Black Tide (17 page)

Toby woke to Simon gently shaking him.

“We here already?” he asked sleepily, climbing stiffly out of the cab. His dad was walking down the ramp into the bunker, carrying a soundly sleeping Sylvie. Belle came rushing up, all tongue and tail, her body gyrating with happiness, followed by a grinning Jamie.

“Oh, Toby! I can’t thank you enough. That was amazing! Fancy spotting Belle like that. I thought she had…”

“Well, she hadn’t, and lucky for you I’ve got good eyesight. Now, where are Tash’s mum and dad? I must take them to see her. She’ll still be in the medical bay.”

“So this Tash you’ve been talking about – is she your best friend now?” asked Jamie.

“Don’t be daft, Jamie, you can both be my best friends! After all, it’s not like I’ve got a lot of them.”

“That’s ok then, just wanted to know.”

Toby patted his friends arm and hobbled off to find Tash’s parents.

Tash was sitting up in bed when Toby finally arrived at the medical bay with her parents in tow.

“Hello, lazy bones,” he said. “Look who I’ve brought to see you.”

“Father! Mother!” cried Tash. Snowy got up from under the bed and greeted Tash’s dad enthusiastically, baring his teeth in a grin and wagging his huge tail.

“You’d think he’d known you all his life,” said Toby, amazed.

“He recognises someone who knows something about wolves,” Tash told him. “And YOU are a very bad boy, going off and leaving me here,” she cried, laughing through her tears of happiness.

Tash’s parents crowded excitedly around the bed, hugging and kissing their long-lost daughter, and chattering in what Toby presumed must be Russian. He left discreetly; he could see it was a very emotional reunion. He told Tash he’d come back later and relate all of his adventure. As he left, he saw that Snowy was lying at Tash’s dad’s feet, staring up at him in adoration.

Toby found his dad sitting in the canteen with Jamie, Katie and Tom. They were all tucking into huge platefuls of breakfast. Belle was lying under the table, slurping down a large bowl of custard.

“This place is amazing,” enthused Jamie, stuffing a large piece of bread into his mouth. “I haven’t had any proper food for ages.”

“Go steady! You’ll make yourself sick,” advised Toby, picking at some toast.

“Jamie,” said Katie, kindly, “why don’t you take Toby to see Sylvie. We adults need to discuss the future.”

“Don’t we have any say in the future?” demanded Jamie. “Toby here has rescued all of us practically
single-handed. I think you should ask him what he wants to do.”

“It really is ok, Jamie, I’ve told you before,” sighed Toby, “I’m so tired of making decisions. It’s too worrying. I’m quite happy for the adults to take over now. Let’s go and see Sylvie and Henry.”

The two boys found Sylvie sitting on the edge of her bed cuddling the little brown rabbit.

“Hello Sylve, how’s Henry? Has he recovered from his adventure?” asked Toby, patting the rabbit’s soft fluffy fur as he sat down on the bed. “Ouch! What’s this?” he exclaimed. “There’s something hard under here.”

Toby put his hand under the duvet and removed a small cloth bag containing some heavy objects that made a clacking noise. He pulled open the drawstring fastening and put his hand in.

“Mum’s marble eggs!” he cried, taking out a smooth, round, egg-shaped object. “Where did you get these from?”

“Daddy’s had them all the time. He always carries them with him. He gave them to me to play with this morning, but I had to promise to be very careful with them.”

“I’ll say – these are the only things we have left that were Mum’s. I thought we’d left them in the cottage at Collieston. I’m glad Dad remembered to bring them with him.”

“Me too,” said Sylvie, holding a shiny, pink marble egg in her hand. “They’re very pretty, and they remind me of Mummy.”

Toby tried to think of some way of changing the subject; he didn’t want Sylvie to get upset. Then he remembered something. “Hold on, I’ve got something for you!” he shouted, running from the room. He returned minutes later clutching a box.

“Here, a present for you,” he said, watching Sylvie’s excited face.

“What is it, Tobes?”

He saw her expression turn to disbelief.

“You found it! It’s
The Little Mermaid
!”

“I promised you, didn’t I? Maybe they’ll have a DVD player here. They’ve got just about everything else. I’ll go and ask someone.”

Later, Toby, Jamie, Tash and Sylvie sat on the bed watching the film in silence.

This is great – safe at last. And Sylvie has her favourite film. Who’d have thought I’d have found that in this mad world?

Toby put his arm around Sylvie who snuggled up to him. Tash turned and smiled at them both.

“Look what Bill gave me,” she said, laughing. She held up a dirty, tatty-looking teddy bear.

“Who would think a seriously scary soldier like Bill would rescue a teddy bear in the midst of a battle?” remarked Jamie.

“Just shows you,” said Toby. “You should never judge people by their outward appearances, after all who’d think a brave wolf-girl would even have a teddy bear!”

They all laughed, especially Tash.

I hope Tash gets on with Jamie – then I’d have two friends. I miss all my school friends. No, don’t think about that. Think forwards to the future.

“Eh, Henry, stop nibbling my jumper!” cried Sylvie, pulling a long thread from the rabbit’s paws. Henry sat up on the bed and started to wash his ears.

They all burst out laughing once more.

“I’m so glad I got to see
The Little Mermaid
again,” mumbled Sylvie.

“Me too,” said Toby.

“You said it was for babies!” declared Sylvie indignantly.

“Yeah, it is, but sometimes it’s nice to go back to being a baby,” Toby said. “This adult stuff is too much like hard work.”