Angetuga decided that what was through the doors was a big anticlimax.

To put it simply, there was nothing.

Yes, you heard me right; nothing.

Well, nothing as far as the Yirini could tell.

The room was not made of rough steel like the last rooms; it was made of something no Yirinu had ever seen before. Glass.

Ice is all very well, slightly see through and reasonably strong. It will put up with a lot, and is easy to repair if it should happen to get scratched or dented.

Glass is different.

Glass is completely clear. Ice is not all that clear, it is not quite opaque but it is not see through unless it is so thin you can break it with a tap of a claw. Glass is also stronger, especially the glass that made the walls of the room. This glass had to be reinforced to be able to stand the pressure from the vacuum from the outside.

Glass is also tougher; it is hard to scratch, but once scratched it cannot be repaired.

The Yirini did not know what to make of it.

Through it they could see the stars, twinkling away many light years away. They could not see Yirin, because they were on the very end of the station.

All the Yirini stopped dead in the corridor leading to the room, just before they actually stood on it.

"What is it?" A Malu from the back piped up.

"No idea!" Urrhnu replied. "Do you think its dangerous?"

"Yes!" The little Malu squeaked and lost balance temporarily, disappearing momentarily among the mass of Yirini before reappearing swiftly.

"I don't think it's safe." A Narlu said with conviction. "We should turn back."

"There's nothing out there!"

"We'll never get back!"

"We're doomed!"

"The Things will take us all!"

"It's all over!"

Voices began to talk over each other, creating a terrible hubbub that anyone would cringe from.

"EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!" Angetuga bellowed. There was instant silence, and some rather scared looks. "Right. Good." She smiled, rather pleased with herself. "We all know this can't be out into nothingness. How does that-" She pointed at a small metal control panel in the other side of the wall that nobody had spotted before. "stay there if it does?"

"Magic! I told you it existed!"

"It's an illusion to trick us!"

"We're still all doomed!"

"SHE SAID SHUT UP!" Angetuga never knew that Grishgern could make such a terrifically loud yell. It made her ears go on strike.

"Thank you Grishgern..." She said a little unstably.

"No problem." Grishgern smiled. "Always happy to help. Right. First, do we try to walk across it, and if so will volunteers step forward please."

All the Yirini hastily drew back. All, that is, except for Urrhnu who stayed exactly where he was.

"Ah, Urrhnu!" Grishgern exclaimed. "You are sweet!" She went over to him and gestured to the doorway. "All yours!"

"Wait... I never..." Urrhnu tried to protest, but was cut off by Grishgern.

"Go on! Don't be shy!" She encouraged. "It's awfully brave of you!"

At Grishgern's last words, Urrhnu had decided. He stepped forward and puffed what we will call, for the sake of simplicity, his chest.

"Go on Urrhnu!" A few voices were encouraging from the crowd. "You can do it!"

Urrhnu looked at the glass floor again nervously, lifted his foot over the edge of the steel, and put it down carefully on the glass, screwing his eyes shut.

A great cheer erupted from the group, led by a very enthusiastic Grishgern. "You did it, Urrhnu!" She exclaimed, bouncing up and down in delight. "Well done!"

The group of Yirini moved carefully forwards again, giving the glass apprehensive looks. Urrhnu, who had by now recovered, stood up and began to bounce about.

"Look at me!" He exclaimed, sliding about on the slippery glass. "I did it! No invisible floor can beat me!" It was unfortunately at this point that he slid too far and crashed into the equally invisible wall. He slid to the floor in a rather dejected fashion and looked a little wilted. Grishgern slid gracefully over and picked him up.

"Come on!" She exclaimed. "This is fun!"

Soon many Yirini were sliding about, some in pairs, enjoying a nice slide.

Angetuga watched from the sidelines. She had never been particularly agile; in fact she was renowned among her family as the klutz, almost going so far as to trip over her own tail.

"Come on!" She called after an enjoyable quarter-hour or so of sliding. "We should go!"

But wait. A thought occurred to her.

Where was the next door?

Looking about in sudden confusion, Angetuga realized that she hadn't the faintest where the next door was.

Wall with the door they came from in? No other door. Check that off the list.

Wall opposite? Invisible wall with no door. Check that off the list.

Wall on the left when they came in? Half glass, but no door in the steel half. Check that off the list.

Last wall, wall on the right. No door. Predictable. Forget checking it off the list, scrunch the list up and throw it in the lake.

Angetuga sighed and covered her eyes with her hands. These rooms were really getting on her nerves. She put her hands back down again and looked back up at the control panel in the wall.

Wait.

A control panel?!

Of course! How could she have been so stupid!

Slipping and sliding over the invisible floor, Angetuga slid over to the control panel.

On it were two buttons, and a label. The label was, once again, in Yirinu script. This was getting strange. Why in the Baklu planets would the humans be writing in Yirinu script? Angetuga found it quite baffling. But once again, a question for another day.

Angetuga stood on tiptoe to read it.

I always tell lies. The left button opens the door. Lives, I estimate, equal one. One wrong press expends a life, and when you have no lives left then you cannot get out.

Odd. That didn't make sense.

If the script always lied, then the statement that it always lies must be false, meaning that the statement must be true meaning the statement must be false meaning the statement must be true meaning the statement must be false meaning the statement must be true meaning -

Stop that. Think.

Angetuga sat, turning the label's message over in her mind.

Find a way to stop it becoming an infinite loop. Think, think, think!

Angetuga racked her brains for a good ten minutes. The other Yirini either read the message and were baffled by the message, then took up sliding again, or simply took up sliding again.

Angetuga sat on the floor, thinking hard. If steam could come out of someone's ears because they were thinking too hard, the glass would be melted by now.

"Having trouble?"

Angetuga looked up. The Narlu from the crowd was in front of her, looking down.

"I could help." He suggested.

"I don't know!" Angetuga exploded. "This is just impossible!"

"Think of it differently." The Narlu said. "It says it always tells lies, yes?"

"Really? I never would have guessed." Angetuga said sarcastically.

"Pay attention. It says it always tells lies, yes? So. That means the statement must be false. Stop and think about that for a minute. The next part is the step that you're going wrong on." The Narlu sat back and smiled in an annoyingly know-it-all way.

Angetuga thought.

And thought.

And thought.

But still she could not see the answer. What was she doing wrong?

"I don't know!" She exclaimed. "That means that the statement must be true, so then -"

"Ah." The Narlu interrupted her. "No. That does not mean the statement is alway true. It merely means the the statements are not always false. They could be false sometimes, but remind me where it says they are always true?"

Something clicked in Angetuga's brain.

Of course.

She was stupid.

Angetuga clapped a hand on her forehead. "Thank you!" She exclaimed to the Narlu, standing up to look at the next part of the label.

The left button opens the door. Lives, I estimate, equal one. One wrong press expends a life, and when you have no lives left then you cannot get out.

Hm. If the label sometimes lies, that meant that there was probably one lie and one truth, otherwise why would it bother to say that? It was very strangely worded, too. Why would it be done like that? Lives, I estimate, equal one? What did that mean?

Okay, just a second. Back to the first bit. That means it all boils down to a 50% chance either way. It was just a guess as to which button to press.

"Have you got it? Because I'm not telling you the answer this time. Anyway, I might be wrong." The Narlu watched her with mild interest.

Angetuga hated it when anybody wouldn't tell her the answer like that.

Growling incomprehensibly and annoyedly, Angetuga decided to risk it. She jammed her finger down hard on the left button.

Nothing happened.

Angetuga wished that the floor really didn't exist and that she would just float away, never to be seen again.

Angetuga wished that time would stop and rewind to that morning with Mortangoska, and none of this would ever have happened.

She wished a million such things, all swarming though her brain like holes in a sponge, like the bubbles at a base of a tall waterfall.

She had failed.

One wrong guess, and now they were never going home.

None of them. Ever. And it was all her fault.

Angetuga sank to the ground, tears welling up in her eyes. Half of her hoped it was some wild dream, that she would wake up soon and find that it was all a dream and she wake up on top of the igloo that they had built in the village, the humans and this horrible place all a dream.

But the other half of her, the part that whispered the truth in her ear when she was almost beginning to believe fantasy, told her that it was over. That it was not a dream.

That she had failed them.

Angetuga felt a small sob escape her and she crumpled into a small ball on the ground, all energy lost.

She heard the Narlu say something, but she didn't listen. What was the point?

The Narlu tapped her on the back, but she slapped at him with her tail and he withdrew quickly, not wanting to be hit by her spikes.

A few minutes of peace and quiet. Whew, he had gone. Now I can be left to my misery. Angetuga thought.

Then, just as she thought she would melt through the floor -

A hiss, then a whirr sounded through the room, then a huge cheer rang through the entire room, echoing and bouncing.

Angetuga looked up, surprised. What was going on? How could they be cheering at a time like this? What was happening?

A spark of hope flared inside her. Maybe not quite all was lost, after all.

She looked up, and saw to her utter surprise and delight that there were two open doors in the wall!

"How did you do that?" She looked around at the Narlu, who was standing by the control panel looking quietly pleased with himself.

"It was easy." He said. "I pressed the other button."

"But the label said-"

"It lied. Look." The Narlu drew a circle around 'Lives, I estimate'. Think about that."

Angetuga was not putting up with any more. "Look. You can explain or no, I don't care. But I am not having any more of this!"

"Fine. Lives, I estimate. Lives begins with L. I is, well, I. Estimate?"

"L, I, E!" Angetuga exclaimed. "Lie! It's telling that it is lying!"

"If you had zero lives then it would already be over, the same goes for all numbers that equal less. There are two buttons, and if one or less is a lie then -"

"There must be at least two lives!" Angetuga could almost fly.

"Precisely." The Narlu looked pleased. Again.

"Thank you!" Angetuga exclaimed.

"Your problem is that you always stick to your first assumptions." The Narlu observed. "You always decide to treat them as concrete fact."

"Thank you!" Angetuga repeated, breathless with happiness.

"You're welcome." The Narlu looked quietly at the crowd who were now peering with some interest into the next room.

"Come on!" Angetuga said cheerfully. "Let's go and take a look!" She pulled the Narlu along by the arm.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" The Narlu protested but complied, running along across the room and joining the crush at the door.

"What is it..." One of the Yirini at the front, Angetuga didn't know who, breathed.

"I don't know." Another replied.

Eager to see what they were looking at, Angetuga pushed to the front. Whatever it was must be very interesting, because the Yirini were not talking very much. That is a sure sign that a Yirinu is engaged, that they do not talk.

When bored or generally tired, a Yirinu will talk. And talk. And talk.

They will talk until their vocal cords give out or they exhaust every subject possible. Or until it is time to do something more interesting.

Anyway.

Angetuga elbowed past the last Yirinu, then stopped.

The view was incredible.

The room was filled with all kinds of plants, so many that it could well have been a slice of Yirin before the asteroid.

The plants were growing over everything. Weeds and bushes and general ground plants on the floor, vines and creepers on the walls and ceiling, trees growing almost to the roof. There were just so many of them that the Yirini didn't know what to say or do. They just stared.

"Wow!" Angetuga muttered, staring dumbstruck and more than a little in awe at the plants. The room itself was hardly visible beneath the green, but where the grey of steel showed through, it seemed to twist and move as if alive itself.

"Are they safe?" The Narlu appeared behind her looking more than slightly nervous.

"I don't know." Angetuga was getting a little annoyed. Everything here was new, everything different and strange. She hated not knowing, it itched and irritated at her like a Craskuil beneath the scales. "Should we try walking in?" She asked. That had been the answer before, so... well. You know. It was obvious that it would be this time, right?

"No." The Narlu decided. "That's what they want us to think. It's too easy."

"I'm sure it's safe." Angetuga said. "I'm going in." She took a large and decisive step in. Nothing happened.

"See?" She said triumphantly. "I told you!" She took another step, looking carefully at her feet to ensure she was not treading on anything dangerous. And another one. And another one. A few more steps and she was right in the middle of the room.

"Come on!" She beckoned. "It's safe!"

"ANGEUTGA GET OUT OF THERE!" Grishgern's frantic yell from the doorway got her attention, and she whirled around to try and see what the problem was. Except she didn't.

She tried. Oh yes, she tried, but she didn't manage it.

It's quite hard to whirl around when a creeper has grabbed your arm while you're not paying attention.

Angetuga pulled, suddenly scared, but with no result. The creeper was stuck fast.

A second creeper began to worm it's way closer, approaching her leg. Angetuga tried to kick it away, but it just wrapped tightly around her leg.

By now she was struggling frantically, terrified. More creepers were emerging from inside a bush and wrapping themselves around her, grabbing every part of her. She struggled and writhed but with no result.

By the sounds of it, Angetuga noticed vaguely, a few Yirini were doing their best to get onto the room, but were being stopped by their more sensible fellows. Coming in here was not a good idea, under any circumstances.

Pulling as hard as she could, Angetuga was not winning. The creepers were reeling her in, pulling her towards the bush.

It was just about then that an eye showed itself from inside the bush, flashing and glinting in the light.

#

Crack.

How amazingly, brilliantly lucky. I am, of course, being sarcastic.

Mortangar stood more rigid than a block of ice in the middle of a cliff.

"Mortaga," he said, trying his best to be calm. No reply. "Mortaga!" He shouted. This got a reply.

"What?" Mortaga snarled, whacking at a Craskuil.

"I am standing on a crack." Mortangar said very deliberately and slowly.

"What?!" Mortaga froze, clearly panicked but keeping her senses.

"I am standing on a crack. Go straight to the other bank as quickly and as gently as you can." Mortangar instructed firmly. This was no time to loose one's senses.

Mortaga, for once, did not put up a fight and began to walk as quickly as was possible to the edge, which ended up about the same speed as a drunk hover fly trying to cross a busy road.

Step... step... step... she was about halfway across. Step again, then again, and once more... one more step, just one more...

She was about three quarters of the way there. She almost had it, she was almost safe...

Crack. The crack in the ice spread, growing dramatically.

"Step back, step back!" Mortangar shouted frantically, and Mortaga stepped back hard, panicking uncontrollably.

Crunch. A network of cracks spread out from where Mortaga was standing, expanding like a giant spiderweb, except probably twice as dangerous.

"Freeze!" Mortangar shouted, and Mortaga froze. A few moments passed, and no more cracks appeared.

"Now what?" Mortaga asked sourly.

"I don't know!" Mortangar growled.

Lovely.

It looked like they weren't going to be moving any time soon.

Doubly lovely.

Mortangar wracked his brains, trying to think of something, anything to get them out, but it was no use. What were they going to do?

Crack.

"I said don't move, Mortaga!" Mortangar exclaimed.

"I didn't!" Mortaga panicked. "It's spreading on it's own!"

"Go for it!" Mortangar yelled as the cracks began to spread at a lightning pace. If running was their only chance of survival, that was what they were doing.

He and Mortaga took off, sprinting at lightning paces towards the other side.

Crunch. Crack, crack, crunch. Small shards of ice were falling down from the bottom of the ice, plummeting down, down into the depths of the canyon beneath them.

"Run!!!" Mortangar exclaimed again, but there was no need as Mortaga was both closer to the bank and not weighed down with this stupid pack filled with sticks!

Mortaga reached the bank and threw herself onto it in one giant leap, landing in a heap on the ground.

But Mortangar was still far from the edge...

Crack. Crunch, crunch, crack.

"Hurry up, Mortangar!" Mortangar heard Mortaga hell from the bank. "It's about to go!"

Easy for her to say, happily on the bank out of harm's way...

More ice fell, and the ice was about to fail and collapse...

Mortaga shouted something else, Mortangar didn't hear what. But it sounded alarmed, and Mortaga was never alarmed except in a crisis!

In a moment of terrified hot-headedness, Mortangar dropped the pack.

Crash.

It went straight through the weakened ice despite the ice's thickness. Probably to do with those stupid sticks of Mortaga's. The ice shattered into a million glittering fragments, plummeting down and down, glittering in the noon sunlight.

Mortangar had a perfect view of the sun directly overhead before he fell down into the abyss among the glittering ice-fragments.

#

Mortaga threw herself off the ice on to the bank, on to safety. She landed with a thump. At least it made a change from cracking sounds...

Picking herself up from the ice and snow, Mortaga turned around.

More cracks and crunches emanated from the ice - it would go soon, and take Mortangar with it if he was not very careful.

"Hurry up Mortangar! It's about to go!" Mortaga yelled, but Mortangar didn't speed up.

Stupid git. Mortaga thought.

"Budge!" She screamed urgently, beginning to be genuinely scared. "IT'S GOING!"

Mortangar seemed to freeze for a moment, then he did the stupidest thing possible under the circumstances.

He dropped the pack containing Mortaga's favourite, thus heaviest and thickest, sticks.

What a bright idea.

The ice shattered, and to Mortaga time seemed to just stop for a moment.

Mortangar plummeted down, down out of sight along with the remains of the ice that once formed the Belegnu drop, and quite a lot of Craskuili.

Mortaga leant over the edge of the cliff, looking for any sign of the brother that she really just might care about. A little bit. But she would never admit it. Well. Okay, I admit it. She cared a bit. Don't pressure me to say any more or Mortaga'll hit me with her stick, and then you'll never get the rest of your story, will you?

Good. Now that's settled, can we get back to the story please? Right.

Mortaga leant as far as she could, but all she could see were tiny shards of ice still falling, twinkling as they went as if there was nothing wrong.

Mortaga hit the snow beside her in frustration. Where was he? He couldn't have died. No. That simply wasn't an option, right? So where was he?

He had simply vanished. Gone.

Typical. Just like Mortangar, to vanish when he was most needed.

Mortaga waged an internal battle for a few minutes before deciding that she should go. He would climb out and catch up with her later.

Yes, he would catch up. Mortaga nodded. That was it. Besides, Mortangris was sick. He needed her, and she had no time to waste on waiting. Mortangar can just hurry up.

So Mortaga set off at a reasonable pace towards the Under Ice City, shooting occasional glances back to see if Mortangar had made it up the cliff yet as she went.

#

Mortaga was so going to kill Mortangar when he finally turned up.

He had dropped the pack, gotten himself dropped into a crevasse, and had not turned up.

He was so in for it when he finally arrived.

Mortaga scowled and stomped on. This walk was getting on her nerves. Just snow, snow, snow. Kind of predictable that you would find that on an ice planet, but this kind of monotonous, never ending, not even varying snow was enough to drive a less, well, mentally solid Yirinu than Mortaga crazy.

Mortangar would be crazy by now. Mortaga told herself a little vindictively. Ha.

She stomped on, leaving a trail of scuffed up snow behind her. The snow here was actually quite deep and incredibly soft, so that instead of walking on top of it as she was used to, Mortaga sank up to her knees. And considering that Mortaga had abnormally long legs for a Yirinu, that was saying something.

Wondering vaguely why the snow here was so deep, Mortaga waded onwards through the increasingly thick snow.

Eventually it reached he point where it was like wading through quicksand, and Mortaga had to rest. The fact that it was quite dark by then only made her sure. Looking about her for a place to rest, such as a cave, proved fruitless. Ah well.

Mortaga started to walk in a spiral, starting in the centre and spiraling outwards to create a nice circular hollow. Pleased with herself, she curled up in the middle and tried to go to sleep. Maybe Mortangar would have found her in the morning.

Her rest was interrupted before it started, however, by a particularly energetic Serake.

The little mole-like creature came bursting through the wall of her little hollow, showering her in snow.

It continued to dig frantically for a few seconds before realizing that it was no longer under the snow, but out in the open.

Mortaga sat up and growled, angry that her rest had been disturbed. The Serake was scratching away at the bottom of her hollow. Unfortunately the snow there was compacted almost into ice, and the only result of the Serake's hard digging was to occasionally hit Mortaga with a lump of ice.

Mortaga grabbed the Serake by the scruff of its neck and lifted it up.

The Serake scrabbled in mid air, its pointed nose frozen into a rather sheepish expression. The little creature was very unusual in appearance, even for the strange creatures you get on Yirin.

It had a long, pointed snout that that ended in a pink nose like and elephant's, that seemed to be constantly sniffing and smelling the air.

The features of its face seemed to be frozen in a slightly sheepish expression as if it had just said something unsavory about somebody to a friend, and then found out that the person in question had been standing right behind them.

It was covered from head to toe with chocolate brown fur that seemed to gleam, probably polished from constant sliding along tight fitting tunnels.

It had large black eyes that would look rather sweet to a human, and a big long bushy tail. It had paws and four little short legs that were waving rather pathetically.

Mortaga studied it carefully, sizing it up. The Serake waved its legs in the air and squeaked even more pathetically.

A long hard stare, and Mortaga crumbled. She couldn't bring herself to abandon the little thing. Seraki are notoriously over-friendly and not over bright, and will attach themselves to any nice enough Yirinu which was quite unusual for animals on Yirin. Most herbivores are very aggressive and territorial due to the small number of the plants and will attack anything they suspect to be a challenge to their territory.

Mortaga set it down on the ice on the ground, and it snuffled about before curling up around her feet. She smiled.

Mortangar would have liked it.

She curled up too and was soon fast asleep, expecting it to be gone by morning.

#

Mortaga yawned and sat up.

The first thing she noticed was that the Serake was still curled around her foot, providing quite pleasant kind of sort warmth.

Ah well. She would have to leave it behind.

Getting up and lifting the Serake off her foot, Mortaga decided that if she was to get this Gresdernum to Mortangris any time soon she would have to move.

At this point the Serake woke up and began to run in circles around Mortaga's feet, occasionally brushing her with its big long tail. It was really rather ticklish, and Mortaga laughed.

"Go on now." She gestured away. "Budge." She pointed firmly in the direction that the Serake had come from. No luck, The creature continued to circle her feet.

Sometimes Mortaga wished Seraki had more brain.

She gave it a firm prod with her foot and pointed at the hole.

No luck. Again.

"Move it!" She said, beginning to get impatient. This thing may be fluffy and sweet, but it was really getting in her nerves.

No luck for the third time. It came up to her foot and rubbed itself on her, making a pleased sound similar to a purr.

Mortaga gave up. If it wanted to follow her, it was welcome to unless it got in her way.

"Come on then." She sighed and began to push on, literally, pushing through the snow. Serake followed her.

Pushing through the snow took quite a lot of time and effort, and by noon Mortaga was thoroughly tired out and annoyed. It just didn't feel like she was getting anywhere. The snow all looked the same, no landmarks, nothing.

And Serake was not helping. She buzzed around Mortaga's feet, tripping her and generally making a nuisance of herself.

"Will you stop that?" Mortaga snapped when Serake tripped her for the umpteenth time. Serake, of course, took no notice and continued to buzz about her feet, much like Urrhnaldo when he was in a bad mood.

"Move over!" Mortaga pushed Serake to one side, having almost trodden on her again. "Honestly, you're almost as bad as Mortangar."

Pushing on again, Mortaga thought that she must be getting near a village soon. She was heading the right direction judging by the sun, and the sun doesn't just decide to come up in the south or somewhere else on a whim.

She should reach Gerlohel, the cluster of villages built a few miles away from the entrance to the Under Ice City soon, this was getting ridiculous.

Serake dodged under one of Mortaga's feet and got her tail trodden on. She squealed and started running in circles.

"That was your own fault!" Mortaga reprimanded, before realizing that she was talking to one of the stupidest species on the planet. Serake probably wouldn't listen even if she could understand.

Mortaga growled and lifted her foot up. Serake shot out and proceeded to buzz about the other foot.

Some things just never learn, do they?

Trying to clear a reasonable path and not tread on Serake again was quite a hard job, and Mortaga did not make as much progress as she would have liked. But she made a reasonable amount of progress by dark, and it was with satisfaction that she made another hollow much like the first and curled down.

Serake instantly leapt onto her and started gambolling over her, emitting high-pitched squeaks.

"Oh quiet down!" Mortaga burst out. Serake stopped, surprised for a moment, then continued as if nothing had happened.

These creatures were so relaxing and calm to be near to, weren't they...

Moaning in exasperation, Mortaga sat up again, all possibility of a peaceful rest eliminated.

"You need a name." She said tiredly. "I can't keep calling you Serake."

"Squee!" Serake squeaked and ran in circles.

"Squee to you too." Mortaga repeated back to her, annoyed.

"Squee!" Serake frisked in the snow, kicking a considerable amount into Mortaga's face.

Wiping it off in annoyance, Mortaga wondered how Serake owners managed to survive. These Serake had the most infuriating habits.

"Squee!" Serake ran in more circles happily.

"Fine. Squee it is then." Mortaga rolled her eyes.

"Squee!" Squee said for the third, or is it fourth, no, third time.

"Oh let's just go to bed!" Mortaga exclaimed in annoyance. "Come on, just give it a break!" She curled up again. Squee seemed to calm down a bit and curled down right in front of Mortaga's nose, so that Mortaga could smell the slightly musty smell of furry animal coming off her.

Scratching her behind the ears seemed effective to get her to calm down, and they were both soon asleep.

#

"HELP! Angetuga yelled, pushing and trying to worm her way out of the vines' grip. The eye blinked, but did not move.

"Prod the eye!" Some shouted advice. Angetuga didn't know who it was from, but it wasn't Grishgern. Too serious sounding.

"How do you expect me to do that?" Angetuga shouted hysterically.

"Stop! Don't move."

"I'm trying!" Angetuga shrieked, becoming very hysterical indeed.

"I mean let it take you!"

"Why in the Under Ice City would I do that?"

"Then poke the eye!"

"Oh, right!" Angetuga almost giggled, but checked herself just in time. What was wrong with her?

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she allowed the - well, the whatever it was - to take her. Being pulled along by large thing you can't see is rather nerve wracking, and if Angetuga was capable of producing sweat she would have broken out into a cold sweat by now.

Closer...

Closer...

Closer to the eye...

The eye blinked again, slowly and thoughtfully. It was large and green, almost as if it belonged to the plant.

But plants don't have eyes, right?

I hope not.

Anyway.

Angetuga was waging an internal war with her feet, doing her best not to allow them to sink themselves firmly into the ground and stop the thing in the bush from dragging her any closer.

It dragged her closer and closer...

Angetuga could smell something warm, damp and fetid that she tried not to think about. She couldn't help thinking subconsciously, however, that it was probably the thing's breath.

"Poke it! Now! That should distract it!" The voice.

Angetuga lifted her arm to assault the thing.

Or, she tried to.

While she had been focused on not losing balance and not stopping herself from being dragged closer, Angetuga had not noticed the creepers wrapping around her arms pinning them tightly to her sides.

"Poke it! Go on, now!"

"I CAN'T!" Angetuga screamed, completely loosing her cool. The thing in the bush was dragging her ever closer... "IT'S GOT MY ARMS!"

A scrambling sound came from behind her, and Angetuga tried to look around to see what it was. But yet more creepers had wrapped around her crest and she could not move much.

"HELP!!!" She screeched, now completely immobile.

"Be quiet!" An authoritative voice from behind her. "Don't waste your energy, you'll need it in a minute."

She was sure she knew that voice from somewhere before...

Something grabbed her tail and started pulling. Quite small hands, then.

Of course!

Kamuniya, the Kamu with the slight attitude and quiet disposition and strange name!

"Okay. Wriggle your legs." Kamuniya said from behind her. Angetuga obeyed, wriggling her now hardly moveable legs left and right.

The smell was definitely the thing's breath, Angetuga decided. It was very warm and wet, very revolting and the sort of smell that makes the air very thick, almost solid. Angetuga did her best not to breathe.

"This isn't working." Kamuniya was still perfectly calm. "Do your best to stay still."

"I - am!" Angetuga grunted, digging her heels further into the floor and leaning back as hard as she could.

"Good." Kamuniya nipped in front of her, and then dived into the bush. Angetuga gasped.

The tentacles released her almost immediately, and curled inwards. Angetuga, taking advantage of this, dived out the way and towards the door.

Wait.

She couldn't just abandon Kamuniya. He might need help. As if to back the thought up, a thumping sound emitted from the bush and a short yell.

Sprinting back, Angetuga stood next to the bush.

"Kamuniya, do you need help?" Angetuga asked rather stupidly, then realized. Stupid, he can't even answer!

Angetuga smacked herself mentally, and did her best to come up with another idea. Think, think, THINK Angetuga!

A small shriek emitted from the bush, Angetuga wasn't sure whether it was the bush creature or Kamuniya but whichever it was, it sounded nasty.

A few short moments of indecision passed, then Angetuga decided.

She was going in after Kamuniya!

Or maybe not.

Kamuniya appeared from the bush, limping badly and looking very nasty, but in one piece. He was dragging a strange thing that could only be the bush creature.

It looked sort of like an octopus that we get on earth in general shape: it had a ball-like body with one eye and two claws on the back; presumably to grab on to the bush with.

Many tentacles dragged along behind it, long and squirmy and very unpleasant. They were doing their best to attach to the bush again, but Kamuniya soon dragged them off again.

It also had teeth, Angetuga noticed with a jolt. Large, sharp teeth that looked very predatory, almost like knives. The puncture marks that littered Kamuniya's shoulder testified to that.

Kamuniya dragged it out of the room, back to the invisible room. The crowd of Yirini parted to let him pass; they did not want to be grabbed by the creature's still flailing tentacles.

Kamuniya dropped it in the middle of the room where it wriggled pointlessly. Angetuga noticed for the first time that it was green, presumably to blend in with the bush around it.

Kamuniya sighed and collapsed into a corner; he looked far worse than Angetuga had first thought, littered with cuts that were quite deep. A trail of small red drops marked his path in a rather gruesome fashion.

The Yirini were assembling around the creature, jumping back when it lashed out with a tentacle then closing back in once it ad retreated.

Angetuga, however, abandoned the thing and went over to Kamuniya.

"Are you alright?" She asked the second stupid question of the day.

Kamuniya said nothing.

"I can try to fix those up if you like." Angetuga continued, pointing at his shoulder and trying to be cheerful.

Still no response from Kamuniya.

"Are you going to answer me?" Angetuga asked a little irritatedly. Here she was, trying to talk, and he was ignoring her.

No response again.

"It takes two to make a conversation, you know." Angetuga frowned irritably.

Kamuniya said nothing, but looked firmly at where the crowd of Yirini were once again advancing.

"Fine." Angetuga growled. "Be like that."

"You know this is all your fault, don't you?" Kamuniya spoke for the first time.

"W-" Angetuga stopped, surprised. When she stopped to think about it, it was really all her fault. She should have listened to the Narlu. He had been right before, hadn't he? "I'm sorry..."

"Don't be." Kamuniya growled. "What's the point. You'll just do it again."

"No!" Angetuga exclaimed, shocked. "I'll never do it again!"

"You will." Kamuniya said in a low voice. "Your kind always do. You may not mean to, but your type are doomed to repeat your mistakes over and over until one day they will all catch up with you..."

"I won't." Angetuga said decisively. "I never will."

"I've met hundreds of your kind." Kamuniya sighed. "At first I hoped I was wrong about you, but... ah well."

"No. I won't. I'll be different."

"They all say that. You all have the best of intentions, but..."

"Well I will!"

"Go and leave me in peace. I'm tired out from saving your scales."

Angetuga left him to sleep quietly, feeling immensely guilty. Well, she wouldn't do anything like that again, whatever happened! Whatever he meant by what he had said was wrong, and Angetuga was out to prove it!

"You okay?" A voice behind her made Angetuga start. She spun around to see Grishgern behind her.

"You scared me!" She exclaimed.

"I was about to say the same thing!" Grishgern replied. "Never do that again!"

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Well, You did walk right into an unknown room filled with strange things..."

"Grishgern, If you're going to have the same attitude as him," Angetuga pointed at Kamuniya dozing in the corner, "then I'm out of here, Things in bushes or no things in bushes."

"What do you mean?" Grishgern asked, genuinely curious.

"Oh, he was spouting off something about how he 'knows my type' and 'your mistakes will catch up with you' and other nonsense..."

"Really? Sounds like somebody got a good talking to!" Grishgern chuckled.

"Stop it, Grishgern." Angetuga complained. "I think he was talking about the kind of mistakes I made. He said how I'm 'your type are doomed to repeat your mistakes over and over until one day they will all catch up with you' and all that kind of thing."

"Sounds quite creepy." Grishgern shuddered. "I don't like people who talk like that."

"Me neither." Angetuga grinned.

"They make me shiver..."

"Same here."

"I don't know what it is."

"I think it's the way they talk, all mystical."

"Yes, I think so."

"Hey, Angetuga?"

"Yes, Grishgern?"

"Promise you won't do that again."

"What?"

"Charge into a room like that."

"Yes, I won't. I've learned my lesson." Angetuga laughed ruefully.

"I think he's learned it for you." Grishgern muttered under her breath.

"What?" Angetuga inquired.

"Nothing."

"No, what?"

"Nothing!" Grishgern snapped uncharacteristically. Angetuga stared for a minute, then backed off nervously.

"What's wrong, Grishgern?" She asked a little worriedly.

Grishgern lost it. "What's wrong? What's wrong? Look at him, Angetuga! Take a good look. That's all your fault, Angetuga, all your fault. If you had just listened to Narlugaru none of this would have happened. So think, next time. Think, unless you want someone to die next time!"

Angetuga opened her mouth, about to snap back how Grishgern was talking nonsense.

And then she closed it again. Was she talking nonsense?

She shot a nervous glance at Kamuniya, and then glanced away again before he noticed her gaze.

He really did look bad.

And he did look bad because he'd jumped into a bush to save her life.

Angetuga chewed at the side of her lip. What really hurt was that she hadn't gone to help him. She had stood outside the bush and fretted, while he fought with that monstrous octopus...

Angetuga sighed and wondered whether she should just curl up in a corner and vanish from existence for a while. Maybe for a long time. Maybe forever.

She didn't, however, but went over to the edge of the glass and stared out at the slowly moving stars.

Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed!

🦅—Aquila