Land of the Phoenix Part 3

The Tavern

Before she realized what had happened, the bears separated Anne from captor. Panicking, she ran further into the woods, but four bears chased her down and surrounded her.

Meanwhile, the man fought fiercely against his attackers but was no match for the heavy animals. They pummeled him to the ground and did not stop attacking until the man stopped moving. He was not who they came for so they left him lying unconscious and rushed into the forest after the girl.

Poor Anne had been picked up by one bear and the group, walking on their hind legs as easily as any human, made their way to a nearby town.

The strange little town they took her to was filled with all sorts of forest animals, all of them standing on their hind legs. None of the animals, however were interacting with the others, unless they were in a brawl on the ground they all minded their own business. Anne watched in astonishment as the creatures walked and acted like humans but acted like savage animals.

Presently, the bears took her into an old tavern. However, instead of sitting at the tables, the animals destroyed them while trying to destroy each other. There was no apparent tavern-keeper; the animals just helped themselves to whatever was behind the counter. This chaos stopped, however, when the seven bears walked in through the swinging doors. Foxes, badgers, wolves, raccoons, snakes, coyotes and all the other small predators there (herbivores, the ones who get eaten, wouldn’t dream of coming to this town) stopped in their tracks and stared, with apparent fear, at the bears. The bears caught their attention but the girl caught their eyes, which made Anne feel very uncomfortable.

All the creatures stared as they walked up to the counter.

“You!” roared one of the bears at an unfortunate weasel cowering behind the counter, “Get us some drinks!”

The weasel squealed and rushed to fill their orders.

As the bears zealously chugged down their drinks, Anne came up with a clever but risky plan. Almost as one, her seven kidnappers set down their mugs and then talked with each other on what they were to do next with their hostage. Anne tapped the weasel on his furry little head and said, “The bears want another set of drinks.”

“What? But I just got them…”

“Are you arguing with me?” Anne asked fiercely.

“No, no! I-I’ll get to it right away!” and the poor weasel scampered off. The bears didn’t even question the delivery of the drinks but instead drained their glasses even quicker than the first time. Her plan was working! Anne ordered two more rounds; for the last one she asked the weasel to get larger glasses this time. So, the exhausted creature brought seven glasses almost as big as himself and the bears again drained them in a few gulps.

Now the seven huge creatures were very drunk and began arguing among themselves.
“No, the queen wants us to *hic* kill her now!”

“We gotta *hic* take the girl to her *hic* right away.”

“Ya dim wits are all crazy! She must put in the *hic* big house!”

Soon the argument turned into an affray and Anne easily slipped out of the window.

Anne’s previous kidnapper awoke almost an hour later, his body aching all over. As he stood up he tried to focus his mind and remember what had happened. Finally he remembered the bears. “Anne” was the first thing that came to his mind. But, then he thought, “Well, she’s off my hands now, the bears will deliver her to the Sorceress. I can just go home now.”

However, no matter what he told himself, he couldn’t get the girl off his mind. At last he made an excuse to go rescue her, “I captured her first so I should get the credit, not those flunkies!” And so he marched off to the forest where he found the path that the seven heavy animals made.

When he got to the town, he snuck his way to the center, knowing that the bears would not be too hard to find. He was just making sure the coast was clear by peaking around an old tavern when he was surprised to run into Anne climbing out of the window next to him! She had not yet seen him when he grabbed her arm and pushed her before him.

“You’re not getting away from the Sorceress that easy!"

Before she could rejoice at being away from the bears, Anne realized that she was back where she started, a prisoner marching before her captor to her doom.