Larco and the Quog

by Brian Cain

warm.

  Larco led the brave grand Wobbly's to the dark side wall, they were most excited when they could see the orange rocks in the darkness, that's what they felt, excitement, but they didn't know what it was. Larco ventured in and retrieved some of the orange rocks, and sure enough as he walked back into the sunny side the rocks lost their glow.

  The doctor rubbed his twiggy hands together, he found an old fallen mother tree not far away, the inner life of the mother tree had returned to the earth, leaving the outer trunk long, round, and hollow. The doctor suggested they place the rocks inside the mother to shield the hot rocks from burning them, like you would stand in the shade to avoid the sun. Larco placed the rocks into the mother tree's belly, they felt the outer trunk but it stayed cool, the doctor was right, he tried to stand taller than everyone, because he felt proud, but he didn't know what that was, or why he did it.

  They were discussing how to get the mother tree trunk back to the grand council, when something very strange happened. The mother tree trunk began to shake and hum, it lifted from the ground and flew way up into the sky out of sight.

  Larco and the nut grand Wobbly were very puzzled, but the very old doctor, whom fell over all the time, remembered stories from millions of palliums past.

  "Ohhhh dear." he said. "The mother has been taken from the father in a Bok Bok, to continue this would be disastrous, I am going to consult the grand council, and have all Snubs banned from the dark wall."

  Larco questioned the doctor. "But the mother has passed, and serves no purpose, and what is a Bok Bok?" This was the first time a Snub had questioned a member of the grand council, the doctor had no emotion to summon, but his enormous brain contained the wisdom of a million mothers, but he still couldn't answer two questions at once.

  "Ohh the nut Nubbins know nothing, they are why we have the grand council. In my early palliums the council was not necessary, for knowledge was limited."

  They returned to the jungle and the doctor consulted the grand council, they were shocked to hear of Larco's remarks, he was sent to the special dark hole of rainbows. He was told to put his head in, and stay there until he gained more wisdom.

  Larco was not easily discouraged, he knew the poo poo wind was coming, the wind that howled and made everyone cold from the dark side of Snub. Most hid from the poo poo wind in the jungle, huddled together. Larco knew the orange rocks could keep him warm, but how, he didn't want to get sick again.

  Larco was using more of his brain every day, Snubs had enormous brains, but never used much of it, there was no need, things had been the same, for millions of palliums. He didn't go and stick his head in the dark hole of rainbows; he went to find a way to use the energy in the orange rocks. He had already seen another blue planet in the dark hole of rainbows, he studied it many times, he called it Plop Plop, and wanted to work on a way to go there, they said things he understood and many things he didn't.

  The Snubs are not very well informed, the grand council of Wobbly's told no one anything, after Larco's first success in writing a letter to them, he planned to try again, Larco never gave up.

  On the way to the dark wall, Larco thought about rocks, the ones on the sunny side that were cold. He looked at many of them. Then into a cave near the dark wall, it was dark as the dark wall. Ah but orange rocks glow, he would be able to see if orange rocks were in the cave, the cave may get warm, and he could shelter from the poo poo wind.

  He didn't want to get sick, so he choose a cave near the dark wall so he didn't have to walk far, he remembered the experiment with the hollow mother tree, and how the tree had kept the heat inside. He wondered if the cave would fly away like the hollow tree before he could finish his experiment, but the cave was joined to the ground and he knew mother trees joined to the ground never moved, they just stood in the same place for palliums. Since he had been a scientist, he had conducted an experiment on jumping, jumping was banned by the grand council. He once stood by a tree and jumped, he came back down, he jumped again, and he came back down. He jumped allot and got tired, but he always came back down. He thought about this, and was sure the cave wouldn't fly away.

  He had no idea how deep the cave was, he walked into the dark side of Snub through the dark wall, and picked up the first piece of orange rock he could see that was small and easy to carry. He hurried back to the sunny side and into the cave holding the orange rock in front of him. He could see as if he was outside in the sun, he walked into the cave but made sure he could still see the entrance, he didn't want to get lost. He found a hidden pond, the cave floor went downhill, and the end had filled with water, during the poo poo wind and nasty wet storms, water fell from the sky, and the sun hid behind the clouds.

  He placed the orange rock on the floor, he hoped to be able to see it from the entrance when outside, he returned to the dark side and fetched another orange rock, then another, and another. He stacked them by the water, but Larco was not very good at staking rocks, it was the first time he'd built anything, and they fell into the pool. He bent down on his knee, but Snubs aren't really built to bend down, he stumbled and fell in the water. Snubs float, and he swam to the edge and climbed out. The water was warm and quite pleasant.

  He pushed the rest of the rocks into the pool, and they made a wonderful warm glow on the cave walls, he watched it, at times it changed colour, blue, then, red, then yellow, then green. He became very excited, not many exciting things happened on Snub, he felt excited, but he didn't know what it was.

  He fetched more rocks and placed them in the pool, and eventually the cave was bright and warm. He went back to the jungle in case someone noticed he didn't have his head in the dark hole of rainbows.

  He waited a couple of pecks hanging around the dark hole of rainbows, the grand council Wobbly's were very pleased to see him there. While they weren't looking, he snuck away and went back to the cave near the dark wall, it was wonderful, the cave was full of rainbows like the dark hole, and it was warm and moist. His legs felt like they were in soil having something to eat, but he could walk around, he could drink the air, but he couldn't see any water in the air. But around the pond there were clouds, they bubbled up from the orange rocks, and came out of the water in mist, then they would float upwards and disappear.

  He had seen this before when walking near the black swamp jungle, in the middle of the sunny side of Snub, you couldn't go there or you would sink in the ground. The clouds in the black swamp were very scary when they came from the watery ground, and many Snubs were composted there, but if you wiggled your legs in the earth around the edge of the black swamp, the food in the watery ground, was very tasty.

  To Larco being a scientist was very exciting, he found new things every day, and he went places no other Snubs would go, including the Wobbly's on the grand council. At last he could write another report to the grand council, and have them visit his experiment.

  Snubs write on leaves from giant ferns, this particular fern's leaves go white when they fall and die, and a black solid substance could be found near the black swamp that could mark the leaves. Larco didn't know how this had come about, it had been done for thousands of palliums, but he wanted to find out. That's why the nut tree Wobbly's on the grand council had made him a scientist, he was able to think, and they were running out of room and didn't know what to do.

  He was invited a second time to appear before the grand council after presenting his letter. The first thing he asked was, 'what was a scientist', but they didn't know, it had been a long time since they had one and even the oldest Wobbly had forgotten. The oldest Wobbly was thousands of palliums old and he thought scientists had been banned long ago, when one went into the dark wall, put together something called a school, and started to teach Snubs after they had fallen from the tree. This was thought to have produced something called emotions, no one knew what they were, but he remembered they were banned because they caused a lot of trouble.

  These things interested Larco, and he convinced members of the
council to view his experiment, and he was keen to find these emotions, and wondered what they looked like, but he told no one.

  The council agreed to view Larco's experiment because he mentioned it may be an answer to the poo poo wind, wobbly council members had not used their brains for thousands of palliums and some found thinking about these things stirred hidden memory, it was quite frightening. Long ago the poo poo wind gripped the surface of the sunny side, and froze many Snubs to compost.

  Larco guided the Wobbly's to the cave, they entered and all were silent with excitement, they had never seen such wonder, for all they could remember was dull. Then, suddenly, as an ancient wobbly looked in the pool it came to him.

  "Ohhh, the Quog, it's the Quog." All the Wobbly's began to chant and run around "Ohhh, the Quog, the Quog." They ran from the cave back to the jungle.

  Larco found them huddled in conference. "Why did you run?"

  The nut tree Wobbly explained, after all he was a nut relation, and understood Larco. "Some Wobbly's have remembered, the Quog, they were banished to the dark side."

  "What the rocks." asked Larco?

  "The Quog were living beings, they had emotions and were banished from the jungle to the dark side. They have