‘Ooh, where am I? What happened?’ Mo Underwood was feeling stronger now after six days convalescing at Madam Gwen’s residence. ‘Oh yes, I remember now.’

‘Good morning, Mr. Underwood. Feeling better are we, you certainly look much better than when we found you. Here, this’ll help,’  said Gwen, handing him a cup of hot tea.

‘Ah, thank ee Maam. Ere, how long have I been here?’

‘Oh, not long,’ she said, reassuringly. ‘You had a difficult journey on Route One and my friends and I found you and brought you back here. It was very stormy, remember?’

‘Oh argh, I remember right enough, t’was a badun. Never known one like it afore.’ Then, as he began remembering more he began to shake..’

‘Take it easy, Mo, you’re safe here.’ said Gwen, wiping his brow.

‘Am alright, Maam, just had a bit of a do there, it were all vivid like.’

‘Do you want to tell me about it?’ she asked, in a gentle, soothing voice.

‘Ere, what about Mindi, is she alright?’ Then he remembered, wiping a tear from his eye ‘Oh aye, she wore a goodun and I’ll miss her but, it’s the egg, you see, you must know about the egg!’ He was getting agitated again.

‘It’s okay, Mo, in your own time, no rush.’

‘Oh but there is, you see, there is, it’s vital you know and know now!’

‘Like I say, Mo, take your time, drink your tea, I can wait.’

Matt was on his third coffee while sorting through the backlog of paperwork when the door opened heralding a strong gust of wind along with a weather beaten Milo, virtually carried in by its force. 

‘Shut the ruddy door, there’s a hell of a draft!’

‘Oh, and good morning to you too, I’m sure. And anyway, there’s more than a draft out there, it’s looking like another one of them bigguns building up.’

‘Well grab yourself a coffee and warm yourself up, Then you can help me with all this damn paperwork. Nothing was said about this stuff at the job interview.’ Matt was not in the best of moods, noted Milo who thought to tread a little carefully from here on in but he had to know.

‘Matt,’ said Milo, wearing a puzzled look, ‘what was all that stuff in the Council meeting about a dragon already having visited Windy Ho?’

‘Huh?’ Uttered Matt, looking up from his pile of papers. ‘Oh, that, of course it was before you arrived, some three years since, I’d say. Yeah, we had a bit of bother with a dragon, well not with the dragon as such. No, he actually helped us out. Quite a do, I can tell you. Came close to waving my life goodbye, I did.’

‘I’d no idea. So what about this dragon’s egg then?’

Matt looked up from his papers, ‘Not a rerun, please, I don’t need that.’

At this point they were interrupted by a loud ‘Bang! Bang! Bang! Get the door Milo before it falls apart. Someone sure is anxious by the sounds of it.’

 ‘Why, Madam Gwen, do come in. What brings you to Ho today? Has Mo said, ‘anything useful?’ 

A little short of breath, Gwen, sat down and, slightly agitated, went straight into reporting to the two Wardens what Mo had told her and how it was vital they act now.’ Seeing this level of agitation in someone usually so cool, calm and collected like her was something new to the two Wardens. Clearly something has really spooked her. After a sip of water offered to her by Milo, she continued.

‘It’s imperative we act without delay, we’ve already lost precious time which we couldn’t help, of course, as we didn’t have all the information but now we have and so must act.’

The two Wardens exchanged looks and turning to Gwen, Matt said, ‘Okayyy! What do you suggest we do?’

‘First we have to retrieve the egg from where Mo hid it.’

‘Sounds simple enough?’ remarked Milo. ‘He did tell you where, I trust.’

Matt was thinking, as usual. ‘That’s not it, is it, Gwen?’

‘No, we then have to take it far away in order for it to do what it must do.’

‘Er, you’re talking in riddles again.’ Said Milo.

Gwen took a deep breath and continued, ‘The egg has a purpose. Finding it was the start of something ordained long ago for a time when great danger threatened the Settlement. Once it was unearthed, it would begin a countdown to the unfolding of what could turn out to be the worst time in history of The Peeps, even marking their possible demise.

The room was filled with a heavy silence and a sense of gloom, doom and disaster

‘You’re beginning to scare me now, Madam Gwen,’ said Milo, hoping he wasn’t hearing what he was most definitely hearing. 

‘When you say, ‘far away’, just what is meant by that?’ Asked Matt.

‘You remember when your friend, Marc, found that dragon’s eggshell three years ago?’

Matt nodded, how could he forget and this was horribly looking like a rerun, sending more shivers down his spine.

‘Well, we have to take this egg to that same mountain and place it as near to the top as we can and then ‘look for rainbow’s end’, So much I gleaned from Mo and some of my Annals of Peep’s History. The trouble is, after that the annals are silent, no mention of what to do with it once there?’

‘That still sounds pretty straight forward,’ Said Milo

But Matt never took his eyes off Gwen and said, ‘Go on, that’s not all, is it?’

‘You are smart as well as brave my friend. Getting to the mountain is not  going to be easy but hazardous because we won’t be travelling alone. In fact we will be being chased all the way. it’ll be a bit of a race, one which we cannot afford to lose. The Settlement’s future depends upon us winning.  We can be certain that we will be hindered all the way. Do you understand?’

‘I only wish I didn’t’, was Matt’s response. Just one more thing, Gwen, you said we would / will be followed / chased. By whom?’

‘Of that I am not certain, it could be anyone or,’ here she paused briefly then added, ‘or anything. Who or whatever it is will be from The Darkness itself. More than that I cannot say.’

After a moment’s thought it was Milo who said, ‘We’re going to need help.’

‘Well,’ began Matt, ‘as there’s only the three of us, myself, you and young Marc Adler. Recruitment didn’t go so well after the last dragon affair.

‘There’s me too,’ added Gwen.

‘’Er, no disrespect Madam Gwen but do you really think this one is for you, seriously, it’s life threatening, you could die,’ said Milo.

‘Yes, my young friend, I do know what life threatening means but, if we fail then there likely won’t be any life left for any of us. I am going and that’s that.’

Both Wardens could see the lady was not for turning and one knew better than to argue with the settlement’s Oracle, the all knowing glasses lady.

Matt had a last minute thought. ‘Who is going to look after Mo?’ He got her there, he thought.

‘Already taken care of my friend, he’s staying with my niece till we’re done.’

‘Ah, right then, it’s settled. First we collect young Marc.’

Gwen had what she needed, which was a team of trustworthy, loyal, true and brave Peeps. She was quietly but cautiously confident about the task ahead. If they set off now they’d be at Mo’s farm by mid-afternoon, that should give them enough time to locate the egg, eat something and then pack for later before setting out for the mountain. They had no idea at what point they would be watched. Maybe they should have been aware that all that had gone on over the past few days had been observed. Or maybe they did know. Whatever the case they were committed and the race had begun.

‘The Darkness’ had indeed been watching from the moment Mo Underwood left his farm for the settlement, and was not pleased about missing the opportunity of obtaining the egg, IT'S Storm had not stopped the determined farmer. There would be another opportunity, IT was just as determined.