Interview with Muut
Bex’s intrepid science geek and best friend
The following is an interview I conducted with Bex’s best friend, Muut.
Interviewer: Muut, it’s great to finally meet you. You’ve been through quite the adventure with Bex and I can only imagine what incredible finds you’ve discovered along the way. Can you tell the readers when you first met Bex and what you thought of her?
Muut (customary Cheshire grin greeting the interviewer): Yeah, thanks, it’s great to be here. I mean like, it’s really great to be alive, to be here. You can imagine that being best friends with Bex comes with some challenges. (his hand unconsciously sweeps through his floppy hair). When I first met Bex, we were in our early years of school. She was a year ahead of me, so was taller and loved to remind me. (his grin returns) That is until I shot up in the past year and I now tower over her. (he scooches in the chair to get comfortable) But when we first met, we were just younglings running around the dunes playing Drifters and Enforcers. I tripped over a galaal stump. She picked me up out of the dirt, dusted off my knee and took me home to my ma. We were always together after that. I honestly can’t remember a day where we’ve been apart.
Interviewer: Are you guys like together?
Muut (his face scrunches from confusion to revulsion): Eeiyu, no way. She’s like my sister I never had. That’s just gross. Don’t you start any sick rumours about me and Bex. I love the dust-brained girl, but not like that.
Interviewer: Okay, sorry about that. I promise not to spread any stories about the two of you. So, do you have anyone special in your life?
Muut (red flushing up his neck to his cheeks): I…I have my eye on someone, but I don’t think it’ll ever turn into anything. She’s a bit older than me.
Interviewer: Ah, I won’t pry then. Maybe in our next interview you’ll have more to tell on that front. For now, let’s stick with you. Can you tell me about your school years?
Muut: I can’t talk about my school years without including Bex. We did everything together. I was advanced so I was in the same year as Bex. They wanted to move me up again, but I refused. That would have meant joining the Guild even earlier and I was enjoying the freedom to do my own experiments.
Interviewer (chuckling): I understand you blew up your lab a few times.
Muut (looking sheepish): Well, Bex was the first one to blow things up. We got paired in a science experiment. (he jacks his thumb towards his chest) As you know, science is my thing. Bex is good but doesn’t come close to my knowledge of the sciences. She gets bored too easily. With our first experiment, she wanted to crush some phanlar crystals and mix in some salvo oil, which wouldn’t have done much, but then she threw in the crushed cxaing berries, and it all went up in smoke. Filled the room. We had to open all the portals and turn up the extractors. I passed out, and she dragged me out of the room, then went back in for Instructor Maryls. She had tripped over a chair and banged her head in the smoky chaos. After that, Bex could only help if she followed my instructions. Exactly. We made an agreement. I would lead on science experiments and she would lead in math.
Interviewer: Wow, that must have been some explosion. What was she like as a student? It sounds like she was always challenging authorities.
Muut (blowing his cheeks out): You got that right. I thought she was the rudest girl I’d ever known. She was always interrupting the instructors with questions. Drilling into things, taking us off track, getting the instructor flustered. (his hand slaps his knee as he laughs out loud) Old Master Troudmere, our math instructor, got so flustered he handed Bex his teaching manual and told her to teach the class. And she did. Better than him. The class loved it (Muut leans toward the interviewer conspiratorially). Master Troudmere retired after that.
Interviewer: That seems to be a theme with her – speaking before she thinks. Let’s get back to you. I understand you were on your way to joining the Alchemists Guild. Do you think that will still happen after all you’ve been through? Will the guild be enough?
Muut (he places both hands on his knees and leans forward): I could easily join the guild and spend the next lifetime investigating all the stuff I brought back with me. The crystal lights, moss, leaves…did you see that worm I found? We haven’t had worms in Anckesh for centuries. I’d love to figure out how they breed and if we could use them in the hydropharms.
Interviewer: So, you’re going to stay and study your findings.
Muut: Are you crazy? No way. I’m going wherever Bex goes. She and I are like the sand and wind. Where one blows, the other flows.
What would you like to know about the characters in The Edge of Oblivion? If you could chat with Muut, what would you ask him?