Chapter Five
Without even a seconds thought, Lena and Mia turned and ran towards the voice. It came from a small hole beside a rock that had just appeared a short way from the path. The two of them immediately jumped down the hole and landed with a gentle ‘splat’ in some soft green mud.
“Follow me” said the small voice squeakily, and they heard it pitter-patter away down a corridor to the left. They looked at each other and Lena shrugged.
“Can’t get any worse I suppose” she said, and took off after the voice.
“Well I’m not staying here by myself” Mia stated, and ran to catch up. They followed the voice through various tunnels, twists and turns, some vast, echoey caverns and some tunnels so small Lena had to crawl through the mud on all fours. It was pitch black down there and neither could see a thing, following only the sounds of the footsteps of whoever was in front.
“I’m not so sure about this” Lena could hear the worry in Mia’s voice.
“What do you suggest we do? Go back to the top?” She asked, trying and failing to look back at her fluffy companion.
“We could try a different tunnel,” Mia replied, “I’m just not sure I trust this… voice” she kept her own voice low.
“You thought those cloud things were harmless,” said Lena “I think we need help right now.” Mia sighed, but continued to follow Lena as Lena continued to follow the squeaky voice. After a while they entered another huge cavern, except this one was filled with a warm, glowing, yellow light and they could see a few pieces of homemade furniture, cobbled together from bits of broken wood and stone. The ‘voice’ turned to face them, it wasn’t much bigger than Mia; the colour of carrot cake, it had a squirrel-like face with long, thin, pointed ears and it’s body was round and fat, covered in long, flowing, silky fur. It held out a podgy hand towards them,
“Malemming, please ta meetcha” it squeaked, a rosy blush entering its cheeks.
“I don’t understand” Lena replied, “what does merlemmin mean?”
“Malemming, tha’s ma nayme” the creature replied, its arm still outstretched.
“Oh, sorry, Lena” said Lena, shaking Malemming’s hand vigorously, “and these is my dog, Mia, she can’t shake hands”
“I can speak for myself,” said Mia, reaching a paw out towards Malemming, Malemming gripped Mia’s paw in his hand and shook.
“Please ta meetchas both” he said again, and grinned broadly, still blushing, “please excuse tha state of ther playce, don’t get manys in the way of visiters” he said, indicating the cavern with his arm.
“That’s ok,” said Lena, “you saved our lives, how can we ever thank you?”
“Oh yous don’t owe me nothin’, couldn lives with maself if I’d let yous get got by them there critters up there, theys evil they is, yous’ll be sayfe down ere wi’ me.” He busied himself tidying up the cave, “would yous like summink to drink?” he asked.
“Er, sure, thank you” Lena replied, perching on the edge of a large piece of rock that may or may not have been a chair. Malemming pottered around in one corner of the cavern and returned with two wooden cups filled to the brim with a sickly sweet smelling sparkly blue liquid. Lena took a tentative sip and felt a happy glow flow around her body.
“Wow, that’s amazing” she said, completely astonished, “not what I expected at all” the drink made her feel good, but slightly heady, and she lay back gently on the rock chair. Mia took a sip of hers and instantly felt as though she were floating.
“I could get used to this,” she stated, as a fuzzy feeling of warmth filled her head. She lay down next to Lena and before they knew it they had both drifted off into a blissful sleep.
A few hours later they awoke to find the cavern empty,
“Malemming?” Lena called out gently. There was no reply, she got up, feeling more rested that she ever remembered feeling in her life, and wandered around the cave. Mia stretched and rolled over on the rock,
“What’s going on?” she asked Lena sleepily as her mouth stretched open in a big yawn.
“Malemming’s gone,” replied Lena, she had stopped in the corner at Malemming’s kitchen and was hunting for more of the fabulous liquid. Then, out of nowhere, came a terrible, awful, resonating sound,
“Thwonk” it said, “Thwonk, Thwonk, Thwonk, Thwonk,” the walls shuddered and the ground shook, Lena and Mia swallowed hard in unison and looked towards the gap in the wall where the sound was coming from, opposite from where they had come in. They stood frozen to the spot, staring, listening, waiting.