[Gretin]

Oh crap, I just realized that I haven't updated this thing for ages! Oh well, here's the next chapter:

Chapter 10:Prepare for Battle

"Dead?" Ramnes asked in surprise, "How?" "He was executed," Sefon replied, "I don't know why, but they sure burned him up!" "Burned?" "Uh... you don't want to know, okay?" "Right," said Ramnes grimly, "I need to find the Chief. Will you look after the kids there?" "Kids?" Sefon looked at him quizzically. "The new guys. Just keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get in the way of the busy mudokons. You could also show Marn where he'll sleep tonight." answered Ramnes, "He'll need to get a good sleep tonight, if I have my way we'll be well on the march in the morning." With that, Ramnes turned around and left.

"Well well, fancy seeing you two again so soon," Sefon remarked to Marn and Glam. "Hey, I'm no kid!" protested Glam. "Maybe not, but your lack of experience compared with most other mudokons in this village is enough to justify calling you that," came the answer. "Oh no, not another one," exclaimed Marn. "Another what?" Sefon asked. "Another mudokon who uses big words!" "Oh that," Sefon laughed, "That's nothing, you should hear the Chief when he gives a speech!"

"Anyway," Sefon said more seriously, "these other mudokons are going to be pretty busy now with preparations for the march, but I won't really need to do anything so I'll take you to our weapons store. I don't believe either of you have had a good look at any of our weapons, so this will be a good chance before we need to leave. The weapons store is where all our unused weapons are put after their construction, it's that small stone thing over there," Sefon pointed to a stone structure, not much higher than a mudokon's head, which was next to the first building Marn had entered when he came to the village. "What is that big triangle thing that I was taken to when I came here?"

"That is the temple," answered Sefon, "It's a very mystical place. I can't really explain it for that reason." "Oh, uh, right," said Marn, "Uh, lead the way then, I guess."

In a few minutes they were all standing in the weapons store, which was actually bigger than it looked, and examining the weapons. "This is the main weapon we use," said Sefon, picking up one of the staffs. He handed it to Marn to look at more closely. "And here's another common weapon of ours," he said, passing a spoocebow to Glam. Then, turning towards Marn he said, "That weapon is commonly called the 'tala.' It's a very powerful weapon in the right hands, but in the hands of an inexperienced user it's pretty near useless."

Marn held the tala up into the light, marvelling at the ornate carvings throughout the staff. Then he noticed something else: "It's got a little blade at one end," he exclaimed. "That's right," confirmed Sefon, "When it is being held by a powerful mudokon, that blade can rip through rock. Don't know about metal, though, I've never tried it on that."

"As for yours," he said, turning to Glam, "That's a spoocebow. It doesn't take a lot of skill to use it, but it takes skill to be able to use it well."

"Alright," Sefon now said, "Come on outside, you two, and you can try them out."

They followed him outside and he led them to some rocks not far from the building. "Now it's time for you to learn about spooce," he said, and held up his hand, palm facing upwards. A blue sphere started to form in his hand, slowly turning to a green colour. In just a few seconds, Sefon was no holding a small round bit of spooce in his hand. "Wow, you can actually make spooce?" Glam asked, excitedly. "What? No!" Sefon replied, "I simply summoned it from the stash we keep in the village. Here, put some in that small hole there in the spoocebow," he said, and handed the spooce to Glam. He quickly put it in the hole and was surprised to find that as soon as it was put there it started glowing blue! "Now, all you have to do is aim it at something, and pull that little thing underneath your hand with your finger," Sefon instructed. Glam pointed the spoocebow at the rocks nearby and did as he was told. Suddenly, the spoocebow seemed to be alive, a stream of blue energy streamed out from the front of it and it felt like it was forcing Glam's arm up into the air. The blasts swept harmlessly into the air, but Sefon grabbed onto Glam's arm and pulled it back down, "Hey, careful there, friend, you don't want to end up hurting someone by mistake!" "Wow, I didn't realize it was so hard to control!" Glam gasped. "You'll get used to it eventually," Sefon said, "but now it must be Marn's turn."

"Okay, Marn," he said, facing him, "unfortunately, your weapon can't be used very well until you learn how to use spooce, but I can still show you how it works." He took Marn closer to the rocks. "Just hold it at the end opposite the blade, and try and bring the blade down on these rocks," he told him. Marn did this, and brought the end of the tala down as hard as he could, he heard a chink as the blade hit the rock, but when he looked the only mark he could see was a small scratch on the surface of the rock. He tried again, and again, but had the same result every time. "Okay," Sefon said, restraining his laughter, "hand it over." He took hold of the staff and immediately the blade started to glow bright white. He turned around, swung the tala around his head, then brought it down firmly on the rock, splitting it cleanly in two.

"Wow, how did you do that?" Marn was amazed. "You need to learn how to use spooce, the blade in this weapon relies on mystical energy to be that powerful," Sefon answered, "It takes a long time for a mudokon to be able to use it so effectively as to be capable of splitting a rock in two, so don't worry, you're not the only one." He moved closer to Marn, "Here let me show you something, put your hand above mine." Marn hesitated for a moment, then put his hand on the handle, just above Sefon's hand. He suddenly had the feeling of the tala resonating with power, it seemed to be vibrating right there in his hand! "Do you feel that?" Sefon asked, "That is a feeling of power, when the tala is like that, it can do enormous amounts of damage. Luckily, that damage is going to be directed to our friends, the industrials."

"Come on, we'll try out some of the other weapons," Sefon said, leading the way back to the store.

End of Chapter 10