Chapter 11

Boober gritted his teeth as Lana walked across the floor, stick banging across the cold rock. The stress of the past few days- seeing Lana again for the first time in years, and trying to figure out what it was that made her think he'd eventually be happy to see her- had given him a sick headache. He tried to block out the conversation that Lana was having with Wembley, but they were too near him for his efforts to be of any avail.

"What are you gonna do today, Lana?"

"I'm seeing an old friend."

"Who?"

"Pedley Fraggle."

Oh! The one who makes all the paintings?"

"That's him!"

"How do you know him?"

"We were Songtwined- well, almost. I had to leave before we could go through with the ceremony, but I had to do what Boober wanted…"

She trailed off, and the atmosphere around them suddenly seemed to be strained. Songtwining allowed nearly mated Fraggle pairs to be empathically connected, to share each other's feelings. Not all Fraggles chose to do this, and those who did had to undergo months of intense training so that it wouldn't go wrong. It was a risk only Fraggles that were truly in love would take.

Boober felt a stab of guilt. It had been so long since Lana had seen Pedley that he may have lost interest in her by now, and it was his fault…

Pushing the thought away, he waited until Lana was close to the bed again. With each thump of the stick, he felt himself getting more annoyed. Why did she even have it in the first place?

He grabbed the stick from her, expecting her to catch herself, then turn around and yell at him. Instead, she crumpled, her dress fanning out so that he could see her legs for the first time. He gasped. Her left leg was crooked. It looked impossible to stand on, let alone walk with.

Wembley looked frantically from Lana to Boober. When he saw Boober with the stick in his hand, he exploded. "Boober, the way you treat Lana is just awful! Why do you have to be so mean to her? She saved your life! She helped us all!"

He ran out of the room, sobbing. "I DON'T WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND ANYMORE!"

"Wembley!" cried Lana, snatching the stick from Boober and scurrying after him.

0o0

Lana knew she'd missed her reunion with Pedley by now.

She'd been following Wembley for hours, cursing her injury, which had made her lose Wembley in about three seconds. She'd gotten it after she'd left, so no one had known about it until now. She sniffed the air, and then sneezed. A dust storm was coming. She had to find him.

Finally she located him. The dust storm was gaining on them, and Lana was finding it difficult to breathe. Wembley wasn't faring much better. He wheezed as the dust entered his lungs.

Lana handed him a handkerchief doused in pollen ointment. "Here, take this."

Wembley looked at her anxiously. He knew that she shared his allergy to rock dust.

"Just… go. " she whispered. "Find… Pedley."

Then she collapsed.