The Blossoming Fraggle -- One-shot

[RedPiggy]

THE BLOSSOMING FRAGGLE

Gobo and Wembley stared at each other as they stood just outside Mokey’s room. Where was Red when you needed her?

Wembley peeked timidly at the form of Mokey under her blankets on the right side of the room. “Do you think she’s sick?” he whispered to Gobo.

Gobo had a worried expression on his face. “I don’t know, Wembley,” he replied, whispering. “Even the Trash Heap says we can’t help her.”

Wembley looked defeated. He hung his head. “I don’t want her to die, Gobo.”

Gobo turned and started to walk away. “Not exactly what I want either, Wembley.”

Boober ran up to Gobo before they could reach the Great Hall, in a panic as the deep reverberation of the Fraggle Horn started to sound. He grabbed Gobo’s vest. “There’s a Silly Creature in the Rock!” he screamed, shaking his explorer friend.

Gobo, Wembley, and Boober dashed toward the Crystal Caverns. They stopped as Red appeared, her face somewhat alarmed.

“Red!” Gobo exclaimed, grabbing her red sweatshirt. “Is a Silly Creature in there?”

Red smacked him in the face, hard. “Why didn’t you tell me Mokey was sick?”

Gobo rubbed his cheek, shocked. “How – how do you know that?”

Red growled incredulously, “Well, it sure wasn’t from any of you guys!” Red glared at Boober. “I thought if anyone would have the heart to come and get me, it’d be you.” She gulped and looked away, her hands and lower lip trembling. “Instead, I have to hear it from some stupid Silly Creature,” she added softly.

“You’ve seen it?” Wembley asked in awe, trembling behind Boober.

“Not getting the news is what you get for going off on some silly Minstrel quest,” Boober retorted quietly as he backed away.

Red shot him a deadly glance. “I told you I’d be back in a couple of days! I told you where I was! I told you --.”

“Hey!” barked a strong male voice from within the Crystal Cavern. The Silly Creature had skin the color of Doc, was rather muscular, wore a black top with a red leather vest, and black pants. It had short brown hair and a frustrated expression on its face. “Does this bother you? Because it bugs the crap out of me! Can we go before we become a frelling permanent attraction in this cave?”

The male Fraggles gawked at the male Silly Creature.

Red looked up, her expression sad and quieter. “I don’t think you’ll fit.”

The male Silly Creature kneeled down and sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder. His voice became more tender. “I have to find her.”

As they walked through the tunnels toward the Great Hall, with the Silly Creature keeping his head down most of the way, Red led the group, while the male Fraggles timidly walked near the Silly Creature.

“So, you bunch of Care Bears live down here?”

Gobo nodded. “It’s our home.”

Wembley clung to Gobo. “And we’re not bears. We’re Fraggles.”

The Silly Creature smirked and nodded. “Of course you are. Does anything really weird ever happen here?”

Boober sighed. “Define ‘weird’.” He paused. “If you mean how it’s impossible to have one single, nice, quiet, uneventful day, then, yeah, we live weird.”

“So, what planet am I on anyway?”

“Fraggle Rock is our home,” Red noted. “I’m a swimming instructor and I’m training to be a Minstrel.”

The male Silly Creature looked at her with confusion. His heart started to race. “Is that kind of like a priest?”

“We don’t know what that word means,” Gobo replied. He stopped the Silly Creature. “How did you get here from Outer Space?”

The male Silly Creature chuckled and shrugged. “I had a pounding headache. There was a flash of light and – wait, how did you know I’m from outer space?”

Gobo shrugged. “Me an’ Uncle Matt go to Outer Space all the time. We’re explorers.”

The Silly Creature nodded. “I guess I am too.” He glanced at Red. “I’m glad you could help me.”

Red nodded and shrugged sadly. “She’s in our room, right? It won’t be far now.”

“How did you know Mokey was sick?” Boober asked.

The male Silly Creature stared at him, a brief flash of pain on his face. “I … I don’t know any Mokey. I’m looking for a friend of mine. I can feel her. She’s in pain.”

Red sighed. “Whatever this Silly Creature is talking about, I know he’s talking about Mokey.”

Gobo approached Red as they neared the Great Hall. “And what makes you think that? Since when does Mokey know any Silly Creatures?”


Red stopped and glared at him. “We’ve all met Silly Creatures!”

“So?” he retorted. “We never met him,” he added, jabbing his thumb in the Silly Creature’s direction.

“Not that I can’t take criticism, but I’d appreciate being called a human.” He kneeled beside Gobo. “More specifically, I’d like to be called John.”

“Why John?” Wembley asked.

“Because it’s my name,” John replied.

“Well, I’m Gobo, and this is Wembley, Boober --.”

John snickered.

“—and I guess you already met Red, eh?”

John smirked. “Lemme get this straight … I’m stuck on a planet, or under it, and the aliens here have Canadian accents?”

The Fraggles looked at each other in confusion and shrugged.

John sighed, shaking his head. “Life was better when it was a cartoon.” As they entered the Great Hall, John whistled as he looked around. “I thought you Fraggles said this place was one big party. Where is everybody?” he asked, his voice reverberating through the largely empty cavern.

Boober replied, “Everyone must be hiding. They’re not very used to Silly – uh, humans.”

“Story of my life.” Suddenly, John cringed and grabbed his head and collapsed to the ground, nearly smacking his head on the large pipes that fed the Fraggle Pond.

Boober’s heart started to race. “This is a complete disaster!”

“Go get him some of your medicine, Boober!” Gobo barked.

“Just go put him in the Gorg’s Garden and let them take care of him!”

“Boober!”

Boober screamed in exasperation and trudged off to his room. What does this human want with Mokey anyway?

Gobo and Wembley stood next to John. They squeaked in fear as John grabbed them by their shirts.

“Find … Zhaan,” he said weakly. “Help … her … with her … pain.” He screamed in agony again.

Gobo and Wembley looked at Red.

Red’s pigtails sagged on her head, and her tail drooped to the ground. Her head lowered. “I think we have to help Mokey. It’s the only way to stop this.”

“What does Mokey have to do with it?” Wembley asked.

Meanwhile, Boober rummaged through his medicine stash in his room. “Why does this Silly Creature want Mokey anyway?” he griped to himself.

A voice similar to his but snarkier replied, “Maybe he’s come for that Other One inside Mokey.”

Boober looked up and saw an image of himself, but with longer hair and a more flamboyant fashion sense. “But my love for Mokey was supposed to quiet that dark spirit inside Mokey, Sidebottom,” he protested.

Sidebottom shrugged, his face uncharacteristically worried. “But you and I both know our other sides can’t be driven away for long,” he replied softly. “Mokey had to stop getting radishes from the Garden because she kept falling down and acting like she was bathing in sweetwater. If this Silly Creature knows the spirit that’s inside Mokey, maybe he’s come for her.”

Boober shook his head and tried to focus on getting some medicine. All the jars seemed the same. He couldn’t force himself to see the ingredients. “He’s not going to take her,” he whispered.

Sidebottom sighed, trying to cheer himself back up. “C’mon, Boober! That Other Side of Mokey never really belonged here! I’m not exactly unfamiliar with how the Rock works. She gets all moody and sullen and she acts like the roof of the Great Hall caved in! This place is getting her down!”

Boober finally just took a handful of bags and jars and approached the door to his room. He paused only long enough to tell the dissipating Sidebottom, “It could be worse. You could have to live with me if he takes her.”

Red sat next to Mokey, glancing at the small shelf where her carnivorous plant Lanford used to sit in his little pot.

“John,” moaned Mokey. Her face was very pale, with the little pale blue spots on her muzzle starting to grow irregular borders. Her eyes were clenched shut and she clenched her blankets in her fists.

Red patted her friend on her shoulder. “Maybe you just came down with a bad case of the Pebble Pox,” she told her, trying to comfort her.

Mokey grabbed her hand and held it close to her. She barely opened her eyes. “Tell me,” she said in a deeper voice, more sultry, “why you … left them.”

Red stared at her, tears welling in her eyes. “The Minstrels said I had to go,” she protested weakly. “Murray said if I ever wanted to hear the Rock like Cantus did, I have to --.”

Mokey smiled. “You misunderstand, John.”

”I’m Red, Mokey,” Red replied, her voice wavering as she cried.

Meanwhile, John seemed to quiet down as he lay on the Great Hall floor. Gobo and Wembley could see the others standing in the various entrances, far from this Creature.

Gobo glanced around and frowned. “Does this Silly Creature look dangerous to you? How about helping instead of just gawking from the safety of your tunnels? He needs our help!”

“Zhaan,” John stated weakly.

Mokey, still lying in her room, smiled gently. “The process that’s ravaging my body is frighteningly efficient.”

Gobo took off his vest and started to wipe the sweat from John’s forehead. “We can’t take you to Mokey. The tunnel is too small for you. Even if you crawled, you won’t get into her room that easily.”

John smiled, but winced moments later. “We shared … our minds … before she … she … died.”

Wembley gasped. “If your friend died, why are you looking for her here?”

John panted slowly. “I … can … feel … her.”

Red sobbed as she sat next to Mokey. “Mokey, or whatever you are … I don’t want you to die. You’re my best friend. I know I haven’t been around a lot for a few weeks, but I’ll stay here if it means you’ll get better.”

“There is no reason to be upset,” Mokey replied more serenely, smiling. “I have fulfilled my life.”

Red stood up, gasping. “Don’t talk that way! You’ll live forever! No one even knows what the actual life span of a Fraggle is! Only the World’s Oldest is likely to die of old age! Everyone else just falls off a cliff or gets eaten by some monster!” She shook Mokey, who groaned in pain. “Everyone gets better from the Pebble Pox!” She touched the spots on Mokey’s face and gasped as they formed boils and blisters. Red sat down beside Mokey, terrified. “Everyone gets better … right?” she asked timidly. Red groaned and looked around desperately for something she could do. Anything would be better than just sitting there having to listen to Mokey’s morbid rantings. She could be worse than Boober! She spotted the Magic Pipe the Storyteller had given her, which she inherited from Cantus, who left the Rock when a bizarre Heart of the Rock appeared. He went to a strange world and never returned. Even though she was supposed to take his place, Red could never think of Cantus as … gone. Every time she put her lips to the Magic Pipe, it was like he was standing right behind her, guiding her fingers over the holes.

She started to play a mournful tune.

As Zhaan’s personality listened to the music, she noted just how it seemed to fit her mood. She had already died once. She gave her life to save her friends. This time … well, this time she was just dying. She continued to listen as the music started to increase the tempo and the pitch every now and again, as though the notes were being forcefully contained and struggled to break free of its imprisonment. Finally, the melody became both triumphant and serene.

Mokey’s head turned toward Red. “What a lovely melody. What is it called?”

Red slowly put down the Magic Pipe and shrugged, keeping her eyes on the floor so she wouldn’t have to look at Mokey’s transformation. “I was thinking of Lanford. All of us thought he was sick.” She wiped tears from her eyes. “He had all these strange fuzzy red spots all over him.”

“Death isn’t something to fear,” Mokey told her, her body relaxing.

Red shook her head. “But it’s not the only thing around, either, Mokey.” Red finally looked up. “I know I’m not really talking to Mokey. I’m talking to that Song that entered her after Lanford died. What are you?”

“I gave my life for my friends, one of whom is sharing my pain in the Great Hall,” Mokey told her Fraggle friend, the closest thing she had to a sister.

“You’re a ghost of a Silly Creature?”

Mokey laughed, shifting her position in bed. “I wasn’t human. I was Delvian. There are worlds well beyond even the world of humans, of Outer Space.”

Red glanced toward the door to their room. “Why not just go to Gobo’s Uncle Matt’s room? You know, that cave where there are like a gazillion tunnels that lead to all kinds of worlds? Maybe you need to see your home again in order to be free from Mokey.”

Mokey nodded. “I considered it. My people would be able to separate our spirits. I simply … haven’t had the courage to leave friends yet again.” She smiled. “You are a valued companion. I admire your exuberance. It reminds me of friends long gone.”

“But that Silly Creature down there … he knows you.”

Mokey nodded. “I shared my mind with him once. It was temporary, but necessary. After all these cycles, it must still affect him.” She sighed and slumped in her bed. “Maybe it was a mistake to do something so unproven to such a being.” She finally stood and, supported by a protesting Red, started for the Great Hall. “John has come such a long way. His efforts should be rewarded.”

As the two finally entered the Great Hall, the male Fraggles gasped as they caught sight of Mokey’s face. She looked like she had fallen into Boober’s kettle of boiling radish broth.

John stood, keeping his eyes on the deformed Fraggle female before him. He had seen something like that before, when Zhaan had all those gross sores all over her head, symptoms of some illness that ravaged her body. Part of him wanted to hug her. Part of him wanted to run. He didn’t want to see her die … again.

Mokey spoke with Zhaan’s voice, smiling as she leaned against Red, and later Gobo, who ran to support her as well. “It’s okay, John. I would have called you, but I seemed to have lost my communicator.”

John seemed taken aback. He was unsure of how to respond. However, he smirked. “Was … was that a joke? Zhaan can tell jokes on this planet?”

Mokey-Zhaan bowed her head slightly. “Thank you for being so concerned. I fear my time is drawing near.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” Boober yelled as he showed up with his medicines in his arms. He dropped them and opened one jar and threw a powder onto Mokey.

Red and Gobo coughed and gagged and let go of their ailing friend.

Mokey-Zhaan groaned and clutched at her face, her skin’s problems getting much worse.

John grabbed Boober and held him close to his face. “What did you do?”

Boober struggled in John’s grip. “It should’ve cured her!” he replied in a panic.

Red grabbled Gobo as soon as the powder wafted away and she could breathe again. “We … have to take … her to your Uncle Matt’s room.”

“What good is his bedroom?” Gobo asked incredulously.

Red shook her head. “Not his bedroom! The T. Matthew Fraggle Room!” She slapped the back of his head. “One of those portals should lead Zhaan back to her home. She’ll get better if she leaves!” she added, choking back tears.

Gobo gawked at her. “You … you’re suggesting ….”

Red nodded, turning to John. “Fraggle Rock has a magical cave where just about any world you can think of has a tunnel to it.”

“There are wormholes here?” he asked, slowly letting Boober down.

Red nodded. “It’s the only way. We can’t lose our friend. But if she stays in Fraggle Rock, we’ll lose her anyway.” She started to sob.

Wembley leaned against Gobo and whispered, “What do worms have to do with healing Mokey?”

Gobo shrugged and whispered back, “I have absolutely no idea.”

As they entered the seemingly infinite cave, John gasped. “All of these places can be reached in these tunnels?” He looked around. “How do you know which one to take?”

Gobo shrugged. “We kinda don’t. We haven’t figured out how to label them. If you touch the walls of the arch, you’re instantly transported to the other world.”

Just as Red was about to guide Mokey into a tunnel, a flash of pink light appeared and a cloud of dust flew at them. As the dust settled, a tall Fraggle figure stood before them, making their jaws drop.

Gobo gawked. “Cantus.”

Cantus, visibly stronger and slightly younger than the last time they saw him, nodded and turned to Mokey. “My dear Mokey … I see you’re being consumed after all.”

Zhaan’s voice replied as he caressed her face tenderly, “I will try to face my death with serenity, Minstrel, as you have done.”

Cantus kissed her lightly on her forehead. “The strange thing about expecting the end is that you realize there is none,” he told her.

Red approached Cantus. He was like a ghost risen from the dead. It seemed as though the Ditzies glittered off his golden skin. “The Magic Pipe,” she began in a whisper, “told me … she can be … cured.”

Cantus shook his head and smiled. “You listened to the song, but you’re right … and you’re wrong.”

John, picking up on the high status afforded to this newcomer, bowed his head and kneeled. “If we can cure her, I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Cantus looked bemused at the Silly Creature. “A seed looks dead, but inside is the potential to be so much more.” He patted Mokey-Zhaan on the back. “Red was close. Thoughts of Lanford came to her, but she could only think of her mourning Lanford’s loss.” He shook his head. “But that was not the entire story.”

Gobo finally understood. “Lanford blossomed.”

John raised an eyebrow. “Blossomed? As in, flowers?” He looked at the poor Fraggle’s deformed face. “Are you saying she’s about to get petals?”

Mokey-Zhaan mirrored John’s puzzled expression. “Though I was more plant than animal, I am not aware of … flowers … appearing on Delvians.”

Cantus shrugged and smirked. “You’ve never been to Fraggle Rock before.” He offered his hand. “Follow me.”

Mokey-Zhaan glanced nervously at John before following the Minstrel through a tunnel.

The remaining Fraggles just stood there, gawking the same as the Silly Creature.

“Now what?” Gobo asked nobody in particular.

Moments later, Cantus reappeared, followed by Mokey, who was dressed in a blue robe with a golden collar. Her face had returned to normal.

Red fought the urge to embrace her friend, afraid her friend would shatter in her touch. “Mokey?”

“Zhaan?”

Mokey bowed her head, blushing. “I’m just me, I’m afraid.”

Wembley stood in front of Cantus expectantly. “What happened?”

Cantus took a fist and suddenly opened his fingers. “The Other One blossomed.”

Wembley gasped and stared at Mokey, trying to imagine her with flowers all over her face.

Mokey giggled and hugged Wembley. “Oh, Wembley, I didn’t have flowers all over me.”

“So what happened?” John asked curtly.

Cantus glanced at him. “How do you feel?”

John sneered. “Well, other than the emotional torture of being haunted in your head by a dead loved one, feeling all of her pain and agony, I’m just peachy!” he retorted snidely.

Cantus nodded. “There are many ways to blossom. You felt her pain. Now you feel your friend’s bliss.” He pointed to the tunnel. “Through there you will see what it means for her kind to blossom. Her peers were kind enough to return Mokey to us in her entirety. You should’ve seen it.”

John paused as he faced the tunnel. “You went to Zhaan’s homeworld through here? Can you get to Earth from here?”

Cantus smiled. “Why search for home when it doesn’t need to be found?”

John turned to stare at him quizzically. “Are you capable of saying anything clearly?”


Cantus nodded. “I am always clear. My listeners do not always think clearly.”

John shook his head, smirking. “Whatever. I’ll go see if Zhaan is alright, and then I’m going to blow up this tunnel.”

The Fraggles gasped.

“But why?” Boober pleaded.

John shrugged. “If Scorpius knew about this place, he’d use it to take over the entire universe. I can’t risk him getting to earth from here.” He jumped through the tunnel and disappeared.

The Fraggles stood there silently for a few moments. Finally, Red elbowed Cantus. “Didn’t that Silly Creature know Outer Space is just outside Fraggle Rock?”

Cantus shrugged. “If your home isn’t where you are, it’ll never be where you look,” he replied as he started to walk towards the tunnel that led back to the Great Hall.

Gobo rolled his eyes and smirked. “Yep.”

Wembley nodded. “He’s back.”

Soon, only Red was left, staring in the direction everyone else had gone. She glanced toward the tunnel where the Silly Creature left. She whimpered briefly. “I know it’s a happy moment when you find someone who was lost, but … but,” she sighed, shaking her head, “I was just getting the hang of this whole ‘Minstrel’ thing.” She groaned and walked out of a cave that always led to something weird.
THE END