(ooc: I decided to write in the first person. it just seems easier)
As Blarg and Saros began their meditation, I wandered around inside the confines of the orb. He had been fighting with himself ever since he had heard of Geeble's fight for the book of Shrykull. Why him? Why not me? Didn't I deserve this as much as Geeble, or anyone, for that matter? So I'm not as strong or smart as the others, big deal! I know he deserved the privilege of the Shrykull chant. But, with the book under Geeble's careful watch, how could I hope to obtain it? I couldn't.
Unless ....
I checked to see if anyone was paying attention. Geeble and Lammy were talking about regular stuff, and Saros had just come out of his meditation and was being tended to by Blarg. Not bad ... good, even. Geeble and Lammy noticed, and started over to help out. I made like I was meditating, and the others respected it (or ignored it, maybe) and left me alone.
Then, carefully, I began to meld out. I could only stay camoflauged for a short while, but there should be enough time for me to grab the book of Shrykull in that time.
My colors melted together and faded into the background of the orb's walls. I stood up silently when I was sure to be completely unnoticeable. I tiptoed over and crept up behind Geeble. He had temporarily set the book down next to him, so as to examine Saros more carefully. I squatted down to the ground and grasped the book by its edge! Aha! I picked it up, and stelthily slid backward to my original place. Breathing out, I popped back into view and sat down. Cautiously, I opened the cover, and began to examine the first page .....
I felt a tug in my chest, and I went falling and swirling and turning ... it seemed to last forever. And then ...
THUD! I was back on the floor, with the book closed. I knew all about Shrykull. I knew all of Mudos' history. I knew how it had started, and how it was prophecised to one day fall. And naturally, I knew all of the exploits of the last one to become Shrykull: Abe himself. And most importantly, I felt a great power surging within me ... but it couldn't have been ... nah.
Suddenly I remembered I had been near my friends inside a high velocity orb across the oceans. I jerked around to see what the others were up to. Amazingly, after all that time, they were still looking over Saros. Thank Odd! I quickly melded, and snuck over to put the book down where Geeble had left it, then popped back into sight.
"What's up with Saros?" I asked.
Lammy wasn't too worried. "Nothing. He's cool. Apparently he and Blarg had a vision, which, among other things, said that he would experience a ... well, an enlightening experience. And this is supposed to be it."
"Ahh ... I see. Anything I can do?"
Blarg looked over at me, then squinted. I think he sensed what I had done. I looked at him pleadingly, as if to say "Please don't say anything!" but I didn't know.
Lammy, however, spoke with no interuption. "Nah. He'll be fine. Not to worry."
After a short while, Saros recovered. He had waltzed over and joined Geeble, who was doing some examination of the ancient runes in the book. Lammy was meditating with Blarg, who only feigned it. He stole suspicious glances at me ever few seconds.
Things continued this way for a while, and at last Blarg erupted.
"I can't take it! Ronan, what are you hiding? I want to hear your story right this second!"
As I had been walking around aimlessly, this caught me off guard, and I tripped. "What's that?"
Saros, Lammy, and Geeble had looked up. They all, aparetnly, sensed something similar to what Blarg did.
I guess there was no choice. I had to tell my story ....
I was born long ago, in the days of Abe. Hatched from a labor egg he and Munch rescued from the fabled Vykkers Labs. Shortly after my birth, our village was ransacked, and I was the sole survivor. I was left to my own devices, and to fend for myself for four months. Eventually, a slig happened upon me, and I was enslaved in a sloghut. Sloghut 4769-D. It is here that I learned of a limited bit of self-defense.
One night, the slogs broke out of containment. There was a sudden heat wave in the sloghut that had driven them into a completely uncontrollable monsters. Quickly overpowering all the Scrubs, and several sligs, my boss, Trotsky the Glukkon, decided to call for lockdown. "No Scrubs will escape," I recall him saying. "We needn't another Abe!"
Little did he realize ... My self defense "lessons" came to be of use. In all the chaos and confusion, I had managed to knock out a slig. Thinking quickly, I .... procured some meat from his body, and grabbed his gun. The meat would distract the slogs, I knew, and the gun would keep me safe.
Hurrying about, I gathered more scrubs, heading down to the water tank in the basement. I thought it was enough like a boiler... so I took my followers and broke into the room. The water tank was already fuming: as the heating system's center, I easily came to a conclusion. I had to destroy the heater!
But, what about my companions? How to save them?
Just as I thought it, I heard a chanting. I looked around, and my mudokon friends were chanting in perfect rhythm. I watched as they flashed blue, and the very feathers on their heads fluttered off to became birds. They gathered together, and formed a ring. I suddenly knew what to do. I shouted, "Thank you all! Now get ready!"
I dropped the gun, and pressed my palms together, then rotated my arms. The birds pulled together and formed a blue-white portal. The muds ran up to it and jumped through. I stopped chanting, and as the birds dissipated. I went back down to grab the gun, but .... it was gone! Uh oh.
"Freeze!" A slig! I was toast. Then it hit me. Snoozer! There was always an emergency Snoozer control in every important room. And what more important room than the water heater?
So I played along. Raising my arms and standing stock still, I turned around, keeping my face to the ground.
"What were all those sounds, scrub?" he asked.
I grunted, "I was chanting near the boiler in hopes of stopping the heat problem." Clever enough lie, if I do say so myself. But he didn't buy it.
"What were the lights then, maggot?"
"Uhh ... That was a sign my chant was working. You interrupted me just as it was--"
"Aha!" the slig suddenly said. Oh, no! Busted. Then: "Here, boy! Good sloggie!" He had found a slog! I was dead for certain. but the slog smelled fresh meat. He ignored the slig and trotted over to me. Yes! forget the Snoozer, maybe I could command the slog!
I reached into my pouch and pulled out a hunk of meat with a little bone still stuck in it. I dropped it in front of the slog, who messily swalloed it. He growled at me for more, so I handed him all I had. He really had a taste for it, aparently. Of course, he wanted more, so ... "Good sloggie. Guess what? that was slig meat. You want some more?"
The slog salivated heavily.
I pointed at the awestruck slig in the doorway, as the slig spun around. "There's a slig! Get'im!"
The poor slig never understood what had happened. The slog was eating his innards as I began to chant again; not to stop the heater, but to speed it up. It was almost at a critical level, when ....
"YOU!"
Trotsky! I was definately dead now. He was accompanied by two sligs with guns. "You are now officially slog chow. Show 'em."
One of the sligs held up the remains of a brutally murdered slog. Oops. My slog.
Meanwhile, (as I assume, since I never found out) the muds I had liberated gathered as many friends as possible to chant for my own freedom. All I knew was that Trotsky and his sligs right then and there burst into blue flame, and from the ashes emerged eight birds. They were jagged and discolored, but they were birds. They joined and opened a white portal.
Behind me an alarm was ringing. The extra heat from their fire had added to the boiler. Without another thought, I leapt into the portal, just as the water tank exploded.
I hit the ground in the village in which I lived before meeting Geeble. Right in the middle of a gathering of mudokon shamans. i was instantly recognized as one of the Nine Great Muds of Legend, of which Abe was naturally one. Well, how could I turn down such a title? They were very willing to train me to reach their great level of Shaman, but my training was incomplete when the Big Nothing struck us. I walked across a scorched plain that was once my village, and out into the woods, where I met Geeble. We lived together in the woods for several months when Blarg found us.
"Okay," I finished. "Now you know I was sent reeling through time. Happy now? I am a primative mudokon of Mudos who used bird portals to save people instead of your fancy teleportation! Happy now?!"
I felt very unsettled to have revealed my past, but still mildly relieved.
Everyone was satisfied, however. I could only thank Odd that I hadn't been asked to reveal my secret of stealing the Shrykull notes. I was extremely relieved.
There was a solid minute of silence.
Then, from Blarg: "Uh ... huh. But I wanted to know why you took the book of Shrykull from Geeble."
Busted.
OOC: okay, now someone should erupt at ronan about his sneakiness
also, i was wondering wether or not it was going to be in the plan that we all ended up with shrykull powers eventually anyways .... but oh well. thats my long overdue post and Ronan's official backstory.
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