Guy--Part Thirty-Nine

Splog # 162

Thirty-Nine

 

   "Where we're going," Bugs finally commenced his explanations, "is to the Islands Beneath. They lie just beyond the Black Gate, ergo that is the place I mentioned to the Ling-Lings. Does that answer your first question?"

   "Yes. It does tell me where we're going but could you tell me what are the Islands Beneath?"

   "What are the Islands Beneath. Well, they're fairly self-explanatory. The Islands Beneath are the Islands Beneath."

   Bugs paused so Guy asked the obvious question.

   "What are the Islands Beneath beneath?"

   Bugs gave a small chuckle. "Why, the sea, of course. Why do you think we're travelling down here? We're heading for the Islands Beneath and so we're journeying beneath. Splog truly didn't mention any of this to you?"

    "I guess we really didn't talk a lot except when he told me about the woman whose children got lost and I did fall asleep in the middle..."

   "Ah! Ah! Ah! Of course! Yes! Yes!" Guy felt an impulse to jump up and down and indulged himself a couple of times. The Ling-Lings went into a mild frenzy, cavorting around him and gliding under him as he rose into the water and glided gently down.

   "It's mine! My first! My very own! Mine! Mine!" Guy spun around a few times and then pulled himself up short. He repeated a two-tone whistle he'd heard himself emit earlier and, as the Ling-Lings went back into formation, he joined it and they all resumed their journey.

   Bugs was overflowing with high spirits. "Guy, this is my first important deed. Splog didn't tell you anything so that I'd be able to do the whole thing on my own. Together with you, of course. Oh Guy, this is even bigger than I thought. Than I could have hoped for. Guy, you and me, we're going to help everyone. We're going to...All right. Calm down. Not you. Me. All right. You need to know everything. All right. OK. Splog told you about Nimos and Will and the children. That's all he told you? Did he tell you about the sun?"

   Guy thought for a moment and shook his head back and forth, a rather soothing sensation when done underwater.

   "All right. Nimos and Will and the children. No sun. No monkey. No islands." Guy experienced a sudden intake of breath. His mouth began to move as though he were forming words but no sound issued forth. Slowly Bugs enunciated, "He did...did he give you...something...anything that might be good for you?"

   Guy's hand moved immediately to check the pocket of his shorts. Relief surged through him as he felt the slight bump that told him the pebble was still there. But it felt somehow different. He slid his hand into his pocket and his fingers touched, not a pebble, but something that felt more like a coin or a small disk of some kind. Strangely enough, it didn't have a smooth round edge but felt as though it had many sides angled off from each other. He started to remove it from his pocket.

   "Better not," Bugs piped up, "In an aquatic atmosphere, things can be washed out of your hands in a blink and, before you know it, you don't know it. Where they are, that is."

   Guy left his hand in his pocket, clutching the disk.

   "Enough to know that you've got it." Bugs remarked. "Now. You need to know everything that you need to know. So. Let me see. Let me see. That's a tall order. Let - me - see. Where to begin? There's so much...I know. I know. Yes. You tell me about yourself and while you do, I'll organize my thoughts and, when you're done, I'll begin. So. Are you hungry?"

   Guy found he was quite hungry but before he could answer Bugs said, "Of course you're hungry." Guy's head began turning back and forth, beaming light into the surrounding darkness. He saw that the area they were travelling through wasn't barren as had been the place they'd started. He could see rocks, some fairly large, and some weeds growing up through the water and trailing in the current. Even an occasional fish swimming by.

   "Oogachaka," Bugs blurted out.

   "I beg your pardon."

   "Oogachaka," Bugs repeated. "Do you like it?"

   "What is it?" Guy asked.

   "Well, it's hard to describe. Actually, it's candy. But it's also quite nutritious."

   It sounded rather doubtful to Guy, but he just waited to see what Bugs would do. His head leaned back on his neck and he searched the water above from side to side. After a while, he made out something that looked like a string hanging down from the surface. He pushed off the bottom with his feet and swam toward it. As he approached, he saw that it was a fishing line with a hook on the end. Impaled on the hook was an object that looked like a tea bag. Guy took the hook in one hand and pulled the object off with the other, then let himself drift back to the ocean floor. The Ling-Lings had followed his rising and swam lazily around him as he descended. As he inspected the item in his hand, he found it to be not one bag but four tied together at one corner.