THE CHRONICLES OF MERTH - MER'S DAY OUT CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I sat down on the ground because my feet hurt. Sarafina stayed standing, but after a while, she too, sat down next to me.
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
She shrugged. "We need to get out of this place, and back to our homes. I come from Choc-Lar, where do you come from?"
"I come from Minton."
"Is that where mint is made?"
"Yes. Plus they also make minto chocolate there. Do they make mint chocolate where you live?"
"No. They only make plain chocolate, sometimes dark, sometimes white."
"Which chocolate do you prefer?"
"Everyone gets surprised when I say this, but I prefer white chocolate. Uh, Mer, can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Why are we talking about chocolate, when we should be talking about how to escape?"
I bit my lip. "Good point. But I have no idea where to actually go."
"Should we just run and run until we get somewhere."
I thought about it for a minute.
"No," I said at last. "That Siren and her father has probably alerted the Pizzans about us. We're probably being hunted down like wanted criminals."
Sarafina looked worried. "Oh. What are we going to do?"
"We could still run. But we'll need to keep a low profile."
"How do we do that?"
I chewed my lip, contemplating. "I'm not sure," I answered. "You're a Matshi, right? Well, can Matshis morph?"
"You mean like change our physical stature? Yeah, sure." Sarafina suddenly grew a long silvery beard. In minutes, I was staring at a small man reminiscent of a wizened little wizard.
"Okay, that's you sorted out. What about me?"
"Look, Matshis have the power to disguise other people as well."
"How?"
"Well, I put a finger on top of your head, and you say what you would like to be, and there you are."
"Okay, let's try it."
I stood in front of Sarafina. She reached out a finger and gently put it on top of my head.
"I would like to be a Whippet dog that can only bark."
Immediately, the air around us went very cold. The atmosphere suddenly became very depressive. "Sarafina?" I called out. "Is this supposed to happen?"
Sarafina produced a mirror from nowhere. She held it in front of my face. Staring back at me was a little Whippet dog. It's body was long sideways, and it was brown with a white splodge in the middle of it's back.
"Is that me?" I asked.
"Sorry, Mer, I can't understand you. You're only barking."
"Oi!" Called out a voice. "Oi, you!"
Both Sarafina and I turned. Running towards us was Anfina. I tensed. But then remembered she couldn't recognise us, because Sarafina was a wizened old man, and I was a Whippet dog.
Sarafina bent down and picked me up. "Yes?" She addressed Anfina.
"I would like you to tell me if you've seen a Choc-lin girl accompanied by a tall, skinny boy with gingery hair."
"Oh, yes," Sarafina lied. "They went that way," she pointed to the opposite direction from where Anfina had come from. "They looked in a tearing hurry. I was trying to sell them this dog," she jingled me up and down. "But they didn't seem interested. They just rushed by without even looking at me!"
"Thank you, Sir!" Anfina said, carrying on.
"You wouldn't be interested in this dog, would you? He only costs twelve Dreckels."
"Sorry, Sir. I don't have any money at the minute. Goodbye!" Anfina rushed on.
"Well, at least that's brought us some time," said Sarafina. "Let's go."

It was the middle of the following afternoon. It was a bright, sunny day, and Karina had decided to go out to the garden and catch up on some weeding.
Mitha made himself a cup of coffee, and then decided to go the whole hog and make himself a bowl of porridge as he was now very hungry.
He piled the porridge oats in the bowl, added some White Liquid and set the bowl into the microwave. As the bowl was spinning round, and the numbers were decreasing, Mitha thought about last night.
At last. At long last, his darling wife had agreed to have Mer cloned. It was a bit awkward of Karina to have acted like a typical woman, and want to think things through. Why? What was the point of thinking about things? If everyone was always thinking about consequences all the time, nothing would get done. 'But I suppose I'd better not complain about it,' he thought to himself. 'She did agree in the end, after all.'
Karina came into the kitchen from outside, whistling a happy tune. He took a deep breath. This was it. If she still wanted to go through with it, he would ring up the CA right now, and ask about it.
Right now, Karina was washing her hands at the kitchen sink. He waited until she'd turned the tap off and took another deep sigh.
"Karina?"
"Yes, Sniff."
He breathed a breath of relief. Sniff was an old nickname she gave to him when she was in a good mood. He decided to use her good mood as an advantage.
"Karina, are you sure you want Mer cloned?"
"I told you last night, Dear, yes, I'm sure."
"Because I'm going to ring up the CA right now, so if you've changed your mind..."
"No, I haven't changed my mind."
"I mean it, Kar, I'm doing it right now."
Karina sighed. She looked over. Mitha had already picked up the CT, and started dialing the number when he started saying the last sentence. "Go ahead," she said. She sighed. Even if she had changed her mind, Mitha wouldn't have listened. He'd still go ahead with it anyway.
Mitha heard the ringing tone, and then someone pick up.
"Hello? Yes, this is Mitha Landry, and I'm interested in having my son cloned..."

Find out what happens next in Chapter Sixteen...