by Steve Simons
One of the others adds, “For hear things may you, that value, be for enemies of us, should they catch you.”
“I can assure you I have heard nothing that could be of any interest, or of value to anyone, including me.” Jo replied.
“So say you!” the first character retorts, adding appropriate head movements.
One of the others adds, “Live up the hill, say you, seen you before, how not we?”
“I do not know, the same question has been running through my mind.” Jo replied. Then she asks, “Would it be possible for me to sit up? I will do you no harm, I promise you. Only it is very uncomfortable being being held down like this.”
The first character looks around at the assembled group of its fellows and says, “Harmless looks she and hold down again her, the need should it present itself.”
“I promise that will not be necessary.” Jo said.
“Trusting too much you, spy could be this one, for the enemy.” one of the other characters protests.
“I am not a spy for anyone, I can assure you, I am just tying to get back to my home and my aunt.” Jo responded.
A familiar Ailer voice is suddenly heard, as Jezi-Lee adds, “We have just heard the news about Ella-Hesk-Fusa, wondered if there was anything we could do to help. Oh hello Jo-Menzies.”
The first character asks, “Know you, this spy?”
“Barse-Hesk-Fusa, just why are you holding Jo-Menzies down like that, she will not harm you. Spy, she is no spy, she ran into problems with the Grob-Lusier. So why would she be spying for them?”
The first character, the one who must be Barse-Hesk-Fusa, asks, “Speak for her, can you.”
Jezi-Lee, without hesitation replies, “Why of course, she did not harm us, when she could have. She has no reason to like the Grob-Lusier than yourselves or us. We Ailers consider Jo-Menzies to be a friend.”
The creatures pinning Jo down, now retreat as they see the one called Barse-Hesk-Fusa nod. One even helps Jo to her feet.
Jo says “Thank you,” then asks, “What has happened to Ella-Hesk-Fusa, have Grob-Lusier harmed her?”
It is Jezi-Lee who replies, “She has been taken prisoner, or so the story goes, that I have heard.”
“Why have they taken her prisoner, are you at war with the Grob-Lusier?” Jo asks.
“How strangely speak you? What is this war that speak you of?” asks Barse-Hesk-Fusa.
Jezi-Lee says, “There is a long lasting problem with the Grob-Lusier, they attack us and the Wies-An-Fusa, in our case to eat us.”
“But why do they do that?” asked Jo.
Barse-Hesk-Fusa replies, “Traps, that set us, to stop harm, do they, to our friends, is cause enough, for them, to attack us, to survive eat the Ailers, they do. Take prisoner, do they of Ella-Hesk-Fusa, to stop traps.”
“Oh I can see this is a difficult problem, but I quite understand you cannot stand by and do nothing whilst they try to eat your friends the Ailers. Were you in the middle of planning a rescue when I disturbed your talk?”asks Jo.
“What nature of thing, be this rescue, speak you of?” Barse-Hesk-Fusa asks.
“Getting Ella-Hesk-Fusa back from the Grob-Lusier. We first need to find out where Ella is being held prisoner.” Jo replies.
“This we, who is it?” asks Barse-Hesk-Fusa.
“You, me and the Ailers.” Jo turns to Jezi-Lee and asks, “You do want to help don't you?”
“Why do you think I am here?” asks Jezi-lee.
~~0~~0~~0~~
Chapter 5 – From Plan To Rescue
“Oh thank goodness you are safe Jezi-Lee and Jemi-Lee, I was worried about you.” Jo confesses.
“Why of course we are alright.” Jemi-Lee replies rather sniffily.
“We did nearly get discovered though. The Grob-Lusier are camped near where you bumped into that brute of a creature that chased you Jo-Menzies.” Jezi-Lee says.
Jo asks, “Did you see Ella?”
“Not directly, but we saw what they must be keeping her in. There was talk amongst those brutes about their great prize and it would bring the Fusa to their knees.” Jezi-Lee replies.
Jemi-Lee complains, “What is it with you two shortening names, its Ella-Hesk-Fusa and Wies-An-Fusa, not Ella and Fusa. Next I will be Jemi.”
Jezi-Lee and Jo ignore Jemi-Lee and instead Jo asks Jezi-Lee, “How many Grobs did yu see?”
“Well I know there were more, as they kept appearing and disappearing from a large white thing that they had made, but I saw at least twenty.” Jezi-Lee replies.
“Do not take any notice of her she can not count, everything is twenty according to her, there were actually 22.” Jemi-Lee corrects.
“Thank you, at least you were roughly right.” Jo replies.
“Roughly right, is no good when you have twenty tied up and the remaining two pounce on you from the bushes when you least expect it!” Protests Jemi-Lee.
“Well you would obviously be very careful in that case to make sure you did not rely on your counting and keep your eye out for extras.” Jezi-Lee swings her head from side to side as she sarcastically replies.
“What like you did, the time we almost got eaten, by the Grob-Lusiers by the river?” Jemi-Lee asks.
Jo seeing that this was getting them no where says, “Girls I know you mean well but this is getting us nowhere.”
“If there are lessons to be learned, then learn them we must!” Jemi-Lee states, determined to have the last word on the matter. It obviously had its effect as Jezi-Lee does not reply.
Jo wanting to put an end to the bickering says, “Right we must take this information back to the Wies-An-Fusa and plan our attack.”
The trek back up the hill to the Wies-An-Fusa camp is as hard as ever for Jo, but as easy as flying for the two Ailers. In fact they have to keep stopping to allow Jo to catch up. Jemi-Lee remarks on the fact that Jo is slowing them down, more than once. Jo just chooses to ignore it, instead she is thinking about the rescue and how this disparate group would be able to defeat the Grob-Lusier and get Ella back.
The Wies-An-Fusa seem quite relieved to see the small group of spies return and are delighted with the news that they seem to have found Ella. There is much discussion about how the next task can be handled and who is best suited to do what. There are a few minor arguments on the way.
Eventually, plan decided, the group set off in the direction of the Grob-Lusier encampment.
~~o~~o~~o~~
By the time the group arrive on the outskirts of the camp it is getting very dark. They know that this would be ideal for the element of surprise, but if they are not careful, the surprise will be their own. For one wrong move, in the semi dark, could crack a twig and instantly alert the Grob-Lusier to the attack. So they would have to move slowly and carefully.
In front of Jo, there are two Fusa's creeping up on a totally unwary Grob-Lusier guard. The Grob-Lusier is brought to the ground, in lightening speed and before he has a chance to yell out, he is silenced by a swift blow to the head. This knocked him instantly unconscious.
It is good that the Grob-Lusier, are so confident in their ability to protect their camp, that they don't even bother to make themselves invisible.
Other guards are similarly dropped to the ground. The only clue to the success of the mission, thus far, being the disappearance of guard's heads, from above the bushes. Luckily thus far, the guards have not observed their fellow guards disappearing. At least until this point.
There is suddenly a commotion across the other side of the camp, it seems too early for it to be Jemi and Jezi-Lee. Their diversion was not scheduled to take place, until all the surrounding guards have been taken down. All Jo and the two Fusa, with her, can do, is watch and wait, to see what is going on, but whatever it is, is happening the other side of the tent like structure, in the centre of the camp. There are Grob-Lusier heads bobbing up and down the other side of the bushes, on the opposite side of the camp and raised voices. Thi
s has all attracted attention from those inside the tent like structure, as now they are pouring out. Jemi-Lee's earlier concerns appear to be justified, for Jo has counted considerably more than twenty, of these Grob-Lusier, pouring out in the circle of the camp.
Jo wonders if this had been a rather rash and ill thought out plan after all, maybe they should have spent more time gathering better information about their enemy.
There are yelps of pain, from both the Grob-Lusier and the Wies-An-Fusa. The battle has commenced and it is earlier than planned.
Not put off by the yelps of pain, coming from the other side of the encampment, the two Wies-An-Fusa, in front of Jo, suddenly take off at speed, heading into the open circle. Bravely, they charge for nearest Grob-Lusier that they can reach and start viciously attacking them with their spiky sticks. The Grob-Lusier are obviously in pain, judging by the yelps they are emitting, but equally putting up a good fight, swinging their clubs at the Wies-An-Fusa and occasionally engaging with their bodies. Jo grabs tightly onto her stick, with its vicious spikes sticking out in all directions. Jo had noted that she would have to be very careful not to strike herself. She swings it up over her shoulder and prepares to swing it back again, as she charges towards the nearest Grob-Lusier; which is trying to reap revenge upon the Wies-An-Fusa, that had just launched two successful blows at it. Being that the Grob-Lusier is fully occupied, it did not notice Jo, as she charges relentlessly towards it, stick swinging forward with such force and landing square in the Grobs back. The scream of sheer pain is so loud, that it makes Jo jump. She retreats, in-case the Grob falls back on her. Which as it happens is a good move, as it does fall backwards, dropping to the ground, like a rock that has been thrown off of a mountainside. The thud, as it hits the ground makes the earth shake.
The Wies-An-Fusa who had been so furiously attacking the Grob from the other side, jumps up and down, in sheer joy at his victory. That is just before something lands on his shoulder, something unseen. He spins round with such agility, his spiky stick engaging with some unseen creature that lets out a blood curdling scream. It is Jo's turn to feel triumphant, as she shares the success of the encounter. The Wies-An-Fusa not happy with just the one blow, swings the heavy stick back and forth, engaging with the unseen foe again and again.
Jo suddenly feels something heavy and hard strike her shoulder. She buckles to her knees, unable to help herself. Jo feels something swing over her head and hears the 'Whoosh!' noise as the second Wies-An-Fusa's stick swings above her and engages with the invisible foe which had caught her unawares.
Around her, Jo can sense the heat of the battle going on, she feels herself heading towards the ground and manages to stop herself, before she goes any further. Jo knew that she had to get up and again play her full part in this battle, she can not afford to waste any time or effort. However on this soft and spongy ground it is easier to think about getting up than to do it. Jo struggles, whilst above her the fight rages on. The Grob-Lusier and Wies-An-Fusa trying to get the better of each other.
Jo is suddenly aware of heavy breathing and warmth to one side of her. She abandons her attempt to get up and instead does a tuck and roll. As it turns out her instinct was right, as fractions of a second latter the ground vibrates, as something strikes the spot that Jo had been on. Those Gym classes were of some benefit after all. Jo decides to continue her current escape method and get as far from the little group as she can, to give her some time to get back up on her feet. Jo manages to reach some nearby bushes, she grabs some branches and pulls herself up. Then surveys the area around her. Before her is the rather strange scene of Wies-An-Fusa swinging their spiky sticks around, but with apparently, nothing around them, apart from other Wies-An-Fusa and the occasional Ailers, darting around in the air, trying to distract the Grob-Lusier and give the Wies-An-Fusa a better chance of scoring a direct hit.
As Jo surveys the scene before her, she is vaguely aware of a somewhat fuzzy shape lunging towards her from the right. She wonders whether it would be better to retreat or stand and attack. It is then that Jo, becomes aware of the fact that when she did the tuck and roll, she had let go of her spiky stick, so no longer has a weapon. That is the decider. Jo eases herself to the ground again and sets about rolling back, towards the spot, where she had dropped her spiky stick. For a moment though, Jo's first instinct had been to to roll away altogether, but she resisted this.
The fact that Jo has arrived at her intended destination is made very clear to her, as she thuds into the side of the Grob, that she and the Wies-An-Fusa had downed earlier. About to pick herself up and look for her spiky stick, Jo is shocked to suddenly find that the Grob has wrapped an arm around her and is restraining her. The Grob rolls her on top of him, crushing her in the process. The other arm comes up and the Grob's hold on Jo changes, it lifts her high above it, swinging her back and forth, as if she were a little baby, then suddenly Jo feels the grip release and she feels herself flying through the air, heading quite where, she knows not, but she does not have to wait long, as she lands square in the back of a Wies-An-Fusa, which had been in the process of sorting out another Grob. The Fusa, shocked at this sudden attack on its person, swings round and its spiky stick drops with force, penetrating Jo's arm in several places. The pain is intense. Jo finds herself letting out a similar blood curdling scream, as she had heard earlier.
Knowing that she should get out of reach of the Fusa before it has any more opportunity to inflict more damage, Jo rolls away. The Fusa turns, its attention back to the Grob that it had been attacking. Whilst Jo concentrates on rolling away.
After what seems like a decent interval, Jo stops rolling. Taking stock of her position, Jo realises that she is still without a weapon, but is now sufficiently far away from the action, that she can consider herself reasonably safe. Jo knows that she has to find a weapon though. It is then that she spots the fuzzy outline of a Grob, laying not far from where Jo is. It seems to be badly injured, but just how badly, is the question? Jo wonders if she would be able to take its weapon off of it and get back into the fight.
Cautiously Jo crawls in the direction of the injured Grob. Each time her left arm moves she feels the pain of her multiple injuries. It is such a shame that it had to be her left arm, for Jo is left handed. Jo knows that it would be an even harder struggle, to wield a weapon with her right arm, but she can not stand by and do nothing to help her friends the Fusa.
Close enough to assess the Grob more effectively and come to that spot where its weapon is, Jo scans the Grob, carefully taking note of all the injury sites and there are plenty of those. There is no sign of consciousness, although that is a bit difficult to assess in terms of something that you can only just about see the outline of. Jo suddenly sees the weapon, laying on its own, to the other side of the Grob. If only Jo could get to it, without disturbing the Grob. Easier said than done, with this springy ground. Jo formulates a plan. If she crawls round the Grob, far away enough, it probably won't detect the movement. Jo sets about her circular travel. Amazed that she has reached the weapon, without the Grob stirring, Jo reaches out cautiously and gently drags the weapon towards her. Jo is amazed to find that the club feels quite warm. It is like picking up a heavy, but stationery animal, most strange, as Jo had expected it to feel more like the spiky stick that she had been using earlier.
Jo retreats to what she considers a safe distance, then scans the surrounding area, trying to identify a target that she can test this weapon on. There is a skirmish happening reasonably close by and it looks as if Jo's help is sorely needed; as the Grob is getting the better of the Fusa involved, despite the interference of a determined Ailer.
The small group is soon reached and after several failed attempts, Jo has managed to stand, she moves to an ideal position to take a swing at the unsuspecting Grob. Jo swings the club up and forward, with a nice smooth motion, but before the club engages with the Grob, Jo feels the direction suddenly change
, as if some invisible hand is directing it elsewhere.
Strain as she might, Jo can not see any other Grobs in the vicinity, so just what is happening? The club suddenly engages with the Ailer, knocking it far away from the battle scene, completely taking the Ailer and Jo come to that, by surprise. The phrase, 'With friends like me who needs enemies!' came to Jo's mind. Instead of helping the situation, Jo has, with one swing of this Grob club, made things even worse. The Grob, that Jo was attempting to attack. is taking advantage of the loss of that annoying Ailer and hits the Fusa, that it was attacking, multiple times, bringing it to its knees.
The Fusa drops its spiky stick. Jo feeling that the club she had captured, was more of a danger, than a benefit, drops it and quickly picks up the spiky stick. Jo immediately sets about attacking the Grob. It cowers in pain, dropping its own club in the process. Jo continues her onslaught, pleased that, despite her fear that she would not be able to do as well with a damaged left arm, she is coping well. So much so, that the Grob is retreating at speed. Jo continues to chase and attack the Grob, determined that it will not have time to recover its club and start attacking again. The Grob is obviously determined to retreat, as Jo finds it difficult to keep up. When Jo considers that the distance between the Grob and her small group, is far enough, she gives up and returns to see if she can help the Ailer, that she had accidentally attacked.
The Ailer seems to be unconscious, Jo gently reaches down and picks it up. She has not seen a male Ailer before, it is quite a surprise to see the brightly coloured blue and red trousers and the yellow top with its bulging balloon like arms and a wavy decoration on the front. One of his wings seems to be damaged. Jo is careful not to touch it, in-case it falls off, she would never forgive herself if he could no longer fly.
Jo carries the Ailer carefully back to the injured Fusa, she carefully kicks the spiky stick along as she walks. The spiky stick looks quite comical though, as it picks up the mossy like material as it rolls.
The groaning of the Fusa gets louder, as Jo approaches, she realises that the very fact that the ground was flexing as she walks is causing the Fusa greater discomfort, but she knows that without either harming the Ailer or losing the spiky stick, there was nothing she could do to improve things. It is then that Jo decides that her fight is now over, she needs to concentrate her efforts on look after the injured Ailer and Fusa.