Chapter 19
Gobo ran ahead of Red and Wembley, coming into the Great Hall of Fraggle Rock first. He stopped suddenly, causing Wembley and Red to run into his back. The three Fraggles got up from the cold cave floor they’d fallen upon and stared into the eerily quiet Great Hall.
The twisted Fraggle horn sat in the middle of the dark Hall upon a rock shaped as a pedestal.
Wembley gulped and shifted his feet. "Maybe—maybe they’re all taking naps," the green Fraggle proposed quietly.
Red nodded swiftly. "Yeah, that must be it! I’ll just go blow the horn and wake them up! Then all of the Fraggles can come help us find Uncle Matt!" Red ran off hopefully towards the stone horn. She stood in front of the mouthpiece and inhaled deeply, her inhalation echoing through the empty cave.
The spunky Fraggle put all her might into a loud, powerful blow of the Fraggle Horn.
The sound resonated through the many caverns of Fraggle Rock, sending timid cave creatures back into their holes. The three lone Fraggles stood in awe of the magnificent echoing of the Horn.
Unfortunately, no other Fraggle heard the sound.
Red stayed in front of the Horn waiting for something, anything to reveal itself to she, Gobo, and Wembley.
Nothing came.
She groaned angrily then desperately put her lips to the Horn again, sending short, sporadic bursts of breath through it.
Nothing came.
Gobo stared in Red’s direction, but not at Red. He wasn’t looking at anything. His stare was blank, but his mind was racing.
Red continued to blow into the Fraggle Horn until small tears began to flow from her eyes. "Why aren’t they coming?" she wailed. "Where are they?" Wembley’s bottom lip quivered. Gobo continued to stare blankly.
Red’s head turned to Gobo in a flash. "What’re we going to do Gobo?" she asked, trying to hold back her tears. "What can we do?"
Wembley looked at his best friend behind moist eyes. He reached his green hand out and placed it upon his best friend’s shoulder.
Gobo snapped out of his blank stare with the jolt of feeling coming from Wembley’s hand on his shoulder. Gobo sighed deeply. "I—I don’t know," he said quietly.
"But Gobo," Wembley said softly, "that’s my job. I—I’m the one who’s not supposed to know what to do. Y—you’re the leader, you always know what to do."
Gobo shook his head slowly. "Not this time Wembley," Gobo said. Gobo paused and looked straight ahead again. His eyes lit up suddenly, and he turned quickly and looked at Wembley. "What do you think we should do Wembley?" Gobo asked excitedly.
Wembley sniffed back his sorrow. "What?"
"What do you think we should do Wembley?" Gobo repeated, this time with more intensity.
Wembley chuckled. "Oh Gobo, you know I don’t know."
"No Wembley," Gobo said quickly, "now I don’t know, so maybe—maybe now you know!"
Red sniffed back her own tears. "Gobo, that’s nuts."
"Maybe, Red," Gobo said, turning around to face her suddenly, "but who knows? Maybe it’s just Magic." Gobo switched his view back to Wembley. "So Wembley, what do you think we should do?"
Wembley thought about this question long, and hard. He rolled his eyes around his head as he ran through the endless amount of possibilities. Then, in a flash, it hit him.
"We should go save Uncle Matt ourselves!" Wembley shouted out surprisingly (even he was surprised).
>< >< >< >< ><
Cantus and Mokey stood peering out into the horror of the Fraggles’ capture in the Gorg’s garden. Cantus bowed his head and closed his eyes. "I don’t know how longer we can hope for more hope, Mokey."
Mokey shook her head. "We just can’t give up," she said in a near-whisper. "We just can’t."
The two Fraggles stood in silence as the entire population of Fraggle Rock protested their new cages.
Suddenly, Cantus pricked up his head as a small sound hit his ear. "Did you hear that?" he asked Mokey quietly.
Mokey tilted her head and looked at Cantus. "Hear what?"
Cantus turned around and stared down the empty cavern that led back to the Great Hall.
"Hear what Cantus?" Mokey asked again.
"Hope."
>< >< >< >< ><
Wembley was now the one running ahead of the others. He was laughing giddily to himself as he sprinted down the familiar cavern. Cobwebs had now formed around the metal pipes protruding from the rock walls and emitting steam.
Wembley turned around and was running backwards now. "C’mon you guys hurry up!" he called to Red and Gobo. "Who knows how—Wait, pipe!" Wembley ducked down underneath a familiar headache-inducing pipe. "Who knows how long we can dawdle!"
Gobo looked at Red while they ran to catch up with Wembley. "Gee, what’s gotten into— Ow!" Gobo shouted as he whacked his head on the old pipe that Wembley just dodged. "Him…"
The three Fraggles slowed down as light from Outer Space came through the well-known hole. Gobo walked to the front of Wembley and Red, regaining his courage and leadership. "Are you guys ready for this?" he asked.
"Yeah!" Wembley said. There was no hesitation in his voice.
The three Fraggles ran through the hole into Outer Space, into Doc’s old workshop, into the leg of a silly creature.
Cog, the cat, hissed at the three Fraggles, raising the hair on his back.
Another silly creature in the room shouted "Kill them! Kill them!" to the silly creature whose leg the Fraggles ran into.
The three Fraggles were trying to adjust their eyes to the new brightness of Outer Space, and all of this noise wasn’t helping matters.
The other silly creature was holding a tube attached to a large canister with silly creature writing on it. Gobo didn’t understand what the writing said, no Fraggle did.
Uncle Matt darted out from underneath the desk. "Nephew Gobo!" he shouted gleefully. "I knew you would come!"
"Uncle Matt, what’s going on?" Gobo asked frantically.
"Well my boy, these silly creatures are attempting to destroy all of us inside Fraggle Rock," Matt said blatantly.
The Fraggles hadn’t noticed that the silly creatures had stopped shouting and were now concentrating fully on the talking beings at their feet.
"Well we’ve gotta stop ‘em!" Gobo said.
"Um, Gobo?" Wembley interrupted.
"Not now Wembley," Gobo snapped. "What can we do?"
"Well how are they trying to destroy us?" Red asked.
"I’m not entirely sure…" Matt said.
"Figures…" Red muttered.
"Hey, you guys?" Wembley tried again.
"Wembley, can’t you see we’re in huge trouble?" Gobo asked.
"But we’re not!" Wembley shouted.
The four Fraggles turned around and looked at the dumbfounded silly creatures. "Oh, hi," Gobo said to them. "My name is Gobo, and I’m a Fraggle."
"Th—they talk," the silly creature who wasn’t holding the tube said.
"Why yes, of course we do," Uncle Matt said. "We Fraggles are highly intelligent creatures." Matt said, throwing his arms out at his side, hitting Cog, causing him to hiss wildly, and causing Matt to jump from the floor in terror.
"I can’t exterminate d’ese t’ings," said the tube-holding silly creature. "D’ey’re actually smart."
"Does that mean you’re not gonna destroy everyone in Fraggle Rock?" Gobo asked.
"No I’m not," the tube-holding silly creature said happily.
"What?" asked the other silly creature.
"I’m not gonna hurt d’ese t’ings," tube-holder said.
"Well why not? They’re still invading my walls!" the other silly creature argued.
"I don’t care what you say sir, I’m not hurtin’ d’ese creatures," tube-holder said.
"Well then I will!" the other silly creature shouted, attempting to wrestle the tube from the tube-holding silly creature.
"Run little guys!" tube-holder shouted to the Fraggles.
"I think we should do what he says," Wembley said.
"Since when do you have an opinion?" Uncle Matt asked.
"It’s a whole new Wembley, Uncle Matt," Gobo said. "Now c’mon, hurry back into Fraggle Rock!"
The four Fraggles scurried to get back inside the hole as the two silly creatures fought over the hose and its canister. They peered out the hole at the squabble going on in Outer Space.
Suddenly, the silly creature who the Fraggles did not want to prevail pushed the other to the floor, taking the tube from him. The silly creature scoffed at the other and ran towards the Fraggle Hole.
"Oh no!" Red shouted.
Suddenly, the silly creature shrieked and grasped his leg. Cog the cat had jumped upon his lower thigh and stopped his master from harming the Fraggles.
Cog jumped off of the silly creature’s leg, and bit the hose connecting the tube to canister.
"Ach, stupid cat!" the silly creature shouted.
Cog purred triumphantly as he jumped down to the floor.
"I won’t have those things in my walls!" the silly creature shouted madly. He ran behind the desk and picked up a large hammer, and slammed it against the wall.
"Move!" Uncle Matt shouted, pushing the other three Fraggles down farther into the Rock.
The silly creature continued swinging at the wall with his hammer, causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. Rocks fell, blocking the hole to Outer Space, silencing the mad silly creature to the Fraggles.
"Is it over?" Red asked in a hushed tone.
More rocks fell, answering Red’s question without words. The Fraggles dodged the rocks and back against the pile of stones blocking the hole.
The Fraggles watched as rocks of innumerous sizes fell to the ground, piling on top of each other. The rocks stacked to the top of the cave, and Gobo, Red, Wembley, and Uncle Traveling Matt Fraggle were trapped in a cave-in.
>< >< >< >< ><
Mokey and Cantus ran to the site of the cave-in as fast as they could, but they were too late, all they saw when they arrived were boulders stacked to the top of the cave.
"No! Gobo, Wembley, Red!" Mokey cried.
Cantus looked at her askew. "How do you know they’re in there?"
Mokey looked Cantus directly in his eyes, "I can feel them," she said.
Cantus looked at her solemnly and nodded. "Well then we must get them out."
>< >< >< >< ><
Marjory sighed deeply. "They’re so close," she said, "so very close."
"I can almost see a world of harmony," Marjory sang.
"Music in the air
Friendship everywhere
Ties of love uniting you and me
"I can almost see a world of harmony
Peace and love to share
Radishes to spare
Babies everywhere
In their underwear
All the world aware
We can truly care
Ties of love uniting you and me," she sang.
"Linking us in Perfect Harmony…"
"Keep going little Fraggles," Marjory said to herself. "You’re nearly there."
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
But yes I must agree with you, I could be a little better with descriptions, but I'm definitely more of a script writer than a book writer, let the scenery guys deal with environment description. 
Ha ha. I really do appreciate the creative criticism though, we don't really get enough of that around here.
)
