[Gretin]

Well, I've finally got it done! Forgive the stupid name (Glam), I'm not too good at making up names, as you've probably noticed.

Anyways, here ya go:

Chapter 8: A Short Tour

Marn walked outside the building and started looking around. From here, he couldn't see anything he hadn't seen on the way in, but he was still in a state of wonder at everything. He was so entranced by it all that he didn't even notice the mudokon walking up behind him. "Hey! Are you the guy from Rector's Refinery?"

Marn jumped in surprise and turned around.

"Uh... yeah, I'm Marn."

"I'm Glam. I'm from Rector's Refinery too!"

"Oh, yeah, the chief told me that the village had picked two people from there."

"Yep, I was the first one. Would you like me to show you around?"

"Um.... okay."

"Come on," said Glam, and walked towards one of the spooce fields. "You know what this stuff's called?" "I haven't a clue," replied Marn. "It's called spooce. The mudokons here use it to help them with their mystical powers. I've heard that only a few of the mudokons here are powerful enough to use their powers without spooce!" He stopped talking as he started watching one of the mudokons who was gathering spooce.

The mudokon had taken some spooce out of the box and lifted it up behind his head. He aimed carefully, then threw it, hitting another mudokon soundly on the head.

"Hey! Who did that?" yelled the mudokon. The mudokon who threw the bit of spooce started whistling and gathering spooce again. Glam suddenly started laughing, which was a mistake, because the mudokon who had been hit on the head immediately turned towards him, "Was it you?" "What? No! Of course not! It was that guy over there!" Glam replied. The mudokon turned and looked to where Glam pointed. He frowned, then walked back to his box, picked up two balls of spooce, and threw them one after another at the other mudokon. "What the-!" the mudokon said, then as the second ball hit him, "Ow! You want a fight?" Suddenly the collection of spooce turned to an all-out spooce war, with everyone throwing spooce everywhere.

"I think we had better leave," said Glam, grinning, "These guys are probably going to get in trouble for this, and we don't want to be part of that, do we?" "Uh.. no, I guess not," replied Marn, "I thought these mudokons were supposed to be different, more disciplined and hard working?" "What? Who told you that?" "The chief said..." "Oh, that. Well, these mudokons are different, but, deep down, they're still the same fun loving, work shirking, good old muds. They've just learned to put their *other* skills to good use!" "But... the chief seemed... different somehow." "He is. I don't know how, but he's different. Maybe it's something to do with having to take command of the village... but there are a few others like him, like Scorp."

"Anyway," Glam said, "We should move on, I'll show you the assembly tower next." He led Marn to a huge tower which seemed to be in the middle of the village. "Wow, it's big!" "Sure is," replied Glam, "There are two bells up there, a great big bell for an assembly of the people, and a smaller one for an emergency. The big one makes a very deep sound that penetrates throughout the whole canyon. The small one makes a very high pitched sound and, although it is way smaller than the big bell, it's sound can carry just as far. When either of the bells is rung, the mudokons all come a-running to see what it's about, especially if it's the high-pitched one. There's also some kind of looking glass up there, you can see things that are miles away as if you were close up to them, just like that telescope at the refinery!" "Really? Are we allowed to go up and have a look?" asked Marn. "Sure, come on," replied Glam, and started climbing up the ladder. "That's a long way up," said Marn, doubtfully. "Come on, there's nothing to it," answered Glam.

"Well....... okay," Marn grabbed on to the ladder and started climbing up after Glam. It wasn't long before they reached the top, but to Marn it seemed like a very long time. "Whew... I'm glad that's over." "What? That was nothing, you've got to climb back down yet," Glam grinned, "I guess you had a very idle job at the refinery?" "Yeah, I guess so." Marn looked around the small room at the top of the tower. It had no walls except for the poles which were supporting the roof, and it was bare except for what looked like a pipe sitting on top of a tripod. "Is that the looking glass?" "Yep, that's it alright. And the bells are up there," Glam said, pointing upward. Marn looked to see two bells hanging from the roof, one large, one small, but they were too high too be reached with the hands. "How do they ring them?" he asked. "They use their powers. They somehow take control of the bell they want to use, and make it ring by itself." "Okay... that's weird," said Marn, then walked over to the pipe. "How do you use this thing?" "Just look into the end closest to you. It's not as advanced as the telescope at Rector's Refinery."

Marn looked in the pipe and instantly was able to see right down on the wall, it seemed to be aimed for the exact spot that the wall had opened when he came in. He turned the pipe towards the spooce fields that they had left -the mudokons were still fighting and spooce was being thrown everywhere!

Glam stood there watching Marn's expression with a look of amusement on his face, "Pretty neat, huh?" "I'll say!" replied Marn, "Hey, wait a minute! What's that?" Glam looked to where the pipe was aimed. "All I can see from here is some sort of bird by the look of it." "No, it's one of those aircraft!" "What? You mean one of those flying machines from the refinery?" asked Glam, the amused look quickly fading. "Yes, and it's heading this way." "Oh no, we've got to tell the others!"

"The alarm bell!" exclaimed Marn, "You can use it to get them to come!" "Sorry, but I can't. I haven't been here much longer than you have, I'm afraid. We're going to have to do this the hard way," Glam said and started climbing down the ladder.

End of Chapter 8