The Land of Mud

It was a particularly sunny day, when Charles was sitting peacefully on the hillside, his pale blue eyes gazing down on the silent ruins nearby. He had just taken a long drink from the spring then sat down to relax. “Ah… this is lovely…” Charles sighed. He thought he was talking to his friend, but when he turned around he could only see the flowers swaying gently and the blue sky above them. “By golly, I could swear she was here a minute ago!” he exclaimed very loudly.

“I think you should shou’ a bi’ louder! I think there was a lady in France who didn’t ‘ear ya’!” a voice said gruffly. The voice, Charles soon found out, came from what appeared to be a pile of mud with an extremely grubby face on top. At first Charles thought he had appeared out of thin air, but as he saw a few more ‘mudmen’ come out from the mouth of the spring, he realised the speaker must have too. After a few moments of silence (the spring had suddenly frozen, Charles noticed, puzzled), Charles finally spoke up, asking shyly, “Well, um, my friend’s gone, um, missing, and, um, well, could you help me find her?” Charles had many other questions, mostly about the spring and the mudmen themselves, but felt they were not as important. He heard murmurs and whispers between the mudmen, before the first mudman finally spoke up, “Well, it’s probably the Ansek, he’s been botherin’ us for years.”

Charles paused for a minute before asking “Will he kill her?”
“ ’Ow am I s’posed to know? By the time I’d get close enough to find out, I wouldn’t be here would I? Duh! Bu’ yeah, probably,” the mudman replied.
Charles gulped. “We could take you if you liked,” said a mudwoman. Everybody looked round at her with strange looks. Again, murmurs and whispers broke out. After a minute or so, another mudman said, “Come on then.”

The mudpeople instructed Charles to lie down in the spring, it was as cold as ice. Suddenly his whole world was turned upside down – literally. He soon found himself lying in mud. He stood up dizzily and looked around. He saw the hole he had just come through, but it was on the ground, which means he must be upside down. Soon enough the mudpeople had come down – well, up - the hole. They walked on. He followed them. He passed many other mudpeople – there were mudwomen with mudbabies in their arms (they were more like blobs), mudchildren and mudmen. They were standing in front of their mudhouses in their mudgardens. After what seemed like hours, they reached a marble palace (Charles was glad there wasn’t any mud – it was starting to seep through his shoes). “This way…” said a mudwoman. She led them up the many stairs. Finally, they reached the top. If mudmen hadn’t been behind him, he would have fallen down the stairs in shock. In front of him stood a giant snake! The mudmen seemed completely unfazed. Suddenly, he heard a scream! He immediately ran towards it. Surprisingly, nobody tried stop him, or help him. More screams. He soon found the source of the screams – his friend, Mary.

She was trapped in a cage. “Charles!” she squealed.
“What’s happened? Why did you scream?” he asked.
“I didn’t, it was that.” She pointed to a small radio device. Charles picked it up and turned it off.
“Can you get me out?” she asked.
“Probably not, but I can get the mudmen to help, they’re quite friendly-“
“The mudmen?!” interrupted Mary, “They’re eeevil! They’re the snake’s assistants!”
“Too righ’ we are…” the mudman snarled. Suddenly, the great snake loomed over them. It pounced on Charles. Charles leapt out of the way in the nick of time; the snake landed on the cage. It collapsed and before Charles could do anything, it had gobbled up Mary whole. “NO!” Charles yelled frantically. He fell backwards onto the floor with a thump. His hand landed on something sharp. Blood poured from his pale hand. He shakily picked up the sword with his other hand and ran towards the snake. He staunchly chopped the head off the snake. Mary fell out, somehow alive. He pointed the sword at the mudmen. “Wait! We’re not on his side!” one of them shouted.
“Don’t lie, you tortured me,” growled Mary.
“No, it’s not our fault. He forced us. He threatened our families. Please spare us!” he replied. He had his fingers crossed behind his back, but Mary and Charles didn’t notice.
“Then take us to the spring,” Charles said firmly.
They eventually reached the hole to the spring. As they were going down it, they heard them mudmen say, “We’ll get them next time – we’ll kill them.”
Charles and Mary fled.