CHRONICLES OF MER - MER'S DAY OUT CHAPTER ELEVEN

I found myself back in the castle in the centre of the city of Pizza. I was taken back to the room where I'd been waiting my fate for Merth knows how long. At first, I'd loved the poshness of the room, with the four poster bed and the long, drapy curtains at the red stained windows. But after I found out my fate, that I was to be used as a secret ingrediant for a new type of pizza, I quickly found myself hating the place.
"So, Sarafina," Huttie said. "You thought you could escape our evil clutches yet again."
"You'll get your comeuppence, Huttie," I said. "Everyone'll find out eventually what your new pizza contains, and then you'll be shut down."
"Shut up!" yelled Huttie. "You very well know that nobody will find out, because we'll brainwash them into never finding out!"
I couldn't think of anything to say back, so I merely glared at him.
"You know," he said. "You are quite pretty. It seems such a shame to put you in the pizza, but we have to, to give it that extra flavour."
He went to the window and looked out.
"Sooner or later, we'll catch the Mer boy as well. And then I can start making the perfect pizza at last."
"You'll never get away with it," I snarled. "You won't. I'll find a way to stop you."
"And what will you do about it?" Huttie sneered. "Are you going to beat us up? Kill us? Take over the castle?"
I couldn't think of an answer.
"Thought not."
I'd suddenly had enough. I took out my Matshi Gun, and pointed it at Huttie. He looked shocked. I'd never revealed that I was a Matshi to anyone in the castle.
"You're a Matshi?" Huttie's eyes positively popped out of their sockets. He got down on his knees. "Forgive me, my Lady," he simpered. "But I did not want to do any of this! I was brainwashed by King Angora and Princess Anfina into doing their dirty work! Oh, from now on, I will help you escape and expose them!"
I knew it would work. Being a Matshi has it's advantages. Everyone are scared of us Matshis. Well, so they should be. We Matshis have our ruthless side, that makes us win fair and square in any fight.
"Follow me," said Huttie. He led me out of the room and down the castle's corrider. We were met by the evil Siren, Anfina.
"HUTTIE!" She screamed. "You let the brats escape!"
"I caught the Choc-lin brat," said Huttie.
"Well? Go and find the other one! Mer!"
"Yes! I was on my way."
"What are you doing with the Choc-lin then?"
"She knows where Mer is."
"Go on then and make sure he's still alive, or else you'll be included in the pizza as well!"
We waited til she was out of the way, then we carried on running til we were out of the castle and back towards Mer...

I stared at the spot whre they were. Sarafina was a pretty girl, and I dreaded anything happeningto her. I thought about running back to the castle, certain she'd been taken there again. As I turned, I saw two figures, running towards me. One was Sarafina, the other weas the little, wizened man who had taken her off.
"Mer!" Yelled out Sarafina.
I smiled at her, and glared at the old man.
"It's okay," said Sarafina. "He was going to kill us, but it turned out he'd been brainwashed by the evil Siren and her father."
The little man nodded. "She was a Matshi," was all he said.
"So.. What do we do now?" I asked.
"The only thing we can do," said Sarafina. "Run and keep running."
"Is he coming with us?" I said, pointing towards the little old man.
"Yes. He's friend now. He was the chef who was going to cook, but now he's been snapped out of his spell. The spell he was under. His name is Huttie."
"Pleased to meet you, Huttie," I said, holding out my hand.
Huttie shook my hand, looking a bit dazed. "She was a Matshi," he said, again.
"It seems like him finding out I was a Matshi had broken the spell," said Sarafina.
"What is a Matshi? And do they do?" I asked, as we resumed walking.
"Well, we Matshis are really rare. But we are always female. If you're a Matshi, you're born a Matshi, you can't train to become one."
"And what do you do?"
But I never did find out what Matshis do, because suddenly, we were faced with an army...

The next day, I set out on a quest to rescue my brother and his new friend, Sarafina, along with my new friend, Sidlow the Boblar.
Sidlow knew ythe way to the city of Pizza, despite it being a supposed Legendary City. He led us up snowy mountains, and through hot deserts extremely like Chilli Con Carne.
By nightfall, Sidlow insisted we stop for the night. I didn't want to, as I wanted to press on, and find Mer and Sarafina as soon as possible, but I didn't know what Boblars were capable of if they got angry, so I agreed to stop for the night.
Sidlow insisted the only reason he wanted to stop for the night was because Boblars weren't supposed to wander too far, and got tired really quickly. I just took his word for it.
We found a little cave, and, after giving it a few homely touches like a door, we settled down for the night...

Felps, Dibs and the supposed Mer got back to the office in two hours.
"Well, did you do it?" Asked Rubean, upon their arrival.
"Yeah, sure, boss," answered Felps. "We wanted, rather than needed, to get rid of it. It was seriously starting to get on our nerves!"
Rubean wasn't listening. He was concentrating hard on Mer. Finally, he said: "That is not Mer," he said.
"What? Sure it is." Felps and Dibs turned to the supposed Mer and said: "Tell him, Mer."
Then, the supposed Mer said: "Yes. That is correct. I am he."
After he said this, even Felps and Dibs could see what was wrong. This Mer spoke in a strange, robotic voice.
"It's a fake!" Yelled Dibs.
Felps reached over, and pulled off a flap of skin of Mer's face.
They all screamed as the saw the silver interior.
"It is a fake!" Said Rubean. "How could you two let this happen? Where is the real Mer?"
"I know. Where. Mer is." said the robotic Mer.
He held out a hand, which held a piece of paper. Rubean took it, and read it out loud:
"Mer has been taken by Anfina, the princess of Pizza, to be used for a special pizza."
Rubean looked at the others. "You know what we have to do?" He asked.
The others shook their headfs.
"We have to look for Mer..."

Mitha was watching TV, Karina was in the kitchen making the special porridge he had requested.
Since the boys had gone, Mitha had banned pizza, cilli con carne, and any other food that reminded him of Mer and Juniper. In fact, the only thing her husband ate these days was porridge, because neither boy ate it or liked it. Karina added the eggs and butter and started stirring.
"Watch out, Kar, you're getting it everywhere."
Mitha had slipped into the kitchen, to see if his porridge was ready yet.
"Oops. Sorry, Mitha, I was thinking about Mer and Juniper."
"Who?"
"Mer and Juniper. You know, our sons. Who went missing." She couldn't believe it. Had Mitha forgotten about them already. Or was he ready to disown them?
"No. Mer went missing, remember? And then Juniper went looking for him. Juniper only went looking for him because we argued and I pricked his conscience."
"No." Karina felt obliged to disagree. "No. He went looking for Mer because he loves his brother."
"Believe what you like Kar. But I know Juniper had his conscience pricked."
He stuck his finger in the bowl.
"Mmm, tastes good so far," he said, licking his finger clean...

Find out what happens next in Chapter Twelve...