Chapter 50
Ten minutes later I strolled out of the tent as a fully dressed glukkon big cheese in charge of a slig barracks. The mudokons were still inside the tent, hurriedly burying the body of the stupid gluk that had overdosed on Chill Pills. The mudokons had presented a looking glass through which I reflected that I looked like a very passable General Bung.
I looked around and shouted for help. And sure enough, a slig came running from the nearest tent to assist me.
“Escort me to the mudokon living quarters.”
The slig replied with an unquestioning “Yes, sir.”
I sorta fell behind, which isn’t uncommon : most sligs walk ahead of the glukkon they guard. So it didn’t look too suspicious.
We soon reached the mudokon tent. It was painfully small, and my heart went out to the mudokons that were being forced to live in those cramped quarters.
In my reverie, I had stopped walking. My slig had turned to check on me, see that I wasn’t falling behind.
“Boss? You coming in?” His buzzy, mechanical voice was quite annoying … but I couldn’t let it show.
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I am. You just stay here.”
The slig buzzed in the same scary way I had heard all my life. I scuttled forward on my uneasy glukkon hands and waltzed right into the tent.
I looked around. The tent was a lot smaller than the slig tent was, but it had nearly as many mudokons crammed into as there had been sligs before. Cripes! I thought. This must be the entire village population!
I cleared my throat - again. Something in the air was affecting my glukkon throat in a way it didn’t bother my mudokon one. Probably the machine exhaust that came from every marching slig.
Raising my voice, I shoted. “All o’ yeh!”
The mudokons and sligs alike in here raised their heads, but only the sligs said “Hi.”
“I want all sligs to come here and follow me outside. Now! Do it!”
The sligs buzzed in their usual form of agreement and clattered outside.
I came out and quickly shouted “Kill ‘em!”
Only one slig reacted, and it was enough. He raised his gun unquestioningly and fired a few rounds at the nearest slig. The others chuckled nervously, and I laughed myself. So I repeated the command. This second time, two other sligs shot down the rest of the little troop, chuckling all the while. They were sure that this is what I wanted to see, and that this was entertaining me. Wow … these sligs were so well-trained! It was a little sad ….
The last two sligs were laughing it off, and I cleared my throat. “Stay here. I’ll come back.”
The sligs nodded and started playing with their guns. Meanwhile, I turned and tiptoed - this being all I was capable of as a glukkon - back into the tent.
I couldn’t really “sneak up” on any one mudokon, as they were too crowded together. So I just spoke quietly.
“Hey, it’s me, Dante. That mudokon from the other day!”
The muds didn’t respond.
“Orion gave me that earring, and I can morph into a glukkon and stuff now!”
One mud spoke, sounding skeptical. “Please, sir, don’t fool with us. That mudokon Dante is probably long dead, considering where he was going, sir.”
I rolled my eyes. “Shut up and listen! I’ve fooled all the sligs, and there are two outside screwing around. If you guys all go out there and jump them, you could probably take them down. Then I could rescue you guys and bring you to a new settlement.”
Another mudokon answered this. “Sir, if you don’t mind, we are trying to get some sleep, sir.”
I grunted, and the mudokons flinched. There was no choice … I concentrated and effortlessly popped back over to my natural body. Every mudokon in the room saw this happen. And seeing a tall glukkon suddenly become a mudokon in glukkon clothes is enough to convince anyone of anything.
The mudokons surged up and out of the tent and swarmed the two sligs outside. I heard some brutal sounding attacks, some sligs shouting in surprise, some gun butts striking mudokons (a sadly familiar sound) … but soon the signature sounds of mechanical pants began to choke and become irregular. A little cheer came up from the crowd of mudokons.
I approached them, struggling out of the glukkon outfit.
“Okay, guys. I still need to do some navigating around this camp, and I need to make sure there aren’t any more sligs hiding around here. I’ll come back for you in a little bit.”
The mudokons looked mildly disappointed, but didn’t argue. I nodded and snuck away.
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