"...and for the crimes of high treason, enumerated more times than can be counted, Sigmund Igthorne, I hereby sentence you to life in solitary in the dungeon!" Gregor furiously shouted in Igthorne's face. Chained from head to toe, the duke spat contemptuously at his former boss's feet. "You think the dungeons can hold me, Gregor!? I'll be out again before you know, and I'll be back with an even bigger plan to take control of my kingdom!" he threatened the monarch, "This is not the end, this is only the beginning, and I will have my throne!"

"If you escape and take up your path of insurrection again, Igthorne, then the sentence shall become death by hanging! Think that over well in your cell! Take him away, men!" Gregor ordered his knights, who seized Igthorne and started dragging him off. "I'm warning you, Gregor, I have not yet begun to fight!" Igthorne shouted one final warning, "Dunwyn will yet be mine, and you will grovel at my feet! My ogres will break me out, and I'll have the...!"

The rest of his rantings were lost as he was carried round the corner towards the dungeons. "Suppose the other ogres do try and break him out, Sire?" Sir Tuxford asked his superior.

"We'll just have to be prepared, Sir Tuxford; if they try, we arrest them and lock them up as well. Send out the knights to round up as many as you can; the more we can lock up now, the less the chance of...ah, Sir Gawain, so good to see you safe and sound," he smiled at the elderly knight approaching with his arm around Cavin, "I'm told you fought quite bravely during the fight. And have I got something to tell you..."

"You've seen the Gummi bears up close, haven't you?" Sir Gawain said with a knowing gleam in his eye, "I know; I've seen them myself. And aren't they everything you'd ever have dreamed they'd be?"

"Yes. My childhood fantasies have come true at last," the king sighed happily. "Oh, and that reminds me; you can come out now, we're alone," he called to the Gummi bears and Hundred Acre Wood residents, who crawled out of the hay bales they'd been hiding in since dropping off Igthorne, "Perhaps more of your Gummi magic may come in use now, if you could repair this castle to what it was before Igthorne started attacking it," Gregor proposed to them.

"We would love to, Sire, but first, you must swear your solemn word that you and Sir Tuxford will keep our existence a secret," Zummi told him firmly.

"Oh must I? To tell the kingdom you are real and have been watching over us..."

"I'm sorry, Sire, but until we know for sure there's no risk of bringing the Great Gummis back from across the sea, we can't take any chances," Grammi shook her head.

"Then you have my word as a nobleman," Gregor raised his hand.

"And mine as well," Sir Tuxford raised his too.

"All right then, let's see what we can do. Dustum, blustum, repairum!" Zummi chanted out another spell, which caused a large tornado to appear and zoom around the castle grounds, slowly restoring everything to normal. It moved over the wall to continue its work-in the process uplifting a large stone slab to reveal Unwin, cowering behind it with his hands over his head. "Well, someone wasn't brave enough to stand in the face of danger," Cavin couldn't help taunting his frequent oppressor.

"Unwin, have you been hiding under there all this time!?" Sir Tuxford frowned sternly at him, "I'll have you know that this will count heavily against you becoming a knight."

"Hiding!? I wasn't hiding; I was, uh, doing reconnaissance to make sure they wouldn't dig in from underneath!" Unwin insisted, rising to his feet.

"Sure you were," Cavin chuckled under his breath.

"And don't make fun of me, Cavin!" Unwin grabbed him roughly by the collar, "Where were you when all this was going on, because...?"

"Hey, get your hands off him!" Cubbi couldn't help rushing forward and pulling Cavin out of Unwin's grip.

"You keep out of this, you...!" Unwin looked down at who he was talking to...and his jaw would have hit the ground if it could have. "A Gu...a gu...gum...gum...gum...!" he stammered, his eyes going extremely wide.

"Yeah, that's us," Sunni stepped forward as well, followed by the other Gummis, "Surprised?"

"GUMMI BEARS!" Unwin shrieked, leaping a good fifteen feet in the air in terror. Once back on his feet, he let out an ear-splitting shriek and took off like a cheetah towards the front gate with a loud, "HELP!" "Well at least he took it well," Tummi shrugged.

"Well, in the meantime, now that things are back to normal, why don't you all follow me?" the king told them and the Hundred Acre Wood residents with a smile, "There's something I'd really like to do for all of you now."

"Gummi bears, real Gummi bears!" a wild eyed Unwin shrieked in the faces of the knights in front of the crowd standing before the castle, "I saw them myself just now...!"

"Sure you did, Unwin, sure you did," the nearest knight burst into laughter, as did his colleagues.

"But I swear it, six of them, maybe more; they were going to...I don't know, but it wasn't going to be good!" Unwin insisted frantically.

"Right, and I suppose there were griffins and leprechauns there with them too," another knight laughed.

"You've got to believe me! The king was there himself; he saw them too! There, here he comes now!" Unwin pointed up at Gregor coming out on the balcony above them, "He's going to announce it to the whole kingdom, I know it, listen!"

Above them, Gregor cleared his throat. "My fellow subjects," he told the Dunwyn citizens below proudly, "We have won the day after a hard fight! Duke Igthorne's plans have been thwarted, and he is now, at last, safely locked in the dungeon, never to bother us again if we can help it!"

The crowd broke into a loud cheer. "Yes, yes, but the thanks goes to you," Gregor told them with another smile, "We all worked together to make this possible..."

"The Gummi bears; tell them you saw the Gummi bears!" Unwin cried up, "Tell them they're real!"

"Gummi bears? Oh come now, Unwin, don't tell me you believe such stories?" Gregor told him with a wry expression, "Just because all these people fought hard and you didn't doesn't mean you should bring up Gummi bears to make their accomplishments any less."

"What!? But...but...you were there behind me, you saw them too...!"

"Come on, Unwin, it's clear you need to see a doctor; we can tell you've got clear cut post-traumatic stress," one of the knights took his arm, "Maybe a week or so of treatment'll get you back to normal."

"I'm perfectly all right; I swear Gummi bears are real and here in the castle right now!" Unwin shrieked as he was dragged away, to the loud laughter of the citizens. "Now that our fair kingdom is back to normal," Gregor continued once Unwin was out of the square, "We can finally have our seven hundredth anniversary celebration. First, however, I have something personal and special to do, so if you'll all wait just ten minutes for me, we can begin celebrating."

He turned and walked back into the castle at a brisk pace until he reached the throne room, where his kingdom's saviors were standing before his throne. "And now," he sat down in it, "it gives me the greatest pride to say to all of you that, for services rendered in the name of Dunwyn, it is my distinct honor to name you all honorary knights of Dunwyn for life, with all the privileges therein. Have you anything to say before we begin?"

"I do: thanks for noticing me," Eeyore said, a rare deep smiling spreading on his lips.

"Oh very glad to indeed. Calla, will you do the honors please?" the king asked his daughter. With her own smile, Calla took a sword in hand and approached Piglet at the end of the line. "Kneel," she asked him, then tapped it on his shoulders, "Arise, Sir Piglet of Dunwyn."

"Oh my," Piglet sniffed, wiping away tears of joy, "This is one of the happiest moments of my life, even more then when I was knight for a day."

"Same here, Piglet," Owl declared grandly, rising after his own knighting, "This reminds me of the time Uncle Cornelius participated in that Fourth of July parade, remember, Uncle Cornelius?" he glanced up to the rafters, where all his relatives were perched. Calla, meanwhile, continued down the line, knighting everyone one at a time. "Pooh Bear, whether you are a Gummi bear or not, from this day forward, you are Sir Pooh the Great and Gummiful, and will always be welcome in this court," she knighted him at the end of the line, "And you will always be given anything you need."

"Well in that case, could I have a small smackerel of something, namely, honey?" Pooh inquired.

"I second that; I'm starving," Tummi rubbed his chest eagerly, "When can we eat?"

"Well, now that the danger has passed, and our seven hundredth anniversary can proceed, you're all welcome to join in the festivities," Gregor told them, rising up from his throne, "In private, of course, but well earned nonetheless. And if there's anything I can do for you Gummi bears, just name it," he turned towards them.

"Well Sire, we've been long hoping that one day the Great Gummis could return. We've been watching over this land as our forebears have, waiting for the time they can return," Grammi stepped forward, "Whatever you can do to ensure that the humans won't drive them away again, so they can come back..."

"Well, we'll see what I can do. I can't make any promises, but if the Great Gummis could return when I was on the throne, that would be the honor of a lifetime," Gregor declared, "To have humans and bears together again, living in harmony, that would be a great gesture of nobility and hope. And now, let us begin the grand celebration."

"Oh boy, celebrating aunty-verseries is what Tiggers do best, hoo hoo hoo HOOOO!" Tigger bounced practically up to the ceiling, "Let's party like it was last Thursday!"

"Dustum, blustum, repairum!" Zummi recited the restoration incantation from atop the Poohsticks Bridge. The same twister sprung up and blew all over the Hundred Acre Wood until it was exactly the way it had been before Igthorne had arrived. "Wonderful, just like new!" Rabbit was impressed.

"It's like he was never even here," Roo agreed. His expression saddened as he turned towards the Gummis. "I guess this is goodbye, then?" he asked sadly.

"Just for now, Roo; you and Pooh and everyone are welcome back in Dunwyn any time after all the help you've given," Sunni assured him.

"But how? We don't have any medallions to open the portal to your world here..."

"You will now. Pooh," Gruffi waved him forward and slipped one around his neck, "We decided the one Igthorne used would be better off in your hands. You're one of us now no matter what your heritage is. Use it well."

"Well, thank you, Gruffi. I know what I can do with it; now, I'll never be out of honey, and won't have to worry about bees anymore," Pooh chuckled.

"I'm not surprised. Well, time to get back to Dunwyn, Gummis. We've got to make sure this really is the end of Igthorne's reign of terror-and while we're at it, have a talk about being the Crimson Avenger without telling anyone," he frowned deeply at Cubbi.

"Hey, I did it to make a difference, and haven't I been doing that!?" Cubbi protested.

"Yeah, lay off the kid, Gruffi, he's done his job well," Grammi defended the cub. Gruffi groaned in frustration. "Beaten already," he muttered under his breath. "All right, let's get going."

"Undrite, acrite, oodrite!" Zummi opened the portal back to Dunwyn one last time. "Goodbye everyone," he waved the Hundred Acre Wood residents farewell, "Come back soon."

"Same to you; goodbye," Rabbit led the farewell wave back. The portal zipped closed once the Gummis had all stepped through, returning the Hundred Acre Wood to normal. "Well, that's that," Rabbit declared in relief.

"And too bad too; now we're back to boredom and nothing to do," Tigger mumbled in disappointment.

"Nothing to do? Why, we still have Kessie's welcome back party that we were going to have before Duke Igthorne showed up."

"A party for me?" Kessie was impressed.

"Of course," Rabbit patted her affectionately, "It was going to be a surprise, but no matter. Especially since you proved yourself brave and noble yourself in Dunwyn, so you particular deserve it as a big bird."

"Oh boy, two parties in one day, hoo hoo hoo HOOOOO!" Tigger shouted, bouncing Rabbit hard to the ground. "Some things never change!" Rabbit rolled his eyes.

"So what are we waiting for, let's celebrate again!" Gopher declared, leading everyone towards Rabbit's house.

"Indeed; this will make for the greatest family reunion we've ever had," Owl added, taking flight with the rest of his relatives, "Now we have so much more time to tell more stories, such as when Uncle Tucker here decided to join the traveling carnival..."

"...and it was a great party for both Kessie and all of us, Christopher Robin. And the best part was that I was given this medallion by the Gummi bears," Pooh told the boy, leaning against him atop the grassy hill, "Of course, I suppose I'll only have to use it for the best of things, so perhaps that leaves gathering honey out."

"Well if you're hungry, Pooh, I suppose it still counts as a good use," Christopher Robin took hold of the medallion and looked at it closely, "Looks like an impressive medallion, so you should be glad to have it."

"Which reminds me, Christopher Robin, I have wondered, do you think I'm a Gummi bear?" Pooh asked with furled eyebrows, "I don't know one way or the other, and I'm not sure if I'll ever find out. Do you suppose whatever bears came here before me were Gummis?"

"I don't know, Pooh, but that's not really important in the long run. What's important is, you're the best bear in the world to me, Gummi or not," the boy put an arm around him.

"I suppose you're right," Pooh smiled, "I suppose that as long as we do well with whatever life we have, we're all Gummi, or special, or something like that reversed. Still, it's good to know that maybe, you are special some other way," he held up the medallion, which gleamed, "Perhaps, Christopher Robin, we'll have to take you to Dunwyn one of these days. If I am a distant Gummi, maybe you're descended from a prince or so."

"Who knows?" Christopher Robin smiled, pulling Pooh close, "Silly old bear..."

THE END