Stuck in the Middle With Who?!

Unending BE - episode 29029

Sharon bent down to pick up the gold hoop. Not only did it feel like real gold, it was strangely tingly in her hand. Probably magic. Wouldn't be surprised, in this place, Sharon thought to herself. She twirled it around her finger boredly, stared at it, listened to it, and waited...and...nothing untoward happened. Confident, she headed back off through the Carnival again.
For a while, nothing much happened. She was starting to figure out how this place worked, so she had less trouble with the traps and strange devices. But suddenly, she found that she was having a hard time moving forward. She kept going slower, and slower, and slower, and then, she just, stopped. She could not move forward no matter HOW hard she tried.
She looked down at the golden hoop, wondering if it was somehow its fault. She set it cautiously on the ground.
"AAAAACCCKKKKKK!!" came a terrified voice from the distance, and, as if a rubber band had suddenly gone slack, a small person went FLYING over her head to land, dazed, on the ground slightly in front of her. She went over to see who it was.
It was another bee-person, although he had only four limbs--wait a minute, Sharon only had four limbs now, too!--and he was about nine inches tall, as she was now, too. She'd been so busy, she hadn't even noticed the new growth. He had a...well, it definitely wasn't an INSECT face, but it wasn't quite Human either. It was...an...animal-face. Mammal. He had a short, roundish muzzle with a little black wet nose, a Human-style mouth, and large, cute brown eyes with long eyelashes. He was wearing an old-fashioned style leather pilot's helmet--black, with red trim--and a pair of yellow goggles were strapped around his head, resting on top. Two cute, short, striped antennae poked out of his helmet. Aside from the headgear, and a pair of red ankle socks and red-and-white running shoes, he was totally nude. But from the casual attitude he had about it, Sharon got the feeling that this was perfectly normal in this realm.
"Ooohw, my head..." moaned the bee-man, sitting up dizzily. One antennae was bent funny from his headlong crash into the ground. Sharon then noticed that he was holding another gold hoop just like hers. "Espio? Is that you?" He then blinked the confusion out of his eyes and actually SAW Sharon for the first time. "What are YOU doing with the ring-tether?!" he asked her angrily. "That's not for just anyone to walk off with, it's OURS, mine and my friends'!"
"Ring...tether?" said Sharon, looking at the two hoops confusedly.
"Yes, each person holds one ring and when they get to a certain tension, you can do interesting trick with them...such as jump really high, throw the other person, carry someone WAY heavier than you are, run really fast, or even fly! But it's NOT for amateurs, and you stretched it farther than it's supposed to go. Hi, I'm Charmy Bee, pleased to meet you."
CHARMY? wondered Sharon to herself. What kind of a stupid name is THAT?! Aloud, she said, "I'm Sharon....erm...Bee, I guess. I can't remember my original last name, somehow..."
Charmy smiled, well, charmingly. "Yes, I know how it is. I was first blown to the Island in a storm one day when I made the mistake of flying too high, and the wind banged my head against a tree and I woke up with almost total amnesia. Sometimes it ain't easy being this small, but for the most part I have no problem with it. For example, with practice, you can fly as long and as far as you want without having to rest! Except for when you get hungry or have to go to the bathroom, of course. Also, we are a different breed of bee...we can sting over and over without dying. Problem is, after the first sting all the poison's gone and the worst we can do is just irritate the opponent, but..."
"Wait a minute," said Sharon, holding up her hands. "Back up a second there. You said you got to this Island by flying HIGH, not FAR?"
"Well, yeah, I mean..." he pointed over to the horizon, "it IS a Floating Island, after all..."
Sharon looked where he was pointing, as they were now almost at the edge of the Carnival zone. Sure enough, the ground beneath her feet was resting on nothing but air. Miles and miles and miles of air. With a huge, deep, PURPLE ocean underneath.
"Oh, dear," thought Sharon. "Could this get ANY weirder?!"

  1. *Sharon decides to travel along with Charmy and use the ring-tether properly, even if he IS ripped off from an old, unpopular video game that hardly anyone knows about.
  2. Sharon decides to travel alone, she doesn't trust this strangely too charming little bee.
  3. "This" gets even WEIRDER! (And the Author apologises for not closing off the italics command in her HTML.)
Go back - Go to the parent episode.

Mello

Tue Jun 22 23:33:44 1999