[Danny]

i just realised that i have made an unforgivable mistake in that last chapter! see if you can spot it... it's in the LAST chapter, btw, not the one i'm posting now.

ok, once i've posted this i'm up-to-date. no more chapters until i write some more...

CHAPTER 36

“They’re here.”

“Where?”

“All around us.”

Volt had never really gotten used to his pants talking to him, and found it quite easy to pretend they weren’t. After all, he hardly believed it himself.

“I can’t see any.”

Volt nodded. “Me neither.”

His pants responded quietly. “To your left. On the branch overhanging the red bush.”

Rettick surreptitiously glanced in the direction, but couldn’t see anything.

“He’s quite hard to see. They’re camouflaged, you see. Look for where the dappling of the light is slightly different.”

At first Rettick still saw nothing, but after concentrating, he could make out a vague shape, which could be described as Mudokon-shaped. “What are they doing?”

“Watching us. Trying to decide if we pose a threat.”

“What should we do?” Volt looked worried. He was probably hoping he wouldn’t have to run in his creepy new pants.

“Pretend we haven’t seen them. If they think we’ve seen them, they won’t want to run the risk of us being a threat, so they’ll kill us straight away.”

Rettick saw the one he was watching turn its head and apparently communicate with another mudokon. “Do they speak the same language as us?”

“Of course not. I’ve been listening to them a lot, though, so I think I can translate for you. Just pretend only Volt speaks their language, then we can use the excuse of translating for you to let me tell you both what they said.” One of the mudokons made a loud chirping call. “Looks like they’re trying to talk to us. He said, ‘Who are you?’, roughly.”

“What are you going to tell them?”

“I’ll say you are travellers, and that you have important information.”

Volt was surprised as his pants erupted in a combination of chirps and whistles. Answering calls resounded through the branches. Mildar the Pants responded, even louder. The answering call was shrill, then the half-invisible mudokons began to move away into the forest.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure. I told them we were travellers, and then one of them said to the others something about the way we looked. When I asked them what they had said, they said they’d be back soon, and then they went away.”

“They didn’t say when they’d be back?”

“No.”

Rettick sighed. “We wait, then.”

“Looks like it.”