Saturday! 2 days of freedom and another chapter:
Chapter 7
Splat
There’s one thing that’s a hundred times worse than people talking about you behind your back.
"Munch?"
"What?"
"Can you do me a favour? Try to go easy on Splat today, ok?"
People talking about you in front of your back.
"Excuse me? Me go easy on him!"
"Oh come on Munch, he’s… he’s had a hard life."
Alf has this way of making people tell him their feelings. I don’t know how he does it. it’s ok usually but on this particular occasion…
"And I haven’t?"
"Come on Munch, they dragged him away from his village when he was 7 (still Earth) years old."
"They almost wiped out my entire species Alf!" His voice was rising. Abe apparently heard cause I heard him call from across the camp: "IF ONLY THEY’D FINISHED THE JOB!"
"They wiped out all his friends and family Munch, when he was there watching. He was 7 years old-"
"And when you’ve all finished discussing my life with each other I think it would be a good thing if we got going." I climbed out of my tent making Alf jump. Munch was standing next to him looking irritated at Alf. Abe was on the other side of the camp looking up in surprise, half-crouched over a smouldering portable fire. I took off and flew up into the sky.
I just didn’t want Munch knowing that sort of thing about me. I didn’t want everyone feeling sorry for me. "Oh, isn’t it sad? Poor little Splat! So terrible! The poor thing!" I don’t want to be felt sorry for, I don’t want any special treatment, I don’t want to be singled out (at least no more than I already was). It was actually a comfort to scream at Munch. Knowing that he treated me the same way he’d treat anyone else was a relief. It was just so normal; I could get on without any "Oh, poor Splat, what a tragedy!"
With Alf… he understood. You could just tell that whatever you told him, he would treat you the same. I guess he was thinking about me attacking Munch last night… and the day before that, and decided it would be safer for Munch to shut up. And he probably would now. And Alf would probably feel bad about telling Munch about what I’d told him. And Abe just never talked much anymore anyway. It was gonna be a long trip.
Abe
It had to be a record! Munch had never gone so long without talking. In fact, he and Splat hadn’t said a word to each other all day! It was like some kind of brilliant miracle!
2 days later, when they were still not talking to each other or anyone else on the move, it was starting to get depressing. Alf had made some feeble attempt at conversation but never got anywhere. Sure, there was talking at night, about "Whose tent peg is this?" Or "Whose making dinner tonight?" But that was about it. It was depressing. It was annoying me worse than there constant arguing! And now:
"So where is it Abe?"
I looked down at the list of instructions Alf’s omnipotent being had left us. "This is exactly what it says: "5 and a half days walk North you should see the station. Catch a train-" blah blah blah!"
"Well its not here is it Abe?" Munch answered indignantly.
"I blame Munch for making us so late on the first day." Splat put in unhelpfully.
"I blame Splat for making us leg it so far on the… second day."
"That made us go faster!"
"It probably sent us of course!"
"Shut up Munch!"
"Shut up yourself!"
Alf and I were hanging on every word: it was the argument I’d been waiting for for 3 days! I guess they noticed us staring. Splat shot Alf a furious look and took off into the air. I sighed and slumped down onto a rock. Munch and Alf also slumped onto various rocks at the exact same time as me (though Munch’s sigh sounded more exasperated than either of ours). There was a few seconds pause.
"Strange."
"Weird."
"ABE?"
I looked up at Splat, "What is it?"
"I think I’ve found your station." He was hovering about a 40 feet above us and pointing ahead and slightly to the left.
"YOU SURE IT’S NOT JUST A MIRAGE SPLAT?" Munch called up sardonically.
"Do mirages bore massive trenches in the sand?"
"Uh…"
"OH, COME ON MUNCH!" Alf yelled, getting some odd looks from the rest of us. He paused, embarrassed for a few seconds, before running in the direction Splat had pointed.
"What on Odd was that?" Munch asked, surprised.
"Stress: it gets to the best of us," I answered, "Come on."
15 minutes later we were standing on top of a particularly large ridge of sand. Below us was a large red and gold building. It was shaped like a massive puseok (a small, translucent, flesh-eating insect about 17 cm long [I mentioned them in Splat under a different name but since then I’ve basically changed the whole name and bio. The older versions were nicked off some other story but since then me and my best mate have changed the name and designed our own version]): a very large elongated dome with a few train-sized tunnels sticking off in various directions with train pylons poking out and disappearing into the distance (below these the sand had been carved away to make room).
"Wow… not much like FeeCo is it?"
"I wouldn’t know Abe, you’re the only person here who’s ever seen FeeCo."
"Well for one, it wasn’t shaped like a giant insect. For another," I scanned the ground around the station; "There weren’t a hundred odd sligs standing around outside."
"Gonna be one of those days isn’t it," Splat put in, landing beside us."
"Damn!" Munch cried suddenly, "If this is what it’s like in Mudos, what’s it gonna be like around Amy’s place?"
For your own benefit, i'll try and dig up our picture of a puseok. In the mean time, REPLY!!!!!
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