Space Juice: Chapter 24 – The Eye’s Mind

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. Chuck Marley couldn’t sleep. He turned to and fro on his sand bed tossing himself about trying to meld his body but couldn’t get comfortable. He longed for a mattress. Even if it was infested with little creatures, like in those motels in the Bad Ends. On second thoughts maybe a sand bed …

Space Juice: Chapter 23 – Prisoner

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. “What off earth are you holding?”The Hierophant weakly clasped something under his arm. Chuck Marley lent over and prised away an orange box that was the same colour as the Hierophant’s fur. It had three buttons and a knob that could be pushed in all directions. “Don’t push the red button,” exclaimed the …

Space Juice: Chapter 22 – Challenge!

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. Marley, Dimble and Zorgeous hid behind the Tower as the Guardian addressed his people. “I am glad to feel your warmth again. It’s good to see you’re so organised, thanks to the Hierophant. Soon he will reinvest me, symbolically fitting the Antlers of Attitude, I mean Amplitude, upon my willing forehead, symbolising a …

Space Juice: Chapter 21 – Unbreakable Antlers

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. The rain stopped. Only a few lumbering clouds remained in the sky. A miniature whirlwind whipped sand into the air and collected some refuse, threw it away, then jerked off to another street corner. “I will challenge the Hierophant as soon as he enters Goramus.” Chuck Marley suggested it would be better waiting. …

Space Juice: Chapter 20 – A lecture on idleness

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. The Tower of Guardians loomed in the distance. With its ruddy stone terraces it resembled a wedding cake. On each level, inward leaning stone buttresses supported the next terrace. But room was running out at the top and the Zorgons would have to refine their engineering if they were to extend it further. …

Space Juice: Chapter 19 – Pilgrimage without a plan

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. The clictus was as important to the Zorgons as red dust. Apparently it became even more potent when its juice was mixed with red dust. When the Old One spoke of this concoction Marley’s heart raced. As if the trip on the clictus juice was not enough, imagine it combined with the drug …

Space Juice: Chapter 18 – An ignorant lesson

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. Three days of trudging through sand might only have been two with just Zorgeous, but a couple of Zorgon children accompanied them. Why the Old One allowed them along was anyone’s guess, but the Very Old Testaphant explicitly stated: “And youth shall guide them, through innocence redeemed no journey underfoot will sand forestall.” …

Space Juice: Chapter 17 – The Exile

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. Zorgeous was sand bathing behind the obelisk. He had been there for two hours. Chuck Marley couldn’t tell whether he was moaning in satisfaction or exhaustion. Overwhelming fatigue enveloped him. It wasn’t like a hangover. But he wished he could just curl up. He did this, lying behind the obelisk waiting for Zorgeous. …

Space Juice: Chapter 16 – High on clictus

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. The sun set. Unfamiliar stars glimmered over the cloudless plains. The Old One ordered a communal meeting and the Ungarlootons formed a circle. Chuck Marley and Gaston Dimble squatted either side of Old One. They sipped clictus juice out of unwieldy clay vessels that were smoothly ovular, with a nipple-like projection at the …

Space Juice: Chapter 15 – A warm bath

Dan Wild

Previous Chapter.. Chuck Marley summoned Jed and his cybernetic hovercab. Jed knew little of Ungarloot, except that it was a collection of hovels scattered loosely at the bottom of an arid slope beneath a mountain ridge. Jed made it clear he was not going to drop them in the town centre. Too isolated. Anything could …