This Was Our Pact

The boys draw up to the opening of a cave. As they row inside, Ben expresses fears about dangerous animals. He is not particularly comforted by Nathaniel’s assurance that they are only likely to encounter things like bats and spiders. Nathaniel tells him about olm salamanders, assuring him that the creatures do not live in their area. He tells Ben that, in any case, Sebastian would warn them if there were any dangerous creatures around. Beneath their boat, hidden from their view, a gigantic olm salamander swims past.

When the boys light a lantern, they see that above the water level, there are many tunnels in the rock walls of the caves. Nathaniel imagines aloud that there is a mysterious creature living in the tunnels. Ben thinks that Nathaniel is trying to scare him, but Nathaniel excitedly adds, “Maybe it’ll have a magic ring that I can win in a battle of riddles” (200). Suddenly, Sebastian growls; the boys see a form shrouded in darkness and are afraid that it is a mysterious creature from the tunnels. They frantically try to stop the boat, but it keeps drifting closer to the figure. The figure rises; it calls out to them, clearly confused about who they are. It asks whether they have been sent by its ancestors to rescue it. When the boys are close enough to see and be seen more clearly, they realize that they are looking at the fisherbear, and the fisherbear realizes who they really are, under their costume bear heads.

The fisherbear explains that he climbed up the cliff face for a long time. When he saw the cave entrance, he thought it might be a shortcut through the cliff. Unfortunately, he got lost inside the cave. The boys explain how they came to be in the cave, as well. The fisherbear sees that his scarf is knotted and wadded up in the bottom of the boat and chides them for being careless with it. When he tells them that his wife would be heartbroken to see her gift treated like this, the boys immediately apologize and begin working on releasing the knots in the scarf. Now that Nathaniel has on the sweater from Madam Majestic’s cellar, the bear takes his scarf back.

They come to a spot where they have to choose between two tunnels. They turn off their lantern and choose one of the tunnels based on a very faint blue glow they think they see in the distance. The light eventually grows stronger, and their boat enters a large cavern: A two-page spread portrays their awe-struck faces as they look up to see the dark blue cavern’s ceiling, which glows with innumerable stars. They wonder how they will find the right star. Nathaniel is the first to realize that the stars form a map of the constellations. The boys excitedly identify each constellation; the fisherbear tells them they have “odd names for [their] constellations” and that they are “missing all the best ones” (218). He tells them the names that the fisherbears use for the constellations. Nathaniel explains that they can identify the sun by tracing the sun’s ecliptic through the constellations. He remembers the astronomy book in his backpack and shows the bear and Ben how to identify where the sun should be in September. A two-page spread in shades of blue shows Nathaniel holding up the star map in the book against the star map on the cavern ceiling and pointing out the sun’s location in the cave.

Ben enthusiastically praises Nathaniel’s cleverness, saying they would not have been able to find the right star without him. As the fisherbear adds his own praise, there is a panel offering a close-up view of Nathaniel’s proud, happy smile. They get close to the artificial sun and Nathaniel reaches into it. A tier of three action-to-action panels shows his hand reaching in, the “SQUELCH” sound when he closes his hand around a piece of the star, and his hand withdrawing something worm-like. Ben takes out a timer Madam Majestic gave him and tells the others they have to wait 16 minutes before sending the piece of the sun back with Sebastian. The bear says that, while they wait, he is going to go for a swim. He takes off his coat and jumps into the dark water. He calls for Nathaniel and Ben to join him. Nathaniel enthusiastically strips and jumps into the water, but Ben says he will stay in the boat. The bear begins playfully launching Nathaniel up out of the water, and Nathaniel tells Ben how much fun it is and asks him again to get in. The fisherbear tells Ben that no one is trying to force him to get in, but that if he does not, he will probably look back and regret not taking advantage of the moment. Ben thinks it over, strips, and jumps into the water.

A series of mostly wordless dark blue panels depicts Ben plunging down into the depths, swimming back upward to Nathaniel and the fisherbear, gasping for air at the surface, and then pausing to look up at the stars. The bear launches Ben into the air. Afterward, Ben and Nathaniel lie on their backs and look up at the stars, talking about how much they wish they could travel into space—or at least send some kind of message into space so that any other life forms living there would know they are not alone. The sequence ends with a two-page spread showing the bear and the two boys floating on their backs, looking up at the stars, happy smiles spread across their faces.

The boys get back into the boat and sip hot soup from a thermos the bear has provided, huddled together in the warmth of the bear’s big coat. Ben apologizes to Nathaniel for not standing up for him earlier when the other boys were making fun of him. Nathaniel says that he does not care about being friends with the other boys—he was following the group because he cares about being friends with Ben. He confides that he thought Ben might be the only one from the group who wouldn’t give up on the quest. He planned to join Ben after the others left. Ben stares into his soup, thinking. Then, the timer goes off.

Sebastian runs across the water to join them. The boys work together to secure the star piece in a jar. As they put the lid in place, the light seems to dim, and they worry that they chose the wrong star. A full-page splash panel in white and lighter blue shows the moment that the light suddenly blazes up, shining in long dynamic lines through the glass container. The two boys, one on each side of the container, are surrounded by its light. They struggle to get the jar into the bag affixed to Sebastian’s collar. They sadly tell him goodbye, but the dog does not leave. Nathaniel wonders if the dog wants a treat before leaving and offers Sebastian a Rice Krispies treat. Sebastian eagerly eats the treat and then runs off toward home.

The fisherbear gets back into the boat, shaking water all over Ben and Nathaniel. As he dresses, he asks which way they should go to find an exit. Ben remembers that they should head north, and Nathaniel says that they can navigate north using Polaris, the North Star. As they get underway, the fisherbear tells them that he is relieved they have finally taken off the bear heads. He asks how they would feel if he had been wearing a dead human’s head as a costume. Ben asks why he didn’t say anything earlier, and the bear tells them, “It looked like you two could use some bonding, and I thought perhaps the bear masks were your way of doing that. Like a secret club sort of thing” (253). The three feel a fresh breeze and realize that they are drawing close to the cave’s exit to the ocean.