Fraggle Rock: Elder Clan Adventures

[RedPiggy]

Done with classes! Yay! I passed! Go me!

Chapter 11

As the moon shone through the Great Hole, Princess Gwenalot stared at a small map along with Blundig and Fishface. It wasn’t a very detailed map: the bottom left corner had the Great Hole, a few tunnels were roughly sketched out leading to a few smaller caves like Crystal Caverns, and the top right corner had the Great Cave (which was where Princess Gwenalot laid her head each night). The three whispered so as not to disturb sleeping Fraggles.

“Alright,” began Princess Gwenalot, “I’ll maintain my general authority, but I’ll focus my attention on Great Cave.” She and Blundig looked at Fishface. “Well,” stated the Princess, “I think it’s past time Fishface got promoted.” She looked down and smiled. “I was wrong to doubt you. Your quick thinking defeated that awful genie.”

Fishface snorted briefly and averted his eyes. “Genie arrogance defeat Genie. Fishface only use to advantage.”

Blundig smiled warmly. “Don’t be so modest, Fishface,” she whispered cheerfully. She rubbed one of her cheeks on her shoulder, aware that she was starting to blush. “You are a beacon of light to all in the Great Hole.” She noticed Fishface smirk slightly.

Princess Gwenalot quickly rolled her eyes, hoping neither would notice. “So, Fishface, what area do you want to oversee?”

Fishface avoided looking at her. Instead, he craned his neck to stare at the moon, which gave a twinkle to his eyes. “I am of the Great Hole. I know every rock, every leaf, every mushroom --.”

“Got it,” the Princess interrupted. “You want the ‘Great Hole’. As Assistant Leader it will be your job to answer questions and offer advice.” She turned to Blundig, who suddenly stopped staring at Fishface and returned her attention to the Princess. “I guess that means you get the Tunnels in between,” she told the dreamy Fraggle.

Blundig nodded. “As you wish, Princess,” she replied. “I prefer to collect stories anyway for the Legendary Rum-poop. This way I can do both.”

Fishface leaned in close to Blundig. “You are like Princess, aren’t you, Blundig?” he whispered softly. “You go wherever wind take you.”

Blundig cut him a dirty glance. “That’s not a bad thing,” she hissed curtly. He snorted his disapproval and leaned back again, crossing his arms in frustration.

“What are we going to do with the genie’s bottle?” asked Princess Gwenalot, oblivious to the brief argument.

“I keep bottle,” Fishface muttered. “Fishface make sure genie never hurt Fraggles again.” He motioned at all of the Great Hole. “I will make sure Fraggles give Genie no reason to hurt again, even if means laughter is banished.”

“WHAT?” Princess Gwenalot exclaimed loudly, jumping up.

Blundig shot up and clasped a hand over the Princess’ mouth. “Shh! You’ll wake half the Rock!” she pleaded quietly.

The Princess tore herself away. She could barely keep her voice in a whisper. “I don’t care! What do you mean, banning laughter?”

Fishface stood slowly and pointed at her. “Fishface willing to make sacrifice to help Fraggles. Princess claim adventure is Princess sacrifice. Blundig sacrifice time to collect legend. Fishface know about sacrifice too!” He briefly stole a pained glance at Blundig before continuing, “Princess recognize Fishface achievement. Does Princess go back on word?”

Realizing she’d been caught between saying yes and being branded a liar and saying no and being branded selfish, Princess Gwenalot grit her teeth and sat back down. She strained, feeling that each word was a lump of rock going up her throat, “I apologize, Fishface. Please guard the Fraggles of the Great Hole as you see fit.” It burned her up to let Fishface do something so … so … mean (as she saw it, anyway). However, she had already spoken her peace about the matter. She was forced to comply or risk losing everything. No one would ever listen to her again if she were branded as either lying or selfish.

All three Fraggles stared at each other, with Blundig caught uncomfortably between them. Soon they each had a quizzical look on their faces while other Fraggles start waking up in fear. Their knees started to tremble.

And soon so did the floor of the cave.

It started off as just a tremble, but quickly turned into a jerking that made the trio fall down. Rocks started falling off ledges and soon the word was out:

“Rockquake!”

Princess Gwenalot got back up and started to shout, trying to awaken all the sleeping Fraggles. Blundig and Fishface both herded frightened Fraggles toward a great arch, which had never succumbed to rockquakes before. The thought that terrified denizens of the Great Hole the most was the ceiling. The large hole that showed the sky would most likely be the first to crumble, and no Fraggle wanted that.

 

[The Count]

How I missed this. Splendid, splendid, post more please!

 

[RedPiggy]

I was this close to scrapping the Mud Explosion arc because in my outline all I said was that it happened. I honestly couldn't think of some decent drama to go along with it. However, inspiration struck and now I can (hopefully) make this arc work.

 

[The Count]

Yaey for inspiration! Too bad mine isn't working at the moment, but I left a PM for another friend to see if I could get her help. Eh, we'll see what happens.
*Leaves fridge-cooled radish bars for Kelly.

 

[RedPiggy]

Yeah, I hope to finish this arc today. I want the whole fic done by this weekend so I can start on the Mighty Megalosaurus fic. That way, I'll have at least 3-4 weeks to start pre-studying for pediatrics.

 

[RedPiggy]

Chapter 12

After the initial shake, everything seemed to quiet down. However, just as the Fraggles were starting to calm, jets of mud spewed from various vents and cracks all over Fraggle Rock. The only good thing about it was that it was rather warm in comparison to the cold winter air. So, for a time, the Fraggles started to dance and cover themselves in warm mud, until you couldn’t tell the Fraggles from the rocks.

Princess Gwenalot tried to wipe off the mud from her once-shiny helmet, to no avail. She found Blundig, who seemed to be trying on mud as some sort of facial treatment. “Blundig, I have to go find out what caused this,” she told her assistant leader. “Will you check on the Fraggles of the Great Cave for me while I’m gone?”

Blundig nodded. “Of course, Princess. I’m happy to assist you.” Before the Princess could get away, she added, “Won’t you need someone to go with you? It could be very dangerous.”

“I’ll take Blunderbrain with me,” replied the Princess.

Princess Gwenalot started down a rarely used tunnel, leading to a large chasm that, had they had more accurate maps, would almost fully separate the Great Cave from the Great Hole. She started to hum to herself as she traveled, hoping to catch up to the Fraggle knight, who had left to investigate damage to various tunnels.

“May I join you?” asked Crooner from behind.

She turned and stared at him. He wasn’t as dirty as other Fraggles. Apparently he had used his once-white robes as shelter from the mud. “You really want to come with me?” she asked innocently.

Crooner was rather surprised the Princess wasn’t yelling at him for causing the recent trouble with the genie, but he thought maybe it’d be better if he didn’t bring it up unless she did first. “I just wanted to accompany you,” he told her softly. “This could be dangerous --.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard,” Princess Gwenalot sighed. “I’m glad you and Blundig are worried about me, but I’m not really that weak, you know. I’ve survived being Fragglenapped, being caught in a cave-in in the Crystal Caverns --.”

Crooner nodded. “Yes, yes – I know. May I not tag along? You are always calling me lazy … I just want to feel useful right now,” he said as he hung his head.

The Princess sighed and nodded at the twin pipe buried in his robes. “Where did you get that, anyway?”

Crooner frowned imperceptibly, hating that she liked to change the subject when it came to offering a chance to be together, and told her, “The lead Fraggle Minstrel’s instrument is the Magic Pipe. It has special powers and is inherited from the previous lead Minstrel.” He shrugged. “I don’t usually have it out because I like the guitar better.”

“But you saved me,” Princess Gwenalot noted with a sly smile.

Crooner stood back and blushed. “Uh … yes … I suppose so.” He scoffed and averted his eyes, unable to contain a small grin. “I just didn’t want to get caught having to take care of your mirror should anything happen to you. She can be hard to get along with, sometimes.”

Princess Gwenalot laughed. She enjoyed the idea that Crooner wanted to woo her, but was too cowardly to take as well as he gave. Still, there was business to attend to. “Actually, speaking of Mallory, would you mind checking on her?”

Crooner’s face froze. “Mallory? Your mirror?” He slicked back his hair and stared at the ground. “Why are you suddenly worried about her?”

Princess Gwenalot smiled warmly and placed a hand tenderly on Crooner’s shoulder. “She’s my best friend. I want to make sure the rockquake didn’t crack her.” She paused, knowing full well that Crooner would protest this as yet another attempt to distance herself from him. “Crooner, I’m not mad about the whole genie thing. You didn’t know he’d try to kill me and Sir Blunderbrain. I’m asking you to do this important thing for me because … because … because I trust you with her most of all.”

Cooner sighs and looks away wistfully. “Your wish is my command, milady,” he told her sadly.

She smacked him upside his head. “Don’t talk to me like that, Crooner,” she barked half-playfully. “You aren’t my slave or anything. You’re … more than that,” she said finally as she left him to return to her cave.

 

[The Count]

Very nicely done young Fragglean. Taking lessons in ushgush you are. Much to learn have you. Study at the feet of other masters like Ruahnna and TogetherAgain, learn their secrets you will. Post more shall you soon? Please?

 

[RedPiggy]

LOL ... ushgush?

 

[RedPiggy]

Chapter 13

Deep down the chasm walls climbed Princess Gwenalot and Sir Blunderbrain. She noticed that he had a small black vase-like object on his head, held in place with a leather strap. “Where did you get that?" she asked.

He smiled. “After that bottle hit me in the head, I took your advice to find a helmet to heart," he replied cheerfully. “Not only does it protect my head, but I can store stuff in it, too!"

“I guess that’s using your head," Princess Gwenalot remarked as she focused on keeping her balance on a particularly narrow ledge.

“Better to use it than to bruise it," Sir Blunderbrain cackled.

When they finally reached the bottom of the chasm, the sound of mud popping and plopping met them.

“Wow," Sir Blunderbrain gasped with eyes wide as he took in the scene. The entire chasm was caked in mud. Huge mounds of mud were hardening and cracking open. After about ten minutes, the whole place was swarming with blue-purple reptiles.

“What are they?" Princess Gwenalot asked to no one in particular.

The creatures were scaly like lizards. Each had half-closed eyes and a purple curved horn on their heads. They all seemed kind of dopey. A whole chasm filled with hundreds of purple lizards. The two Fraggles had never seen anything like that before.

The lizards’ stupor and disorientation didn’t last long after they burst from muddy mounds. Perhaps it was due to the huge population of lizards so crowded in one space. Perhaps it was just the nature of these creatures. Soon, though, they all began to panic. They tried to climb out of the chasm, but the slippery mud forced them back down. They started to scream.

The mud underneath them started to churn and bubble and the ground and chasm walls started to rumble once again.

Princess Gwenalot and Sir Blunderbrain looked at each other in disbelief.

Sir Blunderbrain’s smile nearly took over his entire face. “It appears, milady, that the rocks will crush us … once again.”

Princess Gwenalot smiled sheepishly. “Seems that way.”

“Have you been enchanted with some bad luck curse or some such thing?"

The Princess chuckled.

 

[The Count]

Yes... Read through some of those authors' works and you'll see what I mean. Rully missing updates for Kermie's Girl since a few of us forum friends are involved in the story, as part of the Vegas crowds. *Dreamy sigh.

Anyway, more please.