[Gretin]

Ok, here, at last, is the next chapter. It might not be as good as some of the previous chapters because I only revised it once, because I wanted to get it on here before the weekend was over, seeing how I promised an update during the weekend. So, without further ado, chapter 6:

Chapter 6: The Journey

Marn slowly stepped out from behind the rock, and instinctively put his hands up in the air. The two mudokons looked almost identical, except one of them had three red feathers as well as the blue ones the other one had. The blue feathered one's expression softened when he say Marn step out, and he lowered his spoocebow, but the other one kept his aimed at Marn. "Who are you?" he asked. "I'm - my name is Marn," replied Marn. "Where do you come from?" "I - I came from Rector's Refinery!" "Then how did you get here?" "I escaped!" "How?" "I - well, I got out on a flying machine, then I had to jump out." "And how did you survive the fall?" "They had some sort of floating thing that I used to float down." "May we see it?" "Well - why, sure, of course!" Marn started moving to where he had slept and the two mudokons followed him. They saw the cushion, but they also saw something else. The blue feathered one quickly raised his bow and fired at the gun Marn had taken from the slig, which he had left on the ground beside the cushion. "What were you doing with one of those?" he asked.

"You're coming with us," the one with red feathers ordered, before Marn could answer. The blue one led the way, and the red one prodded Marn to go ahead of him. As they walked through the forest, Marn tried to ask them questions about where they were taking him but neither of them said a word. Eventually, he gave up and started looking around as they walked. He saw that the clearing the craft had crashed was only one of many, and, strangely, each clearing look exactly alike. Marn wondered if they were just going round in circles, but then they came to a clearing which was different: it had a cliff like the one he had left, only this one had a huge rift down the middle, leading into a valley. They came up to the rift and then Marn stopped in surprise at what he saw! A steep slope led down the valley to a huge village, but it was nothing like what he had known before he was enslaved. This village had dirt paths through it, and tall wooden walls and towers. The village itself seemed far more organized than the average mudokon village, with huts strategically placed, rather than randomly scattered throughout the village. The mudokon behind Marn prodded him on again, but he still had a sense of wonder as he came up to the walls. "Identify yourselves!" called a voice from one of the towers. "It's us, Ramnes and Scorp, and we have a prisoner!" "Okay, we're opening the gates!" called the voice again. Marn heard the sound of chanting, then the wall in front of them between the two towers started to split in the middle! The two halves swung open like a gate, and the mudokons took Marn through the gap into the village. The walls then started to swing back and closed again, and the chanting stopped. A mudokon came rushing up, this one had no body art, but he had a few gray feathers. "The chief's expecting you. He's waiting, so you'd better come!" "Okay, we're coming," replied the mudokon with the blue feathers, Ramnes. They went through the village and Marn saw some strange things he had never seen before, he saw a mudokon who was sitting with his legs crossed, meditating, but floating above his head was some sort of staff! It was just floating there with nothing holding it! Then he saw a group of mudokons with spoocebows, who were firing at rocks on the ground, smashing them again and again until they were just tiny pebbles. He also saw many mudokons in fields of spooce, gathering it into boxes and carrying the boxes into huts. The one thing that struck Marn was that everyone seemed to be doing something, no one was idle. They came to a large building that seemed like a huge triangle from the front. It was made completely of stone, at least on the outside, and he could see many small slits, obviously windows, throughout the building, some with torchlight showing through them. They went through the doorway, through the reeds which were hanging down from the top of the doorway as a sort of curtain. The inside of this building was even more impressive than the outside, with pillars reaching to the roof, which was extremely high, and there were huge statues of mudokons, scrabs, and paramites throughout the room. There was a mat on the ground, leading to another doorway with a reed curtain, and this seemed to be where the mudokons were heading Marn. On either side of the mat were mudokons who were doing a variety of things: meditating, lighting torches, even fighting! The fighting ones were using staffs like the one that was floating about the other mudokon's head, except these ones seemed to be faintly glowing with a blue tint. The mudokons weren't actually hitting each other, because every time one made a strike, the other would block it with his own staff. They were incredibly fast, though, most of the time Marn couldn't keep track of who was hitting and who was blocking. They went through the next doorway and came into a far smaller room, made in the shape of a perfect circle. On the ground were blue painted rings, each getting smaller than the last until there was a circle right in the middle of the room. A mudokon was sitting on this circle, a mudokon with body painting and very many feathers of all different colours. The mudokon stood up when they entered and welcomed them, "Welcome, I have been waiting for you! And, you too!" he said, looking at Marn. "Scorp, come with me, we need to discuss something important. Ramnes, you can stay here with your prisoner. Marn, you will stay here, and I will talk to you when I am finished."

Marn looked up in surprise, and was about to ask how he knew his name, but the mudokon and Scorp had already left.

End of Chapter 6