Early the next morning everyone went down to the vault. They shuffled their feet and treaded slowly and reluctantly, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts and fears. Most were thinking of the anger they would have to deal with, the acts of betrayal and the agonies they would have to endure. The brissons weren’t present, both out of respect and of the necessity that Jake felt. It would be hard enough to deal with the issues of the war. They could handle the immense time gap after they’d had a chance to settle down. To bribe the curious explorers, Jake had unfrozen a good deal of the library last night, especially the primer books and some of the early history books, leaving the ecstatic brissons to pour through the tomes, paper in hand as they sought to translate the picture stories to their own language.

“Well, this should be fun.” Brian said dryly to Jake as they stepped through the open door of the vault, pulling him from his thoughts.

“hmm? Oh, right. Yes, it won’t be much fun at all.” He laughed. “As you can tell. I’m already dreading it.”

“Same here.”

“How do we do this?” Stacey asked, coming back to hover in front of them. “All at once, or one at a time?”

Jake shrugged. “It makes no difference to me.” He admitted. “However you guys think is best. They’re going to hate me regardless.”

“They won’t hate you.” Stacey scolded. “Be upset with you, certainly. But they won’t hate you.”

“We’ll see.” Was all that Jake would say.

In the end they decided to wake the frozen one at a time. The question now was who did they wake first? No one seemed eager to be that one. After a long, uncomfortable silence, Jake burst out laughing which made everyone jump in surprise!

“Ha, ha, sorry.” He apologized when he could catch his breath again. “But it struck me as hilarious, seeing everyone acting like teens that’ve come home real late from the prom.” Everyone chuckled weakly at the image.

“I’ll go first.” Jake offered. “Er, I mean we’ll go first,” he added hastily, catching Serena’s sudden glare. “And get it over with.”

They all shrugged and stepped back with apparent relief. Brian set down a fresh pair of clothes that they’d salvaged from the magic trunks. They were old and homespun and wouldn’t look out of place from pictures of medieval time nobility. Jake just hoped they fit; the magic hadn’t taken measurements after all!

Jake stepped up to the clear supports that held his parents--the only relatives he’d managed to save--and freed them from their prison.

They started to move and blink, showing signs of coming alive. Jake turned sideways and shut his eyes for decency’s sake. He heard his mother scream!

“Mom! It’s okay! I promise.” Jake called to her.

“What’s happened?! Where are my clothes?!” she shouted. The surprise was evident in her voice.

“They’re gone. There’s some on the ground at your feet to wear.” Jake called out.

There came the rustle of cloth, a few minutes passed before his parents signaled they were decent. Jake turned back around and opened his eyes and stopped, stunned.

His father was tall and muscled with dark brown hair on the top of his head. His face was unlined and handsome, with firm jaw and tall brow. That was not what made Jake stop and stare, however. The extra-fine tunic he wore, complete with the resplendent cape and breeches made him look every inch a nobleman, despite his slightly uncomfortable look at wearing the strange clothes. His mother wore her gold silk dress with a strong maternal air, aided by her short and well-fed stature. Her blond curls, done up hastily, spilled over a simple circlet made of some ancient dwarf-metal, while on her small feet she wore two dainty silver slippers with bells on them.

She didn’t look uncomfortable at all, Jake noted glumly. Rather the opposite, she looked too angry to bother worrying about the dress.

“Jake,” she started warningly. “What did you do to us?”

Jake suppressed the urge to cringe; he felt like he was back at home after he stole some chocolate chip cookies hot off the baking rack right after his mother told him not to spoil his dinner.

“I’ve got a lot to tell you.” Jake said gently, “but I don’t know exactly how or where to begin.”

Serena came up beside him. She was human again, and her silver dress embroidered with gold and embossed in the middle with a great gold tree whose branches threaded down her arms and terminated in delicate leaves of gold made her seem as beautiful and elegant as an elven princess.  She spoke calmingly, the mark on her brow glinting under the light of the crystal lamps. “Do not blame Jake; he was only attempting to protect you from dangers greater than you know.”

They stared at her, caught flat-footed by her power. When Jake’s father spoke again, his voice was calmer and not as angry.

“What do you mean?”

Jake took a deep breath and launched into the story of the battle with Cassandra, their discovery of the Mud Master, and the final epic showdown with a demon lord that destroyed their city and cast them out of the rest of America like pariahs. The fleeing to the cave of thousands of refugees, and the decision to sleep until the radioactivity had washed away.

Jake’s parents didn’t speak for a long while, grappling with their shock Jake thought. He waited politely for them to regain their mental balance. When they next spoke, it was in a voice barely above a whisper. “Everything, gone?”

Jake tried his best to comfort them; reminding them that they were still alive and hale, they had a new home that was much grander than their small one-story house in the suburbs, and they still had him and Serena. By the time he was listing their pluses, his parents were nodding.

“We’d already thought of those.” They assured him, his father placing his arm around his mother’s shoulders. “It’s just a shock to wake up and realize that you’re whole life is gone in an instant. So, we’re really three hundred years into the future?”

Jake winced. “Um, actually, dad, we’re three million years into the future, with a couple of thousand thrown in as well.”

“What!” his mother sounded like a tea kettle that had been left on the stove for too long and had mostly boiled off; her voice was hoarse and the eyes that locked onto his were about as wide as any Jake had ever seen.

“It’s all right mom!” Jake cried in alarm. “I promise, we’re all going to be all right.”

His father seemed stunned. “Three million years! That seems so...are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.” Jake said dryly. “You don’t know it, but a new race has arisen.” His voice turned somber. “Mankind is gone. We...I made a mistake, a bad call. The demons took out everyone, but left the stage open for a new race, one that we apparently started.”

They looked confused, so Jake tried to explain. “They look like a cross between dogs and cats and people. They walk upright and have hands, but they also have fur and very short muzzles and ears. It’s...a little hard to explain, but we have a few upstairs tearing through our library as fast as they can translate it, so you’ll be able to judge their race for yourselves. I can’t be sure of course, but I think that we gave dogs and eventually cats greater intelligence to help us against the demons, but it proved too little too late, and we died out. The cats and dogs, having the intelligence to use tools and such but not the bodies for it, began to evolve bodies slowly to use them. I don’t know how long it took them, but eventually they got up off their forelimbs and began using their paws as hands until they became nearly human.”

The explanation looked like it only succeeded in confusing them, so Jake had Brian bring Mausi down to meet his parents. She understood the shock they were feeling, and did her best to be exceptionally polite, meeting their eyes levelly and making slow, exaggerated gestures to show that she meant no harm. His parents, unable to believe their eyes, actually reached out and hesitantly petted her fur. Mausi seemed stricken at first, but she slowly relaxed a little and allowed the petting to continue, although she looked very uncomfortable and embarrassed, but also a little pleased. Jake wondered why, and found out later that brissons enjoyed a good deal more physical contact than humans, the fur bringing more pleasure at touch than bare skin apparently, but society placed heavy restrictions on such contact, and it was generally considered taboo to show that level of affection in public. “Kind of like kissing in public back in the Victorian era,” was Brian’s thought on it.

When his parents finally believed and could be pried away from Mausi, they were more willing to believe Jake’s story of what had happened.

“I never thought I’d see something like this.” His father confessed. “It seems like something I would read from the dime-store novels of my day.”

“I doubt you’ll find any dime-store novels, dad.” Jake said dryly. “I doubt they’ve been invented yet. You might be able to read Sherlock Holmes though, depending on whether or not they’ve got someone like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle here.”

“Wouldn’t that be something?” he murmured.

Jake couldn’t help but agree. However, now that he had his parents unfroze and accepting of what had happened, it was time to move on.

“Who’s next?” he asked.

Now everyone wanted their parents and siblings freed at once, it seemed. After a good deal of argument, they decided on the order of Shyla, Stacey, Tom, Rachel and Brian.

Shyla’s mother proved less resilient than Jake’s parents; upon seeing Mausi and hearing the tale of what had happened, she proceeded to faint dead upon the floor. Shyla panicked and pleaded for help as she patted her mother’s face and tried to get her to wake up again. Serena laid her hand on the stricken woman’s brow and she opened her eyes again. This time, with Serena holding her hand, she was able to assimilate what had happened better.  Jake suspected that Serena’s power over her tripled with physical contact, allowing her to stay calm and collected.

With such results, they proceeded far more cautiously with Stacey’s sisters, waking them one at a time. They found the notion of a whole new world much more exciting, and they clustered around Mausi, much to the desert woman’s discomfort. They constantly petted and fussed over her, pulling brushes from their bags and attacking the girl with the intensity of a Hollywood make-up artist despite everyone’s efforts to talk them out of it.

When they finished, Jake had to admit that Mausi looked much better than before; her formerly brown coat had lost most of its dust layer, revealing the finer silver threads underneath. Her long hair had been brushed out to a bright sheen and re-braided into a long ponytail covered with false flowers that Hermione had in her bag. She looked more like a Native American princess than a dirty vagabond, Jake thought. It spoke well of the reverence she held for them that she allowed such an assault on her person, and he wondered if it would be a good idea to continue on. Mausi insisted she was fine, despite the strain in her voice and the obvious discomfort she displayed.

Jake took her at her word and one by one unfroze everyone else. The entire process taking well into evening by the time they were finished explaining the story, showing Mausi to them as proof of what they were saying, and moving on to the next.

It was a weary and exhausted group that made the long journey up the stairs to the dining hall. They stopped at the library where they met up with the rest of the explorers, and there was a great deal of excitement as introductions were made. Annabel and Matcha found themselves surrounded by Stacey’s sisters, and before Jake or Serena could stop them the trio of giggling girls had ushered the surprised brissons into one of the side passages. Jake knew there wouldn’t be much harm done, but he still felt bad for his guests; he just hoped the excitement at it all would be some comfort to them.

They had a very frugal supper; there was very little left in the brissons baggage, and they weren’t very big eaters to begin with. Jake had brought back what meat he could from his kill last night, but being so large it had taken several deer to fill him up, and he’d only brought back part of the last one. However, he simply said he wasn’t hungry anymore (which was true) and that he could go for some time without having to hunt again (which was also true).

After dinner they sat around the fire and talked a good deal. Everyone wanted to know about the brissons and their lands and homes. Everyone was surprised at how much the description matched those of the old England; the brissons had a Big Ben now, it had been completed a year prior to their departure, and the great Tower of London where they kept the most dangerous criminals from all corners of their empire. The Queen and her daughter (a personal friend of Annabel’s, as it turned out) lived in a well-defended castle called Buckingham, but unlike the stately manor of Jake’s world it was an actual medieval castle, one of the grandest in world, they said. It stretched a hundred and fifteen feet into the sky at the tallest tower, and was guarded by multiple walls, gates, cisterns, mazes, traps, moats and drawbridges.

Jake found the description interesting, and wondered what had prompted such formidable fortifications. It was certainly more defensible than some of the castles from their own time.

As the fire burned low, Jake thought it would be a good time to sleep again. He stood and yawned broadly; it had exactly the effect he’d hoped for. Everyone cracked their teeth as they followed suit with him, and gave sleepy half-glares at him. But they soon gave those up and made their way back to the sleeping wing.

Jake didn’t feel like following himself, but went instead to his golden couch to sleep. He curled himself on top of the gleaming hoard and closed his eyes. Almost as soon as they shut, he felt whisked away in slumber.

Jake awoke immediately to a soft sound, almost like fingernails scraped over stone. He looked around and found Serena looking guiltily up at him, her horn dimmed and one foreleg raised up as if she’d been in the process of setting it down slowly and deliberately. Jake realized that she’d been in the process of sneaking out the door.

Jake didn’t say a word, but laid his head back down with a smile. Serena snorted lightly and hurried out the door, eager to be outside.

Jake wandered outside an hour later, finding the slopes of the mountain covered in delicate flowers and green grass, the sky starting to cloud up in preparation to rain. He could feel enormous magic forces in the air, far greater than any he ever felt before in his life.

He did not have to go any great distance to find the source. At the foot of the mountain, where the bend of the dry riverbed drew the closest, Serena raced joyously back and forth in competition with her own shadow. The sun shone in her mane and tail and the light of a star gleamed at the tip of her horn while her hooves covered the distance so swiftly they seemed to fly above the ground rather than touch it. Wherever she ran, green grass sprouted and grew tall and fair, while flowers bloomed in the wake of the grass sprouts. Further back along her trail, there were bushes and trees just beginning to stretch their green limbs towards the sun, growing much faster than any tree save those she’d touched the day she grew her glade.

Jake didn’t think his sister was aware of the plants; she seemed too intent on running back and forth in long lines around the rocks and over the desert sand. She never crossed her own lines, as she always bore away from the mountain whenever she turned. When she came to the riverbed she leaped over with a surge of strength. Landing on the other side she galloped madly into the distance, covering a league in the space of a few minutes. Jake never worried that she would be seen; her power would warn her that someone was near, and she could escape quicker than a flash of light, if it came to it. So he just settled down at the edge of the tunnel and watched.

Tom came to hover beside him not long after. He’d become an early riser ever since Shyla had attacked Stacey while he remained in a dead sleep. Jake knew he felt incredibly guilty over that, although there wasn’t anything he could have done in any case. That didn’t stop him from trying, and he attacked his fighting exercises with great vigor now.

“Morning Tom.” Jake said politely.

“Morning. What’s going on?” Tom asked, tracking Serena’s movements across the distant plain.

“Serena’s out for a morning run.” Jake explained. “Of course, she’s had a unique effect on the surrounding environment, as you can see.”

“Yeah, I do. Is this wise? I mean, it is a sign that something strange is going on here and no mistake.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Jake said quietly. “I talked to Mausi and this area is none too well known. Her people believe a dark god slumbers in these mountains and they don’t want to waken it and suffer its wrath.” He chuckled. “Of course how they got in to know about me without my knowing is beyond me. There’s no sign that anything’s been disturbed or taken, and I should know! But, well, it does give us some space to work with, and we’ll need the green anyway.”

“How so?” Tom asked curiously.

“Well, we’ve got five thousand or so people below in the dwarf city; they’re going to need a lot of food, water, and sunlight.  The city is grand and we may live in there for a time, but man has never been happy with stone caves, or we should never have bothered learning to make houses for ourselves! They are going to want to leave the caves behind them; having a forest here would help shield them from outside eyes and let us have a chance for growing out a little. Indeed, a forest would suit our needs to a nicety, especially for food, which we will need before we free anyone else.”

Tom looked at him for a long while.“You know, Jake, I can’t help but notice,” he said slowly, “that your speech is a little...off. It’s not the way you used to talk; you’ve gotten more formal and maybe a little stiff.”

Jake looked at him in surprise, then turned his mind inward. Yes, I can start to see his point, he realized. But when did...of course! The dragon is changing me, even as I have grown. I wonder how far this process will go on. Well, so far it’s been for the better, in my opinion, so I will not challenge it. Not that I could challenge a dragon in any case!

Aloud he said, “I know. It’s the dragon part of me, I think. Can’t seem to get away from the changes, but it’s not surprising when it comes to it, is it? I mean, look at Brain and Rachel for starters, they went from being common post-teenagers to sounding like Harvard professors lecturing a class on their favorite subject. I daresay your speech may change a little as we go on, as you’ve changed.”

“What?” Tom asked, startled.

“Of course.” Jake told him. “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed, but then I hadn’t noticed the change in my speech. You’ve gotten taller than you were, and your face has changed as well; it’s much cleaner and stronger, and your hair isn’t as unruly as it once was, instead it seems to have become smooth and long, instead of that curly mop you used to have.”

Tom reached up and ran his fingers through his hair, then looked up at Jake with a sickly grin.

“I hadn’t noticed.” He offered lamely.

“Of course you haven’t. I noticed it only when I went to put you away for the long sleep. Stacey has changed as well; she’s much leaner than she was, and her face is more graceful and fair. I remembered the stones you two possess, the fairies inside looked very regal. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you are becoming a royal in turn. You’re still you, and that’s all that matters though.”

“Yeah, but for how long?” Tom muttered quietly.

“Don’t think too hard on it.” Jake advised. “I don’t. We all change a little, whether we had remained human or not. These changes are more dramatic than some, but better than most!”

“Now,” he said, changing the subject. “Getting back to your original question, I have a question for you. Do you think you can locate water for us?”

“I assume so, but why?” Tom asked.

“Well, the oldest grass has already died, and the rest is becoming brown fairly rapidly from the heat and lack of moisture. I feel a storm brewing in the air, and I suspect Serena is part of that, but a little rain isn’t going to be much help unless we have a steady source of water on the outside; we would need one anyway for irrigation of crops and such. Do you think we can find the source of this stream and start it flowing again?”

Tom looked thoughtfully at the riverbed that stretched into the distance. “I don’t know.” He said at last. “That depends greatly on what the source of this river is. If it’s an outlet for some storms in the mountain, then I might be able to direct meltwater to start the river flowing again, or I might be able to drill into the aquifer. If, however, this is simply a drain created from bad years during flash floods, then I don’t think there’s much I can do.”

“It could be worth a shot.” Jake suggested.

“It might. I’ll leave right away and take a look.”

“You mean we’ll leave right away, I suppose.” Jake eyed him. “I’m not going to let you face the dangers out there alone!”

Tom laughed. “I’ll be fine. Besides, it would be fun to get away and explore a bit, but you’ll be needed here! If, while I’m gone, trouble breaks out you’ll need to be here to keep order. You can’t go.”

Jake snorted. “I’m not that important. In fact, all I’ll be able to do all day is simply laze about my bed. It’s not as if my hands are designed for washing plates and spoons!” he wriggled the thick, taloned fingers of one of his front feet to prove his point.  

“Yes, you are.” Tom stubbornly insisted. “You are capable of doing far more than merely throwing your weight around! You’re the sheriff of this small town in a way, Or the lord of the city.”

“You mean the village idiot?” Jake laughed. Tom joined in for a minute.

“Really though, it’s not going to be that bad. I’ll go with Stacey and we’ll get the water sorted out.”

Jake sighed. “All right, but I’m going to be completely miserable while you’re off having adventures without me.”

Tom grinned. “Somehow, I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about being bored! Just getting this mess sorted out is going to be more than enough challenge for anyone!”


Tom left early the next day with Stacey and Mausi. The brisson had announced that she would be their guide since her services weren’t required at the moment by her original party. Jake suspected her desire to leave had more to do with Stacey’s sisters wanting to constantly brush her fur or tie ribbons and things in her hair than actually being bored, but he let her go. He’d probably want to do the same in her place.

The storm of yesterday had abated by the time they left, leaving the newly sprung forest steaming under the bright sunlight. They skirted narrow rivulets and creeks that flowed down the flanks of the mountain. Near the base of the mountain they stopped. Tom looked around in surprise and landed on the ground.

“What is it?” Jake asked.

“Water, and a good deal of it, right here beneath our feet.”  He looked back at the mountain and then around. “You know, this seems about the right distance for Serena’s original spring back in the day, perhaps a little closer to the mountain now, but not much.”

He closed his eyes and concentrated. A geyser of water shot high into the air and doused everyone. There came a chorus of shouted cries and everyone scrambled back while Tom scaled the flow back to a trickle. It flowed down a hill until it came to a broad and shallow depression and began to fill it up with water. Eventually the basin would fill with water and at the far end a thin stream of water would snake away and go on towards the riverbed.

“Sorry about that.” Tom grinned sheepishly at the angry faces around him. “Let me help with that.” He gestured curiously at them; making a wringing motion with his hands and pulling back with his arms like he was trying to curl weights. Water misted from everyone and slowly coalesced into a ball of water, leaving everyone bone dry.

There were murmurs of appreciation at this. Serena whinnied happily and drank deeply.

‘It’s cool and fresh!’ she said happily to them. ‘It will be perfect for the Seeing Pool!’

She tapped her horn lightly on Tom’s shoulder and said, ‘Thank you, dear friend! May you have blessings on each day and always find what you seek!’

Tom blushed deeply and said something inaudible.

He quickly took his leave after the others had refilled their now empty water skins, and the trio started on their long journey up the dry river bed, seeking a greater source of steady water.

Jake watched them until they had completely vanished from his sight before turning around and walking back to the pool. His sister had already returned in human form with the crystal vial in her hands. Everyone clustered around and watched solemnly as she knelt at the pool's edge and poured the magic inside into the water. Carefully replacing the stopper, she passed the vial to Shyla before returning to Unicorn form.

Touching the water with her horn, she gave a clear command that echoed in Jake’s head.

‘Show me the events in London! Show the friend of Annabel Tildwell!’

Those not part of the original change didn’t hear anything, and they gasped in shock as the pool flattened immediately and became a mirror. The waters stopped flowing as if frozen in time, droplets that had been thrown into the air by rock or dip hung suspended by magic. On the surface, with a clarity and definition that would put the HD TV’s Jake remembered to shame, the world appeared briefly before it rushed towards them like they were plummeting from space. A tiny square appeared on a small island next to a strange continent, growing into a sprawling city. A great castle sprouted in the middle and zoomed closer until they found the image in a very nicely appointed room where a young brisson sat engaged in quiet study. A small book was in her hand, wrapped in leather and lettered in gold. The characters were strange to Jake, he’d never come across their like before, but that was not surprising.

“The Princess!’ Matcha gasped.

“Alise!” Annabel said in the same moment.

Jake observed the young girl closely through the pool. She was very young, younger than Annabel by several years, Jake thought. She had deep russet fur covered by a blue dress the color of the sea, long black hair that complemented the red of her fur and came down almost to her thin waist. Jake found himself mesmerized by her face; it had all the features of a collie-setter mix, with the distinctive muzzle and short ears, but her eyes were mischievous, dancing green in the light as she laughed at some joke that only she could see.

The pool flickered from place to place in rapid succession at Serena’s command. One moment it showed a deep dark rain forest in Africa, or rather what used to be Africa, and then across the wide Atlantic to South America, which had apparently been sundered from its northern counterpart; the neck of land that connected Brazil to Texas had sunk underwater and become a shallow island chain. In America, Florida had all but vanished and the east coast had lost many miles to the encroaching sea. Many of the most familiar landmarks to Jake were gone, worn away by time and war. The Pacific Ocean had shrunk considerably, with Alaska tearing away from Russia while the rest of the west coast of Canada and America swept towards Asia. Japan had smashed into the coast of China and started to push up a long mountain chain there. The world had changed much, and Jake wondered how their part would play out.

“Well, what do we do now?” Rachel asked.

“I think,” Jake said slowly. “I think we should have the pool search for signs of demon activity, or spiders. Things of nightmare, at least. I cannot help but remember Cassandra’s words that she’d managed to hide some of her brood from us.”

“Who is this Cassandra?” Annabel asked.

“Someone who died very long ago.” Jake said vaguely. “What do you say, Serena?”

‘It’s not a bad idea. We won’t be able to attack them until our strength grows and this colony is well established again, but it would be good to find some idea of what we face in this new world.’

She touched her horn to the pool and immediately it went dark. Shadowy figures seemed to move or ripple across its surface and tiny screams could be heard in the far distance. In a very few minutes, the view pulled back to show the rotating surface of the earth as it was now. Black pinpricks began to dot the surface, lots and lots of them. Very few areas were left unmarked, and those seemed to be where the brisson people called home.

“Good heavens.” Rachel said very softly as she stared at the pool. “It seems the world has gotten very dark indeed since we went to sleep.”

“Dark it has, but there is always hope.” Jake rumbled. The warning of the pool had shaken him, but the fear had already lost its grip on him. “We can start anew. The brissons may need our aid before the end, but then again, they may not. They’ve grown up in this world, we have not.”

“What do you suggest we do then?” Brian asked him directly.

“I think we should continue as we have.” Jake told him frankly. “It’s a good plan, and we made a promise to the people to let them out again. We’ll have to put aside our hope to cleanse this world of evil for a time, but perhaps that is for the best. The soldiers will be helpful in destroying colonies of evil wherever they are when they are ready.”

“That sounds like a task of generations, perhaps.” Brian said thoughtfully.

“I expect so.” Jake said. “But then our arrival may set events into motion that we have no control over. We shall see. I, for one, would appreciate as long a time of peace as we can wrangle. To grow our numbers and prepare.”

“Well, I suppose we should get started.” Shyla said determinedly.  

For long afterwords, the forest grew thick and full, absorbing the water that bubbled up from the seeing pool. Storms, too, played their part and the thirsty land proved fertile and healthy for growth. Trees sprouted as rapidly as bamboo, their broad limbs reaching far and wide to catch the light. Like Serena’s forest from before, they moved on their own and spoke to each other in whispered language like the rustle of leaves. Serena had the trick of understanding their language, and would teach it to the finest woodsmen in time. Animals started to return to the mountain; in the first days outside they saw birds flying in the sky and nesting in the boughs. Desert foxes came too, followed by their larger cousins seeking shelter and a place to raise their young. Deer came to eat the young buds from bush and tree and stayed permanently. Bears, coyotes, wolves and other familiar creatures arrived.  

Jake was surprised to see the coyotes and the foxes and wolves. In their discussions with Annabel, she had never mentioned such creatures still existed in their normal forms. When he went to ask her about it, she seemed as surprised to see them as he was, and asked what manner of beasts they could be; they looked nothing like the creatures she was familiar with. The mystery remained so for long years, no one quite able to fully explain the presence of these particular animals, so familiar to humans and yet apparently alien to the world.

Jake could devote little time to watching the forest grow; his hardest task lay ahead of him and for once he found himself undecided. He would have to start the process of Wakening, bringing people out of their millenia-long slumber--but who should he wake? They couldn’t support everyone all at once, they needed small numbers first to pave the way for the others--a process that could take years. And who would lead them? Jake didn’t want to, he wasn’t human and he had no experience in leading and governing. No, they needed someone else. As he thought, a face came to him, and he sighed. It would be time to wake the general and include her on the discussions.