The Loyal Order

before the Dark Times

The Dossaic Realm

The Temple

Ling Ling chewed absentmindedly on a shoot of bamboo, his eyes slowly taking in his new brothers around the Table.

Grizzald finished off his mug of mead and mopped his wet snout with a furry paw.  "Why are we here?" he growled.  "I thought we agreed to stop congregating, that it was too dangerous."

Around the Table, the substantial shapes of the brotherhood cast odd, hefty shadows in the flickering light, the low ceilinged chamber lit only by a string of lanterns that dotted the cavern like silent sentinels.

"The Exile believes he has located the Chosen One," Kodiak reported, but his attention was on the tin of snuff he was trying to open with his claws.

"I told you it was a mistake to send David," the smaller black bear, Baribal, snarled.  "This is too delicate a matter for him."

"He was the only one of us still able to assume human form," Grizzald pointed out.  "He was the logical envoy to Earth Realm." 

"What other Choice did we have?" added Ephraim, the brown bear, talking with his snout full of salmon.

The Koala said nothing, just sucked on a cough drop.  His glazed eyes did not seem to focus on his surroundings.

The Polar Bear's nose curled at the smell of the eucalyptus.  Articus did not care for the new additions to their Order.  The purring Koala seemed drunk or stoned all the time and the Panda was stupid and lazy.  He gave them both an icy stare.  It was a sign of the desperate situation that the Dossai had even accepted these poor man's bears into the Order.  What was next? he wondered.  A Russian-speaking platypus?

Across the Table, Ling Ling noticed Articus giving him the stink-eye.  This polar bear looks ridiculous in his Hawaiian shirt, he thought.  Are those supposed to be 'retirement' clothes?

Ling Ling could not stand the smell of fish.  All around him, the bears gorged and the stench of salmon was pungent.  I hate those omnivores, he thought.  I hate their guts!

"If Dave has truly tracked down the Foretold One," Baribal chuffed, "the Veranda must not find out."

"Major Ursula," the Grizzly asked, "what news on those enemy troop movements?"

At the one end of the old, wooden Table, a she-bear stood up from her seat.  She was the only one of them wearing armor, Ling Ling noticed.  Must mean she was in the Dossaic militia, the only warrior among them - the rest were scholars, scientists, monks, and/or drunkards.

"My best agent, Nanook, missed the last check-in on her stealth mission," the major reported. "I fear the worst."

She held up an AIM chat transcript.  "Prior to her disappearance," she continued, "our last intel indicated a significant reallocation of manpower and assets by Verandan forces."

"They're up to something," Kodiak growled.  "I can smell it."  Ling Ling didn't see how Kodiak could smell anything anymore.

Baribal grunted in reply, "And I'd bet my right paw they already know about the Foretold One."

Articus nodded his white head in agreement.  "Which means, they'll make a move to intervene on Earth Realm," he said.

"They wouldn't dare!"  interjected Ephraim.

"Perhaps not directly?" Articus said. "But clearly they mean to act."

Nods all around the table, so Ling Ling nodded, too.

At the far end of the Table, a faint, scratchy voice spoke for the first time.  "Kodiak, warm up the gateway," the old, gray bear instructed.  "Prepare for incursion."  It was their leader, finally electing to speak.  The Decision had been made.

He was Bobo-Rah, the Elder and de facto boss.  He was shrunken and gaunt, and had his paw in a honey jar most of the time.  This elderly fellow wore a top hat and monocle as if an attempt at some dignity; it just came off as comical, Ling Ling mused.  Maybe he was a former circus bear?

"Intervention?" asked Ursula, adjusting her beret.

"What Choice do we have?" Ephraim pointed out.

"You keep saying that," Articus said coldly.

"Set emitters for the mother realm," Grizzald ordered, quickly finishing another mead.

But no one had moved yet.  The Panda, silent until now, stood up - and all eyes were on him.  The 'bear' growled something in what must've been Chinese.  And that's when they noticed he had pulled from under the Table a firearm.

"Bears do not carry guns," Articus barked. "It is against the code.  Only Man carries a gun."

The Major was the logical first target and the shot knocked her back.  Blood slapped across the cave wall where she hit.

To say that the others were not in the militia was true, but they were still bears.  Any one of them alone was an intimidating opponent; Ling Ling now found himself in a small room full of large bears.

(A cave of bears was best left sleeping, but these weren't sleeping.  Even the damned Koala was awake now.)

Although quite outnumbered, Ling Ling brandished a shooting iron and he knew that would even up the odds nicely.

The bears shot to their feet, knocking over their chairs.  Not one showed the slightest sign of fear - just alarm, alertness, anger.  Their snarls and growls filled the room.

Only the cowardly Koala scampered away, quickly retreating up a nearby column.

The Grizzly leapt up onto the large, round Table and roared!  All he got for the display was a face full of buck shot.

The urisdae dossai rushed their former brother and, while they put up quite a fight, there was no room to fight; they were in each others' way.  The Loyal Order was ultimately no match for the armed panda.

No room to fight.  In each others' way.

It was over very quickly.

Ling Ling stepped over the bodies and approached the aged ring leader.  "Any famous last words?" he asked.

The gray bear glowered up at Ling Ling.  "You're not a Bear," Boborah croaked out, his aged body quaking with fury.  "You're nothing but a wannabear!"

BLAM!  the old bear slumped to the side of his leather chair.

Ling Ling licked some blood from a paw and looked around at his handiwork.  Someone was missing….  Yes, that runt of a bear koala was nowhere to be found.

In no particular hurry, the black and white would-be bear lumbered out of the chamber.

the story continues in Unbearable