Fraggle Rock: Elder Clan Adventures

[RedPiggy]

Author’s Note: I don’t own Fraggles, not even this story, which is based on Red’s favorite adventure series, The Elder Clan Adventures. First mentioned in Cave of One’s Own (though the Princess’s name was slightly different than subsequent mentions), it’s also mentioned in Red’s Blue Dragon and the costume at least is seen in Ring Around the Rock. I’ll try REAL hard not to have original characters … hopefully I can dig up enough ancient Fraggles to flesh out the story.

Prologue

The Princess brushed her long blonde hair, noting with satisfaction the bright red highlights that accentuated her dark golden fur. She stared at the mirror.

“You seem awfully content this morning,” said the mirror, which was topped with an enchanted bronze face and spoke with a prim and proper female voice.

The Princess nodded, her voice filled with enthusiasm. “I just can’t wait to get started today!” she exclaimed with a large grin. “I’ll crack that blue rock if it’s the last thing I do.”

“But it could take days to get there!” the mirror protested. “Who will polish me?”

“Oh, Crooner is supposed to stop by today. I’ll ask him.”

The mirror lowered her eyelids and stared at the Princess in disbelief. “You’d ask a sacred Minstrel to take care of me?”

“Well,” the Princess replied with a little hesitation, “he said he wanted to help.” The Princess placed a silvery metal helmet on her head and draped herself in a magical dark blue cape. She turned to the mirror that was roughly a foot-and-a-half taller than she was, and she was only two-and-a-half feet tall. “Well, what do you think?”

“I can see you,” the mirror replied dryly.

The Princess moaned. “I know you can see me, you know. I’m not trying to be invisible yet!”

The mirror sighed. “Well, good luck, Gwen,” she said sadly.

The Princess’s face drooped in sadness, her long golden tail drooping. She patted the mirror on the back. “I’ll be back … don’t worry!” She smiled just as she approached the door to her cave. She turned and smiled, her tail flicking up and down. “I don’t fear anything! I’m a shoe-in to crack the blue rock!”

Princess Gwen scampered down the long tunnels, dodging left and right, flicking away spiderflies with a long stick she just happened upon. She started to sing a rousing marching song, praising herself for all her exploits, such as leading the Fraggles away from the Great Hall when a massive explosion blew a huge hole at the top of the ceiling and that day she made a peace treaty with the King of the Doozers, who hadn’t been a Doozer at all, but a small rodent-like creature with a smart mouth.

She passed some Doozers, little green creatures only six inches high, carving blocks out of a pile of gray mushrooms. Sometimes it frustrated Fraggles to see Doozers chip away at their dietary staple, but Princess Gwen had made a peace treaty after all. Doozers would keep Fraggles informed of any dangers that may escape a Fraggle’s notice in return for being allowed to carve mushroom blocks.

“Hey! Wait up!” cried a tiny voice from behind.

Princess Gwen stopped and looked down. A tiny male Doozer huffed and puffed, tiny beads around his neck chinking in rhythm. “How can I help you, Little Doozer?”

“We found burning fur this morning over by the Crystal Cavern,” he replied wearily as he bent over to catch his breath. “It’s the strangest thing … the stuff doesn’t even burn.”

“I thought you just said --.”

The tiny Doozer shook his head. “It’s on fire, but isn’t turning to ash like everything else does.” He paused. “It’s weird.” He reared back his head to see the Fraggle’s face. “I just thought you might want to check it out, uh, Princess Gwenalot?”

The Fraggle Princess smirked. “It’s Gwenelyn … but I think I might just like your version better,” she told him politely. She patted him on the head before racing off. “Thanks a lot!” she yelled as she disappeared through a tunnel.

The Doozer stared in the direction she went and shrugged. “I didn’t even get a chance to tell her where it was.”

Soon Princess Gwen (or Gwenalot, as she had decided to call herself on her new adventure) found a small group of Fraggles weaving. They muttered and mumbled and tried to avoid eye contact. Princess Gwenalot stood there motionless, save for tapping her foot expectantly. She cleared her throat.

One Fraggle lifted a small cap from her head and the Princess saw that she was bald. The female Fraggle, pink with small bone earrings adorning the sides of her face, spoke softly. “The Rock will stop soon. We have to make hats so we don’t freeze.”

Princess Gwenalot nodded and leaned closer, noting that the group scooted away from her slightly. “Is there, um, anything I can do to help?”

The bald Fraggles with caps looked at each other and shook their heads. “You have hair, you wouldn’t understand.”

Princess Gwenalot frowned and placed her hands huffily on her hips. “What is that supposed to mean? Just because I have hair doesn’t mean I don’t care about hairless Fraggles.”

Another golden Fraggle piped up. “My brother Fishface says the Fraggles with hair are spoiled and lazy.”

“Yeah, and they just go off on adventures and leave the rest of us to freeze,” said another Fraggle.

“What?” Princess Gwenalot shrieked. “We’re not lazy! How dare this Fishface Fraggle say such ugly things about us? We’re all just the same!”

“Says a Princess,” muttered Fishface’s sister bitterly.

Princess Gwenalot growled in fury and stomped off, leaving behind a bunch of self-absorbed, muttering Fraggles. After a couple of hours had passed and after eating some ripe mushmellons with mushrooms on the side, Princess Gwenalot flopped down next a bubbling stream and threw a pebble into it in frustration. “It’s not bad to be a Princess,” she whimpered.

 

[The Count]

Of course it's not bad. *Pat/hugs Gwenalot. People in power often have to weigh the concerns of the immediate with the problems of the masses. What was that old saying... Weary is the head that wears the crown? At any rate, cheer up, there's bound to be some understanding as to your adventure from some Fraggle.

Thanks for this Kelly, keep posting when you can.

 

[Redsonga]

*hee* We think a lot alike, I was just thinking of doing an Elder Clan Adventures..thing (someday), in fact, All Hallows is tied to my ideas on that time. Although, my version is a lot more Camelot-y..
It's interesting that you put them so far back in time to where fraggles were still hair less, I thought that was more like the fraggle stone ages than middle ages . But anyway, I will be reading :3.

(And who ever said making up your own characters was a bad thing if the story needs it? I mean, when you only have one or two characters that are canon in that time period there really is no danger of the OCs taking over, since without them to interact with the main character there would not be much of a story, would there ?)

I think the Elder Clan is a lot like our human stories of Robin Hood, there is no one true right way to write them, as the stories are suppose to be so old...
*waits*

 

[RedPiggy]

The goal is to have 37 chapters, since Red mentions she's read 37 books in the series.

I was SO afraid that I had stepped on your toes, Redsonga, but I tried looking everywhere for hints that you were on that subject. I knew you wanted to do something maybe with the Fraggle Wars, but I'm going to try real hard not to swipe anything from you. I put them back so far because I thought you might make it a wee bit more recent (you prefer Middle Ages for the Stone Age for this plot, etc). If you've read The Baby Fraggle or The Weapon, then you've seen two one-shots that sort of evolved into this (though those two fics will stay in my "universe", as it were, they're not really necessary to read ... but I don't want this to conflict with anything I've written so far). Also, I'm going to play with a lot of thoughts I've had about various incidents mentioned or alluded to in the show, including the relationship between the Cave and the Rock.

 

[Redsonga]

The goal is to have 37 chapters, since Red mentions she's read 37 books in the series.

I was SO afraid that I had stepped on your toes, Redsonga, but I tried looking everywhere for hints that you were on that subject. I knew you wanted to do something maybe with the Fraggle Wars, but I'm going to try real hard not to swipe anything from you. I put them back so far because I thought you might make it a wee bit more recent (you prefer Middle Ages for the Stone Age for this plot, etc). If you've read The Baby Fraggle or The Weapon, then you've seen two one-shots that sort of evolved into this (though those two fics will stay in my "universe", as it were, they're not really necessary to read ... but I don't want this to conflict with anything I've written so far). Also, I'm going to play with a lot of thoughts I've had about various incidents mentioned or alluded to in the show, including the relationship between the Cave and the Rock.

Dah, it's okay . I mean being as we are so different our fics are bound to be really different to . And like King Arthur and Robin Hood to us I'm sure the fraggles have more than one version of the Elder Clan to...Just how there are King Arthur and His Knights, The Sword In The Stone, Merlin, The Mists of Avalon etc... I'll probably call it The Golden Apple Chronicles or something .

Oh, about the Fraggle Wars, I was never going to write about them so much as hint at them in Everything Seems To Sing. I really dislike war and don't like writing about it in any great detail...

 

[The Count]

Ah... But the Golden Apple led to a great and momentous war... The Trojan War. And of course, that brought us, wait for it, the Trojan Fraggle!
You could always tweak that great literary/mythical conflict into Fragglian lore though. LMK if you'd need help with that Becky. And I look forward to both your fics. Too bad some of my faves haven't been updated in sooooooo looooooong a while.

 

[RedPiggy]

Well, I for one get a kick out of Red reading from that story about the Blue Dragon in A Cave of One's Own. My fic will attempt to match her ... zeal ... for drama and action.

 

[Redsonga]

Ah... But the Golden Apple led to a great and momentous war... The Trojan War. And of course, that brought us, wait for it, the Trojan Fraggle!
You could always tweak that great literary/mythical conflict into Fragglian lore though. LMK if you'd need help with that Becky. And I look forward to both your fics. Too bad some of my faves haven't been updated in sooooooo looooooong a while.

*lol* Was that a hint?
Anyway...Nooo, Troy can stay right where it is . I heard so much about it since my ma's name is Helen I just could not write it over again. But I am all for writing Red's zeal..it's not that different from mine ...and dragon slaying is not the same as war

 

[RedPiggy]

Chapter 1

Princess Gwenalot awoke from her nap, stretching and knocking over her metal helmet with a clang, making some random critters skitter away. She looked around and gasped as she saw a cloud of mist in the air. She jumped up and it appeared again, right in front of her face. She rubbed her eyes and realized that it was her breath fogging in the cold tunnel.

She looked around for some mushrooms to eat, but she soon heard strumming of some stringed instrument farther down in the tunnel. The Princess wrapped herself in her cape, plopped her helmet on her head, and walked down the tunnel to see the source off the music.

In a rather large cave, a lone Fraggle with slicked-back black hair and blue-green skin sat on a large boulder, balancing precariously on a pillar of loose rocks. He had a rough deep voice as he sang:

Well, if your baby leaves you,
and you got a tale to tell.
Just take a walk down lonely street
to Heartbreak Hotel.

You’ll be so lonely baby,
your gonna be lonely,
you’ll be so lonely you could die.
Oh although it's always crowded,
you still can find some room.
For broken hearted lovers to cry away their gloom.
They've been so lonely baby, well they're so lonely,
they're so lonely they could die….

Princess Gwenalot tightened the cape around her as she approached the singer. She looked up, her voice still rather dazed from sleeping for so long. “Crooner? What are you doing here?”

Crooner’s face brightened and he leapt off the boulder, nearly making it crash to the cave floor. He dusted himself off and smiled as widely as he could. “Gwenelyn!”

“Gwenalot.”

Crooner tilted his head in confusion. He smiled again though and patted her strongly on her back. “Hey, you know what, Baby? If you’re goin’ undercover, you gotta come up with a better alias than that.” He walked over to a flowing white robe that was sparkling with glitter. He winked at her. “I heard you were comin’ over to Blue Rock. I wanted to help you out before you got there.”

“Thanks, but --.”

“No,” he replied, shaking his head, “don’t thank me! That Rock will make you see what you fear most – and I already know what you fear most, baby girl.”

Princess Gwenalot sighed and rubbed her snout in frustration. Her voice sounded resigned, “I thought a sacred Minstrel would keep his mind on singing.”

Crooner chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, gently blowing her hair from her face. He told her softly, with a smirk, “Now you know song-writin’ is more effective when you’ve experienced it firsthand….”

She pushed him away and kicked a pebble, keeping her eyes downcast. “Then get used to singing that song you just sung,” she retorted, frowning. “I’m a Princess. You’re a sacred Minstrel --.”

“There’s sacredness all around us, Gwen … alot,” he replied with a hurt, quiet tone. “I don’t intend to just sing about life … I want to enjoy it, too.” He sadly plucked some strings of his guitar and sighed, keeping his eyes downcast. “You make me happy each time I see you.” He looked up at her, his eyes pleading. “In fact, you’re the reason my heart can sing.”

Princess Gwenalot looked away, biting her lip. She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I know, I know,” she replied sadly, nodding. “I’m your inspiration and your glory.” She finally found the courage to glance at the Minstrel. “Still, I take my job seriously. You should take yours seriously, too.” Before he could respond, she held her hand up. “Please, Crooner, I told my magic mirror you’d go help her while I’m on my journey. If you need to give companionship to anyone, give it to her … she actually is lonely.”

Crooner looked on as his Princess walked away, not looking back. “Ouch,” he whispered to himself.

Author’s Note: The good news is, I’ve already plotted out all 37 chapters in brief abstracts. The bad news is, I’ll be lucky to update once a week, at least until this semester is over. I’ll try to catch up on Thanksgiving break. And although it seems like I’m playing with continuity (well, I am, but still…), if you recall, Fraggles who had hair was banished (“better bald than banished!”) … so Gwenalot and other Fraggles can still have hair while Fishface is around.

 

[The Count]

Good start... Sorry for Crooner. Need more please.