The Ring and The Dagger: Memories of Ursalia

Title: Memories Of Ursalia: The Ring And The Dagger

Author: strangeseraph

Archived: Yes

Summary: A mysterious Gummi dagger causes the destruction of Ursalia, sending the lives of the Gummies spiralling in all directions. WARNING: Death and slash.

Rating: Adult

Pairings: Gruffi/Gusto



--This story has been completely revamped, edited, proof read, and altered from the original story. :) I hope you enjoy the edits, and I decided to just make Gritty Ursa's husband like I should have from the start. This'll teach me to do my research for a story before committing to something! Hope you enjoyed these new polished up chapters! ^__^


First Anthem: Blinking Emerald, Flickering Candle

The shattered cries of one echoed through the ancient land as earthquakes ripped through the city and fires raged in the streets. Old stone statues, the ones that didn't crumble immediately, fell and broke into millions of shards. Buildings toppled and towers screeched as they fell down to the earthen floor. Old quick cars flipped over in their tunnels and rolled over onto the streets. Only one bear cried. Only one bear screamed as the tower fell onto him and crushed him, shattering his bones into a million stone fragments. Only one voice amidst the torrent of chaos, then silence.

Because the Barbics had gone hunting.

Ursa Barbic, tribe leader and warrioress lifted her head to the sound of the earth rumbling.

"Hold Barbics..." she raised a cautious ear.

"Whats that noise?"

"I don't know," Gritty said sniffing. "But I don't like it..."

Miles away beneath Gummi Glen, Zummi Gummi was reading from the great book when he heard a scream in his mind like nothing he had ever heard. A great ringing filled his ears and he gasped trying to comprehend...

Dagger, the...Dagger...

-seperator-


Gusto Gummi dug through the soft earth like a madman.

Just what I need, another cave in, damn waterfall!

He crawled on his hands and knees searching for the trapdoor to his cellar. He had to save his paintings.

Dropping down into the basement he felt the darkness trapping him. Small price to pay for the safety of his artwork; the shattering of his sanity. These old caves and passages spooked him like nothing else, and sometimes he heard the wind howling through them at night, giving him bad dreams. Of course he painted about those dreams, it was great imagery.

He suddenly jumped as a wind passed through his legs.

The waterfall had eroded the inner wall of the cellar and was open into a cavern that Gusto hadn't seen before. He quickly lit a torch and raised it in front of him into the drippy opening. Light danced off gold and Gusto blinked in pain. His eyes finally adjusted and he gaped in awe at the sight before him.

It was some sort of shrine, some burial chamber or something, with gold and silver everywhere. Not just that but...Gusto stuck the torch in further...From the pictures on the walls, this could only be built by Gummis.

Gusto crept in, unwilling to disturb any spooks that he may have awakened, and looked around. Old books, jewels, gold, living underground plants, clay jars. He couldn't find a body or a tomb, so he surmised this was some old room or safety keep for treasure. He was about to leave to tell the others when something caught his eye.

He brought the light forward to the other end of the room, his blue eyebrows creasing and he smiled. There was an oak table, intricately carved with images of Gummies and animals, with ancient writing and some beautifully carved Gummi statues in stone sitting on top of it. One Gummi bear statue with emerald eyes stood in the centre of the table, its hands clasped around a dagger with strange unfamiliar writing surrounding it.

Upon closer inspection Gusto found that the dagger was long, thin and had a gold and emerald hilt with rubies and diamonds. It was beautiful, artistry represented in mystery itself, and there was beautifully stylized lettering on the blade.

In some ancient Gummi language no doubt, thought Gusto wryly as he looked at the dagger. Zummi has GOT to see this!

Finally, Gusto threw all caution to the wind and took the little dagger from the stone Gummi's hands. He had to bring something back to the others to prove he wasn't crazy. It was either the effect of the lighting, or something in his eye, but for a moment Gusto thought the stone statue's emerald eyes had looked at him as they sparkled in their sockets. He shivered, trembling, but he realized it wasn't him who was trembling.

Another cave in?

This was no ordinary cave in...As shockwaves rocked the room sending jewels and precious stones scattering to the ground Gusto felt a lone scream echo through his mind...

So, said a voice in his head. You choose the dagger...Foolish bear.

Gusto screamed and jumped out of the way to avoid the green eyed statue that toppled over near him. He ran out the door of the cave, throwing himself on his cellar floor. He trembled and held his hands over his head, dagger blade cutting into his palm as the earth rocked.. When the dust settled, the cavern was once again sealed, and water was filling the cellar. Gusto pulled himself quickly up out of the cellar, regardless of his art, and locked the door. He wrapped a clean cloth around his hand and wiped the dagger's blade, trying hard not to start crying, but it was no use. He trembled, bit his lips then flung himself on the ground crying. He had never been more frightened in his life. It was if that blood curdling scream had been caused by himself.

He didn't know how right he was.

-seperator-

The Barbics stood on a hill, eyes streaming, blood running cold as they stared at the horror in front of them.

Ursalia.

"What happened to Ursalia?" someone asked as they made their way through the flattened city.

"Sir Thornberry, we must find him..." Ursa stated. "He'll know..."

"I found him," Grubbi said softly from up ahead. "But its too late now..."

The bears circled around the still form of the old bear who had helped make them laugh during their stay in Ursalia. Buddi murmured a painful cry and Ursa put a comforting hand on his shoulder as they gently began to remove rubble and dirt from their fallen friend.

"What manner of demon or sorcery could have done this?" Gritty asked after they had wrapped Thornberry's broken body in a blanket.

"We must go to Gummi Glen and tell the other Gummies about this, warn them. Then we must bring them back here and we'll all find a good place to bury our friend. Set up a post of six bears to gaurd Ursalia and our departed ally, prepare his body for the burial if you have the courage. The rest of us will go to the Glen and speak with the others. We must know what caused this..."

-seperator-


"'Ursalia, ummpro ummtectum.' Hmmmm, ancient Gummi alright. You say there was a whole room full of treasure?"

"Its gone now," said a weary looking Gusto. "The waterfall washed everything out and downstream, including my cellar and all my paintings!"

Grammi handed him some warm cocoa and sighed. There was a pounding coming from the next room where Gruffi was fixing a leak.

"That bear!!!" she declared hotly. "Why doesn't he ever stop?"

Gusto smiled brilliantly.

"You know Gruffamundo, he likes to keep his hands occupied. Especially in weather like this.."

The pounding soon stopped and Gruffi came into the library to fix a leak that had sprung where the great book had been sitting. Zummi had moved the book to a safer locale and now they were all sitting around it as Zummi flipped through, slim dagger in hand, looking for any entries that would identify its importance to Gummi lore. He rubbed his temples as Gruffi started banging.

"Darn rain!" Gruffi grouched. "Hasn't stopped for three darn days and three darn nights! Anymore rain and I'll be sleeping under that waterfall with Gusto to keep dry."

"No such luck there Grufferooni, my floor collapsed from the flooding and the fireplace is clogged. You'd be dry but dirty and frozen. Better to be wet."

Gruffi ignored his sarcasm and pounded his mallet against the wall. Zummi turned a page.

"I think I found something!!"

They all huddled around him.

"It's a picture of the dagger surrounded by a ring of gold. The Ring and Dagger is the emblem of the Ursalia Royal Family. Gusto, you discovered a Royal Treasure trove!!"

"What else does it say, Zummi?" Grammi asked.

Zummi sighed.

"The writings are spells of some sort that protect the wearer of this dagger and the royal family. There are so many spells on this...And...What in the Great Gummies...?"

Zummi leaned in closer to inspect the dagger and gasped. He flipped through the Great Book and gasped again, his eyes open in startled fear.

"Was there any writing on the stone statue that you got this dagger from?" he demanded of a nervous Gusto.

"Er, some, but..."

"Gusto," Zummi said, fear ripping through his heart as he remembered the scream from his mind that had shaken his soul. "This dagger is cursed!!!!"

Zummi held out the dagger, and Gusto looked at its hilt carefully. Inscribed in thin letters where there had once been blank metal was the name "Augustus" surrounded by a strange spell. Gusto stepped back shocked, looked at the others and held his hands up.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it!!!"

Gruffi grumbled, but then a shout broke their reverie.

"Grammi!!!" Sunni came into the room, a fearful look on her face. "The Barbics are here, they're wet and angry and they said something terrible has happened to Ursalia!!!"

The bears looked around at each other, looked at the dagger and Great Book, then looked at Gusto. His eyes crossed slightly and he buried his head in his hands as a small scream from the past echoed through his mind.

Gusto, what have you done? Zummi thought as he fingered the cursed dagger in his hand. What have you done?

-seperator-


As the Barbics related their sad tale to them the Glen Gummis felt their hearts become heavier and heavier. Finally Sunni could stand it no more and ran to Grammi's arms for comfort.

The Gummies all shook their heads.

"What's done is done," Zummi said, hushing them a bit. "We can't change the past. What we can do now is hope that it does not happen again."

"What do you mean Zummi?" Cubbi asked

Zummi held up the dagger for them to inspect.

"This blagger, I mean, dagger, belonged to the ancient Ursalian Royalty. When the Gummies in Ursalia were pushed out by humans the Royals fled to this forest..."

Zummi took his glasses off and rubbed them with his shirt hem.

"From what I've read and from what happened here I can only sythopomise, er uh, I mean hypothesis..." he looked up. "The Royals set up a little home here where they could hide until they could leave. This is Gummi Glen, but some strange magic cursed them, and they had to flea once again, leaving their servants, our ancestors, behind. The Royals had incredible magic powers that could only be harnessed through weapons and jewelry, such as this dagger. According to one myth they helped Gumadoon hide itself with magic from the Humans...But anyways, getting on with the story, evil magicians and sorcerers were jealous of Ursalia's powers and put a curse on this dagger, the tool used by the Ursalian King of the time. The curse goes like this; the minute somebody touched the dagger Ursalia would be bursed, er I mean cursed. This was to prevent the true royal family from ruling because only royalty could free the dagger from its protective spells in the chamber it was located in."

"Which means?" Gruffi said with impatience.

"That Gusto is blood royalty, and now that Ursalia is destroyed the evil ones who put the curse on the dagger may come back to find Gusto, if they still exist..."

The Barbics and Glen Gummies all looked at Gusto who squeaked uncharacteristically.

What have I done?

-seperator-


The next day Gummi Bears arrived, new bears, from the North who had felt the earthquakes and knew about the legend. It was a small clan of four, a middle aged female bear sorceress, and her children, all seeking refuge.

"You may not know this, but Gummi Glen is protected by magic, wizards cannot see it from a distance, they have to be shown it to be able to enter it."

This was the female sorceress bear, Tanni, who immediately made friends with Zummi, who showed her their Great Book.

The eldest daughter was introduced by her twin brother.

"I'm Denni, and this is Delphi..."

Delphi, was gorgeous to say the least. She had golden fur and long hair down to her waist and skimpy clothes. Her twin Denni was also yellow, but he was dull compared to her. Tummi and Gusto made friends with the two bears, who were just a tiny bit older than Tummi and slightly younger than Gusto. Grammi was glad that Tummi now had friends to talk to. He had felt a little left out before.

The young boy cub became friends with Cubbi, Sunni and Buddi. Frenni had light orange fur, and had immediately decided to show the other cubs how to play a game called "stones" throwing different coloured stones in certain patterns to gain points. The other two young male cubs took to it right away, but Sunni would have none of their "childish games" and instead followed Delphi around to learn how to act like a grown up female bear, much to Gruffi's dismay.

From the moment these new bears and the Barbics had showed up, Grammi had not stopped cooking and cleaning. Oh, they all helped out a little, especially Delphi, who was a neat freak and loved a nice clean home. But between giving up all the spare rooms to them, and doing laundry, Grammi was a mess.

They were all sitting in the great dinning hall one night, eating Grammi's hastily prepared dinner and trying to decide when the best time would be to go to Ursalia. Ursa, remembering something, pulled out a bag from her packs.

"This is full of some few things we found that survived. Old metal jewelry, not even gold most of them, hardly worth anything tarnished. Perhaps Gruffi could polish them up a bit..."

Gruffi, in better spirits and happy to see Ursa and the others again, kindly agreed, then stalked off to do his chore. He emptied the bag onto his work table then sighed.

"Rubbish, tin bangles and copper spoons, but hey, what's this?"

He pulled from the bunch what looked to be a small metal ring. He picked up a polishing cloth and began to clean.

"Funny how tarnished gold looks like copper..."

There was writing on the inside, ancient Gummi, and he felt like a winner when he read the word "Ursalia" written on the outside.

"I bet one of the girls would like this, Ursa more likely, it was her city...sort of."

Gruffi blushed thinking of the strong female bear that he secretly had feelings for. Perhaps this ring would be the perfect gift to finally show her his affection. He had never been good with things like that, but he felt confidence fill him as he looked down at the band of gold. This would be perfect...Perfect. He smiled, surveying his handy work, then slipped the ring on his ring finger for safe keeping.

Suddenly, the candle blew out. He cursed, lit the darn thing again, then looked at his table.

The other stuff was gone.

"Rats!!" both the noun and the curse. "Need to get those traps fixed..."

After searching for the rodents, and finding no trace of them, he turned to leave.

"Guess I'll just tell the others that the stuff's been put to good use."

He closed the door, and once again, the candle blew out.

Silence followed.

-seperator-


Gruffi came back to the Great Hall to the sounds of yelling, mainly Ursa's.

"That bear is a menace to us all, look at him? Does he feel any GUILT for what he's done?"

"OF COURSE I DO!! I'm just saying that we should erect a monument in Thornberry's honour, to remember him by..." That was Gusto, who sounded extremely hurt and offended, and not at all the cheerful and happy Gusto that Gruffi remembered.

"And you just HAPPEN to volunteer to make the statue, hm? Well I have a better idea of what you can do..You can dig his grave and bury him!!! You've already sent him to it!!"

Ursa grabbed the Gummi Dagger from the table in front of Zummi where it lay and jumped at Gusto, who jumped back surprised. Ursa ignored the shouts of the other Gummies and ran forward, slicing at Gusto's shirt, her anger, rage and pain vented through violence. She was about to stab the frightened blue bear when Gruffi, face burning with rage, jumped in front of her and smacked the dagger out of her hand. The dagger and the ring on his finger made a loud clinking sound as both made contact, sending violent vibrations up both of their arms. The clinking metal made a vibrant ringing that filled their ears until the Dagger fell to the floor and Gruffi broke the silence.

"ENOUGH! THATS ENOUGH!"

Everyone stared at Gruffi, who they had never seen this angry or hurt before.

"Its no longer a matter of WHO IS to blame! It was an accident, and a tragic one!"

"He should bury the dead as is his responsibility!"

"If you are such cowards that you cannot do it yourselves then I'LL DO IT!!!"

Silence followed, Gruffi's face burning with anger, his fist clenched and the cold edge of the ring on his finger dig into his skin, making him bleed. He trembled.

"But this I know..." he continued quietly, rage still present in his voice. "One Gummi does not make enemies with another Gummi, not matter what they do, it is NOT the Gummi way! It does not justify murder!"

And with that, he turned and stalked towards the exit to Gummi glen. Gum forgive him, he needed to get away from them all. Including his beloved Ursa who he hoped would forgive him in future.

-seperator-


Gusto stared at where the brown bear had gone, then involuntarily against his own will bent down to grab the dagger. His curse, his responsibility, his curse his responsibility...He tried to ignore the voices in his head and thought about the statue he had already planned. Would they allow him to erect it? He had painted enough pictures of Thornberry while he was living to create an accurate duplicate. Should he?

Yes. He had to make it up to them somehow. Even if it was JUST a statue...It would be his tribute...To those that he had hurt the most...To Ursalia, and to Thornberry.

Thornberry.

Gusto ran from the room, ignoring the angry and concerned voices that followed him and headed for his waterfall. That was his safe haven. The place he could think, create. Yes he would make the statue. It would be his most beautiful piece of art to date.

A gift of the heart.

Carved using this very dagger.