OLLY OCKSEN
We followed so such a sort of trench made by the sag of snow melt. Why? We discovered our charborr husks pulsed warm, and snow gave way in melt before us. The sagged trench trail stretching off into the storm and filling quickly with fresh snowfall resulted, we were certain, from the pale green glowing charborr’s tunneling under the snow.
Easy as easy. Well thought, Bekka Ja Harick. And what charborr names do we take for ourselves?
Names?
Yes, names. When we find this charborr we have to introduce ourselves, don’t we? We have to have a story. Who are we? Why are we strangers? Where do we come from? All that. Oh, I know that you’ll be able to open your mind and something proper will spill out, but I need to know before we catch up to it. I’m not Harick. I have to know what I know.
Your name is Oddy Drago. That’s all you need to know or communicate. I’ll think the rest.
Oddy Drago? Oddy Drago. Oddy it certainly is. Yet so, I’m the first jrabe jroon ever to be called Oddy Drago. Oddy Drago, Oddy Drago, Oddy Drago. It sounds sillier each time I think it.
You don’t have to keep thinking it. It’s not required.
What’s your name then? Oogy Ubwub?
Orry Culla. No need to discuss it further. Look there. The path turns. It’s getting fresher.
The trench veered hard to the right and up a slope into a density of purple orange moon blue pink trees glowing behind the falling glittery silver snow. I took the lead and hurried so such because I sensed a pale green glow at the base of one of the trees. Truth, a charborr melted up out of a snowdrift and blobbed against the tree. Success!
Ommy Anthus!
------Where?
Aren’t you …
------Me?
I am Oddy Drago.
------Oddy Drago?
Pay no heed to my friend Oddy Drago. I am looking for Ommy Anthus.
------So am I.
Who are you?
------Who are you?
I am Orry Culla.
I am Oddy Drago.
------Have you come all the way from under the lake?
What la …
Yoss! Yes! Oddy’s such a kidder. She really shouldn’t be thinking out loud. We are from under the lake, strangers to you, no doubt. You say that you, too, are seeking Ommy Anthus. May I ask why?
------Ommy left the Dome to fetch greps and never returned. I was sent to discover why and oh then this terrible snow.
Yes, the snow.
I am Oddy Drago.
------I am Olly Ocksen of the Dome.
We all of us each seem to be seeking Ommy Anthus. Might Ommy Anthus not have returned to the Dome? Could you not have missed one the other in this unusual storm?
------True. That might be true. Maybe.
Why don’t you escort us to the Dome and we’ll all find out together.
------Ommy might have brought the greps. We MIGHT have missed each the other like as you suggested. I’ll be honored to escort you to the Dome. Why are you seeking Ommy Anthus?
A message from under the lake. Storm business.
------Oh.
I am Oddy Drago.