Authors' Note:

I had to think long and hard about even writing this story at all, given how Bell Jar-ish its journal entries are, but.. here it is. This idea came to me when I started to think about the details of Gobo's past in my version of FR and that extra something behind Marlon's Peter Lorre-ness. A dark short story.

Rock and Rain (A Tale)

Rain. It came in relentless curtains, drawing its' freezing cold grip tighter around the network of tunnels. Or what had once been tunnels. Their ceilings were now covered with a heavy barbed wire, letting in the view of the threading grey clouds.

The thunder boomed drowning out the small splashes from running feet and the hollow clang sound of two bodies hitting into think metal.

A voice, quick, sharp, and decided, his words spoken as if to outrun the wind by sheer will alone:

"Go through! Go on, get!"

"B..but..wa..a..bbout..you and Miara" Another voice, this one female, barely managed words before it was met with the sound of screeching metal on stone.

"You're the only one small enough, it won't do any good if they catch us all…Here!"

The sound of cloth being shuffled was interrupted by the second speakers' gasp.

"B..But..B…Bezel, th..this is.."

"Take it, take it and go, now!"

"Bezel..I've..al..always.."

All was silent for the tiniest of moments, a second that passed as quickly as a heartbeat.

The moment was lost to time as the running splashes made by a single set of feet picked up again, fading with a dark echo into the night…

Down toward a place called Fraggle Rock.

Uncle Matt stared at the paper, willing the right words to jump from his inked quill in the right order and onto the blank expanse before him. So far he was not having much luck.

"All right Matthew," He whispered to himself. "You can do this, you're brave, smart, you have an superb vocabulary..Now, once more…"

The tan fraggle was just about to put feather to paper when the sound of an almost awake snore and grumble from the bed to his side made him freeze, cupping a hand around his work with a guilty glance.

When the room fell into silence he melted back into a clam writing position where he sat , his hand working with a quick burst of inspiration:

Dear Nephew Gobo,

I'm sure you remember that today is the day I shall be venturing out into Outer Space and leaving Fraggle Rock for places unknown. By the time you read this I will surely be many miles away on a grand adventure, but I don't want you to worry. You can always be sure that no matter how far we are from each other your old uncle loves you very much.

You are a big boy now Gobo and I am very proud of you, that is why I think it is only right that now should be the time I tell you…

His hand began to shake, forcing him to hold it steady with the other to stop the small trembles.

…That is…Remember how I always told you that my little brother, your father, Bezel and your sweet mother, Miara were lost to a most regrettable cave in? Well that was..that isn't…I never meant to say…

"Gobo's Uncle Matt! Gobo's Uncle Matt?" A voice yelled at the top of it's gravely sounding lungs, causing the writers' blocked fraggle to jerk bolt upright, knocking a whole hollow gourds' worth of ink onto the floor. "Are you awake?"

"Yes I am Marlon, but why in the rock are you up so late?"

Matt half turned to see the short red haired yellow fraggle trot into the room at his normal frenzied pace, his one smaller swinted eye glinting brightly.

"I..like..the night..It's good for thinking…" Marlon replied, laughing over his uneven breathing.

"Well, be that as it may " Matt began, trying in vain to follow the energy filled furry body as he zipped around, poking and sniffing in all the nooks of the two beds. "…you really should…" He sighed in exasperation. .what is it you want?"

Marlon looked up for where his hand was hanging greedily over Gobo's hat collection on the wall, zipping back to the mustached fraggles' side.

"I want lots of things, millions of things..but I wanted to ask you a question…" Marlon hissed, drawing uncomfortably near.

"Alright, but be quick about it," Matt edged away, clearing his throat. "I leave within the hour."

"This Outer Space..are you sure it doesn't need a…" Marlon began hopefully, dusting the explorers' already clean jacket shoulder.

"A king? Marlon as I've said a'gain and a'gain, if I come to know of any such job openings I will be sure to tell you first of all." He ended with a sigh, sitting back down to his writing as if forgetting the visitors existence right away.

"Really?" Marlon asked, popping up with his eerie heavy breathing right next to Uncle Matt's unseen ear.

"Ack!" The elder yelped, his quill leaving a splatted tail as he scrunched his muzzle in annoyance. "Really, I am a fraggle of my word"

"Well, I just came by to..um..make certain.." Marlon looked at the floor, zipping to the other side of the chair to give a better view of his pathic state. "You can never be too sure when it's about ruling the world…"

"Oh what's this?" The fraggles' beady eyes lit up again as they fell on a half crumbled piece of paper tossed on the floor with countless over ruined pages.

"I'll thank you to not read that! It's a private family affair."

"Oh..Oh?..Oh…Ah! " Marlon darted from side to side in the cave, never taking his eyes off the paper as he read, nimbly outracing Uncle Matt's feeble grabs for it on his much younger legs.

"Family you say?..But,I know this story."

Traveling Matt froze grabbing the ripped half he had managed to at last yank away.

"Pardon?"

"The names… Bezel.. Miara..I..I know them." Marlon said nodding. For once his voice sounded honest and ordinary, nearly like a normal fraggle of his nephews' age.

"That's silly, you must be thinking of some other Bezel and Miara I'm sure..." Matt said with an uneasy laugh.

"Have there been any other Bezels and Miaras?"

"Not that I can recall…" The older fraggles' laugh finally died. "Marlon, I don't want to sound cross at all but, well, you've never been known for being the most…all together of fraggles..maybe you only think…"

"Mother wouldn't lie.." Marlon begin at a dangerous hiss, his voice going louder with every word from a whisper to a belowing roar. " The letters..they wouldn't lie!"

" Are you calling my mommy a lair?" Marlon screamed, griping a handful of traveling Matt's shirt and lifting him, pit helmet and all, into the tunnel way.

"Mother? Ack!" Matt remarked, popping up quickly from a rummpled pile on the ground at the sound of Gobo stirring again, and pressing a hand over the crazed fraggles mouth just in time to cut the volume of a new scream.

"Shh..shh.. Easy now, easy…"

Marlons' red frazzled hair shook with bottled rage for a long moment as Matt took some deep slow breaths he mimicked slowly before settling down.

"We shouldn't wake Gobo. Your mothers' name, it wouldn't be…? "

'Gloria. It was a pretty name wasn't it?" Marlin said with a smile.

" There were so many eggs that year… so many taken into the care of the tribe…" Matt's gaze was already a thousand miles and many years away. " I was so busy with Gobo I must have never…..But, the letters..the journal I could have sworn I threw it away.."

"You did." Marlon replied, lifting a mud stained booklet from the depths under his cobweb covered waistcoat .

"But how did you ever find it?" Matt asked.

Marlon now sat cross-legged against the wall, thoughtfully running his finger over the weathered red thread that held together the battered loose binding.

"I like collecting forgotten things, lost things, secret things…they're intresting..useful…"

"Oh Marlon.." Matt whispered, his eyes starting to grow glossy. "I'm so sorry you had to be exposed to such..."

The yellow fraggle shrugged off the soft touch of the heartfelt words like a cold chill.

"It's okay, it doesn't get to me much anymore." The voice that replied was oddly small.

"How could something like that not…" But his question was cut short when the small voice spoke again.

"The paper..it still smells like her." Marlon whispered with a grin, rubbing his muzzle into the yellowed parchment pages of the pocketsize journal. "You were such a great fraggle Mommy…"

A worn lead stained edge gave away the mostly empty notebooks' many readings over the years . The neat elaborate cursive lettering of the first entry was faded with age, its grey pencil barely readable

Dear Fraggle Rock,

This is the journal of your beloved singing star of rock and pond, Gloria Fraggle. When I become even more famous than I already am (Is that even possible?) I know this little book will be a most sought after collectors' item. So today I have taken it upon myself to start writing my innermost thoughts here, to better keep them for future fans. After all, I am going to Above today. Bezel dear and that Miara are going to but it was my idea. I will be the first fraggle Above, adding being brave to the list of great things about me. Another great thing is that I know only those nice simple words, so these pages won't be filled with any of those boring extra frilly ones.

Kisses and song,

Gloria

Day 1

Above is so big!

The sky goes on longer than any sky has a right to, if you ask me.

Why, I bet it is as big as ten gorgs' gardens all put together.

Day 3

It is definitely bigger than ten gardens.

We were making good time to get to the end of Above, and maybe hang our feet over...When it had the nerve to keep on going!

Bezel in his genius said that we might want to give Above a new name now that someone's actually been been here. (Of course, now that it has been graced by someone like me, how could it keep such a everyday name?)

We (he) decided on 'Outer Space' after Miara said something about there being 'so much space out h-er-e'.

And then they nuzzled.

They're always nuzzling.

It makes me sick.

Day 5

So Little Miss So Smart says I should be putting more 'effort' into my journals to better 'illustrate' Outer Space in words.

Who asked Miara anyway?

While I'm writing down my wonderful thoughts, all she does is work on those maps of hers, the same sloppy ones she called 'art' back in Fraggle Rock.

Well, Bezel is the only one I will be letting read anything of mine on this trip, and I'm sure he likes when words really count...

Not like that brother of his.

Gorgs, even if he read this he'd still probably call Outer Space a 'legend'. That Matt is so stupid he doesn't believe a thing unless he's running into it nose first.

He's so big headed the sound of all that patting on the back he gives himself must have effected his ears.

Oh well, not everyone can be as humble as me I guess.

Day 6

We found life...

And it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen.

Of course, we've met a lot of the creatures that live in the rock here to (like bugs, which grow much bigger here and are still no fun to step on) but this one was different:

We had been walking through a tree grove for more miles than my feet cared to remember. (where outer space tress, being very career driven, reached up for the sun four times as high as the great hall) When we came to a strange place and saw...

It.

The creature was all alone, yelling, and wandering up and down a path of grey stone with giant square shaped caves on ether side.

It stood more than twice as high as me and walked on two feet (or was trying to). But unlike any self respecting fraggle, it had no fur and only hair on its' head.

It's ugly pale skin was shiny with sweat and completely covered with... cloths. Even socks and shoes, those lowsome things that Matt loves to wear.

Anyway, all this height and clothing did nothing for the silly thing, because the yelling only stopped when it tripped over its own feet and fell into one of the grey paths hard flame topped light torches.

We got closer, and the smell of smoke and something like sour moss sent me back again (as all my fans know I have a very high class nose).

But Bezel dear just sat for a long time brushing the hair from its eyes and listening for a heartbeat.

Whatever these silly creatures are I guess they are too silly to stay away from killing flames.

Silly Creatures..hm...

Well, the things do have the same color blood as fraggles.

I guess they aren't a total lose.

Pages and pages of penciled words were smeared from repeated readings between the entries. When they returned the handwriting was somewhat heavier and less restrained...

I've had it, I've just had it!

If all they want to do is nuzzle like lovesick rock clingers and say over and over how much better their 'documentation' is compared to mine, I quit!

Starting tomorrow, I'm going back to Fraggle Rock and my fans.

In that time I'm sure to see a dozen things Mr. and Mrs. Encyclopedia Fragglia missed...

Day 31

Oh, it's the most wonderful, marvelous, fantastic thing!

I am not leaving after all, anything is worth enduring for a bit longer if it means more of what I found today.

I was sneaking away unnoticed in the night through the grey stone paths.

I had just fallen over gracefully over one of the silly creatures' trash heaps and found my glasses again when I heard it:

Music!

Not just any music you know, but real fraggle music, played on a real fraggle pipe! It was all I could do as a great performer to wait until I was on the caves' small stage to start singing.

The stage was empty. Empty!

With fraggle music playing? I'd never seen such a thing.

Of course I sang that old favorite from my early days, Starbright, with it's chorus that always gets everyone touched by it hopping:

Starlight starbright,

I know know just where you are tonight,

You're up there, too high too far,

telling me what a diamond I are...

After my song was done I got two claps and one silly creature fell asleep into its drink. They are nice enough stupid creatures but they really have no taste.

It turns out we are not the first of all fraggle kind to be in Outer Space after all. That is, if you can call what I found true fraggle kind.

The flute player called himself Cantus and was a tall elder. But by the way he sat beside a silly creature guitar player and by that strange shiny coat he wore, I could tell just how long he must have been the things' pet.

The one called Cantus tried to say something about just being its' friend and glowing travel tunnels twenty years ago, but I don't really think half of it could even be called real sentences...

He gave me the weirdest look though, when I mentioned the others and our stays with different silly creatures....

Something about being careful, ropes, and two faced masks and dark boxes.

Really!

As if I am going to trouble Bezel dear with the rantings of a silly creature pet...Elders can be so odd.

After all, silly creatures are like rocks, very slow, likable if you are into that sort of thing, but only dangerous if they happen to fall on you...

Dangerous, ha!

Day 35

Something is wrong with silly creatures lately.

If they aren't carrying signs written in their weird language, they are walking around looking sad or angry. Most of all the small ones (who were the most stupidly happy before).

Like the small one who said we could stay at his cave tonight.

Its' mother had the same look when it saw us.

Right now I can hear it yammering away on than horn with a string. Something about a pick up.

Odd..are they too lazy to pick up things themselves?

Day 36

Help! Help! Kidnapping! Hair messing! Oh the indignity!

Don't they know who I am? Please whoever reads this, the black boxes are real!

I can hear running water and one of the giant snakes that swallow silly creatures rumbling overhead, I...

Day... 37?

They didn't find my notebook. Wood chips are a fine hiding spot. I will have to be shorter from now on. Maybe that elder really wasn't wrong after all...still..still..this isn't my fault. What could Bezel have done even if...even if..if he knew...?

It's not my fault ...It if was..I...

Day 40?

Silly creature cages are much stronger than the ones gorgs use.

Too strong, you can't even see the strings or nails!

The two silly creatures that put us in here, in cages side by side, were so big that we have all taken the silent vow of silence to protect me...I mean Fraggle Rock from any type of this new evil. They mustn't know...

Not that Miara has any trouble with that...all she ever does is cry...

Day 4...5?

They are monsters.

I can hear them in the back room hurting Bezel. He still doesn't talk..he's so brave.

Miara still cries, but only tears, she has no voice left. Her hair started to fall out two days ago and already makes their cage floor look like it is growing pink grass. She must be at least twenty days with egg.

I hate her but...no one deserves this...

Day

The monsters in white made me drink the bitter water again.

I hate the bitter water, it makes my head burn and the spiders come. Bezel gets hurt twice a day now.

Today they took Miara for the first time. Bezel managed a good punching before they threw him back. Brave Bezel.

Day

One spider.

My hands are bloody from the bars.

They still don't move.

Day

Two spiders.

Celery..celery and bitter water. They get normal water but not me, no.

The monsters put Bezel in my cage.

Miara is bald now. Her egg bump shows where they cut her fur.

Please, if anyone is is still reading this..help us..help us...or stop reading please..to remember my mind in dignity...

Day

Three spiders.

Bezel asked for paper. He spends hours now writing. He writes the marks on the walls, on our cages, on everything. Under he puts fraggle script.

My head is too dark to understand but his writing is pretty.

A folded loose piece of paper was neatly tucked into the book, written on both sides in tiny lettering, the first two lines traced boldly many times over, a mix of english and fraggle letters:

ABCDEFGHIJ...(With more). E A and others most often.

Laboratory=A place where no stories are told and no light shines.

Specimen= Those that don't talk but do.

Alien= What we don't understand.

Day

Spiders. Bezel says the spiders aren't real. He fixed my hands again by ripping his shirt. His wonderful shirt. The walls are always closing slowly now...

Night

Cold. So cold.

I do cry.

Bezel..Bezel holds me and we sing.

Sing in the cold.

D..dance your cares away...

worries for another day...

Let..the music...

No no it's not my fault. The monsters, they promised...If I just say where the tunnels are...

I love you Bezel...

.....

I told.

They tried to cut my eyes.

I bit hard.

They didn't try more.

.....

Miara had the egg.

They talk about taking it away.

Bezel showed the borrowed sharp thing for his plan.

We go or die.

Don't you think you've fallen?

If everybody wants you, why isn't anybody calling?

But you really don't remember, was it something that they said, the voices in your head, calling Gloria?

Rain.
It came in relentless curtains, drawing its' freezing cold grip tighter around the network of tunnels, their freshly dug apart ceiling now covered with a heavy barbed wire, letting in the view of the threading grey clouds.

The thunder boomed, drowning out the small splashes from running feet, lightening highlighting the face of a small blue fraggle, her eyes rimmed with water soaked glasses.

A taller fraggle ran behind her, whipping his red haired head back at the the sound of something falling behind them. Neither was looking ahead and ran blindly into the thick metal of a sewer grate with a hollow clang.

Bezel dug with a furious pace into the oozing mud at the grates' bottom, his yellow fur splattered a deep brown by the time his companion joined in, helping to dig down downward until their fingers met rock.

"Go through! Go on, get!" Bezel commanded in sharp words against the howling wind.

"B..but..wa..a..bbout..you and Miara" Gloria shuddered, her wild eyes wide behind their cracked glasses. She was barely able to finish speaking before she found herself pushed already halfway through, wriggling the other half completely free as Bezel used his whole body to lift the cover an extra inch.

His voice was ragged when he spoke again, as she turned about toward the closed path.

"You're the only one small enough, it won't do any good if they catch us all…Here!"

The cloth surrounding the tiny glossy moss green egg fell off as it was gently pushed though one of the grates' holes, rain playing a hurried beat upon its rock like shell.

"B..But..B…Bezel, th..this is.." Gloria gasped, her hands trembling before the precious orb.

"Take it, take it and go, now!" He screamed, pushing it off into waiting arms, their owner now long since crying.

"Bezel..I've..al..always.." She began, but finished by drawing as near as she could to the nose beyond the many holed prison.

All was the kiss for the smallest of warm moments in the cold, a second that passed as quickly as a heartbeat. The moment was lost to time as the running splashes made by a single set of feet picked up again, carrying the unborn fraggle into the night …

Down toward its' rightful home of Fraggle Rock.

Somewhere, two fraggles looked on with drawn muddy faces as the light of the ditzies sealed off the tunnel behind the traveler.

Safe. Always safe.

Somewhere, their voices were a whisper…

"Magic be with you."

Matt watched as the many papers, every single page that he had worked so hard on that night, caught fire in the cave hearth slowly.

The light brought a soft orange glow to the yellow face of Marlon, nearly fallen asleep over the edge of the journal he still clasped against his cheek.

"Perhaps it is still not that time after all." Matt whispered. "Marlon…"

The soft words made the small fraggle sit bolt upright as if they had been a sudden yell, sending him darting around again in his usual jittery way.

"Well, I guess I should be getting back to my cave..Lots to do, lots to do…" Marlons' bright gleaming eye caught the older fraggle like an invisible plead.

"Are..are you sure you don't want to join my cult? I always welcome members. I get..so lonely."

"Your monster hunting cult again? I..I will consider it..Marlon." The elder said with a nod. "I really have to be going…"

He was already halfway down the tunnel before the odd fraggle darted back one last time.

Marlon's voice was small again, small but nearly normal sounding in tone.

"Say..do..d..do you think s..sometimes..when Gobo isn't around…could I maybe?"

The tan pit helmet of a rock renowned explorer bobbed wordlessly in the morning air.

"Thank you…Uncle Matt." Marlon said with a wide smile.

The End.