And here it is at last! Time to introduce the next characters in our merry band.
Chapter 14
Nova and Anni! Called by some the greatest creation of Dr Emlech. Called by most a pain in the rear end.
There hardly seemed to be a time when the two of them were not causing mayhem, annoying the sligs and the interns, or sneaking into the labs and storerooms when no one was looking, sticking around when they were not wanted, hiding when they were called for, laughing, joking and generally acting their ages.
Dr Emlech had made it abundantly clear that they were not to be beaten for he did not want to risk them being injured. The third mock queen he had hatched had not survived three days out of its egg. It had been weak and frail. This had been worry enough for Emlech, for if one of them did not survive, what hope was there for the other two?
However, his fears were not realised for they both survived infancy without a problem, and he performed x-rays and a number of tests which confirmed that their immune systems, vital organs and reproductive organs were all developing healthily. However, he did not want to risk his two remaining prototypes getting damaged.
While this did not mean they were not to be punished, and in fact it did not stop a few sligs taking a whack at them when no one else was around, the two mudokon girls still developed a significant level of lawlessness. When they were young they were given very loose boundaries, and now they never took rules or authority seriously. They acted as though everything was there to be played with.
Emlech had decided to keep the two of them in the lower lab where there were around 20 vykkers, a handful of interns and sligs and no other mudokons. They had a fairly comfortable room where they were told to stay when the vykkers wanted them out of the way, but they quickly became bored and found ways of escaping. The vykkers could never work out how they managed it.
Nova, 32 hours older, was the leader of the pair. She was bolder than Anni, and more trouble. Anni was naïve, and didn’t seem to know what lines should not be crossed. Nova did know what lines shouldn’t be crossed, but that didn’t stop her from dancing over them, or encouraging Anni to do so.
Anni was a very curious child; interested in the things she saw little of, such as other mudokons, sligs and glukkons. She gave little attention to vykkers, for she saw so many of them. She seemed to have a particular fascination with sligs which Nova didn’t understand.
“I don’t see what you like about them! I mean they just walk around and grunt and stuff.”
“But they’re cute, and funny!” Was Anni’s common reply. “Especially that new one, Ben.”
“Ha! You only like him because he’s got a mudokon name,” Nova replied, grinning cunningly.
“That’s not true. He’s really funny, and I bet he’s really nice,” Anni replied, pretending to be more upset than she was.
A plan for more fun was starting to form in Nova’s mind, “Well if he’s so nice, why don’t you see if he’ll play with you?” She asked, nearly laughing. Anni looked shy. “Come on,” Nova goaded, “I bet he would. We should go and see.”
Easily persuaded, Anni nodded and the two of them left their room, which on this occasion wasn’t locked so they didn’t have to get their secret stash of tools out from under a loose tile in the floor (it hadn’t been loose originally, but once Nova got the idea they had made it loose), and headed out into the lab to find the unfortunate slig.
They found him guarding outside one of the laboratories. Anni peaked out from behind a corner at him and Nova gave her a nudge, “Go on,” She told her.
Anni smiled excitedly and ran out. “Hi, Ben!” She yelled and leapt onto the slig’s back. Ben the slig yelped, overbalanced and fell over. Anni tumbled back, laughing.
“What in Odd’s name do you think you’re doing?” He yelled.
“I’m just playing,” She said with infallible enthusiasm. “Come on, will you play with me?”
Ben looked at her with an expression somewhere between rage and disbelief. “Don’t you have work to do or something?” Anni shook her head; apart from the occasional errand to run or message to carry, she and Nova were rarely given work to do. “Well I do,” The slig informed her coldly, “So quit bothering me.”
“Fine, I’ll come back when you’re not working then,” Anni told him and danced off to join Nova.
“Oh Odd, please don’t,” Ben muttered as she left.
A couple of hours later his shift ended and he met up with a couple of other sligs for a cigarette when he heard her voice yelling loudly down the corridor, “Ben!”
The other two sligs gave him looks that suggested he should not be on first name terms with mudokons. “Oh Odd, what do you
want?” He hissed angrily.
She suddenly threw her arms around him from behind, making him yell out and wriggle away from her. “Get off of me!” His two companions made a bad attempt at concealing their mocking laughter.
“Come on, you said you’d play with me!” Anni laughed.
The other sligs were looking on with incredulous mirth.
“I never said I’d play with you!” He half-yelled, anger building. “Get lost!”
Anni looked slightly crestfallen, “Maybe tomorrow,” She muttered sheepishly.
“No, not tomorrow, or the day after, or any day after that! Go away!”
She grinned suddenly, “Oh, you’re funny!” She declared and danced away as the other two sligs burst out laughing.
“Ooh, play with me, Ben!” One jeered.
“No, you promised you’d play with me!”
Ben swore at them, “Shut it. How is it my fault? The bloody muds are allowed to run riot, and we’re not even allowed to beat them!”
“That’s where you’re wrong; you’re not allowed to beat them
when the vykkers are around!” One informed him.
“Uhuh, what they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.” The other added.
“Whatever, they can still fire you if they find out though can’t they!”
“And who’d tell them? No slig would, and the vykkers wouldn’t take a mud’s word over ours, less so
those muds! There’s hardly a slig in this place who hasn’t taken a swing at Nova once or twice.”
“Anni wouldn’t be so bad alone,” The other slig mused, lighting a cigarette, “Without Nova putting her up to causing trouble.”
“So what am I supposed to do if the little one keeps bothering me?” Ben asked, wanting to prove that he wasn’t on naming terms with Anni.
“Just find Nova, she’ll be hiding somewhere nearby, watching. Tell her to get off your back, and if they keep coming smack her round the head.”
“Don’t smack Anni though,” The other added, “Nova’ll take it, but Anni’ll cause you a heap of trouble if you start beating her.”
With their advice in mind, Ben went to work the next day guarding outside a lab where the vykkers were working on some big project. He didn’t see either of the mudokons until two thirds of the way through the shift, when he caught sight of Anni’s head sticking around a corner. When she saw he’d seen her she withdrew and he heard her giggling. He snorted in annoyance and contempt and tried to ignore her but for the next two hours he kept seeing the top of her head or her feather disappearing around the corner, and hearing her and the other mud giggling. It made him uncomfortable, as it probably would anyone. He me up with the other sligs later on but didn’t mention the events of the day.
The following day the same thing happened; about two thirds through his shift the two muds camped themselves at a bend in the corridor and Anni kept poking her head round and the two of them kept giggling. This time he tried to combat their assault by staring fixedly at their corner. Whenever Anni’s face appeared she would see him there and, much to his annoyance, giggle and withdraw, only to reappear a few minutes later. After a while, Nova’s head appeared instead of Anni’s, and Ben got to see her for the first time. She was slightly taller than Anni, her skin a shade more purple (whereas Anni’s skin was lilac).She grinned at him wickedly and gave him a sarcastic wave before disappearing. He heard them both laughing out loud this time and his free hand balled into a fist as he tried to keep his temper under control.
A few minutes later, Anni stepped out of hiding and faced him, “Hi,” she said shyly. He swore at her in sliggish and she laughed and ran away. He heard them both running off down the corridor and he breathed a sigh of relief, but for the rest of the shift he couldn’t relax and kept involuntarily glancing back towards their corner, much to his own annoyance.
They didn’t reappear for the rest of the day and he went and joined the other sligs later and hissed, “Those muds are grinding my last nerves.”
“Why, what have they been doing to you?” Asked as slig – one who hadn’t been there when Anni had tried to hug him.
“Just spying on me all day, putting me on edge,” He grunted.
“Scared of a couple of muds; how pathetic,” Jeered one of the others. He remained silent and ignored the few other insults flung in his direction.
A couple of days later he was guarding outside the same lab. He had only been there about fifteen minutes when he spotted the two of them peeking out at them. He growled. Having them there all day would just be too much! Remembering the advice of the other sligs, he left his post by the door and stormed over to their corner.
Nova looked surprised when he appeared; Anni looked excited. “Listen you two, this isn’t a joke. Get out of here and leave me alone.”
“We’re only playing,” Anni answered innocently.
“Well I’m trying to focus on my work and you two spying on me all day is making it impossible, so-”
“Hey, slig!”
Ben winced.
“You’re supposed to be
guarding this lab,” Trilled the high, nasal voice of a vykker, “Not wandering off to chat whenever you feel like it.”
“I’m sorry sir,” Grunted Ben, “But these mudokons were distracting me and I was just asking them to go away so I could guard the place properly.”
“How dare you talk to me like that?” Barked the vykker, “You’re lucky I don’t fire you on the spot, now get back here and do your job!” Ben glanced back round the corner to see the muds already running away. Nova glanced back to smirk at him and he gave her a lethal look, before walking back to his post by the door. The vykker gave him a disgusted look and hurried off. As soon as he was out of sight, Ben sent a number of offensive gestures in his direction.
Ben didn’t see the muds for a few more days and he began to hope they’d decided to leave him alone. This unfortunately was not to be however, for a few days later, just as he was coming off duty they appeared down the corridor and Anni came running towards him, Nova tagging along more slowly, smirking.
“Oh for Odd’s sake, go away!” He growled.
“Come on, Ben! I wanna play!”
“Get lost! I’m not going to play with you!”
“Come on, please!” Anni sang as she ran up to him. “We’ll have fun!” She jumped at him to grab onto him again.
Ben acted out of instinct, raising his gun and smacking her on the top of her head. She yelled from pain and collapsed.
Nova screamed a word that Ben doubted she’d heard the vykkers saying and leapt at him in a rage, scratching and trying to bite him. He shook her off and smacked her on the side of her head as she began screaming at him in anger. He ran off down the corridor and was out of sight before another slig arrived at the scene,
He took in the two crumpled mudokons, “Hey, what’s been happening here?” he demanded.
“That
bzstrk slig, Ben, just attacked Anni and me!” She shrieked.
The slig paused for a moment to wonder how long Nova had been using sliggish swear words before answering. “Oh yeah, right, looks more like you two have been fighting about something.”
“No you idiot! I wouldn’t hit Anni like that!”
A vykker appeared at the end of a corridor and demanded, “What in the name of the Odd is happening here?”
“Nothing sir,” Replied the slig, “The muds have just been fighting about something.”
“That’s not true!” Screamed Nova, beside herself with anger, “That slig, Ben, attacked us! He hit Anni and when I tried to stop him he hit me as well!”
Anni was just stirring, looking dazed and scared.
“Oh, whatever,” The vykker answered dismissively, “Why would a slig attack you?”
“‘Cus he’s insane!”
The vykker scoffed, “All the sligs know what’ll happen to them if they hurt you two,” Said the vykker with an air of one who suffers.
“Then do whatever it is to Ben! Punish him!”
“I don’t have time for this now.” The vykker said to no one in particular and turned to the slig, “Whatever your name is, take them back to their room and lock them in.” He glanced at Nova who stared at him stubbornly. He sighed. “Use force if you have to. But
only if you have to.”
“Ugh! You egotistical-” Nova began, but trailed off. Tears of anger and frustration ran down her cheeks. “Oh fine!” She said, miserably and hatefully. She grabbed Anni by the arm and yanked her to her feet while Anni looked surprised.
The vykker nodded, satisfied, and then added to the slig, “Go on then. Don’t hurt them unless you have to or I
will have you punished,” And he headed off back the way he had come.
The slig smirked at the two mudokons. “Go on then, you heard him,” He said and herded them off down the corridor towards their cell. Once they were inside they heard him turn the key on the door, locking them in.
Nova threw herself on her bed, tears running down her face. Anni slumped against the wall, also crying, silently.
For a few minutes the room was quiet before Anni said sadly, “He hates me.”
Nova looked up at her. “Who?”
“Ben.”
“Oh, you’re not still worrying about that stupid slig?”
Anni sobbed, “I thought he liked me.”
“Come on, don’t worry about him. He’s just an idiot, like every other slig.” Anni looked away from her. Nova, realising this method of cheering Anni wasn’t working, slid off of her bed and crossed the room. Her own sorrows were forgotten in light of her best friend’s. “Don’t worry about it,” She said softly, sitting down beside her and putting her arm around her shoulders. “There are other sligs out there, nicer sligs. They’re not all nasty like him.”
Anni continued to look miserable, so Nova resorted to the final measure.
“Sweet, sweet brew,
I drink to you!”
She sang. Anni tried to wriggle away from her, but Nova wouldn’t let her. It was a song they had heard the sligs singing a few times and it always had the same affect on Anni.
“I drink it from a glass!”
Anni looked away, but the corners of her mouth began to twitch.
“And if I drink
Too much of it,
It comes out of my-”
“Nose!” Yelled Anni and they both burst out laughing, uncontrollably, helplessly, and the next thing they knew they were rolling around on the floor, tickling each other, laughing, playing, having the times of their lives.
Nova knew then that as long as they had each other they would never need anyone else, be it a slig, a vykker or a mudokon.
Anni just knew she was the happiest she would ever be in her life.
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I feel really guilty after writing that, and anyone who knows anything about what's going to happen to the pair can probably guess why.
I did really get into that towards the end, basically from when Ben hit Nova and onwards, which is proably why the chapter is so long.
Anni is younger here, and more naive, so she acts somewhat different as to how she does in W@RF.
So yeah, let me know what you think; did you like the ending as much as I did?
As always feel free to criticise, point out any grammar errors so I can fix them, and so on.
For the people who do know what happens to Anni and Nova, don't say anything about it cus I don't want it spoilt for people who don't know!
What story? Or was that a joke?
You made typo, I think it should be bites. 
Your character Cekyll has a name spelling similar to one of my vykker characters...
