Kinderling 36

 In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress...

Looking around, I wasn't worried about Flower and me.  Our mad flight took us back down into the forest, so we were surrounded by trees.  I know trees.  No one can find me in the forest unless I want to be found.  Well, except if Mama gave them a Tandy compass I suppose.  I checked my bag just in case, and the no-see-me totems - I brought two - were right where they were supposed to be.

Immediate danger taken care of, I started worrying about Watcher and Mouse.

"We have to get back to the others."  I said, as if Flower didn't already know.

She shrugged again.  

Flower seemed a little bit off.

"Did you get hurt?"  I asked, looking her over to see if I could see any injury.

Slow head shake no.

Clearly Flower wasn't handling all of this very well.  And who could blame her?  It's not every day you get set upon by a whole squad of Gorf soldiers, then chased off a cliff with only a half-mad Kinderling girl and her weird invention the only thing between you and certain crushing - splatting? - death.

I burst out in a fit of giggles.

Oh below.  Clearly Flower wasn't the only one not handling things well.

I, eventually, got my giggles under control.  Only to see Flower's disapproving frown, which started them up all over again.  I couldn't help myself, I think I was in a little bit of hysterics.  

Ok Tandy, deep breaths.  Air.  

Gorf frown.

More uncontrollable giggles.

Finally I broke down and cried.  In a weird way, I think that's what got both of us back in the game.  I cried.  Flower - having no idea what to do - gave me a hug and comforted me, which took her mind off our situation enough that we both pretty much snapped out of it at the same time.

I was caught between wanting to go back to the Garrison, and hitting the mountain again.  Without Watcher as a guide, I'm not sure there was much we could do there, but we had to do something.  Flower decided for us, and after a quick look around, started off back towards the mountain.  She was right, of course.  We really couldn't leave Watcher and Mouse to their fates, and going back to the Garrison was useless, since nobody there would know anything more than we already did about the Mountain Gorfs.  

We were still in the trees when night fell, which was perfectly fine by me.  I scoped out a nearby bush that was big enough to cover the both of us, and set up a no-see-me totem in the most likely place I could find.  I couldn't see either of us benefiting a half night's sleep, so after a short meal of bread, nuts, and whatever else I scrounged out of my backpack.  

During my scrounging, I found a small bundle of  some little honey cakes that Mizzy makes.  She knows I love them so.  Can someone smile and cry at the same time?  I sure can.  I shared them with Flower.  I could tell she loved them too.

Early the next day, we made it back to the tree line.  Knowing that Gorf soldiers were probably looking for us, we were going to have to be very cautious.  That's when it hit me.  The Gorf soldiers were just like all the other Gorf soldiers that I had seen.  Each soldier even wearing a harness just like the ones that were worn by the Gorf soldiers that Baot controlled.  

But what did that mean?  

According to Mama, and the little I had been able to get Mizzy to talk about them, the harnesses were created by Daggi and used to control the Gorf soldiers and the kitchen Gorf that Daggi kept until I rescued her.  Or more like, I dragged her out of there and Mama rescued.  

"Flower, did you see the harnesses the Gorf soldiers were wearing?"  I asked.

Flower started panicking and looking around.

"Not now, I mean when we were escaping the ambush in the cave." I explained.

Flower gave what I hoped was a thoughtful look, and then nodded.

"Is that a style that Gorfs often wear?"

Sniffing and grumbling, then a shake of the head, "no."

"Does that mean those Gorf solders are being controlled by someone?"

A shrug and a nod.  I took that as, she's not sure, but she thinks so.

But why would Gorfs need the harnesses to control their own soldiers?