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

When I woke up, I was tied up next to my brother, Juniper. On the opposite side of the room, I saw Huttie and Juniper's friend. We were all tied up. I couldn't see any sign of Sarafina anywhere.
The door opened, and in walked Anfina.
"I ca't believe it," she was muttering to herself, unaware I was awake. "I finally get the chance to put the Choc-lin in the pizza, and the little brat escapes on me!"
I gave a silent cheer. It looked as if Anfina had taken Sarafina off somewhere, and Sarafina had bested her yet again.
Anfina's father, Angora, came into the room.
"What are you doing here?" He glared at his daughter. "What about the pizza?"
"That little brat has escaped again, Father."
"Which one?"
"Sarafina."
"Then what are you doing here, Anfina? Shouldn't you be out there loking for her?"
"Yes. Of course. But, I thought that I could put Mer in the pizza before, then that way, they can't both escape."
"What a good idea. Okay, we'll worry about the Choc-lin brat later, go and get Mer."
I shut my eyes, not wanting the Siren or her father to know I was awake. I'd figured I'd pretend to be still unconscious while Anfina was carrying me down the corride, then at the last minute, kick her really hard and run away.
"Okay, my lovely," I heard her say. I could feel her breath on me as she untied me and picked me up. A nice, soft minty breath.
Anfina carted me down the corrider, I kept one eye openm at a slit, until I could see she was turning to enter a room marked "Special Pizza". Quick as a flash, I pinched her realy hard. She doubled up, groaning in pain. I took the chance and ran off in the opposite window. As I saw a window looming up ahead, I ran faster and faster, and crashed through it.
I landed on my back. It hurt really bad. I stood up, rubbing my back, and looked around. I was in a garden of some sort. It was quite pretty, blue and pink trees growing everywhere. I stood there, admiring the scenery for a while, then remembered I was supposed to be running from the place. I was just about to run, when I heard a voice:
"Psst, Mer, over here."
I swivelled around. Sarafina was peeking from behind a blue tree."We need to go back inside and get the others," she said.
We ran around the outside of the castle. When we found the door, we went inside.
We looked in all the doors, making sure that Anfina or her father weren't sneaking up behind us, until we found my brother and the others.
They had long since woken up, and were trying to get themselves untied. They looked excited when Sarafina and I arrived. We set about untying them, then all five of us made a dash for it.
We were well clear of the grounds when we stopped to take a break. Then we figured what to do next...

It was nighttime; Karina and Mitha were in bed. Mitha had already turned his light off and gone to sleep, while Karina stayed up, reading her book.
She sighed. She couldn't concentrate on her book properly. After she told Mitha the real reason why she didn't want to clone Mer, he hadn't spoken a word to her since. She felt it was all his fault, pressuring her into doing something she wasn't quite ready for yet. Wasn't her husband a decent human being? Didn't he have any feelings? Hadn't he heard of the grieving stage?
She wanted to grieve properly for the loss of Mer before she contemplated cloning him. Couldn't Mitha understand that? Obviously, he was acting like a total bloke and wanted to rush into things without thinking of the consequences. What if she agreed to clone Mer? Then what? What would happen if it turned out to be a bad idea, and the clone wasn't anything like Mer? Would Mitha admit to being wrong? Then again, what if it was exactly like Mer? It would remind her of Mer everytime she went near it, and get her upset.
She lay in the dark thinking about it for a long time. Should she? Shouldn't she?
Suddenly, out of the blue, she decided. She closed her book, reached over, and shook Mitha.
"Mitha." Then a little louder. "MITHA!"
"What?" He groaned as he woke up. "What is it, Kar? What's wrong?"
"Mitha? I've decided, I want to clone Mer..."

It was nighttime; Rubean, Dibs and Felps had stopped for the night. They had been searching for Mer all day, and now they were suffering from a severe lack of water. The barren land of Chilli Con Carne had a really hot sun which had beaten down on them all day. Now it was night, they found they couldn't concentrate on sleeping while they were thirsty.
"Do you think we'll ever find Mer?" Asked Felps.
"Who knows," answered Rubean, drowsily. "Who even knows if this place is even the City of Pizza?"
"Looks more like the barren land of Chilli Con Carne," said Dibs.
The other two looked at him, surprised. Normally, Dibs acted as if he was as thick as two short planks, and he didn't learn very much. However, he seemed to know this was the land of Chilli Con Carne when Rubean and Felps didn't, and they seemed a bit shocked.
"How do you know that?" Asked REubean.
"Used to live here, with my family, a lonmg time ago."
Rubean was staring at him, flabbergasted. "You mean you knew this all along, and didn't think to tell us?"
"No. Not all along. Only just figured it out just now."
"Well, then," said Rubean. "We know our mission for tomorrow, we have to get in that ship, and find the City of Pizza before something bad happens to Mer..."

Find out what happens next in Chapter Fifteen...