CHRONICLES OF MERTH - MER'S DAY OUT CHAPTER TEN

Anfina laid a soft, light hand on my shoulder, and lightly pushed me inside the castle.
The castle was really huge inside. I was in the hall, which was full of tapestries and paintings of past kings and other members of the Royal Family. There was also two huge windows on either side; made out of purple and red glass.
"Father!" Anfina called out. "I'm back!"
Puff! Indigo smoke appeared from nowhere. When it subsided, in it's place was a really short man, with a white mousetache.
"Anfina, darling! What took you so long?"
They hugged.
"I found him Father! I found the one you sent me out for." Anfina waved towards me.
Her father, King Angora of Pizza, looked at me from behind squinty eyes.I held out a hand.
"Pleased to meet you, King Angora." I didn't know if this was the right way to speak to a king, never having spoken to one before.
"What's your name, boy?" He asked, a little rudely.
"Mer Landry, sir."
The king stared at me. Then he cracked a smile.
"Anfina! You're a gem! You found him. But how?"
They went down the hall, while Anfina told him how we met.
"Come along, Mer!" She called, from far away. I ran towards them.
"You will be staying in the guest room, the biggest guest room in the castle." She led me to this guest room, and no sooner had I entered, then she shut the door behind me, locking it fast.
Suddenly, I felt scared. Had Anfina merely just lured me into a trap so she keep me prisoner? And what did they mean by the one?
I looked around the room, and jumped out of my skin when I saw a figure sitting on the four poster bed. At first, I thought it was a large doll, sitting and staring, but as I got closer, the doll sneezed, and I realized it was a Human girl! The most beautiful Human girl I'd ever seen. I was sure she wasn't a Siren, because she didn't give out the same radiance as Anfna, but she was still beautiful. She had really long hair which was really dark brown, the colour of chocolate, it flowed way past her bottom. And her face was like a giant chocolate button. I was sure she was a Choc-lin, a native of Choc-lar, the bithplace of chocolate. I've heard that Choc-lins are supposed to be as sexy as Sirens, but she was the first ever Choc-lin I'd met.
"Hello," I said, really friendly. "My name's Mer. What's your's?"
"Sarafina," she answered.
"What a pretty nam."
"Are you a Human boy? And your name's Mer?"
"Yes and yes."
"Oh dear Merth. I was hoping this wasn't going to happen." Tears began to dribble down her pretty face, and I felt sure she was going to start melting any minute. Even though it was really rascist of me to think it.
"Well, I was kidnapped a few weeks ago by that Siren and her father. They want to create the perfect recipe for a pizza, you see. The two most important ingrediants are a Human girl named Sarafina and a Human boy named Mer."
I stared at her in shock. "That can't be right," I said. "Anfina seemed quite friendly to me."
"That's what she does! She's a Siren! That's what they do! They come across as friendly, to lure people imto their traps. And this trap is to make the best pizza ever, using us as the ingrediants." More tears rolled down. I dabbed at her face with the sleeve of my shirt.
"Listen, Sarafina, they won't use us as ingrediants. We're going to escape."
"It won't work. I've tried running away numurous times, and I always get caught."
The key turned in the lock, and the door burst open. Anfina stood there.
She pointed at Sarafina. "Get on with your chores, girl!" She snarled. Sarafina stood up, and - it happened really fast - she kicked Anfina in the face, knocking her to the floor, grabbed me, and we raced out of the room. There was a brick lying on the floor, Sarafina picked it up, and threw it at one of the windows, then, still grabbing hold of me, she produced a gun from nowhere, and shot a piece of rope which attached itself to a tree outside. Then we were hurtling outside, along the rope.
"Where did you get that?" I asked, as we landed on the ground.
"I am a Matshi. And only Matshi can own these."
I gasped. I'd heard of Matshi before. They were really rare, and always female, never male. If you was a Matshi, you was born with it, you couldn't train to be one. Matshi were really hard, much harder than the soldiers who were in the army.
I realized Sarafina still had hold of my hand, but I didn't mind, it felt nice.
"Come on," she said. "We must go, now!"
We headed back the way from which I entered. We ran and ran, until our feet got so tired, we had to stop for a rest.
We sat on someone's wall, gasping for breath.
"Hey, you!"
We looked all around us. We looked behind us. There was a wizened old man glaring at us.
"You are the Humans who escaped from the Royal castle."
"No," we said.
"Yes, you are, I've watched you running all the way from there. You're coming with me."
He wasn't looking at me when he said this, though. He was looking straight at Sarafina. He snapped his fingers. Thick weeds appeared and bound themselves around Sarafina. She kicked and struggled for all she was worth, but the weeds were too strong for her. The wizened old man grabbed hold of Sarafina, and they vanished in a puff of blue smoke, leaving me all alone...

Meanwhile...

I woke up in a little cottage which smelled very strongly of lasagne. I shuddered, hating the smell
I looked all around me. I seemed to be in some sort of kitchen. I tried to get up, but my hands were stuck together. Then I realized that I was actually tied up.
A funny loking creature came through the door. It looked like a teddy bear, but instead of fur, it was wearing scales, like a fish.
It was pointing at me now, and licking it's lips. It was also rubbing it's stomach, as if to say 'what a fine morsel I've caught.'
I tried to speak, but my mouth was gagged as well. I was trying to tell it that my name was Juniper and I was looking for my brother Mer. But to no avail.
The scaley teddy thing came over to me and held out a knife. For one terrifying moment, I thought it was going to kill me! But all it did was untie me, using the knife, and rip the gag off my mouth.
"Thank you," I said, gratefully, still not sure if it was friend or foe.
"What did you say?"
I stared! "You can talk?"
"Naturally. You was trying to say something, so I felt it would be polite to rip the gag off your lips and say something back."
"What are you?" I blurted out, without thinking. I got scared, in case saying 'what' instead of 'who' would offend it.
"Oh, beg your pardon. I am a male Boblar, and my name is Sidlow. I know who you are. You are Juniper, and you are looking for your brother, Mer."
"How do you know?"
"I read your notepad."
I felt angry that someone had been snooping through my things, but I decided not to argue, because I needed more friends than I did enemies.
"Was it you who knocked me out?"
"Yes. I saw you out there, looking parched and hungry, and unable to walk. I wanted to help. I felt that knocking you out and dragging you back here would be the easiest way of getting you here."
"Why was you rubbing your stomach at me just now?"
"That's just the Boblar way of saying 'good mornimg'."
"Oh. Well, where I come from, it means 'what a tasty morsel I've caught.'
"Does it? How strange. When we want to say that, we mime eating."
"Well, why did you tie me up?"
"well, when I was carrying you, your arms and legs kept sticking out all over the place so I felt that tying you up would be more manageable to carry you. I left you in here when I got here, until you woke up. Anything else you need to know?"
"No. You've answered everything I need to know. Thanks."
I was so glad that these Boblars were friends and not enemies, so I felt they'd be willing to help me.
"There is one more thing though. I was wondering if..."
"... If I could help you find Mer," Sidlow finished off.
"Yes, as far as I know, he has escaped from the City of Pizza with a prettu Choc-lin Matshi named Sarafina. But Sarafina's been kidnapped and Mer wants to help her."
"Then I'll help too," I answered. "I'll find Mer, and if I find him, I'll help him rescue Sarafina!"

Find out what happens next in Chapter Eleven...