(Chapter 5) THE TALINKS
                                              
     "What was that?" Kennedy asked as she slowly stood up and looked
around.
     "Come to my home," said Poss. "Hurry!" as he tugged on Eddie some
more.
     Boommm! Boommm!
     "Let's go home, Eddie," said Patsy.  "I'm scared."
     "Yeah, me too," said Kennedy getting ready to bolt back toward the
stairs.
     "Poss, I think we better go home," said Eddie.
     Again they heard the thunderous pounding; they knew it was getting
closer because the ground began to tremble and Toomie started barking .
     "Come on," said Griffin and he started to run back through the
branches from where they came. Sue was right behind Griffin 'til she was
smacked in the face a few times by the branches that Griffin had pushed out
of his way.
     "I'm going to be first, move it," she said as she pushed Griffin aside to
lead the way.
     The rest quickly followed, as fear was now setting in. Poss ran behind
trying to stop them.
     "No, no, it's too late!" yelled Poss.
     The gang reached the edge of the forest, to see the open field from
which they came.
     "Wait, the stairs are gone!" shouted Eddie as he pointed toward the
area where they came down the stairs.
     Boommm! Boommm!
     Boommm! Boommm!
     "What do we do, where are the stairs?" screamed Kennedy.
     They paced back and forth and started to panic. Poss finally caught up
with the gang and while still running he grabbed Patsy by the hand, he
jerked her body so hard she dropped Mr. Tuddles. He ran as fast as he could
along the forest edge with Patsy in tow. Patsy tried desperately to get her
hand free, but Poss was hanging on too tight.
     "Eddie help!" she screamed.  Barking and jumping, Toomie ran
alongside Patsy, not too sure what was going on or what he should be doing,
but since it involved running Toomie was only too happy to play along.
     "What is Poss doing?" asked Kennedy as she picked up Mr. Tuddles.    
     Boommm! Boommm! the sound was getting closer. Eddie looked back
at the missing stairs, then back at Poss and Patsy.
     "I think Poss is trying to help, I'm following them!" Eddie shouted and
started to run after Poss. The rest didn't take the time to make a decision,
whatever was making that sound must be big and running another direction
seemed like a good idea.
     They ran for fifteen minutes along the forest edge, 'til they reached the
bottom of a large jagged mountain. No trees, no grass, not a weed in sight,
just black gravel with sharp peaks of rock jutting out in all directions. They
started to climb and Poss finally let Patsy's hand go so she could climb the
mountain, as he now had everyone's attention. They scrambled up the
mountain as fast as they could. They were halfway up the mountain, when
they started to slow down; they were getting tired.
     "I can't go any further," Joey said huffing and puffing. Poss stopped
and turned around to see the gang lagging behind. He made a gesture for
them to sit down. They flopped to the ground and turned to look down the
mountain.  
     "Poss what was that noise?" asked Eddie. Poss looked off into the
distance then back at Eddie.
     "Kraph, Kraph comes out when clouds come," Poss said still looking
quite worried.
     "Kraph?" Patsy questioned looking up at Poss.
     "Kraph was created by an evil demon, he has big teeth and sometimes
eats Talinks too!" Poss said, then pointed toward the forest. They all looked
in that direction and noticed that something was making the trees move.
They could still hear the pounding noise off in the distance.  As they watched
in disbelief, a different sound shattered the air.
     Shreeeck! 
     Joey jumped up and ran past the others, his legs were tired, but fear
was taking over. His friends quickly followed.
     They climbed for another twenty minutes, 'til they reached an opening
in the wall of the mountain. Poss led the way through the opening and the
others followed with caution. As they walked through the passage, they
stared up the tall black walls, 'til finally they saw a small crack of daylight in
the ceiling. The ground sloped downward and their shoes began to slip on
the loose gravel. They held their hands out to the sides of the passage wall
to keep from slipping. They could see light at the end of the passage, which
encouraged them to continue. They stepped out on a ledge, and took in the
view. Looking out over a small valley, they were surrounded by walls of
stone sky high. The ground below was covered by bright green grass and a
waterfall, pouring from a crack in the sky and running into a river.  The river
ran across the valley then disappeared underground.  In the centre of the
valley was a large building made of mud. It stood five stories high with
windows on all sides.
     "This home," said Poss pointing down into the valley.
     Poss turned to a large sheet of metal hanging off the ledge, out into
the open.  He then took a metal rod and hit the metal. The sound bonged
only once, but it echoed again and again through the valley. As the gang
watched Poss, he pointed at the mud lodge. They looked down to see
something come out of the holes.  Watching and wondering they soon
realized there were others who looked like Poss climbing out of the holes.
Poss ran down a steep narrow path carved along the side of the mountain.
Toomie barked at Eddie then excitedly ran down the path after Poss.
     "Come!" Poss shouted.
     Patsy grabbed Eddie's arm and looked up at his face.
     "Eddie, I want to go home," she said with a tired and dirty face.
     "We better follow him, it will be ok."  Eddie tried to reassure Patsy as
best as he could, but he was still worried about how they where going to get
home.  I am going to be in so much trouble when I get back, he thought to
himself.
     The gang slowly followed the path after Poss. They came to a stop at
the bottom and looked around; Poss was nowhere in sight. Startled by
something moving the bushes in front of them, the gang took a couple steps
back. From the moving bushes emerged furry creatures and before they had
a chance to run they were surrounded by hundreds of them. All different
sizes, some fat, some skinny, but none taller than five feet.  Frightened by
the large crowd heading toward them, they looked back at the path for a
quick escape. 
     "What should we do?" whispered Sue.
     "They don't look very happy," said Kennedy.
     Ten of the creatures were holding large sticks and moving closer. Patsy
pushed Eddie out in front so she could hide behind him.
     "Get ready to run," whispered Eddie to the others.
     As the gang was just about to flee, Poss pushed his way from behind
the creatures with Toomie leading the way. He bowed in front of the ten
creatures and said, "Knowing Ones, I bring you strangers from the green
light, they're friendly."
     The creatures stopped and made an "ohhhing" sound. Poss walked
over to Eddie and held his hand up. The creatures gasped at the sight of
Eddie's hand and rushed over to get a closer look. The creatures were
amazed that one hand could have so many fingers on it. They held up their
own hands to the stranger's to compare.  Excited by the new scents, Toomie
ran around smelling the creatures.
     "Talinks! We are Talinks, Poss said to Eddie who was being poked and
inspected.
     The Talinks took the gang back to their mud lodge, where they climbed
through one of the holes and into a large room. The walls seemed to be
made of mud, the room was warm with a fire burning in the centre of the
room.  In the ceiling was a hole for the smoke to escape.
Poss had the gang sit on one side of the fire pit while the Talinks sat on the
other side. They sat across from each other and stared, the only sound was
the crackling of the fire. Eddie looked around the room and everywhere he
looked there were eyes staring back.  Now what do we do? He thought to
himself, worried about the situation they were in. The silence was broken
when Patsy started to have a fit.
     "Where's Mr. Tuddles," said Patsy leaning over Griffin.
     "Sit down, Patsy," whispered Eddie.
     "No! I want Mr. Tuddles, I want him now!" she shouted unconcerned
by her surroundings.
     The Talinks began to mutter words back and forth to each other as
Patsy was having a fit. Patsy looked over at Sue, then at Kennedy and ran
over to her.
     "Gimme, Mr. Tuddles!" she blurted at Kennedy.  Kennedy held Mr.
Tuddles out, a little reluctant to give him back to Patsy, as she felt she
needed security now more than ever. Patsy grabbed Mr. Tuddles away from
Kennedy and rushed to sit down beside Eddie.  Eddie gave her a stern look.
     "What? Mr. Tuddles is mine," she said to Eddie.  Eddie shook his head
hoping that the Talinks would not get upset by Patsy's outburst. 
     Some of the Talinks whispered to each other and pointed at Patsy.
     The gang looked across the fire at ten of the Talinks, one of them
appeared to be the leader, as he was the largest and oldest of the group.
Startled by the sudden voice directed at them, their hearts began to race.
     "Poss welcomes you, then we welcome you," said the Older Talink with
a white stripe of fur running across his eyebrows.  Eddie acknowledged him
with a nod.
     "I'm Patsy, this is my brother Eddie, and my friends Griffin, Kennedy,
Joey and Sue," she said as she pointed to each one.  "We want to go home
now."
     "I'm Tone, leader here and you cannot go home," he said with a gruff
voice.  "You've passed through the Forbidden Gate."
     Eddie abruptly stood up and shouted back at the leader.  "We have to
go back, you can't force us to stay here!"
     Taken by surprise by this loud stranger, Tone stood up and frowned at
Eddie. 
      Sue then stood up and shouted, "Eddie's right, and we want to go
back now!"
     Poss sitting next to Eddie tried to pull him back down, before he got
into trouble.  "Our parents will come looking for us!" shouted Eddie. 
     Shocked by this statement, that more of these humans could come
through the gate, the Talinks stood and started to chatter to each other,
their voices getting louder. 
     Then Patsy stood up, squeezing Mr. Tuddles and began to cry, "Please,
please, I want to go home," and bowed her head as she cried.  The Talinks
turned to stare at this little stranger crying. Suddenly one of the Talinks
pushed her way through the crowd and walked over to Patsy.  She wrapped
her arms around Patsy and rocked her in her arms, consoling her, telling her
it would be all right.   
     "Stop it! Stop this, they are children," said the Talink as she hugged
Patsy.
     "Linnie, you know the rules, they have been set for thousands of
suns," said Tone.   
     Ignoring Tone she continued to cradle Patsy in her arms. 
     Tone stared at Linnie for a minute while he thought about what he was
going to do.  "Ok, then we vote tomorrow," he said, shaking his head at
Linnie, who had now taken a liking to this little blonde girl. Linnie wiped
Patsy's tears away and sat her down, then gestured for the rest to sit down.
     "Eat now, and Soul, you can choose tonight's story," Tone said
pointing at a young Talink.
     Joey perked up right away when he heard the word food. It didn't
matter if they were going home now or later, he was already in trouble for
missing dinner and his skin was still orange. He was very hungry and wished
he had stuffed more snacks into his pockets before he left the house.
     Some of the Talinks ran out of the room and returned with large
baskets. They opened the basket and pulled out white narrow satchels. They
stuck their hands inside the satchels and pulled out what looked like some
sort of dried fruit. Sue was the first to notice what the satchels were made
of.
     "Ewww! Those are socks, they're storing their food in socks!" shouted
Sue with disgust.
     "Poss why do you put your food in socks?" asked Eddie leaning over to
Poss. Poss looked over to the Talinks, pulling food out, then looked back at
Eddie shrugging his shoulders, not quite understanding what Eddie meant.
There were white socks, blue, gray and brown all in different sizes.  
          "That's why my socks are missing," said Eddie.
     Linnie walked back to Patsy with some food and handed her what
looked like dried fruit.  Patsy refused it and moved closer to Eddie.  Joey's
mouth started to water, anxious for Linnie to offer him some food, he put his
hand up hoping she would notice him next. He didn't care if the food was
stored in underwear he needed food. Linnie gave them each a piece of food
and sat back down next to Patsy. Joey swallowed his food even before he
could taste it and hope that Patsy wouldn't want her food.
     Tone asked the Talinks to sit down as now it was time for a story.   
     "Soul, what have you decided?" he asked.
     "Knowing One, to tell the tale of Rimm and Dragnot," said Soul as the
Talinks clapped their hands together with approval.
     Sitting up straight and proud, Tone looked at Eddie then studied Sue,
Griffin and Joey who was still eating. He looked over at Kennedy who
seemed to be still in shock and then at Patsy, being coddled by Linnie.  
     "I, one of ten Knowing Ones, will tell the story," he started.   " Forty
thousand suns ago, the land of Talinks spread across the great field, as far
as eyes could see, the food plentiful, Talinks very happy.  Until our land had
a great quake and a crack in a large boulder opened up in the black forest."
     "What does Knowing One mean?" Eddie whispered into Poss's ear.
     "There are ten Knowing Ones, they are the youngest of twenty lives. 
They have been around for hundreds of thousands of suns.  They still have
all lives. I do not do so good, I'm fourteen, I get into trouble a lot," Poss
whispered back to Eddie. 
     "You can die twenty times?"asked Eddie.
     "Each time we die we are reborn," said Poss.
     "Wow, we only have one life," said Eddie amazed by Poss's statement.
Then Eddie tuned his ears in on Tone's story again.   
     "From this crack was born a great evil, Dragnot.  Dragnot travelled the
land looking for a victim, he found Rimm, one of the strongest Talinks. He
was gathering food with a small group when Dragnot swarmed around
Rimm, covering him in white smoke, Rimm screamed in great pain and
dropped to his knees, then Dragnot flew off into the forest. The others ran to
help Rimm, but it was too late.
     Forgetting where they were and how they would get home, they were
immersed in Tone's story. As the Talinks became excited with certain parts
of the story, so did Eddie and the rest. Joey was still finding food to eat from
Linnie, who couldn't believe how much this boy could eat.  He eats more
than a herd of Blens, she thought to herself.
     "Eahhh!" Tone stood up and shouted, waving his arms around.  
Everyone was startled by the sudden eruption, but quickly applauded Tone,
for the excitement he was causing.
     "Wow," said Griffin looking up at Tone, who earlier looked only Griffin's
height, but now he seemed much bigger, as the glow of the fire cast a large,
scary shadow on the wall.
     "Rimm screamed, as the group of Talinks he was with touched him, he
exploded into rage.  He looked up at the group and his eyes turned bright
red and his voice changed into a deep and raspy grumble. Get away from
me; Rimm shouted, then picked up one the Talinks and threw him against a
tree.  He grabbed another by the neck, 'til he lost one life. He chased and
threw rocks at the others, before he ran off into the forest," said Tone as he
stomped his feet and waved his arms around like he was throwing rocks.
Kennedy leaned back as she believed that Tone was really throwing rocks
their way.
          "Rimm ran to Dragnot.  He told Rimm to create an army for him, and
     he would make sure Rimm's lives would never end.  Rimm followed the
instructions, he kidnapped Talinks from their homes and Dragnot turned
them evil, like Rimm.  Rimm's army grew, fifty Talinks more. His army, now
     called the Sooms, raided our food, kidnapped our kin and destroyed our
homes.  Then one sun, Ron arrived to save us all!" Tone shouted out loud.
     The crowd cheered with excitement. The Talinks chanted Ron's name,
then Tone sat down and they stopped. The room was quiet, Tone bowed his
head and the only noise was Patsy.
     "Who's Ron?" she questioned and licked her lips.
     "Shhh,"whispered Linnie, patting Patsy on the head.
     Tone gave Patsy a scowl and then continued with the story.
     "There was no stopping Dragnot and Rimm, 'til Ron appeared from the
green light.  He was captured by Rimm and taken to Dragnot. Dragnot was
about to cast his evil spell on him, but Ron blew into his noise maker, the
sound was so loud the Sooms covered their ears and cried in pain. The
sound also affected Dragnot.  He started to spin, turning into smoke and
then disappeared back into the crack in the boulder. The boulder started to
shake and the crack closed up with Dragnot trapped inside."  The Talinks
began to clap along with Eddie and the gang.
     "All was well, the Sooms retreated to the far end of the forest.  Ron
returned to his home, but Rimm followed him. Rimm stole the mouth noise
maker and returned to free Dragnot. Ron never came back. We still wait for
Ron's return and honour his body cover," Tone held up a dirty old jacket,
which looked like it would have fit a young child.  "The Talinks had to hide,
as Dragnot had returned.  We climbed Leato Mountain and here we found
our home, the rocks protect us from Dragnot as there is power in the rocks
that keep Dragnot from climbing the mountain."
     The Talinks chanted Ron's name again.
     "This Ron came from our world?" asked Griffin.
     "Poss, Ron was from our world, that jacket is what we would wear,"
Eddie said and then pulled out his harmonica.  "Is this the noise maker Tone
is talking about?"
     Poss shrugged his shoulders not knowing.
     "What's that?" shouted Tone as he bolted toward Eddie. "What's that?"
     Eddie quickly hid the harmonica behind his back as Tone shouted at
him. Tone grabbed Eddie by the shirt and pulled him up, the gang jumped
back to get out of the way of this mad Talink.  They huddled together and
watched in horror wondering what was about to happen.
          "What was that? Show me now!" Tone shouted in an angry voice.
     Eddie started to struggle, trying to get Tone's hand off his shirt, but he
was too strong.  Tone started to shake Eddie, again asking him what he had
in his hand.  Eddie was now afraid of what Tone was going to do, but did not
want to lose his harmonica so he tightened his grip around the harmonica. 
Toomie began to growl at Tone, but Tone ignored Toomie and continued to
shake Eddie.
     "Eddie, he seems pretty mad, show him the harmonica," said Griffin.
     "No! It's mine!" Eddie shouted over top of Toomie's barking. Eddie's
heart and mind began to race, what if he takes it and I never see it again?
Dad gave that to me, but what if he hurts me? Eddie thought to himself. "I'm
not giving it up!" Eddie shouted back at Tone.
     Tone leaned his head back and let out a large roar that shook the
building and everyone inside.  Eddie knew he was in real trouble and decided
not to push it any further. He brought his hand out in front for Tone to see
the harmonica. Tone looked down at Eddie's hand and gasped, then
snatching it from his hand he turned to show the Talinks. Eddie grabbed
Toomie and sat back down.
     "This is it!" Tone shouted. "This is the noise maker that can defeat
Dragnot!"
     The Talinks screamed with excitement as Tone held the harmonica up
above his head for all to see.  
     "You mean the noise maker in your story is a harmonica?" asked
Eddie. "My dad gave me that, you play music on it, it doesn't do anything
special."
     "Maybe it was your dad who saved them," said Sue as she watched
Tone dance around the room waving the harmonica.
     "My dad's name was Jim not Ron," said Eddie.  "It can't be the same
harmonica, it was brand new, still in its package."
     "Ron must have been around our age, this jacket isn't very big," said
Griffin as he held the old jacket in the air.  
     "Others like us have been here before?" asked Kennedy.
     "You have brought great joy to the Talinks," said Poss as he walked
over to Eddie, grinning from ear to ear. "We can now defeat Dragnot."
     "We must celebrate, bring in one of the Blens!" Tone shouted
excitedly. 
     Soul ran out and returned shortly with one of the cow-like creatures
they had seen earlier. Soul had a rope around its neck, but it wasn't walking
alongside Soul, it was hovering over the ground.
     "Look, it's one of those flying things we saw!" shouted Patsy.
     Soul stopped and the Blen slowly floated down to the ground. Then a
couple of Talinks ran over with small bowls.
     "Maybe they are going to milk it," said Joey feeling a little thirsty.
     The gang watched with inquiring eyes, assuming that they where going
to milk it like a cow.  But to their surprise the Blen bent its head down so
that its horn was pointing to the ground, next Soul put a small bowl under
the horn.  Within seconds some sort of yellow liquid began to drain from the
horn. Soul filled the small bowls with the yellow liquid and passed them
around the room.
     "Uck! What's that yellow stuff?" asked Patsy.
     "It's good for you, we drink all the time," said Poss drinking from his
bowl.
     Patsy picked up her bowl, studied it for a minute then brought it up to
her nose to smell it. It has a sweet perfume smell to it. She looked over to
Eddie to see what he was going to do with it.  Eddie too, was smelling it.
Kennedy pushed it aside, Sue just held hers in her hand and watched the
Talinks.  Joey had already finished his and was looking for more. 
     "Joey, your skin," said Kennedy as she moved away from Joey.
     Joey look down at his orange hands. His eyes grew wider as he
watched his skin change from orange to yellow. 
     "What's wrong with me?" Joey cried.
     Joey was about to panic when he noticed his yellow skin changing
colour again. But, to his relief, his skin turned back to normal.