12th September 2005
Fluffy
An enormous rhinoceros, 12 feet tall at the shoulder, came charging out of the jungle, and all the castaways scattered, except Bluebell. The rhino ran straight to the bonfire and stamped all around until every last trace of flame was thoroughly extinguished.
"Aw, isn't it so cute," purred Bluebell. He advanced towards the beast with his arms open wide.
"Bluebell, get away from it," screamed Wendoline from behind a clump of bushes. "It will rip you to pieces!"
"Is that such a bad thing?" asked Tuta.
"Hmm. . . go up and talk to it, Bluebell!" yelled Kelly.
"You people are all insufferable," returned Bluebell. "It's just a harmless giant rampant angry rhino. And he's so cute! Aren't you, big fella?" He reached up and scratched behind the rhino's ears, which leaned into him affectionately. "Yes, aren't you the cutiest, smoochiest fella?"
The other castaways stood dumbfounded, a mixture of terror and hope on their faces.
"He shall be my companion," announced Bluebell. "I shall name him Fluffy, and I will be his protector and he will be my Fluffy. And I will love him and hold him and hug him and love him, on account that he's my Fluffy!"
"I'm quite amazed at this," said Aimi.
"What, that the rhino seems to like Bluebell?" asked Jenn.
"That anybody likes Bluebell!"
"Why did the rhino stamp the fire out?" asked Cloud.
"It's a well known fact," replied Bluebell, "that rhinos will stamp out any fire that they see. I know it's true because I saw it in a movie."
"But why would they do that?" asked Cloud.
"I guess the gods just made them that way," said Bluebell.
"The gods must be crazy!" announced the Captain.
"You are all philistines," said Bluebell, "without the slightest appreciation for the creatures of the wild, for all creatures great and small. Anyway, I shall deign to use my new friend to help us all in our situation. I shall climb upon Fluffy's back, and we shall explore our new home." He leaped up onto the rhino. "Hi ho, Fluffy, away!" With that he spurred off down the beach.
"You know, the continuity in this story is awful," remarked JMC. "At the end of last episode, we were led to believe that night was falling, yet here's Bluebell confidently galloping down the beach, obviously seeing exactly where he is going, indicating that it must be day time again."
"He could be travelling under bright moonlight," put in Keir. "After all, no reference to time has been given at all in this episode. We don't really know if it's night or day at the moment."
"I'll tell you another strange thing," said Keith. "Here we've been travelling for hours on an airplane with Bluebell, and we've been even longer cast away on this island, yet still none of us have any idea of what Bluebell looks like!"
All the castaways looked around at each other uneasily.
"Hey, wow! Look what I found!" yelled Tuta. There came an incredible noise, as if a giant trumpet to end all trumpets had been sounded. He appeared amongst the group carrying a large white shell. "My aunty told me about these. This is a conch."
"A conch?" said Simon quizzically.
"No, you're pronouncing it wrong," said Tuta. "It's pronounced conk, even though it's spelt conch."
"That's extraordinary," mused Jenn.
"I'll say," said Keir. "How did Simon misread something which was spoken?"
Tuta sounded the conch again. "I'm calling an assembly," he announced. "First things first. From now on, if you want to speak at an assembly, you've got to be holding the conch!"
"You're really lording it, aren't you? Don't fly away with yourself," said Penny.
"Um, I'm not quite sure what you meant, Penny," replied Tuta.
"I'm not that sure myself. I just wanted to make sure I got more lines than the last episode. Hey look! A palm leaf!" Penny jumped on the palm frond and went sliding off down the beach, giggling wildly.
The Captain thought it was time to take control. "Listen everyone," he said, "we've found ourselves in a rather precarious situation. We're stranded on an island somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We have no idea if and when we'll be rescued. We have to start organising ourselves properly, and prepare for a long survival."
Everyone nodded wisely in sage agreement.
"So I think we should get the most important tasks completed as quickly as possible. The first order of business should be to construct a working brewery."
"I'm on it," said Andrew. Sparky and Josh volunteered to help.
"Right, that's a relief," sighed the Captain, and laid back on the sand, arms behind his head.
"Um, maybe we ought to do a little more. . ." said Aimi.
"By George, you're right!" said the Captain, sitting up. "How remiss of me! I apologise, everyone. Beck, see if you can organise some little cocktail umbrellas." He laid back down.
"I think we should do some exploring," said Fox. "We should have an understanding of our surroundings."
"Hmm, yes. Of course. Exploring," said the Captain. "Well, since we don't know when Bluebell of Arabia will be back, we could explore down the beach."
"I'd like to learn a bit more about that volcano," said Wendoline.
"I think the jungle might be more important to look at," said Fredster. "We don't know what's in there, after all."
"Ok, then," said the Captain. "Remarkably, we have a decision of three choices to be made just as we approach the thousand word mark. So, which shall it be? The volcano with Wendoline, the jungle with Fredster, or the beach with me?"
The castaways sat down to decide.
Where will the intrepid castaways go exploring? YOU DECIDE!
A - The Captain's beach.
B - Wendoline's volcano.
C - Fredster's jungle.
Vote now, A, B or C!!
A - 1
B - 13
C - 3