Day 9: Questions and Answers

When it came time for the meeting, Gabu and Mei made their way to the same meadow the last meeting had been held at. Greta was already there, waiting for them alongside, to Mei’s surprise, Sagi. Mei couldn’t see anyone watching from the trees this time, and no one else was in the meadow.

“Good afternoon,” Greta said to them as they arrived.

“Hello, Greta. I’m glad to see you’re here too, Sagi,” Mei said.

“I’m just here to make sure the wolf doesn’t try any funny business. If you harm a hair on this goat’s head,” the rabbit said to Gabu, “you sure as hell won’t be hunting anyone else when I’m through with you.”

“Gabu wouldn’t hurt me even if I asked him to, and believe me, I’ve asked.” For some reason unknown to Mei, Greta stifled a laugh at that, and then looked away.

“Mei is my best friend. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him,” Gabu explained politely.

“Is no one else joining us?” Mei asked.

“We’re a bit early. They should be here soon,” Greta said.

Soon enough, more people started to arrive. There were two stags, a squirrel, a mouse and a hedgehog. Each of them froze when they saw Gabu and had to be urged forward by Greta or Mei before they would go near him.

Once everyone had arrived, Greta began the meeting in her usual officious manner. “Thank you, everyone, for coming. Please could everyone introduce themselves? My name is Greta. You already know Gabu and Mei.”

Everyone introduced themselves one by one. The stags, who Mei suspected were a couple, were called Darrel and Leo. The squirrel was called Janice, the mouse was called Frank, and the hedgehog was called Tanya.

When Greta asked if anyone had any questions for Gabu and Mei, Tanya was the first to speak up, addressing Mei shyly. “Why didn’t you run away when you found out he was a wolf? I know you two got on well with each other the night before, but it was still a huge risk to take, wasn’t it?”

Mei thought back on that day, when he saw that the person calling out “We met one stormy night!” to him, the person he’d felt such a strong connection to the night before, was actually a wolf. He’d had plenty of opportunity to run away—Gabu had been just as surprised as he was, after all—but he’d chosen to stay and see what the wolf would do. Why had he done that?

“I think...I’ve always been prone to taking risks,” Mei said. “When I was a kid, I used to tell everyone that I wasn’t afraid of anything. Except thunderstorms, that is. I got into all sorts of trouble; I think I almost got Mii killed a few times when we were really young. I grew out of that a little bit when I got older, but not entirely.”

“You’ve never told me that,” Gabu said.

“I hadn’t really made the connection until now that that’s why I stayed. I think that’s also the reason I walked in front of you all the way to our picnic spot and went to sleep right next to you, even though I could tell you were trying not to eat me. On some level, I wanted to see what would happen.”

“You did that on purpose?!” Gabu exclaimed.

Mei smiled apologetically. “Next question,” he said to the group.

They spent the next few hours answering various questions. What was really in the lunch Gabu dropped? How did they avoid anyone finding out about them for so many months? Why didn’t they go around the mountain?

By the time the sun had descended low in the sky, everyone still had plenty of questions they wanted to ask. Even Sagi had gotten tired of acting aloof and was joining in just as enthusiastically as everyone else.

“How about we pick this up again tomorrow?” Greta said, and everyone agreed.

When they were back at Moonrise Hill, Gabu asked Mei, “Were you really not afraid of anything when you were a kid?”

“I think part of that was me trying to seem brave in front of other people. Growing up without a mother, everyone in the herd kept feeling sorry for me all the time, and I hated that. So I went on adventures, called attention to myself and took unnecessary risks.”

“I suppose you’ve never really stopped doing that. Going on adventures and taking risks, I mean.”

“That’s for sure. Befriending a wolf, jumping into a river, going over a mountain... My grandmother used to worry so much about me when I’d go off on my own; I can’t imagine what she’s feeling now.”

“We’ll find out soon enough. I hope that Toto and Riri are doing all right.”