"There's No Place Like Home" was an AWESOME ep!
The Opposite of “Found”
Far from the Great Hall, far from most Fraggles, two female Fraggles skipped along a remote tunnel, humming a cheerful melody. Eventually, the slightly bigger one, a female Fraggle with lavender skin, deep maroon lashes, and pink long hair with purple strands here and there, stopped. Her voice suggested permanent wonder of all around her. “You know, Tosh, I wonder if Wembley will go to Outer Space. I hope he doesn’t get hurt out there.”
Tosh, a smaller pink female Fraggle with pale algae-tinged hair, sighed as she tugged on the red leash holding a large lion-like creature with a golden mane. “I’m sure Wembley will be fine, Lou. Rock forbid any of those Fraggle Five not go for fame and glory.”
Lou gasped. “Tosh … where did that come from? We were all invited to that Silly Creature contest. You sound … almost … bitter.”
The lion-like creature sauntered up to its owner and licked it tenderly, trying to comfort her. Tosh groaned, her voice getting louder and louder. “Boober acted like he wanted a safe, normal life. I knew he had a crush on … on … that Fraggle, but I offered a kind of calm anonymity I thought he’d enjoy! That Fraggle has completely lost her gourd!”
“You’re jealous!” Lou exclaimed in shock.
Tosh snorted. “I am not!”
Lou smiled teasingly. “You are! You are you are you are,” she chanted melodiously.
Tosh shook her head. “I’m not jealous – I’m hurt, Lou!” she retorted, frowning. “I thought it meant something when Boober hung out with me. All Boober ever said he wanted was to do his laundry and keep out of trouble. That kind of thing is impossible hanging out with Gobo and his friends! I feel like he promised me a reward for running an errand for him … only to discover he already had the thing he sent me to find!”
Lou hung her head. “You feel betrayed?” she asked quietly.
Tosh nodded, her tail drooping. “Yeah,” she replied solemnly. “He gave me the cold shoulder.”
Lou frowned and shuddered. “Your shoulder’s not the only one that’s cold.”
They headed down the tunnel and came across a hole filled with ice. They looked at each other. Tosh’s lion-like creature took one paw and broke the ice, shattering it. A stiff icy breeze nearly numbed their noses.
“M-maybe we s-should have p-packed mittens,” Lou chattered helpfully.
<><><><><><>
The Storyteller sighed, dusting the furniture in her cave. She was one of the few Fraggles to have an actual door, so she could concentrate on creating her tales in solitude. The older a Fraggle got, the further from the Great Hall they tended to live. Oh, near-constant singing and dancing was fun and all, but as they got older, they realized there could be a great deal of fun in “retirement” as well. She had her long graying pink hair tied up so she could clean without having to blow strands of hair from her face every so often. She stopped momentarily to wipe the sweat from around her glasses.
A knock on the door startled her, making her chirp in fear. She opened it to find Cantus, who had orange-yellow skin, red tufts of hair on either side of his head, as well as a red goatee, which was starting to gray. He wore a simple purple robe, his twin flute tucked neatly into a long pocket. “Cantus!” the Storyteller exclaimed. “What … a surprise! I didn’t hear you approach.”
Cantus barely shook his head. “I didn’t want the others to hear me come.” He paused for a long time, though the Storyteller was used to that from him. “I want you to come with me.”
Storyteller sighed and took his hand in both of hers. “Cantus,” she told him frankly, “you know your sister would do absolutely anything for you … but you gotta stop all this ‘come’ and ‘go’ nonsense.” She patted his hand. “If I wanted to just up and wander places … I would have gone with Matthew.” She sighed and retreated back into her cave and plopped down on a small blue cushion. She waved for him to enter, her voice one of experience with his vagueness. “Come on … out with it, Cantus. What’s the deal this time?”
Cantus slowly entered, leaning against the doorway. His voice stayed mellow, but the Storyteller could detect a faint hint of impatience growing. Strange, she thought, that that would happen so close to the beginning of the conversation. Usually it took him at least ten minutes to get frustrated. “I want you to see something.”
Storyteller leaned forward, frowning. “Cantus, if you’re taking me out on a camping trip to look at blooming cave lilies again….”
“The Rock is not just the Rock,” Cantus replied (sort of). “The Rock is also the Cave. It is also a great many other places no one ever sees … not even Matt.”
“Cantus, the story’s dragging, dear,” the Storyteller lectured. “Pick up the pace or your audience’ll fall asleep.” She leaned back. “We’re not getting any younger.”
Cantus frowned briefly. “Do you remember me telling you of young Gobo at the time of the Festival of the Bells many years ago?”
The Storyteller nodded. “Yeah, little guy wanted to prove the location of the Heart of the Rock. So what?” She wagged a finger at her sage brother. “You and I know where it is. What’s the big deal?”
Cantus shook his head. “That was not the point….”
The Storyteller groaned, exasperated. “The point was you wanted him to listen to his heart. We all know that, Cantus. It’s your main theme. You go on and on about it.” She shrugged, wanting to change the subject. “Want some cider?”
“No, thank you,” he replied absent-mindedly. He walked over to a large plaid cushion and sat down gingerly, exhaling with relief. He scratched his head. “I have found other Hearts in my travels, Sis,” he continued wearily. “All are magic and all bring light.” He stared at his younger sister. “I want two Fraggles to look for the strangest Heart of all.”
Storyteller laughed, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “Let me guess: uh, Mokey Fraggle, and, uh, let’s see … uh, who else would be suckered … er … inspired … to go along with one of your new missions?”
“Actually, I planned on sending Tosh and Lou from the Rock.”
The Storyteller’s eyelids opened more fully. “Tosh and Lou? Why them, of all Fraggles?”
Cantus smirked. “Because they need to have a verse.”
“Here we go,” Storyteller grumbled. “Tosh and Lou felt underappreciated and useless and third-tier. Helpful ol’ Cantus will give them a sense of importance --.”
“They already have importance,” Cantus interrupted curtly. “I only wish to help them see that for themselves.”
<><><><><><>
“I’m with Beastie,” Tosh said emphatically, watching her lion-like creature shiver and pull away from the hole leading to an icy tunnel. “I’m not going in there.”
“But Cantus said we were looking for something,” Lou replied in a whining tone. “I would say we found something, right?”
“Exactly … it’s found,” Tosh retorted. “Let’s go back to the Rock.” She saw Lou approach the hole, despite the cold. “Lou, it’s not the time of year for the Rock to slow down and get covered in ice yet. What if we go in there and spread that cold to the whole Rock?”
Lou shot Tosh a harsh glance. “You’d rather Gobo or Boober get all the glory?”
Tosh sat down on her knees, her tail swaying back and forth. “What if there isn’t any glory in there? What if it’s blame?”
Lou stared at Tosh for several minutes, the only sound being the wailing of the icy breeze. “You know Tosh, I don’t know why Boober and you didn’t work out either,” she said finally, inhaling deeply and plunging into the hole.
Tosh finally dragged Beastie with her through the hole, shivering, and coming out into a cave that seemed half as tall and wide as the Great Hall. All of the walls and the floor were covered in ice, and there were no plants at all. The first thing really strange Tosh noticed was a series of planks of wood sticking out of a wall to her right, about four feet or so off the ground, smothered in ice. Tosh finally noticed Beastie staring at something to her left. It was a gigantic stone pillar. Beastie pulled Tosh toward the other side of the pillar. There stood Lou, shivering, her head moving back and forth as if reading something. Tosh joined Lou and noticed a set of Fragglish inscriptions carved into the pillar. Beastie, meanwhile, was jerking its paws off the icy floor one at a time, trying not to freeze to the ground.
Lou pointed at a squiggly line just underneath a lantern made of copper or something. “That one says ‘Rhythm’.”
Tosh squinted. It was hard to make out some of the symbols for all the ice. She pointed at a small tree creature engraving. “That one is ‘Rise’, right?”
Lou nodded. “The little box with the line sticking out at the bottom is ‘Dream’ and … and … I can’t seem to make out some of it because the frost is in the way,” she noted curiously, with a tinge of frustration. She scanned the rest of the images as they went down the pillar. There were a couple of box pictographs, a large tree-creature, and a set of three vertical lines. “Hm,” Lou continued, “it says, ‘ Password’, ‘Promise’, ‘something something’.” Lou’s eyelids widened as she grabbed Tosh in amazement. “Tosh, do you know what this is?”
Tosh nodded, jumping up and down, partly for her excitement and partly to encourage more circulation in her near-frozen tissues. “It’s the Carol of the Festival of the Bells!” she screamed. As if it were going to burst out of them at any moment, they began to sing:
There's a rhythm.
There's a rising.
There's a dream of green that needs to wake,
A password,
And a promise,
That the earth will never ever break.
It's coming,
Feel it humming,
In the hearts we share with rock and sky so raise … your … voices… high. . .
A tiny light inside the lantern started to flicker before disappearing. Tosh and Lou laughed and headed toward the hole. They gasped.
It wasn’t there.
<><><><><><>
Cantus finished his cup of cider and handed it to his sister, who placed it neatly in a bin filled with all her other dirty dishes. He licked his lips. “You always did make the best cider.”
Storyteller shrugged one shoulder. “It’s a gift,” she replied casually. She turned toward him, placing her hands on her hips. “Now, why do you want me to go with you to this ‘new Heart’ thing, huh, Cantus? I tell stories … I don’t go out trying to find them. I let them come to me.”
Cantus motioned for her to come closer. When she did so, he whispered into her ear for a few moments. The Storyteller’s tail drooped.
“I will be waiting at the Crystal Caverns tomorrow morning,” Cantus said, standing and nodding as he left the Storyteller’s cave.
The Storyteller had been standing outside her cave for several moments after Cantus left, when Wembley came bounding toward her. “Hey!” he screeched. “Miss Storyteller, uh, ma’am? I need your help with a story!” He was bouncing up and down in anticipation.
The Storyteller felt like she was in a haze that was sapping her energy. “Uh, okay … what story do you want to hear?”
Wembley shook his head. “No no … I’m writing a story about our adventures in Outer Space!” he replied exuberantly. “I need some help, though.” He put a finger on his lower lip as he began to think. “Now, do you know anything about magical water fairies?” He chuckled. “I want to bounce some ideas off of you about why that one magical water fairy was in the Rock….”
Author’s Note: Raise your hand if you think the four-toed statue might represent a Gorg. … (crickets chirp) … Well, I guess it’s just me, huh?
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Although, it does appear that a theme is evolving; namely, getting "lost" and "comin' back".