[skillya_glowi]

Part Two
Chapter Eight.
(My personal favorite)


Sami was overwhelmed by the feeling that he was actually looking for this and now at last he could go home. The Raisin would tell him what to do. He could not understand, however, why his journey was so easy. It had only taken him two days to find the lair. Ikha said that it would be a long journey. It was so fortunate for him to stumble across a lake along the way, or the journey would have taken twice as long, but Sami was sure that four days was still not considered “long” He had made a firm decision not to take anything for granted now, including the ease of his journey.
He could see the Almighty Raisin now, resting between the pillars. What a sight! Sami pinched himself and bounded down the slope. Several ratz that saw him scuttled off to tell the Almighty Raisin that it has a visitor. Sami smiled to himself. It was all over.
He imagined himself finally at rest. Perhaps he has lost a limb and a finger, but he would feel much safer knowing that the Woulks wouldn’t be able to attack him.
Sticking his arms out to balance, he made his way down the slope. The rock was good and firm; it didn’t crumble like the rock in the underground lakes. When he was at the bottom, he started towards the Raisin’s lair.
He felt its many eyes attempting to focus on him as he approached it. Sami was singularly nervous, but happy.
“Yeeeees?” It inquired in a deep, stretchy voice.
Sami, in all his preparation to talk with the Raisin, had forgotten to plan exactly what he was going to say.
“Well…” it stammered. Taking the bull by the horns, he blurted, “My home in the north has been overrun by…strange species…that no one had ever seen before?’’ He ended uncertainly. The Raisin appeared to be waiting for more.
“I…was in this forest…the other day, and this tribe found me, and they said that I needed to see you to solve my problem,” he finished. Doubting his rhetorical skills, he waited for the Raisin’s response.
“Describe them,” it pronounced slowly.
Sami, recalling his night of horror, sketched a mental portrait of the Woulks for the Almighty Raisin.
It appeared not to be familiar with them. The Raisin released a very long “hmm” sound and closed its eyes.
“What do I do?” Sami cried desperately.
“I…don’t know,” came the dreaded reply.
It hit Sami like a bolt of lightning. The Raisin didn’t know the answer. There went all his hope.
Sami looked at the Raisin with frightened, wide eyes. Its were closed, it appeared.
Sami felt as though his skull was about to explode. Now, he didn’t remember his yellow-striped wallpaper and torn cushions with a smile. He remembered them with tears in his eyes. What was there left to do? He would be torn apart by southern Mudos’s predators if he made his home in the open. If he lived in the trees, he could be reached by the claw-wristed animals, and if he lived in water, he would be attacked by the mysterious creatures that nearly killed him today. Not to mention the ground-dwelling species native to Mudos! But he checked himself in his thinking. Without a home, life was nothing. Nothing to come back to after a long hunt, nothing to spend rainy or snowy days in, you were left without shelter, but more importantly, left without the sense of belonging.
Heavily, Sami turned away, his head hung. Very slowly, he crawled up the hill and back into the tunnel. Sami traveled in such a languid manner that the trip out of the tunnel nearly took three hours. Yet, Sami was not worried about his speed. He was much too busy thinking over his next action.
As he had cleared the tunnel, he found that it was already dark. The sky was partly clear, with heavy clouds here but bright, starry sky there. Sami wiped his tears. He could see the brim of Munch’s moon , just above the horizon. He looked at it with imploring eyes. Here was the gallery of heroes, those who had changed the course of life on Mudos. Right above Munch’s moon he could see another, a bigger one, but partly hidden by clouds — Sami could make out a handprint , rather odd in shape. Sami sighed. This was somewhere where he could find counsel — here, in the limits of his fantasies, there were no dangers, only safety and comfort. Here, he could stay forever, if not for the crass yet assertive demands of the soma. Here, in the parlor of stars, accompanied by the greatest heroes Oddworld has ever seen, he was not lonely, nor was he alone.
Sami would gaze at the stars all night during his childhood and not become dizzy. He wished now more than anything that he knew the ways of the world as well as the ways of the sky. He knew no more than anyone about the place one goes when one dies, but somehow, he knew that it was…up there. He knew that the firmament was a place of stability, but at the same time, of change. The stars all stayed in their relative positions, yet they moved, or appeared to do so. That way, Sami believed, the world should be.
Stifling a yawn, he sat down. The clouds were slowly floating forth, covering the moons, then uncovering them. Sami sighed deeply. It was a harsh night. The atmosphere was completely still, except for the sloshing of water in the lake whence Sami came. After having cleared away the rocks, he lay down. Sami didn’t even bother to dig a pit. It doesn’t matter if I live or die now, he reasoned. Peacefully, he drifted off to sleep.