To all of my most loyal fans and my casual readers:
This marks the beginning of the second half of the story of my mudokon hero, Dante.
Dante's Oddysee Thread part 1
Dante's Oddysee Thread Part 2
I won't likely update as often as I like, but I will try not to keep folks waiting too long.
A brief summary of Dante's Oddysee:
Dante, a mudokon slave working for Tastee Treets, finds out that the glukkons plan to use cheap mudokon meat to feed the animals (and other mudokons) instead of expensive flit (a kind of bird) meat.
Dante loses his life in escaping, and is revived in a village a good distance upriver from the factory.
Given an enchanted earring, Dante traverses the land, gaining the ability to Flash, or physically become other Oddworldian creatures. Along the way he encounters many brushes with illness, madness, and death.
In completing this trek, Dante is granted the coveted Shrykull power. Unfortunately, he also comes down with a terrible bout of pneumonia, and blacks out shortly after returning to Rotag, the village he set out from.
We pick up here.
Chapter 45
I woke up in a small hut. I had been placed in a hammock in a very warm room. Mudokons hustled about, taking no notice that I was awake.
I soon made myself known with a body-wracking sneeze. Followed by several more. My forehead throbbed when I was through ... that disastrous trip through Sut had wrecked me.
The mudokons were gathering around me, mumbling to each other.
“Dante looks pretty sick ....”
“We’ll take care of him, don’t worry ....”
“Has he eaten anything?”
“Anybody seen my face paint?”
“Is he finally awake? We gotta get this finished!”
It was clear from looking that they were doctors or something. Shamans, perhaps. Many wore some tribal headdress, others had body paint.
The mudokons formed a ring around my little hammock and began chanting. Within moments, my body felt ... lighter. Safer. Stronger. It felt as though a knot in my chest came undone .... and ....
thppbt.
The mudokons stopped chanting when they heard me fart. And as they began to chuckle, I realized that they had worked the sickness out of my body.
I thanked the mudokons and stepped outside. It was sunrise ... or maybe sunset. Bleh, who knows? I was beginning to form a plan, and wanted to storm Tastee Treets as soon as possible.
Time to find Patch.
{Heya, Patch?} I started, using the telepathic link the enchanted earring provided us. {Where are you?}
Usually, when contacting someone psychically, I would briefly feel a surge of the emotions they had. More often than not, Patch was doing something he resented me interrupting. But today, he seemed overjoyed to hear from me.
Patch quickly told me where he was. I followed his directions and came upon a small tent.
I entered without preamble and was greeted by a meditating Patch.
He must not have been focusing too hard, because when I greeted him, he jumped right up.
“Hey, what’s happening, Dante?”
I explained to him about the little clearing I found, and how great a mudokon settlement it would make.
“Really?” Patch sounded thrilled. “Anything is better than this crummy place. Could you bring me there? You know, so I can check it out?”
I shrugged. “Okay. Follow me.”
“Okay.”
I led Patch and a few of his buddies to the clearing up the river. They were instantly in love with the place, and decided they would take their entire village to settle here.
“It’s magnificent!” Patch exclaimed. “How did you find this place?”
“When I was in Sut,” I started, “I had to find a way out, and the only thing I could think of was a bird portal. So when I conjured one up, this is where it dumped me. I have a feeling that the mudokons I save from the factory will turn up here.”
The mudokons at the factory! I had to get moving. Tastee Treets was waiting.
I bid the muds farewell, assured them I’d be safe, and moved along the river, looking for a place to cross.
After a few minutes, it occured to me that I could swim it.
{Hey, uh, Bog?} I began, and asked Bog to charge up a gabbit morph for me. Within moments, I felt my ear tingle, and knew that the earring had been prepared.
I started a brief chant and popped over into the body of Caw the gabbit.
On my one leg, I hopped into the water and started swimming across the Pur river.