Chapter 17
Morning crept up upon the Gorg’s garden slowly. Marjory awoke with a long yawn, as she stretched her arms out at her side sparks of "Magic" glittered off of them. Philo and Gunge noticed this, of course, and gasped in unison.
"Morning boys, sleep well?" Marjory asked.
"Marjory, is d’at Magic I see?" Gunge asked.
Marjory fumbled her arms around, tucking them against her body. "Um, Magic? Heh, don’t be silly Gungey, why would I have any Magic on me?"
"She’s got a point there, Gunge," Philo said. "Marjory hasn’t been doin’ any Magic."
"Well I did wake up last night to some sort of ruckus," Gunge said. "I couldn’t really tell what it was, but maybe Marjory has an idea?" Gunge asked.
Marjory bit her lip, "Oh Gunge, you’re so silly. It was probably just one of those Gorgs."
"Yeah, if you say so," Gunge said.
Marjory twiddled her thumbs as she tried to think of a way to cover this up. "Yes, yes, it was the young Gorg!" Marjory shouted.
"Oh well that explains it," Philo said.
"Mmhm, yes," Marjory said, "he was trying to convince his father to free the Doozers."
"Oh yeah," Gunge said. "D’at is the softy Gorg, isn’t it?"
"Oh yes, indeed," Marjory said. The boys were buying it hook, line, and sinker. "Though he has a point, the Doozers shouldn’t have been captured by the Gorgs."
"True, true," Philo said, "but it ain’t like we can do anything about it."
"Yeah," Gunge said.
"Ooh, that’s where you’re wrong boys," Marjory said. "I just so happen to have a little plan for you."
Marjory grabbed the two rats and brought them close to her mouth where she whispered her plan into their ears.
"You want us to do what?" Gunge asked as Marjory laid the two rats back down.
Philo shook his head. "Nuh uh, no way Marjory!" he said.
"Oh, come now boys," Marjory said. "Won’t you just do me this one little favor? Please? Think of all the Doozers you’ll be helping out."
"Dumb Doozers, what’d they ever do for us?" Gunge asked.
"More than you’d believe!" Marjory shouted. "Now go on you two, off to talk some bravery into Junior Gorg!"
The two rats muttered as they walked off into the main part of the garden to find Junior Gorg and convince him to liberate the Doozers and save Fraggle Rock.
"I t’ink we’ve got our work cut out for us here, Philo," Gunge said.
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Boober shook nervously as he looked at his alter-ego, who was also shaking, but not nervously, instead, he was shaking his groove thing.
"Wahoo!" Sidebottom shouted. "It’s so nice to be out of that brain of yours again, Boober! It’s just too clean!"
"Sidebottom, of all the times for bad timing, this is a bad time," Boober said.
"Oh, Boober, look at you," Sidebottom said, "speaking in riddles! I must be rubbin’ off on ya, pal!"
"That wasn’t a riddle!" Boober snapped. "I’m serious!"
Sidebottom stopped dancing. "Well, don’t you think I know that?" Sidebottom asked. "I see the same things you do, silly Boober."
Boober gulped. "Y-you do?"
"Yep, that’s why I’m here!" Sidebottom said. "To help you save Fraggle Rock!"
"Thanks but no thanks," Boober said. "I don’t think yours is the kind of help we need."
"Oh well I beg to differ, Boober," Cotterpin said. "I think we need all the help we can get."
"Oh hello there!" Sidebottom shouted, just remembering Cotterpin was at his feet. "You must be Cotterpin, Boober’s Doozer friend," Sidebottom said. "I’m Sidebottom, I know you, but I’m afraid Boober hasn’t let me out to meet you."
Cotterpin giggled. "Nice to meet you Sidebottom, I like your hat."
"You do? Really?" Sidebottom asked. "You’re the first person to ever tell me that, Cotterpin!"
"Oh, come on," Cotterpin said. "You must be joking."
"Normally, yes," Sidebottom said, "but not this time. I always hated this hat actually. Here, you have it!" Sidebottom said. He lifted his large hat off of his head and put it on top of Cotterpin. All of Cotterpin.
"Oops," Sidebottom said, putting the hat back on his own head. "Hm, well that didn’t work. I know, why don’t you ride on my hat!"
"Oh that would be great," Cotterpin said. "Boober’s hat gets itchy after awhile."
"Hey!" Boober shouted. "I do not have an itchy hat! I was it with radish-starch twice a day!"
"Maybe that’s why it’s itchy," Sidebottom said as he positioned Cotterpin on top of his head. "So, where’re we headed?"
"We are headed nowhere," Boober said, "but Cotterpin and I are going back to Fraggle Rock to tell them about Large Marvin and Feeny falling out of the tunnel."
"Oh dear, that does sound bad," Sidebottom said. "Well, off we go then!"
"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Boober said. "I said you aren’t going with us."
"Silly Boober," Sidebottom said in a high-voice. "I don’t have a choice!"
Boober opened his mouth to retort, but all he could muster was a sigh. "Alright fine," Boober said. "Just don’t cause a disturbance when we get back."
"You got it," Sidebottom said.
>< >< >< >< ><
"Hello Fraggles! My name’s Sidebottom! Who wants to party?"
Boober slapped his head and groaned. Today was not going how he’d hoped.
"Party? This is no time for a party! This is time for war!" a Fraggle shouted.
"War?" Sidebottom asked. "Boober, what’s war?"
Boober gulped. "Nothing fun," he said.
"Oh, then it should be right up your cave!" Sidebottom said.
"Not really," Boober said. "Come on, we need to find the World’s Oldest Fr-"
The World’s Oldest Fraggle popped up right behind Boober. "You called?"
Sidebottom laughed as Boober jumped from the cave floor. "Oh I’m glad we found him, he seems fun!"
"Thank ya sonny," World’s Oldest said. "So Boober, did you and your Doozer friend find any incriminating evidence on your journey to the hole in the cave?" World’s Oldest asked. "Say, didn’t you have three or four other Fraggles with you too?"
"Large Marvin and Feeny," Boober said.
"Oh yes, from behind it looked like a few more," World’s Oldest said.
"Well that’s why we came back in such a hurry, World’s Oldest," Boober said. "Large Marvin and Feeny fell out of the hole into the Gorg’s garden!"
"Did they now?" World’s Oldest asked. "Well, then it’s a good thing we’re goin’ to war! We’ll have something to fight for besides Doozers!"
"Hey!" Cotterpin shouted from her perch on Sidebottom’s hat. "Doozers are important too!"
"Yes, yes," World’s Oldest said, "but not as important as Fraggles of course." World’s Oldest looked out into the crowd of Fraggles, all of them making new things called "weapons" and "armor" which were nearly-foreign words to them.
"Well if you boys will excuse me, I have to go command my troops," World’s Oldest said. "Oh, and Boober, you and your friend here need to suit up! We’ll need every Fraggle if we want to save the Rock!"
Boober looked at Sidebottom, his expression begging for advice. Sidebottom shrugged. "Sounds like a game," Sidebottom said. "I say we head out to war!"
"But… it’s not a game," Boober said quietly, that wasn’t the advice he was hoping for either.
"That’s the spirit, kiddo!" World’s Oldest said, wrapping his arm around Sidebottom. "I like this Fraggle, Boober, where’d you say he was from again?"
"Oh, trust me," Sidebottom said. "You don’t want to know."
>< >< >< >< ><
Cantus sat on a rock in silence. He hadn’t spoken since Convincing John’s performance.
Mokey, however, was pacing back and forth in the cave, shouting questions for no one to answer.
"How could Convincing John convince the Fraggles to go to war? I mean, convincing them to not eat Doozer towers is one thing, but this is just- ugh!
"And who does the World’s Oldest Fraggle think he is? Demanding every Fraggles goes to war, he doesn’t even really care about the Doozers!
"And don’t even get me started on the Gorgs! How could they capture the Doozers? Don’t they know how much we all need Doozers? They just don’t care!"
"Exactly," Cantus whispered. His whisper was loud enough to silence Mokey and echo off the cavern walls.
Mokey turned to face Cantus’ back. He stared down at the cave floor. "They Gorgs do not care," Cantus whispered. "The Fraggles do not care. The Doozers do not care."
Mokey took a few steps closer to Cantus.
"They don’t even care that they don’t care," Cantus said. "I wonder if they care about Perfect Harmony."
"They don’t know about Perfect Harmony, Cantus," Mokey said quietly.
Cantus slowly turned around and looked Mokey directly in the eyes. She immediately felt a sense of knowledge she hadn’t felt before, just by meeting Cantus’ gaze. "They know, Mokey," Cantus said. "They just do not know that they know."
Mokey realized that she had always known about Perfect Harmony. She realized that she always knew how to reach it. She realized that she never did anything to fight for it. All this from one gaze into Cantus’ eyes.
"We must rely on everyday Magic," Cantus said. "That’s the only way we can hope for Perfect Harmony to be reached."
"Everyday Magic?" Mokey asked. "Oh, you mean like a miracle."
Cantus shook his head. "Magic is as Magic does," he said slowly. "Miracles do what Magic does."
Mokey nodded, not understanding entirely what Cantus meant (but then again, what else was new?). "Well is there anything we can do?" Mokey asked.
"Listen," Cantus said. "Sit, and listen."
Mokey sat down on the cave floor in silence with Cantus perched on the rock. The two Fraggles sat, listening to the music of the caves.
"Music… music in the air," Cantus said with a voice of relief. "The music is moving everywhere again Mokey," Cantus said.
"What do you mean?" Mokey asked.
"The music has been silent since Gobo, Red, and Wembley left," Cantus said, "but it is back, so something must be going right."
Mokey closed her eyes and listened with a smile on her face. Keep going you guys, she thought to herself, hoping that her thoughts could be heard by Gobo, Red, and Wembley, wherever they were.
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Wembley’s grasp on Red’s sweater loosened. The little green Fraggle opened his eyes, even though he knew he was still afraid of fall off Sprocket’s back.
The little green Fraggle felt something speak to him for a brief moment.
"Keep going, Sprocket!" Wembley shouted.
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