Chapter 25
Fraggles surrounded the bound Princess, all wearing thick robes, as they entered the Great Hole. Fishface sat in his large chair, glaring at her with a creepy calm expression. Princess Gwenalot stood defiantly before him. "What kind of Fraggle are you?" she asked softly.
Fishface sat motionless. "A Fraggle that knows Princess had weapons first," he replied coldly.
"They were for cutting vines and stuff!" she shouted angrily.
"And yet you come with more?"
"Fishface, for Rock's sake!" she pleaded. "You're smarter than this!" She maintained her glare, though tears were starting to well up in her eyes. "Yes, I get it: bald Fraggles suffer more in the cold. Take the Great Cave. We hairy Fraggles can withstand the cold coming from the Great Hole."
"Did Blundig tell you this, or Minstrel?"
She shook her head and growled. "I'm not an idiot, Fishface! I don't require someone else to tell me how to solve a problem. Yes, sometimes I need help – but that doesn't mean I'm not without my strengths, too."
A nearly debilitating wind threatened to freeze them all to their places as they stood in the Great Hole.
She kneeled, her lips trembling both from the cold and from crying. "Fishface, I'm … I'm truly sorry. I should have let the Festival of the Bells continue at their appointed time. It threw off the entire rhythm of the Rock. Let's use our bells and honor that sacred Weeba beast and calm its spirit."
Fishface stood and towered over her. "Weeba beast cannot be calmed. In ancient days, Weeba run Rock. Weeba destroyed because they run Rock. Now all who dishonor them suffer. The bells are metal. Metal now in weapons."
"You did what?" Princess Gwenalot exclaimed. "How could you do such an incredibly ignorant thing like that? Swords don't waken the Rock, you moron!"
"Fishface not one who put Rock to sleep, Princess!"
All the Fraggles began to argue, picking up weapons (and griping about how cold the metal was against their skin). A horde of hairy Fraggles appeared with their own weapons and concentrated all the bald Fraggles right underneath the Great Hole, the cold sapping the bald Fraggles' strength.
"I will not give up," Fishface explained.
Princess Gwenalot sobbed, though she told him defiantly. "And I won't give up on the spirit of the Rock."
A click. Someone had pulled a trigger.
Another click.
Grunting followed as Fraggles tried to throw metallic objects that were now stuck to their hands.
Everyone glanced around in shock as they nearly froze in place.
The weapons would not work.
The Rock grew still.
Princess Gwenalot felt a light within her. "La la la la, la la la la la la, la la la la la la la la la," she sang timidly.
Other Fraggles started to sing with her, "Ding ding dong ding, ding dong ding ding dong ding, ding dong ding ding dong ding ding dong ding."
Still other Fraggles started to clang the swords and other metal weapons against the cannons and against the boulders and the ice, creating a medley of ringing that sounded a little strange, but it was almost as if one could hear the spirits of the bells whispering from the cold metal.
As the Fraggles continued to sing, the ice started to drip and glow from beneath. The whole of Fraggle Rock sparkled as the melodies traveled far and wide.
Deep inside the Crystal Cavern, the crystals had begun to crack, but those cracks soon healed, leaving a dazzling light show to fill the room.
Far from any Fraggle, in the misty darkness of the Terrible Tunnel that consumed Sir Blunderbrain, the relaxed knight hummed the melody he could sense through the rocks.
The ropes binding Princess Gwenalot snapped. She stood and faced Fishface. "I never want to see these ugly things again," she told him. "All the little stuff can be remade back into bells, to protect our future."
Fishface let a single tear fall. "Big weapons hide, never to be seen again."
"Agreed," the Princess told him, hugging him. A small smile cracked from his lips.