Chapter XII: Jezerah and Iya Confronted
In the morning, Deborah was inspecting the sail boat as Gideon and his friends arrived.
"It‘s still sea worthy. We just need a mast and sail."
"How are we to do that?" asked Barrachus.
"Follow me." the cheetah said.
The group made their way back to the forest. Deborah found a tree that was perfect for the mast.
"Our swords can‘t cut that down." said Gideon.
Deborah grinned; and with the swipe of her hand in the air, she sliced the tree from its base. The plant tittered for a few moments and then came crashing down to the forest floor. It took them two days to chop the tree to the perfect size and to drag it to the boat. Once the mast was in place, the sail needed to be made.
"Gather as many leaves as you can, I have an idea."
Leaves large and small were brought to the beach. Deborah walked over to the leaves; her eyes glowed with an icy blue, and the leaves began to shimmy and shake. After Deborah had finished, a large leafy fabric laid on the sand. Gideon went to touch it.
"Amazing, it still feels like a leaf, but it‘s a sail." Gideon said touching the sail The sail was positioned on the mast and the wind carried the sail boat slowly away from the island. During the night a cool breeze passed over them; the stars guided them closer to their destination. The Voyage went on for another day. Tiber was now at the helm, Barrachus glanced into the distance with his telescope.
"You see any land yet?" Tiber asked.
"No." said the coyote.
Tiber waited ten seconds and asked again.
"You see anything now?"
"Stop asking me every ten seconds, it‘s been two days…wait," he said adjusting his telescope, "Land, Forty mile west of our position! Turn the wheel, Tiber."
Gideon, Deborah and Leopold rushed from the cabin. Gideon took the telescope from Barrachus.
"Is it Shavron?" said Deborah.
" It sure is. If I‘m correct that‘s the coastline to the Cinnamount Woods just before Tribless Hill. We‘re back!" said Gideon happily.
"What do we do in the mean time?" asked Leopold.
"We wait for the eclipse. We‘ll stay in the forest; hopefully Jezerah hasn‘t positioned any force there. After that, only the Lord knows."
At the coastline, supplies were gathered from the boat and they all entered the Cinnamount Woods. When they first arrived Gideon and Deborah remembered the sweet smell that these trees gave. It was a new experience for the other three and they frequently smelled the bark.
"Well, there are no soldiers," said Gideon. "There should be a cave nearby. I used to go there when I was younger."
The cave was a perfect spot to rest until the eclipse. Plans would have to be made to confront Jezerah.
"Why wait? We can get them now if we wanted to." said the cheetah eagerly.
"We wait for the eclipse. I don‘t want to foul this up." said Gideon sternly. Suddenly Barrachus told everyone to be silent.
"What for?" said Leopold.
"Someone‘s outside spying on us," he said taking his sword.
The coyote got up and walked careful over to the cave‘s entrance. He crept along the side wall, ready to strike the intruder. He turned the corner and a strong arm met his and the coyote was pushed him to the ground. Gideon, Leopold, and Tiber came to his aid. The wolf looked down on the four, especially Gideon. In moments his hard exterior was softened by the smile on his face.
"Sorry for pushing you down," said the wolf. " I wasn‘t sure if you were planning on using that on me."
The wolf turned his attention to Gideon.
"What took you so long? I thought you might get here earlier. You should be more punctual, Gideon."
Gideon walked up to the wolf. He looked at him until it finally dawned on him that he was looking at one of is friends.
"Samson, what happened to you? You‘ve changed. You‘re in rags…and your eyes!"
Deborah ran over and gave the wolf a hug around his neck.
"It seems that we have all change," he said looking at Deborah somberly, "Don‘t let a unforgiving heart destroy you Deborah."
The cheetah lowered her head to hide her eyes from Samson. She walked away from the group.
"She‘ll be back. I hope her hate doesn‘t destroy her."
"How do you know that?" said Gideon.
"The Lord and I have been talking…well mostly the Lord. He‘s talked to me about myself, Deborah, you and your friends. But we can talk about it later, do you have any food? I‘m starving."
Hours passed into the night; all where asleep except Gideon and Samson. He told what had happened to him under Jezerah and how the Lord freed him from her grip.
"So she hasn‘t looked for you?"
"Nope, I‘ve been here waiting: listening and thinking. Especially about the prophesy the Lord has given me."
"Prophesy?" said Gideon.
"Because of our choice to set up Jezerah and Iya as our leaders. Shavron will adopt their ways and further entangle itself in wickedness. There will come a day when God will take the young from Shavron to a world of night. However if we humble ourselves and pray, the Holy One will restore that generation to us.
"Why, what for?" asked Gideon.
"I‘ll give you a wise answer," said Samson, "I don‘t know. We might not even see it in our life time.
The next morning Tiber awoke from his slumber. He decided to go back to the forest to smell the sweet bark; but when Tiber went out of the cave, he made a remarkable discovery: the sun and moon were in the sky at the same time.
Back at the valley, Citar was trying to wake up his king. Gray slept heavily and it was nearly impossible to wake him up. Citar tried yelling at him, pour water over his head, and even yanked his tail, but nothing worked. Finally, Citar tried the only thing that could work. He got a sharp bone and poked Gray on his bottom. The lion shot up in a rage and knocked the bone from Citar‘s hand.
"Trying to assassinate me, eh?"
"No sir," said Citar quickly, " I needed to wake you up for important news."
"It better be important or you‘ll find yourself to be one of my new wall rugs."
"Outside," he said stumbling over the word, "look outside."
Gray looked outside and saw that the sun and moon were drawing closer for the eclipse. The lion ran back and gave Citar a bear hug.
"This is grand! So the rabbit was telling the truth after all. Citar, get all the male lions together and get the ships ready. We‘ll be living in Shavron by the end of the week!"
Back at the Cinnamount Forest, Gideon gathered everyone together.
"The lions are on their way. I‘m going to send Jezerah a letter stating that the judges are back. Most likely she‘ll shout the area or go looking for help from Chetz. All I need is some ink and paper. Leopold, do you have any money left?"
"I always have money available." said Leopold.
"Good. One of you has to go in and buy the items." All eyes went to Tiber.
"Hold on, I can‘t do this."
"You‘re the only one that hasn‘t been to Shavron or has met the foxes," said Gideon. " No one will suspect you. All you have to do is get the ink and paper."
"I don‘t know the way."
"I‘ll help you," Deborah said asserting herself.
"Deborah, don‘t do anything foolish."
"Gideon, you know me a little better than that." she said.
"You‘re rig