prayed as he stopped by the edge of the Teddy Bear meadow, and offered up his one prayer to the hugeness of the Universe. What Tuxton prayed for was not Triumph, but Justice.⁵³

And then, shouldering his weapon, he joined the creatures pouring down the mountainside.

“TUXTON!” Snotty shouted. His words blew back at him on the hot wind. “TUXTON! WAIT!” Of course Tuxton couldn’t hear. He marched on, and in a moment he would disappear over the rise.

Snotty hobbled after him as fast as he could go. The Idea flapped behind him. Snotty grabbed at it, and it let go of his foot, grasping now onto the plush of his arm.

“TUXTON!” Snotty yelled again, trying to go faster still. He followed the Bear over the rise. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, he could hear. But when he got to where he could look down the mountain, he found he was alone. Snotty realized that he was on another path, one different than the one he had come up before. This path was lonely and straight and covered with fine white rock. It was the only way down. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he started down its pale slope.

“WAIT!” he wailed, but there was no one there to hear. He could still hear that sound. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. He headed for that, when something jumped out and grabbed him.

“Acckk!” Snotty shrieked as the Thing tackled him, wrestling him to the ground. “Get off! Leave me alone!” He punched at the Thing, and the Thing punched back. Wrapping his fingers around the Thing’s throat, he choked it. But the harder he choked it, the harder he found it himself to breathe.

“What are you DOING?” he gasped. And the Thing gasped back. That was when Snotty saw its face. And he saw the Thing was him, too. It was Snotty. He was wrestling with his Self.

So stunned at this was Snotty, and so frightened, that he let go, falling with a bump onto the rocky Path. His Self fell back, too, and sat there, staring.

“Let me go!” Snotty said, but his voice sounded sulky, even to him. His Self didn’t answer. It just rubbed its neck where Snotty had tried to throttle it and gave him a reproachful look.

“Look,” Snotty argued. “I have to get down there. I have friends in trouble.”

“I’m not stopping you,” Snotty’s Self said in a hurt-sounding voice.

But when Snotty tried to stand and walk down the Path, his Self tackled him and wrestled him to the ground again.

“Erm! Urmph! URRRPP!” Snotty gasped as the two rolled and kicked at each other. The False Idea gibbered and squeaked, still clinging to Snotty’s arm. And Snotty saw another Idea clutching at his Self’s chest. It was the Idea that had kidnapped him from the Fortress of the Gnomes. But he didn’t recognize it.

“Just STOP, why don’t you?” Snotty shouted, frustrated that he couldn’t get his own Self to obey. Instead his Self gave him a final push, and they went tumbling into the wood next to the Path, where they landed under a tall tree.

“OOOHHPPPHHH,” Snotty said as his Self fell hard against him. It crushed the False Idea between them right up against Snotty’s face. “AAARRRPPHHH!” he said. With the False Idea smooshed there, it was hard to breathe.

The two of them, Snotty and his Self, rolled around and around, in a well-matched tangle. As Snotty huffed and puffed and tried to get on top, he saw, over his Self’s heaving shoulder, Big Teddy. She stood at the top of the white stone Path. Snotty tried to call out, but his words were lost in the tangle with his Self.

Big Teddy scanned the mountain looking for something or someone, and she didn’t see Snotty as he lay there, struggling with his Self. Instead she looked at the sky. There was a shriek from above. Snotty saw the Dragon flying hard overhead.

“LOOK OUT!” Snotty tried to yell. But the False Idea squirmed against his mouth and crushed the words before they could get out.

“EERRRUUUMMMPPPHHH!” Snotty wailed, helpless. He watched the Dragon spit out little gray jagged stones—Dragon’s

Teeth.⁵⁴ As they hit the ground, a thicket sprang up. Its twisting branches were tangled, thorny, and mean, and they threatened to cut off Big Teddy from the Plains and her fellows below. But a white figure leapt over the growing thicket’s top, landing at the Bear’s stubby plush feet. It was a little white horse, and it knelt so that Big Teddy could awkwardly mount.

“SNOWFLAKE!” Snotty wailed, tearing the False Idea from his chest. Snowflake and Big Teddy turned his way. Snotty could see that Snowflake’s wound was healed. It had left a little silver nub between his eyes.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The hideous sound called again. And Big Teddy and Snowflake, losing no time, wheeled around. The thicket was growing—heaving and twisting fast. Another moment and it would be too late. Backing up, Snowflake reared, pressing back on his flanks and sprang up. And just as the wall of dark wood leapt up, he leapt too, just that much farther, and cleared it before it shut out the sky.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The black shadow of the Dragon passed overhead. Snotty was alone. And the wall of thorns between himself and his friends reached all the way to the sky, blotting out the sun.