[Moosh da Outlaw]

The moment Charlotte opened her eyes, she was filled with a sense of confusion.
She wasn't in her hut, she was on the hard, dry earth.
She wasn't dry and safe, she was wet and cold.
And something sharp was jabbing her in the side.
Gradually she remembered what had happened last night, and she groaned. But that didn't explain what was jabbing her in the ribs.
Charlotte sat up, rubbed away some mud that was caked around her eyes, and looked to see what was poking her. A few feet away from her stood a grubb wearing a domed-straw hat and a pair of dark green swimming trunks. He proceeded to jab her with a long stick.
"S'cuse me," Charlotte inquired, "but what are you doing?"
"Seeing if your dead," he said.
There was a pause.
"Well, i'm alive." Charlotte said, scratching her head. The grubb threw the stick aside with a shrug.
"I'm Mola." he said, sticking out his hand. Charlotte gingerly shook it, her eyebrows raised quizzically.
"Charlotte." she said, brushing away dirt from her clothes with her free hand. Once she was sufficiantly cleaned off, she stood up. The grubb was still standing next to her, staring.
"What do you want?" She asked, stretching her legs. The grubb blinked.
"Nothin'. I just wanted to see if you were alive or not."
"All right..."
"Wanna see my tribe?" He asked exitedly, his fingers twittering and his eyes bright. Charlotte was taken abak. Why would she ever want to?
"Why would I?" She couldin't help but ask. The grubb still twittered happily.
"You're a steef, aren't you?" He asked, rocking back and forth on his heels. Charlotte, who had been taking a drink from her canteen, choked.
"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, be quiet!" She hissed, clapping a hand over his mouth. "You tryin' to get me killed? Anyone could've heard you! And how did you know?" She demanded, her eyebrows contracting. The grubb peeled her hand off of his mouth.
"Come on! The tribe's this way." He said, skipping off. Charlotte grabbed him by the sholders.
"No! Stop changing the subject! How did you know I was a steef?" She snarled.
"Lucky guess. Now if you don't mind," he grinned, pushing her hands off his sholders, "i'll be going away now. You can follow if you like."
He dashed fleet-footedly down the canyon's path without looking back. Charlotte took a moment to consider her options.
Go the other way, get killed by head-hunting outlaws...
...return to Autumn Chasm, get killed later...
...follow this walking fishstick over to his home.
She chose the less life-threataning choice.
"Wait up!" She said, bounding after him. For a grubb, he was suprisingly fast and agile on land. By the time she caught up with him, she was out of breath.
"What did you say your name was?" She asked, running alongside him.
"Mola." He replied, grinning again. "The place we're going is called L.L.T, by the way."
"L....?"
"...L.T."
"What does it stand for?" Charlotte asked as they both jumped clear over a boulder. The grubb gladly explained.
"'Last Legs Two', home of the Last Leg Rebels. Our last-last legs got destroyed by wolvarks, so we made a new one here. I like our new home, at our last-last legs it was really cold all the time, so I couldin't wear my swimmin' trunks. But I can now."
"I see..." she said, though the truth was that she didn't think his swimming trunks mattered much.
They continued on through the winding maze of cliffs and passages, warm morning sunlight glowing on their backs. Birds whistled and clicked in the trees, occasionally diving to catch bugs in their mouths. Although Charlotte didn't know where they were, she was absolutely awestruck by its beauty; it was scattered with high, whithering peaks, gurgling streams and crushing waterfalls. The cliffs all around were pale reddish-brown limestone, casting dominating shadows across the barren landscape.
Finally, after running for twenty minutes straight, they came to something Charlotte had least expected to find; a wide, fertile wetland abundant with reeds and small animals. The water was perfectly clear and cool, and as she looked through it she spotted little silvery fish darting about.
"Come on, we have to cross!" Mola said happily, jumping into the water cannonball-style. He quickly resurfaced and spoke in a serious tone. "But ya gotta be careful, or a chuggler might get you!"
"Whats a chuggler?" She asked, slowly lowering herself into the water. The grubb shook his head angrily.
"Big bullies." He said simply, backstroking towards the other side. Charlotte shrugged and followed. The water was up to her sholders, but she walked anyway. At one point she thought she saw a sleek, ridged grey back slide along the reeds, but she disreguarded it.
Eventually they crossed the wide wetland and stood on the bank of the water. The energenic grubb took off running again, much to Charlotte's displeasure, and she followed half-heartedly. They ran alongside the marsh, and she was beginning to wonder how long it was. It seemed to stretch on for miles.
"Welcome!" said Mola, skidding to an unexpected hault. Charlotte slammed into him before she could break, and they both tumbled along the shore.
"To Last Legs Two!" He said, continuing as though nothing had happened.
Charlotte stared up at the fortress in front of her; it was made of stacked limestone quarried from the canyons and sat directly on the wetland's shore. Around it was a thick fence, thirty-five feet tall, made of stacked oak logs. Three small docks stretched out over the water from grubb-sized gaps in the wooden walls, where a dozen grubbs fished.
Inside the fence was a huge grubb temple surrounded by little connected townhouses.
If its that big outside, Charlotte wondered, how big is it inside?
"Come on!" Mola laughed, running in through a square hole. Charlotte had to duck to fit inside, but she didn't mind.
"Look! Isn't it cool? We worked to hard to make it, but it was worth it!" He said happily as he skipped along. As they both walked along grubbs stopped and stared before quickly talking to one another. Whatever they were talking about sounded urgent, but she didn't easedrop.
"We made it out of limestone, its really useful for making fortresses, and wood, we used a lot of wood too..." Mola chattered, motioning towards various statues of grubbs and steef as he walked. "...and that's our Last Legs memorial, where we remember all who died..." it featured a group of grubbs stabbing a wolvark with a spear, and a steef wearing full-body armor firing a bow, "...in the battle of Last Legs. And when we destroyed Sekto's dam, that was pretty cool too, freein' our water and all..."
"You destroyed Sekto's dam?" Charlotte asked, suprised. She knew that his dam had been destroyed, but she didn't know that grubbs had done it.
"Yes!" Mola said proudly, striking a heroic pose. He dove forward, still talking about how noble his tribe was for freeing the water, when he suddently tripped head-over-heels and mowed over a female grubb who had come hurrying over. They both collapsed, startled and confused. The female grubb, who Charlotte guessed to be the leader judging by her spiky pink headrest, got up and ran to her, leaving Mola half-stunned in the dust.
"Welcome, steef, to Last Legs Two!" She announced, waving her hands in the air. From seemingly nowhere dozens of grubbs' surrounded them, talking exitedly. "This is really good, y'know, to know that there's more than one steef in the Mongo valley..."
"Wait!" She interrupted. "How do you all know i'm a steef? I haven't said anything to you!" She said, rubbing her temples to relieve the stress.
"We knew you were coming," said the lead grubb, "we forsaw it!"
"Forsaw it!" a grubb in the crowd echoed.
"Hear her!" another one said.
"Forsaw it?" Charlotte asked, bewildered. Slowly she realised just how unbearably confusing her day had been already.
"Yes! Forsaw it! There were signs!"
"Signs!" A grubb echoed.
"In the water! Signs everywhere!"
"Everywhere! In the water!" a completely different grubb said. Someone cuffed him over the back of the head, silencing him.
"Follow me, steef Charlotte," the grubb leader squeaked, grabbing her hand and pulling her forcefully along, "and we will show you how."
Charlotte didn't bother to ask how they knew her name. Somehow, she knew they had an explanation.