Gelert Diaries 2

      "How many times have you read that book?" she asked.

      "25 times exactly!" Marty replied.

      "Whoa! I can't see how you can love a book so much!" Diamond said, with a baffled look. She didn't see the sense in reading.

      "It's just brilliant, Diamond!" Marty beamed. "I love reading about Elwyn's travels! I wish I could do something like that!"

      Diamond peered at the front cover.

      "He's a Gelert like you!" she said in surprise. "Who knows... travelling could be in Gelert blood. It could be in yours!"

      If brains were like the interior of a clock, Marty's was whirring and clicking at full speed. He had an idea.

      "Yes... " he muttered. "He's like me... "

     *

2nd day of Hiding, Y7

      Well, today is the day that I follow my hero Elwyn's footsteps to be a brave and daring traveller to exciting, new lands! It has been rather boring around here; Diamond seems to be drifting further and further away from me and our friendship - she'd rather hang out with Fred than with me nowadays. Oh well, all that will change when I come back from my travels!

      Thing is, I need to think where I'm travelling to...

3rd day of Hiding, Y7

     I pondered and pored over maps all yesterday afternoon. And I did some workings out and it turns out my adventures won't be as daring as I hoped but no matter.

      I have no means of transport and to build a raft is much more difficult than I thought which is what Elwyn did. He is much cleverer than I thought. So I have come to the conclusion that I will set out on foot to... Meridell! I know it isn't very exotic and many people have been there before but technology is much more advanced since Elwyn first started off to Terror Mountain. And I will be going alone which I've never done before.

      It's going to take me less than a day to get there but my adventures will start when I get there.

5th day of Hiding, Y7

      Having walked all morning, I have arrived! I set out early this morning, having packed my compass, food, water, a map and money yesterday. And I've also brought my Gruslen petpet along for the ride. I wished I didn't when my backpack grew heavier and heavier and I grew more and more tired. But we are here and that's all that matters.

      On arriving at Meridell, I wandered around lost but then I bumped into a dear, old Kacheek who lives in Meri Acres Farm. She has offered me accommodation and food for a small fee in her home. She says her son runs the Potato Counter and I should go check it out tomorrow. So tomorrow begins with a visit to the Potato Counter! But that is all for now. This is one traveller who needs to snooze.

6th day of Hiding, Y7

      Gruzzles (my Gruslen) and I started our day by going round to the Potato Counter as we promised and were greeted by a blue Kacheek, who stuck his hand out and said, "Hi, I'm Alton Moughbry. How many potatoes do I have???"

      And he emptied out a satchel and a whole pile of potatoes fell out! Of course I started counting them as quickly as possible.

      "35!" I almost shouted when I'd finished.

      "YEAH!!! 35 potatoes! You got it right in 17 seconds, which means you win 75 Neopoints!" Alton exclaimed and handed some coins over to me.

      "Thanks!" I said, cheerily.

      Alton stopped and tears came to his eyes. I was shocked and worried I'd upset him. But then he said with a wobbly voice, "All these years and not one person has said thanks to me before!"

      Gruzzles started snickering at this point and I had to pinch him to make him stop.

      Alton turned away and then recovering himself, muttered; "I'll see you tonight. I'm having dinner with my mum and I hear you are staying there?"

      I nodded, said goodbye and then came across a wooden sign with the words "Pick Your Own" written on it in old-fashioned writing. I looked at Gruzzles and Gruzzles looked at me.

      "Shall we go in?"

      Gruzzles said nothing and started walking in so I followed. It was 400np to get in, which I thought was outrageously expensive but I didn't come here for nothing so I paid the fee and Gruzzles and I went around the farm searching for berries. We didn't find much. Gruzzles found a pile of dung but I decided to not take it. Just when our time limit had almost run out, I found a bit of barbed wire, which I pocketed.

      That was all we did today. I don't want to spend all my Neopoints in one day and that Pick Your Own farm was too expensive so I'm a little short now.

      Well, that is all for the moment; it's dinner soon and Alton is coming. I hope he doesn't come over all sensitive again because I know Gruzzles will start snickering again and I'll have to pinch him which means I get bites and I don't particularly like being bitten. Especially not with those fangs.

7th day of Hiding, Y7

      After starting the day rather frostily because I am not on speaking terms with Gruzzles (he bit me again!), things started looking up when I ventured into the main part of Meridell.

      Without really agreeing, Gruzzles and I headed for Ultimate Bullseye. A friendly Turtum greeted us and let me have a few goes at trying to shoot the arrows into the centre bullseye. I was rather aware of the fact that this little Turtum petpet knew more about it than me but that soon puttered out when I realised I am naturally talented at it. I scored rather highly if I may say so myself and pocketed more than enough Neopoints for yesterday's waste on the Pick Your Own.

      Gruzzles made friends with this turtum and I had to wait around, reading a map of Meridell whilst they nattered away in their own petpet way. But eventually they stopped and I led us to the Turmaculus.

      Gruzzles looked at me expectantly.

      "Yeah, you go have a go at waking him up!" I said, encouragingly.

      I was rather worried when I overheard a pink Scorchio tell her companion that the Turmaculus had swallowed her own petpet. Although my Gruslen and I aren't always on the best of terms, I didn't want him to be swallowed. But he came back alive, panting with all the effort of trying to wake the lazy beast up.

      "Oh well, good try," I said.

      Did I ever mention that Gruzzles has a great love of cheese? He loves it so much, that when we saw a sign saying "Cheeseroller" he went ballistic. He raced round and round in circles and then he leapt up into a tree and then back down, he raced around, knocking over passers-by and yapping. I snapped at him to stop but he could hardly hear me. It was then that something swooped down from the sky and snatched Gruzzles up! I looked up and there flying high above the ground was Gruzzles, in the arms of... a faerie! And not any old Faerie! It was Illusen!!

      She flew down beside me and put Gruzzles back in my arms, who had now shut up.

      "Sorry, I had to shut the little thing up. I can't live here peacefully if petpets like him keep yapping away." She smiled and then flew away before I could say anything.

      It was awfully embarrassing! I mean, imagine one of the greatest faeries that ever lived coming to shut your petpet up because he was being noisy? It was mortifying and I told Gruzzles this. He had the decency to look shamefaced at least.

      I almost didn't take him to the "Cheeseroller" place but then I thought that I wanted to go as much as him so I faked reluctance and went anyway.

      It turns out you buy some cheese and roll it down the hill as fast as you can without it bumping into things. I was a bit doubtful of this at first but I bought two cheeses anyway and gave one to Gruzzles to eat whilst I had a go at rolling the cheese. I didn't really get the hang of it until my second cheese. I didn't do excellently but I did OK. I bought another cheese as a souvenir and left. We were passing a gnarled, old tree when Gruzzles spotted a dark hole in the ground. I didn't know what it was but Gruzzles sniffed around it and then climbed in slowly before I could say a thing.

      He came out a bit later, looking a bit grubby but smiling.

      I saw Illusen's Glade but after the earlier incident I was too embarrassed to face it. So we headed back to Meri Acres Farm.

8th day of Hiding, Y7

      I thought we'd seen everything in Meridell but it's proving to be even more fun and exciting than I'd dreamt! We did Ultimate Bullseye again and then came across a petpet store. Gruzzles made friends easily with some of the petpets on sale but I managed to drag him away from a Symol.

      I had talked to Alton's mum about my adventures the day before.

      "I didn't think we would finish exploring everything so soon!" I had said.

      "Oh, but that's where you're wrong, youngling. You haven't been to King Skarl's castle, have you?" she had replied.

      And sure enough, near the Petpet store was a castle. Gruzzles and I looked at each other curiously before stepping on to the drawbridge and entering the castle.

      It was a big, grey, stone castle and as we entered, it was cool compared to the hot sticky sunshine outside. A Lupe knight stopped us, towering over us. He boomed, "How dare ye enter the castle of King Skarl, king of Meridell?"

      "I-I-I thought we were allowed to c-c-come in!" I stuttered. The knight was TALL and very fierce looking.

      But then an Aisha came from behind him, saying, "Really, Jeran. Do you have to scare the tourists all the time?"

      She then introduced herself as Lisha and the knight as Jeran, her brother. They're players in Meriball! (A game where two people hit the ball against the wall and the person who lets the ball fall to the floor loses.)

      "Jeran likes to scare the tourists when he's bored," Lisha explained.

      "Yes, I hope you accept my apology," Jeran said.

      So then they invited us to play a game of Meriball. I found out the hard way that these guys are good. They told me I was a beginner and would improve with time but I decided to watch instead.

      Of course I became even more excited when I found out that these two had played a huge part in the War on Meridell. I could understand how Jeran must've been a great soldier but his sister Lisha was just a kid. But Jeran assured me she had played an important part.

      Soon, Gruzzles became restless and we waved goodbye to our new friends before taking a look in Kayla's Potions. A Glowing Pebbles Potion caught my eye but it was 10,239np and I didn't have that much with me. But I promised to come back another day to buy one. Kayla herself was wonderful. And she took to Gruzzles who loved the attention. In the end, I had to drag him away from Kayla.

      And that was it, really. We tried to tell the grumpy old King a joke but he just threw a gold goblet at us and didn't even laugh. It was one of my funniest jokes I must say. That king sure doesn't have a sense of humour.

9th day of Hiding, Y7

      I am back home! I said goodbye to all my new friends and they all gave me a souvenir to remember them! The Ultimate Bullseye Turtum gave me an arrow, we bumped into Illusen and (after much mumbling and studying of the ground from Gruzzles and I) she gave me a bottled Earth Faerie, Lisha and Jeran gave me a Meriball ball, Alton gave me a potato. Not to mention the cheese I'd bought as a souvenir, the bit of barbed wire I'd found from the Pick Your Own farm, I took a leaf from the gnarled tree next to the mysterious hole and I picked a daisy from next to the lazy beast (aka the Turmaculus).

      Diamond was waiting for me when I arrived, tired and weary with Gruzzles. I was surprised - I thought she'd be hanging out with Fred. But I was pleased all the same and I guess we're best friends again. Yay!

      And Gruzzles and I have become closer and all I can say is... that wasn't my last visit to Meridell!

     *

      "Wow..." Diamond said. "That sounded like so much fun!"

      "Yes, it was," Marty agreed.

      "You're going to have so many stories to tell everyone!" the Ruki gushed. "I wish I went with you."

      "You can come with me next time!" Marty offered.

      "Oh yes please! But it won't be the same as the first time!"

      "No," Marty nodded. "But still fun."

      "You should write a book like Elvin!" Diamond suggested.

      "You mean, Elwyn."

      If brains were like the interior of a clock, Marty's was whirring and clicking at full speed. He had an idea.

      "Yeah Elwyn, Elvin, same thing," Diamond said in her usual dismissive way. "But really! You should write a book!"

      Marty grinned and then said, just like his hero Elwyn had once done, "Now that you mention it, Diamond... I already have."

The End