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“Someone gave you a name, or did you name yourself?”
This question hadn’t occurred to him before. He hadn’t named himself—so where had his name come from? “I don’t remember that I had parents,” he replied.
“All Bears have parents,” said Ursaless. “Caraway, you have a father and a mother, don’t you?”
“You’re my mother. No?” Caraway sounded dubious. It was Ursaless’s turn to cough and change the subject; she couldn’t answer authoritatively.
“Were I you, I would find my parents and ask them why they named me something like a Bear.” Ursaless hurried on. “Then you can come back and tell us.”
“Though chances are we won’t recognize you,” said Shaveen.
“Except Cubbins,” said Ursaless fondly. “You will, won’t you, fondness?”
Cubbins turned his head so she couldn’t see him rolling his eyes at her.
“I can’t find my parents, I don’t even know who they are,” said Brrr. “For all I know, they’re dead. Besides, I am on my way to Tenniken. A human town to the south.”
“Oh. Humans. Hmmm. I’ve never been convinced they exist, humans.”
“Of course they do,” inserted Bruner O’Bruin. “That’s where all our cousins go when they can’t stand their cousins anymore.”
“They go to be humans?”
“No. They go to human places.”
“Like Tenniken,” said the Lion, pushing it now, but unable to resist. “You know, Tenniken. The human settlement, where I understand soldiers are stationed. Soldiers loyal to the Wizard of Oz.”
“Oh,” offered Ursaless, attentive, “the great WOO.”
Cubbins intercepted that one for Brrr. “WOO. That’s what we call the Wizard of Oz. The Great and Wonderful WOO.”
“And if there is such a creature,” said Ursuless, “may he stay where he is and we stay where we are. Anyway, we’re not subjects of any Wizard. He doesn’t rule the Great Gillikin Forest.”
“Far from it,” said Caraway Coyle, belching.
“He’s never even been here,” said Shaveen.
“We’d tear him limb from limb, if he existed,” said Caraway Coyle. “Watch me do a three-quarter snarl. It’s so cool.” He obliged, looking suddenly like a hydro-encephalitic dog with a mosquito in its nose.
“I thought he was the Wizard of all Oz,” said Brrr, trying to bring them back to it.
“Anyone can name himself whatever he wants,” said Cubbins. “Wizard of Oz or WOO or the King of Beasts.”
“I know this much,” said Brrr. “He sends human soldiers into our forest.”
“A good reason to stay out of his way,” replied Cubbins. “Deep down, we wild Bears are unrepentant followers of Ozma, though she has been long disappeared from the public eye and is presumed dead. Still, we carry a torch for her. In her time, she was less hostile to beasts in the wild than the current administration is. May she come again. They say she will return to rescue Oz in its time of tribulation.”
“Who says?” asked Brrr.
“General prophecy. Common sense. I don’t know.”
“People who say it, say it,” barked Ursaless.
Cubbins continued. “Well, all I want to know is, what’s keeping her? It’s tribulating enough these days. Threat and panic everywhere you turn. We have to wait until it gets worse?”
“Listen to smartypants there. We never believed in Ozma,” said Ursaless. “I never did, so you never did either. I’m the Queen.”
“I don’t believe in you, so there,” said Shaveen, though when the Queen glared at her she pointed at Brrr.
