Day 4: Acceptance

When he woke up, Mei knew exactly what he was going to do. He woke Gabu to discuss the plan. After some minor alterations, the two agreed that the plan was as likely to work as anything else. While Gabu went back to sleep, Mei headed into the forest to find his friends.

Once everyone was gathered in the clearing, Mei addressed them. “Good morning, everyone. I think I’m finally ready to tell you the full story of how Gabu and I ended up here.”

“At last! I’ve been waiting to hear that for months,” Sagi said.

“If you’re ready to tell us, Mei, we’d love to hear it,” Riri said.

Mei began to tell them the story of how he and Gabu had met in the abandoned barn. Telling the same story to Takkan the day before had been good practice. Mei described everything from his own perspective, focusing on how, despite not being able to see the stranger in the barn, they found they had much in common. He told them how he and Gabu had agreed to meet for lunch the following day, and that they would speak their password “One stormy night” to identify each other.

“And so, the next day, off I went to the barn. I hid behind a tree, wanting to surprise Gabu when he arrived, but, of course, he saw me instantly. He called out to me, ‘We met one stormy night!’ And I called the same thing back, ‘We met one stormy night!’”

Mei looked around at his friends, enraptured by his story. This next part would be difficult. “So I stepped out from behind the tree and saw Gabu for the first time. And you wouldn’t believe my surprise when I saw that he was...” Mei paused for dramatic effect, “...from a rival herd!”

Everyone gasped, all except for Sagi, who said, “I knew it was something like that!” They shushed him.

Mei went on to tell them how this “rival herd” had been at odds with his own herd for as long as anyone could remember, and that there would be outrage on both sides if anyone knew Gabu and Mei were speaking to each other, let alone what would happen if anyone found out they were friends. But, Mei told them, he and Gabu found they had so much in common with each other that they broke tradition and went on a picnic together anyway.

As he told the rest of his story, right up to the events at the top of the mountain, Mei omitted any reference to Gabu’s species. He put as much emotion into the story as he could, and most members of his audience had already cried multiple times by this point.

“And there we were at the top of the mountain, snow everywhere we looked, not a single blade of grass to eat. We’d been climbing all day, and I couldn’t walk another step. When I collapsed from exhaustion in the snow, Gabu dug out a hollow and carried me inside, saving my life once again. But we still had no hope of both getting down the mountain alive.”

“But you’re both alive,” Toto said, tears in his eyes. “How did you survive?”

“‘Gabu,’ I said, ‘me travelling with you is slowing you down. At this rate, neither of us will survive the mountain. We’ve been without food for so many days now, and as for me, I’ll never survive in this weather. Listen, Gabu, you have to live for the both of us.’

“‘Mei, what are you talking about?’ he said.

“‘You’re a true friend. And I consider myself very lucky to have made a friend who’d risk his life for me, and for whom I would do the same.’

“‘If that really is how you think of me, Mei, then I would say I’m the one who was really lucky.’

“‘So, then, you won’t argue with me when I tell you to leave me here, and cross over this mountain alone.’

“‘Mei, stop it! How could you even think I’d leave you?’”

Mei was a little disappointed, but also somewhat relieved, that the most truly upsetting parts of that conversation didn’t fit in with the version of the story he was telling.

“‘Gabu, listen. Answer me honestly, okay? That very first night, when we met in the old barn, if you’d known right away that I was from the Sawa Sawa herd, what would you have done?’

“Gabu hung his head. ‘I’d have left you alone.’

“‘See now? It’s okay. Just pretend it’s like that first time.’

“‘But if it’s a choice between one of us surviving and both of us starving to death,’ Gabu said, ‘it really doesn’t matter, does it? We’ll never see each other, ever again. And we’ll never have the chance to sit and watch the moonrise together. It hurts just to think about, Mei.’”

By the look of his audience, all of whom were in tears, it also hurt just to hear about it.

“‘I feel the same. But you have to remember something, Gabu. Friendship, life, everything eventually ends. But the fact that we became friends, or the time that we spent together, that will never disappear, right?’

“‘I guess you’re right. It just would have been nice if this had lasted a little longer. But, as your friend, I’ll honour your wish. Mei, I’ll go outside and, from then on, I’ll pretend I don’t know you. Hey, a Sawa Sawa goat. Best of luck to him, but it’s nothing to do with me.’” Mei wished he could properly capture the fleeting comedy Gabu had provided in that moment, but it just didn’t translate.

“‘Okay. Gabu, my friend, take care of yourself...and goodbye.’

“‘I will, I promise. Goodbye.’”

Everyone was silent for a long while. “So,” Greta said, “he just left you there? Alone on the mountain?”

Mei smiled sadly. “Not my Gabu, no. I only found out what happened next much later.” Mei described how Gabu had spotted his “herd” still pursuing them through the snow, and had climbed down to fight them before they could get to Mei. “‘You won’t die for me if I can help it, Mei.’” Mei had no reason to think Gabu had actually said something like that, but it felt right in the moment.

He finished his story by telling his friends the part they already knew: Mei had found Gabu, but his friend had lost his memories and didn’t remember him. The only thing Gabu remembered, Mei told them, was that Mei was from a rival herd; Gabu was planning to kill him under the light of the full moon. But, speaking their password, Mei was able to remind Gabu that they were friends. Instead of killing Mei, the two of them sat together on the hill and watched the moonrise together.

Mei, who had been doing a good job at keeping his composure until now, started crying. Greta, Sagi, Toto and Riri came forward to comfort him.

“Thank you so much for telling us your story. I’m so sorry you and Gabu had to go through all that,” Riri said. The others agreed.

“Thanks, but as it happens, our troubles aren’t quite over yet. I’m scared, absolutely terrified, that when the four of you meet Gabu, you’re going to turn against me just like my herd did.”

“We promise you, Mei, from the bottoms of our hearts, that we won’t turn against you. Your herd did an awful thing in treating you that way,” Greta said, and the others promised likewise.

“But what I don’t understand,” Sagi said, “is why you think we’d turn against you if we met Gabu?”

“Because,” Mei said, “Gabu’s a wolf.”

Everyone went silent. Sagi backed away from Mei as if the goat himself was about to eat him.

“I don’t understand,” Toto said. “You said Gabu was from a rival goat herd.”

“I’m sorry for misleading you, but it was the only way I could think of to get you to hear the whole story before judging me. If I’d told you straight away that Gabu was a wolf, I doubt any of you would still be listening to me.” Almost under his breath, he added, “No one in my herd did.”

Sagi was staring at him furiously. “So, let me get this straight. You’re the reason that wolf is here in the forest? You’re responsible for all the deaths it’s caused?”

“I told him to hunt on the other side of the forest from now on. I’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt any of you.”

“The other side of the forest? My sister and her family live on the other side of the forest!” Sagi looked like he wanted to attack him.

Mei backed away. “We’ll figure something out. He... He can go to a whole other forest to hunt.”

“I’ve had enough of this,” Sagi said. “If the rest of you need me, I’ll be checking whether my sister’s still alive.” With that, Sagi hopped off out of sight.

Greta looked like she was about to say something, but Mei cut her off.

“You said you wouldn’t turn against me. You promised.”

The doe was taken aback, but appeared to reconsider her words. “Mei, no one’s blaming you; you’ve done nothing wrong. Are you sure this wolf really has your best interests at—”

“If you’re going to tell me that Gabu is using me, is planning to eat me or whatever, you’re too late. My herd already told me that, in case you’d forgotten. Gabu has had more opportunities to eat me than I can count. Even when I told him to eat me at the top of that mountain, he still didn’t. That’s what really happened at the top of the mountain, by the way. He was starving and I told him to eat me, and he didn’t. He gave up his entire life to be with me, and so did I.”

Greta sighed. “You’ve given me a lot to think about, Mei. Stay safe.” Greta, too, left the clearing.

The two sparrows, who had been silent during all of this, looked at each other and then back to Mei.

“You can leave too if you want,” Mei said to them resignedly.

“Actually,” Riri said, “I was just about to ask if we could meet him.”

Mei was astonished. “You want to meet Gabu? Even knowing he’s a wolf?”

“We’re birds, Mei,” Toto said. “We eat meat too. Insects and worms, mostly, but it still counts.”

“And he’s your friend,” Riri added. “Of course we want to meet him.”

How could Mei have forgotten that birds ate meat? He almost wept with joy at the ease with which they accepted the news. “Well, in that case, follow me.”

He led the birds out of the forest and towards Moonrise Hill, where Gabu was still asleep. As they drew closer to the mouth of the cave, the birds, flying in low circles to avoid outpacing Mei, seemed apprehensive at the sight of the sleeping wolf. Still, they landed in the branches of the small tree just outside the cave. Mei went inside to wake Gabu up.

“Good morning, Mei,” Gabu said as he awoke. “Did the plan work?”

“Not as well as I had hoped but...we have visitors.” Mei pointed to the birds, perched right outside the cave.

“Hello. You must be Gabu,” Riri said. “It’s an honour to meet you. My name is Riri, and this is my husband, Toto.”

For several seconds, Gabu only stared in disbelief. Mei had no idea how long it had been since Gabu had spoken to someone other than him. Eventually, he remembered how to do it. “Riri, Toto, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You’re two of the animals Mei made friends with while I was gone. He’s told me all about you.”

“Mei has just been telling us all about you too,” Toto said. “I’m so, so sorry for everything your herd—I mean, your pack—put the two of you through. They had no right to get in the way of your happiness.”

Gabu was on the verge of tears. “Thank you. That means a lot for me to hear.”

Then, to Mei’s astonishment, the two birds flew down from their perch and wrapped their wings around Gabu, hugging him as tightly as they could.

Soon, all four of them were crying together. After keeping his relationship with Gabu secret for so long, and after being rejected by everyone he cared about when they found out, having two amazing people on their side meant more to Mei than he could ever describe.

Toto and Riri stayed late into the evening. They wanted to hear the story again from Gabu’s perspective, without any details altered or left out. Gabu, while not as skilled an orator as Mei, obliged.

Before they left, the birds promised to speak with Greta and do their best to win her over. They weren’t sure if there was any hope for Sagi, but they would try. Gabu and Mei waved them off and retired immediately to bed, emotionally exhausted from the day’s events.