Chapter 15
(201PK)
Scorpius sauntered down to the entrance of the tunnel. Beside him an elderly furry creature with white hair huffed and puffed to keep up. Scorpius surveyed the busy scene, a scowl forming on his blistered lips. “Are you quite certain you remember the layout of this subterranean farce?” he asked the creature without looking at him.
The creature nodded. His voice was old, but there were signs an age-old confidence was beginning to waiver. “I … I … could walk the tunnels blindfolded and backwards.”
Scorpius smiled. “Excellent.” He snapped his fingers and Digit walked up to him, the sweat carrying bright electrical arcs down his cheeks and across his chest and onto the ground below. “Digit, why is the exploratory group in the tunnel? Where is Sarah?”
Digit gulped. “I d-d-don’t know, sir. Captain Sun gave the order for the mission to proceed. She said everything was under control.”
Scorpius glanced at him with some bemusement. “Did she, now? Strange … I hadn’t heard. Digit … be so kind as to take Matthew here with you and locate Captain Sun. I wish to have words with her, if you don’t mind.” He unceremoniously turned and walked away.
Digit glanced at Matthew. “You’re a Fraggle?”
Matthew nodded. “Indeed, good sir.” He cleared his throat and stared at the wires draped across Digit’s shoulder. “You are a ‘sir’, aren’t you? With Peacekeeper newfangled filly-fallies, I’m afraid I sometimes have trouble telling the difference ….”
Digit coughed. “I’m alive, Matt, I assure you. You don’t look old enough to know anything of the Rock. Where is the World’s Oldest Fraggle?”
Matthew snorted haughtily. “Dear boy, I’m insulted! The tales of Fraggle Rock are indeed older than even the World’s Oldest. Of course he, on the other hand, never went back.”
Digit stared at him in surprise. “You’ve been down in the Rock recently?”
“’Recent’ is a relative term, but yes,” the elderly Fraggle replied, “I have been back in the old homeland,” he paused, stifling a sob, “ever since,” he managed to utter, “General Red … made the outer world … so profoundly saddening for an old Fraggle.”
<><><>
Mizumi stared at a small pool of water, barely enough to put her hands inside. The image of multiple beings walking through the tunnels with large rolling crates and other equipment following them surprised her.
Jareth peeked over her shoulder and shrugged. “The ‘Hand of Destiny’, perhaps?”
Mizumi stared at the pool. They had breached her icy barrier.
“What is it that you want, Mizumi?” Jareth asked her, sitting back down, tapping a dry branch on the ground. “Why did you let them in?”
Mizumi stared up at the three-story hut.
Taminella, the hunchbacked elderly sorceress, elbowed her in the side. “Ain’t so easy, is it?” she cackled. “Bet ya a shiny blue rock ya can’t get inside.” She pointed at the door handle, which was at least as high as two Mizumi’s standing one on top of the other.
The blue furry monster with the bright red lips sighed, shaking his head. “I would not enter that door, if I were you. She will be very upset. She does not accept visitors much now.”
Mizumi inhaled, closing her eyes. A waterspout formed in front of her. “She will accept me.”
The waterspout burst open the tall door. Mizumi marched inside. “Inhabitant, come to my aid! I desire a conver --.” She gasped as a pan the size of a large sundial flew past her, nearly taking her head off. Mizumi glanced in the direction from whence it came and noted filthy rags.
She realized she was merely looking at the being’s legs. Looking up, she saw that the creature was a tall, a VERY tall, female with frazzled blonde hair and an upturned, though slightly to the side as though it were broken long ago, nose. Her skin was lavender, but her complexion uneven.
“GO AWAY!” she screamed, tears the size of goblets splattering onto the floor. “LEAVE ME ALONE!”
Mizumi sighed, glancing at Jareth as they stood in the large cavern. “I don’t know why I did it, my love,” she noted quietly.
<><><>
Digit groaned as he and Matthew neared the din of the exploratory party.
“Are you well?” Matt asked Digit.
Digit shook his head. He rubbed his temples, so much so the skin was becoming raw.
The overweight green-skinned male with squinty eyes casually peered at the instruments as Digit lay on the table.
“Father,” Digit pleaded, “don’t do this.”
The male frowned briefly, but shook his head. “Peacekeeper technology is absolutely FASCINATING, don’t you agree? It’s such a shame that the promising citizens of this world, a world where their species ORIGINATED, are denied access to scientific progress.” He paused as he held up a drill. “It almost makes you wonder what it would take to get their attention, son.” He turned toward the restrained boy, revving the drill. “This will be ABSOLUTELY safe, I assure you.”
<><><>
John shook his head.
Aeryn stopped walking and stared at him. “You okay?”
John blinked several times. He stared at his hand. “How many of these do I have?”
Aeryn frowned. “Could there be poisonous gases trapped in here, John?”
John chuckled. “You really think I’m in a … whoa,” he said as he sat down, dizzy, “in a position to tell you?”
John stood there, a bag of drying vegetables in his weary hands. The golden sun at his back, he stared at the burning house, the smoking corpses twisted and gnarled mockeries of family. John sat down. He turned his head, desperate to look away. An elderly furry creature was sobbing some distance away, near the smoking remains of small huts. He was rocking back and forth. John could just make out an orange face with purple hair.
It was like everything was connected.
He just didn’t know why.
<><><>
Mizumi sat on a box atop a high table, watching as the gigantic female sobbed.
“Things … things were never the same,” the female bawled. “They broke our gate. All we wanted was to have a safe place, where monst – I can’t even say such a vile word, where the unwanted creatures of this world could live in whatever might count as perfect harmony in this day and age.”
Mizumi formed a goblet out of thin air. It had been so long since she felt the joy of manipulating reality in such a way. “My apologies, milady. I take it the Sebaceans took much from you?”
The female sniffled and nodded, staring at the floor. “My husband … my hus … my husband was so angry. He refused to be enslaved, he said, by a bunch of silly little creatures knee-high to a Gorg. He grabbed his father’s hole-digger and marched with our only son toward a group of metal machines, rolling down the valley, ripping apart huge swaths of vegetation. Even Gorgs would have to spend days just to destroy as much.” She broke down, her face buried in her hands.
Mizumi heard the exploratory party as the heavy wheels and tracks barreled through the tunnels, echoing and sounding far more numerous than they really were.
She stared at the small pool, her face filled with a grim determination. Finally, after several moments, realizing the Peacekeepers would be in such a great hall soon, she turned toward Jareth. “My love, my only true joy … your shattered dreams are an unending nightmare to me.” She quietly walked up to him, smiling, caressing his confused visage. “My lord and master, unending sunshine over my sparkling pool … I find it time to wake.” She took a sharp flint from the floor by levitating it and sliced her neck.
She fell into her lover’s arms, smiling peacefully as water vapor rushed out of her body, spreading throughout every tunnel, forcing whatever lifeforms were inside to nearly choke and faint.
<><><>
Sarah coughed as they entered the small cave. “Something’s wrong.”
Zhaan frowned, for she had to bend low to enter such a small area. “Why can’t sacred spaces be more accessible?” she wondered. “Why must everything always be so difficult?”
Mokey looked around as she entered the cave, getting to the center ahead of Sarah and Zhaan. She held her brush close to her chest. “This is it.” She turned and held out her hands. “I don’t know why, but take my hands, each of you. We have to see.”
<><><>
Digit started to jerk uncontrollably as the fog or whatever it was rolled into the tunnel where he and Matt were walking.
Matthew Fraggle took off his shirt and daubed it against Digit’s skin. “You don’t much like water, do you, boy?”
Digit could barely respond. His eyes rolled back. His body shook ever more violently.
Matthew jumped back as the entire tunnel shook. Rocks started to fall everywhere. Instinctively, he jumped onto Digit’s body, barely able to restrain the much larger being.
Also, the constant feeling of being shocked was downright annoying.
However, he couldn’t see yet another young male die.
<><><>
Scorpius took his finger off the button as the smoke roiled through the camp. He glanced around the stunned crew still outside the tunnel. Smiling, he noted cheerfully, “I’m afraid this part of the mission is over. Thank you for your assistance. Take the rest of the day off. You’ve earned a respite from this awfully hot day.”
He walked away as the nervous crew hurriedly abandoned the area.
It was such a pity.
Aeryn Sun had had such potential.
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